Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[landphieran]

I knew Amazon support was bad. But shittttt.... I luckily haven't had too many shipping issues until recently when they missed 8x Queen dragon rescue's. Every request auto closed with some default message. They are making the software/portal more restrictive limiting your ability to get a request/case looked at. Not a good look.

[Serejai]

1 hour ago, landphieran said:

I knew Amazon support was bad. But shittttt.... I luckily haven't had too many shipping issues until recently when they missed 8x Queen dragon rescue's. Every request auto closed with some default message. They are making the software/portal more restrictive limiting your ability to get a request/case looked at. Not a good look.

I spent three months dealing with that. Then I sent an email to Jeff and it took another month to get a response. Then another month after that to get them to admit fault and agree to reimburse me "within 3-5 business days". That was almost a month ago and the reimbursement is still pending (ie it is approved and will happen, but it hasn't gone through their systems yet).

Everything is such a mess.

[Loghamel]

Spent months dealing with this last Christmas.  They lost hundreds of my sets.  Everything case was auto-closed within minutes of submitting.  I could provide documentation from when the sets were picked up at my house all the way to the dock that received them in Texas.  They still claimed I never shipped what I claimed to have shipped and gave the generic "When we receive shipments with quantity discrepancies, we automatically initiate an investigation on your behalf for the items in your shipment. As part of this investigation, we perform a second, physical count to reconfirm the quantity of the items received."  What they wouldn't acknowledge is that they only physically check the boxes they have checked in.  I had dozens of boxes containing hundreds of sets that I'm 90% sure was sitting in a semi-trailer on their lot.  They were delivered and sat there until someone checked them in months later.  Completely helpless on my end.  They 'found' them and just added them to my inventory.  No emails or contact letting me know they discovered sets that I told them they had misplaced but they had denied ever receiving.  Only way I noticed was that I started getting sales coming in.  This is a major class-action lawsuit waiting to happen.  It just takes one big guy with the money to launch and there will be hundreds of people ready to sign up for it.  

[brickology101]

Similar issue on my end with a shipment of 3 boxes to a fulfillment center in NJ during early May. Only content of one box made it to my inventory. The other two boxes vanished. By June 25 FBA shipment closes with everything received and no possibility to appeal. Opened numerous cases. Auto rejected at first just like you guys with amazon claiming everything received and no reimbursement. Kept reopening cases, sent pics, receipts until case got stuck in “answer by amazon pending” for like 2 months. Then, out of nowhere, inventory showed up the week before last. Reason given for the delay: you guessed it - Covid19. So, my suggestion guys, ship your Christmas inventory ASAP.

[cladner]

2 hours ago, brickology101 said:

Similar issue on my end with a shipment of 3 boxes to a fulfillment center in NJ during early May. Only content of one box made it to my inventory. The other two boxes vanished. By June 25 FBA shipment closes with everything received and no possibility to appeal. Opened numerous cases. Auto rejected at first just like you guys with amazon claiming everything received and no reimbursement. Kept reopening cases, sent pics, receipts until case got stuck in “answer by amazon pending” for like 2 months. Then, out of nowhere, inventory showed up the week before last. Reason given for the delay: you guessed it - Covid19. So, my suggestion guys, start ordering boxes, its gonna be a very very fbmy xmas..

fixed it for you.  did you pay storage fees on missing inventory after it finally showed up all these months later?  i'm guessing yes.  seriously this is my nightmare selling this year.  i'm having my best year ever selling and less than 5% of my sales have come from the 1 fba shipment i sent in back in june.  took forever to distribute.  took forever to ship once sold. pitfa doing fbm but my nightmare are shipments are lost in october - december and then are found in mid february.  that and mysterious unauthorized refunds where customer keeps the set.

Edited August 31, 2020 by cladner

[Phil B]

11 minutes ago, cladner said:

fixed it for you.  did you pay storage fees on missing inventory after it finally showed up all these months later?  i'm guessing yes.  seriously this is my nightmare selling this year.  i'm having my best year ever selling and less than 5% of my sales have come from the 1 fba shipment i sent in back in june.  took forever to distribute.  took forever to ship once sold. pitfa doing fbm but my nightmare are shipments are lost in october - december and then are found in mid february.  that and mysterious unauthorized refunds where customer keeps the set.

You need to offset all that by the potential disastrous FBM shipping that might ensue if the elections go haywire, covid continues rearing its ugly head, and DeJoy continues his demolition of the USPS. All the refunds you will need to process because customers claim they didn't get their product, or didn't get their product on time. Neither FBM nor FBA are safe at this point.

[marcandre]

13 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Neither FBM nor FBA are safe at this point.

FBM is as safe as it's every been assuming you use ups or fedex. Which is sorta safe unless someone is determined to scam you. 

[cladner]

22 minutes ago, Phil B said:

You need to offset all that by the potential disastrous FBM shipping that might ensue if the elections go haywire, covid continues rearing its ugly head, and DeJoy continues his demolition of the USPS. All the refunds you will need to process because customers claim they didn't get their product, or didn't get their product on time. Neither FBM nor FBA are safe at this point.

FBM has been very safe for me.  No scams.  No returns of any large sets.  I've already sold more through July  than I sold in 2019.  Once you have a shipping station set up and prepackage the items you sell, it becomes very easy to move 30-40 shipments in a day all by yourself.  I also personally drop off the shipments to UPS and post office which is a massive time saver in terms of getting item to customer since you cut out the time it takes for driver to come and get your stuff and then bring it to distribution centers.  I have had zero returns this year for an item that didn't get there on time.  A couple of times I had to e-coddle the customer with some back and forth messaging since amazon website does not show up to date tracking information compared to the USPS or UPS websites.

I was 100% FBA in 2018 and 2019.

Edited August 31, 2020 by cladner

[cobrakai]

6 minutes ago, cladner said:

FBM has been very safe for me.  No scams.  No returns of any large sets.  I've already sold more through July  than I sold in 2019.  Once you have a shipping station set up and prepackage the items you sell, it becomes very easy to move 30-40 shipments in a day all by yourself.  I also personally drop off the shipments to UPS and post office which is a massive time saver in terms of getting item to customer since you cut out the time it takes for driver to come and get your stuff and then bring it to distribution centers.  I have had zero returns this year for an item that didn't get there on time.  A couple of times I had to e-coddle the customer with some back and forth messaging since amazon website does not show up to date tracking information compared to the USPS or UPS websites.

I was 100% FBA in 2018 and 2019.

Yes, has been fine for now.  I am concerned that USPS will not be ready to handle holiday volume if they are struggling with current volume.  Make sure to always use "buy shipping" through Amazon and get your first scan within 48 hours of printing the label (I print the scan sheets and my PO driver scans it when she does my pickup every day.)  I have only lost an A to Z claim once because I responded with the tracking before it showed "delivered", but I was able to open up a case and get it reversed once it was delivered a week later.  Ebay seems to not cover you on late/lost USPS packaged either, so I wait as long as possible until they show "delivered" as well.

[Loghamel]

1 hour ago, cladner said:

FBM has been very safe for me.  No scams.  No returns of any large sets.  I've already sold more through July  than I sold in 2019.  Once you have a shipping station set up and prepackage the items you sell, it becomes very easy to move 30-40 shipments in a day all by yourself.  I also personally drop off the shipments to UPS and post office which is a massive time saver in terms of getting item to customer since you cut out the time it takes for driver to come and get your stuff and then bring it to distribution centers.  I have had zero returns this year for an item that didn't get there on time.  A couple of times I had to e-coddle the customer with some back and forth messaging since amazon website does not show up to date tracking information compared to the USPS or UPS websites.

I was 100% FBA in 2018 and 2019.

I would try doing some FBM, but I haven't been in the country for 8 months.  I'm planning a trip in early October to ship my sets in.  I'll be on pins and needles until they all get checked in.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Loghamel

[joesnow2005]

1 hour ago, cladner said:

FBM has been very safe for me.  No scams.  No returns of any large sets.  I've already sold more through July  than I sold in 2019.  Once you have a shipping station set up and prepackage the items you sell, it becomes very easy to move 30-40 shipments in a day all by yourself.  I also personally drop off the shipments to UPS and post office which is a massive time saver in terms of getting item to customer since you cut out the time it takes for driver to come and get your stuff and then bring it to distribution centers.  I have had zero returns this year for an item that didn't get there on time.  A couple of times I had to e-coddle the customer with some back and forth messaging since amazon website does not show up to date tracking information compared to the USPS or UPS websites.

I was 100% FBA in 2018 and 2019.

wow. You are selling like 10K+ sets per year by FBM along. Are you still using FBA?

[cladner]

2 hours ago, joesnow2005 said:

wow. You are selling like 10K+ sets per year by FBM along. Are you still using FBA?

most of the bump in sales this year is from April where i sold more than November and December 2019 combined.  1200+ sales in that month all fbm.  that was the month when fba stock was depleted, amazon wasn't accepting inbound and demand went insane. i was selling us capitol building for $230-240 fbm - now the price has collapsed back down to $190.  if sales had continued at April's pace I would have upper 6 figures in annual sales but they have gone back to slightly above average which for me is now about 400-450 orders a month.

i have only done a single fba shipment this year of 250 sets over 24 sku and it was pitfa between how long it took to get checked in even though it got to the dc in 1 day.  This is the Florence NJ dc which i find to be the best of all in terms of almost nothing ever going wrong.  Then dealing with amazon shutting down some listings because pricing error -  price is "too high" even though i'm $1 below the buybox wtf,  then 3 sku sold many times before having issues where i can't get them to list properly and then they are stranded and eventually need to be recalled, not to mention orders taking 5,6 10 days to ship out.  maybe things have gotten better since late june.  once we are well into flu season and people are hunkering down, essentials will be what amazon focuses on and lego sets start getting shipped in bubble mailers by the new warehouse hires 4 days past the promise by date.

i personally would not feel comfortable surrendering control of my selling inventory to amazon warehouse at the height of the selling season given what i've seen up til now.  maybe amazon will have everything working out and i will wish i had more time for eggnawgg , chestnutz and counting money.   however my magic 8 ball is saying f'no .  my fulfillment apparatus is honed at this point and i am ready to meet the challenge. 

i will now stfu about further encouraging more fbm sellers so no hate messages - thank you.

[exciter1]

18 minutes ago, cladner said:

most of the bump in sales this year is from April where i sold more than November and December 2019 combined.  1200+ sales in that month all fbm.  that was the month when fba stock was depleted, amazon wasn't accepting inbound and demand went insane. i was selling us capitol building for $230-240 fbm - now the price has collapsed back down to $190.  if sales had continued at April's pace I would have upper 6 figures in annual sales but they have gone back to slightly above average which for me is now about 400-450 orders a month.

i have only done a single fba shipment this year of 250 sets over 24 sku and it was pitfa between how long it took to get checked in even though it got to the dc in 1 day.  This is the Florence NJ dc which i find to be the best of all in terms of almost nothing ever going wrong.  Then dealing with amazon shutting down some listings because pricing error -  price is "too high" even though i'm $1 below the buybox wtf,  then 3 sku sold many times before having issues where i can't get them to list properly and then they are stranded and eventually need to be recalled, not to mention orders taking 5,6 10 days to ship out.  maybe things have gotten better since late june.  once we are well into flu season and people are hunkering down, essentials will be what amazon focuses on and lego sets start getting shipped in bubble mailers by the new warehouse hires 4 days past the promise by date.

i personally would not feel comfortable surrendering control of my selling inventory to amazon warehouse at the height of the selling season given what i've seen up til now.  maybe amazon will have everything working out and i will wish i had more time for eggnawgg , chestnutz and counting money.   however my magic 8 ball is saying f'no .  my fulfillment apparatus is honed at this point and i am ready to meet the challenge. 

i will now stfu about further encouraging more fbm sellers so no hate messages - thank you.

[joch29]

TIP: Save all of your written responses, like the detailed reinstatement of a product (selling applications) that goes to [email protected] before hitting the submit button.   Unlike the case log, it does not get saved on the site for later reference.

[Foreman Porgy]

On 8/31/2020 at 6:53 PM, cladner said:

most of the bump in sales this year is from April where i sold more than November and December 2019 combined.  1200+ sales in that month all fbm.  that was the month when fba stock was depleted, amazon wasn't accepting inbound and demand went insane. i was selling us capitol building for $230-240 fbm - now the price has collapsed back down to $190.  if sales had continued at April's pace I would have upper 6 figures in annual sales but they have gone back to slightly above average which for me is now about 400-450 orders a month.

i have only done a single fba shipment this year of 250 sets over 24 sku and it was pitfa between how long it took to get checked in even though it got to the dc in 1 day.  This is the Florence NJ dc which i find to be the best of all in terms of almost nothing ever going wrong.  Then dealing with amazon shutting down some listings because pricing error -  price is "too high" even though i'm $1 below the buybox wtf,  then 3 sku sold many times before having issues where i can't get them to list properly and then they are stranded and eventually need to be recalled, not to mention orders taking 5,6 10 days to ship out.  maybe things have gotten better since late june.  once we are well into flu season and people are hunkering down, essentials will be what amazon focuses on and lego sets start getting shipped in bubble mailers by the new warehouse hires 4 days past the promise by date.

i personally would not feel comfortable surrendering control of my selling inventory to amazon warehouse at the height of the selling season given what i've seen up til now.  maybe amazon will have everything working out and i will wish i had more time for eggnawgg , chestnutz and counting money.   however my magic 8 ball is saying f'no .  my fulfillment apparatus is honed at this point and i am ready to meet the challenge. 

i will now stfu about further encouraging more fbm sellers so no hate messages - thank you.

I still get those price alerts. I even tested dropping the price considerable just to see what would happen, and it still wouldn’t work. I forgot who mentioned it, but listing it as collectible like new is a good work around. 

[33Lego]

Has anyone be able to increase their space limit (FBA)?
My IPI score is below 500 back then but I was able to get it over just now.

[marcandre]

I had several ASINs suppressed including Destiny's Bounty & Mia's Camper Van. Anyone else?

[skinsfan0521]

1 minute ago, marcandre said:

I had several ASINs suppressed including Destiny's Bounty & Mia's Camper Van. Anyone else?

Yes, I see several (including some non-Lego as well). I only have FBA inventory of one inexpensive (non-LEGO) item, but planned on sending in some of the others shortly.

Any way to see why it has been suppressed and how to resolve that?

[marcandre]

Just now, skinsfan0521 said:

Yes, I see several (including some non-Lego as well). I only have FBA inventory of one inexpensive (non-LEGO) item, but planned on sending in some of the others shortly.

Any way to see why it has been suppressed and how to resolve that?

I just checked the seller forums. It may be an issue with amazons image server as it's happening all over. Hopefully they get it cleared up today. 

[exciter1]

15 minutes ago, marcandre said:

I had several ASINs suppressed including Destiny's Bounty & Mia's Camper Van. Anyone else?

Same here, I thought it might be something I missed over the past few days. I guess not...

[Bold-Arrow]

F**BA starts one month earlier this year. Enjoy :

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/2020-extended-holiday-returns-policy/698989

 

[$20 on joe vs dan]

6 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

F**BA starts one month earlier this year. Enjoy :

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/2020-extended-holiday-returns-policy/698989

 

seems like CV started everything a month early 

[redcell]

6 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

F**BA starts one month earlier this year. Enjoy :

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/2020-extended-holiday-returns-policy/698989

 

You could take the glass-half-full view that Q4 selling actually started at the beginning of Q2 this year because of COVID.  I'd gladly trade an extra month of returns for everything else we've gotten in Amazon sales this year.

And are folks getting enough returns that this is actually a problem?  My returns are generally less than 1% of my overall sales (only exception being the year of the GT poly).

[skinsfan0521]

The suppressed issue seems to have been resolved. Not sure when it was, but it looks good for me this morning.

[cobrakai]

I've been selling on Amazon FBA for 6 years.  I've never had a Lego set returned with missing pieces or any major refund/return issues with Lego sets. On the other hand......man am I getting sick of these thieves that order Marvel Legends figures, steal the build-a-figure piece, then return the item as "Not received by delivery date" or some other free return reason.  I'd say i've probably had 30 or 40 returned Marvel Legends figures with no build-a-figure.  When I looked up the one I received back today, the buyer has ordered 3 figures from me in the last year and refunded all 3 after removing the piece.  I always open cases and report these buyers to seller support, but kinda makes me sad that people do stuff like this.