Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[gmpirate]

6 hours ago, McLovin said:

Does anyone know how to get promo sets (like Adidas 40486) or other non-retail items like complete sets of Collectible Minifigures on Amazon?  It used to be simple, but Amazon has taken down a lot of ASINs for arbitrary non-compliance reasons like those discussed above, and none of the new promo sets seem to make it on Amazon any more.

If it is no longer possible to sell new promo sets on Amazon, where do you sell them other than eBay?

Listings come and go all the time.  Sometimes there are random sets you are barred from.  If you have a lot of time there are plenty of places to sell them.  Myself, I wait for a bit to see if a listing comes back and if not just dump them on Ebay.

[jeff_14]

On 8/12/2021 at 6:30 PM, jeff_14 said:

I sell them in FB Lego groups. 
 
In other news, I haven’t had an Amazon sale in 2 weeks since my first wave of compliance issues surfaced. I usually sell a set every other day. I’ve just today taken down all the affected sets as well as all ones marked for future submissions. We’ll see what happens. 

Something funny definitely happened here. One day after I removed all the sets mentioned above I suddenly have 4 sales in 24 hours after a 2 week drought. Even though all my sets showed as active, I’m certain Amazon was doing something to suppress my account. Ive never gone anywhere close to so long without any sales before. And one of those sales was a whale. Sold my only Assault on Hoth set for $650 CDN. 

[Bold-Arrow]

Question about the new automatically approved FBM returns:

- who is now paying for the prepaid return  label for buyer fault  reasons ? 

[Bold-Arrow]

21 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Question about the new automatically approved FBM returns:

- who is now paying for the prepaid return  label for buyer fault  reasons ? 

I think I figured it out 

[Darth_Raichu]

28 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Question about the new automatically approved FBM returns:

- who is now paying for the prepaid return  label for buyer fault  reasons ? 

 

7 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

I think I figured it out 

NOT Amazon

[Bold-Arrow]

11 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

 

NOT Amazon

The way I read it , seller will be charged once label is scanned . If applicable seller can file a safe-t claim to recoup the cost or deduct from refund ( not advisable ) 

[Mark Twain]

Amazon would like you to know that you don’t have to fulfill orders on holidays, but if you’d like to further neglect your loved ones or avoid giving yourself a break, they’ve created an interface for you:

We have introduced a new widget named Holiday Settings in the General Shipping Settings page. The widget gives you an overview of upcoming holidays and allows you to customize the holidays to better match with your operational schedule and fulfillment capability. You will now have the opportunity to override a holiday and present faster customer promises for your self-fulfilled offers.

There is a set of public holidays predefined in Seller Central. When estimating shipping date and delivery date, holidays are not counted as operating days. Therefore, estimated shipping date and delivery date that fall on holidays would be pushed to the next operating day. If, however, you have the operational capability and want to keep handling and fulfilling customer orders on a predefined holiday, you can now customize the holidays by overriding them to operating days. Find more details in the Help page. You can click here to customize your holidays


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[Foreman Porgy]

On 8/12/2021 at 5:27 PM, McLovin said:

Does anyone know how to get promo sets (like Adidas 40486) or other non-retail items like complete sets of Collectible Minifigures on Amazon?  It used to be simple, but Amazon has taken down a lot of ASINs for arbitrary non-compliance reasons like those discussed above, and none of the new promo sets seem to make it on Amazon any more.

If it is no longer possible to sell new promo sets on Amazon, where do you sell them other than eBay?

Here is a listing for Adidas 40486: 

ASIN: ‎B098LV2FQB

 

[My_own_2_bricks]

Amazon sent me a compliance email for 40487 Ideas Sailboat.  I would like to submit documents to keep this new listing alive.

As mentioned previously, CPC certificates are easily found on the LEGO site. On the CPC is the following: "Agents of the US CPSC and US CBP may request a test report by contacting:LEGO Systems, Inc at 860-763-6673, or by emailing: [email protected]" Has anyone tried doing this with success? Any other means of getting the third party test report that I might have missed? 

 

[Mark Twain]

Amazon sent me a compliance email for 40487 Ideas Sailboat.  I would like to submit documents to keep this new listing alive.
As mentioned previously, CPC certificates are easily found on the LEGO site. On the CPC is the following: "Agents of the US CPSC and US CBP may request a test report by contacting:LEGO Systems, Inc at 860-763-6673, or by emailing: TestReports@LEGO.com" Has anyone tried doing this with success? Any other means of getting the third party test report that I might have missed? 
 

I tried emailing back in 2018 for a full test report and received the following:

“The term “Retail Customer” on LEGO certificates means a retailer such as Walmart or Target. Individual purchasers of our product are consumers, and not retail customers, and it is our company policy that we do not share test reports or test data with the general public.

I am sorry that I cannot be of further help to you with documentation beyond the certificate we make available online. I would like to reassure you that all LEGO products are extensively tested to all applicable international standards at 3rd party accredited test labs.

Best regards,

David Smith
Sr. Compliance Manager
Product Safety & Compliance”


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[Darth_Raichu]

16 hours ago, Foreman Porgy said:

Here is a listing for Adidas 40486: 

ASIN: ‎B098LV2FQB

 

It did not show up when I searched for it.  Amazon probably nuked this ASIN

[Foreman Porgy]

19 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

It did not show up when I searched for it.  Amazon probably nuked this ASIN

That’s odd. It’s still showing up here on the live page https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098LV2FQB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_0H0Z2VXCJCDZHSAWMV25

[severalads]

Anyone from EU or UK, what do you put as a Country of Origin on Amazon? It is a new requirement coming in effect on August 22nd and I am confused - LEGO box lists several countries for where components were made, where it was manufactured and imported to UK by?

[Foreman Porgy]

I was curious, has anyone one else that sells on Amazon received this e-mail? I’m wondering if it’s legitimate. 

[exciter1]

23 minutes ago, Foreman Porgy said:

I was curious, has anyone one else that sells on Amazon received this e-mail? I’m wondering if it’s legitimate. 

Yeah, I also received it. I'm not sure how legit it is.

[Darth_Raichu]

I did not get the email, but that reminded me of emails I used to get from eBay about fighting state taxes on online purchases

[Bold-Arrow]

it is legit :

From CNBC, a little lengthy :

Members of Amazon’s public policy team recently contacted a small number of third-party sellers with successful businesses on its marketplace about setting up meetings to discuss the legislation, according to an email viewed by CNBC.

“We’re reaching out to a small group of our sellers to make them aware of a package of legislative proposals, currently in Congress, that is aimed at regulating Amazon and other large technology companies,” the email states. “It is early in the process and the bills are subject to change, but we are concerned that they could potentially have significant negative effects on small and medium-sized businesses like yours that sell in our store.”

The email asks the seller to arrange a phone meeting with a member of Amazon’s policy team for more information. It’s unclear what the policy team says to sellers on the call.

The email refers to a legislative package approved in June by the House Judiciary Committee aimed at overhauling U.S. antitrust laws and attempts to reel in the power of Big Tech.

Amazon confirmed to CNBC it has reached out to select sellers about the antitrust legislation. The company said it has received several inquiries from sellers over the past few months asking how the bills will affect them. Amazon did not respond to questions about what types of concerns sellers had raised about the bills.

The six bills that went to markup would make it harder and more expensive for tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to complete mergers, prevent them from discriminating against other businesses on their own services, mandate data portability between services, make it easier for state attorneys general to choose where to bring antitrust cases and allow federal regulators to sue to break up companies that operate a dominant platform and own or operate a business that presents a clear conflict of interest.

One of the most aggressive bills, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, is sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., whose district includes Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. It could directly affect Amazon, which runs a marketplace that serves millions of third-party sellers but also competes against these merchants with its private-label brands.

The bill also prevents platforms from offering a product or service that users must purchase or use in exchange for access to the platform. That provision could spell trouble for Amazon’s popular Fulfillment by Amazon service, where sellers pay the retailer a fee in exchange for warehouse storage and packing and shipping of their orders. Sellers told the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee’s Democratic leadership that using FBA gives them better placement in search results, among other benefits.

In a statement after the bills were introduced, Amazon VP of public policy Brian Huseman warned that the legislation would have “significant negative effects” on sellers and consumers. He added that sellers will face steeper challenges promoting their products, which could reduce selection and drive up prices for consumers.

Third-party sales remain one of Amazon’s biggest growth engines. Third-party seller services, which include commissions, fulfillment and shipping fees, increased 38% year over year in the latest quarter. That outpaced growth in Amazon’s own online stores, which rose 16% year over year.

Amazon is fighting antitrust pressure from multiple fronts. In May, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of abusing its market dominance through pricing contracts with third-party sellers.

Amazon reportedly faces an antitrust probe by attorneys general in New York and California, as well as an FTC investigation into its business practices in retail and cloud computing. The Department of Justice has also opened a broad antitrust review of Big Tech.

1 hour ago, Darth_Raichu said:

I did not get the email, but that reminded me of emails I used to get from eBay about fighting state taxes on online purchases

not worthy enough .. sorry

 

[jeff_14]

I read an article recently that suggested third party sales were 50% of the activity on Amazon, which helped it stay ahead of Wal-mart in overall sales.

[Darth_Raichu]

30 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

One of the most aggressive bills, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, is sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., whose district includes Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. It could directly affect Amazon, which runs a marketplace that serves millions of third-party sellers but also competes against these merchants with its private-label brands.

She (the congresswoman) is either extraordinary brave or kind of stupid

[redcell]

At the end of the day, this legislation wouldn't really harm small business sellers much at all.  It would simply lead to Amazon spinning the operation of its sales platform off from its retail business so the two were operated separately.  In essence, Amazon, Inc. would become the largest third-party seller on the platform operated by Amazon Platform Services, LLC (or whatever name they came up with).  They would all fall under the same corporate umbrella, but we be operated and managed separately.  It would be a complete nightmare from the perspective of those responsible for running Amazon, but wouldn't impact third-party sellers all that much...except maybe Amazon would start to see how useless seller support is.

[gmpirate]

On 8/20/2021 at 9:21 AM, redcell said:

...except maybe Amazon would start to see how useless seller support is.

no that would be funny

[skinsfan0521]

How do you handle FBM return requests when the buyer claims that the website description is inaccurate? It's clearly not inaccurate, but the buyer assumed that for the price they paid, it would include more (can't blame them there! haha).

Do you just eat the shipping costs to the customer and back to me? I offered free shipping on the original order.

Thanks for any suggestions. I don't do much FBM, so I'm not really that clear on what the rules are around what I can charge restocking fees or shipping fees for.

[Bold-Arrow]

19 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

How do you handle FBM return requests when the buyer claims that the website description is inaccurate? It's clearly not inaccurate, but the buyer assumed that for the price they paid, it would include more (can't blame them there! haha).

Do you just eat the shipping costs to the customer and back to me? I offered free shipping on the original order.

Thanks for any suggestions. I don't do much FBM, so I'm not really that clear on what the rules are around what I can charge restocking fees or shipping fees for.

Yes . You eat it the shipping cost unless the it returned is damaged or different then you can charge a restocking fee 

[cladner]

30 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

How do you handle FBM return requests when the buyer claims that the website description is inaccurate? It's clearly not inaccurate, but the buyer assumed that for the price they paid, it would include more (can't blame them there! haha).

Do you just eat the shipping costs to the customer and back to me? I offered free shipping on the original order.

Thanks for any suggestions. I don't do much FBM, so I'm not really that clear on what the rules are around what I can charge restocking fees or shipping fees for.

in general this is infrequent event and abusive buyers will just use this reason so they don't ever pay return shipper per policy as long as item is in sellable shape.   its even better than when they message you about inaccurate description to get the money back and the reason it was not accurate description is because the set was too hard for their child to build and it comes back in a ups store plastic bag, bits n pices.   cat on a tin roof, dawgz in a pile,  nothing left to do but smile smile smile.

however, this happened 6x last year with 1 specific set :https://www.amazon.com/CREATOR-Gingerbread-House-Limited-40337/dp/B082FZQXTC   mini-gingerbread house 2.0 promo.  i finally stopped selling them because one showed up as a seller violation under my account health because grannyma was really po'd and must have messaged someone at HQ at how small the box was even though size, weight and the word "mini" in the title.  ..!.-   

even after the request for a return, in my experience, only 75% of return requests actually get sent back but ymmv.

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by cladner

[Darth_Raichu]

I immediately thought of @redcell when I read this email about new service for FBM:

Customer Service by Amazon: Delegate customer service for your self-fulfillment orders to Amazon     Hello, You are invited to join Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA). CSBA is a paid service where Amazon takes care of customer service on your behalf for your self-fulfillment orders. We will direct customer inquiries for these orders to Amazon Customer Service so that you do not need to handle them. To join CSBA now and utilize Amazon’s expertise to provide your customers a delightful post-order customer experience, sign up here –