Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[cmartin33]

30 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

 

Here's some others courtesy of dansdeals:

https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/avoid-credit-cards-closed-red-flags-trigger-financial-reviews-adverse-action-shutdowns/

relevant portion:

• Cycling through your credit line multiple times per month
  • Banks give you a set credit line, which is the maximum risk they want to take on. Some banks will close down your card if you max out your credit line and pay it off multiple times in middle of a billing cycle.

 

I have many friends shut down at chase for this behavior. And wayyyy to many to mention that have been shut down for others. Chase is the worst for shutdowns but synchrony has an awful reputation as well.

Thanks for the info! I had no idea "cycling" was a red flag. I learned something new today for sure.

[cmartin33]

51 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

Are you kidding me?  They specifically told you that?  Or what did they say?

I've had freezes put on two of my credit cards for making extra payments but they told me it was a sign of fraud and that's why.  One was Target which I was making extra payments on to clear buying power, but the other was just a personal use card.  I've heard of it happening with other people too so I didn't give it much thought.  Just another fraud hassle.

No they didn't tell me that. I found out today when I logged onto my account and it said it was closed at the top. No communication......nothing. But, honestly it had to be the cycling because I had never missed a payment and had no other red flags. However, I bet the 5% back in rewards was also a factor because swipe fees are usually around 3% I think so they are probably losing money on each purchase I make at Amazon unless Amazon reimburses them the difference.

[zskid00]

5 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Is anyone else not receiving  5% back on their Amazon.com store card when they use their business account ? CS said the 5% only applies to personal account unless I get the Business AMEX Prime card 

As of my last statement I'm still getting the 5% back on my Amazon store card that's tied to my business account.  My monthly purchases are usually under $1,000 with the exception of 4Q though.

[joesnow2005]

1 hour ago, Bricklectic said:

I find chase to be the worst. Amex tolerable. Discover by far the best. Discover I absolutely destroy with 30 Target and Walmart orders consecutively for sam e amounts before finally they figure its a good idea to check with me if i authorized. Chase -2 or 3 and they get nervous. In general I tread super light with chase since i have a zero % aPR card with balance and 300k in point so i dont want to risk a closure with them. Plus they have the largest sign up bonuses 

Are your cards business cards or personal cards? I have no problem with Chase and Amex business cards when placing multiple orders in a short period of time. But may be declined with Chase personal card. I think this may be the main factor.

[gmpirate]

3 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

I find chase to be the worst. Amex tolerable. Discover by far the best. Discover I absolutely destroy with 30 Target and Walmart orders consecutively for sam e amounts before finally they figure its a good idea to check with me if i authorized. Chase -2 or 3 and they get nervous. In general I tread super light with chase since i have a zero % aPR card with balance and 300k in point so i dont want to risk a closure with them. Plus they have the largest sign up bonuses 

I agree.  Chase is usually pretty quick, but Wells Fargo might be the same (its just my last goto).  Apple Card is pretty good.  I'm pretty sure I need to get above 20+ purchases to get declined with them.  Then its just 2 declines and they shut it down.

Well, glad we all had this talk.  Will have to watch the cycling 🤪

Edited August 31, 2021 by gmpirate

[redcell]

Amex is rock solid for me.  The only time that I've tripped their fraud alerts is when I've been out hunting clearance early in the morning or late at night when I can travel between stores really quickly and end up having consecutive charges in a short period of time at multiple Walmarts that are geographically dispersed.  Other than that, they've only cut me off when my balance got to somewhere around the size of my mortgage.

[gmpirate]

1 hour ago, redcell said:

Amex is rock solid for me.  The only time that I've tripped their fraud alerts is when I've been out hunting clearance early in the morning or late at night when I can travel between stores really quickly and end up having consecutive charges in a short period of time at multiple Walmarts that are geographically dispersed.  Other than that, they've only cut me off when my balance got to somewhere around the size of my mortgage.

I miss the 24 hour Walmarts after Christmas . . .  I would just tell my wife I'd back in a couple days and drove off with enough credit cards to last me through the fraud alerts.

[severalads]

Has anyone seen Amazon holiday selling requirements for Toys yet? Thought they usually announce them in August?

[flyingpig1]

15 hours ago, gmpirate said:

I miss the 24 hour Walmarts after Christmas . . .  I would just tell my wife I'd back in a couple days and drove off with enough credit cards to last me through the fraud alerts.

Ah, those were the days. 

On 8/30/2021 at 11:38 AM, redcell said:

Yep. Mine has fluctuated between 2k-9k since they went into effect with very little rhyme or reason. I've tried to get additional details on what is going to happen with the limits in Q4 with no luck. I've majorly scaled back my plans for Q4 solely because of the restock limits. It will be interesting to see if the limits impact Amazon's bottom line for the year.




Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk
 

 

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/maximum-inventory-level/846352/541

 

 

 

Looks like we are getting some q4 restock limit changes, but all in the wrong direction.  Sigh. 

[jbacunn]

13 hours ago, severalads said:

Has anyone seen Amazon holiday selling requirements for Toys yet? Thought they usually announce them in August?

Haven't heard anything yet. Hopefully soon. 

[redcell]

6 hours ago, flyingpig1 said:

Ah, those were the days. 

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/maximum-inventory-level/846352/541

 

 

 

Looks like we are getting some q4 restock limit changes, but all in the wrong direction.  Sigh. 

The thing that makes so little sense is how dynamic Amazon has made the quantity limits.  I get setting limits by quarter or even month, but having the limits change dramatically from day to day is just plain stupid.  I'm sure that it makes a hell of a lot of sense when drawn up on a whiteboard somewhere in the bowels of Amazon, but the people doing the drawing are most likely MBAs or some other consultant type who have never actually run a business and have no concept of how the real world works.

[flyingpig1]

The limits were imposed with zero warning, there's zero transparency into how they are calculated, you don't even know when amazon runs the numbers so you can plan from day to day.  Sometimes its weekly, sometimes its daily!

[skinsfan0521]

Have you noticed that some sets are now saying that bubblewrapping is required for prep to FBA? I started seeing this with a lot of toys (like action figures and dolls) earlier this year and now it seems to be creeping into LEGO (like some battle packs for example).

What does everyone's plan for this? Do you think that you're actually going to individually bubble wrap each set or just send it into FBA and pay them the $.80 each to do the prep?

For the action figures I've been selling this summer, I actually bought boxes that fit them perfectly and then put them inside of those. It seems to have worked great, but the boxes cost like $1, plus my time and effort packing them all up. It worked for only a few hundred action figures, but I'm not sure that I can realistically do all that prep for thousands of LEGO sets for the upcoming Q4. Seems like $.80 an item for bubble wrapping must be the best option.

Thoughts? Has anyone ever paid Amazon to prep items for them? If they prep them, are they then responsible to cover returns that the customer says arrived damaged?

[Mark Twain]

29 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

Have you noticed that some sets are now saying that bubblewrapping is required for prep to FBA? I started seeing this with a lot of toys (like action figures and dolls) earlier this year and now it seems to be creeping into LEGO (like some battle packs for example).

What does everyone's plan for this? Do you think that you're actually going to individually bubble wrap each set or just send it into FBA and pay them the $.80 each to do the prep?

For the action figures I've been selling this summer, I actually bought boxes that fit them perfectly and then put them inside of those. It seems to have worked great, but the boxes cost like $1, plus my time and effort packing them all up. It worked for only a few hundred action figures, but I'm not sure that I can realistically do all that prep for thousands of LEGO sets for the upcoming Q4. Seems like $.80 an item for bubble wrapping must be the best option.

Thoughts? Has anyone ever paid Amazon to prep items for them? If they prep them, are they then responsible to cover returns that the customer says arrived damaged?

If it is lost product you're worried about, buy a box. The stupid bubble wrap mailers that they send small sets out in consistently get pancaked, so I don't know how an extra layer of bubble wrap is going to stop that. 

[cobrakai]

27 minutes ago, skinsfan0521 said:

Have you noticed that some sets are now saying that bubblewrapping is required for prep to FBA? I started seeing this with a lot of toys (like action figures and dolls) earlier this year and now it seems to be creeping into LEGO (like some battle packs for example).

What does everyone's plan for this? Do you think that you're actually going to individually bubble wrap each set or just send it into FBA and pay them the $.80 each to do the prep?

For the action figures I've been selling this summer, I actually bought boxes that fit them perfectly and then put them inside of those. It seems to have worked great, but the boxes cost like $1, plus my time and effort packing them all up. It worked for only a few hundred action figures, but I'm not sure that I can realistically do all that prep for thousands of LEGO sets for the upcoming Q4. Seems like $.80 an item for bubble wrapping must be the best option.

Thoughts? Has anyone ever paid Amazon to prep items for them? If they prep them, are they then responsible to cover returns that the customer says arrived damaged?

I sell a lot more action figures than Lego and this problem has been declining for me.  The bubble wrapping requirement has been dropping off listings lately and i'd say 75% are back to normal (no prep) requirements for me.  It actually makes sense for some items (like vintage style carded figures.)  If i'm having something shipped direct from a supplier to Amazon, I just pay the 80 cent fee.  If i'm shipping direct from my location, I ignore it. No one seems to be enforcing it at this time.  The only thing I bubblewrap is very expensive stuff or vintage style MOTU, Star Wars, etc.  Even Amazon wasn't 100% following the rules.  I ordered 100 units of a toy from Amazon that showed "bubblewrap required" on my end, but when I received my order only about 60 of them were actually bubblewrapped.

[Bold-Arrow]

This will end well .. send no seller ever :

 

In our continued efforts to improve screw your seller-fulfilled returns experience, we’re excited to announce the launch of the Returns Performance dashboard on October 21, 2021. The Returns Performance dashboard will help you monitor your returns performance and proactively address return-related issues.

The Returns Performance dashboard will focus on three key returns performance metrics:

• Return requests approved in less than 24 hours
• Total declined return requests
• Return-related buyer contact rate

Each performance metric will contain details for the following areas:

• Current metric performance
• Target metric threshold
• Definition of the metric
• Explanation of metric calculation
• Explanation of importance of metric
• Policy information

Additionally, the Returns performance dashboard is launching with the Returns Analysis page, a tool to help you identify and take action on any product listings that experience return issues. This page will help you identify the top return issue for each of your product listings so you can take action to improve the return experience.

[skinsfan0521]

24 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

I sell a lot more action figures than Lego and this problem has been declining for me.  The bubble wrapping requirement has been dropping off listings lately and i'd say 75% are back to normal (no prep) requirements for me.  It actually makes sense for some items (like vintage style carded figures.)  If i'm having something shipped direct from a supplier to Amazon, I just pay the 80 cent fee.  If i'm shipping direct from my location, I ignore it. No one seems to be enforcing it at this time.  The only thing I bubblewrap is very expensive stuff or vintage style MOTU, Star Wars, etc.  Even Amazon wasn't 100% following the rules.  I ordered 100 units of a toy from Amazon that showed "bubblewrap required" on my end, but when I received my order only about 60 of them were actually bubblewrapped.

Interesting that they've been being removed and also not enforced. That's good to hear!

My other thought was to just send in as is without any bubble wrap and if they deem it necessary to add the bubble wrap, they'll charge me for it. From what I understand, it just may delay the check in time by a few days if they have to unexpectedly prep my items. I'm Ok with that.

I just know that I can't possibly be bubble wrapping or boxing several thousand LEGO sets this Q4. Although, if they don't adjust my restock limits to account for seasonal increases, that's not going to be an issue anyway!

[skinsfan0521]

30 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

If it is lost product you're worried about, buy a box. The stupid bubble wrap mailers that they send small sets out in consistently get pancaked, so I don't know how an extra layer of bubble wrap is going to stop that. 

Yeah, I understand. But, I'm willing to take the hit on the damaged returns and it would cost me a lot less than buying boxes/bubblewrap and spending my (and my wife's) time boxing them up.

[flyingpig1]

With amazon killing the used toy category and starting to go after the collectable listings, what are people doing with returned inventory?  Ebay?

 

 

[gmpirate]

14 minutes ago, flyingpig1 said:

With amazon killing the used toy category and starting to go after the collectable listings, what are people doing with returned inventory?  Ebay?

 

 

yep

[Bold-Arrow]

25 minutes ago, flyingpig1 said:

With amazon killing the used toy category and starting to go after the collectable listings, what are people doing with returned inventory?  Ebay?

 

 

Yes 

[g3man]

Has Amazon sent out their "Holiday selling requirements for Toys & Games..." notice yet this year (we have not received)? We're a small FBM seller who is thankfully grandfathered in for LEGO, but we want to make sure we meet the requirements for the holidays again (usually it's not a big deal, but just want to be certain we can qualify for Holiday selling).

[jeff_14]

16 minutes ago, g3man said:

Has Amazon sent out their "Holiday selling requirements for Toys & Games..." notice yet this year (we have not received)? We're a small FBM seller who is thankfully grandfathered in for LEGO, but we want to make sure we meet the requirements for the holidays again (usually it's not a big deal, but just want to be certain we can qualify for Holiday selling).

I haven’t seen it or heard anyone say they have. Would be just like Amazon to send it after the qualifying period is over when we can’t do anything about it retroactively.

[jbacunn]

2 hours ago, g3man said:

Has Amazon sent out their "Holiday selling requirements for Toys & Games..." notice yet this year (we have not received)? We're a small FBM seller who is thankfully grandfathered in for LEGO, but we want to make sure we meet the requirements for the holidays again (usually it's not a big deal, but just want to be certain we can qualify for Holiday selling).

I haven't received anything yet and can't find anything posted online about it. I'm in a similar situation and I'm starting to get nervous. If they are going to do a qualification process similar to previous years it will have to start very soon. I can't imagine they would drop the qualification process completely so I don't know what they are doing. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by jbacunn

[g3man]

1 hour ago, jbacunn said:

I haven't received anything yet and can't find anything posted online about it. I'm in a similar situation and I'm starting to get nervous. If they are going to do a qualification process similar to previous years it will have to start very soon. I can't imagine they would drop the qualification process completely so I don't know what they are doing. 

Without other info, we're planning for similar qualifications as the last couple of years...

This help page still shows requirements from 2020, but I think this is what gets updated when those emails go out. < https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200371730 >