Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[gmpirate]

3 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

so what do you guys do with all your amz returns. for the big ticket items I go through and check that all the pieces are there. but i also have a dozen or so cheap sets like zombie caves and chicken coops and quidditches. 

I cant sell as complete unless i open and count but thats not my biz model (read:  im way too lazy). Cant think of an alternative though.

You are correct in that its not worth the time to count.  Just go through the return and make a reasonable determination.  There are sources to know the bag count.  Take detailed pictures, list on Ebay and state "not guaranteeing, but looks be !00%".  Easy Peazy

[Bricklectic]

2 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

You are correct in that its not worth the time to count.  Just go through the return and make a reasonable determination.  There are sources to know the bag count.  Take detailed pictures, list on Ebay and state "not guaranteeing, but looks be !00%".  Easy Peazy

i member when my ebay account wasnt banned. good ol days

[zaphoid]

On 10/3/2021 at 2:31 PM, Bricklectic said:

so what do you guys do with all your amz returns. for the big ticket items I go through and check that all the pieces are there. but i also have a dozen or so cheap sets like zombie caves and chicken coops and quidditches. 

I cant sell as complete unless i open and count but thats not my biz model (read:  im way too lazy). Cant think of an alternative though.

just give them to me

[Darth_Raichu]

So this pop up suddenly appeared on my Seller Central page: 

[Lego_Monsters]

Anyone received an email saying they need a million dollar liability insurance to sell on Amazon? Amazon pushing all third party sellers to eBay. 

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, Lego_Monsters said:

Anyone received an email saying they need a million dollar liability insurance to sell on Amazon? Amazon pushing all third party sellers to eBay. 

yes, this is now an enforced requirement in order to sell on the platform 

[Bricklectic]

4 minutes ago, Lego_Monsters said:

Anyone received an email saying they need a million dollar liability insurance to sell on Amazon? Amazon pushing all third party sellers to eBay. 

yes, got one last week. anyone have specific recommendation for an easy provider?

 

[My_own_2_bricks]

1 minute ago, Bricklectic said:

yes, got one last week. anyone have specific recommendation for an easy provider?

 

My StateFarm policy was rejected 3 times. Went with Amazon preferred provider Next and approved with no problems. Quotes from the other preferred  providers were not approved for underwriting if I said that I imported goods.  

[Emvisawthatswho]

Always check seller central for messages. I’ve gotten a few “emails” from Amazon lately, requesting documentation, stating my product is no longer able to be listed, performance notifications,

When I contact seller support, they tell me my account is fine, nothing is required to continue. These emails don’t appear in the seller central messages, which is odd.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LegoBro]

I am yet to get hit with the requirement for insurance. Is this fairly recent?

[jeff_14]

7 minutes ago, LegoBro said:

I am yet to get hit with the requirement for insurance. Is this fairly recent?

Me neither. I think someone earlier said it was only being asked if you sold $30000 a month or something 

[Bold-Arrow]

8 minutes ago, jeff_14 said:

Me neither. I think someone earlier said it was only being asked if you sold $30000 a month or something 

That is not entirely true. See in red : 

9. Insurance.

If the gross proceeds from Your Transactions exceed the applicable Insurance Threshold during any month if the Elected Country is the United States, or each month over any period of three (3) consecutive months if the Elected Country is Canada or Mexico, or otherwise if requested by us, then within thirty (30) days thereafter, you will maintain at your expense throughout the remainder of the Term for each applicable Elected Country commercial general, umbrella or excess liability insurance with the Insurance Limits per occurrence and in aggregate covering liabilities caused by or occurring in conjunction with the operation of your business, including products, products/completed operations and bodily injury, with policy(ies) naming Amazon and its assignees as additional insureds. At our request, you will provide to us certificates of insurance, the full insurance policy, or other documents we may request for the coverage to the following address: c/o Amazon, P.O. Box 81226, Seattle, WA 98108-1226, Attention: Risk Management.

[Jackson]

How much are you all getting quoted for that Amazon insurance? A local company gave me an estimate of $550 per year.

[cobrakai]

3 minutes ago, Jackson said:

How much are you all getting quoted for that Amazon insurance? A local company gave me an estimate of $550 per year.

I pay $1352 a year with Hartford. They will do an "audit" survey every year to check your sales volume and the price increases as your revenue goes up.  I would guess rates probably start around $500-$700 a year if you are not a high volume seller.

[exciter1]

12 minutes ago, Jackson said:

How much are you all getting quoted for that Amazon insurance? A local company gave me an estimate of $550 per year.

You can try one of their affiliate companies.  Next Insurance was under $350 with no additional inventory insurance.

[Bold-Arrow]

32 minutes ago, cobrakai said:

I pay $1352 a year with Hartford. They will do an "audit" survey every year to check your sales volume and the price increases as your revenue goes up.  I would guess rates probably start around $500-$700 a year if you are not a high volume seller.

Mine is almost double that but includes inventory . 

[Bricklectic]

58 minutes ago, Jackson said:

How much are you all getting quoted for that Amazon insurance? A local company gave me an estimate of $550 per year.

next doesnt provide insurance for my state. the comparison website quote is 550 for me as well. seems high. its just lego.

[Loghamel]

6 hours ago, Darth_Raichu said:

So this pop up suddenly appeared on my Seller Central page: 

Man, it would be extremely difficult for me to not select 'Customer Service Interaction' on every one of these.  Interacting with these monkeys banging on keyboards hurts my brain.  I can write something like, "I sent 25 boxes to this FC and you only checked in 2 of them.  Can you please see if you can find the other 23?"  They would close the case and respond with something like, "We checked the contents of those two boxes and nothing was missing."  Seriously, that isn't a hypothetical;  I literally wrote that 5 times in 5 separate cases and every single one received that response.  And it's not an isolated incident.  Just about every one of my interactions starts off with some kind of non-sensical response that requires me to open multiple cases until someone reads it with an IQ higher than the average temperature at the North Pole.

[pete411]

For FBA, is it ok to pre-box your smaller Lego sets (typical $15 Lego sets with "soft" boxes)? I've been getting quite a few returns on my older Speed Champions sets because Amazon tends to ship them bubble mailers and they end up getting crushed. I'd of course place the FBA sku barcode on the outer cardboard box.

Edited October 8, 2021 by pete411

[Bold-Arrow]

4 hours ago, pete411 said:

For FBA, is it ok to pre-box your smaller Lego sets (typical $15 Lego sets with "soft" boxes)? I've been getting quite a few returns on my older Speed Champions sets because Amazon tends to ship them bubble mailers and they end up getting crushed. I'd of course place the FBA sku barcode on the outer cardboard box.

Yes 

[carini26]

6 hours ago, pete411 said:

For FBA, is it ok to pre-box your smaller Lego sets (typical $15 Lego sets with "soft" boxes)? I've been getting quite a few returns on my older Speed Champions sets because Amazon tends to ship them bubble mailers and they end up getting crushed. I'd of course place the FBA sku barcode on the outer cardboard box.

I've been debating this for the flimsy boxes myself... with the caveat being time to prep.  I've noticed, as a customer, almost all of my "1x of your small box LEGO order has shipped" have arrived in a mailer with 30-40% unsellable upon opening.  

[Bricklectic]

Another example of buybox bot weirdness:

Consistently across my listings, if i list same as buybox pricing, I am shown as the 3 alternatives on main listing. Should I drop my price up to 5% less, I get relegated to the more options screen. Bizarre. If I list at more than 5% less than buybox, I finally win buybox.

I am FBA individual plan so I get why I might lose out to professional plans, but theres no logic to this.

[Mark Twain]

1 hour ago, Bricklectic said:

Another example of buybox bot weirdness:

Consistently across my listings, if i list same as buybox pricing, I am shown as the 3 alternatives on main listing. Should I drop my price up to 5% less, I get relegated to the more options screen. Bizarre. If I list at more than 5% less than buybox, I finally win buybox.

I am FBA individual plan so I get why I might lose out to professional plans, but theres no logic to this.

I would either price at the Buybox or above, pricing below and selling below drives down the algorithm with each sale at that price and is generally bad practice as a whole. Amazon's ways are mysterious but you'll notice some things pretty quickly about why you are or aren't getting a sale--you may have stock in FC transfer or located in a different warehouse away from a buyer. 

[Bold-Arrow]

ICYMI:

Update on sending inventory for the holidays

 

 

In a previous announcement, we said to make sure that your inventory arrives at fulfillment centers by December 11 for Christmas. We’ve updated this date to December 2 to help better ensure that you have enough stock available for your most popular products.

We apologize for any inconvenience. 

 

 

 

 

[flyingpig1]

13 hours ago, carini26 said:

I've been debating this for the flimsy boxes myself... with the caveat being time to prep.  I've noticed, as a customer, almost all of my "1x of your small box LEGO order has shipped" have arrived in a mailer with 30-40% unsellable upon opening.  

 

I've started doing this for some high value stuff.  The time to prep is a pain in the ass though.

13 hours ago, carini26 said:

I've been debating this for the flimsy boxes myself... with the caveat being time to prep.  I've noticed, as a customer, almost all of my "1x of your small box LEGO order has shipped" have arrived in a mailer with 30-40% unsellable upon opening.  

 

I've started doing this for some high value stuff.  The time to prep is a pain in the ass though.