Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[gmpirate]

3 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

You probably have the automated calculation on that’s why . 

Yes, not sure why I would want to calculate anything myself??

[gmpirate]

I'm also confused as to what One and Two Day delivery means as opposed to buyers selecting Ground, 3 Day Select, or 1 Day?  Or, maybe I just figured it out.  It means Amazon is just determining which areas will receive it within 1 or 2 days using Ground?

[Bold-Arrow]

11 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

Yes, not sure why I would want to calculate anything myself??

it is a good thing, I would leave it as is 

[cladner]

1 hour ago, gmpirate said:

Anyone have advice or reference for setting up FBM Shipping settings?  I'm mainly FBA and just recently started doing FBM (its been awhile).

I setup FREE shipping but I'm getting killed on 1 or 3 day shipping.  I tried to modify settings but the outcome is confusing.  I only selected UPS and yet I had one order show USPS as the shipping method for an order.  Then I created another template that only offered ground but 3 Day Select still came through with a couple orders.  Then I put fees in for 2 and 3 day shipping -- 19.99 and 29.99 but when I put the items in the cart the fee says 14.21.

when you set up a  new template now, amazon FORCES you to use SHIPPING SETTING AUTOMATION - this is kind of a pita and not optimal imo.  this forces you to go through a step wise process where you specify what shipping servces you utilize.  i would go through it select only first class, priority and ups ground.  first for standard, then for expedited.  after you get through this you can edit the template (whatever you  name it) .

you can turn off SHIPPING SETTING AUTOMATION and it goes back to the "old fashioned" way by editing the template and then looking near the top for the slider switch.  then you can go back to the old way and adjust it zone or state by state.

 

if i were you i'd turn off the shipping setting automation and offer free 1-2 day shipping in my home state or subregion in my home state -  (cali?) that way you're dealing with UPS ground or USPS PRIORITY - no USP3 day bs.   put states you don't want to ship to on hawaii-alaska mode- 5-8 days.  i'm doing that right now with the western us to avoid getting any orders from there. 

you can even sub-select geographic region in cali.

you can compete with instock fba under this arrangement.

Edited December 10, 2021 by cladner

[landphieran]

I know this is a common complaint most years (usually i'm on the opposite side) however I feel like selling this year has been particularly brutal. I mainly say this as a comparison to last year. My margins last year were 20-30% more than this year. Prices drove up and continued driving up throughout the selling season.

Most sets have continued to drop price throughout the selling season or stagnated at the same price (Avengers helicopter, small harry potters, minecrafts etc. Additionally many sets selling at high prices have now dropped 20% since last year. Jurassic Carnotaurus Gyrosphere 75929, Mia's camper van 41339 to name a few.

I have a strong feeling the restock limitations are causing people to value throughput over margin. I'm guess that a lot of the big sellers may not have had workforces to run the business last year as i didn't see toy planet undercutting every listing last year which is very prevalent this year.

I'm definitely going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward as competition heats up. Getting the volume required to do well in the current climate is difficult through retailers. 

 

 

 

[flyingpig1]

For me its been a combination of:

Restock limits were a complete surprise and screwed up my purchasing plans for the year. 

Toys and games gate and LEGO gate is more or less gone now so there's a ton of new and bad sellers.

LEGO has their inventory under better control than previous years.  Way fewer quick flip options than in years past.

[exciter1]

2 hours ago, landphieran said:

I know this is a common complaint most years (usually i'm on the opposite side) however I feel like selling this year has been particularly brutal. I mainly say this as a comparison to last year. My margins last year were 20-30% more than this year. Prices drove up and continued driving up throughout the selling season.

Most sets have continued to drop price throughout the selling season or stagnated at the same price (Avengers helicopter, small harry potters, minecrafts etc. Additionally many sets selling at high prices have now dropped 20% since last year. Jurassic Carnotaurus Gyrosphere 75929, Mia's camper van 41339 to name a few.

I have a strong feeling the restock limitations are causing people to value throughput over margin. I'm guess that a lot of the big sellers may not have had workforces to run the business last year as i didn't see toy planet undercutting every listing last year which is very prevalent this year.

I'm definitely going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward as competition heats up. Getting the volume required to do well in the current climate is difficult through retailers. 

 

 

 

I’m having no trouble selling my 3 to 5 year old stock, some prices are increasing too.

[pharmjod]

3 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I’m having no trouble selling my 3 to 5 year old stock, some prices are increasing too.

Who still has 3 to 5 year old stock? 🤣

 

That's cause you went out and bought it yesterday.

 

[exciter1]

Just now, pharmjod said:

Who still has 3 to 5 year old stock? 🤣

 

That's cause you went out and bought it yesterday.

 

That’s all I can find. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Bricklectic]

orginally posted on the fba thread but figure this is better place:

My brother's friend got a letter over the weekend from Lego legal ordering him to cease and desist selling new lego items on amazon.com. "you are not authorized to sell....."  He's really upset. Is this the first occurrence of this that we know about and is it indicative of a future wave of letters? His business model is quick flipping like home alone, ATT etc... But he's really a small fish in the pond.. My only hope is that perhaps LEgo is only pursuing sellers of sets that are currently in production. But I am concerned. 

[marcandre]

9 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

orginally posted on the fba thread but figure this is better place:

My brother's friend got a letter over the weekend from Lego legal ordering him to cease and desist selling new lego items on amazon.com. "you are not authorized to sell....."  He's really upset. Is this the first occurrence of this that we know about and is it indicative of a future wave of letters? His business model is quick flipping like home alone, ATT etc... But he's really a small fish in the pond.. My only hope is that perhaps LEgo is only pursuing sellers of sets that are currently in production. But I am concerned. 

Interesting. Any chance you can post the letter?

[Bricklectic]

5 minutes ago, marcandre said:

Interesting. Any chance you can post the letter?

its my bros friend so no but it definitely happened. This past week. Official registered Fed-Ex letter. Guy is real upset, understandably. 

[xeeeej]

I would be willing to bet it's another Amazon seller trying to thin out the (suddenly immense) competition by sending out fake letters. That makes much more sense than Lego suddenly trying to shut down resellers, who have helped Lego thrive.

[redcell]

I would be willing to bet it's another Amazon seller trying to thin out the (suddenly immense) competition by sending out fake letters. That makes much more sense than Lego suddenly trying to shut down resellers, who have helped Lego thrive.

I don't know. I think it's a mistake to think about the situation as narrowly targeting people who are reselling legit Lego products. Look over at the thread about counterfeit products being sold on Walmart. If Lego views that type of thing as a major problem and wants to take action against, what's easier for them...sorting through which unauthorized resellers are selling legit products versus those that are selling fakes or simply targeting all unauthorized dealers?

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[Bold-Arrow]

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

I’m having no trouble selling my 3 to 5 year old stock, some prices are increasing too.

I’ve been doing well selling those LOTR and LR sets 

[exciter1]

2 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

I’ve been doing well selling those LOTR and LR sets 

High Ho Silv’er! I mean GOLD!

[Bricklectic]

7 minutes ago, xeeeej said:

I would be willing to bet it's another Amazon seller trying to thin out the (suddenly immense) competition by sending out fake letters. That makes much more sense than Lego suddenly trying to shut down resellers, who have helped Lego thrive.

the weird thing is that his biz is based out of a different state. its whats listed and where he ships from. but the letter came to his house

[river41]

4 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

the weird thing is that his biz is based out of a different state. its whats listed and where he ships from. but the letter came to his house

what address did he give amazon for his business ? 

[brickology101]

I know this is a common complaint most years (usually i'm on the opposite side) however I feel like selling this year has been particularly brutal. I mainly say this as a comparison to last year. My margins last year were 20-30% more than this year. Prices drove up and continued driving up throughout the selling season.
Most sets have continued to drop price throughout the selling season or stagnated at the same price (Avengers helicopter, small harry potters, minecrafts etc. Additionally many sets selling at high prices have now dropped 20% since last year. Jurassic Carnotaurus Gyrosphere 75929, Mia's camper van 41339 to name a few.
I have a strong feeling the restock limitations are causing people to value throughput over margin. I'm guess that a lot of the big sellers may not have had workforces to run the business last year as i didn't see toy planet undercutting every listing last year which is very prevalent this year.
I'm definitely going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward as competition heats up. Getting the volume required to do well in the current climate is difficult through retailers. 
 
 
 

Flipping sets was a lot harder this year. Retired sets did good but not the kind of returns from last year. What I will remember from this year: last minute Holiday restrictions, Amazon carrying way more stock than previous years and way way way too many sellers.


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[redcell]

I know this is a common complaint most years (usually i'm on the opposite side) however I feel like selling this year has been particularly brutal. I mainly say this as a comparison to last year. My margins last year were 20-30% more than this year. Prices drove up and continued driving up throughout the selling season.
Most sets have continued to drop price throughout the selling season or stagnated at the same price (Avengers helicopter, small harry potters, minecrafts etc. Additionally many sets selling at high prices have now dropped 20% since last year. Jurassic Carnotaurus Gyrosphere 75929, Mia's camper van 41339 to name a few.
I have a strong feeling the restock limitations are causing people to value throughput over margin. I'm guess that a lot of the big sellers may not have had workforces to run the business last year as i didn't see toy planet undercutting every listing last year which is very prevalent this year.
I'm definitely going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward as competition heats up. Getting the volume required to do well in the current climate is difficult through retailers. 
 
 
 

You're destined for disappointment if you compare any year to last year.

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[cobrakai]

6 minutes ago, redcell said:

You're destined for disappointment if you compare any year to last year.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk
 

Yeah, my sales/profit since November 1st are about the same as 2019, but 50% down from last year. The March 2020 through March 2021 sales period will probably never be matched again.  

[brickology101]

orginally posted on the fba thread but figure this is better place:
My brother's friend got a letter over the weekend from Lego legal ordering him to cease and desist selling new lego items on amazon.com. "you are not authorized to sell....."  He's really upset. Is this the first occurrence of this that we know about and is it indicative of a future wave of letters? His business model is quick flipping like home alone, ATT etc... But he's really a small fish in the pond.. My only hope is that perhaps LEgo is only pursuing sellers of sets that are currently in production. But I am concerned. 

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Lego to take this kind of action through Amazon ? I mean, really if their intent now is to protect their brand and prevent unauthorized 3rd party sellers on Amazon they have their work cut out. That’s going to be a lot of letters.


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[Mark Twain]

I’m having no trouble selling my 3 to 5 year old stock, some prices are increasing too.

Yep. The silly Cars 3 junior sets blew up in price after forever and most of the advent calendars from 3+ years ago did as well. I really wish I’d kept more of those Jungle Explorer sets or basically any theme from that time frame.

Dunno how long this pattern lasts, but the key to higher returns for the moment is extending hold times. With that comes the increased risks of remakes, gates, more cert requests, etc.


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[gmpirate]

12 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Dunno how long this pattern lasts, but the key to higher returns for the moment is extending hold times.

Think that has always been the key to higher returns 😜

idk, I haven’t had the time to look at exact numbers but it’s been different to tell in general because of all the shipping delays.  Every time I start going down the list I’m amazed at the number of listing still “reserved”.  I know I should have sent things in earlier but for some items it’s been 3 - 4 weeks.

[Phil B]

5 hours ago, landphieran said:

I know this is a common complaint most years (usually i'm on the opposite side) however I feel like selling this year has been particularly brutal. I mainly say this as a comparison to last year. My margins last year were 20-30% more than this year. Prices drove up and continued driving up throughout the selling season.

Most sets have continued to drop price throughout the selling season or stagnated at the same price (Avengers helicopter, small harry potters, minecrafts etc. Additionally many sets selling at high prices have now dropped 20% since last year. Jurassic Carnotaurus Gyrosphere 75929, Mia's camper van 41339 to name a few.

I have a strong feeling the restock limitations are causing people to value throughput over margin. I'm guess that a lot of the big sellers may not have had workforces to run the business last year as i didn't see toy planet undercutting every listing last year which is very prevalent this year.

I'm definitely going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward as competition heats up. Getting the volume required to do well in the current climate is difficult through retailers. 

I sent in my 75929 when the going rate was $159.99. It's $128 right now thanks to Toy Planet. SMH. 

Even though I typically only send in sets that have retired for at least 2 years, even those struggle at the moment. Just went in and did a massive "match the buybox" adjustment - luckily that immediately resulted in several sales, but at a lower price point than where I had hoped to sell based on where prices were over the summer. Glad I sold a bunch in September before the mad holiday rush started. I hope January will be better.