Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[Bold-Arrow]

Just now, Bricklectic said:

Got back a expensive FBM return today. Can I deduct shipping either way? Also, is refund auto applied, or do i manually click on issue refund.

Usually I use FBA only

- Yes you can deduct return shipping + restocking fee ( if damaged )

-RFS only applies if order value is less than $100 and it seems like amazon have that on hold atm 

[legorunner]

What kinds of wait are people experiencing for FBA inbound shipments getting checked in this holiday season? I have 2 shipments coming up on 3 weeks since delivery at ORF2, which in some years is par for the course, but this year all of my other shipments have been checked in within 24-48 hours of delivery, so this seems unusual...

[gmpirate]

You've had shipments actually checked in and ready for purchase within 24-48 hours?  Or just received at warehouse?

My shipments get received pretty quickly but 3 weeks to availability is not unheard of.  I had shipments that were sent in the first week of October that were not available until the end of the month if not longer.  Haven't paid attention to later shipments but I would it expect it to be worse now than better per Amazon.

[landphieran]

2 hours ago, gmpirate said:

You've had shipments actually checked in and ready for purchase within 24-48 hours?  Or just received at warehouse?

My shipments get received pretty quickly but 3 weeks to availability is not unheard of.  I had shipments that were sent in the first week of October that were not available until the end of the month if not longer.  Haven't paid attention to later shipments but I would it expect it to be worse now than better per Amazon.

My shipments in October took much longer (2-3 weeks) than my shipments in the past few weeks (as little as 2-3 days). I'm primarily shipping to Joliet and Indianapolis.

[Sozial]

11 hours ago, legorunner said:

What kinds of wait are people experiencing for FBA inbound shipments getting checked in this holiday season? I have 2 shipments coming up on 3 weeks since delivery at ORF2, which in some years is par for the course, but this year all of my other shipments have been checked in within 24-48 hours of delivery, so this seems unusual...

In EU its 12 days-25 days.

[severalads]

3 hours ago, Sozial said:

In EU its 12 days-25 days.

Really? I'd agree with previous post - mine are way faster compared to October. Pretty much next day after UPS collected they get checked-in Amazon warehouse. Not all, but most

[Bricklectic]

This was FBA. Can I simply mark as no response needed

 

[Bold-Arrow]

18 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

This was FBA. Can I simply mark as no response needed

 

Since this once fba, direct them to Amazon cs and then mark as no reply needed from that point on 

[gmpirate]

Just went through "Voice of the Customer".  Pretty disheartening to read all the return reasons.  Of course there's all the smashed boxes from Amazon sending things in bags, but then "it looks different than the picture", "thought it would be bigger", "missing pieces" . . .  One customer says they received a set sealed with "black electrical tape".  "Sent wrong item"  Hard to know what's what too since Amazon will substitute other seller's items.

Fun to read the Reddit columns too where people explain how to scam returns on Amazon.

There will definitely be a big evaluation in January to determine what the overall margins are now.

Edited November 12, 2023 by gmpirate

[Sozial]

10 hours ago, gmpirate said:

Just went through "Voice of the Customer".  Pretty disheartening to read all the return reasons.  Of course there's all the smashed boxes from Amazon sending things in bags, but then "it looks different than the picture", "thought it would be bigger", "missing pieces" . . .  One customer says they received a set sealed with "black electrical tape".  "Sent wrong item"  Hard to know what's what too since Amazon will substitute other seller's items.

Fun to read the Reddit columns too where people explain how to scam returns on Amazon.

There will definitely be a big evaluation in January to determine what the overall margins are now.

Had an item in FBA which I had only one piece left and the customer wrote as return reason: 100€ for such an small amount of pieces.

Of course the customer sent back some random pieces and kept the original set. 

[Bricklectic]

FBA - For years now I have used the Inventory placement service . amazon charges for this, but it allows me to send all my units to one location as opposed to needing to break up my boxes into different amounts for different locations, which caused extra expense and time.

Yesterday, I switched it off and I see that even with it off, all my boxes remain intact and go to one location - or, if to 2 locations, its broken up on a box level, and i dont need to open boxes and reallocate units. Is this new? Seems I've been wasting money paying for this "service".

[gmpirate]

Yeah, they've consolidated shipments for a while now.  It used to be a pain, I know.

They only thing I do differently now is create separate shipments for larger and smaller items since Amazon will separate those.  Not a huge deal, but it prevents me from accidentally putting box 1 labels on the wrong shipment, etc.

Edited November 13, 2023 by gmpirate

[Phantom Toys]

4 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

FBA - For years now I have used the Inventory placement service . amazon charges for this, but it allows me to send all my units to one location as opposed to needing to break up my boxes into different amounts for different locations, which caused extra expense and time.

Yesterday, I switched it off and I see that even with it off, all my boxes remain intact and go to one location - or, if to 2 locations, its broken up on a box level, and i dont need to open boxes and reallocate units. Is this new? Seems I've been wasting money paying for this "service".

It can be hit or miss.  You have to opt out of distributed placement (or something like that) or you will end up having shipments split between multiple destinations, though you do get a fee credit if you do this.  This will generally result in everything going to a single destination, but not always.  I've noticed that as it gets later in Q4, Amazon is more likely to split shipments up between multiple destinations.  I'm sure they have some algorithm that calculates where the inventory needs to be and when it needs to be there.  The one thing that I've learned that hard way is to moderate the size of each individual shipment, particularly when building them out using the "Send To Amazon" workflow.  I've had two occasions now where I've prepped an entire shipment and had the process hang on me with the stellar advice from Amazon being "just delete that workflow and start over" (this after I've already labeled 500-600 boxes in the shipment).

[yyyybird111]

how do you guys respond to this kind of request:

"The item is now being sold for $12 less than I paid. Do I need to repurchase item at new price and return the one I have to get the lower price, or can I be refunded the $12 difference? "

any template I can use to reply? it is a 100 ish set, the shipping cost probably will be 12 dollars, thanks much.

First time got asked this questions in years, looks like money is tight for a lot of people

 

 

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, yyyybird111 said:

how do you guys respond to this kind of request:

"The item is now being sold for $12 less than I paid. Do I need to repurchase item at new price and return the one I have to get the lower price, or can I be refunded the $12 difference? "

any template I can use to reply? it is a 100 ish set, the shipping cost probably will be 12 dollars, thanks much.

First time got asked this questions in years, looks like money is tight for a lot of people

 

 

Fba or fbm? Does it make sense to get it back or just refund the difference? They will need to pay the return shipping for fbm so that might tick them off. I usually don’t negotiate but that’s a personal choice 

[yyyybird111]

FBM, does it make difference?

[Bold-Arrow]

39 minutes ago, yyyybird111 said:

FBM, does it make difference?

If it was fba, CS might have been able to give a partial and you get reimbursed. I guess you need to decide what’s best for your business, no right or wrong answer 

[Bricklectic]

3 hours ago, yyyybird111 said:

how do you guys respond to this kind of request:

"The item is now being sold for $12 less than I paid. Do I need to repurchase item at new price and return the one I have to get the lower price, or can I be refunded the $12 difference? "

any template I can use to reply? it is a 100 ish set, the shipping cost probably will be 12 dollars, thanks much.

First time got asked this questions in years, looks like money is tight for a lot of people

 

 

wouldnt he be out the return s hipping and therefore its a net wash?

[Bricklectic]

[exciter1]

1 hour ago, Bricklectic said:

That's Emazing!

[Bricklectic]

is this normal? almost every set i check has 100+ sellers. NEVER was like this. I dont see how sets can appreciate with this level of supply

            

[LegoPup]

I got a notice for some stranded inventory and the reason is "restricted ASIN."  

This ASIN is restricted and not available to sell due to intellectual property concerns, quality issues, or product safety. For specific details, see your email or Performance Notifications.
To create an appeal:
1. Click Appeal
2. Enter the SKU and click Next
3. Click Create a case.
If appeal is approved, you must relist the ASIN to activate your offer. If the appeal is not approved, select Create a removal order.

Weird, but I can still list the item (GWP Scary Pirate Island).  I'm kind of thinking that I shouldn't appeal and just create a removal order to not open a whole can of worms.  Anybody experienced this?  Any advice?

 

[gmpirate]

29 minutes ago, LegoPup said:

I got a notice for some stranded inventory and the reason is "restricted ASIN."  

This ASIN is restricted and not available to sell due to intellectual property concerns, quality issues, or product safety. For specific details, see your email or Performance Notifications.
To create an appeal:
1. Click Appeal
2. Enter the SKU and click Next
3. Click Create a case.
If appeal is approved, you must relist the ASIN to activate your offer. If the appeal is not approved, select Create a removal order.

Weird, but I can still list the item (GWP Scary Pirate Island).  I'm kind of thinking that I shouldn't appeal and just create a removal order to not open a whole can of worms.  Anybody experienced this?  Any advice?

 

adjust the pice and check it later.  kinda like trying to figure out what is going wrong with your computer.  Just restart it and it will probably be fine

[LegoPup]

1 hour ago, gmpirate said:

adjust the pice and check it later.  kinda like trying to figure out what is going wrong with your computer.  Just restart it and it will probably be fine

OK, I'll try that.  Thanks for the advice!  I'll let you know what happens.

[redcell]

4 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

is this normal? almost every set i check has 100+ sellers. NEVER was like this. I dont see how sets can appreciate with this level of supply

            

It’s the new normal.  I haven’t gone back and looked closely, but I suspect you can find a correlation between the number of sellers on a listing and the amount of chatter in the “investor” groups and YT channels about the set.  The listings that I’m on that have less than 35-50 sellers were all sets that rarely, if ever, we’re mentioned as something worth “investing” in…oddly enough, those are the only sets that have actually appreciated to any significant degree.  Gone are the days when making money doing this was like shooting fish in a barrel.