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Selling Lego on Amazon.com


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On 10/3/2016 at 4:43 PM, asharerin said:

Just got an email from Amazon saying if you send in your items commingled this quarter you save 8 cents on pick and pack fees per order. We use commingled for our lower value and low risk items. In the future I have a feeling commingled will be mandatory and this is how Amazon will achieve 3 hr delivery for almost every item in their catalog to 80% of the USA population. It also explains why every major brand is gated now as for commingled to work they need reliable sellers sending in quality merchandise.

Not sure how I would feel sending in a $1k lego set commingled but the sales volume is going to be insanely good. Such a good time to be a reseller on Amazon.

they started allowing you to choose which  items to commingle and which not to is that new? I don't remember that in the past I thought you had to choose one way for all your inventory either all commingled or all not

9 hours ago, Serejai said:

Yeah... I started to think that might be the case. Checked on my second selling account that I use for personal things and I was already approved, even though I've only ever sold three LEGO sets on there a few years ago. So basically Amazon conned me into giving them $1,000 for no reason on my business account by sending me an email telling me I had to be approved, even though I really didn't. I love how they treat their sellers.

you mean even if you are not approved they keep the 1000?

7 hours ago, asharerin said:

Not a chance IMO. The gates are forever and there will be more going forward. Amazon is about long term dominance, not short term profits. 

 

does amazon really care about the collectible market or are they more focused on current product

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38 minutes ago, river41 said:

they started allowing you to choose which  items to commingle and which not to is that new? I don't remember that in the past I thought you had to choose one way for all your inventory either all commingled or all not

AFAIK you could always choose what to send in commingled and what to send in labelled. 

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14 hours ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:

Thanks for all the input, starting to clear things up about the storage fees.
Some of you make it sound so hard to believe.  
Take For example, Helms Deep,  I find it hard to believe a buyer would pay $248 (lowest price on FBA) over $206.50 (lowest on FBM).
Thats a $41.50 difference. WHY?
I have 18 of these and if i put them up on FBA, it would sell faster & more$ than FBM at a higher price?  come on.

Now, I don't buy discontinued LEGO on Amazon, but I do buy a lot of stuff on amazon. the FIRST thing I do after EVERY search i conduct is click on the "Prime" filter.  I only even want to LOOK at stuff that is covered by prime shipping, and ships from the Amazon warehouses.  I won't even know some other seller-shipped option exists.  I'm guessing there is a pretty significant number of people who do something similar to this.

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1 hour ago, dougts said:

Now, I don't buy discontinued LEGO on Amazon, but I do buy a lot of stuff on amazon. the FIRST thing I do after EVERY search i conduct is click on the "Prime" filter.  I only even want to LOOK at stuff that is covered by prime shipping, and ships from the Amazon warehouses.  I won't even know some other seller-shipped option exists.  I'm guessing there is a pretty significant number of people who do something similar to this.


Correct, I do the same when it comes to CURRENT sets. 

Im glad you brought this up, which accentuate my disbelieve even further.
Where's the profit after fees selling current sets with FBA?

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7 minutes ago, fossilrock said:

I wouldn't get too hung up on this.  Seems like some are just retail arbitragers that buy things (beyond lego) at discount and flip it for profit.  That's a way different game, than holding sets well for the long term and then selling it at a much larger time period.

Exactly. Sending in a box with 100 the same current sets to sell for $1 profit each is the same amount of work as sending in a box with 1 carefully wrapped retired set to sell for $100 profit, since Amazon does the work for you.

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2 minutes ago, biking_tiger said:

Most of the work. Most of it. 

If I'm making those kind of slim margins, why not just plug my capital into JNJ stock or something and skim off the 3%? 

Okay, okay, my numbers were for illustrational purposes only. I was trying to show the principle.

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56 minutes ago, Miami Bomb Squad said:


Correct, I do the same when it comes to CURRENT sets. 

Im glad you brought this up, which accentuate my disbelieve even further.
Where's the profit after fees selling current sets with FBA?

How about this... (yes, all of this is approximate, does not calculate time/gas/etc, I know that)

EX:  Tie Striker: $69.99 purchased tomorrow at TRU:

TRUTH and 15% GC brings you down to $53.55

Get a Bricktober Musicians and a FO Gen poly sold (low end, $20 profit after fees/shipping/materials) bring you down to $30.55 plus $5 Rewards points usable in 3 weeks for Bricktober week 4.

Sell for $69.95 and pay maybe $15 in fees and under $1 per unit shipping to FBA gives you just under $25 in profit per item and $5 off a future transaction.

You could also do 3x City Advents for $72, where you lose the FO Gen but get more discount compared to retail but pay higher Amazon fees.  Pick your QFLL poison...

Edited by Sfcommando14
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1 hour ago, biking_tiger said:

Most of the work. Most of it. 

If I'm making those kind of slim margins, why not just plug my capital into JNJ stock or something and skim off the 3%? 

You have to spend a lot of time going around buying all of that stuff though.   Either way, it doesn't matter, and the FBM bashers can have their say, but FBM still works for me and if by the end of the year, I have a 50% return on investment (or higher, which will more than likely be the case) after all is said and done -  than amazon FBM remains a winner, and will produce a higher ROI than what my stocks have done this year.  In the end it's not always about quantity, but margins/time invested

Edited by fossilrock
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1 hour ago, fossilrock said:

I wouldn't get too hung up on this.  Seems like some are just retail arbitragers that buy things (beyond lego) at discount and flip it for profit.  That's a way different game, than holding sets well for the long term and then selling it at a much larger time period.

Yeah Your absolutely right,  Now Let me go mow my neighbors lawn for $35.   

So if I do 5 a day.........hmmmmm

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I'm a FBM seller. I've used the FBA calculator and every time,even at a higher FBA Sale price, FBM wins for me. Packing, labeling, and shipping cost to Amazon. Then all the misc. fees. During holidays I do fairly well, happy with my profit.

It is much easier to list on Amazon over ebay except for the fact you are more restricted on Amazon unless you get approved for certain categories. The template is right there for you.

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I'm fairly new (Less than 1 year) to collecting/reselling and was hoping to start selling on Amazon soon.  Reading all of this and researching info available on Amazon it sounds like I'm hosed and stuck with sites like Ebay.  Other than pay $1000 and convince Lego to give me a green light there is no way to get into Amazon at this point correct?

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2 minutes ago, BRIX23 said:

I'm fairly new (Less than 1 year) to collecting/reselling and was hoping to start selling on Amazon soon.  Reading all of this and researching info available on Amazon it sounds like I'm hosed and stuck with sites like Ebay.  Other than pay $1000 and convince Lego to give me a green light there is no way to get into Amazon at this point correct?

Correct for select brands 

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12 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

OK I have been offered to upgrade to a business account. Any downfalls to the additional selling metrics/requirements, if you're doing FBA?

Business accounts, to my knowledge have no down side. There are some annoying banners that pop up but besides that Amazon provides you some pretty awesome metrics of all the items you purchased.

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just got email from amazon. its not even like before :) its plain cut and paste.

at least in the past they used to include your metrics.[not that makes a difference ].. lol this time its not even there 

 

=======================================================================================

r.html?C=J3D8BBXV6D9V&K=A34Z1DL5GE0EXF&R=1HXKSNB7MBEZX&T=O&U=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FG%2F01%2Fnav%2Ftransp.gif&A=LL35H71VFFPHTZIXIHQ8LKUHKVGA&H=P57RDZKB1QRURRAOML5BXBJT7ZMA&ref_=pe_2452910_209469870_opensHello from Amazon Services, 

We are writing to let you know that your seller account currently meets the following Holiday Selling Guidelines for the Toys & Games store this holiday season: 

  • Your first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to September 19 of the current year and need not be specific to Toys & Games store.
  • You must have processed and shipped at least 25 orders between September 1 and October 31 of the current year and the orders need not be specific to Toys & Games store.
  • Your short term order defect rate must be no greater than 1% as of November 1 of the current year. 
  • Your pre-fulfillment cancel rate must be no greater than 1.75% between October 1 and October 31 of the current year. 
  • Your late shipment rate must be no greater than 4% between October 1 and October 31 of the current year. 

 

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3 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

just got email from amazon. its not even like before :) its plain cut and paste.

at least in the past they used to include your metrics.[not that makes a difference ].. lol this time its not even there

 

Yep, received mine today, along with a 10188 return.  Well, poopy...

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