Selling through Amazon FBA

[jbacunn]

49 minutes ago, smittypop2 said:

 

Rip em a new one. I always do. No one of significance ever reads it. It is cathartic in a way.

 

 

 

 

I'm afraid to leave any comment or feedback at all. I don't even want them to know I exist. 

[exciter1]

1 hour ago, jbacunn said:

I'm afraid to leave any comment or feedback at all. I don't even want them to know I exist. 

It’s a sad place to be when you pay someone thousands of dollars to treat you like crap.

[Loghamel]

Greetings,

Thank you for your interest in selling on Amazon.

Currently the product you want to sell does not raise Product Assurance concerns. Therefore, your ASIN has been approved by Product Assurance.

In addition, please be informed that your products are live on site, therefore, there are no actions required from our side.

We are sorry for any inconvenience encountered and we appreciate your patience and cooperation in this important matter.

Thanks
Amazon Product Assurance

 

Whew!  I was afraid my LEGO Gingerbread Houses were going to up and kill some unsuspecting teenager.  That's a relief.
 

[Loghamel]

Does anyone know if this document would suffice for their requirements:

 

LEGO GB Compliance.pdf

[brickology101]

Does anyone know if this document would suffice for their requirements:
 
LEGO GB Compliance.pdf

No, it is not sufficient. click on the link from the email, then click on the link for the listing of concern in Amazon.com, then select “no” in that your are not appealing. Then at that point you will see two document requests appearing; the full lab test report and the CPC form which is what you have. The full test report is the problem. Lego does not share full lab test reports with the general public. Anyway this whole thing is BS. I am down to 2 compliance requirement by email from 31 before and when I click on the link from the email it brings me to a table where there is no listing. So ?

[SpaceFan9]

New levels of fun starting up on May 4th for FBM sellers:

 

[Bricklectic]

How considerate! 

That rush was always super stressful on me.

[Dark Helmet]

11 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

How considerate! 

That rush was always super stressful on me.

bwhwhaahah..

 

I guess we will see how long Amazon will take the hit with all of the SAFET claims. If Amazon will pay for the cheating customers then I'm fine with it....... for now

[gmpirate]

I'm not big on FBM, so no big change for me, but I really don't like the fact that customers no longer need to return items in shipping boxes.  They can simply drop them off at the UPS store where they slap a label right on the packaging.  Amazon then gets the item, cuts out the shipping label, and then sends it back to us.  So now returns are automatically unsellable.  Love it.

[skinsfan0521]

I'll repeat what I said when Amazon came out with their most recent changes a month or so ago... I believe they're doing everything they can to try to push people to FBA. FBM used to have some advantages, but they're pretty much all gone now. The only one left is the storage fees, but those are very manageable imo. I'm selling like $40k/month in 2021 and my storage fees are under $100/month.

I can rarely ship something FBM for the same price as it would cost me to label it, ship to to Amazon, pay them storage fees, and pay their pick, pack & ship fees. It's almost always much more cost effective and less work to do FBA. So, with them removing all of the advantages that FBM had before related to returns, restocking fees, etc. I don't understand why anyone would FBM anymore.

[gmpirate]

1 minute ago, skinsfan0521 said:

I don't understand why anyone would FBM anymore.

The only advantage to me was being able to capture windows of opportunity when items go out of stock.  The length of time it takes for items to become available through FBA has become longer.  Almost two weeks ago I took a chance and sent some more Easter items in to a local warehouse (next day delivery) which stocks those particular items and they still have not become available to sell.  In years past I would send in waves of seasonal items because you never knew how many you can go through and you don't want to be stuck with stock on hand.  Now everything has to be sent in way ahead of time and hope you sent a good quantity.

[skinsfan0521]

19 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

The only advantage to me was being able to capture windows of opportunity when items go out of stock.  The length of time it takes for items to become available through FBA has become longer.  Almost two weeks ago I took a chance and sent some more Easter items in to a local warehouse (next day delivery) which stocks those particular items and they still have not become available to sell.  In years past I would send in waves of seasonal items because you never knew how many you can go through and you don't want to be stuck with stock on hand.  Now everything has to be sent in way ahead of time and hope you sent a good quantity.

True and that's a good point. If you have a limited window of opportunity, it would still make sense to FBM those items because you can command a premium when you have it and nobody else does. But, if you're FBM and someone else has it FBA and you're in a limited window, most of the time the buyer will choose FBA and Prime shipping. That's why, generally, I can get sales and the buy box selling FBA at a higher price than FBM. Customers prefer FBA.

[cobrakai]

1 hour ago, skinsfan0521 said:

I'll repeat what I said when Amazon came out with their most recent changes a month or so ago... I believe they're doing everything they can to try to push people to FBA. FBM used to have some advantages, but they're pretty much all gone now. The only one left is the storage fees, but those are very manageable imo. I'm selling like $40k/month in 2021 and my storage fees are under $100/month.

I can rarely ship something FBM for the same price as it would cost me to label it, ship to to Amazon, pay them storage fees, and pay their pick, pack & ship fees. It's almost always much more cost effective and less work to do FBA. So, with them removing all of the advantages that FBM had before related to returns, restocking fees, etc. I don't understand why anyone would FBM anymore.

I agree.  Certain items like Vintage Collection Star Wars figures are better to FBM because they will 100% damage them at FBA or ship in a bubble mailer.  

[brickology101]

I agree.  Certain items like Vintage Collection Star Wars figures are better to FBM because they will 100% damage them at FBA or ship in a bubble mailer.  

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I don’t FBM. The Amazon selling fee is lower with FBM than with FBA but of course Seller must pay for shipping. Often FBM also brings in a lower selling price so in the end the profit may not be better FBM versus FBA. However, with this covid crisis we are all in I saw very decent FBM selling prices and items were selling at these prices.

[cladner]

1 hour ago, skinsfan0521 said:

I'll repeat what I said when Amazon came out with their most recent changes a month or so ago... I believe they're doing everything they can to try to push people to FBA. FBM used to have some advantages, but they're pretty much all gone now. The only one left is the storage fees, but those are very manageable imo. I'm selling like $40k/month in 2021 and my storage fees are under $100/month.

I can rarely ship something FBM for the same price as it would cost me to label it, ship to to Amazon, pay them storage fees, and pay their pick, pack & ship fees. It's almost always much more cost effective and less work to do FBA. So, with them removing all of the advantages that FBM had before related to returns, restocking fees, etc. I don't understand why anyone would FBM anymore.

i did just over 30K in fbm sales this month on 428 sales. its a lot of work but manageable if you prepack the stuff you sell so that you don't get slammed.   i use zone specific shipping where i give free expedited shipping to my home zone only - east coast -  which is reachable using UPS ground or PRIORITY which is what i would normally send stuff anyway.  i price at the FBA buybox or 5 cents below and  because i am offering expedited shipping to the east coast, i am able  to quite effectively compete with in stock FBA price for buyers in that zone.  The surprising upside is that i get much much fewer margin killing west coast orders since they get the crappy regular delivery date shown to them.  i can have my entire inventory listed if i want  - thousands of skus with no storage fees being incurred.

the only thing that amazon could do to make selling FBM a pita would be to charge a fee to have a listing active.   i sent in my first batch of FBA since the small batch I did last june just to make sure i don't get gated. 

i get my money quicker with FBM.  someone buys something i print the label and ship it - the money is there.  i'm grandfathered in so i can get disbursements whenever.  orders almost never spend more than 5-15 minutes in pending status unlike FBA where it can be in pending for days.  

with FBM, my sales and cash flow are like a spigot that i can turn on or turn off.  with FBA its like  i sent a mission to mars and it has to land and get there first before i find out badly they screwed up the intake and then once we get through fc distribution blah blah it might finally show up for sale or might not and then it finally sells... it goes to pending status. 

its ton of work doing fbm making the boxes and dropping all this crap off but it is pretty lucrative.

[jeff_14]

I’m small scale ($2000 a month in sales) and in Canada so my experience might be different, but I was about to go FBA last year just before COVID and then when it hit, Amazon (as well as stores) was having so many problems while I was seeing orders go up like mad. Then I’d read about Amazon warehouses catching fire, about them losing sellers’ inventory, etc, plus there’s the constant complaints on Lego and star wars message boards about how Amazon crushes their packages or marks the toys with labels, etc, and I decided against it.
 

I’ve gotten some repeat buyers who now know how well shipped my packages will be, plus I’m typically only selling retired sets so I’m not in competition with Amazon proper on price. I have almost no returns so my only concern being FBM is if Amazon decides to do something that effectively shuts out third party sellers, like the safety certificate issue that pops up occasionally. I’ve never received one of those emails and wonder if it’s a USA only thing so far. 
 

This is just a side hobby to me that requires preparing and shipping a box once every 2-3 days on average so I find that very easy to manage. 

[skinsfan0521]

27 minutes ago, cladner said:

i did just over 30K in fbm sales this month on 428 sales. its a lot of work but manageable if you prepack the stuff you sell so that you don't get slammed.   i use zone specific shipping where i give free expedited shipping to my home zone only - east coast -  which is reachable using UPS ground or PRIORITY which is what i would normally send stuff anyway.  i price at the FBA buybox or 5 cents below and  because i am offering expedited shipping to the east coast, i am able  to quite effectively compete with in stock FBA price for buyers in that zone.  The surprising upside is that i get much much fewer margin killing west coast orders since they get the crappy regular delivery date shown to them.  i can have my entire inventory listed if i want  - thousands of skus with no storage fees being incurred.

the only thing that amazon could do to make selling FBM a pita would be to charge a fee to have a listing active.   i sent in my first batch of FBA since the small batch I did last june just to make sure i don't get gated. 

i get my money quicker with FBM.  someone buys something i print the label and ship it - the money is there.  i'm grandfathered in so i can get disbursements whenever.  orders almost never spend more than 5-15 minutes in pending status unlike FBA where it can be in pending for days.  

with FBM, my sales and cash flow are like a spigot that i can turn on or turn off.  with FBA its like  i sent a mission to mars and it has to land and get there first before i find out badly they screwed up the intake and then once we get through fc distribution blah blah it might finally show up for sale or might not and then it finally sells... it goes to pending status. 

its ton of work doing fbm making the boxes and dropping all this crap off but it is pretty lucrative.

You bring up some good points, but to me, it's all the packing and shipping individual orders for an additional couple points in margin that just isn't worth it to me. I like that my wife & I only need to spend like 4-8hrs twice a month packing shipments for FBA and very easily have consistent cash flow coming in. We both have full time jobs, hobbies, and love to travel (outside of a pandemic) so the limited amount of prep & ship time is a huge plus. Also, to me, the stuff you're talking about with zones and limiting the margin killing west coast buyers, etc. is a good strategy for you, but is a negative, not a positive. You've effectively limited your market and number of customers to your "free shipping" zone.

[Bricklectic]

Considering upgrading to professional plan from individual as I find myself exceeding inventory storage limits. Has anyone upgraded recently? It seems they now require documents. Seems like it will be a license or maybe utility bill but for us lego resellers, will that mean a possible request for invoices? I'm inclined to play it safe here without the comfort of some data points. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Bricklectic

[zmnnch]

For all FBA-ers, do you folks put the LEGO in a shipping box before sending them in? My line of question is how can we avoid Amazon imply put your technic and /or city set in a bubble mailer?

In terms of number, how many (or %) FBA return (you think) is due to LEGO-in-bubble-mailer or shipping label-on-LEGO box?

Not exactly related but i am FBM and return rate for LEGO has been (0.2% in Q1-Q3) and none of them are due to bad packaging.

Just a discussion.

[skinsfan0521]

4 minutes ago, zmnnch said:

For all FBA-ers, do you folks put the LEGO in a shipping box before sending them in? My line of question is how can we avoid Amazon imply put your technic and /or city set in a bubble mailer?

In terms of number, how many (or %) FBA return (you think) is due to LEGO-in-bubble-mailer or shipping label-on-LEGO box?

Not exactly related but i am FBM and return rate for LEGO has been (0.2% in Q1-Q3) and none of them are due to bad packaging.

Just a discussion.

I do not pack my items in shipping boxes before sending to Amazon. My returns are almost exclusively due to bubble mailer nonsense and the overall rate is something like 5%, but that's year-round and is for all of my sales, not just LEGO. But the same thing happens with dolls, action figures, and other toys. I don't think I've ever separated it out by quarter (although, it makes sense).

However, I consider that a cost of doing business and overall would be more expensive for me to buy boxes and packing material for each item. That's not even factoring in the amount of time that I would spend. I'm not interested in packing up every set individually and then sending them in. If I were to do that, I'd rather just FBM.

[cobrakai]

I suddenly have 4 "other policy violations" on my account for "Violation of Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy".  These are all toys and show the date next to them.  All of the dates are from weeks ago between Feb 3 and Mar 7th.  These were not on my account health screen this morning and I have no e-mails or performance notifications about them.  Anyone else?

[smittypop2]

21 hours ago, cobrakai said:

I suddenly have 4 "other policy violations" on my account for "Violation of Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy".  These are all toys and show the date next to them.  All of the dates are from weeks ago between Feb 3 and Mar 7th.  These were not on my account health screen this morning and I have no e-mails or performance notifications about them.  Anyone else?

I just checked and have 73 today. I had zero yesterday. They are from those dates up until items I have listed today. If this in some way compromises my Amazon account, then I will be part of whatever class action needs to happen. This is price fixing plain and simple. These are not necessary items like food, water, medical supplies, batteries, etc. I can price them however I want and customers can buy them or not. This is absolutely insane and I have to believe any legal challenge to this would undo it. I am sooooooo sick of how we have been treated the last 2 years between the FBA shutdown during covid, the loss of sfp, pricing errors and other bs designed to get rid of us. 

[cobrakai]

52 minutes ago, smittypop2 said:

I just checked and have 73 today. I had zero yesterday. They are from those dates up until items I have listed today. If this in some way compromises my Amazon account, then I will be part of whatever class action needs to happen. This is price fixing plain and simple. These are not necessary items like food, water, medical supplies, batteries, etc. I can price them however I want and customers can buy them or not. This is absolutely insane and I have to believe any legal challenge to this would undo it. I am sooooooo sick of how we have been treated the last 2 years between the FBA shutdown during covid, the loss of sfp, pricing errors and other bs designed to get rid of us. 

I guess it's a good thing that there are no performance notifications or e-mails about this and several violations show dates back in February.  You would think there would be an e-mail about it if they thought it was a serious violation.  My account health still shows "good" also.  If this starts causing suspensions and they treat price "gouging" on toys the same way they treat it with essential items like sanitizer, etc...then YIKES! This seems like another "bots gone wild" AI scenario that needs a human to review it.

[Bricklectic]

22 hours ago, cobrakai said:

I suddenly have 4 "other policy violations" on my account for "Violation of Amazon Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy".  These are all toys and show the date next to them.  All of the dates are from weeks ago between Feb 3 and Mar 7th.  These were not on my account health screen this morning and I have no e-mails or performance notifications about them.  Anyone else?

lego or other toys?

[cobrakai]

33 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

lego or other toys?

Mine were all action figures I think.  No Lego......yet.