Selling through Amazon FBA

[Bold-Arrow]

Where have you seen that?

If they're tightening standards, they are tightening them very severely since there is no way that those sets would have been dinged in years past.

make a shipment and add an exclusive . It will tell u prep required. The tightening was on several blogs I read . 

[Bold-Arrow]

So do I eat the cost? Just trying to weigh the cost/benefit of continuing through FBA.

it depends, not all are damaged in transit . One of mine was marked as defective . Mofo took the figs out and returned it ( not a Lego) . If is the customer does send it back and it is marked as customer damaged or defective u recall and evaluate . If it is marked as reimbursed u are good . 

[redcell]

make a shipment and add an exclusive . It will tell u prep required. The tightening was on several blogs I read . 

Interesting, I just set up a shipping plan two days ago that included a bunch of exclusives and didn't get that message.  I suppose I'll find out in a few days if I get hit with an unplanned prep fee.

[asharerin]

I have only seen it on 10188. I have a feeling a seller edited the listing and either intentionally or accidentally described it as sharp or fragile, thus prompting the bubble wrap in the prep guidance. If you see it click on the "investigate" button and they will correct it in time. I send all my exclusives wrapped anyway so can;t comment on if they ding you at all for not following the erroneous guidance.

[redcell]

I have only seen it on 10188. I have a feeling a seller edited the listing and either intentionally or accidentally described it as sharp or fragile, thus prompting the bubble wrap in the prep guidance. If you see it click on the "investigate" button and they will correct it in time. I send all my exclusives wrapped anyway so can;t comment on if they ding you at all for not following the erroneous guidance.

The sets that were unfulfillable were small sets, not exclusives.  This is the first time that I've sent any exclusives in to FBA.  I typically fulfill those myself, but prices on the recently-retired ones haven't risen as much as those that retired int he past and the shipping would really start killing the deals if I fulfilled myself.

[asharerin]

The sets that were unfulfillable were small sets, not exclusives.  This is the first time that I've sent any exclusives in to FBA.  I typically fulfill those myself, but prices on the recently-retired ones haven't risen as much as those that retired int he past and the shipping would really start killing the deals if I fulfilled myself.

Did you ship the distributor damaged items using amazon's partner shipping? If so I would contact seller support and request reimbursement as you should be covered.

[Darth_Raichu]

I was looking into selling via Amzn FBM for this holiday and saw the qualifier: "Your first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to September 18, 2015" Doh.  
Now I need to decide if I want to do FBA

So the question is, for unsold time sensitive items like advent calendars, is it more economical to keep paying storage cost for another 10 months to see what happens next year or ship them back for 9 months or fire sale ?

 

[Bold-Arrow]

I would go with fire sale. Long term storage fees are brutal and only getting worse . 

[redcell]

I was looking into selling via Amzn FBM for this holiday and saw the qualifier: "Your first sale on Amazon.com must be prior to September 18, 2015" Doh.  
Now I need to decide if I want to do FBA

So the question is, for unsold time sensitive items like advent calendars, is it more economical to keep paying storage cost for another 10 months to see what happens next year or ship them back for 9 months or fire sale ?

 

No, Amazon has instituted long term storage fees that are prohibitive and designed to prevent sellers from using their fulfillment centers as storage warehouses.  You'll either need to pull the inventory out before those fees kick in or lower your price to sell them.

[pcaster]

Just did a shipment today that included TH, HH, and EEE.  No prep required... 

Edited October 8, 2015 by pcaster

[Bold-Arrow]

Just did a shipment today that included TH, HH, and EEE.  No prep required... 

thanks for the update . I had DS in my shipment, guess I took as a general rule . 

[belljohn]

So you guys trust FBA with your large exclusives?  So far I have everything but those in FBA.  Do you ship them with the FBA sticker right on the box or wrap them in plastic and sticker the plastic?

Also, I have my first lost item as confirmed by my reconciliation report.  The help pages say to wait 30 days for a credit.  Is it best to wait and see?

[redcell]

Also, I have my first lost item as confirmed by my reconciliation report.  The help pages say to wait 30 days for a credit.  Is it best to wait and see?

If you've submitted it for investigation, there's no much else you can do.

[pcaster]

So you guys trust FBA with your large exclusives?  So far I have everything but those in FBA.  Do you ship them with the FBA sticker right on the box or wrap them in plastic and sticker the plastic?

Also, I have my first lost item as confirmed by my reconciliation report.  The help pages say to wait 30 days for a credit.  Is it best to wait and see?

I treat them the same as all of my other inventory - with care and in like new condition with a very cleanly printed and placed label over the UPC.  Exclusives are the reason that I do labeled inventory, otherwise I'd just do commingled.  If someone returns my inventory it certainly won't be due to the condition when it left my control.  I've had one return, which was for an SSD that I had shipped back to me and was still in great condition.  Maybe I've just been lucky, but inevitably I'm sure I'll end up eating the cost of a return at some point.

Frankly I wish Amazon wouldn't allow things to be wrapped/boxed where condition can be hidden.  I've received some FBA sets in horrible shape but the warehouse would never have been able to detect it because it was prepackaged.

I've never had an issue with getting reimbursed for an Amazon created issue.  The two most common are inventory that never gets checked-in and lost/misplaced/damaged in warehouse, and eventually (30-45 days) things are always resolved.  It does occasionally take a note to seller support to nudge the process along.

 

 

[Jackson]

Here's some more FBA fun.  A non-LEGO product I've been selling for a while became inexplicably unfulfillable.  I emailed Seller Support to ask why and got the response below.  Yeah, okay, Amazon.  I'm sure the six pages of other FBA sellers on the same listing all provided proof that they are "authorized" resellers.

 

"Our research shows this product has been restricted to be offered by approved sellers. There are occasions in which either Amazon, the vendor or both, decide to restrict the sale of hot selling items, partially or completely. This specific product has been restricted in all conditions (new, used, refurbished, etc) and we do not have a date for release.

The reason is that based on inconsistencies with the product detail pages for some items, we are enacting listing restrictions to preserve customer trust in the Amazon platform. I understand this is not answer you may have expected from us, but we at Seller Support do not have the authority to override this decision. Please note that you may continue to sell all other non-restricted items, as this situation is not related to your account or seller status, but a business decision.

To become an authorized seller please follow the steps bellow:
1-Get in touch with the manufacturer and request a letter authorizing you as a reseller/distributor.
2-Once you have that document you will need to contact [email protected] and explain that you are interested in selling this restricted product."

[asharerin]

Here's some more FBA fun.  A non-LEGO product I've been selling for a while became inexplicably unfulfillable.  I emailed Seller Support to ask why and got the response below.  Yeah, okay, Amazon.  I'm sure the six pages of other FBA sellers on the same listing all provided proof that they are "authorized" resellers.

This is happening with more and more products on Amazon. Won't be surprised when the day comes Lego contacts Amazon and asks them to only allow authorized sellers to sell their product on the platform. Don't put all of your eggs in any one platform.

[Jackson]

More fun.  A listing that I created on Amazon has been running smoothly for many months.  Another seller just changed the picture to a slightly different product.  Why is another seller even able to do that?  Amazon, please stop being terrible.

[DadsAFOL]

More fun.  A listing that I created on Amazon has been running smoothly for many months.  Another seller just changed the picture to a slightly different product.  Why is another seller even able to do that?  Amazon, please stop being terrible.

Not much you can do because listings are shared. If it's your product you can sign up for Brand Registry which gives you authority to control the listing, but I expect you were adding someone else's product. If the change was material you can change it back and open a support request with justification on why it needs to be the original.

[Jackson]

Not much you can do because listings are shared. If it's your product you can sign up for Brand Registry which gives you authority to control the listing, but I expect you were adding someone else's product. If the change was material you can change it back and open a support request with justification on why it needs to be the original.

Whaaaa?  Adding someone else's product?  No.  It was just some b-hole who wanted to change the picture to suit himself.  No problem, though.  I just created a new listing, on which I'm the only seller now.

[DadsAFOL]

Whaaaa?  Adding someone else's product?  No.  It was just some b-hole who wanted to change the picture to suit himself.  No problem, though.  I just created a new listing, on which I'm the only seller now.

Don't be surprised when Amazon merges them. This isn't eBay - listings aren't yours even if you create them.

[tacsniper]

More fun.  A listing that I created on Amazon has been running smoothly for many months.  Another seller just changed the picture to a slightly different product.  Why is another seller even able to do that?  

Amazon product listing is like Wikipedia. Anyone can pretty much change it. Sometime for the good. Sometime for worse.  

[Kenxxx]

OK pros... help me understand my bill... I shipped a few "FBA replenish stock" shipments in early September... maybe 30 items altogether. To save on shipping I opted in for the "Inventory Placement Service".  Now looking at my statements I see multiple charges for "FBA Inventory Placement Service Fee" ... 09/16=$7.60, 09/18=$1.80, 09/18=$3.90, 09/22=$8.50... am I getting billed for shipping individual sets around the country?  I thought these charges might be related to individual FBA orders, but actually I had only one FBA order filled between 09/12 and 09/27.  What are these charges for?  I think FBA is costing me more than I thought.

... ok...now I see... I think each charge relates to a particular shipment sent in by me.  Does that sound right?  What threw me off was that the charges occur maybe 10-14 days after the shipment was received.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Kenxxx

[Achilles]

Just say NO to Inventory Placement - You will pay more because they charge you a fee per item. You want to just suck it up and deal with the automatic queues they give you, or choose the ship by case option. You are basically paying Amazon to send your stuff to different warehouses instead of doing it yourself in the initial phase.

 

 

[grackleflint]

It really depends on how many items you are sending in, their size (standard or non-standard) and how many boxes it will take to ship it all in. If you are sending a large enough quantity of stuff for 3+ boxes, then the Inventory Placement Service doesn't make a lot of sense since Amazon would tell you to send the stuff to 3-4 warehouses anyways.

For smaller (standard size) items, the charges are a lot less (I believe ~$0.50 each) so if you have a low quantity of small high dollar items, the IPS charge per item is sometimes worth it. For example, I once had ten $70 items to send in. If I don't use IPS, Amazon wants me to send it to 3 different warehouses so the total for three separate shipping charges is more than paying Amazon an extra $3.50 IPS charge on top of only one shipping charge.  I'll also make enough on the selling price to also justify an additional $0.50 charge. You just need to account for it.

It's tougher for large quantities of big sets because the IPS charges are more and you are limited to a maximum size box so you are going to have more boxes to ship in (i.e. a big IPS/shipping charge for just 2-3 sets). And the dimensional weight shipping charges for large sets start to add up.

You really need to put in some time and research (and trial and error) to find the right sweet spot in determining whether or not to use IPS based on what you want to send in. 

[Jackson]

Don't be surprised when Amazon merges them. This isn't eBay - listings aren't yours even if you create them.

The listings won't be merged because the products are different.