Selling through Amazon FBA

[Phil B]

11 minutes ago, asharerin said:

You have been given some very bad advice my friend. It as against amazon policy to create your "own" case packs. You may slide by a few times (or not) but eventually you will get banned. Case packs are only to be used for items that are case packed directly from the manufacturer (in the case of lego those boxes with the purple and black striping on the outside).

You said you wanted to ship 6 of one item to one warehouse? Easy. Make your shipping plan for one of the item so it has to go to one warehouse. After you create the shipping plan you can modify each item by up 6 units (so change the number to 6). This will allow you to send all 6 to one warehouse without breaking the rules.

My advice with amazon is don't try and bend the rules. They do not need 3P sellers at all, and they will not be taking on new, or keeping all existing, 3P sellers in the future either. Follow the rules, above all make THEIR customers happy no matter the cost, and long term Amazon will make your wallet very happy. 

 

7 minutes ago, biking_tiger said:

Agreed. From personal experience with digital publishing, Amazon will make you disappear in a wink if you break the rules. You cannot outsmart or out "game" Amazon. Follow the rules and find happiness.

Thanks guys, this is the kind of advice I was looking for. I was originally pretty sure case packs were "as supplied by manufacturer". Hence the original question mentioning the purple-and-black boxes. I had heard of the adjusting by up to 6 units parts but never figured out how to do it - your advice is very good. I'm definitely not looking to bend the rules.

[asharerin]

9 minutes ago, Phil B said:

 

I had heard of the adjusting by up to 6 units parts but never figured out how to do it

After you create the shipment, click work on shipment, then you will see section 1 "review shipment contents" with a grey "review and modify" clickable bar. Click that and adjust away.

[meganr]

Not really a question, just an observation. I just sent in 9 boxes with 90 items for FBA. Of course, they wanted me to send to 4 different places. The best part was they wanted me to send all of my oversize items to the same place. Luckily I was able to find a gigantic box (from a previous Amazon order) that actually fit all of the items.  I had to pay "dimensional weight charges", but it was better than sending two big boxes and paying dimensional weight for both of them. The oversize shipment was the only one I didn't have to break up into more than one box.

[Bold-Arrow]

Just make sure it doesn't exceed 50lbs 

[zskid00]

57 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Just make sure it doesn't exceed 50lbs 

I did not know that.  Thanks for posting.  I doubt I'll encounter that but I've had a couple boxes pushing 30 pounds I think.

[Bold-Arrow]

If it is over 50, it has to be a single sku and you have to provide some kind of warning that it requires team lift . If you - anyone- try to sneak one in a warning will follow .. Don't ask .. Lol 

[Achilles]

On 4/15/2016 at 9:52 AM, asharerin said:

You have been given some very bad advice my friend. It as against amazon policy to create your "own" case packs. You may slide by a few times (or not) but eventually you will get banned. Case packs are only to be used for items that are case packed directly from the manufacturer (in the case of lego those boxes with the purple and black striping on the outside).

You said you wanted to ship 6 of one item to one warehouse? Easy. Make your shipping plan for one of the item so it has to go to one warehouse. After you create the shipping plan you can modify each item by up 6 units (so change the number to 6). This will allow you to send all 6 to one warehouse without breaking the rules.

My advice with amazon is don't try and bend the rules. They do not need 3P sellers at all, and they will not be taking on new, or keeping all existing, 3P sellers in the future either. Follow the rules, above all make THEIR customers happy no matter the cost, and long term Amazon will make your wallet very happy. 

Honestly, I never knew this. I've been creating my own case packs for years and haven't heard a peep about it. I just looked it up, and of course you are right - I just wonder why they never complained to me. And on your 2nd point, - if you create shipments and then delete shipments with (now) 0 units in them - I HAVE gotten complained at for that before. So it works best if you have multiple units you can send to the different warehouses.

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Achilles

[Serejai]

On 4/15/2016 at 1:59 PM, Bold-Arrow said:

If it is over 50, it has to be a single sku and you have to provide some kind of warning that it requires team lift . If you - anyone- try to sneak one in a warning will follow .. Don't ask .. Lol 

I was so happy when I got a box to 50 lbs on the dot... only to get a warning from Amazon because UPS weighed it in at 50 lbs 1 ounce after I applied the shipping labels to it

[DadsAFOL]

Finally taking the FBA plunge. Only thing I was unsure of... Does UPS automatically get a pick up notice or do I have to request one?

[zak001]

Just now, DadsAFOL said:

Finally taking the FBA plunge. Only thing I was unsure of... Does UPS automatically get a pick up notice or do I have to request one?

You need to request a pickup directly from UPS unless you have a regular pickup (or a vehicle that can haul your stuff to a dropoff point). Depending on size and bulk I either drop shipments off in the course of my normal day or schedule a one-time pickup (which can be up to $10-15 if you live in a "remote" area). Worth it when they're getting half a dozen 24" cubed crates, not so much for a medium-sized tower of smaller packages. Even with the added pickup charge the low overall fulfillment cost and knock-on price increase effects make FBA worth it to me.

[exciter1]

I drop mine off at a UPS drop off.

[newbie77]

8 minutes ago, DadsAFOL said:

Finally taking the FBA plunge. Only thing I was unsure of... Does UPS automatically get a pick up notice or do I have to request one?

congratulations. watch out for your inventory and the way they disappear and re-appear.

reimbursement on losses . but again those are % wise very less hence its probably worth it. 

[Loghamel]

On 4/15/2016 at 0:57 PM, zskid00 said:

I did not know that.  Thanks for posting.  I doubt I'll encounter that but I've had a couple boxes pushing 30 pounds I think.

You can cheat on the size limit (25" on any one side) and get away with it.  But the weight is non-negotiable from what I've read.

[Bold-Arrow]

Customer return. No minifigs , broken pieces , open bags , ziplock bags . Amazon won't reimburse .. Escalated to sup. Fun stuff . 

[exciter1]

36 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Customer return. No minifigs , broken pieces , open bags , ziplock bags . Amazon won't reimburse .. Escalated to sup. Fun stuff . 

 

I had the same issue, great profit item, non-LEGO, returned, package opened, worked fine, no inside packaging, outer package taped shut.  Reason for return, "Non-working item".

No reimbursement...

[newbie77]

4 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Customer return. No minifigs , broken pieces , open bags , ziplock bags . Amazon won't reimburse .. Escalated to sup. Fun stuff . 

we should start blacklisting these bad apples somehow. 

[zskid00]

6 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

we should start blacklisting these bad apples somehow. 

You can't with Amazon.  Believe me, I wish we could.

[tacsniper]

5 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Customer return. No minifigs , broken pieces , open bags , ziplock bags . Amazon won't reimburse .. Escalated to sup. Fun stuff . 

This happened to me with a Wall-E set. Pieces missing, so I cant even build it myself. All I can do is dump it in a pile and use it as parts.

That's the risk we take for outsourcing storage, fulfillment and returns to a 3rd party. I accept that risk and don't mind customer returns. But at least be an honest person and return all pieces, open or not. At least let me build it as display or sell it as used. Holding back pieces makes them no different than the criminals I deal with everyday. Which is why I am hesitant to sell big retired sets on Amazon. Yes it may move faster vs kijiji locally, but maybe not worth it for sets that are $500+ to avoid this issue.

I applaud those that are brave enough to sell the UCS MF and the likes online. Especially the one going for $6500 via FBA. Anyone can easily buy it and swap it out with random knock off bricks... heck swap it out with a big stack of flyers and still get full refund by Amazon and nothing the seller can do about it.

I would like to order a container full of Lego from Amazon and return them with every single set and all the bags and dumb it all into one huge mega pile so it is unsellable to them. I am sure that boozo guy won't mind as long as I, the customer is happy.

Edited April 28, 2016 by tacsniper

[Bold-Arrow]

update on the case : got reimbursed.

As others mentioned, i do cap FBA times to ~$350

[Sfcommando14]

I'm a new FBA user and just had my first shipment put into inventory yesterday.  I've sold a couple items already (YAY!), but a bunch were reserved and marked "FC Processing".  Is that a common thing?  I know it lists a wide variety of potential reasons, but one of the items reserved is the same product as one of the ones I've sold.  I know some of you have years of experience with these matters, can any of you share some insight?  Thanks!

[Bold-Arrow]

Anything sold is put in reserve until it ships . Reserve can also mean re distribution among Amazon WH

[Sfcommando14]

4 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Anything sold is put in reserve until it ships . Reserve can also mean re distribution among Amazon WH

I pulled the report and 1 was marked as awaiting shipping.  None were marked for redistribution.  Four were labeled FC-Processing:

FC Processing – These units have been sidelined at the fulfillment center for additional processing, such as verification of item dimensions and weight or pending investigations.

[river41]

did anybody check out the huge increase in storage costs for nov-dec. If you have alot of inventory it will really bite.

[biking_tiger]

1 minute ago, river41 said:

did anybody check out the huge increase in storage costs for nov-dec. If you have alot of inventory it will really bite.

I'd just say Amazon is reminding us they are not a storage unit so they don't end up with a glut and "free inventory returns" like this year. 

[Achilles]

We saw the seeds of this the last couple of years, they really are having storage space issues - And moves like this are intended to help. THey WANT people to send stuff in in October, they just want to make sure it sells in November/December.

I don't think it will have a huge impact on me - I try to move most of my stuff during those months anyway. The 6 month instead of 12 month thing really moved that along.

But even though it costs more, I start sending in my holiday items in June, so I am not scrambling late and I make sure I have everything in. A little more in storage isn't crushing on the bottom line.