Hi all, I’m new here someone on the seller central forum told me about this place.
I’ve been selling books, cd and dvds on amazon for the past few years.
I’ve always been wary of doing general arbitrage(grocery, makeup, toys etc.) due to the stories of others getting their accounts banned.
I’ve seen videos of people sourcing items via ebay and in stores to resell on amazon.
Is it only items listed “New” that require an LOA? Is there a link to information that clarifies all this or could someone clarify for me?
I keep on seeing others on the seller central forum saying your going to get banned, and that amazon is finally coming down on these sellers where-as they didn’t previously, then again I feel as if those same kinds of people are the ones who told me books are an oversaturated market and there’s no profit to be made.
In theory, yes only items listed as new require invoices and/or loa’s. Every once in a while Amazon does something stupid and will ask for an invoice or loa for a used items.
You also have to be smart and not drawl attention to yourself by listing “hands off” brands like Apple or Nike.
The videos you are seeing are so the people posting the videos can make money, off of the video views. Yes, there are some grandfathered accounts that can get away with a lot more, but if your new you need to “live the code” so to speak. You should be able to recite Amazon policy.
So to be clear, I can sell items that are used without an LOA so long as they aren’t major brands or I know they are safe to sell with an invoice like Lego?
In regards to selling “New” and what to stay away from I’ve seen people advise a combination of dips in offer count suggesting sellers have been removed from listings and IP alert extension as well as not having just a 1-3 sellers on the listing one of which is the brand name of said item on listing.
Apologies if this is said in ignorance, it just feels like amazon obfuscates their policies and some people end up doing well using OA as well as local sourcing and listing said items at a markup on amazon.
Is the idea that these sellers are eventually going to be caught out and it’s better to just do wholesale with an LOA from said companies?
I do pretty well on books, dvds and cd I just cant help but feel I’m missing out over an irrational fear/misunderstanding of what I should and shouldn’t do.
Legally speaking, the first sale doctrine says you have the right to resell an item. That right however does not extend to selling on a privately run platform.
If you have any problems with the items you’re selling that result in Amazon asking for invoices or an LOA, there’s still going to be a problem if you don’t have those documents, even if you’re correctly marking the products as used.
Ultimately selling anything on Amazon involves some amount of risk. Used items are generally higher risk now due to policy changes over the past few years that eliminated using receipts as proof of authenticity, and the new LOA requirements on some appeals.
There’s certain things that can trigger these document requests:
Customer complaints
High NCX rate/other problem rate
Rights owner complaints
Bots flagging your listing (and this can be unpredictable)
Ok, good to know. I think I’m going to stick books, CDs and DVDs. Maybe I’ll branch out into wholesale later.
From what you said general arb sounds like a game of people trying not to get caught reselling without invoices and loas.
Out of curiosity, I’ve not often been prompted for an LOA when I’m gated in a brand. I’m assuming generally this is something they ask for after a complaint/issue has arisen and that the invoices need to at least come from a reputable distributer for said brand, not someplace like Ebay or for that matter other third-party sellers on Amazon.
I think Amazon’s documentation requirements for used items aren’t reasonable, but it is what it is and Amazon gets to dictate the rules here. A lot of people still do RA and are successful at avoiding problems, but there’s also plenty of complaints on the seller forums from RAs saying that they’re having problems because they don’t have an acceptable invoice/LOA.
I also don’t know where IP-alert gets their data from (I’m assuming it’s crowdsourced), but they certainly do not have access to every IP complaint filed so relying on their “all clear” is dubious at best.
Yeah, I’m not going to risk my income from books etc.
I think wholesale is the way, if I wish to give some breadth to what I’m selling categorically. It does seem like a race to the bottom though, not sure how long you could stay on a listing without competition issues driving prices down with the influx of new sellers.
I really appreciate the help and clarifications given here.
I cut tons and tons of products the past few years due to profitability problems.
If you want to diversify your business that’s great, but I would caution against diversifying for the sake of diversifying. Remember that going into unfamiliar waters means you will lose money on mistakes, so whatever return you’re hoping to get needs to be high enough to pay for that as well as the time spent.
If books are working for you, and you know books, you’d probably make more money by trying to expand your book business than go into an unfamiliar category.
It depends on what you sell. The more freely available something is for you, the more freely available it is to everyone else as well, and you can expect a lot of competition for any profitable item. If you are selling something that not everyone else can get, you will have less competition for that listing, and the other sellers are more likely to be businesses uninterested in penny profits. The more restrictive brands we sell are usually the more profitable.
This is a better business model in every way if you are serious about running an ecommerce business. Getting your foot in the door takes some work, but won’t result in your Amazon account getting shut down overnight.
Can’t disagree with this anything you’ve said, all very good points. I guess to some degree I wanted to diversify not so much just to diversify, but to gain new skills. It would likely be better to instead increase depth of knowledge and skills within books dvds etc. instead of breadth by adding other categories to sell.
I may see if I can get in on some local brand and just start with one product and see how it goes. I’m out of Austin, TX so there has to be some profitable brand unique to here, I would think.
I will say I think GGX convinced me I should likely just go deeper on what’s working for me books, dvds and cds instead of just spreading myself thin with wholesale.
Books are likely to work very well for you in Austin, but they are a lot of work, much more work than buying crap on Alibaba.
If you have a nose for books, good sources, enjoy the trade and do the numbers, you can do well. I don’t recommend bookselling for beginners these days, but if you are already into it and books are not just widgets to you, press on and learn something new every day.
It is not true that only items listed as NEW require LOAs.
Amazon has pulled listings in the Collectibles and Fine Arts categories for Suspected IP infringement. No items in those categories are NEW.
Reinstatement of the listings is darn near impossible.
Any category in any condition is a potential problem, if the brand becomes a target.
The best advice I can provide is not to take risks unless the products hold the potential for significant return on your investment.
Yesterday, I received a notification of geographical limitation of a collectible A paper cigarette pack label. They claim it is banned as smoking paraphenalia in 6 states.
I am going to repeat my take on what to sell on Amazon. Box In/Box Out, In Production, Brand NEW product purchased wholesale from the manufacturer or the manufacturer’s wholesale distributor.
NO RA, No Collectibles, No Books, CDs, DVDs BluRays, No Used anything, unless you are part of the authorized supply chain for the NEW products.
With my Amazon listings on a prolonged vacation, the major contact I get from Amazon is Policy Notifications prohibiting the sale of items.
I disagree about selling books on Amazon. I sell on several venues, and Amazon yields more sales than the others, still.
“I am going to repeat my take on what to sell on Amazon. Box In/Box Out, In Production, Brand NEW product purchased wholesale from the manufacturer or the manufacturer’s wholesale distributor.”
I disagree. Who among us can compete with Amazon itself when buying from wholesalers/distributors?
Books are niche products, often printed in small numbers, that go out of print fairly quickly, but can be very useful to some buyers years after publication.
I think books are fine for existing booksellers. For a new booksellers I been hearing that all publishers are gated so they basically aren’t allowed to list anything.
In fact, it seems like Amazon kinda sucks for new sellers in general at this point. If you don’t know how to play the game trying to learn when everything’s saturated and highly competitive is very tough.
I have been selling mostly books on Amazon for just over 20 years, and on other sites years before that (eBay, half.com, Abebooks.com etc.) and I would not recommend selling books online to new sellers now.
The OP is not new at bookselling and also lives in an area that should be rich in book mines. I have encouraged him to up his game in bookselling and perhaps only consider wholesale purchases of non-book items when the numbers work out well.
Perhaps we should ask at least part of this thread be moved to the booksellers area so as not to bore other sellers here.