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Just saw another thread on Reddit that more highly rated sellers with longstanding accounts are getting gated in textbooks (the lifeblood of many sellers, myself one time included). This is another in a long string of recent category restrictions for small Amazon sellers. With Half.com closing down, the outlet for flippers (especially in books) is restricting. If you are selling high volumes on Amazon, I would begin working on a backup plan, or have a key to the gate.
On another note, this may free up some opportunities for books. For me, working full time, I just can’t put the time in for books since each needs to be scanned. Almost everything else I purchase I roughly know the price I can get or the price is so low I can take a chance. I cannot do that with books since an overwhelming majority of books in the wild are penny books.
I wonder if eBay will (or already has in the works) something to compensate for the loss of Half.com? If the gating of textbooks expands to nearly all small sellers (and/or more book categories are added) there will be a ripe opportunity for eBay to capitalize.
Joshua
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So sellers knows/imagine what Amazon reasoning is for gating more categories? Are they just getting out of the business of dealing with home sellers?
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From the discussions I have seen the reasonings are rather vague if any are given at all. I think some sellers have assumed it’s due to misrepresentations of merchandise when listed for sale (whether it be condition, specifics, or missing items, etc). It certainly looks like they are pushing out the home seller. I guess that will be a boon for the really big flippers…for a while.
I can’t see how this is good in anyway for Amazon and especially customers. I buy very little on Amazon these days. I HATE HATE HATE how the search display works, cannot view the highest rated whatever with the most purchases etc, it’s one or the other, the prices are high, there is not good visibility on the used section, and more. It all feels like it was designed in the early 2000’s and never updated. On the other hand, eBay is great for searching. You can get as granular as you want and see actual descriptions of the items with photos. Stock is fine for new items, but that is it.
In my opinion, the ONLY thing Amazon has going for it is the fast shipping turnaround and that costs you $100 a year. While you do get other benefits for that amount, I am constantly questioning if it is worth it. I watch the Prime service once every couple of months, so maybe that answers my question.
It will be interesting how this affects ebay in the coming months. Will there be a rush of new stores and inventory moving in from Amazon? Will the casual to semi-serious FBA’ers just pack it in a quit instead of dealing with eBay? How will eBay react with less competition? This will kill a lot of the RA game (think retailers might be behind some of this??). Personally, I don’t think this will really affect me because I don’t sell much I would send to Amazon anyway. I don’t do books, RA, CD’s, DVD’s. etc.
Joshua
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I’m an Amazon textbook seller, and the restrictions haven’t hit me at all yet (fingers crossed). They are mostly on new books and the really popular high-priced books. There are a lot of fakes coming in from India and China and Amazon is cracking down on them. I do believe the Amazon train is derailing, though. They are doing everything possible to force us out or into wholesale, and most manufacturers won’t take companies like us or refuse to let us sell on Amazon if they do.
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I have not seen any curtailment either beyond a few textbooks here and there that are very new that are gated.
As a backup, you can see who is able to list those and try to form a consignment relationship. I don’t know if you could maybe back door in somehow with Abebooks. Several years ago, that was a possibility
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