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Yeah, I got that too. The daily funds transfer thing holds me back the most, I don’t need that and it’s just more work for me. I’m going to set up a separate checking account for that. Other than that I don’t have any problem with this. There is some kind of sign-up incentive going on through Sept if I recall the message correctly, have to check.
I saw a banner ad on my PayPal account to sell on Bonanza, I’m sure this is causing PayPal some pain but they are finding other income sources all the time.
Losing a pet is tough, for me dogs especially. https://www.rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm
I have had the “touch it and sell it” experience also, many times. I never thought of it as a superstition though.
Bling! It doesn’t use a lasso tool, but you can adjust the sensitivity of where it will cut the border. It won’t work as well with something that doesn’t have hard edges, and the lighting must be pretty good. I’ve used it long enough that I don’t really think of the settings. It takes 1-2 minutes per photo for me at the most.
I think you get a free 15-day trial to see if it works for your needs.
For removing background and simple touchup I use Bling! It, http://blingit.us/index.html. One time purchase price of $30, they have both a Windows and Mac version. Lightweight and fairly easy to learn. I also use Irfanview as a free photo editor. I have PhotoShop and Gimp but rarely need to load them.
I suspect most of the Youtubers are using FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and have no inventory in their possession and don’t need any employees.
You bring up a good point about brand owners clamping down, I think as a direct result of counterfeiting issues.
If they were already selling on Amazon they might still be running under the radar. This is not a viable plan for newbies, regardless of the YouTube videos that are still available. It might work for a while if they don’t get a request for invoices, or they might end up owning 25 food processors or whatever that they are trying to sell on eBay, Craig’s List or another venue. If they sent those product(s) to FBA, as many videos suggest, they are going to have to pay to ship them back.
As always, if it sounds too good to be true…
–Is retail arbitrage now dead at Amazon?
I’m sure it happens a lot and flies under the radar until Amazon reviews the account. Often this is triggered by a complaint about the condition, either by a buyer or a competitor (it can be cutthroat on Amazon).–Are guys still able to grab discounted items at Target and resell on Amazon?
Until caught.–What kind of items are you selling?
I sell NOS auto parts primarily. It’s a specific audience for the most part, generally more careful to make sure they get the right part for their vehicle.–How do you prove you’re an authorized seller of a certain item?
When that happens, only an invoice from the manufacturer or an authorized reseller is acceptable. Amazon will call to verify these. The only acceptable alteration to invoices is to block out the price paid. I’ve never been audited on this.It ain’t eBay, sellers who don’t understand the differences usually don’t last long, either suspended or quitting out of frustration. I sometimes wonder myself if it’s worth the hassle.
Another thing, negatives have become almost impossible to get removed except for a few specific narrow situations:
The feedback includes obscene language.
The feedback includes seller-specific personally identifiable information.
The entire feedback comment is a product review.Amazon is very strict on approving new seller accounts. Even though you may be able to complete the signup process, you might not be able to list anything right away, and you might get a request for additional information to prove you are legit, with your account suspended in the meantime. I see this situation posted daily in their seller forum. I believe their seller forum is viewable without signing up as a seller if you want to get a little backend view of daily drama, https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/c/selling-on-amazon/general-selling-questions
The Professional account ($39.99) offers a few more features and does not have the additional flat per-item sales charge over and above the percentage sales charge.
Some categories require additional approval to sell that type of item and might require an additional flat fee to become eligible. It’s not eBay, for sure, much stricter on seller performance and metrics requirements and less forgiving of mistakes. In general, they are more buyer-friendly than seller-friendly.
The typical scavenger-type items will not sell well there. For example, new in box is not New there unless you purchased from the manufacturer or an authorized reseller and have invoices — retail receipts are not acceptable to sell an item as new. They can be sold as used, with varying used conditions which are strict. Used doesn’t sell well since they are pretty much hidden on the product page.
I’ve been selling on Amazon for 8 years, eBay 10 years, Amazon varies between 30-40% of my total sales. They send me a direct deposit every 2 weeks.
You might have luck posting it to one of the local Facebook buying/selling groups. There are many of them and usually targeted to specific product types and geographic area. I subscribe to 2 groups for tools, which probably would work for this but you might want to check with the admin of that group first.
As with any face to face sale or purchase, use reasonable caution.
I’m wondering what the delivery speed is for Retail Ground compared to Parcel Select.
Just wondering, are you running into a dimensional rate situation for a large box?
It was interesting to hear that I could see orders that were sold using Promoted Listings, I didn’t know that. I took a look at my current list of orders awaiting payment and see that 6 of 13 were sold using PL. I have this on all my listings but since the listing now appears twice in eBay, with and without PL, only about half of the buyers are clicking the PL listing. It could be that some purchases were made with direct links from Google or other search engines, or even already watched.
When I searched those sold PL items on eBay (using brand and part number), where the listing is still up because I had more than 1 on the listing, sometimes the promoted listing was at the top of the page with my regular listing 2nd, but in 1 case the regular listing was 1st and my promoted listing was 10th and none of those above that listing were marked as Sponsored. In other cases, I see the exact same item at a higher price without PL listed above my promoted listing. That’s pretty crazy and I have to wonder if I am just feeding eBay extra fees.
All of these test searches were made with Best Match (promoted listings apparently don’t show if sorted by price).
I’m not sure yet what, if anything, this tells me about the value of using PL. For now, it’s filed in my brain under things that make me go hmmm.
