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Books on Amazon - Listing tips
 

So here is the nut I need cracked:

I've got some books that were listed on a banned account. I also have some books that have never been listed with amazon before. Even with a well-stealthed account, my guess is that Amazon will recognize that the chances of a new seller having the same constellation of books that were previously clustered together on a banned account - thus banning the new account they are listed on. In fact I have heard this very thing happens (really sucks if you bought the used book collection of a banned user and then try to sell them yourself - gotta love the seller-service at Amazon eh? - but I digress..)

I'm guessing the way to go about it would be slowly list the never-before-listed books, but then, at what rate do you think I could get away with mixing in previously listed books from a banned account? Were talking several hundred of both kinds of books, previously listed and fresh.

What I am getting at here is ...how savvy is the algorithm they use to scan for clusters of previously listed books by banned users? I really don't want to get stuck with these books as unsellable...


Cheers, VTbound :behindsofa:

Multiple stealth accounts listing a few each of the previously listed books mixed in with some of the new ones.

Buy why were you banned from selling books before? This is generally NOT a high-risk category unless you are selling collectible books, and that requires pre-approval.

My point is....

Were you slow to ship? Did you give bad customer service? Did you overstate the condition of the books?

The thing is, you need to solve whatever your problems were, or your account will not last no matter WHAT you list.

I forgot to let them know I had shipped books that I had shipped (dropped a bunch off at the post office on the way out of town for vacation) - everyone got their books but AZ thought I had not shipped them. This was back when that was a new policy. Also had some books bounce back due to USPS or buyer addy errors beyond my control. I had sold thousands of books with 99.9% feedback but still got the digital "talk to the hand".

Just list books you don't have at a way higher price then slip in the rest of them. But mix it up.

You need to get your act together if you sell.

Next vacation make sure everything is in order. 'Forget' is careless. You planned that vacation (unless it was for a quick dirty weekend) so dont forget your business.

Did you not think to double check a buyer address? Never forget how silly a buyer can be.... shipping address should equal billing address. ANy variation should be checked. Little extra work means a lot extra troubles :ranger:

dang! i wasnt even the one getting scolded and my arse is red!

text in orange would be my excuse. bad day gb? easy on the new guy. :laugh:

and op theres many ways around shippng errors. theres one that is fool proof!

gotta work at making it with this stuff...errors cost cash

I definitely made a mistake around not going back to AZ to tell them that I had indeed shipped the books on-time via their website.

The problem I have is that when I wrote back to explain to them that I had indeed gotten the books to the customers on time (which is what matters most here) they didn't even bother to read my reply and be reasonable. I had made amazon thousands of dollars in commission with an incredible feedback rate and excellent customer service and yet that was of no interest to them when determining whether or not to leave my account open.

In truth, customers were served well - my error rate was extremely low. I understand Amazon has their bottom line in #1 interest but there is a point at which that kind of ethos will gradually, overtime, work against them, including their bottom line, I suspect.

The anonymity with which they have structured their business model is the primary reason they feel justified in treating their sellers as they do. We can extol the 'virtue' of letting the bottom line rule every decision but, in the end, that business logic comes up short in my assessment of this enterprise as a whole. There is plenty of profit to be made for everyone without acting as they do.

I would have been happy with a personal 'get your act together' letter from GB rather than what appeared to be an auto-ban from Amazon based on unrealistic performance algorithms.

What is this fool-proof addy-check system? contact the buyer and double-checking before I ship?

Cheers, VTbound

if you buy shipping through amazon they know you shipped them to the provided addy that the buyer provides.

Im not sure but above it sounded like you shipped through your post office.