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When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

My parents are immigrants from Haiti (which is why i use the Haiti tag... im actually in america)

They worked their asses off and made a brick and mortar beauty supplies store and centered their life around it. Me being the tech savvy person i was I created an amazon account for them and within a year business online absolutely eclipsed business in store. We were making absolute bank and by 15 I basically ran the entire online portion of amazon solo, handling sales, customer service, etc. with average about 50-70 sold items a day.

My parents were paying me to do this work but it was an ass ton of work ontop of school and basically no social life. then one day i decided "hmmm why don't i make my own amazon account. selling things that i want (not beauty supplies and wigs and ****... things i like... electronics)"

Nearly destroyed my parents lives by doing this. At first it was good. I had a good idea for games, cameras, small dvd players and such and my parents supported me taking me to pawn shops and other outlets to buy **** cheap... but then i got greedy... i started flipping. Selling items i didn't have by saying i had them then just purchasing them else where (ebay, goodwill, pawn shops) and i was making more money any 16 yo had any business realistically needing to (i felt like richy rich man)

I stopped helping my parents alot with their business in favor of handling my own and they actually supported me. But i got to big headed. everytime i sold something and just felt that i couldn't or shouldn't fulfill the order i would just cancel. Easy. Sell a dvd player for 50 dollars and i can't find it cheap on ebay just cancel. I would rather take the lost sale then risking negative income incase something happened during that sale. Flipping was a risk enough within itself i thought. But those cancellations stacked and stacked. until one day, Amazon cut me off.

I was pretty devastated and didn't really know what to do. I got my last paycheck from them and then basically deleted the site from my computer and deleted the app from my phone. Can't sell there then why bother.
It wasn't until a few months later that a much bigger problem arose... My parents Amazon for the store also got kicked as well. When we read the email it was because the account was associated with mine!!!

We're talking over 100k of yearly sales just ended one day and my parents weren't ready for that. They were talking of expanding. making a new store and maybe me and my sister managing it. To know talking about maybe having to sell the store and get regular jobs. All because of my **** mistakes and not giving a **** about my account.

Don't know why i had the urge to type all this out. I'm a grown man now but my family's life really took a weird turn after that. My parents still have the store but its a shadow of what it once was. Before my parents were talking about keeping the house in the family but ultimately had to sell the house eventually and just live in an apartment and are planning to move back to haiti. They still can't sell the store. We've put more than a decades worth of work into it and i don't think they just can let it go. I helped move them over to ebay but traffic is NOT the same. I guess im still in search of those glory days selling on amazon as a teen since im here and still selling on ebay and just bought amazon ghost. Back then I legit thought I could make a living selling online. I genuinely loved it, the posting, the shipping, the conversing with customers, the nice feeling when your rating goes up. But 16 year old me ****ed everything up for everyone.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to type this out :D
I'm 24 now.

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

sorry to hear that,but I think your parents should be able to get back on AMZN.
how about your sibling or your parents opening an account?
The easy money is gone,long time ago,but there is still money to be made.
I used to rip pages from a book and some pages got bidded up to over $100,of course you have to know which book?
A stone pendant which cost me 75 cents was bidded up to $80 because it is green in color?
I am sure some of you have similar stories to tell-the good old days

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

Cool story bro.

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

For some reasons,drop shipping just do not end well,I rarely do dropshipping,in my early days I thought I would try-
once I sold a heavy bronze figurine to Hawaii,and my supplier shipped UPS,another time my supplier shipped a 6 ft tall 4panel lacquer screen ,not the exact one I sold but similar by truck,my buyer complained and want to return it,finally decided to keep it.
I know in early days of Ebay,many were selling camera,scanner,pc,laptop etc relying on the same dropshippers which are just disorganised and often run out of stock,back then Paypal allows buyer to file item not received in 5-7 days,by the time the vendors shipped the $1k laptop,the buyer has his money and the laptop free.
Now we see many relying on AMZN,COSTCO,WMT,Jet.com ,the markup is just not that much,I hope they are making decent profit

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

You can definitely get back on Amazon, as Agent said, the days of easy money is gone and but you can definitely still sell on Amazon.

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

You have it made so far

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

I doubt if his parents re open the beauty supply shop on AMZN,they will do as well,there must be zillions of sellers selling beauty supply on AMZN,some could be wholesalers and distributors whom his parents buy from.
I sell books on AMZN,many who work in that industry lost their jobs and start selling whatever they can get from their bankrupt employers,how can I compete with them?

Re: When I was a teen i destroyed my parents Amazon Account and got them banned...
 

you cant compete with your wholesaler,if it costs 1 dollar,they charge me 2 dollars,
they can sell at 2 and make money,
I will lose money if I sell at 2 ,after paying fees!
Many years ago,I went to a local tradeshow and found a vendor ,he was selling high end stuff,but he brought along some cheap ones for quick sale just to offset some of his travel expenses.
I bought a few from him and came home and sold them on Ebay.
From then on,it is a beautiful relationship between retailer and his wholesale supplier,my order went from a few to a few hundreds,it went on for 18 years! from $50 cash to a few thousand dollars per order,I have a steady source of income and build up my feedback and he has an outlet to rid his junk.
Now someone in his family is selling online,on Ebay asking half of what I am asking and charging a penny less in shipping !!! His pictures are terrible and his description is non existant.
but it does not matter,buyers see the pictures and like his asking price.
So now I decide I am liquidating my inventory and getting out of selling in that category for good.
When ecommerce first caught on,Rupert Murdoch said it is bad for retailer,as supplier,wholesaler,weekend warriors will all be selling and selling for less.
add me to the casualty list,it is time to retire.
And this is somthing a wholesaler may reflect on some day,instead of a good retail customer,now he has a family kid selling his merchandise,is that a good tradeoff?