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Big ticket items
 

Have never sold on amazon. But really want to give it a try. Since its a new fresh start, I will use all real info. ideally I would like to setup an account and use it as long term as I can. Like the old days when eBay was easy to use, easy to get paid without grief....

My concern is the price tag. I have 3 specialty items I manufacture that range in price from $500 to $700 each

After reading through all the threads it seems they lock and/or review pretty automatically. Not a big deal at first, understandable and the cost of business. Not selling anything that is against rules or high risk or anything. But not $8 books...

Will I get the boot right away because of amounts?
Or stuck selling one a month for a very long time?
Will I have to expect to have to float the costs for several months while waiting to get paid? A month is one thing. Floating a few grand for 2 or 3 is just not feasible. I remember setting up CCnow a couple years ago and I had 10k out there for almost 60 days by the time it came back in. It hurt hard. I wont do it again.

I would like to sell a couple, ship, go through review and get paid. then 5 or 6 a month and get paid normal. Or even double that. A few years ago I was doing 15k-20k a month on ebay, hassle free and getting paid fast. It was painless and great money.

Is that even doable with amazon? I will jump through any security hoops they have, ship fast with tracking and basically run a tight ship. BUT - Will having $500-$700 items kill me out of the gate?

Cheers!

If you truly manufacture the item, and it is not a replica or knockoff of another branded item, you can submit your item to Amazon and explain your business, if you truly are legit as you say, you will have no problems as long as you can show your the owner/creator of said item.

I don't know if Amazon is operating under the same policies in Canada, but according to Amazon US, here's my suggestion to you:

Open your account and list your first item on the same day. In order to list it, you probably need to input your credit card info and verify with Amazon via a working phone number. You may also want to input your bank account info to get your payment on the same day since Amazon will not disburse funds to you within 14 days for the first time bank account update.

If you successfully sell your item before the first 14 days hits, ship the item first, you will get the fund later. If you sell it after the first 14 days, you can either manually request fund disbursement or wait for Amazon to swipes it to you at the end of payment cycle.

The important thing is not to sell more than 1 item in every 28 days. Let's say you open your account on 5/1 and you sell 1 item on 5/18, it's better not to list another one before 5/28. This is due to the nature that your item has high price and it will easily break the sales limit for a new seller.

When you go through a few months and make a few sales, try to provide decent service to your buyers and ask for feedback. Amazon will give you less issues if you have relatively good feedback for at least 10% of your items sold. You will be more solid to try increasing your monthly sales by then.

My suggestion if you want to keep a valid account for a long time:

Start with a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ account and practice how to use amazon. Do this with normal retail items. Amazon is very different than other ecommerce venues.

After you are good at it, stop using the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ account. Make a new account with your real info. Then sell your own unique items.

Reason I suggest this: if you are new to amazon, you WILL do something someday that will ruin a genuine account. If that happens, you would have to sell your real stuff under a phony account later.

Practice on a disposable login.

Some great input guys, thanks!

100% legit and all mine... I like this idea. Maybe contacting them before I list may help with short term troubles. maybe.. I could even point them to my website with my products as well. I know eBay could give a rats ass about such things, but maybe Amazon is dif.


I don't like the idea of basically one sale a month for a few months. But I guess if i started 6 months ago, today would be a better time :)

Another great idea. But I'm concerned I could end up causing myself problems later with the real account. Losing a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ account and starting more ⊗⊗⊗⊗ is one thing. But going from ⊗⊗⊗⊗ to real may hurt the real one down the road if I drop the ball.

Maybe because of the crap ebay and paypal started to do a couple years ago, to a perfectly good income, I may be overly worried.

I guess the question is: is Amazon as fast to just kill a ligit seller without any recourse as ebay? ebay killed a lot of legitimate sellers for next to no reason. Be nice if Amazon was more reasonable...

Sounds like Amazon is big on feedback, but the customers never leave it. catch 22

I do want to go into Amazon as educated as I can. Not knowing how easily it could all go south on ebay hurt. Some good hindsight is paramount this time...

I don't quite understand why you are concerned that practicing with a temporary account might hurt a genuine account that doesn't even exist yet.

Make the temporary account. Do not make the genuine account yet. Use the temporary. List regular product but not your unique creations. Explore the venue. Read the TOS etc. Observe the entire process from item listed until item delivered. Understand how the payment system works. Research the refund repercussions. Investigate the claims process. Ad nauseum.

Once you've pretty much got it figured out, discontinue using the temporary. Take a week off, have a beer or three. Go camping or something.

Come back, clean your cookies, flash, etc. Make a new windows user account. Change the MAC address in your router and in your network adapter. Make the genuine account. Configure all the settings. Fill out your profile details. Add your bank account (not the same account you used for the temporary). List your unique items. Enjoy life.

Vicelcro, you are right. It would be smart to fool around and get the feel of the system 1st for sure.

Thanks

vic is correct,
i wish i made stealth account first when i started selling on amazon

Ha! Same here 63 stealth accounts later:)

Out of those 63, how many are live?

First off if you are selling a New and UNIQUE item that you alone Manufacture you can do a lot more than the Normal Amazon/Ebay Seller.
1) File for a Copyright
2) Call Amazon/Ebay Tell them what you got, and that you have a Filed copyright
3) Tell Amazon/Ebay you want sell your item on their sites
4) tell them that you alone is the only authorized seller
5) Discuss the Terms of Your sellers account (Limits, Suspensions, Payment Holds, Fees, ece,ect)

You will wind up with Ebay and Amazon as your Partners, Protecting you. I wish I had such a product, I would NO DOUBT Know what to do with it.

If you Play your cards right and negotiate the right Deal you could make a Killing, and have 0 problems, Many, Many Companies started this way, like Rosetta Stone and Many more.

Thanks slapped. I will look into your tips for sure

The copyrighting may not be so easy I'm thinking. My knowledge of such an animal is limited for sure, but not sure the equipment I make is all that copyrightable. Maybe there is such a thing as a design copyright?

How far would you suspect I would get with all of the above without an actual copyright tag? I can add to your list a stand alone website selling the same products as well. That may carry a little weight maybe?

If a few hours on the phone with eBay and Amazon help protect accounts I'm all for it.

Thanks again for the input!
Cheers