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I just realized something
 

Back when I had an old non-stealth seller's account, I had committed some (minor) offenses that had Amazon really taking close looks at me. I mean, I was under a high power magnifying glass at all times. I remember that despite the fact that I had an old account with over 300 positive feedback (100% positive), there were some software items I wasn't authorized to sell. I had sent emails to Amazon about this, and got back loads of gibberish, more or less. I find out now that I can sell anything I want, software-wise on Amazon. So the point is, even if you had an old, high-power account, piss off Amazon and they will secretly restrict your account and keep you from selling certain items.

It pays to have one extra stealth account that you slowly build up, keeping risky items off it, just so you can get fully approved for whatever category you specialize in. Unload those once-in-a-while, special items on that account, and the rest of the goods on your other stealth accounts.

hmmmm....very astute observation :thumb:

do you know which dept is responsible for authorizing Sellers to sell in the various categories?

Extra stealth account is a must because you never know when you will get booted.

Melissa,

there's a big honcho called the "category manager" who decides, based on his mood that day (probably closer to the truth than not) that a particular category will be restricted, and certain listings in an otherwise unrestricted category will be off-limits to unapproved sellers. I do not know if the same person makes decisions on the kind of restrictions I suffered with my old account. Logically, it would seem it's a mix of Seller Performance and the category manager working in cahoots.

obvious to me

It almost seems like someone who drank too much coffee one day then skipped the caffeine the next day lol

A mix of Seller Performance and another dept /person who handles category selling working together was my guess too.
I can sell only certain items in the Health and Beauty category and got some electrolysis kits recently.

If you haven't had run-ins with Seller Performance, it's probably a category-wide restriction and not an attack on your account alone. If you have had issues with them, however far in the past, it can still cause restrictions (yes, for years) with no way to lift the limits.

Nope, no issues at all that I am aware of

Reminds me of the type of restrictions they were hitting sellers with in the software category. For example, one favorite was that "top selling ASINs" (their term for Amazon's product ID system) was restricted to top-performing, big corporate sellers only. No, they didn't use those exact words, but when the only sellers of these popular products were 20 big-timers with 2500+ feedback, you get the idea pretty quickly.