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Getting involved with the big AMZ
 

Hello all,

Never had an amazon account to buy or sell from.

I know for a fact my product is cheaper than theirs will ever be and they do sell lots of what I do but I am at least £4-6£ cheaper.

I have some questions as I have heard horror stories:

- Limitations / reviews - how often and how harsh are these?
- What do they record for linking purposes? MAC address or just IP?
- How do you get your money out and can it get trapped like paypal?
- What other things do I need to look out for?

Any advice will be helpful as I need to get on here. getting good sales on eBay but will be better on amazon for sure.

Thanks

Limitations and reviews are better and worse than ebay. They're much easier to pass, sometimes, but when you fail, you're screwed forever. They have velocity limits much like ebay has seller limits. If you stay under the velocity limits, and under the tax reporting requirements, you're usually fine.

Unfortunately that means using many accounts to get good volume to stay under the radar...

It's a tad bit harder because they do track the MAC. So does google chceckout/adsense. You can switch out your wireless card, change the MAC, or even use a virtual machine or a VPS. I recently discovered VPS, and if you can get a decent one, they're pretty sweet.

Amazon pays out from itself, it doesn't use a 3rd party payment processor. Which is awesome. The bad news is they pay out every 14 days. :/
If you get put under a review, it's held for 30 days... if you fail, it's held for 90 more. Worst case scenario your money is locked up for 120 days, instead of 180 with paypal.

Other things, advice...
Don't do fulfillment by Amazon. Ever.
Take returns, always. Don't even argue. You don't have a choice.
Monitor your low price. I get into wars with competitors that keep lowering their prices by pennies. You're only getting sales if you have the low price! Or have enough feedback and rep to back up a higher price.

Good advice but mac addresses can't be tracked. I have several accounts all run off the same router/mac. Just make sure the ip is different. Also beware that amazon can and do keep your money sometimes. As in you never get it back. This tends to be more of a problem for those who are selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ tho.

For some reason I dont like ppl who state facts that they have no idea if its true or not..

How would you know what amazon gets their product for?

When it comes to amazon think of PP times 10. Instead of dealing with 2 companies you are only dealing with one, which in theory sounds easier but az is a total beast and makes ebay looks like childs play.

they link through anything and everything. If they even suspect you say goodbye.

athe first few months are the worst. If you survive those you should be good unless you are selling f akes

"Good advice but mac addresses can't be tracked." - false

It is true that your MAC is only seen by your ISP, however...
Java, flash and activex (among others) can be used to get your MAC.

Here's a good link I just found after a fast search on the matter -
Find MAC Address: Check My MAC Address Lookup | Get MAC Address Finder

I would think a normal person can't track the MAC as easily as one can an IP address.

Amazon has the power. So does Google.

If you open an email address from Amazon get they still track your IP? My images are disable with Gmail and I open two so far by mistake, for some reason I cannot see any cookies or anything from amazon. Maybe they just not as powerful as you think.

Does the email contain java? Or active x?

They can, and do, track the MAC from their website at amazon dot com.

Opening emails is fine. I read mine on my blackberry anyway, it saves a ton of time. You can switch gmail to make all emails text only so even hyper links are disabled. (that's how my blackberry functions, and that's also why I'll never get an iphone)

I'm a software engineer and from xp. I would say beacons are ways to track emails but Amazon probably only tracks you if you reply. I have check all folders and nothing on my iphone with ifile, I even did a terminal #C search and nothing thus far. The mac address, I cannot argue but it seems like they can if the engineers hack you with SQL injection or maybe sellercentral inserts some sort of code reading to make the machine run on your server other than that only the ISP. But there ways if you really want to know they just illegal ways. I still don't don't if they can track my machine with emails.

The track more things than PP - like browser fingerprinting for example. Only way to get money out is to BANK (or bank card kind of deal but some have caused issues).

The big deal here is that if they suspect some issues 1) buyers have A-to-Z claim which protects them and 2) Amazon can delete your account causing you BIG issues to get your money.

For some reason I don't like people that question me when I KNOW the facts are true.

I work for a company that supply them! Thanks for your input though.

Also, how is that legal for them to hold money FOREVER?

What sort of limitations do they do in the first few months?

Thanks

They only hold money forever when they nail you doing something illegal.

@Furious George

Your wisdom is getting better by the post.

Thank you for just saying users here whose funds are retained are doing something illegal.

Avoid a repeat of blanket stupidity again

Thanks. I pride myself on my intelligence.

I didn't say that.

Please avoid a repeat of addressing me in an in insulting way again.

What does this mean then?

That doesnt mean you get the same rate as amazon. I buy from 3 companies that supply amazon yet I still cant compete with them as I have to pay them a 15% fee on average.

So, unless you yourself actually sells something to amazon then you really dont know the "facts"

They - amazon
only - specific condition of
hold - not released, or available
money - currency. ya buy stuff with it
forever - no release date, not ever, no end in sight, until the end of time
when - as the time occurs
they - amazon
nail - catch, see, discover, suspect
you - the seller, person with funds being held
doing - performing an action
something - some+thing
illegal - not legal, committing a crime for instance
. this signifies the end of a sentence

I hope that helps.

I would like to add my 0.02.

First who in the heck do you think you are to come to a forum as a new member and call out one of the bosses like you do?

She does not need your intelligence level of help. Nor does many members here.

You calling out the person who pretty much runs things here or did you know that?

We have survived for years here because of the high level of intelligent people and without shoving what intelligence one has on others.

As a vet member here I am reading your post and dont like forward attitude you have and especially when you consistently rip other members here who happen to be also friends of mine.

I suggest you calm yourself down and treat people better. If you cannot take it and then dont give it.

You act as if you are superior in intelligence here and I can tell you that you are not even close to many members here.

Be a part of the community and be helpful to others and you will be fine.

Just dont be so darn rude and forward to our members and do not call out someone who puts a lot into this forum and knows her stuff.

Not my place to step in but I am sick of seeing post after post of you calling out a member and many friends of mine and they not defending themselves.

Chill with your utter intelligence, it should not be that hard.

I think that pretty much covers everything :clap:

That user obviously has some kind of issue with me, and it's annoying. I don't act in any manner that would make myself seem superior to anyone. I'm offering my advice and opinions. Take it or leave it.

Whether Greenbean is the admin, long standing member, or whatever, is of no consequence to me. I've followed the rules.

I treat everyone with the same amount of respect.
I've let her know I don't appreciate the insulting comments.

There are obviously a lot of people here with a lot of knowledge on the subject of ebay, paypal, and suspensions.