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Last Post:
Jan 8, 2009 6:04 PM
by: marsin2010
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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**Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T EBAY
Posted:
Jan 31, 2008 9:52 PM
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Amazon Rules EVERY New Seller Must Know (aka This Ain't Ebay)
Welcome to the River. THIS IS NOT EBAY. Learn the differences or your stay here will be VERY short—Amazon has little to no tolerance for errors made from ignorance of the rules and they don't believe in second chances.
1. It's now routine for Amazon to put new sellers on review and hold their funds 30-45 days until they are sure you sold and shipped what you listed. If you don't have a 60 day cash flow saved up, be wary about starting too quickly on Amazon. If you answer all Amazon inquiries with the 3P's (professional, polite and promptly) and have shipped what you sold in condition listed, you will get paid at the end of your review time. New Sellers should expect this review, esp. if selling in high risk areas (dvd's, cd's, videogames, electronics) or high dollar areas or are selling high volume right off the bat. Forewarned is forearmed. (this is not including the 2 week initial funds hold). Again—be prepared for a cash flow shortage of 60-90 days at the beginning. This is not an exaggeration.
2. Visit Seller Help and READ IT ALL Twice.
3. You CANNOT have multiple accounts. This includes anyone in your house, at your address, on your bank account, on your credit card, or sharing your computer. Having multiple accounts is the fastest want to permanent banning on Amazon. They have zero tolerance for multiple accounts.
4. You're required to have the item you sell available to ship out within 2 business days. 2 business days does not include weekends and holidays. It doesn't matter if you haven't started receiving payments from Amazon yet, or if your account is in review and your funds on hold, you still have to ship it within 2 business days. Period. Not shipping it within the time period is a violation of Amazon TOS and can cause you to lose an AtoZ claim and/or your account. An account is a privilege, not a right.
5. You are required to grade your merchandise against Amazon's grading scale. Learn it, Use it. Failure to do so can lose you an AtoZ claim, your merchandise, your money and your account. Failure to do so will also cause your feedback to plummet.
6. There is no process to get pre-approved in the restricted categories (electronics, toys, some video games, apparel, jewelry etc.). Amazon makes those decisions and no one here can tell you how to get on those short lists. You either are or you aren't. Not every category is open to 3rd Party Merchants on Amazon. Some are restricted for contractual reasons, some for risk reasons.
7. You cannot ask for additional shipping monies from your customer. Shipping rates are set by Amazon and by putting the item up for sale here, you agree to ship for that rate. Period.
8. Amazon specifies a shipping time frame, not a mail class or shipper. Understand the difference and what they mean.
9. Amazon requires you to accept items returned within 30 days. Amount of refund may vary depending on why it was returned and condition it was returned in. Find that section in Seller Help and learn it. Returns are not seller-optional under 30 days. Your return policy cannot be lesser than Amazons. You can, for instance, specify a 60 day return policy. You cannot specify a 7 day one. Returns are not optional on the River.
10. There is no Amazon way to combine shipping for reduced shipping rate. You can offer to refund a percent of shipping for multiple purchases BUT that does affect your refund rate and Amazon takes a dim view of too many refunds. Refunds are calculated on # of items sold, not dollar value. If you want to refund for multiple item purchase, think creatively.
11. All buyers look “new” (ie 0 feedback) because Amazon only calculates feedback for sellers, not buyers. So 0 fb on a buyer does NOT mean they are new. It just means they are not a seller.
12. You cannot block any particular buyer(s). You are obligated to sell to anyone who ponies up payment. (No Blocked Bidder-type list). They buy, you ship, period.
13. 5’s and 4’s are green and positive and good. 3’s are neutral but weigh as negatives. Amazon customers have the ability to remove feedback BUT you cannot tie that request to a refund (ie “if you remove the fb I’ll refund you”.) That is considered feedback manipulation. Be careful how you ask. BTW, a ratio of 1 feedback per 10 sales is more or less average on the River.
14. Amazon’s AtoZ policy protects buyers, not sellers. For items over a certain dollar value it’s a good idea to insure and/or use signature confirmation. Chargebacks are not AtoZ claims. Know the difference between the two. There is no seller protection against Chargebacks. AtoZ's must be filed within 90 days of sales. Chargebacks can be filed as long as the customer credit card company permits.
15. . You can add pages to the Amazon Catalog only if you are a Pro-Merchant. PLEASE check carefully first to see if the page already exists. Abuse of the page creation system is a violation of Amazon TOS.
16. When listing items, they must EXACTLY MATCH the catalog page—the ISBN or UPC, cover art, publisher/manufacturer, etc. You are NOT allowed to put the 7th edition of a book on the page for the 10th edition and then notate it in the comments. You’ll lose every time. EXACT MATCHES ARE REQUIRED. Ditto grading (see #5). Items must match exactly AND be put in correct condition grade. Buyers are not required to read your comments.
17. No, you cannot see a history of prices things sold for (unless you want to pony up many hundreds of dollars monthly).
18. No, you cannot (easily) search for the most expensive best selling (books, cd's, insert merchandise type here). Amazon search, as a rule, is lousy.
19. . There is no counter so you can see how many times your Marketplace items or storefront items have been seen, and if there were it would be meaningless. Catalog pages are owned by Amazon, not you. Ditto any pictures you upload.
20. You can download Buyer Waiting reports only if you are Pro-Merchant.
22. Search on the term Velocity Limits, learn what it is and know how it can affect your sales.
23. Just like everywhere else, phishers and scammers target Amazon sellers, ESP. NEW SELLERS OF ELECTRONICS. Never click on a link in an email and enter your Amazon name and password. These are known as "phishing" emails as in fishing for your information so your account can get ripped off. Never ship anything without logging directly into Amazon and verifying that the funds are in your account, be it Marketplace or Auctions. The Amazon auctions are riddled with scammers - beware. Don't ever sell to anyone offsite (meaning don't and accept payment in any way other than directly through Amazon and never ship before you get paid and get notified through Amazon itself--NOT emails that you've made a legit sale). Don't respond to emails from people in Nigeria. Nigeria is not a country that Amazon ships to, so neither will you. YOU CANNOT SHIP ELECTRONICS OUTSIDE THE USA ON AMAZON. Go to the Seller Help pages and review the Ship-To countries for your type of merchandise.
24. Do NOT ask “why penny books”. There are threads ad nauseum on the forums, search for them.
25. Do NOT ask "where can I buy (books/cds/dvds/whatever) cheap to sell here?" The one thing sellers will NOT help with is sourcing questions. Please DO NOT EVEN ASK unless you enjoy being flamed.
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 1, 2008 5:45 AM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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bump
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Posts:
9,738
From:
minutes from Southfork Ranch, call me J.R.
Registered:
2/8/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T EBAY
Posted:
Feb 1, 2008 6:11 AM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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Lots of good information in this. Very well thought out.
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 8:21 AM
in response to:
bluecookies00
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thanks...bump.
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Posts:
76
Registered:
12/15/07
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T EBAY
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 12:51 PM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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Too bad this wasn't around when I opened my account as seller in December. sigh.... 
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 12:54 PM
in response to:
danicomia
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It was, actually, under it's old form. What happened to you?
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Posts:
76
Registered:
12/15/07
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 1:00 PM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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I mentioned it before on another board. My son and I had different sellers account and both got closed out over Christmas after we both shipped $1k and $2.5K respectively. I am an old ebayer seller with almost 100% positive, so I am out of my items and almost $3k on Amazon banks until March and my accounts were closed.
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Posts:
2,175
From:
Somewhere on the East Coast
Registered:
2/8/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T EBAY
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 1:34 PM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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Nice job Marilyn! Ted
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Posts:
2,007
Registered:
2/5/07
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T EBAY
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 5:01 PM
in response to:
danicomia
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Too bad this wasn't around when I opened my account as seller in December.
The thread was started Nov 22, 2006. Too bad you didn't read it.
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 5:05 PM
in response to:
oak-creek-books
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> Nice job Marilyn! Ted
Thanks Ted--the old one needed tweaking 
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008 5:06 PM
in response to:
danicomia
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> I mentioned it before on another board. My son and I
> had different sellers account and both got closed out
> over Christmas after we both shipped $1k and $2.5K
> respectively. I am an old ebayer seller with almost
> 100% positive, so I am out of my items and almost $3k
> on Amazon banks until March and my accounts were
> closed.
Ah, sorry, didn't remember the name. Actually, this thread has existed in one form or another since Nov 2006. You can try petitioning Alliance--good luck!
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Posts:
49,510
From:
Little Bunny Enterprises World Headquarters
Registered:
2/8/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 4, 2008 8:58 PM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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.
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Posts:
135
Registered:
12/27/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 4, 2008 11:17 PM
in response to:
marsin2010
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"."
That is one of the smaller bumps I've seen lately.
John
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 6, 2008 6:27 AM
in response to:
operatunity
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we're working on smaller bumps, it keeps the load time down
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Posts:
11,729
From:
Happy Almost Thanksgiving
Registered:
2/24/06
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Re: **Updated** 25 Vital things to know for New Sellers aka THIS AIN'T E
Posted:
Feb 6, 2008 9:49 PM
in response to:
marilynsattic
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b
u
m
p
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Legend
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Amazonian
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