# selling/advertising on Amazon...



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I am attempting to set up a shop to sell jewelry and have looked at eBay and Amazon. This gets real confusing for me; so would appreciate some information relative to experiences anyone has had with these. (I have sold items on eBay; yet have not set up a shop there. I've never sold nor set up a shop on Amazon.) This shop would be a temporary thing lasting only long enough to sell the jewelry I have accumulated thru the years as well as "building" toys I used years ago when working with children, i.e. constructs, leggos, etc.

I know there are sites that would let me advertise individual items and I will use those; however, I'ld like a "shop" I can refer people to as well.

{Last year I managed to set up a shop with my ISP program; yet since then, we changed ISPs and the one we have now apparently does not offer any web space.}


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## greenmcdonalds (Oct 30, 2006)

I was going to start selling on Amazon too, so no help here. Guess I will just go to the site and read how to start selling. My son sells on Amazon, his text books and does well, but he won't show me how. He's out of out of my will . LOL


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I went over to that site in an attempt to understand. It is above my head.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I have sold used books over the years on Amazon, and had some of my products listed there in the Marketplace for awhile now. Every now and then we'd get a sale. 

Today, however, we signed on for a pro-store. After I get more products listed and learn a bit, I plan on going with the Fulfillment By Amazon. Then I will send my inventory to them and they will take care of the shipping, returns, customer service, etc. Plus, my products will be available for the Free shipping with orders over $25. and Prime. Maybe the subscribe and save, since my products need to be purchased over and over by my buyers. 

Right now and on the marketplace, the shipping prices are higher than some of my products and I don't think that helps my sales. I try to look at it as what _I look for_ when making a purchase. I think it is worth the cost, to get more sales. I want to take my business to the next level and this is the only way I can see to do it.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

I'd like to know who all these people are who do so well selling books online, because I started a half.com account in September and have yet to sell a single volume. :hair It does seem that their market is mostly textbooks, which I don't have.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

thesedays said:


> I'd like to know who all these people are who do so well selling books online, because I started a half.com account in September and have yet to sell a single volume. :hair It does seem that their market is mostly textbooks, which I don't have.


I never made a dime on half.com either. I have sold some on eBay and some on Amazon. Text books seem to be a big market. I found books about making money, business type books sell pretty good on eBay and Amazon. But I am done with the book business. I gave all my books to my local thrift store. Not for me.


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## katheh (Jul 21, 2012)

Amazon Marketplace is really only appropriate for selling items that bear a UPC symbol.

Ebay would be more appropriate. Or look at bookoo.com


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## katheh (Jul 21, 2012)

PS - Legos (actual Lego brand) sell for enormous amounts of money on Ebay, especially if they are old. Like any other old item, don't clean them. Apparently the grime adds to their charm.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

I just signed on as an Amazon seller too. Not pro. 40 sales and under.
Im wondering how the Amazon/fullfillment/prime works too.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

katlupe said:


> I never made a dime on half.com either. I have sold some on eBay and some on Amazon. Text books seem to be a big market. I found books about making money, business type books sell pretty good on eBay and Amazon. But I am done with the book business. I gave all my books to my local thrift store. Not for me.


My book resale business is gradually losing less money all the time. :goodjob: I am leaving some of the old books that, per multiple sources, are worth quite a bit of money on half.com because I know I could get more money there, should anyone want them, than I could anywhere else. Most of these books were acquired for less than $1 each, so I didn't lose much even if they never sell.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

katheh said:


> PS - Legos (actual Lego brand) sell for enormous amounts of money on Ebay, especially if they are old. Like any other old item, don't clean them. Apparently the grime adds to their charm.


Now you tell me! My son had tons of them while he was growing up. I gave them away. Of course, that was a long long time ago.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

Ebay would be the place for old Legos and other vintage toys, but for something like jewelry, I'd use Etsy.


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## Janette1 (Jan 24, 2013)

I decided to do an Amazon book business. There are so many on there who sell for only one cent that i don't see how a small person like me can make it work. Unless you are large enough to sell many books, Amazon takes so much of your money that it's not worth it. The only thing I have made any amount of money on is audio books on CD.
My son has a very lucritive business on eBay where he buys and resells video gaming equipment. It takes a lot of his time and attention, but he's making good money. He also opened a booth in a nearby town where he sells gaming equipment. And, YES, Legos are worth a ton.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

I looked seriously into the Amazon selling option for my products but was held back by the need for upc. This would have cost me thousands of dollars to set up for each option available for each product. I will look again but I do not think they have a plan for the micro business to get on there and purchase just a few upcs or something.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Actually, we made more money selling our products on Amazon than on our own site. On our site, we give free shipping on orders over $19.99. But on Amazon we can't offer that. They give us a shipping credit for $4.99 and that is way more than what some of our products even cost! But buyers pay it with no complaints. My husband tried to give a buyer back the shipping cost but Amazon intercepted his email to the buyer and he got warned not to do that again.

Our first shipment of product arrived at their fulfillment center yesterday. Now it is for sale and it puts our product above all the others, offering free shipping if they spend $25. or more. So hoping for more sales. This is our test product. If it works out, we will put all our products there. You can have them take care of everything for you and all you have to do is to put the listings up. Add products when you run out or low. It is a learning thing right now...........IF it works! I am not saying it will, because this is the first time for us, so I don't know.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

katlupe- what did you do about the UPC issue? When I talked to the service department they said since I make my own products I would need about 35 thousand dollars worth of UPCs to put them all on amazon and since they are custom I could not do Amazon fullfillment?


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

sisterpine said:


> katlupe- what did you do about the UPC issue? When I talked to the service department they said since I make my own products I would need about 35 thousand dollars worth of UPCs to put them all on amazon and since they are custom I could not do Amazon fullfillment?


Well, I don't make my own products. I am a reseller of guitar strings that I buy from the manufacturers. So they come with the UPC codes on the packages. I know for my husband's music CD, he bought the UPC codes years ago when he had his own record company. They did not cost what they do now. But he can use the UPC codes to sell with, even though they have evolved to a different level now.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

katlupe said:


> Actually, we made more money selling our products on Amazon than on our own site. On our site, we give free shipping on orders over $19.99. But on Amazon we can't offer that. They give us a shipping credit for $4.99 and that is way more than what some of our products even cost! But buyers pay it with no complaints. My husband tried to give a buyer back the shipping cost but Amazon intercepted his email to the buyer and he got warned not to do that again.
> 
> Our first shipment of product arrived at their fulfillment center yesterday. Now it is for sale and it puts our product above all the others, offering free shipping if they spend $25. or more. So hoping for more sales. This is our test product. If it works out, we will put all our products there. You can have them take care of everything for you and all you have to do is to put the listings up. Add products when you run out or low. It is a learning thing right now...........IF it works! I am not saying it will, because this is the first time for us, so I don't know.


I hope you keep posting and this thread keeps going!

I buy stuff from Amazon. Some of it I like. I want to be able to re-sell the stuff I dont. So hopefully that will take care of the upc code.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Well, my computer started crashing. David did a re-install of our Windows XP; then discovered that action had lost all our files!! The repair man said we needed a hard drive; so he put in a "used" one, which we are using now. He has had the old one for over two weeks stating he is continuing to try to find our lost files...now he says he has it in the "deep freeze...hoping that will work". (This has all confused me; so I don't know what to think about getting my lost files back.) At any rate, this "used" hard drive is crashing so often that David asked our repairman to order us a new one. That was last week and the new one has not arrived yet.

This all means I had to put setting up an internet shop and selling stuff on the back burner........hoping to get back to it soon.............Thanks for all the information; and I do hope you all continue to share your experiences & provide suggestions/recommendations.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Pearl B said:


> I hope you keep posting and this thread keeps going!
> 
> I buy stuff from Amazon. Some of it I like. I want to be able to re-sell the stuff I don't. So hopefully that will take care of the upc code.


You can do that. I have sold books on Amazon a lot. The books that sell the best are usually the books I don't really want to sell. Books about making money have been very good sellers for me. I sold a book about buying your own trailer park. I paid $50. or so for it a few years back. The author had it on Lulu only and the site I bought it on originally did not have it any longer. I sold it on Amazon for $89.00. 

The sellers selling for a penny are usually the big sellers. They will take a loss to get the sale. Many of them only make money off the shipping credit Amazon gives them.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

motdaugrnds said:


> Well, my computer started crashing. David did a re-install of our Windows XP; then discovered that action had lost all our files!! The repair man said we needed a hard drive; so he put in a "used" one, which we are using now. He has had the old one for over two weeks stating he is continuing to try to find our lost files...now he says he has it in the "deep freeze...hoping that will work". (This has all confused me; so I don't know what to think about getting my lost files back.) At any rate, this "used" hard drive is crashing so often that David asked our repairman to order us a new one. That was last week and the new one has not arrived yet.
> 
> This all means I had to put setting up an internet shop and selling stuff on the back burner........hoping to get back to it soon.............Thanks for all the information; and I do hope you all continue to share your experiences & provide suggestions/recommendations.



Sorry to hear about your computer. Hate computer troubles to happen to anyone! 

We will keep sharing and talking and hope you get back with us soon. Thanks for starting this thread!


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Darn! I was hoping there was some way to sell items without UPCs.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Maybe you can get a UPC code from someone who has them already? Only it would show your product as coming from their company instead of your own? My husband is looking into it. He found that he could partner with them some way or other. I am not positive on it yet, as he is still researching it. 

He said when he got his back in the 80's it only costed him about $300.!!! Now it is out of sight for a small business!


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

I sell on AMZ a lot. It is best suited for items that have UPC's. I purchase stuff on clearance and then re-sell.

Jewelry is a tough venue on AMZ.

What you need to do is read the following forums for about a week or 2, and see how it works.

AMZ is quite picky about bad service, and many people have their selling acct closed on AMZ for numerous listing violations.

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=2

In general, you receive a set shipping allowance from AMZ. If it costs you more, you can't ask the buyer for additional funds. You have to adjust your price upwards.

Read about the fees VERY carefully, or you will end up owing AMZ money for one of your sales. Basically, your minimum price needs to be about $4-5.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

GoldenCityMuse said:


> I sell on AMZ a lot. It is best suited for items that have UPC's. I purchase stuff on clearance and then re-sell.
> 
> Jewelry is a tough venue on AMZ.
> 
> ...




Their seller support is really good! I have had many listings that had the wrong UPC codes already listed in their catalog for my guitar strings. I send them all the information they need and a photo of my package and the UPC code on it. In about an hour, even on the week-end, they fix it for me. They do leave the products listed by the other seller, with the wrong UPC code up. Not sure how that works, as every product should have only one unique UPC code. 

So far, we are doing really good on it. Our products make a good profit there. And that is with me matching the low price.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Very good. Wrong UPC's are one of the banes of AMZ's catalog. Glad you got yours fixed.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Our Amazon sales are doing very well! Now on my own site, my sales were not very good at all. Then I listed some strings on eBay and even in a package "lot" they didn't sell. Amazon has the traffic and I am guessing that buyers throw in a package or two of guitar strings just to make that $25. total for free shipping. We are VERY happy with Amazon at this point in time! :sing:

As far as Fulfillment By Amazon goes, I love it! But we only have a few varieties on it right now. Experimenting so far. Those sales come in and we do not have to do one single thing! Not even sending an email to the buyer for thanking them for the sale or telling them it shipped. Amazon does not want you to contact them. There are fees involved with this process, and we think we'd like to move up to higher priced strings to make a decent profit using FBA. 

Now I have to get busy and list more strings in the pro-store.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Way to go! I am so happy for you!


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## wildcat6 (Apr 5, 2011)

Have you all looked into codeupc.net? Apparently, you can buy the codes for $1.20 a piece.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

wildcat6 said:


> Have you all looked into codeupc.net? Apparently, you can buy the codes for $1.20 a piece.


That is awesome information! I am checking out their reviews right now and they are very good. You can buy a UPC code for very little cost and sell on Amazon. 

The amazing thing I am finding in listing my products on Amazon is that many of the UPC codes the manufacturers put on their products are not always unique. They put it on different products that are not the same. Not talking about discontinued items either. It has been making it harder to list my guitar strings on their site. Unless you are the first one to list that product in their catalog, you cannot list it because of the UPC. It would be easier if you were making your own products.


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## wildcat6 (Apr 5, 2011)

katlupe said:


> That is awesome information! I am checking out their reviews right now and they are very good. You can buy a UPC code for very little cost and sell on Amazon.
> 
> The amazing thing I am finding in listing my products on Amazon is that many of the UPC codes the manufacturers put on their products are not always unique. They put it on different products that are not the same. Not talking about discontinued items either. It has been making it harder to list my guitar strings on their site. Unless you are the first one to list that product in their catalog, you cannot list it because of the UPC. It would be easier if you were making your own products.


Glad I could help. I hope it works out for you. I have been thinking about selling some stuff on Amazon myself but what are the extra fees mentioned in addition to the .99 cent fee?


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

I am going to see about it right this minute- thanks!


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

sisterpine said:


> I am going to see about it right this minute- thanks!


I knew you'd be happy to see that! Let us know how you make out and if it works for you.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

wildcat6 said:


> Glad I could help. I hope it works out for you. I have been thinking about selling some stuff on Amazon myself but what are the extra fees mentioned in addition to the .99 cent fee?


Since we have the Amazon ProStore now, we pay $39.99 per month up front fee. And there is a fee on each item sold. 

The items I have on Fulfillment By Amazon have more fees, but those items sell good because people want their items with Free shipping. Those items are the ones you see that will say at the top of the item "Fulfillment By Amazon" and if they buy $25.00 worth of stuff on Amazon it ships free. Plus Prime members use that too. They don't even bother looking at the other sellers or their prices.

All I know, is that I am finally moving my inventory! :dance:


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Looks like, from my investigation, that they come in at about 35-38 percent of your sales price. Which I consider VERY high, I think Ebay is at about 13 percent currently.


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## wildcat6 (Apr 5, 2011)

sisterpine said:


> Looks like, from my investigation, that they come in at about 35-38 percent of your sales price. Which I consider VERY high, I think Ebay is at about 13 percent currently.


That is pretty high. That doesn't leave much room for me trying to sell small dollar items.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

No, and I wonder if that is the plan? Keep the dime store stuff off the site perhaps. However if you would like to purchase 45 of my knob stems (not as gross as it sounds LOL.) you would be spending about 80.00 just to get knob stems to mount your kitchen knobs on.???


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## Threewoofsfarm (Mar 10, 2013)

We sell antiques and collectibles on Ebay. We have stopped for awhile but will be starting it up again. We struggled with just listing verses opening up a shop on Ebay. Ebay has some good comparisons for fees etc. If you make enough to support the shop fees, then do it. If not just list items separately. That is how we do it. I have never tried Amazon. Etsy maybe another site you may want to look at. Good luck :bouncy:


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

My plan is to move my inventory that I have been trying to sell on my websites on Amazon. It is selling, that is the main thing. Once I get rid of the slow sellers, I will be adding the more premium products. They cost more, and will make more. I am really seeing which products are more in demand this way. I mean there is two brands that as soon as I list them, they sell out! You can bet, that is ones I will be stocking up on. 

I think of it as a game, the prize is the amount of money I transfer to my business bank account every month. :bouncy:

I am still selling on eBay too. Just auctions and I get sales there too. But not like Amazon. There, I sell used items and stuff I find at garage sales, thrift stores, yard sales, my attic, etc.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

I agree with you Kat! I think of it as kind of a game as well. Sure it is where our spending money comes from and yup it would be nice to get a bill paid off with our own labor and ingenuity...but all things in time. Meanwhile I have a zillion things to list on Amazon pending the new photos!


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I think eBay is much easier to list on. Photos come up real fast there. And there is no issue with UPC's as there is on Amazon. But I make so many more sales. So have to keep working at it. 

I am working hard to get all my stock listed there because soon gardening season will be here. Then I will want to be working outside. So I am working every second I can on this. I figure the worse the economy is, the more I need to sell. The funny thing is that on my site some of these items were cheaper, but buyers don't look around, they like Amazon or eBay. So might as well join them.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Well I have listed about 35 items on amazon so far, mostly in the wrong category...it is one that will work but is not the same on as my competitor  Dont really know if it makes any difference or not LOL. The only way to change them, according to amazon, is to cancel the item and re make the whole thing!


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

Leave a link to your Amazon store! 

I have had my headaches today, listing a certain brand of strings that doesn't have the UPC code come up. I am doing a new listing, adding all the info, then when I submit it............it tells me there is one already listed!!!!!!!!!! Then where was it??? Why didn't it show up BEFORE I did my whole listing???? I'll tell you, my sales are fantastic and that is the only thing that keeps me doing it. eBay is so much easier, but no sales for my product there. After I sell out this brand, I hope to not add any more of their products. Only I do have some in the Fulfillment By Amazon that are moving along.


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