Thursday, March 31, 2016

Amazon Offering Free Removal of Inventory and Reversal of some Long Term Storage Fees

Recently we saw that Amazon was restricting certain items from being sent to fulfillment centers.

Now, Amazon sent out that they are offering sticks instead of carrots to declutter their centers.  You can remove any inventory for free until the end of April starting today.

The normal fees are pretty low at $0.50 a unit (includes shipping) so this isn't a huge deal.

The bigger deal is that if you were charged a long term storage fee in February 2016, they are reimbursing 66% of that fee.  Those fees are significant.  If I was charged those fee I would think about using this promotion.

It's nice to see Amazon handle this is in a manner that is very seller friendly.

As more sellers join FBA and FCs have more and more inventory, I think we will see more promotions to remove inventory and increased storage fees.  Amazon doesn't want their FCs to become storage facilities.  I get that.

The incentive is to move towards faster sales which I understand but it will mean that fewer people will sell items that have lower ranks.  Customers may suffer from higher prices on lower ranked items from lack of competition.

Either way, I think this is a step in the right direction from Amazon in the way they treat their sellers and I applaud the way they are handling it even if I am not thrilled about the outcome.




The one catch:
  • If you file a removal order for sellable inventory on or before April 30, 2016, to dispose of this inventory or have it returned to you, you will be unable to send in additional units of these ASINs until October 1, 2016. If your inventory level falls below the number of units you have sold of this ASIN in the previous four weeks, you can send this ASIN to Amazon.
This doesn't affect your ability to sell these ASINs during quarter 4 but you won't be able to send until October which is 6 months away.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - I'm Done with Apple Watches

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Loving the New eBay Gift Card Rules

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay




Recently, eBay changed their rules and allowed unlimited gift card usage instead of $5,000 per rolling 180 days.  There does remain a limit of $1,000 in eBay gift cards per transaction.

Previously, trying to track your gift card use was a pain so unless I was sure I was no where near the limit I wouldn't use eBay Gift Cards.


I just bought some gas gift cards for personal use and I want to illustrate just how awesome eBay can be when used properly.


I bought $100 of physical BP Gift Cards for $92 on eBay.  Total cost is $276.

I bought $275 of eBay Gift Cards from Gyft at face value with my Chase Ink card.  As Doctor of Credit has shown, when you use PayPal with Ink as your form of payment, you will earn 5x Ultimate Rewards.

So that's 1,375 Ultimate Rewards points which are worth a minimum of $13.75, though many put the value much higher.


I used Splender Shopping Portal for 2% cashback on the gift cards, that's another $5.52 off the three gift cards

eBay is currently running a Targeted eBay Bucks promotion (check eBay.com to see if you are targeted on the home page) where you will earn 10% in eBay Bucks.  That's another $27.60 for buying three.






All together, I spent $276 and earned $13.75 in UR, $5.52 in cash from Splender and $27.60 in eBay Bucks.  That's $46.87 off the 3 gift cards or $15.62 off each gift cards.

My final price then becomes $92 - $15.62 or $76.38 for each $100 BP gift card.  That's some cheap gas.

Oh and now I get cash price instead of credit ;)


I know I am assuming eBay Bucks are equivalent to cash and they worth less but it makes it easier to see everything.




Something tells me people might want to think about selling these too ;)  Always verify directly with the sites for payouts.








There are a bunch of other gift cards that this might work for as well.  Just sayin'
All Discounted Gift Cards Available

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Some Gift Cards and a 5% MacBook for Increased eBay Bucks

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Splender, eBay, Amazon



There are a few gift cards available on eBay that are definitely worth checking out as positioning purchases for the future, especially given the fact that many people received an offer for an extra 4x in eBay Bucks.  Even if you didn't get the email, check ebay.com and it may be there like it was for me on the homepage.


Kohl's $100 Gift Card for $85 from Cardency

Toys R Us $100 Gift Card for $85 from PayPal Digital Gifts

Babies R Us $100 Gift Card for $85 from PayPal Digital Gifts

Check out all discounted gift cards available (including gas gift cards)



You also earn 2% from the Splender shopping portal.

Amazon Restricting Random ASINs?

A few people sent me a blog post from Lisa Suttora who is reporting that Amazon has begun to restrict FBA sellers from creating shipments on certain ASINs due to increased inventory at Amazon Fulfillment Centers.

These restrictions are coming without notice which is the only problem with this policy change.


I have not encountered this myself and no one I know has encountered this either but there are comments on her post that same the same as well.



It would be pretty bad if you are allowed to sell something as new, you buy it and then try to make a shipment and you aren't able to.  It's a waste of time and possibly money




The error message is


“You are already at the maximum inventory allowed for this product, due to capacity or other restrictions. This product must be removed from this shipment.”



There is one thing you can do to protect yourself but it is a bit annoying.  You can start a shipment with any particular ASIN before you purchase it to make sure Amazon will let you send it in.  That's pretty time consuming.



I understand that Amazon doesn't want their fulfillment centers to become storage units (I am guilty of this myself - I have over 4,000 units at FCs currently), especially long term storage units (less guilty of this) but changes should not be without warning.  

It could be that there will be more changes coming regarding storage fees or other ways to discourage hoarding inventory at FCs but I cannot be sure.


Have anyone come across this?  What was the rank of the item and in what category?  Let us know in the comments!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - Staples Easy Rebates are the Best Rebates

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Unlimited eBay Gift Card Use and Finding Your Orphan Funds on your eBay Gift Cards

Update: Reader Avi points us to Travel with Grant that you can go to this link from PayPal, log in and you will see all your used and unused eBay Gift Cards.  Very useful!  

Update 2:  Just a quick note to let you know that many people including myself have been lifetime banned from Target.com for buying too many gift cards with our 5% REDcard discount. I have noticed you talking about juicing up eBay deals a lot using Target. They pointed out to me that they added terms to their website in January 2016 saying that they wouldn't offer repeated discounts on the same product purchase. I was labeled a reseller even though I actually used all the eBay gift cards for personal purchases. They didn't care and didn't want receipts from eBay proving what I did with them. I did about $2000 total and that got me banned. Just an FYI in case you haven't seen that out there in forums. I would caution your readers against doing Target orders and not promote it as a method. I can't buy anything from Target.com ever again -- paper towels, clothes, iPads, etc. They told me I was welcome to shop in store anytime. LOL

It's a dangerous world out there.  Be careful!




In case you missed it DoCtor Chuck broke the huge news yesterday that we can now use an unlimited number of gift cards
There used to be a maximum of $5,000 in gift cards used per rolling 180 days.  That's not very much for a reseller if you source from eBay. This is big news for us.

Until now, I avoided using eBay gift cards when I was close to my limit for fear of having to wait months until I can use the gift card and losing track of it.  You don't save/make money on gift cards if you lose hundreds of dollars in that way.

There is now a maximum of $1,000 in gift cards per order and 8 gift cards per order as well.


With the new rules in place, we can feel free to use eBay gift cards one every purchase on eBay.  That's a minimum of 5% off every purchase as you will see.



Best way to buy eBay Gift Cards

1) eBay gift cards often go on sale on eBay at 5% off and when they are sold from PayPal Digital Gifts you will also earn 5x Ultimate Rewards with Chase Ink

2) 5% off with your RedCard on target.com

3) On staples.com but then you are limited to $100 denominations without extra fees or at Staples store with Chase Ink

4) Grocery store with Fuel Points

5) Gift card exchange like Raise

6) Gyft sells eBay Gift Cards as well but the portal and G points are gone



Find your eBay Gift Card Orphaned Funds

It used to be quite simple to find your orphan funds from your eBay Gift Cards in the old eBay/Paypal checkout but unfortunately that doesn't work anymore.


Thankfully, your PayPal account still connect to your used eBay Gift Cards and stores them.  The only difference is that you have to use the mobile browser to access them.  Just click (tap, really) on the area to add a promo code and your non used eBay gift cards will be right there.








Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Turnover Tuesdays - "Like New" is not Close to "New"

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.