Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[river41]

51 minutes ago, Phil B said:

This happened half a year or so ago with the TLBM Bricktober Minifigure Set (B07695JTTP). Never returned. I'm unable to list or sell these on Amazon ever since.

My theory is that a jealous seller files these claims once their stock is depleted, and the Amazon bots just pick it up without validation, and without giving us recourse.

suspected means the bots picked it up 

received ip complaint means it was filed by soemone

there was something with the listing that caused the bots to flag it

you need to figure out a way to prove to amazon that this is a genuine lego brand product and not a off brand misusing the trademark

[isocleas]

I think the bots must have taken down a few listings. I had some Lego friends carry cases (bought from lego.com) and the listing got removed a couple days ago, was selling on it for a couple years. 

[zmnnch]

2 hours ago, zskid00 said:

 

 

I still have an active FBM listing for this, but the actual Amazon page is down.  My account shows the following under suspected intellectual property violations (yikes!):

Listing removed

Potential Trademark Misuse (LEGO)

Same here.  A "suspected intellectual property violations" for me too.

I just delete the listing in "My inventory" page. Maybe just sell them on EBAY or Offer-up.

[Foreman Porgy]

1 hour ago, zmnnch said:

Same here.  A "suspected intellectual property violations" for me too.

I just delete the listing in "My inventory" page. Maybe just sell them on EBAY or Offer-up.

Deleting the listing won’t make it go away. I actually have a few right now. It takes 180 days for them to fall off. I confirmed with seller support that they won’t effect your account. As long as you touch base with them and ask, they seem to be very helpful regardless of what all the forms on there say. 

[HappyHawkeye]

So I get an email from Amazon last night saying they've created & are processing a disposal order for a customer return that came back unsellable. No prior notifications, no chance to cancel the disposal, it's just gone.

I understand their policy is to dispose of these items after 30 days, and it looks like I can take some precautions to prevent this from happening in the future, but I'm miffed because I did not receive any heads up from them that this was happening prior to the disposal order being created. 

They are supposed to notify me, correct? In the case I opened they said that because I hadn't intervened after initial & reminder notifications, that this was on me. But when pointing out to them that I never received any such notifications, I'm getting what amounts to a big 'ol shrug.

Anyone else experience something like this? I'm guessing I have no recourse at this point...

[Brick625]

58 minutes ago, HappyHawkeye said:

So I get an email from Amazon last night saying they've created & are processing a disposal order for a customer return that came back unsellable. No prior notifications, no chance to cancel the disposal, it's just gone.

I understand their policy is to dispose of these items after 30 days, and it looks like I can take some precautions to prevent this from happening in the future, but I'm miffed because I did not receive any heads up from them that this was happening prior to the disposal order being created. 

They are supposed to notify me, correct? In the case I opened they said that because I hadn't intervened after initial & reminder notifications, that this was on me. But when pointing out to them that I never received any such notifications, I'm getting what amounts to a big 'ol shrug.

Anyone else experience something like this? I'm guessing I have no recourse at this point...

How can this be prevented? 

[skinsfan0521]

4 minutes ago, nick625 said:

How can this be prevented? 

Set up automatic removal is the only way that I know of. 

[river41]

4 hours ago, Foreman Porgy said:

Deleting the listing won’t make it go away. I actually have a few right now. It takes 180 days for them to fall off. I confirmed with seller support that they won’t effect your account. As long as you touch base with them and ask, they seem to be very helpful regardless of what all the forms on there say. 

i know of someone that was suspended because of too many suspected ip  violations

WHile it does appear that there is a higher tolerance for suspected ip violation as opposed to reported ip violation it is still something you do not want on your account.

it does come off after 6 months from the metrics that you see but apparently internally it is still there and if your account is ever flagged for a review even years old ip violations count against you

what you confirmed with seller central is irrelevant and meaningless unless it was the actual department that deals with this. 

[DadsAFOL]

The bots are slowly weeding out any ASIN with the word "Lego" in any field (title, description, features, etc.) that is not a recognized LEGO product.   Not sure if they are using the UPC G1 number or if they have some employee of either Lego or Amazon validating products.   So i suspect that the ASINs getting suppressed were originally created by an eager seller who got to the product first and didn't put the correct UPC or some other data element.

We sell custom LEGO sets, so we've had to get pretty creative with referencing "Lego" but not saying "Lego".  Can't even add the Lego-provided Fair Play disclaimer that says "not endorsed by The LEGO Group" which is ironic to me.  I'm happy to tell buyers my products are not official LEGO products, but i can't.

[Foreman Porgy]

3 minutes ago, DadsAFOL said:

The bots are slowly weeding out any ASIN with the word "Lego" in any field (title, description, features, etc.) that is not a recognized LEGO product.   Not sure if they are using the UPC G1 number or if they have some employee of either Lego or Amazon validating products.   So i suspect that the ASINs getting suppressed were originally created by an eager seller who got to the product first and didn't put the correct UPC or some other data element.

We sell custom LEGO sets, so we've had to get pretty creative with referencing "Lego" but not saying "Lego".  Can't even add the Lego-provided Fair Play disclaimer that says "not endorsed by The LEGO Group" which is ironic to me.  I'm happy to tell buyers my products are not official LEGO products, but i can't.

This is the same problem I’ve been running across. From what I was told, we need to use official UPC G1 codes when creating new listings. If they are codes from 3rd party sellers and have the word Lego in the title or description, they apparently get flagged. I’ve even tried not using the word lego in the listing and that’s how I got my suspected ip claims. Now I won’t create new listings unless I have the UPC code from Lego, and I bought it directly from a supplier. At least until the bots get it sorted out. 

[redcell]

So is the UPC the key?

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[donbee]

Is it hard to find the UPC? Or should I ask, where can the UPC be found?

[Foreman Porgy]

9 minutes ago, donbee said:

Is it hard to find the UPC? Or should I ask, where can the UPC be found?

I meant that I won’t create any new listings unless I bought the product directly from an authorized supplier, and the product isn’t already on amazon. 

[DadsAFOL]

3 hours ago, donbee said:

Is it hard to find the UPC? Or should I ask, where can the UPC be found?

On a normal product, no it's not hard.   But there are real LEGO products with no UPCs.   A good example is the employee Christmas set from last year.  It also makes it difficult to sell genuine LEGO minifigures individually on Amazon.   No bar code on those.

[enotoga]

I have a question for some of you Amazon experts.  I've been selling successfully on Ebay for years.  In 2016 I looked at setting up a seller account on Amazon, and it was like doing a complex tax return.  There were tons of forms to fill out, and it was confusing.  I finally gave up, and just stuck with Ebay.

Today in 2019, what is it like to become an Amazon seller of retired new Lego?  Is it worth it?

And, is it too late for me to get onboard with Amazon for this Holiday season?  

 

 

[redcell]

Amazon is a different ballgame. Whether it is worth it depends on your goals. But Lego is gated and you have to have wholesale invoices or a grandfathered account or hit some unknown selling metrics to get authorized to sell Lego. Unless you can fit into one of those categories, you won't be able to sell.

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[Phil B]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:51 AM, zskid00 said:

 

 

I still have an active FBM listing for this, but the actual Amazon page is down.  My account shows the following under suspected intellectual property violations (yikes!):

Listing removed

Potential Trademark Misuse (LEGO)

B07CL7PGHS is working for me - shows an active listing @ $36.99, with 16 sellers, and a Buy Now button under the Buy Box.

[jeff_14]

3 hours ago, enotoga said:

I have a question for some of you Amazon experts.  I've been selling successfully on Ebay for years.  In 2016 I looked at setting up a seller account on Amazon, and it was like doing a complex tax return.  There were tons of forms to fill out, and it was confusing.  I finally gave up, and just stuck with Ebay.

Today in 2019, what is it like to become an Amazon seller of retired new Lego?  Is it worth it?

And, is it too late for me to get onboard with Amazon for this Holiday season?  

 

 

I don't believe you can become a lego seller on Amazon now as they gated this product to new applicants unless you pay a hefty fee and provide invoices evidencing that you are a legit purchaser.

[cobrakai]

43 minutes ago, jeff_14 said:

I don't believe you can become a lego seller on Amazon now as they gated this product to new applicants unless you pay a hefty fee and provide invoices evidencing that you are a legit purchaser.

I have been grandfathered for many years, but I do see EE Distribution offering some Lego sets & Lego books through the wholesale side of Entertainment Earth.  I assume those invoices would work for ungating. I have not heard about them charging money for brand approvals lately.

[Porvida]

1 minute ago, cobrakai said:

I have been grandfathered for many years, but I do see EE Distribution offering some Lego sets & Lego books through the wholesale side of Entertainment Earth.  I assume those invoices would work for ungating. I have not heard about them charging money for brand approvals lately.

Has anyone tried the EE wholesale route to get ungated?

hypothetically if the EE wholesale route did work, would you be able to sell your retired Lego sets purchased non wholesale or would the account only allow sale of those sets purchased wholesale?

[redcell]

10 minutes ago, Porvida said:

Has anyone tried the EE wholesale route to get ungated?

hypothetically if the EE wholesale route did work, would you be able to sell your retired Lego sets purchased non wholesale or would the account only allow sale of those sets purchased wholesale?

I"m grandfathered on Lego so can't speak to EED for Lego, but I have tried to use EED to get ungated on Marvel Legends with no luck.  

[cobrakai]

10 minutes ago, redcell said:

I"m grandfathered on Lego so can't speak to EED for Lego, but I have tried to use EED to get ungated on Marvel Legends with no luck.  

Thats weird.  It's been a while, but I used them for several ungatings in the past with no issues.  The Star Wars episode 7 gating fiasco was the only one that took a few tries to figure out.

[Mark Twain]

Brand gating is one hurdle, clearing the Toys subcategory with a CPC is a whole different animal. You can easily get brand approval on Lego for a non toy product, pencils, costumes, decorations, etc. but it won’t matter if you aren’t cleared in the subcategory.


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[cobrakai]

2 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Brand gating is one hurdle, clearing the Toys subcategory with a CPC is a whole different animal. You can easily get brand approval on Lego for a non toy product, pencils, costumes, decorations, etc. but it won’t matter if you aren’t cleared in the subcategory.


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EE (and most other wholesalers) will give you a CPC for anything you order from them if you request it.  I know I had to use a Mega Bloks CPC to clear that hurdle in the building blocks category.  I have always been approved in the Lego brand, but it stopped letting me sell sets as "collectible" until I cleared the building block subcategory with that Mega Bloks CPC.

[redcell]

4 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Brand gating is one hurdle, clearing the Toys subcategory with a CPC is a whole different animal. You can easily get brand approval on Lego for a non toy product, pencils, costumes, decorations, etc. but it won’t matter if you aren’t cleared in the subcategory.


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And the CPCs are a total pain.  Last year when they threatened to shut listings down if sellers didn't supply a CPC testing report for the product, I took the issue all the way to the Bezos escalation team to make the argument that the federal regulations only require a manufacturer to issue a CPC certification and do not require them to provide the testing reports.  I was able to get a response and they shot me down on it.