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amazon sent a warning letter


river41

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Just because I sometimes like to beat a dead horse....8-)
 

You do realize, right, that 40% OF EVERY SINGLE THING that Amazon sells is from their 3rd party resellers?  Are you trying to tell me Amazon wants to discourage reselling???  They embrace it like nobody's business.


In addition to spreading purchases among people as much as possible for good will and future repeat business, there is also a part of Amazon that wants to stop the resellers (their competition) who are buying their inventory from Amazon when Amazon is possibly selling it at a loss aka great price.

Amazon embraces reselling through their Marketplace where they don't have to purchase/maintain/ship the inventory and are just the middleman and don't do any heavy lifting (like eBay) and just collect the fees. Of course, if you want Amazon to maintain and ship your inventory, they are glad to do that for a fee also.
 

There is also the information Amazon gets from all their Marketplace resellers as to which products are in demand which they can then use in their future inventory/purchasing plans.

 

It's easy to say 'Blasphemy!  They're targeting resellers!'  But they are not.  It's just a side effect of their policy that makes it seem that way.  Correlation does not imply causality.


It seems obvious that the 10 people who want to buy 100 that Amazon wants to stop are resellers of some kind. If you were truly a large quantity/corporate buyer, you would contact Amazon or the manufacturer directly to get a volume discount as a special/direct order that doesn't affect the availability/inventory for everyone else who just wants 1.

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Spoke with customer service about my warning. Multiple accounts with same payment method and ship to address. They told me there was no need to have multiple accounts as it costs them money to maintain each account every month. They offered to put everyone in my household on my prime membership for free if I linked the accounts together...I did. I still don't get it...we still have separate accounts...but now share prime benefits. How is that saving them money? Very odd conversation. My account is cleared and woman said it had nothing to do with my purchases or purchasing and mentioned my account was a model..and thanked me for 15 years of business.

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Some of you bulk buyers are going to have to make some adjustments, this is clear. So, if you can't get it all in one place anymore, you'll have to get bits of it from everywhere. You'll have to pay retail more often. You'll have to pay retail plus shipping, even. Hell, if this keeps up, you'll be buying from ebay sellers, above retail, to fill gaps in your inventory because you've bought all the HDs you're allowed. Your purchase costs will rise, or your inventory will shrink, whichever comes first.

Unless. The increased severity of the buy-in has increased the potency of each investment. There will simply be fewer of them for sale in the secondary market. Add the 6+ years of rising CAGR to the equation, which gives investors a looooong time to think about selling. Hopefully, the decreased overall primary supply would, in value terms, cancel the cost increase on your end with higher ROIs for each smart investment.

None of this works if retailers don't enforce buying limits NOW, and clearly. Until they do, it seems like maybe dumb luck if you're banned. So I suppose the best thing we can do is inform ourselves of the laws so we don't break them.

All of this goes +50% for LEGO Shop at Home exclusives.

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Not saying it would ever happen, but all this new discussion regarding limits from multiple retailers got me daydreaming at work, and I started to think about what Lego might have to do to piece their reputation back together, should the popularity of their product ever tank. Lego has been known to maintain it's popularity as more than a fad for the most part, but let's say for argument's sake kids burn out on it and move on to some new technology, or 3-D printing starts to eat a ton of actual lego sales. Would Lego, knowing it's heading for a nosedive, attempt to "make up" to resellers by loosening limits and expressing some sort of "apology" for this current behavior? I don't see any formal apology actually happening, but I mean would they try to do things to attract investors back to their product again? Just something I've thought about a bit, If I recall correctly the beanie baby fad went under partially because the way the treated their fanbase.   

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Some of you bulk buyers are going to have to make some adjustments, this is clear. So, if you can't get it all in one place anymore, you'll have to get bits of it from everywhere. You'll have to pay retail more often. You'll have to pay retail plus shipping, even. Hell, if this keeps up, you'll be buying from ebay sellers, above retail, to fill gaps in your inventory because you've bought all the HDs you're allowed. Your purchase costs will rise, or your inventory will shrink, whichever comes first.

Unless. The increased severity of the buy-in has increased the potency of each investment. There will simply be fewer of them for sale in the secondary market. Add the 6+ years of rising CAGR to the equation, which gives investors a looooong time to think about selling. Hopefully, the decreased overall primary supply would, in value terms, cancel the cost increase on your end with higher ROIs for each smart investment.

None of this works if retailers don't enforce buying limits NOW, and clearly. Until they do, it seems like maybe dumb luck if you're banned. So I suppose the best thing we can do is inform ourselves of the laws so we don't break them.

All of this goes +50% for s@h exclusives.

Sounds like people will actually have to use their brain and spend some effort to make the same money from now on.   :shocked:

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Not saying it would ever happen, but all this new discussion regarding limits from multiple retailers got me daydreaming at work, and I started to think about what Lego might have to do to piece their reputation back together, should the popularity of their product ever tank. Lego has been known to maintain it's popularity as more than a fad for the most part, but let's say for argument's sake kids burn out on it and move on to some new technology, or 3-D printing starts to eat a ton of actual lego sales. Would Lego, knowing it's heading for a nosedive, attempt to "make up" to resellers by loosening limits and expressing some sort of "apology" for this current behavior? I don't see any formal apology actually happening, but I mean would they try to do things to attract investors back to their product again? Just something I've thought about a bit, If I recall correctly the beanie baby fad went under partially because the way the treated their fanbase.

If Lego's popularity goes south, I don't think they will be worrying about resellers. I have a hard time beilieving their popularity would go south because of reseller witch hunting either - they sell over 90% of their sets to kids, so they would need to shore up their eroding kid fan base to fix their popularity issue rather than cater to resellers. And the overwhelming majority of parents that buy for their kids don't even know a secondary market exists.

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If Lego's popularity goes south, I don't think they will be worrying about resellers. I have a hard time beilieving their popularity would go south because of reseller witch hunting either - they sell over 90% of their sets to kids, so they would need to shore up their eroding kid fan base to fix their popularity issue rather than cater to resellers. And the overwhelming majority of parents that buy for their kids don't even know a secondary market exists.

Limiting short term resellers is good for the long term LEGO investor.  It will remove the short term flippers and shrink the herd.  There will be a premium on data and information.  Time(and patience) and rarity of sets will become important once again.

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Limiting resellers is good for the long term LEGO investor.  It will remove the short term flippers and shrink the herd.  There will be a premium on data and information.  Time(and patience) and rarity of sets will become important once again.

Absolutely right. I withheld this opinion because I know there are a lot of BP members that resell, but I think Diabolos said it also much earlier in the thread. While resellers are hurt, TLC's witch hunting should actually have a postitive effect on Lego hobbyist (like me) that like to buy and hold a few of only specific sets.

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Absolutely right. I withheld this opinion because I know there are a lot of BP members that resell, but I think Diabolos said it also much earlier in the thread. While resellers are hurt, TLC's witch hunting should actually have a postitive effect on Lego hobbyist (like me) that like to buy and hold a few of only specific sets.

There is no reason to sugar coat it.  People will have to adapt or move onto the next investment.  There is still plenty of money to be made though, but as I said earlier, it's going to take some research, some luck, some effort and most of all...time.  Keeping The LEGO company strong and prosperous is necessary for our investment growth.

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Help Wanted

 

Need buyers to purchase Amazon Lego sets on your Amazon account, within minutes of my text message to you telling you to buy. Will pay $1 to $5 per item. Must live in Blah Blah, Michigan, I will meet you at Blah Blah Park on Tuesday at 6 a.m. to pick up, I will be wearing dark glasses and driving a non-descript Ford without license plates. Call me "Jim".

 

(Basically, once any of us know they're serious about their limits, we can find ways around, under, or through them if we really want to. Amazon and LEGO Shop at Home will only catch the inexperienced, innocent, or arrogant once word gets out they're lowering ban-hammers.)

Love this!

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500th Post!

 

There is no reason to sugar coat it.  People will have to adapt or move onto the next investment.  There is still plenty of money to be made though, but as I said earlier, it's going to take some research, some luck, some effort and most of all...time.  Keeping The LEGO company strong and prosperous is necessary for our investment growth.

 

Absolutely right. I withheld this opinion because I know there are a lot of BP members that resell, but I think Diabolos said it also much earlier in the thread. While resellers are hurt, TLC's witch hunting should actually have a postitive effect on Lego hobbyist (like me) that like to buy and hold a few of only specific sets.

 

I mostly sell rebuilt used sets new and current that I buy locally on Craigslist. I like to mix that with a little flipping and little investing and even a little parting out of new sets. I totally agree with the two of you people need to diversify and work harder for these dollars and people who can't will be weeded out and will strengthen the overall lego secondary market. My current business model nets me a nice 5 digit income yearly and I rarely have to buy more than a few sets online at a time. I hit the streets and search for clearance on an almost daily basis. I've always known there were huge sellers who this would effect but it's hard to imagine with my current model.

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Have you all noticed the complete lack of any discount on the larger Lego sets listed on Amazon?  This started a couple weeks ago...I have to wonder if Lego asked them to stop discounting "collectible" sets for fear of them falling into resellers hands.

 

Yeah, it has really been dry.  Here are a smattering that are at or above retail on Amazon right now:

 

10233 Horizon Express

10237 Tower of Orthanc (3rd party reseller)

853373 Kingdoms Chess

10937 Arkham Assylum

10240 Red X-Wing Starfighter (3rd party reseller)

10232 Palace Cinema - this one has only hit MSRP once! Now at nearly $200

10220 VW Camper

10225 R2D2

10229 Winter Village Cottage

10221 SSD

10197 Fire Brigade

10218 Pet Shop

10211 Grand Emporium

10214 Tower Bridge

10224 Town Hall

 

What's worse is that apart from a few isolated opportunities, the prices on these have barely moved since that awesome May 30 sale.

 

When comparing these to Lego S@H with their freebies/promos, S@H looks better every day, especially if you have to pay sales tax to Amazon.

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Have you all noticed the complete lack of any discount on the larger Lego sets listed on Amazon?  This started a couple weeks ago...I have to wonder if Lego asked them to stop discounting "collectible" sets for fear of them falling into resellers hands.

Hmm, they seem to have the usual $.05 discounts to me..  There is that LEGO Dailego set on sale for about $156 ;)

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Spoke with customer service about my warning. Multiple accounts with same payment method and ship to address. They told me there was no need to have multiple accounts as it costs them money to maintain each account every month. They offered to put everyone in my household on my prime membership for free if I linked the accounts together...I did. I still don't get it...we still have separate accounts...but now share prime benefits. How is that saving them money? Very odd conversation. My account is cleared and woman said it had nothing to do with my purchases or purchasing and mentioned my account was a model..and thanked me for 15 years of business.

Free prime for a year or for life???

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500th Post!

 

 

 

I mostly sell rebuilt used sets new and current that I buy locally on Craigslist. I like to mix that with a little flipping and little investing and even a little parting out of new sets. I totally agree with the two of you people need to diversify and work harder for these dollars and people who can't will be weeded out and will strengthen the overall lego secondary market. My current business model nets me a nice 5 digit income yearly and I rarely have to buy more than a few sets online at a time. I hit the streets and search for clearance on an almost daily basis. I've always known there were huge sellers who this would effect but it's hard to imagine with my current model.

Nicely said!!! I use your very same methods and get to build a lot of cool sets to sell. Then use the money for clearance deals or large sets. I find my dollar goes much further shopping locally and cl. Occasionally I buy good deals off of ebays buy it now. Ill hit multiple stores when the sales are good. But I never ever order 10 plus sets of anything online... Ill go to the lego store and buy 10 bwings on two separate trips but not anymore than that. Sucks hear people getting banned but I believe this will discourage new investors and flippers.

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