Amazon Marketplace cutting off low-volume sellers

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by cartologist, May 9, 2017.

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  1. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    Amazon has huge buying power. Look what happened to the book market.
    I don't buy that much music media from Amazon anyway, but agree that they probably did get some pressure over counterfeits. However, wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy directly from the labels and keep all the profit? (I never sold anything through Amazon so I don't know how much they take from you as a third party seller).
    I did get a couple of scores on Amazon over the years- one was supposed to be a reissue of an extremely rare prog album, and the seller sent me an unplayed still in shrink original pressing. Oops. That happened more than once, but it was sheer luck on my part and/or ignorance on the part of the seller- who figured, oh this guy wants that new reissue, I'll just send him this old record, what's the difference? In the first case, probably about a grand or more.
    So, if you are a label owner, presumably you can still sell under the new rules even if your output is small/niche stuff?
     
  2. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    I checked my inventory a few days ago and they wiped me out. :shrug:
     
  3. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    They took down three of my items out of 295. Not bad. All nice CDs, and not cheap ones either.

    Inactive

    Turtle Soup [Audio CD] Turtles …
    B000003GZC

    Inactive

    Mstislav Rostropovich: The Russian Years [Audio CD] Mstislav Rostropovich; Lopes-Graca; Knipper; Vainberg; Tishchenko; Khachatuian and Toyama …
    B0000247G5

    Inactive

    Live From Isle Of Wight [Audio CD] The Who …
     
  4. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    In a nutshell what type of seller were you? High end gold disc audiophile or the ...........
     
  5. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    Some OOP MFSL, import boxed sets, all oop cd's, alternative, mostly. I was really surprised. I don't think it matters what type of stuff as long as it can fall under the heading of "popular music". They seem to want all "collector-type" selling individuals like I was GONE. All the bigger "store-front" mega sellers get the playing field all to themselves. :realmad:

    Unless, of course, they are next.......:whistle:
     
    PhantomStranger likes this.
  6. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Amusingly, one of the items they restricted me from selling is a listing that I added to Amazon--a long tail set that basically no one else sells.

    "Popular"...? Haha...
     
  7. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Label and price range, please.
     
  8. I think Amazon is largely doing these token moves to appease the labels and larger distributors they deal with. Given how random the removed items appear to be, I don't think there is much rhyme or reason behind the choices.
     
    rob68 likes this.
  9. rob68

    rob68 Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    I finally logged in to Amazon today. They removed four of the eight CDs that I had listed. One Doors CD but not another Doors CD, which makes no sense....3CD Simon & Garfunkel set...Carpenters...Jeff Buckley. Ha! What a joke.
     
  10. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    They may be asked to do another round of the choppping block later.
     
  11. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    I think they are pulling stuff because it's hurting their MP3 sales
     
  12. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    Since this new rule I've noticed used classical listings have dried up a lot. Discs are now on average $7 and up. CDs that are still in print and can be bought from UK classical dealers brand new for (more often) significantly less than what the third party sellers are listing them for on Amazon for used discs. I bought a complete series of Szigeti for 25 GBP shipped from the UK, this would have been over $100 on Amazon for used CDs, before this rule the price would have been closer (probably slightly higher since they don't combine shipping) to the UK dealer's.
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2017
  13. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
  14. Joseph.McClure

    Joseph.McClure Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I haven't bought any product from any third party sellers since the purge started...saving me a lot of money.
     
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  15. cartologist

    cartologist Just the son of an Iowa girl Thread Starter

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Neither have I. Being a small buyer and seller I preferred small sellers with 95%+ ratings. I could be pretty sure of what I was getting; if not, when I asked questions about the product, I could get answers. Not anymore.
     
    PhantomStranger and Matthew Tate like this.
  16. I think it was Amazon's intention to drive away smaller sellers, artificially making new inventory sold by Amazon look more attractively priced. Practically the only remaining third party sellers on Amazon Marketplace are the retail fronts for the remaining national music distributors. I think Amazon wants to "finish" off physical media sooner rather than later because they have identified the physical product they want in their warehouses to lure customers - food products. It's why they bought Whole Foods. Mark my words, they will be out of physical media within the next four years.

    I actually think there is a pretty good case of de facto collusion and price fixing going on in the CD market now between Amazon and its largest suppliers. An enterprising attorney general in one of the larger states (California, New York) could probably win that case.
     
    tmtomh, zen archer and Matthew Tate like this.
  17. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I don't see how. You and anyone else are free to sell your CDs, cheaper if you want, anywhere else in the world except Amazon. Amazon is not the only place to buy CDs. What law would require them to share their privately built advertising platform with you?
     
    Lost In The Flood and Dave like this.
  18. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    He said "between Amazon and it's largest suppliers". Yes, Amazon can make it impossible for the collectors and small-time sellers to sell on their site, and they are. Why are they cutting out the little guys? Because we were the ones selling cd's for much less than Amazon itself and the major suppliers/sellers who didn't like that. So Amazon set hurtles in front of us small, private sellers to sell there that only major suppliers could possibly meet. Is it illegal? No? Can we simply pick up our toys and sell elsewhere? Sure, but Amazon was a great, easy place to sell and has LOTS of traffic. This is no small deal to us, many of us really depended on Amazon for years and we got dumped to make the big guys happy.
    They did in fact "fix" the pricing there now in that the super low deals that used to be there are gone, buyers will now pay much more for the same items. I don't even want to talk or think about this any more I'm so mad.
     
  19. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
    :agree: Discogs = the new Amazon music site. Just always remember to ask confirmation questions prior to purchasing. The positive effects of this method can yield great results by crappy sellers either moving their product into the correct release or abandoning Discogs due to people wanting 100% release confirmation prior to the buy button. Amazon is scum considering they built their legacy on our backs and are now bending us over. As my own pledge to myself...[​IMG] I swear I will never buy another single item through Amazon. Whatever I want I will contact the manufacturers website and if they will not sell directly to me I will ask where I can purchase it. If they say only on Amazon I will let them know in no uncertain terms that I will not support Amazon again in my life. Loss of sales speaks quite loudly to a manufacturer.
     
    Matthew Tate and George P like this.
  20. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    You said it - and to top it all off, they have not ONCE said WHY they decided to implement this major change despite hundreds of direct emails to the Amazon Seller help desk by concerned and disgruntled long-time sellers there. Couldn't be bothered to explain. Probably because the real reason is so bogus and underhanded they didn't have the stones to say it out loud or in print.
     
    Matthew Tate and Dave like this.
  21. rob68

    rob68 Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Does anyone know how to actually close out your Amazon seller account, or is deleting any remaining products for sale the most you can do?
     
  22. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    No AG is going to take on Amazon at the moment, because they’re all bidding to be the site of their HQ2.
     
  23. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    1998 Jeff would have listened to CDs. Now he is a cool vinyl only guy, forgot about his roots.

    [​IMG]
     
    SimonSaysCake and no.nine like this.
  24. rob68

    rob68 Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Nevermind. I figured it out. You have to wait 90 days since your last sale to close out your account.
     
  25. George P

    George P Notable Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yesterday an item I had ordered from amazon, which was part of a larger order, did not arrive. I didn't notice it at the time, but tonight realized it never came. I went to amazon and checked the order. Apparently, the item was damaged in delivery and was determined by amazon to be undeliverable. However, amazon did not inform of this, nor did they automatically refund my order when they realized the product was damaged. They also didn't schedule and expedite a replacement.

    So I did the chat thing and the best (fastest) they could do was refund the money as an amazon credit, but due to processing time, I would have to wait a few hours. The chat, which should have been a simple conversation, took nearly an hour. At the end, I had had it and told them to refund my credit card instead, that I would go buy the product in a store, where I would be buying all my products from now on.

    By the way, the product in question is B-100 tablets, a supplement that I take for stress. I wonder why I need to take these things? :disgust:
     
    Dave and jsayers like this.
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