Amazon does not give sellers enough funds to cover an LP shipped Internationally

I listed a bunch of LPs, classical titles on the CRI label. A highly respected label of modern classical. Most, but not all of the catalog is or was on CD. So the rare pricy ones are mainly the Electronic titles which I sold off on ebay last year. But some of my remaining titles are still sealed, and are some very early catalog numbers, condition lovely on all.

So I was listing LPs at $9.99 to $34.99, most always lower than other sellers for the given condition.

I decided to price one LP out of the stack for $1.00 just to see what would happen. It was NM cover and LP.

A guy from Finland bought it. And after I packed it up and shipped it out at the cheapest shipping, I was out about $5.00.

So I lost about $5.00 buy sending it outside of the US. Had I sold it in the US I might have made .50.

Is Amazon ok with stiffing sellers on shipping costs now that they have gone up again and again? Sellers must be abandoning international sales by the droves? I can see that a $1.00 item,s is going to result in a loss, but this to me means that even if the item sold for $40, there is a loss on shipping to be uncured. I guess Amazon wants you to overprice your merch to cover any losses, kind of like eBay asked of us some years ago during a fee hike.

Now, some my items are available to ship overseas, but now only for the Int. Priority cost of $47 to ship one or two LPs. That is asking a lot of your buyers. They must be rich to cover that one. As a matter of fact, some of the addresses I've sent to in Japan, and other places sound very exclusive, like they own the top floor of the tower on the hill.

 

I don't know how it works on Amazon.com. But on Amazon.de I get 1.95 Euros to ship CDs or LPs within Germany. Same amount whether it is 1 CD, a 50 CD box, 1 LP or whatever. Similar with international shipping. Enough to ship 1 CD or small 2-3 CD set regular (non-registered) airmail. On anything else I would lose money, sometimes a lot of money. So I only sell internationally if buyers contact me. Sometimes it is necessary to raise the price.

 

I haven't sold on Amazon.com very often, but I've always just listed the item as available to US buyers only. One time someone from Japan emailed me asking to buy my item and I told him I couldn't ship internationally. He managed to get a friend in the US to order the item so I could ship it to them instead.

Amazon's shipping credit basically barely covers the cost of shipping within the US (and maybe doesn't even cover the cost once you add the purchase of a box or padded envelope). I think one has to price one's items accordingly.

 

You get what you get for shipping from Amazon. Figure out if it makes sense for you before listing.

That's the long and short of it, honestly.

 

It'd be nice if it were that simple. But one must evaluate the situation every now and again. What worked fine a year ago when you set up your listings can easily not work now after later International postage hikes.

 

Actually, it's pretty easy: Just remove the international shipping option on all your listings, then if you want add it back on a limited number of items where your profit margin is so high that it can cover any international shipping shortfalls AND the added risks of shipping internationally.

For me, I just transferred most of my stuff over to the Amazon FBA program (they ship your stuff from their warehouse). Then your items can be listed for international shipment and you don't need to worry at all about shipping costs or shipping losses.

 

I know, and you are quite proud of that (you've mentioned it several times), that you have this inventory worth using the FBA program, but it's not practical for sellers of collectibles, and one offs like my stuff, nor for lower cost items $9.99 to $13.99 unless you have dozens of copies of the same title.

What titles btw are you selling on Amazon with the FSA?

 

I mostly sell new/sealed music on Amazon where my profit margins are pretty large, which means if I sell an item for $10 (and I have a lot of stuff listed around that amount) I still make significant (margin) money. If you sell new stuff, you can get the "buy box" and that adds VERY appreciably to your chances of selling something for a lot more than if you ship it yourself...

I've sold a lot of one-off stuff through the FBA program. As long as it's something priced properly, it will sell.

 

1. I always thought that the profit margins on used was larger than new. Like a $1.00 LP I bought at a thrift store and got $14.99 for it was better than profits on new items, no?
2. I don't trust Amazon to pack my LPs as well as I can do it myself. Horror stories abound.

I am currently satisfied with my sales and the profits made on my items. I do get higher prices for most items than I would on ebay. And I can sit back and do nothing for months and watch the sales come in (unlike ebay). It's very stress free. I sold 14.99 and a 29.99 items last week on Amazon, no complaints on these prices for the items that no one here would bat an eye at.

What are your titles, if you can name a couple.... ?