Amazon Marketplace introduces new ship-to-Amazon service Fulfillment by Amazon

[iron_chick]

It's such a bad idea, I'm surprised eBay didn't come up with it first.

What happens when they can't find a book that's sold?  Say it's a $50 book.  I know I sent them my $50 book and now they say they don't have it.  It's gone.  (Heh, it happens around here but at least then it's my own fault.)    Are they gonna send me my $50 and eat the loss or am I even though they're the ones who lost the book?  (OK, so that's a rhetorical question.  I know they're not gonna eat it.)

I can only hope this is such a bad idea that most sellers don't buy into it and the "fullfilled by Amazon" thingee won't be all over the place.

[bargainbloodhound]

It's such a bad idea, I'm surprised eBay didn't come up with it first.

I think I'll suggest it for eBay Express. 

[thentavius]

There has to be someone this would work for. I mean, there's gotta be. They must have sat around in planning meetings discussing who this would benefit most, and why it would benefit Amazon.

Perhaps they're targeting people like Simon & Schuster, who can afford to send Amazon truckloads of their out of print or non-moving books.

[iron_chick]

Several of the folks over there mentioned that they expect eXpress to be the best new thing since sliced bread.

Am I missing something there?  I really can't see how it's going to impact my eBay book sales since almost all of my books are used and won't show in the default search.

[bargainbloodhound]

[quote author=thentavius link=topic=3418.msg12592#msg12592 date=1145378116]
There has to be someone this would work for. I mean, there's gotta be. They must have sat around in planning meetings discussing who this would benefit most, and why it would benefit Amazon.

Perhaps they're targeting people like Simon & Schuster, who can afford to send Amazon truckloads of their out of print or non-moving books.
[/quote]

Maybe, but a lot of the larger sellers are dropshippers.  Caiman_com (casacaiman with 9000 negs on eBay) has 2.1 million listings on Marketplace, but (according to the frequent hate posts their buyers leave on Half.com) they're dropshipping so they couldn't use Amazon's fulfillment.

[xppman]

seems Az is trying to become like ebay and ebay is trying to become like Az?

[amy]

[quote author=xppman link=topic=3418.msg12599#msg12599 date=1145397673]
seems Az is trying to become like ebay and ebay is trying to become like Az?
[/quote]

I hope they don't try to become more like eBay with fees.  The last time Marketplace subscription fees were raised was July 2000.

[Anita]

"It's such a bad idea, I'm surprised eBay didn't come up with it first."



The idea is just toooooooooo weird!!!

[bargainbloodhound]

The original fulfillment thread on Amazon is up to 18 pages
http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/for...dID=116551&tstart=0

There's also a fulfillment poll asking sellers if they plan to use the service.  I just glanced at the first page, but it looks like every post on page 1 says NO.

http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/for...dID=116568&tstart=0

[iron_chick]

I just don't see a lot of sellers going along.
As has been mentioned on the boards there, I can possibly see some advantage to a retired type small book seller who just wants to travel in an RV and buy (and resell) books.  They can list the books, ship  them off to AZ, and be done with it.
I can possibly see some advantage for a mega remainder seller.  Ship half of the inventory for each book off to AZ and keep half to sell on other venues, if doing so lets you cut warehouse and staff shipping costs.

BUT, my suspicion is that once AZ comes out with the $$ for this little plan, the $$ aren't going to work for either example above. 

My warehousing costs are minimial.  Right now it's my 3d bedroom but I am about to rent some space for ~$100 a month.

It takes so little time for fulfillment when selling books that I can't imagine I'd be willing to pay even close to what AZ is going to want for its services.