I notice a lot of deals posted for Amazon here, but nobody ever mentions ordering Third Party through Amazon. I noticed many times third party is substantially cheaper for a new Blu-ray.

Is there some reason not to order from third parties? bad experiences? Pirated non original merchandise?

As long as they have good feedback ratings (look for sellers with a ton of transactions and 95%+ feedback) there's no good reason to avoid third-party sellers - as you said, they're typically a lot less expensive. Though in my experience if you buy multiple items from the same seller, they will charge you the flat shipping rate for each item which kind of blows. Not sure whether this applies to all third party sellers but it did with the few I bought from.

Given how much Amazon takes a bite from each sale a seller has, I would imagine most sellers will be happy to hang onto the 2.98 they get credited for each item even if they do ship multiple items in one package.

On a similar note, I've had three items from the same seller on the same day shipped separately. This is something Amazon needs to work on - there's really no reason a buyer shouldn't be able to combine items from the same seller for a shipping discount.

Amazon definitely needs to set up combined shipping somehow. I would buy a lot more through the marketplace if I wasn't being charged $2.98 shipping for every single item I buy from a seller. It really rips the buyer off.

Of course, the one time I had a buyer purchase two items at once I kept the extra money. Both items together in a single new bubble mailer shipped first class with delivery confirmation didn't even use half of what the shipping charge was. I didn't exactly feel right doing it, but I've been on the other side plenty of times too.

Combined shipping would def be nice. I recently bought like 15 books from same seller. Obviously it didn't cost $45 to ship. On the other hand, most of them were priced at a penny so that's part of the guys business plan.

There's nothing a Marketplace seller can do about charges for each item ordered. It's built into Amazon's system. The seller can, however, return excess charges.

My store sells on Amazon. I sold three books yesterday to one buyer who paid $6.99 three times for priority mail. I was able to fit all three in one flat rate priority mail envelope. The postage cost us $4.80. I refunded two of the three postage fees.

BTW, I don't think 95% positive is very good. I'd recommend at least 98%. Our rating is 100% positive across all the time periods (which, in practice, means 99.5% or higher and less that .5% neutral and negative combined because they round). There is no way to get all positives with high volume as there is always some bonehead out there who will blame you, for example, if the post office screws up or mangles a well-wrapped, well-protected package. I've even gotten a neutral because someone didn't like the book! Buyers are supposed to contact the seller first if there is a problem so the seller can resolve it but some don't.

I would also say read at least a few pages of feedback. Look for the negatives, if any (we haven't had one in almost a year). See if the seller has responded and see whether the response makes sense. Sometimes it's obvious a negative wasn't deserved and you can discount it.

I believe there are rules on such things. It's like posting deals on e-bay. The reason is to keep people from selling on e-bay, Amazon, etc., then posting the deal on here, making for free advertising for them. Though that rule may only apply to the marketplace, but I can still see the issue as third party sellers could still come on here and promote their merchandise. So the question is, would we mind that in order for such deals to be posted?