New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $25+
 

New Amazon.com restrictions that will affect mostly people who sell new releases, box-sets, TV sets, Criterions or Disney stuff.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to provide a great shopping experience, beginning November 17, 2014, only approved sellers will be eligible to list DVDs with Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP) of $25 or greater. We are implementing this restriction because these products may have a higher risk of authenticity issues.

Based on your current performance, you are eligible to apply to sell DVDs with MSRPs of $25 or greater. The application process is described below. You will not be eligible to list DVDs with MSRPs of $25 or greater after November 17 unless your application is approved. Your eligibility to list DVDs or Blu-Rays with MSRPs of less than $25 is not affected by this restriction.

Any listings by unapproved sellers for DVDs with MSRPs of $25 or greater will be removed on November 16, 2014. Relisting products you are not approved to sell or creating duplicate listings may result in the immediate suspension or removal of your selling privileges.

To begin an application, click here:

If you apply and you do not have an account with a Professional selling plan, you must agree to sign up for a Professional selling plan within 30 days after your application is approved. A Seller Support associate will follow-up to request additional information to complete your application. At that time, you will need to provide the following to the Seller Support associate:

1) Your primary source(s) of inventory
2) A minimum of three (3) invoices or purchase orders for inventory with MSRP greater than $25 that you plan to sell
3) A written summary of processes you have in place to prevent inauthentic goods from entering your inventory

Your application will be evaluated based on the information you supply.

If you use Fulfillment by Amazon, you will need to create a removal or disposal order for any DVD products you have not been approved to sell after November 17. We will waive fees for any removal or disposal order for these products starting now through January 16, 2015."

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Wow, lots of pirates have fucked up for everyone else.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

What the fuck.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Done with Amazon now too. I'm not going through all that. Their fees are ridiculous to begin with. This is an obvious move to bolster professional seller sales at the expense of guys like me that just want to sell a few unwanted things from time to time.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Does this apply only to new items?
What about OOP titles with original MSRP of 14.99 but now being listed at $25+ new or used?
What if item has MSRP of $80 new, can list used at $30? Or under $30?

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Sounds like any DVD with a MSRP over $25 will only be allowed to be sold by an "approved" seller, regardless of what you are pricing it at or if it is new or used.

In order to approved you will need to present Amazon with proof that you are obtaining these DVDs from a distributor, so you won't be able to list that unwanted or extra copy of Captain America The Winter Soldier you got for Christmas.

The wording seems a bit ambiguous regarding blu-rays, though.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Yeah, I got that email this morning. Problem I see, aren't most blu rays sporting an MSRP above $25 already? That's not even taking into account boxsets, season sets, or deluxe editions.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Yeah, got the notice this morning. Not only do you have to apply for this "approval." If once you are approved you will have to upgrade to a "professional selling plan," which is $39.99 a month. This isn't a big deal but if you're not running a business and only use them to offload a few items here and there, well, you just lost $40 at the end of your haul.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

There are an awful a lot of sellers pretty pissed off about this. I have a shit-load of DVDs listed for sale there and in no way do I qualify for what they are requiring. I'm just going to ride it out until Nov 17th (when the cut off to apply is) and see what happens. I'm really hoping Amazon gets inudated with a shit-load of complaints and tweaks the policy in some way so I can breathe a bit easier about it all.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

"We are implementing this restriction because these products may have a higher risk of authenticity issues." -

BULLSHIT! This is just their cover up to eliminate competition, which is "us".

Not to say that there aren't piracy but don't bootleg sellers sell their crap for dirt cheap and way under the MSRP?

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

D*ck L*ckers.

This is total BS. They are bending over backward to protect their big sellers. This used to be a nice program for individuals to sell an unwanted/used/extra disc, but it's become an online outlet for massive companies too lazy to build their own websites. Have you seen these sellers? 100,000+ feedback?? 1,000,000+ feedback??? WTF????

$40 a month is about all I sell. It makes no sense at all for me to "upgrade" to professional seller status. Goodbye Amazon.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

This is all about eliminating price competition. Individual sellers were undercutting Amazon's own prices and hurting sales. The bit about piracy is laughable, an excuse cooked up to paper over complaints.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

I only sold one or three things over the years, so yeah, I don't think I'll be upgrading either.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Just when I thought Amazon couldn't go any further down the shitter...

They're completely alienating and giving the finger to smaller sellers, so that Amazon may get more residual income ($40 / month!) from other "privileged" big sellers. And more fees, etc. Has nothing to do about piracy at all, but about greed, and lining Amazon's pockets, of course.

Fuck Amazon... And as their coup de grace, next they'll probably raise shipping to $4.99 for DVDs, in order to continue providing "a great shopping experience."

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

I've ordered from about 80 different market sellers and never come across bootlegs, are they really that common?

When I read "authenticity" then what comes to mind for me is the prevalence of sellers employing false advertising and then compounding it with mail fraud. Mostly be hawking "New" discs that are clearly open, reshinkwrapped badly, etc. although just this week I was sent a 2011 Echo Bridge version if a DVD where the seller had claimed that it was the 2005 Dimension version.

It's a real shame, but I'd say that about 1/3 of everything that I order from market sellers has to be mailed back or gets comped to me, and if I were Amazon then I'd want to cut down on how much so many of these merchants cost it in trust and A-to-Z $$$.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Never received a bootleg DVD from an Amazon seller, but I've gotten so many bootleg and dodgy "import" CDs from Amazon sellers that I stopped buying CDs from Amazon marketplace.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

I sort of agree with this and I knew something was up when just a few months ago they began capping what you could and could not sell right away on the site. You'd have to wait weeks or months to finally sell something and by then the value of the item may have dropped considerably.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Just got off the phone with a supervisor who patiently listened to my 5 minute rant and then said "thank you. I'll note your complaint. Bye"

I can't believe Amazon is going to drive me back to ebay. They've been such a breeze to use to subsidize this hobby. It's going to suck hard to lose them.

Even worse, and what I don't think they realized and what I told them over the phone, they are not only going to lose the commission on these they are going to lose the sales of new products because I will no longer have access to an easy way to subsidize the purchase of new discs. That is something I did this summer to about the tune of $2K in new purchases.
The days of feeling like I can justify so many purchases are definitely coming to an end.

Good thing I went on that massive spending spree this past summer, because it kicked my ass in gear to list and sell just about anything and everything (and fortunately I did fully subsidize everything that was bought). If I'd waited, like I would do in the past, to concentrate on selling stuff closer to the holidays, I would be completely screwed now.
As it is, I'm going to have to drop prices just to blow the more expensive stuff out before the cutoff.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

As for their rationale for doing this-
I wouldn't be surprised if this is due to pressure from Disney (now the largest IP rights holder) and the other studios who have a vested interest in seeing price points more stringently maintained (remember the blow up with Warner listings? is it coincidence that they ironed that out and a policy like this pops up a month later?)
IIRC, Disney is also one of the company's that was making noise about the nature of selling used things in general- that it cut out the original rights holder/producer.

shit. I guess it looks like Goodwill and the public library is going to get a huge windfall from me in the future... cause I hate like hell to crawl back to ebay.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

If you have a local record store that accepts trade-ins, I'd try there.

I personally will not sell anything on eBay ever again, and this Amazon debacle is just icing for me to not sell anything myself online anymore.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Heh - I received a bootleg version of the complete Star Trek:TNG (in the green box) from Amazon THEMSELVES.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Both Amazon and Ebay have both gone over the deep end to avaricious, greedy pigs long ago. If you are a little guy trying to sell something, you are better off foregoing online giants entirely and using CL or even a local trader. Hope these guys will start coming back in force, and we will in time see a complete 180-degree turnaround to how things used to be locally-based in the '80s and '90s.

I'd say half.com, but its fees have gotten outrageous once it was taken over by the Ebay monster years ago.... So?

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Was it actually from Amazon or a third party seller using FBA? A couple of my bootleg CDs were FBA with free shipping, though it was the first option on the product page.

I suspect that it's not out of the realm of possibility for bootlegs to enter the distribution chain, especially with remainders. I suppose that someone could buy a cheap bootleg of an expensive item like the TNG set, buy a legitimate copy of the set, then return the bootleg to the legit seller for a refund.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

I already stopped selling at Amazon due to the ridiculous requirement for a social security number for anyone who had 50 transactions regardless of revenue. This just makes me laugh.

At one point I was literally spending thousands of dollars a year with Amazon, buying everything I wanted through them. I ended that once they became seller unfriendly.

I imagine some other site will pick up the slack for small sellers.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

They want people to sell them their used/new movies and for them (Amazon) to then supply their larger sellers (for a small fee of course!).

That's why I buy-to-keep these days. Hopefully we'll see a more multi-localized but online place which isn't so greedy.

Re: New Amazon.com restrictions for 3rd party sellers of DVDs/Blus with an MSRP of $2
 

Luckily I have a MovieStop in town and with trade promotions I can get great deals on new releases. Amazon and eBay are doing everything they can to push out the small time sellers. I really hope it bites them in the ass. Especially eBay.