Do you sell DVDs on Amazon.com?
If so, keep reading to find out about some new changes from Amazon that might affect your business.
Approval Required to Sell DVDs with MSRP of $25 of more
Here’s an excerpt from an email about Amazon policy that was sent out to Amazon.com sellers earlier this week.
“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.”
Depending on your current account performance, you may or may not be eligible to apply for approval to sell these higher-end DVDs.
Important Note: This applies to both new and used DVDs.
To apply, contact Amazon Seller Support and be prepared to provide this information:
- Your primary source(s) of inventory.
- A minimum of three (3) invoices or purchase orders for inventory with MSRP greater than $25 that you plan to sell.
- A written summary of processes you have in place to prevent inauthentic goods from entering your inventory.
You’ll also need to become a Pro Merchant within 30 days of approval if you’re not one already. And you know why it’s so important to be a Pro Merchant, right?
There’s one important thing to remember here
“Your eligibility to list DVDs with MSRPs of less than $25 or Blu-rays is not affected by this restriction.”
This means that you can continue to list Blu-rays with MSRP of $25 or greater. This means that this restriction is only for more expensive DVDs, mostly box sets and collectors’ editions.
What Can You Do About Counterfeit Goods?
The hardest part about getting approval will likely be explaining how you’ll be preventing inauthentic items from entering your inventory. Here’s what I’d recommend you highlight:
- Your experience as a seller. Explain how you know what counterfeit DVDs look like and will prevent them from entering your inventory.
- Your sourcing methods. Highlight the fact that your business is built on new in packaging DVDs from reputable sources.
I’d be curious to know what your letter includes if you get approved. Leave a comment on this post and let me know!
Not Interested in Approval?
If you don’t want to continue selling these items, and are an FBA seller, Amazon is actually offering you a deal:
“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.”
So make sure you don’t miss out on that deadline and request your free removal or disposal soon!
Why the Change?
This looks pretty simple. Counterfeit DVDs are a huge issue for Amazon sellers, Amazon customers and Amazon themselves. Personally, as a buyer I’ve definitely received counterfeit DVDs from 3rd-party merchants on Amazon, albeit not for a few years.
And similar to how currency counterfeiters prefer to make phony $100 bills, DVD counterfeiters are focusing on higher-end, DVDs because there’s more profit there than in faking a $5 bargain bin DVD.
5 Responses
I sell a decent amount of dvds and focus on dvds that are still in the wrapping. I’d say most of the dvds I sell have a lower mrsp even if they now sell for me. However, there are some workout dvds and other specialty dvds I find that are higher.
My worry is the fact I don’t buy dvd’s from wholesalers or anything. I source them through thrift stores, yard sales etc. I usually stick with new in the wrapping but sometimes will send in used in like new condition. From here on out I might just have to avoid used all together.
I am also interested to hear about anyone that gets approved, what they did and what their email looks like. I sure how someone will share that knowledge with us all 🙂
I guess the next idea would be to find a reputable dealer to buy a few from to get those invoices and approved and then can go back to sourcing as usual? But does anyone know of where to buy those dvds at? Even if it is at a loss at first just to get approved.
I agree that this policy seems somewhat arbitrary in regards to out of print titles and the determination of the MSRP. So far, Amazon has not provided a way to show the “official” MSRP on any given item. It appears the list price is not the same as the MSRP, so who knows what DVDs will actually be restricted and which ones won’t. This policy seems out of place for sellers of rare inventory, or inventory from an legitimate seller, who hypothetically was making legitimate purchases from a manufacturer for years, who couldn’t afford to make purchases the last 6 months. He gets a letter from Amazon saying he needs to provide proof that he’s a legitimate seller with an invoice from the last 180 days. He cannot provide one because of the circumstances, and there was no warning given by Amazon or even chatter about this. What bothers me is I won’t know which of my FBA inventory will be unavailable to sell until after the cutoff date, or unless they provide a list of items that will be unavailable to sell from what we have listed.
This is a huge mess and I feel very bad for the customers who paid for prime memberships, to buy from genuine sellers that they come to trust, quality items. It is sad that a company like Amazon that prides itself on 30 day returns (and even more days in many cases) has brought itself gto the point of not even allowing sellers to sell quality, in demand, rare merchandise. I remember when Amazon was just books. Maybe they’re trying to go back to that model.
DVDs sellers’ policy must be according to interest of customer too. SD Card Duplication Services
Most of the titles that I’ve seen blocked are HBO and Warner Bros–both series sets and movies. Someone else mentioned Disney as being blocked on a previous thread, but I’ve had no issues with those and if anything is prone to counterfeiting it’s Disney titles.
There’s really no rhyme nor reason–I was able to list a couple of HBO titles a few weeks ago and they lasted about a week or so before they got blocked and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to sell them before they got blocked.
I’ve pretty much backed out of the DVD business unless it’s a high-value, obscure title–those don’t tend to be blocked.