Along side my eBay venture, I also signed up to Amazon FBA. If I am selling on eBay might as well go for it on Amazon as well. Everyone says that it is a bit late to get in the game.
As the saying goes, the best time to start is now. Yes, I would have probably done better when I started a couple years ago, but I say the same thing about affiliate marketing.
So
My Amazon Seller app said I was restricted, but I figured I will buy now and worry about the restrictions later. Well, at home I tried to apply to be 'ungated' (the Amazon FBA community terminology) and I need to order from a distributor and show the receipts and order details.
Well, I only have a receipt from Wal-Mart. This was a bust.
I started Googling and Youtubing about how to get ungated from certain categories. The other problem is the restriction needs to be approved by the brand too!
Oh well, I posted the items on eBay.
Now, I thought to myself I need to find out which categories are not gated or restricted and so I can focus on just those. Watching all these videos online about sell shoes, sell toys, sell brands, etc do not work for beginners such as myself in this Amazon FBA space.
I came across this vide from the Bearded Picker:
He basically says to focus on what isn't gated. Toys specifically are gated for 3 months, so it is a seasonal restriction. Bearded Picker even says, he gets restricted on and off depending on the season.
Within the video nearing the end, he says to focus on products that are not restricted. This allows new sellers to grow and I agree, I was caught up on the popular shoes that I have never worn, toys for kids, electronics, that I wanted to start shipping them to Amazon.
Dealing with the restrictions later on. I am the
I am still trying to find a list that is mostly ungated, but a lot of sellers in the Amazon Facebook Groups says it is all dependent on the type of account (professional or single) and the account score. Which I am learning all about.
Back back to the Bearded Picker theory, focus on what is not gated. It will take a while to figure out because you have to do a lot of scanning to find out what is and what is not gated.
Every time I am out, I just start scanning with my Amazon Seller app and see what I can send to Amazon. I will then take note of the category and even the subcategory because there are toys that I am gated, but some subcategories that I am not.
So you have to keep that in mind, have a mental note of that. Then when you go out scanning again, you will only scan what you know you are not gated on. Important.
This is just like when I do affiliate marketing, or starting a startup business. Focus on what is readily available to you, especially when starting out. It can be a pain because you want to follow everyone, but if you do that you will get lost. The bigger issue is that you might mess up even more.
So ... this is the start of my Amazon and eBay journey. I am thinking if I should do a documentary-style video of success and failures, similar to what I did with my affiliate marketing journey. Thoughts?
