Used Books Seller Approval
Hi I m fairly new to all of this selling on amazon, but i have setup an account etc to sell used books on this platform. Here is where my problems now start i have several titles that i cannot list due to having to have brand seller approval. I need to send prove of purchase from a distributor, but this is impossible due to me only having one copy and it being used.
As i said i am new to this and did not expect to have these issues to sell on here!!!
Can someone from amazon help me with this?? any advice appreciated.
Used Books Seller Approval
Hi I m fairly new to all of this selling on amazon, but i have setup an account etc to sell used books on this platform. Here is where my problems now start i have several titles that i cannot list due to having to have brand seller approval. I need to send prove of purchase from a distributor, but this is impossible due to me only having one copy and it being used.
As i said i am new to this and did not expect to have these issues to sell on here!!!
Can someone from amazon help me with this?? any advice appreciated.
122 replies
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
As a fellow second-hand bookseller (and there are several of us on here !), this is a problem that we are all experiencing. Amazon are requiring approval for many books now (when they say brand they actually mean publisher), some brands in particular, and then expect you to have invoices for 10 copies, which is ridiculous, as you say, you only have one of each. The only way round it is to try and sell elsewhere - you could try ebay - they don't have the same restrictions. Sadly, bookselling on here has become more difficult and there is so much competition from overseas sellers/dropshippers who list nearly every book in the catalogue, but don't actually have any in stock. As a new seller, be aware of the many pitfalls of selling on here - don't want to be a doom-monger, but not the easiest of platforms, with so many policies and metrics to keep to.
Seller_RAXEWLxQ2dbmN
Speaking as another bookseller who has been here for twenty years, I agree with the other comments about the decline in the platform.
Apart from the over the top demands for 'current invoices' for numerous titles, the catalogue itself is overrun with bogus duplicate ASINs created by malicious third parties. Competition is also fierce, with megasellers willing to list at what for most of us are financially suicidal prices. The search function (especially advanced search) is completely hopeless. Fees on books over £5 have increased dramatically in the last few years, as have postage prices. Without big postal discounts it is impossible to compete at the cheaper/popular end of the market.
It is only because I already have a lot of books listed that I soldier on. I have been donating hundreds of good books to charity in recent months as they are no longer worth the effort of selling on Amazon. Unlike megasellers, I don't sell hundreds or thousands of books per day for a few pence profit on each sale and I am trying not to be a busy fool.
Twenty years ago there was relatively little competition (no megasellers or dodgy dropshippers), the catalogue was more stable, postage costs were a lot lower, Amazon rules and restrictions were far less draconian and the search engine actually worked (sort of). Selling books and media on Amazon is now much harder work for less reward.
Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21
I entirely agree with Jilly , Number 6 and other booksellers on this thread. I have sold books in a very small way on Amazon for many years but it is becoming more and more difficult.
Amazon seem to be completely uninterested in our problems. Over the last year or so numerous "mods" have appeared on this forum promising to look into the various complaints we have made ( including the one you have made about needing "approval") - unfortunately no positive result ever seems to be achieved.
@Spencer_Amazon
@Julia_Amazon
Seller_f9qmYtHo6NHQv
Have had a similar issue. I reactivated my seller account that I had used previously several years ago and am faced with this ‘approval’ nonsense. I have 2 books I wish to list by the same author and both require ‘approval’ from the publisher. It’s OK for me to sell the books in a two or three book bundle but in both occasions I don’t have the second or third book. I have book A and book B but not book C, I have A but not book B or book C , or other combinations. It’s so frustrating that I can’t sell them individually or bundle the ones I have without ‘approval’.
Seller_f9qmYtHo6NHQv
Experiencing this as well and it seems to be regular issue highlighted by people on this forum. I just wish Amazon would get their act together and sort this out.
Seller_RAXEWLxQ2dbmN
Probably a dodgy speculative dropshipper.
I have the only copy of a certain academic paperback for sale on Amazon. I priced it at what I thought was a reasonable £30 but I keep getting high price alerts. I knock it down by a pound for each alert. It is now down to £24 and I'm still getting alerts and price suppressions from Amazon's idiot bots.
I think the bots are matching it against other books with the same title but different contents.
The really stupid thing is that an obvious dropshipper has a phantom 'new' copy at £85 . Fat chance of them sourcing a 'new' copy of a book that has been out of print for over fifty years
:-(
Seller_eX5PU1b0GGPXn
Yes and sometimes there's another listing also NEW but at a slightly cheaper amount also with very low positive feedback
Seller_vijjPUI46bUSN
Hi Brian,
I dont think the 90% rule is being applied at all. I've had a look on some of the listings were the big sellers are selling books at £3-£4 and one feedback score was 67%, a few in the 80% and a couple 90%. Youd think Amazon would be holding them to account for this? We small sellers get held to account for VTR and OTDR so why shouldn't they be held to account for poor review percentages. Its all part of a sellers performance metrics surely.
Also getting fed up now with sourcing stock that's selling for good prices of £15+ at the time of sourcing and then when I receieve it a few days later all the big sellers have jumped on the listing and selling copies for £3-4. This is just driving the prices down and I can't see how Amazon make much in fees either from books sold for £3-£4.
Any thoughts on this? Have you had many jumping on the listings and crashing the prices? Between the approval/gating issue and these other issues its absolutely ruining it for us small sellers
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hi LIAMTORetail,
I see quite a few sellers with sub-90% ratings - just looked at one with 89% and only ever sold 18 books (at ridiculous prices!) but one was undelivered and one was left on the drive!!
With the scarcity of feedback any low rating drives down the score - and people are ALWAYS more likely to feedback a problem!
I'm trying to retire, and haven't been buying much, but haven't noticed the trend you report - but am finding my initial research into a title shows higher prices than subsequent searches
An there are a LOT of books coming out of the woodwork at the moment...
All Best
Brian
Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21
This thread has so many interesting posts from various booksellers but it is almost impossible to follow - I am quite certain that Amazon introduced the "nested reply format" quite deliberately.
I also made a similar comment to Brian's about megasellers feedback about 10 or 12 years. I was berated for my comment .Amongst other things I was told that the figures were skewed because buyers only leave feedback when they are unhappy. (I dont believe this to be entirely true) . I believe that the example that Brian has quoted perfectly shows that megasellers
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hi dunsterville34,
You're post seems to have been curtailed and I'm interested to learn how it ends...
As for upset buyers leaving feedback, I have had over 1000 FBs and only 9 are Neutral or Negative... but haven't had ANY since 4/4/26... and as I've reported elsewhere my Lifetime feedbacks are decreasing, which shouldn't happen without Amazon interference
Oh, and I noted a Seller the other day who only had 50% on feedback - but I'm sure Amazon are helping them improve their score...
All Best
Brian
Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21
Brian
I drafted this post several weeks ago and then couldn't find the draft again until yesterday. I then posted it without noticing I hadn't finished it!! I can't remember exactly what I was going to say but it was something like --your example (which I now cannot find)! shows just how many complaints a 90% positive feedback actually means. ie 10% of a million feedbacks mean mean 100,000 unhappy customers.
I used to (and still do to a certain extent) trawl through an awful lot of other seller's feedback to find out what buyers were complaining about - so I tried to avoid their mistakes. There are a huge number of buyers who fall over backwards not to leave negative feedback. This is why I dont agree with the idea that it is only unhappy people that leave feedback.
Incidentally there have been a lot of posts on the subject of feedback to the affect that all buyers who do not leave feedback should be automatically assumed to be leaving positive feedback. I believe this would be a disaster for smaller booksellers as the megasellers would suddenly go from 90% to 99%
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hi dunsterville34,
There used to be an opportunity for Buyers to modify the star rating that they had left, if they felt the Seller had made apology/compensation...
In those instances I would often see a scathing write-up with a 4 or 5 star feedback... and assumed that a full refund or free replacement had been arranged
I agree that the bulk book sellers have many Customers who are only interested in a copy of the book in a timely fashion - but both a default 5 star or a 5* on repeat order would suffer from the problem of their indifference
The paucity of feedback means that any neutral or negative scores impact the overall total massively, but I haven't thought of any better scheme
All Best
Brian
Seller_eX5PU1b0GGPXn
I had the opposite problem
I bought a Book I had wanted for years
Arrived 3 days early in wonderful condition
I wanted to send feedback
Impossible as apparently it hasn't been delivered
I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING totally useless
Even used the useless AI CHATBOT
unless I complain i am getting nowhere
I managed to type Delivered
Obviously the system doesn't want me to send my feedback as a customer
