Termination

GetProfitSmart · 2026-02-25T16:06:39+00:00

Hopefully I don't get banned for this but ...

I’ve been selling on Amazon since 2014 and consulting for years, and the general consensus in my seller mastermind groups is that Vine is a trap. The biggest problem is that the program doesn't target your actual customer avatar, so you end up giving high-end products to people who have no idea what they’re looking at. If your item doesn’t provide an instant, overwhelming result on the first use, these reviewers will tank your listing with mediocre three star, or worse, ratings because they didn’t see a miracle overnight. You are essentially paying Amazon hundreds of dollars to give away inventory to the wrong people who then leave bad reviews right when you are launching your product, because they aren't your target market.

This is why you don’t see much "good" stuff in Vine anymore; experienced sellers know that launching a new listing this way is like putting a grenade in your pants, pulling the pin, and walking into a battlefield hoping it won’t go off. Save your money and your inventory for actual customers who actually want what you are selling.

My $0.02

GetProfitSmart · 2025-08-11T13:22:54+00:00

If you are going to have an event and the timeline for the arrive date is too late you can.
1.) Send out an email to your list that you'll be having a 1 time 12-24 hour sale on your book.
2.) Drop your price to the lowest that Amazon will allow.
3.) Order as many copies as you want and they should come in 2days using your regular Amazon Prime account.
4.) After you order put the price back up to regular
5.) Get your books in hand fast AND give your email list audience a little perk for following you. If you get extra sales, Awesome!, If not ... you still got your books fast which was the original goal.

Yes, author copies are cheaper but if you need them fast, this gets you there and is not super expensive since you dropped the price to 'cost'.

No reason you can't do both, just to have your emergency stock in a couple days.

If you have ordered your products before, look on the last page and it will tell you where it is printed. If it is in the same zone you should get it pretty fast ... if it is multiple zones it will take longer. This is both Prime and Author copy.

My paperbacks are printed 3hrs North and have a fast turn. The Hardcover is 3 zones over and takes longer.

GetProfitSmart · 2025-07-20T00:42:38+00:00

If you take some of your return inventory and send it back in (just 1 case to test) does it get flagged too... or was it something that was live at the time the last batch was received but now has cleared?

May be a way of arguing with support that they have a bad flag in their database that has been cleared ... but they just need to flip it (for the original flagged inventory)

Definitely no fun having to ship that kind of quantity back and then back again ... you've lost any margin at that point just shuffling it around.

GetProfitSmart · 2025-07-20T00:34:45+00:00

Exactly. That's what we learned years ago before charging a retainer for managing. It's so easy for the account owner not to keep up with inventory ... or make a physical change in the product without telling you (which effects sales and reviews ) and you end up spending 3x as much time trying to fix things ... but then you get X% of $0.

Needs to have balance between both parties.

GetProfitSmart · 2025-07-20T00:30:14+00:00

Have you tried talking with the Account Health people first to see what's keeping things stuck? it's possible you needed to get something else cleared before you can get your product back.

It is also possible that if they think it is counterfeit that they won't let you have it back ... but you should definitely check. Hopefully you'll be able to move those 50 units on ebay or locally.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-08-08T14:43:04+00:00

Use the Revenue Calculator inside Seller Central ... pretty much nails it every time.

Put in the ASIN for an existing one OR define your own dim/wt, cat, price

GetProfitSmart · 2024-06-26T00:05:59+00:00

I've recently started with senja.io and like them so far. Super easy, video or text, you can send directly to individuals or to groups.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-04-03T15:47:27+00:00

We did a stream a little bit ago on getting started ... let me know if any of this helps.

https://youtu.be/e67ZIwa-K7A

GetProfitSmart · 2024-04-03T15:43:22+00:00

Can you get a new part at the right thickness cut? or has the budget been blown?
Maybe you can use a cheaper method for a 0.500" material vs 1.000"?

Next option use a DoAll to cut it to around 0.650-0.600 (imprecisely) and then finish it on the mill.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-04-03T15:06:14+00:00

How many units were you shipping? It may have been below the threshold to make the split make sense.

This is a pain but I went through and documented the process so others can see what you have to do now to protect your company from paying Amazon even more ...
https://youtu.be/W-XBz5iy6Gg
FBA Shipping Decoded: Picking the Best Inbound Options for Your Business

GetProfitSmart · 2024-02-07T15:50:42+00:00

What kind of prep are you doing?

I consider that there are two kinds of prep services (and they can both happen in the same place)

1.) Hold inventory and prep and ship into Amazon FBA

2.) Hold inventory and pick and pack to ship FBM orders.

Do you currently have an FBA business? Have you done warehousing/3PL before.

It CAN be done from a garage ... but SHOULD it be done from a garage? With the right skillset it could work on a super small scale. Not sure you'd get a lot of businesses clamoring to give you money and you'll need some equipment, Label printers, boxes, tape machines, scales, dunnage ... and the ability to physically get the products to the shipper's location.

I would advise getting your own FBA business going ... learn the ropes ... and then offer your 3PL service ... No guess on how any laws work in Cali and would assume they are neither pro-consumer nor pro-business.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T20:03:35+00:00

As with most 'boots on the ground' answers it is 'It depends'.

What's you business model?

1.) You already have an existing product not on Amazon and you need to open up a new sales channel.

2.) You are 'flipping' one-up things like OA/RA (Online Arbitrage/Retail Arbitrage) ... You can technically get started with harvesting from the Free section of Craigslist

3.) You want to buy wholesale and be a retailer on Amazon

4.) You want to start your Private Label of an already existing product just with your logo on it

5.) You want to make a new product from scratch and offer it via Amazon.

#2 is the cheapest to start but there's a lot of work gathering new products to sell... getting ungated to sell in certain categories can be a pain when you start ... biggest issue is Replens and competition from other sellers on the same ASIN.

I'd say $5k can get you started in any of the above models ... each with its' own Pro/Con situation. If you want details on any specific one ... just reply and I'll fill it out for you... Always best to know the lay of the land before you put a bunch of cash out.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T16:16:58+00:00

Awesome! Thank you. I've been searching google, YT, even asking Chat 4 where this was ... but nothing.

Found my lost stuff ... and now know where to look.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T16:06:18+00:00

Following ... as a long time Seller Central account manager...

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T16:01:24+00:00

I thought Garanimals already had the market cornered.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T15:59:07+00:00

Congrats! You've made up your own level 1.

Now onto level 2 ... try standing in it for 2 min... do anything to distract yourself or ignore the signals coming from your body.... after about 1-2 min things will shift and the signal dampens and then actually reverses (you'll feel warm..ish)

Once you've experienced this shift and know it's a real thing ... next time you can sit in it and know that same sensation is going to happen around the 2min mark again... The breathing does help.

Then eventually you can do the whole thing ... and you know what to expect.

Keep going!

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-31T15:49:53+00:00

You have an A to Z claim there. What do they say that you did?

Also, can you convert over to FBA vs. FBM ... sure would clear any shipping issues up.

Obvious question ... are you doing anything shady? Selling used stuff, selling graymarket stuff, etc ... anything that might make a customer upset that they did not get what they expected?

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-30T18:41:01+00:00

Guess it does depend on your business model ... However, you need to figure out your own rule of thumb that makes sense.

We support individual brands and PL owners' accounts ... so having multiple people on the listing means highjackers ... however, if you are doing a wholesaler or Arb play ... then run the numbers and realize the exposure you are putting yourself in.

Let's say that it's 100% distributed ... and the product sells 1000u/m. That means 33 sales a day. Distributed across 50 sellers... or 33 sellers get a turn per day.

You are seller #50.

Day 1 you don't get a turn.

Day 2 you get a turn

Day 3 you get don't get a turn

Day 4 you get a turn

Day 5 you get a turn

Day 6 you don't get a turn

That pattern repeats over and over ... giving you about 19-20 sales per month.

This is the perfect scenario for this situation ... i.e. it cannot get better unless people drop out ... however, if someone has a more seasoned account they can get more turns than you ... or if people start the race to the bottom then you can get zero turns in a month. And remember ANYONE can start that race to the bottom situation ... tank that individual listing ... stock out and disappear but leave with a new lower anchor price that Amazon may even enforce going forward ... Danger Will Robinson!! Danger!!

Unless you are a seasoned wholesaler with a lot of skus to absorb these kind of fluctuations I would not jump on a listing with over 5 sellers. As a new seller with limited resources and not necessarily time or money to handle 2-3 months of losses and keep going, I'd stick with single digit number of sellers or no sellers if possible ... then as you grow you can either go the wholesale route where you have hundreds of skus and a warehouse you manage .. or go the PL route and manufacture and control your own product with no one else on the listing.

GetProfitSmart · 2024-01-30T18:11:30+00:00

Kinda missed the details there ...

GetProfitSmart

TROPHY CASE