Time to play says Amazon

By Ed | January 7th, 2009 | Category: Amazon | No Comments »

All the good little sellers who can’t share their toys between mid-November and mid-January each year are allowed back in the playpen again, now that Santa has gone back into hibernation.

Right on cue, Amazon has announced that the toy category has been re-opened to it’s third-party sellers.

The venue only permits qualified toy retailers to sell their products on Amazon sites during the critical holiday shopping season. This is a severe disruption for smaller sellers of good reputation with quality inventory to shift, and I would not like to be in their shoes with Amazon as an only channel during the premium selling season.

Sellers that were temporarily restricted from selling on the site need to relist their products, as previous listings will have expired from relist eligibility, which is a good opportunity to review price and quantity values to match current market and inventory.

I wouldn’t be too quick to jump on the bandwagon though, I’d rather wait until the January discounting frenzy finishes, then sell at more realistic pricing.