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I have written before about how I have dabbled a bit in product reselling.  While some people do it for the miles and points, most resellers I know treat this as a profit generating business, albeit one that has a pleasant side effect of generating a lot of airline miles and points!

I do most of my product reselling through FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon).  I am a very small fry in reselling; I’ll estimate that I have sold about 50 units total – a mixture of OA (Online Arbitrage) and RA (Retail Arbitrage).  Returns are a big part of this business, but up until now, I had avoided it.  But finally, the other day, I got my first notice that an Amazon customer had returned my product

amazon-fba-refund

This was for an Apple Watch that I had bought several months ago.  I probably should have had this sold several months ago, but I have not put the appropriate effort into keeping on top of my in-stock items and adjusting prices as needed.  Apple Watches are notoriously prone to returns. If I had to make a guess, it was that the consumer didn’t realize that this was a version 1 Apple Watch (even though it obviously says that it is in the description).  They probably thought they were getting a screaming deal on the newer version of the Apple Watch and then realized their mistake when they got the product

apple-watch

So what happens next?

Actually… I’m not 100% sure :-).  I believe Amazon will ship the product back to me (though I may have to log in and request that).  Once I have the product back here, then I can inspect it to see if it’s still in salable condition.  If it’s damaged, there are some things that you can do with Amazon to get your (my) money back, though Amazon is typically pretty pro-consumer, so it’s an uphill road.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much up to me to sell the product again, and I can no longer sell it as new on Amazon.  So it will probably be Craigslist or eBay or writing it off.

In any case, I thought I’d share my experiences with this reselling return.  As for reselling in general, I am actually taking some steps right now to try and “step up my game” with reselling and get more serious about it.

Have you ever resold products?  How did you deal with returns?


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