Amazon barcodes

RFW

Anyone know of any good solutions for lack of barcodes, a product I can sell has about 500 variations and as I understand they'd all need a barcode to sell, currently they don't have any. It's a gift item.
I've seen some barcode selling sites that can get down to about £1 each but that could prove too costly to start with. I've had a further look around but not getting too much good information and know there are a few pro sellers on here.

F&L

If you look at the Amazon selling forums you will see the general advice is to look in your kitchen and use a barcode from any food item! Amazon will tell you that this is not allowed but that's what most sellers do. Some people buy barcodes but with the number of barcodes available free from around your house, most don't.

RFW

F&L wrote: »

If you look at the Amazon selling forums you will see the general advice is to look in your kitchen and use a barcode from any food item! Amazon will tell you that this is not allowed but that's what most sellers do. Some people buy barcodes but with the number of barcodes available free from around your house, most don't.

I've actually done something similar a while ago for a one off item and it did work, but I need 500 or so similar barcodes so would need a lot of different baked beans and the effect on the environment could be a problem;)

rick@findthatfuchsia

Have you tried creating your own barcodes in Microsft Excel http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=create+barcodes+in+excel&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

springer211

I don't know if this could be of any help, but thermal printers like brother produce barcodes from any set of digits/letters.

Or maybe software like this?
http://download.cnet.com/Free-TrueType-Code-39-Barcode-Font/3000-2190_4-10067143.html?!!!!!mncol;6

RFW

I think they have to "exist" somewhere to be accepted by Amazon.

F&L

Maybe members could message you barcodes for items that Amazon don't sell? Own brand items in Asda and Tesco use barcodes Amazon accepts. I must have misread your original post as I didn't realise you needed 500!

RFW

It appears you don't need barcodes if you use an Amazon webstore, just the product details. Amazon webstores are currently on a "free for 2 year" offer if you list on Amazon as well as a 3 month free period for becoming a merchant seller on Amazon. So I get to list the products and see if they sell.

johnnyboyrebel

RFW wrote: »

Anyone know of any good solutions for lack of barcodes, a product I can sell has about 500 variations and as I understand they'd all need a barcode to sell, currently they don't have any. It's a gift item.
I've seen some barcode selling sites that can get down to about £1 each but that could prove too costly to start with. I've had a further look around but not getting too much good information and know there are a few pro sellers on here.

Are these items on Amazon not already listed on Amazon then?

If not all you need to do is use any 13 digit number that isn't already recognised on Amazon, it could be anything. Amazon wont check and wont really care. The only way they will care is if the barcode matches up to another product already on there. For example 0123456787698 could be used.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If not all you need to do is use any 13 digit number that isn't already recognised on Amazon, it could be anything. Amazon wont check and wont really care. The only way they will care is if the barcode matches up to another product already on there. For example 0123456787698 could be used.

You can't just use any number as the barcode has a digit check on the end, Amazon won't know if you enter a barcode from another product or a valid made up barcode but the system will recognise an invalid barcode number.

RFW

ludovico wrote: »

If not all you need to do is use any 13 digit number that isn't already recognised on Amazon, it could be anything. Amazon wont check and wont really care. The only way they will care is if the barcode matches up to another product already on there. For example 0123456787698 could be used.

You can't just use any number as the barcode has a digit check on the end, Amazon won't know if you enter a barcode from another product or a valid made up barcode but the system will recognise an invalid barcode number.

I started using any and was ok until the second item when I kept getting errors, so doing that another 498 times would have taken me an age and lost my sanity (there's only a bit left anyway!).

As above though it turns out you don't need any if you do it that way round. The Amazon shop looks pretty good too, just need to mess about with it, they charge a commission on sales but no listing fees, etc. If you're listing new products it looks like a good way forward.