Selling on Amazon Marketplace from outside the UK

ManchesterMoneySaver

Hello everyone!

Here's a fun one for you!

I used to live in Manchester but now I live in Finland. Before I moved I sold loads of all sorts of tat on Ebay, and a few books and videos on Amazon Marketplace, so have some experience in this online selling malarky. I want to clear away some more [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] quality merchandise, and started listing some books and CDs on Amazon Marketplace, but saw: "This item will be shipped from United Kingdom. Please edit your seller preferences to reflect a new ships from location."

So I went to edit my location and it said "Enter a UK Invoice Address and Phone Number ( Why only UK addresses?)"

That linked to a page that said:
"Please note: we are currently only able to support Amazon.co.uk Marketplace sellers with a UK invoice address and a UK bank account as per our Participation Agreement."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/026-4054422-3997269?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3149141

Well, I've still got a UK bank account, but the registered address is in Finland. The participation agreement says:
"1.1.2 Unless we have agreed with you in advance and in writing to the contrary, you represent and warrant to Amazon that: (a) you are an individual that is resident or a business that is established in the United Kingdom; (b) the items you are selling are physically located in the United Kingdom at the time of sale; (c) the place of supply of any services you are selling are in the United Kingdom."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3216781

I'm not (a) resident in the UK, nor are (b) the items un the UK at time of sale (and (c) doesn't apply -- I don't want to sell services). It also says "Payment Transactions can only be deposited into bank accounts in the United Kingdom." That's OK, I've still got a UK bank account (even though my registered address is over here and they send my statements here).

But I've seen many sellers selling from the US and elsewhere on Marketplace, and I've even ordered from some who said they'd ship from the UK but the books arrived from Switzerland.

I also spotted this:
"(3) THE BUYER MUST BE A RESIDENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, GERMANY OR THE UNITED STATES AND PROVIDE A STREET ADDRESS IN ONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES FOR PAYMENT;"
Well, I've bought lots of stuff from Marketplace when I've been resident in Finland, and paid with a UK credit card registered with a street address in Finland. I think others here have done the same with a fully Finnish card.

So my questions:
* According to the "… unless otherwise agreed by us in advance in writing ..." bit, it must be possible to still sell via Marketplace if based abroad. Does anyone know how to get this agreement?
* Some sellers do send from other countries when they should send from the UK. If I clearly say as the first thing in the description that it'll be sent from Finland, do you think that'd be ok?
* In case Marketplace turns out to be a total no-go, does anyone know any other good places to sell stuff like books and CDs online, even if you're abroad? There a couple of local online auction sites, but they're in Finnish so it's hard to know the full ins-and-outs like I do with Ebay and Amazon, and I'd prefer a bog-standard listing rather than auction.

thank you!!!

rare_stuff

Manchester to Finland, some would say there's not much difference apart from the cost of beer!

The only thing you should really need to update is yourshipping from address, this may not be very straightforward though, contacting amazon direct either using a phone number (0800 279 6620 )to get through to seller support or emailing them on sellers-support@amazon.co.uk should do the trick.

Also, it's worth noting that you will not get additional shipping allowance and you will have to send airmail to customers or risk poor feedback for delays in shipping.

ManchesterMoneySaver

Cost of beer -- ha!

Thanks for the pointers, good point about not getting any additional shipping allowance, I'll have to factor that into the item cost. And, yeah, I'd send by airmail, surface mail is ridiculously slow.

(I'll have to look up the geographic version of that 0800 from saynoto0870 to call from outside the UK!)

I'll update this thread on my progress, in the meantime, does anyone know good places to sell stuff books and CDs online (even if you're abroad)?

thanks!

rare_stuff

ManchesterMoneySaver wrote: »

Cost of beer -- ha! :beer:

does anyone know good places to sell stuff books and CDs online (even if you're abroad)?

thanks!

have you tried play.com?

ManchesterMoneySaver

I'll look into play.com, cheers.