Amazon warehouse deals

MidlandsGlory

I have bought a few things off Amazon warehouse deals over the years, supposedly damaged or returns but everything I have had has appeared to be new and undamaged.

I wonder if sometimes they use it as a way of selling discounted without upsetting the manufacturer.

There is an item I am interested in, recently it was about 160 odd and no warehouse deals, but now its back up to about £200 and there are 54 in warehouse deals at about 155 to 160 with item or packaging 'maybe minor damage'

How can there be so many suddenly unless an entire pallet load fell off the shelf?

Or maybe when the price dropped recently, people that had just before bought at the higher price sent them all back and reordered at the new price? the returns going into warehouse deals.

I might take a punt on one and see what I get, I think you can still return warehouse deals same as anything else.

RFW

You may be right but I'll give an insight into what happens when some of the goods I sell (which are only supplied/manufactured by me).
Occasionally the warehouse deals are returned items that have just had some damaged packaging. Sometimes when I send goods into Amazon they lose them or damage them in their warehouse. So, for example, they may well have knocked a pallet over, they can't sell the items as new and they have to check the boxes to make sure everything is ok and then sell as the best matching condition they can.


I've personally bought a few things from warehouse deal, they're mostly perfect items in a damaged box. On one occasion though I purchased a "like new" vacuum cleaner that was used and had a full bag of dust. I received a full refund but it's made me wary since.

ballisticbrian

In quite an unusual form of competition, a retailer finds every time he lowers the price the competitor jumps in a pound or a maybe a penny less, even though there is no profit in it, so the seller states this batch of items has damaged packaging or some other minor problem, and the competitor thinks, ar, I can't compete with this because he's selling off worthless stock.

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

In quite an unusual form of competition, a retailer finds every time he lowers the price the competitor jumps in a pound or a maybe a penny less, even though there is no profit in it, so the seller states this batch of items has damaged packaging or some other minor problem, and the competitor thinks, ar, I can't compete with this because he's selling off worthless stock.

The OP is specifically referring to Amazon Warehouse Deals. This is a section of Amazon where they offer a discount on items that are considered warehouse damaged. It is only Amazon that sells on it. It can be any item damaged in their warehouse even if they didn't originally sell it themselves. So any goods sent to be fulfilled by Amazon and any they have sold themselves.
From what I know as a seller and a buyer it is genuine and they don't add stock to it beyond every day damages.


To expand, if I send a brand new Iphone to be sold by Amazon from their warehouse. If during packaging they tear a box, they will refund me for the warehouse damaged item and then offer that in a warehouse deal at a marked down price.



Obviously there are other possibilities for warehouse damage but it can be that simple. I sell lots of items in clear bags, they will sometimes tear a bag and then put the contents in a new bag, refund me and sell on a warehouse deal. The contents have never been touched.

MidlandsGlory

RFW wrote: »

You may be right but I'll give an insight into what happens when some of the goods I sell (which are only supplied/manufactured by me).
Occasionally the warehouse deals are returned items that have just had some damaged packaging. Sometimes when I send goods into Amazon they lose them or damage them in their warehouse. So, for example, they may well have knocked a pallet over, they can't sell the items as new and they have to check the boxes to make sure everything is ok and then sell as the best matching condition they can.


I've personally bought a few things from warehouse deal, they're mostly perfect items in a damaged box. On one occasion though I purchased a "like new" vacuum cleaner that was used and had a full bag of dust. I received a full refund but it's made me wary since.

Funny you should say that, I also had a warehouse deal vacuum once that was in a pitiful state, full of plaster dust. It looked like a builder had bought it, cleaned out a site and sent it back. Amazon of course sorted it out.
Current VAX is also a warehouse deal and that was still sealed as new too.

I have also had a 'used' Kindle come still shrinkwrapped new.

It is strange that 50+ same used items suddenly appear, but the damage descriptions are quite varied, different sized marks on the item, some packaging damage. If a pallet was dropped I would expect quite a few with packaging damage but not scratches on the items themselves. Weird.

qsk

I always thought Amazon warehouse deals are Amazon stocks. So it can contain third-party stock as well? Does Amazon validate in any way the third-party stocks are genuine before warehousing them? Perhaps I should be more careful when buying memory cards etc from there in case they come from a doggy third-party.

RFW

qsk wrote: »

I always thought Amazon warehouse deals are Amazon stocks. So it can contain third-party stock as well? Does Amazon validate in any way the third-party stocks are genuine before warehousing them? Perhaps I should be more careful when buying memory cards etc from there in case they come from a doggy third-party.

That's a good question, my guess is that they take everything as being genuine anyway, otherwise they wouldn't sell it, even though that doesn't happen in practice. Their no quibble refund system covers them in case there is a problem.

Not that I buy memory cards often but I usually make sure Amazon is the only seller on the listing.

I was surprised the first few times it happened with my stock, they have it in their terms when you sell with them that it can happen.

RFW

MidlandsGlory wrote: »

It is strange that 50+ same used items suddenly appear, but the damage descriptions are quite varied, different sized marks on the item, some packaging damage. If a pallet was dropped I would expect quite a few with packaging damage but not scratches on the items themselves. Weird.

It may be that they are returns and they process them all at the same time. If they're electrical items they have to verify that they don't have an electrical fault before offering them for resale. If it's a high volume selling item or one that was on a recent lightning deal then there'd likely be a lot of returns to go through. Knowing how Amazon work they probably do several of the same items at once rather than items as and when they are returned.

Gary123456790

qsk wrote: »

Perhaps I should be more careful when buying memory cards etc from there in case they come from a doggy third-party.

They could have left any kind of pictures on the memory card if they are in to strange evening activities.