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Never Thought I'd See the Day


Zinjo

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I never thought I'd see the day when Amazon would sell Bandai toys of Macross...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DIMOWA/ref=dra_a_cs_mr_hn_it_P1400_1000?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=4a251a2ef9bbf4ccc35f97aba2c9cbda

I guess when you have two heavy hitters like Amazon and Bandai selling the product an insect like HG can't really stop you...

Keep in mind that they product is shipped directly from Japan... :lol:

Edited by Zinjo
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While all of the Macross listings I could find are importers listing via Amazon, not all are shipping direct from Japan. A fair number are using Amazon to fulfill the orders and offer prime shipping - which means they must already have inventory stateside. It's a step in the right direction, at least.

Also, Amazon does sell Gundam kits directly, so they have some sort of relationship with Bandai/Bluefin. Maybe that day will come...

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I never thought I'd see the day when Amazon would sell Bandai toys of Macross...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DIMOWA/ref=dra_a_cs_mr_hn_it_P1400_1000?tag=dradisplay-20&ascsubtag=4a251a2ef9bbf4ccc35f97aba2c9cbda

I guess when you have two heavy hitters like Amazon and Bandai selling the product an insect like HG can't really stop you...

Nothing to see hear.

Those model kits are being sold by a private seller, not by Amazon directly. It'd be no different if I sold Macross kits through my personal eBay account.

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Nothing to see hear.

Those model kits are being sold by a private seller, not by Amazon directly. It'd be no different if I sold Macross kits through my personal eBay account.

But you are not a commercial distributor.

HG was targeting any commercial distributor who dared to offer Japanese Macross items for sale for a long while. Judging by the shipping costs, Amazon has local stock on hand for order fulfillment otherwise shipping would be much more. Perhaps there is something in the import law that insulates them from any HG legal action?

Edited by Zinjo
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Gonna agree with TheLoneWolf. Nothing to see here. When you buy items sold by other distributors/sellers thru Amazon, you are doing the equivalent of hitting the "Buy Now" button on eBay. There are legit sellers on both eBay and Amazon. They are just using those sites as a vehicle to sell their goods. Just as sellers here sell items to other members on MW, that's what's happening there.

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Those model kits are being sold by a private seller, not by Amazon directly. It'd be no different if I sold Macross kits through my personal eBay account.

Ah, but then there are things like this:

http://www.amazon.com/DX-Chogokin-Macross-Messiah-Valkyrie/dp/B0058LT9GC/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1416632137&sr=1-1&keywords=vf-25f

I don't know how long that will be valid, but it's a VF-25F renewal eligible for Prime, being "fulfilled by Amazon", meaning that Amazon is actually involved with shipping/distribution and not just a storefront.

I found a number of these recently - Prime-eligible current-production Macross items, which mean they are more than just your typical "marketplace" sellers like we've had for years.

ETA - Initially overlooked Nekko's post above mentioning the same. The Prime-eligible stuff being fulfilled by Amazon is a fairly recent turn of events, and cool, but it's not something that just happened overnight, and I very much doubt anything is really going to come of this one way or another.

Edited by Cdr Fokker
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Ah, but then there are things like this:

http://www.amazon.com/DX-Chogokin-Macross-Messiah-Valkyrie/dp/B0058LT9GC/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1416632137&sr=1-1&keywords=vf-25f

I don't know how long that will be valid, but it's a VF-25F renewal eligible for Prime, being "fulfilled by Amazon", meaning that Amazon is actually involved with shipping/distribution and not just a storefront.

I found a number of these recently - Prime-eligible current-production Macross items, which mean they are more than just your typical "marketplace" sellers like we've had for years.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. That's an importer, but the fulfillment via Amazon - with Prime available - means that they must have inventory stateside, presumably in Amazon's warehouse system (I don't claim to understand the details of Amazon fulfillment). It's not the same as Amazon actually being the seller, but it seems like a step in that direction. Either it's not a big enough step to bother HG, or HG hasn't noticed (unlikely, because there are loads of these sellers), or HG isn't dumb enough to tangle with Amazon.

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Yeah, that's what I was talking about. That's an importer, but the fulfillment via Amazon - with Prime available - means that they must have inventory stateside, presumably in Amazon's warehouse system (I don't claim to understand the details of Amazon fulfillment). It's not the same as Amazon actually being the seller, but it seems like a step in that direction. Either it's not a big enough step to bother HG, or HG hasn't noticed (unlikely, because there are loads of these sellers), or HG isn't dumb enough to tangle with Amazon.

"Fulfilled by Amazon" means:

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products.

Instead of the seller packing, sending, and replacing returns, Amazon does it on behalf of the seller. The seller pays Amazon for storage and handle the customer service for them. So if you need to return an item, you can return it to an Amazon warehouse instead of to the seller, and then Amazon ships you the replacement from the seller's stock at Amazon's warehouse. So the transaction is still essentially with the seller. Amazon is essentially doing the "last mile" of the transaction between you and the seller.

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"Fulfilled by Amazon" means:

"Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products."

Instead of the seller packing, sending, and replacing returns, Amazon does it on behalf of the seller. The seller pays Amazon for storage and handle the customer service for them. So if you need to return an item, you can return it to an Amazon warehouse instead of to the seller, and then Amazon ships you the replacement from the seller's stock at Amazon's warehouse. So the transaction is still essentially with the seller. Amazon is essentially doing the "last mile" of the transaction between you and the seller.

Argh, FAQs - my only weakness!

What you characterize as "last mile" might also be called "distribution." Amazon is doing everything except importing the product and setting the price. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that HG might take legitimate issue with that.

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Argh, FAQs - my only weakness!

What you characterize as "last mile" might also be called "distribution." Amazon is doing everything except importing the product and setting the price. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that HG might take legitimate issue with that.

But is it worth it? The seller could then drop FBA-service. The seller then reduces their costs using Amazon. They'll still sell through Amazon, but handle the distribution by themselves.

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