How to Sell Extra Shit for Cash in Just a Few Hours With the Amazon Fulfillment Program

Most of us probably have things around the house that we don’t need or don’t need. In fact, most of us probably have a lot of junk to get rid of. Sure, you can wait for your neighbor to have a sale and then ask to set the table, but what if you want to get rid of your shit now? As it turns out, Amazon has a nifty program that essentially lets you dump old books, movies, gadgets, and more into a box, send them to them, and then wait for the money to arrive. Here’s how you can start using it and sell your stuff in no time.

How does FBA work and why should I use it?

The name of the program is Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). While it’s designed to allow high-inventory sellers to be able to sell, shipping, and customer support exclusively through Amazon, you can use it too.

The main advantage of using the FBA program is convenience. You basically dump your shit in a box , make item lists for the things inside that box, print out the shipping label, and ship it . This process usually takes an hour or two, unless you have more stuff than you can ever sell, and if you already have the boxes to use, you don’t even need to leave your home.

When Amazon gets the box, they’ll list all of your items for sale on their product pages and people can buy them. Amazon will send you the products in its own packaging and will deal with any customer problems that may arise after the sale. For these services, you pay a small storage, shipping, and handling fee, as well as the commission you pay to sell on Amazon in general. While this service is really great, there are a few disadvantages you should be aware of:

• This isn’t great for cheap stuff like used books or DVDs that no one else wants. Basically, if you can’t sell your item for more than $ 4, you probably won’t make a lot of money using this service. However, when you add items to your inventory, Amazon will tell you what you will do when / if the item is on sale so you know before you ship it.
• Not all products can be sold using this service. While you can usually add anything you could sell yourself on Amazon.com, sometimes Amazon requires some packaging to make it easier for them to add it to their system. Usually, if you are missing a barcode or ISBN, you may have problems adding it to the system, but this is not always the case.
• While the process is really simple, once you get started and know what you are doing, it is a little cumbersome at first. If you find yourself easily annoyed today or just in a bad mood, you may feel a little upset. You’ve been warned!

If this all sounds good, you are ready to get started.

OK, sold! How do I get started?

Before you can start the selling process, you will need to do the following:

1. Assuming you already have an Amazon account , register for an Amazon Seller account . Just click Sell Your Item and skip the professional option – it costs money.
2. Add FBA to your merchant account .
3. Go get the boxes. (Or deliver several .)
4. Collect all your excess crap and take your computer.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to get started.

How to list your products on FBA

Every time you use FBA, you need to manage your inventory by crates. If you only ship one box of materials to Amazon, this is very easy because you only need to manage one list of boxes per FBA. If you’re shipping multiple boxes, you just have to create a new box every time you fill up one shit that Amazon sells for you. This method is used so that Amazon employees who unpack your boxes and post them on shelves for sale can easily and efficiently find the items you specify. Just follow these steps to create your first “box” and fill it with inventory:

1. Sign in to Amazon Seller Central (if you haven’t already) and hover over the Inventory menu. Several options will be dropped. Select Add Ad.
2. Enter the name of the product you want to sell and click Search. (Alternatively, you can enter it in UPC, EAN, ISBN, or ASIN if you know it.)
3. When your choice appears, select the correct one by clicking the Sell button.
4. The next page looks a little more complicated, but all you need to fill out is the condition of the item, price, and quantity. If not already selected, you also need to tell Amazon that it is an FBA item. You do this by checking the radio button next to “I want Amazon to ship and provide customer service for my items if they sell.” When you’re done, click “Save and Finish.” (You don’t need to click Next as these other options are for people with professional accounts.)
5. If you are a new seller, Amazon will probably present you with a page that asks you to make sure you are not selling anything dangerous, illegal, alive, capable of killing someone, etc. Click the Submit Inventory button. to continue.
6. On the next page, you need to tell Amazon where the items are being shipped from. Most likely, this will be your default address, and it will already be filled in for you. However, if you need to change it, just click the Change Address button. Second, you need to tell Amazon that you are shipping them a bunch of items in one box. Right now, you probably have the Individual Items option selected, but you need to switch it to Items in Crate. You will notice that this changes the inventory list below, and there are a couple of fields that need to be filled in: Units per Case and Number of Cases. If you are selling one book, you just need to include 1 for both. If you are selling one out of six soda cartons, you must enter 6 units per box and 1 number of boxes. If you are selling two identical DVDs, you must enter 1 box per box and 2 quantities of boxes. Clear? Click Continue.
7. Amazon will now use your address to find the nearest establishment. I’m in Los Angeles, so I was assigned to PHX3 (Phoenix, AZ). You will now be asked to name your shipment. The FBA will automatically provide you with a generic name that you can keep if you want, or change it to something more interesting (for example, “Magic Pony Surprise Shipment”). After choosing a name, click “Save and Continue”.
8. If that was all you were going to send, you would create your own box, but it is not. To continue adding garbage, simply repeat these steps one more time. However, when you go to step 7 (the previous step), you will be able to select “Add to Existing Shipment” rather than create a new one. Just select the shipment you’ve already created for your previous items to keep them all together.

How to ship your boxes

When you add an item, be sure to add it to the box it will be shipped in, or at least keep all the items grouped together so you don’t lose sight of which item and which drawer belongs. Once you’ve got all your boxes ready, there is still a little more work to do to get your items delivered to Amazon:

1. After adding the last item to the box, you can click the Work with Shipping button to start the shipping process. In addition, you can always find your FBA shipments by choosing Manage FBA Shipments from the Inventory menu. You will also find a Work Submit button next to any unfinished fields on the page that opens.
2. After clicking the button, review your shipment to see if there are any last-minute changes you want to make. If not, click “Save and Continue”.
3. You will now be taken to the Product Labeling page, where you can print labels for all of your products. Do this, attach shortcuts to your items and click Save and Continue.
4. Now you can choose the size of your shipment and the operator you want to use. Choose SPD because you don’t deliver very much. LTL is designed to ship pallets weighing at least 150 pounds. Better not be you. On the other side of the screen, you want to select an Amazon partner (usually UPS). This will allow you to buy the label on Amazon at a discount and the carrier will pick up your belongings. You can choose another carrier and ship everything yourself, but we assume that you need the easiest possible way. When you’re ready to move on, click the familiar Save and Continue button.
5. It’s time for the packing slip! Select how many packing slips you want to print. You will need to put one in a box, but you can keep it for yourself because you know who doesn’t like the packing slip? Enter the number you want to print, click the “Print” button and pack it in the box along with everything else. This time, when you’re ready, just click Continue. (There is no need to save!)
6. On the next page, enter the dimensions of your box and its weight. If you cannot measure your weight accurately, use this method and round it up. Click the “Save” button (you don’t need to continue this time), and then, when your information is saved, click the “Get a Cost Estimate” button.
7. On the page that opens, the approximate cost of delivery will be indicated and you will be asked to agree to pay this amount. Agree and then click Accept payments and continue.
8. Print the label, stick it on the box as instructed, and schedule pickup from the carrier (or just leave it at the store / delivery point)

While there are a lot of details needed to get things going with FBA, once you complete your first box, you will master it and be able to walk through the process quickly. If you want to sell a bunch of your stuff, you can do it much faster and without the headaches that often come with online sales with this service. Once Amazon has received your packages and sold your items, you can transfer all the money you earn directly to your back account. This is a very useful and great way to get paid for unnecessary nonsense without much effort on your part.

This story was originally published in 2012 and has been updated on 10/12/19 to provide more complete and up-to-date information.

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