Secret Sauce #3: Merchants of Amaze-one

Navigating the Platform

I’m going to speak in code because I’m not trying to attract viewership with these posts. This is more about me charting my lessons and notes so that I can refer to them for my own benefit, but also share them for those of you who are getting involved with the Secret Sauce posts. It is important to recognize Amaze-one for what it is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not. It is a place of opportunity for people to resell items, a marketplace for compliant private label sellers and brands to list and sell their products on. It is a speed demon that enables customers to get items as fast as possible and immediately return items with little to no hassle. Thus, sellers who can source profitable items and resell them on Amaze-one will make profits. Customers could employ these same methods even if they weren’t reselling, but choose not to because Amaze-one is safer and more reliable, so they stick with buying from Amaze-one out of convenience.

Amaze-one is not your store. It is not your platform. It is not loyal to you. You have no relationship with it outside of its terms & services. It does not care about you. It does not matter how much revenue you make for it. It is a machine that has almost no human-to-human interaction regarding seller support. Most of it is outsourced to foreign countries or continents like Asia, so there is very little recourse one has to fraudulent behavior or addressing any concerns you might have that are outside its basic framework.

Just this morning, a very successful seller posted this:

Imagine making Amaze-one millions of dollars per year and yet one false complaint from a brand owner (on merely one listing), and everything is shut down rather than just that particular listing. It defies all common sense. You now have all kinds of fees and product that you’re unable to sell but bills, rent, and mortgages, that still require you to pay. This is behavior that is not congruent with business, but it is a reality we must accept and deal with. Whether it’s cancel culture, censorship, deplatforming, etc., many companies can behave this way because they do not have to make a profit to exist, usually because they serve another function and are completely supported by a system that makes competition a sin. We’ve seen people be banned from banking or from using payment processors and other platforms that advertise to the public, but that are technically private, and at the current trajectory, we can expect this to get worse over time.

However, we must be realistic and adapt, not be idealistic and wish for some golden era to return. It’s not going to happen in our lifetime, which is why we must focus on creating our own personal golden eras and minimize our exposure to beast systems.

I have personally had the sales of my first book series derailed due to fake reviews, and Amaze-one would not take them down. The point of this is that it happened to me in 2016 and there’s not much you can do but move on. It is imperative to build your own systems and platforms if you have the resources, and to diversify income streams if it’s within your means.

Understanding the reality you exist in is crucial to learning how to operate and thrive in it. It is much more beneficial to see the world the way it is rather than the way you want it to be. If you aren’t a paid member, this isn’t for you. If you’re intrigued by this post and want to see what it pertains to, revisit:

For those of you paying attention, we’re going to cover what Amaze-one is used for, the types of sellers, profit margins to target, and how to navigate the platform so you don’t get confused or overwhelmed by the tons of options that are available on its interface. This is not advice or coaching. I am merely charting what I learn through my own experience and am sharing it with you to expedite the process should you delve into it.

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