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I’ve been an Amazon seller for years now because it’s a great way to make money online.

Let’s be real though – I definitely made my share of mistakes as an Amazon seller, so don’t think it was all smooth sailing.

Like the time I bought hundreds of dollars of Frozen merchandise, only to have the entire Frozen line blocked to all sellers because fraudulent sellers were sending knock-offs.

Yep, that happened.

Luckily I have 2 little girls, so their friends all get Frozen dolls for birthday presents!

AND I found this handy-dandy list of brands that are NOT allowed to be sold on Amazon, so this has never happened to me again.

But there are other common mistakes I learned the hard way as an Amazon seller.

Below are the 5 biggest mistakes I made as an Amazon seller… so you can avoid them!

If you’re brand new to Amazon, pin this post for later & start with this post about how to sell on Amazon for beginners.

Amazon Seller Mistakes

Overspending on inventory
Not buying enough
Selling out too quickly
Buying before getting into a category
Not learning from others

1. Overspending on inventory

There are basically 3 numbers you need to know to make sure you’re making money as an Amazon seller:

What you spent on the product
How much the product sold for
Shipping & fees

A good rule of thumb is that you will spend one-third on the product, one-third on fees and the remaining one-third should be profit.

Related: Everything You Need To Know To Sell On Amazon

When trying to decide whether a product is worth buying & reselling on Amazon, use the 3X rule.

You should be able to charge 3X (or three times) what you paid for it to cover your fees and have profit leftover.

The less you spend on your inventory, the more profit you will have leftover.

This is one awesome way I save money on inventory.

It’s fantastic because, you get cash back on purchases at thousands of BIG online retailers.

And because it’s a percentage, the bigger the order, the bigger the savings.

2. Not buying enough

Just to be clear, you definitely don’t want to blow your whole budget on one product right away.

BUT, once you know something is a great seller for you, you should start buying… in bulk!

When I finally realized this, at one point I ordered 500 packs of swim diapers from Wal-Mart!

I was buying at a rock-bottom price from Wal-Mart, using Ebates to get an even bigger discount, and then selling for a premium on Amazon.

Of course this peaked during the summer months & once fall hit, the season was over for the year.

I wished I had bought even more inventory to turnover!

It can be tough to know the magic formula though, so here’s some good advice about exactly how much inventory you should buy at once.

3. Selling out too quickly

This should be a good thing, right?

That’s what I thought too!

Remember that 3X rule we covered above where you should sell for 3 time what you paid for it?

Related: How Much Does It Cost To Start An Amazon Business

When I was a brand new Amazon seller, I didn’t pay enough attention to that rule.

I thought it was AWESOME to be selling so much stuff, but actually I wasn’t making any money.

I was selling my inventory quickly because it was priced TOO LOW.

This left me with very little profit leftover to use to buy new inventory to sell.

So yeah, selling quickly is awesome, as long as you are at LEAST hitting your 3X rule.

4. Buying before getting into a category

So as a brand new Amazon seller, I didn’t realize there were different restrictions on who can sell into each category.

I assumed that since I was “in” as an Amazon seller, I could sell anything & everything.

Wrong.

Only after spending hundreds of dollars on slippers did I realize that the shoe category was restricted.

Yep.

Here are the categories that are and are not restricted.

5. Not learning from others

This is the #1 easiest way to avoid ALL of the Amazon seller mistakes – learn from others!

I jumped in head first & made so many mistakes – some of them were EXPENSIVE mistakes.

Now that I know better, I’m telling you, learning from an expert first will save you time & expensive mistakes.

I don’t teach people how to sell on Amazon myself, so if you’re looking for an expert, the Amazon Boot Camp is the best resource out there.

You can choose either the full boot camp or just the video training, but it’s an investment that will actually SAVE you money by avoiding potential massive mistakes.

It’s taught by Jessica & Cliff, who not only have their own profitable Amazon selling business, they’ve taught thousands of other Amazon sellers how to do the same.