Think of the above return condition, and now think of collector's items being returned that way. Not a kitchen sink set with valve stems where the Box will certainly be tossed, think of collector's items, where people don't even want a DENT in the box. And they get returned with a giant Amazon label slapped directly on the front of the box on the collectors packaging. Packaging shredded by UPS , using the product collector's box as a shipping box. Absolutely destroying the value. Just had a $175 item returned. One of the most expensive things in our entire store. FBA slapped the shipping label directly on the Box and just destroyed the value of a mint in box item, shipped to FBA IN a dealer Factory case. Very sad. They should be shipping this stuff in boxes. They lose all their Commission on these returns. For the 50 cents they save PER ORDER on not using 10 boxes, they lose double that in refunded commission every time one is returned. And you and I lose our shirts, losing not just the commission but 100% of the actual product value, several hundred dollars. Even worse, we get a false product defect over that. Because Amazon decided to not ship it in an actual shipping box. Ridiculous. I do seller fulfilled shipments, in addition to fba. And I tell customers, if you are a mint in box collector, please do not order from fba. Order from our seller fulfilled listing. FBA is meant for customers who just want to completely throw their packaging away in the trash. Amazon FBA even has frustration free packaging skus, where they completely throw the box in the trash and put it in a plain brown box, with less zip ties and plastic inside to unpack.

To be clear, no amount of prep work on the sellers end, can substitute for no shipping box. No bubble wrap or poly bag can SAVE a product that is not even shipped in a shipping box. They shipped some of our returns, $50 collector's items, back to us, in a 10-cent bubble mailer. And the product gets crushed even worse being returned to us. Sad thing is it would not have been returned at all if they had just spent 50 cents shipping it in an actual box up front. Never in my 21 years as a professional seller, on Amazon or ebay, shipping over 40,000 products myself, have I ever been so careless as to ship a product with no shipping box, and slap the UPS label directly on the product Packaging itself.

Amazon, this is your company! You set the bar for other e-tailers! Is this how you want your customers to receive their products? And how much money is spent on customer support dealing with angry customers who receive packages in this way? Is it really worth it to save the cost of a 50 Cent box? When we lose our shirts and you lose all your commission and spend money on customer support dealing with these returns? Is it expecting too much for us to expect you to actually ship every one of our products in an actual box like we would do ourselves? Start shipping stuff in boxes again like you did 5 years ago. Watch how fast the returns go down. I guarantee you MORE than enough to save the money you spend on actual shipping boxes. Your profit goes up, our profit goes up, your returns go down, and customers have a much more satisfying experience, not being scared to death that FBA is going to drop a product on their front porch, shipped with a label on the manufacturer box, ALL crushed up with dents from UPS.