Welcome back to Seller Snacks, your weekly buffet of ecommerce goodness.
📣Quick heads-up before we dig in: this week we’re spotlighting a system built for consistency, not one-off wins: OurMars 44 lead list for building a real OA pipeline,30% off ArbiSource to turn leads into a reusable sourcing database, and50% off the Olsons’ Builder’s Circle for sellers who want proven testing and pricing frameworks.
🍔This week in Seller Snacks:why nearly half of new Amazon sellers quit, how disciplined OA sellers are turning effort into compounding systems, the testing framework that replaces guessing, and the Amazon policy changes sellers can’t ignore – plus updates impacting margins.
On Today’s Menu:
🧠 Amazon Didn’t Get Harder. Casual Sellers Left.
🧠 How to Turn OA Effort Into a Compounding Sourcing System
🧠 Why OA Sellers Get Stuck in Data and How Testing Breaks the Loop
🎓 This Week in FBA Lead List Academy
🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Updates
⚡ Quick Clicks — Headlines Worth a Glance
Let’s eat!
🧠 Amazon Didn’t Get Harder. Casual Sellers Left.
2025 quietly pushed a huge number of sellers out of Amazon.
New seller registrations fell to a decade low. Nearly half of new sellers didn’t make it through the year. And yet, Amazon demand didn’t disappear. Sales volume held up.
What changed wasn’t demand.
It waswho could keep up.
This wasn’t a demand problem; it was an execution problem.
Most sellers didn’t leave because Amazon “stopped working.”
They left because Amazon stopped working forcasual operators.
Rising fees, tighter compliance, less forgiveness, and thinner margins exposed weak systems fast.
For online arbitrage sellers especially, 2025 made one thing clear:
OA success isn’t about finding good products anymore.
It’s about building repeatable execution.
Endless research, one-off wins, and inconsistent testing stopped being enough.
If you’re still here, it means you adapted (congrats!!! ).
If you’re still sourcing and selling today, you didn’t get lucky; you adjusted.
Fewer sellers doesn’t mean less opportunity. It meansmore opportunity for disciplined sellers
who can test, price, and replenish intentionally.
Less noise.
Fewer reckless undercutters.
More signals for operators who pay attention.
What did the survivors do differently?
The sellers who stayed didn’t swing harder; they got more systematic.
They built lead pipelines instead of chasing one-off wins.
They tested small and often.
They priced based on supply reality, not hope.
They used seasonal wins to fund evergreen inventory.
They stopped trying to win big, and started trying towin consistently.
What’s the main takeaway for OA sellers?
Amazon didn’t close the door.
It raised the bar.
For OA sellers still in the game, that’s not bad news. It means structure compounds, discipline shows up in results, and the market now rewards operators over tourists.
If you’re still here, you’re not late.
You’ve already passed the filter.
🧠 How to Turn OA Effort Into a Compounding Sourcing System
The seller shakeout didn’t reward working harder.
It rewardedbuilding systems.
The OA sellers still winning aren’t finding more products each day; they’re turning every hour of sourcing into something reusable. A system where leads don’t expire, testing creates leverage, and effort compounds instead of resetting every week.
Here’s what that system looks like in practice.
- Start With a Real OA Lead Pipeline (Not Random Wins)
The fastest way to build momentum in OA today isn’t hunting one ASIN at a time. It’s starting with curated lead lists that give you a universe of testable ideas you can expand through rabbit trailing.
OurMars 44 list turns sourcing from a guessing game into a repeatable starting point:
- Skip cold-start sourcing
- Test and pipeline leads instead of chasing daily deals
- Discovermore opportunities from each starting point
Lead lists aren’t the finish line;they’re the on-ramp.
50+ pre-vetted, fast-moving high-profit OA leads weekly for only $46.25/week.
- Turn Leads Into a Reusable Asset (Not Expiring Ideas)
In modern OA, the edge isn’t finding leads.
It’s revisiting them intelligently.
ArbiSourceturns past work into future opportunity by:
- Tracking ASINs over time
- Rechecking profitability automatically
- Alerting you when old leads become viable again
Your sourcing work keeps paying you back.
- Build Judgment, Not Just a Tool Stack
Tools amplify judgment; they don’t replace it.
The OA sellers who made it through the shakeout didn’t just have software. They hadframeworks for testing, pricing, and replenishment.
That’s whereThe Olson’s Builder’s Circle Community fits.
It gives modern OA sellers:
- Full access to all subscriber-only posts and the complete archive – no chasing scattered advice
- Ongoing discussion and feedback from sellers actively running modern OA systems
- Regular operator-level breakdowns likeKeepa Korner andMastermind Minute that sharpen judgment, not just tactics
- A single place to refine testing, pricing, and sourcing decisions as conditions change
The Builder’s Circle is built for OA sellers who want fewer opinions and better decision-making.
The Main Takeaway:
This isn’t about buying three things.
It’s about building a system where:
- Leads don’t expire
- Testing creates clarity
- Knowledge compounds over time
That’s why casual sellers left.
And why sellers who build systems are still here.
🧠 Why OA Sellers Get Stuck in Data and How Testing Breaks the Loop
There’s a version of fear that doesn’t look like fear.
It looks like responsibility:
one more chart, one more data point, one more reason to wait.
Brian and Robin Joy Olson call thisdata imprisonment. This is when OA sellers rely so heavily on historical data that they stop taking action. And they focus on this type of analysis paralysis in thisepisode of Silent Sales Machine Radio.
Tools like Keepa are powerful, but incomplete.
They don’t capture every sale, explainwhy it happened, or always show the price that actually converted. Brian even shared examples of real sales that never appeared in Keepa at all.
That’s why they emphasize this rule:
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Charts are a map, not the territory.
The Olsons don’t reject data. Rather, they reframe it.
Data should create a hypothesis, not demand certainty:
“Under my conditions, at this price, will this ASIN sell?”
There’s only one way to answer that.
You test.
Most OA sellers never run clean tests. They change prices mid-test, react emotionally to competitors, or slash prices just to force a sale. As Brian puts it:
“If a test cannot fail, it’s not a test.”
That’s why their4-week OA testing framework works. You set rules in advance, hold conditions steady, and accept one of two outcomes:
- Sells profitably →replenish
- Doesn’t →liquidate and move on
No guessing. No emotional overrides.
The big mindset shift: testing isn’t operations — it’sR&D.
Break-even tests aren’t failures; they’re tuition. And without testing, replenishment pipelines eventually dry up.
The takeaway:
Keepa informs.
Testing confirms.
OA sellers don’t need better guesses; they need better tests.
And confidence isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you build.
🎓 This Week in FBA Lead List Academy
- 📈Why the “Safe” Approach to OA Product Research Often Backfires
Brian and Robin Joy Olson break down why many online arbitrage sellers get stuck in endless research instead of building real confidence. Using the “Pottery Paradox,” they show how small, structured OA tests (3–5 units, manual pricing, clear timelines) produce better judgment than over-analyzing Keepa charts and waiting for perfect certainty.
Key takeaway: In OA, confidence comes from testing, not guessing. Small, repeatable experiments beat “perfect” research every time.
- 📈Why Sales Rank Is a Trap for Seasonal OA Sourcing
With Valentine’s Day approaching, many OA sellers lean too heavily on sales rank, often filtering out products before demand even wakes up. This post breaks down a seasonal sourcing framework that prioritizes seller behavior, last year’s Keepa patterns, and fulfillment timing to find seasonal opportunitieswithout draining your lead pipeline once the season ends.
Key takeaway: Seasonal OA isn’t about speed; it’s about timing. Seller activity and historical patterns beat early rank signals every time.
- 📈The One Pricing Question That Unlocks More OA Profit
Many OA sellers leave money on the table by pricing every ASIN the same, regardless of supply reality. This post breaks down why the most important pricing decision starts with a simple question:“How easy is this ASIN to replace?”, and how repeatable inventory rewards speed while limited inventory rewards patience.
Key takeaway: Pricing works best when it matches supply. Ask “can I restock this?” before deciding how fast or how aggressively to sell.
🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Updates
- 🔔Prepaid Return Labels Required for All FBM Returns Starting Feb 8
StartingFebruary 8, 2026, all U.S. FBM sellers must useAmazon Prepaid Return Labels (APRL) for returns, eliminating the high-value exemption. While Amazon positions this as faster refunds and fewer messages, sellers lose discretion on high-value returns and take on more risk when items come back damaged, incomplete, or abused. Expect more automatic refunds, less control, and heavier reliance on SAFE-T claims to recover losses. - 🔔SAFE-T Claim Filing Window Cut to 30 Days Starting Feb 16
EffectiveFebruary 16, 2026, Amazon is reducing the SAFE-T claim filing window for U.S. FBM orders from 60 days to 30 days, starting from the return delivery scan or refund date (whichever is later). Amazon says this “aligns with return and A-to-z timelines,” but sellers are pushing back. SAFE-T already feels stacked against sellers, and less time means more missed claims and higher exposure to fraud, abuse, and damaged returns, especially for sellers managing volume or high-risk categories.
- 🔔QuickBooks Online Now Integrates Directly With Seller Central
Amazon now allows sellers to connect QuickBooks Online directly inside Seller Central to track profit and loss, fees, payouts, and inventory across Amazon and other sales channels. A helpful option for simplifying bookkeeping and getting clearer visibility into Amazon performance without exporting data or juggling multiple dashboards.
⚡ Quick Clicks — Headlines Worth a Glance
- 📦Amazon CEO Says Tariffs Are Starting to Show Up in Prices
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said tariffs are now “creeping into” prices on Amazon as earlier inventory buffers run out, forcing some sellers to either absorb higher costs or raise prices. Even if you’re not importing directly, higher costs upstream can quietly shrink arbitrage margins, disrupt replenishment cycles, and make previously reliable retail flips harder to price profitably. - 📦Amazon Shipping Delays Still a Big Headache for Sellers
A new SellerApp breakdown shows shipping delays are up sharply in 2026, with FBA transit times stretching well beyond the old “3–7 days” and transit slowdowns now a core driver of late shipments and performance risks. Delays can crush metrics, stock availability, and Buy Box share even when Amazon’s system is at fault, making buffer planning, diversified fulfillment routes, and careful handling time settings more critical than ever.
- 📦USPS Opens Last-Mile Delivery Network to More Shippers
The U.S. Postal Service is launching a competitive bidding platform that lets businesses of all sizes access its last-mile delivery network, a role Amazon once dominated under negotiated contracts. This could slowly reshape delivery dynamics on the marketplace; tighter USPS logistics ties might loosen Amazon’s edge while also increasing complexity in shipping costs and carrier options for sellers.
🎭 Meme of the Week
We know, Dude, we know…
Because Amazon selling is serious business… but nottoo serious.
Want more sourcing memes, weekly drops, and a few laughs between IP claims?
Last week (1/19/26 to 1/23/26), our lead lists delivered:
🔍 Unique Top Leads: 249
💰 Avg. Net Profit: $13.17
📈 Avg. ROI: 80.11%
🏷️ Avg. 90 Day Rank: 143,863
💸 Total Profit (all lists, buying 1 unit per lead): $3,353.97
💸 Avg. Total Profit (all lists, buying 1 unit per lead): $670.79
How our service works:
- We deliver 10+ expert-vetted OA leads to your inbox Monday – Friday
- IP/brand/price-cliff filtered, top 1.5% sales rank targets, 85% avg ROI, $14 avg net profit/unit
- Built for speed so you turn inventory fast = optimized cash flow
- Lists are seat-capped to avoid saturation.
- One flip can cover your monthly subscription
Here’s what some of our long-time Amazon online arbitrage sellers who rely on our lead lists to find profitable flips had to say:
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“Great multi-use list: use forrabbit-trailing off store, brand, coupon, category, or just buy daily leads outright, rarely tank, well-vetted, excellent variety. “ – SC
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“I was able to build my business just using these leads, it's been a great experience for me.” – JC
Lists capped at 44 and 22 sellers per list. Starts at $46.25/week
No long-term commitments. Try our lists risk-free.
🤝 Let's Partner Up
Are you an influencer, content creator, or Amazon expert with value to share? We’re always looking for new ways to grow together.
Here’s what we’re excited to explore:
- Sharing your content in our newsletter or socials
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Got an idea for a win-win partnership?
📩 Email us athello@fbaleadlist.com — let’s build something great together.
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