BB6 - The Hazmat Hiccup...

I'd never heard of the hazmat flag before, but apparently it isn't all that uncommon happening on such random products as baseballs, toy cars, and... my product. It's been a longer process getting it cleared than it should be, and as such I'm being forced to switch gears.  Let's dive in to find out what happened! To leave a comment head to http://brandingblitz.com/6/    Full Transcript below: ---   ---   ---   ---   Hello again, and welcome back to the Branding Blitz podcast! I'm JR, and this is episode 6.   It's been well a couple weeks since I recorded the last episode because I've had a long string of bad days with my health and life's been kind of crazy as a result. I went to the doctor yesterday, and got another steroid shot and some new meds, so I'm doing a bit better now, but still a bit out of whack.There have been some interesting things happening in the meantime though.   After I recorded episode 5, discussing some common questions I'd seen about barcodes, it occurred to me that this is the kind of thing that would be handy to have in text form as well. Podcasts are a great format for explaining things, but they're not easily searchable if you are looking for a specific piece of information. So I put together a guide that is divided up into different sections with a table of contents that lets you jump to a specific question.The response to that guide has been fantastic. In the time since I posted that guide, it has nearly doubled in size as people have asked more questions and I've been able to add those answers to the guide. Each time I think I've got all the main stuff answered, someone else comes along and asks a great question, so it just keeps growing. My hope is that I can turn it into the most comprehensive guide to FBA barcodes possible. And that is made possible by people like you continuing to give feedback and asking more questions. If you'd like to check it out, you can find a link by going to http://brandingblitz.com/resources/The feedback I've gotten on this guide has truly been AMAZING – I love to teach people and knowing how helpful this has been is really exciting to me. It's inspired me not just to try and make this guide as comprehensive as possible, but also to try to create more guides. So I'd love to hear from you what topics you'd like to see a thorough guide created about.   The past couple of weeks have been eventful for my product sourcing adventure as well – in some ways a little more eventful than I wanted this part of the process to be.I was ready to submit an order for my first product, but had decided I wanted to put the FNSKU on the product packaging straight from the manufacturer. So I set up the listing in Amazon to get the FNSKU. I went in to create a shipment so I could retrieve the label, and got an error message stating that the product was flagged as a potential hazmat issue and was under review.I had never heard of this before, but apparently, it isn't all that uncommon. Hazmat by the way is short for Hazardous Materials. Anything that is flammable, explosive, poisonous, corrosive, aerosol, or contains a lithium ion battery is supposed to automatically get flagged – so if your product matches any of those things be aware that you may have an issue.But my product didn't match any of those things, and I wasn't sure why it got flagged. In searching the internet and talking to people about my issue, I came across people who had really random products flagged. One person had a baseball flagged as hazmat, another person had a tennis ball – not sure what's going on with the sporting goods but those were two different people! Someone said they'd had a toy car that had the words “fire red” in the paint color and it got flagged, but they re-did the listing without the word “fire” and it went through.   Anyway, as long as your product isn't actually hazmat, it should pass review. Depending on your product, you may be able to get what's called a Material Data Safety Sheet or MSDS from your manufacturer. An MSDS is basically a document that shows what materials your product is made of and how they respond to different environments, how flammable they are, how to extinguish if they do catch fire, what gases may be released if they catch fire, things they interact with, etc. So if you can get one of those, it should help with the review process – though I'm not sure if you can get an MSDS for something like a baseball.   For my product, I actually already had an MSDS sheet. So it wasn't a big deal to upload that info. Once I'd done that, I hopped on a chat with seller support to see if there was any way to expedite the process. They assured me there was nothing they could do to speed it up, it would take 3-4 days, but that was great news because it used to take weeks or even months to get it done. That was on May 20th and for about the next 3 weeks I did not get any information and was told there was nothing that could be done to speed it up. Finally, on June 8th, I was told that they had determined the product to be a Hazmat product. Which means until we get this sorted out, I can't sell this product through FBA. They couldn't tell me why it got flagged as Hazmat or why they decided to leave it that way. But they submitted a ticket to the department that handles that. Supposedly they'll be able to tell me what's going on. That's been a couple days ago now, and I've not received any updates yet.While I don't think this item should be a hazmat product, and it seems like we should be able to get it cleared because there are dozens of other sellers selling nearly identical products through FBA, I'm very hesitant to pull the trigger on this order until it gets cleared.   So, that's all given me some time to think. Even before finding out they had decided to leave Hazmat status on the product, I had decided to look into other options.As a result, I've made some changes to my plan. I'm still super excited about doing this product in the future, but it is no longer going to be my first product.The path I'm going to take now is quite a bit different than the one I was originally planning, and I think it is for the better. So this frustrating hiccup with being flagged as Hazmat may have been a blessing in disguise.In the coming episodes, I'll talk more about what I've changed with my plan. And when I know more, I'll keep you updated on the Hazmat issue and hopefully be able to share some tips for what to do if you find yourself in a similar situation.I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go visit family in Idaho. The trip was planned long before my health fell apart, but I'm hopeful that the dry air in Idaho will help give me a bit of a reprieve.By the time I get back, my first product should be here – I actually just checked the tracking info and it is expected to be delivered on Thursday. So I can begin moving forward with that.I'm planning to take my recorder with me, but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to record another episode while I'm gone or not. If not, I'll have a lot to talk about when I get back!For a transcript of this show, and to leave any comments or feedback, head over to brandingblitz.com/6   If you have any questions you'd like to ask and maybe get it answered on the podcast, drop me a line at brandingblitz.com/ask   If you haven't done so yet, could you do me a favor and head over to iTunes to subscribe and leave a review. That will help me tell iTunes that I am NOT a hazardous material – and I'd really appreciate it.     That's it for this episode, I'll catch you next time on the Branding Blitz.