How long should this phase last, and how many units should be sold?
It can take months to become auto-ungated in other categories, and even then you’re lucky if you break even, so this approach feels like a waste of time to me.
What is the right approach to take in 2026? Thanks.
Selling ungated items is mostly about account seasoning rather than immediate profit. The idea is to build stable metrics, clean order history, low defect rates, and consistent fulfillment, which usually takes around 30–90 days and roughly 50–200 orders.
That said, many sellers feel frustrated because focusing only on random low-demand ungated products can lead to months of break-even results with slow progress.
A more balanced approach is to look for products with proven demand (for example, 100+ monthly sales) where multiple new sellers are already active. This often indicates categories where Amazon is more open to newer accounts. It allows you to build metrics more efficiently while gradually preparing for ungating requests or moving into wholesale, bundles, or a lighter private-label strategy, instead of spending long periods stuck on low-impact items.
My recommendation is that you spend your first 2 years as a seller reselling items purchased wholesale from reputable suppliers, where you have the invoices.
Even better would be doing private label.