I’m a beginner, and I ordered a product (OA) to sell on Amazon. While that specific brand was accepting applications to ungate a few days ago during my product research, I went ahead and placed an order. However, after two days, when I checked again, it said “restricted” and no longer accepted new applications. This has happened to me twice with different brands. Now, the product is stuck with me, and I’m unable to sell it.
I’m not sure if this is usual. Will the application to ungate reopen again in the future, or will it remain closed? Is this common for everyone? If it’s like this, how can I get the first product listed (which requires approval)? I’m not able to find good, profitable products that are ungated by default. Hence, I thought to ungate a specific brand and sell that, but issues like these are discouraging me from proceeding further.
Yes Amazon will eventually re-open to ungate. It might be soon or it might take a little time but they’ll open up applications.
What you’re experiencing is unfortunately very common in online arbitrage, especially as a beginner, Amazon frequently adjusts brand gating rules based on internal risk assessments, and brands that were ungateable one day can become locked the next without notice.
Sometimes ungating applications reopen after a few weeks or months, but there’s no guarantee, so it’s risky to buy inventory solely based on a brand being open at the time of research. The best way to avoid this going forward is to only place orders once you’re fully ungated, or to source from categories and brands that are known to be ungated for newer sellers, like home, kitchen, and some office or pet supplies.
For now, you can try selling the product elsewhere, like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or a liquidation group to recover your cost. Long-term, focus on getting ungated through wholesale suppliers who issue proper invoices that meet Amazon’s criteria, so when a brand is open, you can apply confidently with the right documents. It’s a tough part of the learning curve, but most sellers go through it at the beginning.