Amazon is restricting the selling of certain items in some categories to pre-authorized sellers only. It was only 2 months ago that Amazon changed its policy to require that all zShops and Auctions transactions be paid through Amazon Payments, with a limit of $2,500 per transaction (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m03/i04/s01). Both moves appear to be motivated by concern over Amazon's reputation and the risk bad transactions have on buyers' perceptions.

Tuesday's announcement stated that, effective immediately, only pre-approved sellers would be able to list against top-selling ASINs in the Electronics, Software, and Computer & Video Games categories. "We are making this change, on a temporary basis, to provide a more trusted shopping experience for our customers."

An ASIN (Amazon Standard Item Number) is a unique number used by Amazon to identify each item, similar to a UPC or ISBN. So sellers who are not pre-authorized may still sell in these categories, but are restricted in the titles and items they can list.

Amazon said it will consider a number of factors in determining which sellers will be allowed to list against the top-selling ASINs, including: how long a seller has sold at Amazon.com, a seller's feedback rating, sales history, guarantee claims rate and refund rate. Amazon will notify those sellers who qualify to continue selling against top-selling ASINs.

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