A Small Village in India Taught Me a Big Lesson

When I first started OX29 the brand was small. Initially just doing bat repairs, and later making from part-made bats, and then eventually making bats from scratch. Hardly anyone had heard of the brand, and the fact that bat repairs are so seasonal was the main battle. At that time, my bats hadn’t yet earned the reputation they might have now. I was just starting out, trying to build something from nothing, and to make sure I had something to focus on during the quieter winter months I began sourcing cricket-related products that I could buy in bulk from India and Pakistan - from both new and existing suppliers. Things like grips, gloves, accessories, cricket ball throwers - basically anything I thought I could sell with a small margin through Amazon, eBay, and my website.

Amazon and eBay already had their own customer base, but my website didn’t, especially before I moved to Shopify from the small UK-based e-commerce platform I first used. It was never about making a fortune, but it gave me something productive to do through the winter and meant I could buy workshop bits in bigger quantities, bringing the cost down. For a while, it worked really well.

But as time goes on, you become wiser. You start to see the limitations of selling on those platforms, and the challenges every small seller faces. eBay was a nightmare at times. You could have photographic proof, GPS tracking, even courier confirmation that an order had been delivered, and a buyer could still say they hadn’t received it. eBay would almost always side with them - full refund, and they got to keep the item (or at least it was gone from my inventory, and not coming back). Maybe five years ago that wasn’t too common, but now it’s everywhere. Sellers lose money, time, and any motivation to bother with their small e-commerce business.

Then came Amazon. I thought it might be a step up - a slightly bigger audience, faster sales, maybe a more tried-and-tested structure where the seller had a bit more protection. Quite the opposite. The same issues appeared, only worse. The bit that really hit me though was just how ruthless they can be when they spot a product doing well. Most people have heard of Amazon Basics - their own brand that sells everything from batteries to kitchen utensils. What many don’t know is how they use data from small sellers to figure out what’s popular, then copy it, undercut the price, and push their own version to the top of the listings. There have been loads of reports about it (I can send some on to anyone interested, although a quick Google search will tell you everything you need to know). It’s crushed so many small stationery and craft suppliers.

And then there’s the Toys R Us story. For anyone my age, that name probably brings back a lot of childhood memories. I got my first ever Game Boy from there - I must have been seven or eight. When Toys R Us started struggling, Amazon invited them to sell through their platform. Then, not long after, Amazon copied their entire catalogue and undercut them on price, colour, and variations. It’s a proper example of how the big players move - and as much as it annoyed me to read about, I never imagined I’d experience the same sort of thing on a smaller scale.

Fast forward a few years and I’ve now got two Amazon seller accounts permanently suspended, and Amazon owes me just under two thousand pounds across both. It all started with them asking me to re-verify my identity, which was fine, so I sent every document they asked for, all current and legitimate. They rejected them. Then they started asking for documents that don’t even exist in the UK - only in the USA. Eventually I got on a video call with an Amazon associate, showed my face, verified everything live, and they told me it was all good. A week later I got an email saying they couldn’t verify my identity. I opened a new account, started fresh, sales came in, and then - the same thing again.

At that point I gave up. I wrote off the stock sitting in their fulfilment centres and closed that chapter in my head. I turned all my focus back to what I actually care about, and where my true skills lie - making cricket bats. Thankfully the bat side of the business has grown enough now that I can sustain myself all year round, without needing to rely on eBay or Amazon sales in the winter. And that’s entirely down to the people who’ve supported me and the brand since 2019, so genuinely, thank you.

A few days ago I checked one of the main products I used to sell on Amazon - cricket ball throwers made in a small village on the outskirts of Hyderabad in India. When I first started selling them, there were a few of us doing it. Everyone had similar prices, all from the same small manufacturer. Out of curiosity, I searched for them again recently and found that Amazon is now the only seller of that same product, priced about ten pounds higher than I used to sell them for. Every other small seller is gone.

I still sell those same throwers on my website, for a much lower price than Amazon, but barely get a single sale per month now. It’s mad really - the same product, same quality, just without the Amazon logo above it. It’s one of those reminders of how powerful these platforms have become, and how hard it is for smaller sellers to compete, no matter how fair their prices are.

I knew it wouldn’t last forever, but to see Amazon come in and take over a product like that - something made in a little village in India, from what I believe is a fairly small factory - it’s not just strange, it’s incredibly greedy. It reminded me exactly why I stopped bothering with platforms like that. They might be convenient from a customer’s point of view, but if you’re anyone except the customer, they’re a nightmare to deal with.

Looking back, I’m actually glad things turned out the way they did. It pushed me to focus on the part of the business that matters most to me, where my skills lie, and what OX29 customers expect from me - the bats. Real, handmade bats that I shape and finish myself. And I’ve learned that when you’re small and independent, nobody can change the rules overnight and subtract from your success.

So if you’ve supported OX29 Bat Doctor over the years, just know I really do appreciate it. Every order, every message, every bit of feedback - it all keeps this going. And as for Amazon and eBay - they can keep their cricket ball throwers!