Prep Services

American General Distributors runs an Amazon FBA prep and forwarding service from our fulfilment centre in Sanborn, New York. Stock you buy from us is prepped to Amazon’s requirements and shipped directly into Amazon fulfilment centres, so it never has to pass through your own premises.

This exists for one reason: most sellers scaling past a few hundred units a month hit the same wall. The volume is too large to prep at home and too small to justify a warehouse. Having it prepped by the supplier that already holds the stock removes a leg of freight and a week of handling.

What the service covers

Inspection. The stock on your order is checked against the order and inspected for damage before anything is prepped. Discrepancies are raised with you before the stock moves, not after it has been labelled.

Counting and FNSKU labelling. Units are counted, FNSKU labels applied, and any Amazon-required prep — polybagging, bundling, suffocation warnings — completed to the current requirement for that category.

Repackaging and shipment creation. Stock is repacked into compliant shipping cartons, the shipment is created in your Amazon Seller Central account, shipping labels are applied and the consignment is despatched to the fulfilment centre Amazon assigns.

Buying and prepping in one place

The reason this pairs with the wholesale catalogue is freight. When you buy case or pallet quantities from us and have them prepped at Sanborn, the stock does not move twice. It is received, prepped and sent to Amazon from the same building.

Stock you buy from us can also be reserved and held for you, then prepped when you are ready to send it in to Amazon.

What to tell us before prep starts

Four things determine whether a shipment goes through cleanly, and getting them wrong is the usual cause of a delay:

  • The category. Amazon’s prep requirements differ by category, and gated categories differ again. Tell us what you are listing under before the stock is prepped.
  • Whether the units are already prepped. Manufacturer-prepped goods often need nothing beyond an FNSKU. Where that is the case, you are not paying for work that is already done.
  • Your Seller Central access arrangement. Shipments have to be created in your account. Decide in advance how that will happen.
  • Expiry dating, on anything consumable. Amazon’s grocery and supplement programmes enforce their own inbound expiry windows, and they are stricter than the date printed on the pack.

What this service is not

We do not sell storage as a separate service, and prep is not a substitute for checking that a product is sellable. If a line is restricted, gated, or the brand does not permit third-party resale, prepping it cleanly will not change that. Confirm you can list a product before you buy a case of it.

Getting started

Send the product, the quantity and the category you are listing under to info@americangeneraldistributors.com, or use the contact page. Prep is for stock you buy from us, so the stock and the prep are quoted together — that is where the saving is.

Browse the wholesale catalogue by department: supplements and household health, beauty and personal care, sealed Pokemon and licensed merchandise, or the full shop.

Prepping consumables: dating is the whole job

Our deepest categories are health and household, beauty and personal care and grocery, and all three carry an expiry date. That makes prep here different from prep on a hardline product, where the only questions are labels and packaging.

On anything dated, we check the dating at receiving rather than at despatch, so a problem is caught while there is still time to do something about it. If dating on allocated stock is shorter than expected, you hear about it before it is packed and labelled — not after it has arrived at a fulfilment centre and become your stranded inventory.

Liquids, glass and leak risk

Personal care, fragrance and household cleaning products are the categories most likely to arrive damaged, and the damage is rarely just the one unit. A leaked bottle in a carton damages everything around it and turns one loss into a shipment.

Those units are bagged and protected as standard rather than on request. It is cheaper than the alternative and it is the difference between a condition complaint and a clean delivery.

Sealed product stays sealed

We do not open, decant, repackage or relabel over the manufacturer’s own labelling. What goes on the outside is channel and FNSKU labelling, poly bagging with the required warnings, and protective packing appropriate to the product.

On anything a person puts on their skin or in their body, that line matters more than anywhere else. A unit that looks tampered with in these categories does not generate a condition query — it generates a safety complaint.

What to tell us before you order

  • The channel and marketplace the stock is going to.
  • Whether you need FNSKU labels, and whether the products are stickerless.
  • Any bundling or multi-pack configuration, stated exactly.
  • The destination address or fulfilment centre, and your shipment plan if you have one.
  • Any minimum remaining dating your channel enforces — this is the one people forget, and it is the one that strands inventory.

Gating is still yours to check

Prep does not solve approval. Health, beauty and grocery are among the most frequently gated categories, and gating attaches to your selling account rather than to the product. Check each product in your own account before committing to a quantity.

What this service is not

We are not a dropshipping service. We do not ship to your end customers, we do not blind-ship with your branding, and we do not fulfil storefront orders as they arrive. We also do not prep stock bought elsewhere — this exists for the stock you buy from us, which is what lets us stand behind the dating and the sealing.

Timing and cost

Stock is despatched 3–5 business days after payment clears, and prep happens inside that window wherever the requirements arrive with the order. Unusual bundling or a large shipment build can add time and we will say so before you pay. Prep is quoted with the order, so you get one number rather than two.

Talk to us about your order

Tell us what you plan to buy, which channel it is going to, and what prep that channel requires — including any minimum dating it enforces. We will quote the stock and the prep together.

Sellers on Amazon should also read our FBA guide; for eBay, Walmart and TikTok Shop see the marketplace guide.

Who we supply

Wholesale categories

Factory-sealed case packs with a minimum order quantity on every listing. ACH bank transfer, despatch 3–5 business days after payment clears. We ship across the USA and worldwide.