I can not speak to the Handmade side of it but I can speak to the Retail side of Amazon. All those categories your talking about require approval to sell in. Some of them are pretty tough to get into. A lot of that has to do with people selling fakes and knock offs. Handbags and sun glasses are an example of this.

I sell an assortment of vintage items. Jigsaw puzzles, cross stitch kits, toys, electronics, etc. Honestly if the listing isnt already on Amazon I dont bother to list it on here. When you create a listing for an item like this its like a needle in a haystack. You usually only have one of the item so by the time you put in all the keywords and do all the pics and description you have too much time invested in it. And to get traffic to the listing you have to pay for advertising which is pointless for just one item.

On the retail side of Amazon you dont have much of any kind of following or customer base. Now if Amazon allows you to list those types of items in your handmade shop and you already have a following for this type of item then it may be worth it but if your looking to branch out into the retail side I wouldnt waste my time.

I have sold many old books on Amazon. They are not really grouped in an area that I have ever looked at. Im sure Amazon has some way to search for just old books but most Amazon buyers dont search that way. If I have an old book and I can find a listing for the exact year, edition, and publisher I will list it. Otherwise I list it on Ebay.

You are already on Etsy so why wouldn’t you sell those items there?

Unless the rules have changed, clothing and accessories must be new with tags to be sold on Amazon. There are also many brands that are restricted and would require current invoices in order to get approved to sell.

Another issue you will run into on the Retail side is barcodes. Each item you create a listing for must have a barcode. Most vintage items no longer have the original packaging with a barcode, Some were produced before barcodes, And a lot of the ones that did have barcodes had barcodes that are not recognized or have been reused for other products. You will have to purchase barcodes from a 3rd party just to use to list.

Books are listed by ISBN numbers but all books produced before the early 70’s do not have a ISBN. To list one of these books you now have to apply to Amazon for an ISBN exemption. I have never bothered to do this. If the book is valuable enough to fool with most likely I can list it elsewhere easier and sell it quicker.