A very contentious subject that comes up is how do I get rid of things I do not want? Do I have to wait 6 months?
Before I answer this I wish to state I DO NOT SELL ITEMS I DO NOT NEED OR WANT.
Amazons Terms of service are a bit contradictory in regards to this. As of 8-16-2025 the Vine Terms Of Service (TOS) state:
All right, title and interest in Vine Products will pass to you when the Vine Product is delivered to the common carrier for delivery to you. You may keep or destroy the Vine Product at your discretion at any time. You may keep or destroy the Vine Product at your discretion at any time.
and
for six months following your order of any Vine Product, not sell or give possession of that Product to any other person.
In Vine help it says:
Per the Amazon Vine Terms and Conditions, you may not sell or give possession of the products to any other person or entity for six months following your order.
Here is where the problem is. "All right, title and interest in Vine Products will pass to you when the Vine Product is delivered to the common carrier for delivery to you." This means that the product is YOURS, It is YOUR property. If something is MY property then I CAN and WILL do with it as I see fit regardless of any further conditions mentioned. So as far as I am concerned I the conditions that state "for six months following your order of any Vine Product, not sell or give possession of that Product to any other person" is null and void.
In ye olde times when vine was young there were vine police/vigilantes people that would take it on themselves to police the rules and make sure that other viners abide by them. So my advice is that in your amazon review profile you change your name to something that is not traceable by others to you. Amazon can still see your real name, but there is no reason sellers, or other viners should be pursing ne'er do wells. to do this:
go to https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/
click on edit profile.
change your public name to something completely not related to you in real life.
remove the check mark next to "Show reviews to the public" and "Allow customers to follow you" then save changes.
You can verify that this is working by loading your profile in a browser that is not logged in to amazon.
This will also help to protect you from vindictive sellers that will report as many of your reviews as they can find because you dared to leave a low star review on their cheap junk.
Now why does amazon not want you to sell or give away an item (for 6 months) that you reviewed? Because this is to give the seller time to make a profit from their item without competing with some random listing on an auction site, or some other selling format.
How can amazon or the sellers find out? The dirty little secret is that for the most part they cannot. The only way they could find out is if you were selling something on a publicly accessible site and you are using the products word salad brand name, AND your real name is prominent in the listing, can be traced to you, or the site cooperates in telling the seller or amazon who you are.
In the event you give something away or donate it? unless you are posting about it, or someone else posts about it and names you? There is no way that amazon or the seller can find out, as such the 6 month rule is basically not enforceable in any reasonable way.
There are sticklers that will brow beat and try to shame anyone who post that they gave away, sold, or donated an item. So DON'T POST what you eventually did with the item, and if you do don't mention exactly what it is, or when you got it. Basically DON'T POST about it at all anywhere.
I go to thrift stores all the time, and I noticed in the last couple of month (since the start of summer 2025) that tons of vine related items have show up in them. I do not have any specific brands but I recognize things I have seen on vine, and most of this stuff is brand new. String trimmers, batteries, blowers, lawn equipment, pressure washers, toys, brand new car parts, and all manner of new but cheap and crappy things. So several people in my city and the neighboring cities are dumping stuff right and left.
Oh and as far as I know Amazon has not asked for any product to be returned or has required anyone to prove that they still own it, for over 15 years. Even if they do request a return or proof you still have it, all you have to do is say you threw it away after destroying it, they cannot prove otherwise.
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