ok I finally understand the UPC vs FNSKU thing and I feel dumb it took me this long

posting this in case anyone else is as confused as I was

UPC/EAN = the barcode you b͏uy before you have a listing. your product’s universal ID. you need this to actually create the listing on Amazon.

FNSKU = what Amazon generates after your listing exists. their internal warehouse tracking code. Amazon gives you this for fr͏ee in Seller Central.

ASIN = the product page ID. also from Amazon, also free.

so when people google how to get a barcode for Amazon FBA what they actually need first is a UPC or EAN. that’s the only one you pay for. the FNSKU just appears once you’re set up.

bought my UPCs from a third-party reseller, got both UPC and EAN included, used the UPC to create my listing, then printed FNSKU labels from Amazon. total barcode cost was like $15.

there’s also a free FNSKU label generator on the reseller’s site I used so I didn’t even have to figure out formatting myself. didn’t know that existed until after I’d already done it the hard way lol