Asking for an answer from the mods. It should be pretty common knowledge that many different manufacturers will use the same UPC code on multiple products. For example, a lot of Hot Wheels toy cars will have the same UPC.

In the past I was told by Seller Support to "add a new product" by entering all of the information on the new item, then when the system matches it to an existing ASIN, call and request to "cleave" my new SKU to an entirely new ASIN. For an example of this process, look at my case number 9584786461, where I successfully requested a cleave a SKU to a new ASIN. Now, that has always been a cumbersome, imperfect process - sometimes my new info would "infect" the existing ASIN detail page with incorrect information until the "cleave" happened; usually even after the cleave, trying to send the new ASIN to FBA would show up in my shipment as the old ASIN, so I would have to add a new, additional SKU to send inventory to FBA; and almost always, seller support would not understand my request at first, or would incorrectly strip the UPC from the existing ASIN during the cleave, or create a new ASIN without the UPC attached. See my case 12873128091, where the support associate claimed to have removed the UPC from the existing ASIN B0BT9ZCQJP (which I specifically told them not to do, and anyway it did not happen) and reassigned it to the new ASIN B0C6HCG6Q3 (which has no UPC on it even though it should.) Messy.

Currently, seller support almost always denies my request for a cleave, telling me that every ASIN must have a separate UPC. For an example, look at my case number 13803197941, where they refused. (Side note: interestingly, after I received the response refusing to cleave my SKU, someone did in fact cleave my SKU to a new ASIN - which then was taken down the next day as a "suspected intellectual property violation" because somehow the brand name was changed after the cleave. That's a separate issue I'm trying to get resolved through seller support.)

I do understand "Listing requirements: Product IDs (GTINs) - For most categories, you are required to provide a unique product identifier." However, this policy (as written) seems to ignore reality. The reality is that many manufacturers use the same UPC for different items in an assortment. And, the fact remains that somehow, some sellers are managing to make multiple ASINs with the same UPC.

For example, very recently I was surprised to find that a new Hot Wheels car I was listing had an all new UPC code with no existing ASINs, so it was easy to make a new listing for it. When I tried to add another Hot Wheels with the same UPC (194735103133) several days later, I was surprised to see that someone had created 8 new ASINs with this same UPC. From the pictures and the titles it seems like it was one person making all 8 of these ASINs. Which brings us back around to the main question: How? How did they do this? I've asked Seller Support many times, and I am always told that it is impossible, every ASIN must have it's own UPC. That would just seem to be a ridiculous situation: 20 new Hot Wheels are released with the same UPC, but only one of them can be sold on Amazon? A dumb situation that would be, and anyway not the reality that we are seeing. So, How? Let's look at these 9 Bakugan toys in this picture for an example: All should have their own ASIN (and I would argue as separate pages, not as variations,) but they all have the same UPC. How do we do this?