The Superior LEGO Market – eBay vs. BrickLink – MSRP Over $100

Welcome to the fifth and final installment of a series started by Comicblast called “The Superior Market - eBay vs. BrickLink”. If you haven't read the previous articles, I suggest you start at the beginning and read Comicblast's initial articleshere ($0.00 to $9.99 and here ($10 to $24.99). The third installment can be readhere ($25 to $49.99) and gives further background about the purpose of these articles and my approach to continuing the analysis. The fourth installment is here ($50 to $99.99).

Fees for eBay were calculated as follows:

• No insertion fee was included.
• 10% was subtracted off the sale price for eBay.
• Fees on any shipping cost were not included since it is impossible to calculate.
• 2.9% + 30 cents was subtracted off the sale price for PayPal.

Fees for BrickLink were calculated as follows:

• 3% was subtracted off the sale price for BrickLink.
• 2.9% + 30 cents was subtracted off the sale price for PayPal.

** One word of caution for the BrickLink values. BrickLink shows me the values in Canadian dollars and doesn't offer the ability to switch to a different currency despite the claims made by it's settings. I used an average of the exchange rate (1.0504) between the CDN and US dollars over the last 6 months to find the BrickLink US sale price. I.e. $1.00 US = $0.952 CDN  ** The results for MSRP Over $100 are as follows:

• BrickLink is the clear winner in terms of being the marketplace that earns sellers maximum profits.
• As usual, without fees eBay appears to be the winner as 12 sets sold for more money: 9.22% vs 6.99%
• With fees, 9 of those sets move to the BrickLink side of profit even though the remaining 3 give eBay a real advantage: 18.11% vs 11.21%

For sets with a MSRP over $100, we see the biggest difference between the two marketplaces. While those that sell for more on eBay make a higher return for the seller, BrickLink is the clear winner in terms of your chances. More sets make more money on BrickLink.

Additional things to consider:

• If you have an eBay store, you may pay significantly less fess.
• There is no free shipping on BrickLink, so the sale price shown is the true sale price.
• eBay prices will more than likely include listings that had free shipping as part of the sale price.

This round scores a TKO for BrickLink. Despite the fact that the Fire Temple sold for a whopping 38% more on eBay, it is clearly an oddball set (though a fantastic one, I love dragons in Lego). People are clearly paying high prices on eBay but there is just no match for BrickLink's lower fees. Sets that appear to make more money on eBay usually don't sell high enough to cover the fee difference. At these price ranges, that also translates into some significant money being paid in fees and lost profits.