The Superior LEGO Market – eBay vs. BrickLink – MSRP $50 – $99.99

Welcome to the fourth 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 articles here ($0.00 to $9.99) andhere ($10 to $24.99). The third installment can be read here ($25 to $49.99) and gives further background about the purpose of these articles and my approach to continuing the analysis.

[divider] 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 the MSRP range from $50 to $99.99 are as follows:

• In this price range, BrickLink pulls into a big lead with the number of sets that sold for higher.
• Without fees, eBay holds a big lead: 14.66% vs 6.19%
• With fees, BL comes out ahead: 13.29% vs 10.68%

In the $50 to $99.99 MSRP price range, the picture is starting to change. BrickLink has a significant lead in terms of sets sold for more money but those that sell for more in their respective marketplace still have a decent advantage over the other.

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.

I'm going to give this round to BrickLink because more than twice as many sets sold for more money. Could this be because in this price range we are moving beyond the mom and pop buyers and into the group of buyers (AFOLs) who are aware of BrickLink? Wouldn't that favor higher prices on eBay? I guess not.