Site Improvements & General FAQs

[drdesignz]

I recently signed up and have been pretty happy with the site so far. I just now noticed there is a forum also. I see that I can't post images, which is a little disappointing. But really I'm mostly interested in the articles and my BrickFolio, which I have a question about. I used my Brickset account to import my collection, which was incredibly helpful. I see the BrickFolio chart showing the value of my collection. My question is, does this chart take into consideration when I added items to my collection? Or does the value consider all items together? For example, let's say I have 100 sets total today and six months ago I had 50 sets. Does the chart show the value for all 100 sets six months ago, or is it showing me the value of the 50 sets I had at the time?

[Ed Mack]

I recently signed up and have been pretty happy with the site so far. I just now noticed there is a forum also. I see that I can't post images, which is a little disappointing. But really I'm mostly interested in the articles and my BrickFolio, which I have a question about. I used my Brickset account to import my collection, which was incredibly helpful. I see the BrickFolio chart showing the value of my collection. My question is, does this chart take into consideration when I added items to my collection? Or does the value consider all items together? For example, let's say I have 100 sets total today and six months ago I had 50 sets. Does the chart show the value for all 100 sets six months ago, or is it showing me the value of the 50 sets I had at the time?

Hello and welcome to the site. You can post images in the forums. When transferring an account from Brickset or Rebrickable, dates are not considered. It is lumped into one total. You can manually input the sets with different dates if you so choose.

[drdesignz]

Hello and welcome to the site. You can post images in the forums. When transferring an account from Brickset or Rebrickable, dates are not considered. It is lumped into one total. You can manually input the sets with different dates if you so choose.

Thanks.

That answers my question, which happens to be my preference. Thanks for clearing that up.

For images, I'd rather not attach those. I'd prefer to show my flickr images. Attachments are a pet peeve of mine. But that's just me.

[Ed Mack]

Hello and welcome to the site. You can post images in the forums. When transferring an account from Brickset or Rebrickable, dates are not considered. It is lumped into one total. You can manually input the sets with different dates if you so choose. As with everything on the site, it is a work in progress. The current forums are functional, but have room to improve and grow. We are always adding new features and improved image options will be addressed at some point.

[Blackjack]

I just went to the reveiws section of the site to post some, but when I clicked on an ******/A set, there was no option for me to post a reveiw. I don't know if this is a clich in the site, my computer, or just something I am overlooking.

[Jeff Mack]

I just went to the reveiws section of the site to post some, but when I clicked on an N/A set, there was no option for me to post a reveiw. I don't know if this is a clich in the site, my computer, or just something I am overlooking.

What was the set that you tried to review?

[Jeff Mack]

I recently signed up and have been pretty happy with the site so far. I just now noticed there is a forum also. I see that I can't post images, which is a little disappointing. But really I'm mostly interested in the articles and my BrickFolio, which I have a question about. I used my Brickset account to import my collection, which was incredibly helpful. I see the BrickFolio chart showing the value of my collection. My question is, does this chart take into consideration when I added items to my collection? Or does the value consider all items together? For example, let's say I have 100 sets total today and six months ago I had 50 sets. Does the chart show the value for all 100 sets six months ago, or is it showing me the value of the 50 sets I had at the time?

Like Ed said, you can attach images and files to any post, just make sure you click on the Post Reply option and not Fast Reply. Brickset does not pass the information of dates, so it is not available to me at all. I can ask him if it can be added at sometime. When you import them, it is showing you the value of all of them together.

[Blackjack]

What was the set that you tried to review?

I tried the Shadow Takanuva, a few battle packs and Pre Vizsla's Mandolorian Fighter.

[drdesignz]

The website is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I appreciate all the hard work and effort, and look forward to the improvements. One thing I would be intersted to see is a breakdown of the different types of prices: the original retail price and the current average asking price, in addition to the actual average sold price. But that's not such a big deal really. I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is higher accuracy for the value of sets. I'm not a programmer, so certainly not an expert. But it would be great if data from additional websites could be gathered. For example, The three exclusive tins from last year's Star Wars Celebration and Comic-Con events (COMCON019, CELEBVI, and COMCON024) show a value of zero, because no sold sets were found. But there were actually quite a few sold on eBay and elsewhere. I assume they were not found by the system because sellers did not include the set number in their listing (I did not actually check that myself). On Bricklink these numbers are included and their sold price history is part of the database, so that would be an excellent additional source of data. The 250 GT Berlinetta polybag (30193) from the current promotional Shell and Ferrari series shows a value of $59.99, which is much higher than the actual value. It appears the system could only find one sold set in the last year. But I know there have been more, because I bought a couple myself. I assume the sold amount is so high because the price includes all six (or seven) polybags from the complete set, rather than just that single one. The Darth Maul minifigure (5000062) polybag shows a value of $67.56 with no sets sold in the last six months. I have been buying all of the Star Wars minifigure polybags in the last year, so I know this is way off. The market is saturated with this item and the actual value is three to four times lower. I notice all of my books show no value or any sold. I think one way to handle the value of an item when it is currently at zero, is to use the original retail price. Generally, Lego products (when still MISB) are worth at least that much, so that would seem reasonable. This number is usually available online, such as Brickset. Another method would be to get the average sold amount from Bricklink. I realize it must be impossible to be perfectly accurate and complete. But I hope to see further refinements in the code over time. Again, don't get me wrong though. Overall I think the system for gathering data is fantastic. One thing I haven't noticed, for example, is anomalous data in the graphs showing sold dollar amounts for sets with a more comlete history. That makes me think the system usually "knows" when an item on eBay with the set number is just a minifig from that set or the entire set. It also seems to "know" when a listing is a single item or a lot. But there still seems to be some glitch here and there.

[Ed Mack]

What was the set that you tried to review?

I tried the Shadow Takanuva, a few battle packs and Pre Vizsla's Mandolorian Fighter.

I just left feedback for the Mandalorian Fighter. Are you sure you are looking in the right spot to submit a review?

http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/1131/

Sometimes, clearing your browsing history and cache will straighten things out. Let me know how you make out. Also, give me specific sets that you are having issues with.

[Ed Mack]

The website is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I appreciate all the hard work and effort, and look forward to the improvements.

One thing I would be intersted to see is a breakdown of the different types of prices: the original retail price and the current average asking price, in addition to the actual average sold price. But that's not such a big deal really.

I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is higher accuracy for the value of sets. I'm not a programmer, so certainly not an expert. But it would be great if data from additional websites could be gathered. For example,

The three exclusive tins from last year's Star Wars Celebration and Comic-Con events (COMCON019, CELEBVI, and COMCON024) show a value of zero, because no sold sets were found. But there were actually quite a few sold on eBay and elsewhere. I assume they were not found by the system because sellers did not include the set number in their listing (I did not actually check that myself). On Bricklink these numbers are included and their sold price history is part of the database, so that would be an excellent additional source of data.

The 250 GT Berlinetta polybag (30193) from the current promotional Shell and Ferrari series shows a value of $59.99, which is much higher than the actual value. It appears the system could only find one sold set in the last year. But I know there have been more, because I bought a couple myself. I assume the sold amount is so high because the price includes all six (or seven) polybags from the complete set, rather than just that single one.

The Darth Maul minifigure (5000062) polybag shows a value of $67.56 with no sets sold in the last six months. I have been buying all of the Star Wars minifigure polybags in the last year, so I know this is way off. The market is saturated with this item and the actual value is three to four times lower.

I notice all of my books show no value or any sold. I think one way to handle the value of an item when it is currently at zero, is to use the original retail price. Generally, Lego products (when still MISB) are worth at least that much, so that would seem reasonable. This number is usually available online, such as Brickset. Another method would be to get the average sold amount from Bricklink.

I realize it must be impossible to be perfectly accurate and complete. But I hope to see further refinements in the code over time. Again, don't get me wrong though. Overall I think the system for gathering data is fantastic. One thing I haven't noticed, for example, is anomalous data in the graphs showing sold dollar amounts for sets with a more comlete history. That makes me think the system usually "knows" when an item on eBay with the set number is just a minifig from that set or the entire set. It also seems to "know" when a listing is a single item or a lot. But there still seems to be some glitch here and there.

I'm so glad you enjoy the site so much. You already get the retail and sold prices. Asking price is really a worthless figure, because some sellers ask crazy amounts that will never be considered by most buyers. It would just promote speculation.

Bricklink will not release their information as of yet. Jeff has been in contact with them for some time and we are hoping sometime in the future they will work with us, but our numbers are very comparable on most sets. All the sets you complained about were promotional sets, which for the most part, don't have valid LEGO numbers. Many of the numbers for these promotional sets on Brickset and Bricklink are made up by them to work in their system. It is not a LEGO number, which we use to find sets. If eBay sellers don't use them, we can't find them. It has to be manually inputted, which is not possible at this time.

The minifigure data is skewed because there are no numbers for most and sellers do not list them properly. Our search engines looks for numbers, not names. It is possible the Darth Maul listing is in error because of lots and I will look at it. There are over 9000+ LEGO sets to aggregate on a monthly basis, not including merchandise and other non-set products. Books are not of importance to us. They are not investments as far as I'm concerned and people don't collect them to resell later as far as I know. There is limited time to handle more important issues on the site and LEGO books can be left up to Brickset and Bricklink to catalog.

You have a lot of great ideas, but if you only knew the depths at which go to, you would understand that to get perfect data for 9000+ LEGO sets is impossible. We are just a guide. We have made great strides over the past year and will continue to add new features(such as a better image/photo feature) and tweak code to improve data. There are so many more options to add, but we have full time jobs to deal with as well. Feel free to donate to Jeff's retirement fund so he can spend all his waking hours giving you new features. Enjoy the site.

[Blackjack]

I was able to submit a review of (9525) thanks! However I still don't see were to post the first review on a set. Is their something I am missing?

[Blackjack]

What was the set that you tried to review?

I tried the Shadow Takanuva, a few battle packs and Pre Vizsla's Mandolorian Fighter.

I just left feedback for the Mandalorian Fighter. Are you sure you are looking in the right spot to submit a review?

http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/1131/

Sometimes, clearing your browsing history and cache will straighten things out. Let me know how you make out. Also, give me specific sets that you are having issues with.

Sorry for the trouble. :(

[Ed Mack]

What was the set that you tried to review?

I tried the Shadow Takanuva, a few battle packs and Pre Vizsla's Mandolorian Fighter.

I just left feedback for the Mandalorian Fighter. Are you sure you are looking in the right spot to submit a review?

http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/1131/

Sometimes, clearing your browsing history and cache will straighten things out. Let me know how you make out. Also, give me specific sets that you are having issues with.

Sorry for the trouble.

What set did you submit a review on?

[Blackjack]

I tried Shadow Takanuva.

[Ed Mack]

I tried Shadow Takanuva.

What is the set number? There are three Takanuvas.

[Blackjack]

(8699)

[Blackjack]

When I select the image it goes to a page which says that no reviews have been written on the set and does not give an option to write one. Am I clicking or searching in the wrong place?

[Ed Mack]

When I select the image it goes to a page which says that no reviews have been written on the set and does not give an option to write one. Am I clicking or searching in the wrong place?

I saw that it was submitted for approval, but my brother Jeff approved it. It has not shown up yet. I will find out what happened to it.

[Blackjack]

I've just figured it out! Thanks for the help! Your dedication to this site is incredable!

[Jeff Mack]

The website is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I appreciate all the hard work and effort, and look forward to the improvements.

One thing I would be intersted to see is a breakdown of the different types of prices: the original retail price and the current average asking price, in addition to the actual average sold price. But that's not such a big deal really.

I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is higher accuracy for the value of sets. I'm not a programmer, so certainly not an expert. But it would be great if data from additional websites could be gathered. For example,

The three exclusive tins from last year's Star Wars Celebration and Comic-Con events (COMCON019, CELEBVI, and COMCON024) show a value of zero, because no sold sets were found. But there were actually quite a few sold on eBay and elsewhere. I assume they were not found by the system because sellers did not include the set number in their listing (I did not actually check that myself). On Bricklink these numbers are included and their sold price history is part of the database, so that would be an excellent additional source of data.

The 250 GT Berlinetta polybag (30193) from the current promotional Shell and Ferrari series shows a value of $59.99, which is much higher than the actual value. It appears the system could only find one sold set in the last year. But I know there have been more, because I bought a couple myself. I assume the sold amount is so high because the price includes all six (or seven) polybags from the complete set, rather than just that single one.

The Darth Maul minifigure (5000062) polybag shows a value of $67.56 with no sets sold in the last six months. I have been buying all of the Star Wars minifigure polybags in the last year, so I know this is way off. The market is saturated with this item and the actual value is three to four times lower.

I notice all of my books show no value or any sold. I think one way to handle the value of an item when it is currently at zero, is to use the original retail price. Generally, Lego products (when still MISB) are worth at least that much, so that would seem reasonable. This number is usually available online, such as Brickset. Another method would be to get the average sold amount from Bricklink.

I realize it must be impossible to be perfectly accurate and complete. But I hope to see further refinements in the code over time. Again, don't get me wrong though. Overall I think the system for gathering data is fantastic. One thing I haven't noticed, for example, is anomalous data in the graphs showing sold dollar amounts for sets with a more comlete history. That makes me think the system usually "knows" when an item on eBay with the set number is just a minifig from that set or the entire set. It also seems to "know" when a listing is a single item or a lot. But there still seems to be some glitch here and there.

For the most part, the overall answer is time. It is much easier for us to grab the sets and do our filters on 10197, 10188, etc, because many people use them.

Go to ebay and type in COMCON019 that you have listed, look what it returns.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=common+019&_nkwusc=COMCON019&_rdc=1

It has nothing to do with LEGO. My point is most people don't use that. Same goes with all the collectable minifig series. Alot of these set numbers are created by Huw at Brickset and for the most part it sticks with them, but they are not official numbers.

So I have been working on unique individual filtering system to try and find these specially named sets. I know you are new to the site, but we have mentioned it before, the site has only been live for a little over a year. These promotional sets are unique and will be get adjusted over time as I program improvements and then we sit here and write keywords for each one to be found in the millions of listings we have at our disposal.

The sets you are mentioning are difficult ones at the moment, but will improve in time. Just give us time.

[Ed Mack]

The Darth Maul 5000062 has been corrected.

[comicblast]

How about having Brick Picker communities depending on where you live. That way, people could find out which stores have what on clearance, sales, etc. For example, the Illinois Community (the one I would be part of) would have a list of stores, and you can comment under them what sale deals you have gotten from that location.

[Ed Mack]

How about having Brick Picker communities depending on where you live. That way, people could find out which stores have what on clearance, sales, etc.

For example, the Illinois Community (the one I would be part of) would have a list of stores, and you can comment under them what sale deals you have gotten from that location.

Jeff is working on some stuff right now that adds more social interaction between members. I like your idea, but there can be thousands of areas to cover. Maybe you can start a thread in the forums that people can post deals in a certain area. Call it something like, CITY/TOWN DEALS...or something similar. In the thread you can post stuff like...Mount Laurel NJ, Target Route 38, Sale on blah, blan, blah...

[bleejean]

I suspect this feature is on the way (or available now and I am just not figuring out how to do it) but it would be nice to be able to sort your brickfolio by the different headings. In particular the "current price" of the sets (so it lists them in descending or ascending order) but it would also be useful to list by "condition" so you could see all the new sets together and the same for the used. Something that is probably a bit harder to implement but would make the site exponentially more efficient would be an option to do a mass edit of your brickfolio. Instead of having to go into the edit screen for each set individually, you could click the mass edit button which would make all of the fields in your brickfolio editable. Then you can adjust the condition and type in prices/quantities/notes for a whole page of sets at once! Anyways, great site and I look forward to it become even better as it matures.