Welcome to the Brick Classifieds Open Roundtable

[Jeff Mack]

We appreciate you wanting to take part in helping shape the future of Brick Classifieds.  Ed and I want to try and get it right (well the best we can anyhow).  We invite Brickpicker members that are currently active in listing their products in any of the online venues to talk to us about what works, what doesn't, etc.  Some features you will have to go into with an open mind and trust that Ed and I want to try something new and not just duplicate what is already out there.  Will we get it right 100% of the time, no, of course not, but it never hurts to try. We value your time and opinions.  Don't be afraid to bring anything up, you never know if it will be a big factor in the growth of Brick Classifieds.

 

 

Thanks

Jeff and Ed

 

Note: We made this discussion public due to so many requests of people that want to take part in this. Ed suggested it is better to get as much feedback as possible.  If you have any other suggestions that you don't want to make public, feel free to send me a PM.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Jeff Mack

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Love it. I think just what we have done trader wise so far has been great.

 

I think requiring photos, requiring a certain amount of posts or interaction - those types of things are definitely good starts.

 

A lot of the feedback systems, etc. are already pretty good looking IMO.

[Jeff Mack]

I am glad you like the Brick Trader feature.  Brick Classifieds will be a whole new site and not even be attached to Brickpicker or the forums at all.  Over time elements of both sites will cross paths with information, but they will be their own platforms.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Ah I gotcha. That sounds good. What were the reasons you decided to separate them a bit if you don't mind me asking?

 

I think in some ways it may be good when promoting, etc. Sometimes too much in one place makes it harder to tell people what your site does. If its - Our site does everything, its tough. lol.

[justafrog]

Thanks for the invite and for help with the permissions, Jeff.

 

I have always appreciated the structure and "temperament" of Brickpicker, I am more than willing to do whatever I can to help Brick Classifieds become a great sales venue for all of us.

[Jeff Mack]

Here is some info on what we know so far.

 

• I would say that Brick Classifieds is about 95% done.  We have changed the way we do things a few times which set things back, but we are set on those now.
• We are going to sell parts, this will not be available at launch but probably be available a few weeks into the Beta
• The Beta will probably last at least 3 months where there will be no fees and allow us to locate any bugs and of course take feedback
• We will still launch this early to a group of people that are ready to list items to populate it before everyone sees it and then it will be more clear on how it works.
• The site takes a little from all types of retails but will have many features that are found in sites like Etsy.
• Checkout is very much like Etsy.  While there are pros and cons to having to do multiple checkouts as a buyer, I think the benefits and flexibility will be there.  If this isn't popular we can then switch it to the other Paypal adaptive type of checkout where there will be one checkout and then everyone is notfiied.
• Because we are using this type of checkout, sellers will be able to use either Paypal and/or Authorize.net and process their own credit cards which allow for flexibility and finding cheaper rates.
• Shipping will be similar to Etsy so that you can pick where you want to sell to and have different shipping rates for all locations.  You can do rates such as $5.00 in the US and then $15 Everywhere else.  Very clear, very simple
• All sorts of coupon/discount options
• Verification.  There will be paypal address/member verification to let buyers know that the seller has passed some sort of verification, more details and options to follow with this
• Badges.  There will be a whole bunch of badges that we can attach to your profiles to show that you have been verified, top seller, trusted member, Bricklink seller, Brickowl, etc

 

I will add more to the list later.  Just wanted to start getting some dialog going.

[justafrog]

Fantastic so far - Mr. Frog and I are ready to participate with minifigs to start.

 

Parts are more difficult as we can't reasonably run two separate inventories of them, and without the ability to sync inventory somehow for automatic deletions across multiple venues, we'll be in the same boat we are with Brick Owl - we'd love to try them out, but the cost in time can't easily be overcome.

[Jeff Mack]

Well I don't think you will like this answer, but as of now, I really have no intention of creating tools to sync inventories.  Bricklink has made it pretty clear that they do not want anyone else doing anything with their bricklink Ids, etc.  They will ask us to stop using any functionality to relates to them.  I would probably do the same thing.  My goal over time is to make it so that people will like our platform more.  The traffic will come,  I am good at that type of stuff.  From a technical standpoint, I really don't want to spend the time worrying about troubleshooting issues that things are not synching properly and there are too many people with OCD that will need to make sure that all things are listed correctly with their bricklink account.  It is a major hassle.

[justafrog]

I'm not desperate to leave Bricklink, it's working well for us, so the answer "no" is fine. I'll be happy to take what works here and see how it goes for y'all.

 

We do have the thought, once our BL store is where we want it to be, that we may split our inventory and have some of it listed on another venue. We'll certainly be happy to look at BC as an option over BO once that time comes (or, indeed, at BC over BL if it turns out you guys have the traffic and sales to blow them out of the water earlier - these things do happen and I'll be glad if it does here).

 

And, meanwhile, a third party like Art of Books may come along and solve the problem for us all. Brickstore is along that path, but I'm not liking the general feedback on its efficiency and usefulness as of yet.

[Jeff Mack]

There is one thing that many people need to understand.  What Ed and I are doing are not here to take Bricklink down. Not even close.  They have 15+ years on us. We are just going to give people a solid platform to work on at a very reasonable rate.  It will have the features people need to list and item and sell it.  So far all this work has just cost me personally time and a few bucks here and there to have people help.  They have spent millions to buy and work on Bricklink, they are the ones that have a lot to lose.  We only have to gain.  I know it will work, but why should I create tools to make it easy for Bricklink, they could care less about us.  We are just creating something that works well for everyone.  We are not looking to steal everyone from Bricklink.  That would be very naive of us.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Jeff - In all seriousness - I am super impressed with what you are doing. Honestly from the crap people have given you for not having the classifieds done and the fact that you have waited so long do to redoing things and re-thinking things, it takes a serious set of marbles to be able to just shelve it and not put it out until its right. 

 

The Etsy-like check-out honestly sounds awesome. And I think your other work speaks for itself - in general when you release something it works. No screwing around, much unlike the other websites.

 

In all honestly, this is why you WILL be successful with this. My biggest complaint with all the websites mentioned is the inability to fix bugs, the inability to retool and make things work better, and the unresponsiveness to support issues etc.

 

You MAY be able to actually keep me in the Lego selling business (Small stuff, I will always buy sets) because I have been looking for something like this.

 

Super Excited. I would be glad to list stuff right off the bat. 

 

Also, I LOVE bug finding - so I'm ready for that beta. One of my favorites things from work. I try to tell people - don't release something until you beat the hell out of it. You will thank yourself for doing it later.

[justafrog]

I have never gotten the impression you're trying to destroy Bricklink, and apologize if I seemed to.

 

What it appears (to me) that you are doing is trying to expand your business in the direction of carving out a market share of the venue side of buying and selling LEGO.

 

There is nothing wrong with competition among venues, any more than there is anything wrong with competition among sellers. We're all just doing what we do to pay the bills and grow our businesses.

 

You guys will do what works for you, each of us individual seller types will do what works for us.  That's pretty basic and shouldn't call for any explanation or justification.

[DadsAFOL]

 I know it will work, but why should I create tools to make it easy for Bricklink, they could care less about us.  

Unless I'm reading this comment wrong, I think you are missing the point.  In order to be successful, you need to create tools to make it easier for sellers, not easier for Bricklink.  Bricklink does not own my inventory, I do.  This was debated quite a bit with the ownership change and the subsequent launch of BrickOwl.

 

I'm hopeful that you have plans to create an API for inventory and order management.  I'm willing to be a beta tester and manually manage inventory for a short period, but manual inventory management across 10,000 lots with 500 orders a month is not viable for a store my size.

 

I do agree that that you shouldn't want to take any responsibility for syncing services.  However creating the API and letting sellers do whatever they want with it is one of the reasons why BrickOwl has become a significant threat to BL.  

[Jeff Mack]

Sure an API will come, but not until the site is solid and settled with the core features. Are you just looking for a duplicate of the API that BrickOwl has created? Does that work perfectly for what you need to accomplish? Are there are things you are looking for.  That is why we created this group, to help shape what could make a difference in the world of LEGO reselling.

 

Right now, I am just getting the feeling that there really isn't anything "new" people are looking for as a seller other than a BrickLink facelift. This is why I need to be careful about how much time is invested in doing certain things. 

[Fcbarcelona101]

I know you have mentioned this before, and you probably already included it anyway, but it would be great to have a set of standard item conditions that help keep listings consistent. For example, we could have a New W/O Figures kind of thing, that would mean bags were opened only to remove minifigs, and so on.

 

This kind of thing would reduce buyer confusion and also make it easier for sellers.

[Jeff Mack]

I know you have mentioned this before, and you probably already included it anyway, but it would be great to have a set of standard item conditions that help keep listings consistent. For example, we could have a New W/O Figures kind of thing, that would mean bags were opened only to remove minifigs, and so on.

 

This kind of thing would reduce buyer confusion and also make it easier for sellers.

 

Yes, this is already setup and ready to go other than adding different classifications.

Basically you first pick New or Used.  Then a new dropdown appears and you select the best classification

 

New | MISB

New | Damaged Box

New | No minifigs

 

Used | Missing Parts

Used | Set is a total disaster, watchout

[Ed Mack]

Unless I'm reading this comment wrong, I think you are missing the point. In order to be successful, you need to create tools to make it easier for sellers, not easier for Bricklink. Bricklink does not own my inventory, I do. This was debated quite a bit with the ownership change and the subsequent launch of BrickOwl.

I'm hopeful that you have plans to create an API for inventory and order management. I'm willing to be a beta tester and manually manage inventory for a short period, but manual inventory management across 10,000 lots with 500 orders a month is not viable for a store my size.

I do agree that that you shouldn't want to take any responsibility for syncing services. However creating the API and letting sellers do whatever they want with it is one of the reasons why BrickOwl has become a significant threat to BL.

I think you will eventually realize we are a seller's best friend. It might take some time to perfect the system and tools, but you have engaged ownership that is willing to listen to feedback and make changes when needed. That and charge the lowest rates in the game.

[exciter1]

When searching for a set to add to a listing, where are you retrieving the set information from?  If you could link to the set info, general condition type from a drop-down, all that would be left is maybe a "More details" free text (html, xml, etc. compatible) box to add anything specific you would like to add about the item.

 

Being able to use and repeat a general store template w/ conditions, etc. would be beneficial.  I'm sure you have this covered.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Yes, this is already setup and ready to go other than adding different classifications.

Basically you first pick New or Used.  Then a new dropdown appears and you select the best classification

 

New | MISB

New | Damaged Box

New | No minifigs

 

Used | Missing Parts

Used | Set is a total disaster, watchout

 

Yes these look pretty good. Something Ebay could really do better on right now. lol.

[Jeff Mack]

When searching for a set to add to a listing, where are you retrieving the set information from?  If you could link to the set info, general condition type from a drop-down, all that would be left is maybe a "More details" free text (html, xml, etc. compatible) box to add anything specific you would like to add about the item.

 

Being able to use and repeat a general store template w/ conditions, etc. would be beneficial.  I'm sure you have this covered.

 

Right now I am not pulling in any general information about a set (like pieces, minifigs, etc). Perhaps I will just have icons with links to Brickpicker and Brickset if people want to view more info on that set at the start.  It's always something that can be added later if we find it something that is needed.

 

Yes there will be core information that people will put in about their policies.  Some will be available on the listings, others you can go back to their profile to view.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Right now I am not pulling in any general information about a set (like pieces, minifigs, etc). Perhaps I will just have icons with links to Brickpicker and Brickset if people want to view more info on that set at the start.  It's always something that can be added later if we find it something that is needed.

 

Yes there will be core information that people will put in about their policies.  Some will be available on the listings, others you can go back to their profile to view.

 

Links just back to the normal site would be fine to me.

[Quacs]

Links back to a Brickpicker would be fine with me too, although I remember a few members complaining about the BP page potentially showing the New and Used values linked to their listing. As they explained, a buyer may be turned off of the listing if the price is way higher than the BP value (for whatever reason). That said, I'm not too worried about this, but it may be a turn off for others.

[Bold-Arrow]

will listings expire after a set period of time or will it be  a set it and forget it type of structure?

I usually set my prices and wait for the market to catch up for the most part, especially if I am listing a fair amount of sets. 

[Mos_Eisley]

I would think BP buyers will be more informed, but I think it would be nice for the basics to be included automatically in a listing for sets, at least when choosing "new - MISB" and "new - damaged box". I always include element count, number of minifigures and year released for all my set listings. I know year released isn't vital, but I like grandma to know there's a reason the set is three times more expensive than the ones she's seeing in the stores.

Regarding checkout, I know you mentioned being like Etsy, so does that mean that shipping and everything related to it will all be done through BP? It's been a while since I had my store open on BrickLink so maybe it's changed and I don't know the process on Brick Owl, but I always found shipping to be cumbersome on BrickLink. I like how Etsy is like eBay in that you know when someone has paid, shipping labels can be printed directly from the site, marked as shipped and tracking numbers are automatically done. I hope that will be the case.

[DadsAFOL]

Sure an API will come, but not until the site is solid and settled with the core features. Are you just looking for a duplicate of the API that BrickOwl has created? Does that work perfectly for what you need to accomplish? Are there are things you are looking for.  That is why we created this group, to help shape what could make a difference in the world of LEGO reselling.

 

Right now, I am just getting the feeling that there really isn't anything "new" people are looking for as a seller other than a BrickLink facelift. This is why I need to be careful about how much time is invested in doing certain things. 

Generally, yes, what the others have is adequate.  BL and BO both have APIs (as do eBay and Amazon).  As a seller, I'm more interested in the portion of the API that will add/update/delete lots in my inventory.   Others are more interested in the API functions to access/submit updates to the catalog.  The one "new" thing that neither of them do is triggers/notifications, but that can deferred.  Email listeners can react to orders received on any site.

 

One thing you will need to decide is how to build the catalog linkages.  After Laurence got the threat from BL, he reworked the inventory file to include an array of "external IDs" that a seller can use in any way they want.  Of course, that gets used to store BL inventory lot IDs, it just isn't called that, and it isn't maintained by him.  Separately from the inventory links, the catalog needs to also be linked.  BO stores the BL part ID as a reference.

 

The idea of cross-referencing can't really be avoided if you want to enable stores to sync inventory.  However, you do have a choice as to how much of that work you push back on sellers vs maintain through catalog admins or crowdsourcing.