Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[MathBuilder]

It is hard to give a complete answer to this, since there are so many cases and exceptions. But in short part numbers come from LEGO, with two basic types, one general for part/mold and one that also encodes the color. I am no expert on Brickset catalog but I know/ have heard Brickset just imports everything directly from LEGO. Now BrickLink is another thing, for most the LEGO mold number is used but there are modifiers to those numbers whenever the part merits it. example a b c after the part. LEGO might not distinguish those a, b, c variants. There are pieces with printing that often take the number of the plain part with a modifier with letters an numbers based on certain BL rules over the years, while the LEGO part number might be something super obscure with no relation to the number of the basic part. 

There is also merging of numbers when lego used different mold numbers for same part over the years but the part has reminded unchanged. The BL catalog will list those alternate numbers in the info. The is also minifigures and other things for which BL has a system of naming things based on the categories, etc. Again it is hard to cover all the details in one answer. 

Edited January 26, 2015 by MathBuilder

[holleman67]

I'll be diving into that system later this weekend.

Anyone know if there is a way to combine listings? For example I have two listings for 2x4 bricks from different sets I've parted out. I can just alter one listing for the qty and delete the other but I was hoping for a more streamlined method.

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Anyone have a solution for this problem?

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[MathBuilder]

I don't think there is an easy way to consolidate the lots that have already been created, the best I can tell you is to go to 

http://www.bricklink.com/inventory.asp

and then search for Non-Unique items click on the option on the left next to GO, once you are in new page you can manually adjust.

 

Another option is to download to Brickstock consolidate there and then upload (I don't remember how to do this easily on Brickstock on the top of my head but I presume there is some way).

 

Now the thing that you can do (and is easy) is to consolidate the lots the moment they are first created and there are several options on what to do with price and remarks for the lots.  

[Victorymike18]

So i used brinksync to setup brickowl and now the orders are starting to come in. Got three in the last 2 days using both services. I have realized though i need to come up with a good system of organization so i was hoping someone might offer suggestions so i dont have to reinvent the wheel. Almost all my bricks were parted out sets so i have them grouped by set. This seems to be a horrible idea. Should i do part number then color, or color then part number or keep all colors of the same part number together?

 

Brian

 

I sorted by set in the beginning, and stopped that very quickly as it was apparant how unsustainable that would become.   You'll almost never have someone buy parts from just one set.

 

What I do is break down all the sets first into the sort trays, then I view the inventory of the sets I know I dismantled and add them to inventory that way.   The different theme's use a lot of the same pieces.

 

As for sorting & organizing, that does vary a lot as people mention.     I've got a very small store that works best for my work/life balance, so I hover around 500 to 1500 pieces in inventory with a few orders per week.    I have found that these organizer trays are excellent to work with for smaller quantities of different parts. The yellow bins lift out, so it is easy to dump out parts and scale up (or down) the storage bins as inventory fluctuates.    These go on sale for around $6 each from time to time, but are well worth the $8.

 

Link:  http://www.harborfreight.com/19-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93928.html

 

 

 

 

I'll be diving into that system later this weekend.

Anyone know if there is a way to combine listings? For example I have two listings for 2x4 bricks from different sets I've parted out. I can just alter one listing for the qty and delete the other but I was hoping for a more streamlined method.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Brickpicker mobile app

 

On Bricklink:  Go to your "Sell" tab, then "My Inventory" tab. Select a category (or do the "Show All") and scroll through the items.  It is pretty easy to spot when you have two listings of the same part & color.   So then, you can consolidate them by clicking the little box for "DEL" which will delete that item.  Of course, add that quantity to the other duplicate listing and look at your pricing.   When done, scroll all the way down and click "Submit Changes".

[holleman67]

I sorted by set in the beginning, and stopped that very quickly as it was apparant how unsustainable that would become. You'll almost never have someone buy parts from just one set.

What I do is break down all the sets first into the sort trays, then I view the inventory of the sets I know I dismantled and add them to inventory that way. The different theme's use a lot of the same pieces.

As for sorting & organizing, that does vary a lot as people mention. I've got a very small store that works best for my work/life balance, so I hover around 500 to 1500 pieces in inventory with a few orders per week. I have found that these organizer trays are excellent to work with for smaller quantities of different parts. The yellow bins lift out, so it is easy to dump out parts and scale up (or down) the storage bins as inventory fluctuates. These go on sale for around $6 each from time to time, but are well worth the $8.

Link: http://www.harborfreight.com/19-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93928.html

On Bricklink: Go to your "Sell" tab, then "My Inventory" tab. Select a category (or do the "Show All") and scroll through the items. It is pretty easy to spot when you have two listings of the same part & color. So then, you can consolidate them by clicking the little box for "DEL" which will delete that item. Of course, add that quantity to the other duplicate listing and look at your pricing. When done, scroll all the way down and click "Submit Changes".

Thanks for the advice, I did that last night abd with 10k parts it took me an hour. Now when I add on 40k more, that's going to be a nightmare. I was hoping it would combine listings. Someone above mentioned another option, I plan on trying later tomorrow. Thanks

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[Stragus]

Thanks for the advice, I did that last night abd with 10k parts it took me an hour. Now when I add on 40k more, that's going to be a nightmare. I was hoping it would combine listings. Someone above mentioned another option, I plan on trying later tomorrow. Thanks

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Argh, don't do that manually!

 

You can use BrickStock, download your inventory, select all and consolidate.

 

Or if you use BrickSync, you can type "consolidate" (try "help consolidate" first for information on that command).

[holleman67]

Argh, don't do that manually!

You can use BrickStock, download your inventory, select all and consolidate.

Or if you use BrickSync, you can type "consolidate" (try "help consolidate" first for information on that command).

Apparently when you are adding a set to part out in brick link there is a consolidate option towards the bottom that allows you to roll the stock to your current inventory. I guess if I read the full page I would have know that previously.

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[supergman]

Are there still any scripts or programs that will more easily create the xml file for bulk uploading sets?  I have so many sets and the one-at-a-time approach and millions of browser windows is crazy.

[holleman67]

Yes.

http://brickstock.patrickbrans.com/

.

So its $20 for the service?

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[Stragus]

One of my long-term-probably never going to have time to get to it projects is to take the open source code which Brickstock is based on and re-use it for a more robust app.

Robust may be the wrong term, perhaps not better then Brickstock because it is great, but more specific to my needs and with a few features I feel would save time in BL workflow.

 

Point being it is open source if you care to download the code and compile yourself.

BrickStore's source code is terrible. It's not exactly well written, totally undocumented, very poor concept of modularity, no separation whatsoever between operations and interfaces...

 

I have been thinking about writing a better software for a while, featuring a complete catalog hybrid of BrickLink & BrickOwl, able to manipulate the "live" inventory directly, and so on. There's a *lot* of code from BrickSync I could reuse. My main obstacle is that I have never done GUIs before, and I don't feel too interested to learn either.

 

Do you have any experience with cross-platform GUI widget toolkits?... I'm even considering writing the interface in OpenGL entirely to avoid learning any GUI (using OpenGL would also run fine on any mobile device).

[bbaer6676]

im experiencing about the exact same thing. It's been about a month and I'm now at 30% off current price average and still not a single sale. I'd like to know how many sales go through bricklink a day. It may just be a waist of our time.

 

 

Have you had anymore luck? I have found the sweet spot to start getting orders to be around 20k parts. i got up to that a week ago and am now getting 1 or 2 orders a day. I do have to agree with other posters about the quantities (i was surprised), I do find my orders to be on larger quantity stuff, 20 of this 30 of that. Also, you must use bricksync and setup on brickowl. I easily get 70% of my orders from them at this point. From what i have read in other posts it seems most people see more action on that site than bricklink. 

 

Brian

[Robb]

Have you had anymore luck? I have found the sweet spot to start getting orders to be around 20k parts. i got up to that a week ago and am now getting 1 or 2 orders a day. I do have to agree with other posters about the quantities (i was surprised), I do find my orders to be on larger quantity stuff, 20 of this 30 of that. Also, you must use bricksync and setup on brickowl. I easily get 70% of my orders from them at this point. From what i have read in other posts it seems most people see more action on that site than bricklink.

Brian

I've received 1 order! Woohoo! But no, I still need to do both things:

1) up my piece count (I don't know what I want to add to do this)

2) use Brick Sync to get my inventory on Brick Owl.

I'll try and get these done soon and see what happens!

[stoltzjl77]

I have gone back and forth (mostly back) on the inventory management side. My view is, I'd rather do the work after the items are sold rather than put a lot of effort in sorting prior to selling. So I keep all my inventory grouped by set. I have about 40 different boxes, some with individual sets in them and some with sets grouped by theme. My inventory is around 45,000 items and we get about 4-5 orders per week (BrickLink only - I have a BrickOwl store but I haven't started syncing it yet - will work on that soon!). I have a large family of LEGO lovers so I get a lot of help (they get paid in LEGO). We can pull about 250 pieces/hour.

 

We do pull out minifigs right away and store them separately, and store windshields (easily scratched) and large pieces and plates (that interfere with finding smaller parts) in a separate box.

 

If business were to pick up considerably, I would take a hard look at pre-sorting lots. I have the manpower to do it but would have to invest heavily in storage equipment.

 

I highly recommend getting a thermal imaging printer for labels. You will save a lot of time and money in the long haul. I have a DYMO 4XL (I get a lot of international orders so it's nice to be able to print the 4x6 customs labels). I've gone from buying 4-5 ink cartridges/year to 1, and no more cutting and taping!

[bbaer6676]

that printer is sweet. i might have to pick one up. You are able to print labels from paypal and ebay?

 

I am currently sorted by set but it has been causing me a lot of time to figure out which set has the parts i need. I wish when i part out a set it somehow would link the set number to the part number so when i print my list i could just go to each set to pull them. how do you figure out which set has the part you need? I have to go to brickset, search the part number then figure out which set has it. 

 

You must setup bricksync it is a life saver. 

[ctoddlight]

that printer is sweet. i might have to pick one up. You are able to print labels from paypal and ebay?

 

I am currently sorted by set but it has been causing me a lot of time to figure out which set has the parts i need. I wish when i part out a set it somehow would link the set number to the part number so when i print my list i could just go to each set to pull them. how do you figure out which set has the part you need? I have to go to brickset, search the part number then figure out which set has it. 

 

You must setup bricksync it is a life saver. 

Try putting the set number into the remarks field when parting out sets into your inventory.  Your remarks show up when looking at individual lots/parts.

[bbaer6676]

Thats a good idea. How does it handle consolidation when i part multiple sets with the same parts, will it keep the remarks i put in for each piece or will it overwrite them and put the first set # i use?

[ctoddlight]

Thats a good idea. How does it handle consolidation when i part multiple sets with the same parts, will it keep the remarks i put in for each piece or will it overwrite them and put the first set # i use?

You can keep your all remarks and add new ones by using the "Concatenate old Remarks with new Remarks" option.

[stoltzjl77]

Thanks for that suggestion CTodd, I can make use of that. We just have a couple of laptops in front of us, click on the item's catalog entry, select color and sort by set year and newest first. We don't have any sets for parting out that are older than 2011. Then we scroll down until we find out all the sets to look through.

 

The 4XL printer prints from PayPal, eBay, Stamps.com, and Amazon with no issues. It seems to work best with Chrome and I run PayPal and Amazon in Chrome to make it easiest.

[bbaer6676]

Whats the difference between the remarks and comments section? are remarks internal to me and comments for buyers?

[ctoddlight]

Whats the difference between the remarks and comments section? are remarks internal to me and comments for buyers?

Exactly.  Only you see the remarks.  I use them to keep track of where the parts are stored.

[Robb]

How do you guys move the minifigures?

[exciter1]

How do you guys move the minifigures?

 

You can also post your question here, if you want to carry on a discussion about all selling methods.

 

http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/7999-advice-on-selling-lego-minifigures/

[MathBuilder]

How do you guys move the minifigures?

[bbaer6676]

I have sold any. I am getting into that more shortly. I had to order the history of minifigure book so i can figure out what all the ones i have are that I havent been able to match up to a particular set. 

[holleman67]

I have gone back and forth (mostly back) on the inventory management side. My view is, I'd rather do the work after the items are sold rather than put a lot of effort in sorting prior to selling. So I keep all my inventory grouped by set. I have about 40 different boxes, some with individual sets in them and some with sets grouped by theme. My inventory is around 45,000 items and we get about 4-5 orders per week (BrickLink only - I have a BrickOwl store but I haven't started syncing it yet - will work on that soon!). I have a large family of LEGO lovers so I get a lot of help (they get paid in LEGO). We can pull about 250 pieces/hour.

We do pull out minifigs right away and store them separately, and store windshields (easily scratched) and large pieces and plates (that interfere with finding smaller parts) in a separate box.

If business were to pick up considerably, I would take a hard look at pre-sorting lots. I have the manpower to do it but would have to invest heavily in storage equipment.

I highly recommend getting a thermal imaging printer for labels. You will save a lot of time and money in the long haul. I have a DYMO 4XL (I get a lot of international orders so it's nice to be able to print the 4x6 customs labels). I've gone from buying 4-5 ink cartridges/year to 1, and no more cutting and taping!

How do you typically ship international orders? I haven't found any way on PayPal to send items first class international? So I have to deal with people at my local post office. Not fun.

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