Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[newbie77]

 

it depends...  I generally try to keep each lot separated so the buyer doesn't have to spend more than a wink on their end (why not, you've already spent the time sorting your inventory - might as well pass that effort on to the receiver). small lots I do sometimes combine together if they are significantly visually different, such as obvious colour or distinctive shape. I don't package small parts with much larger parts or where they might get missed of stuck inside of. never ever never mix used & new.  I always package printed parts isolated from other parts & if at all possible with opposing printed sides to reduce chance of scratches.

most parts go into 2mil Ziplocs (I keep a supply of 8-10 different sizes) but minifigs always go into individual 2x3 4mil ziplocs (or 6mil if they are of significant value)

when packing plates I always place them stud-side to stud-side so they don't get "assembled" in transit so to speak, also conserves space, likewise slopes when in small quantity I'll place face against flip-face.

for windscreens I'll usually put a piece of light foam in to protect it's surface, you can get a roll of very lightweight laminate flooring foam underlay from the BORG for next to nothing & the roll will last years of packaging!  (BORG = Big Orange Retail Giant, ie: Home Depot)

Ziploc baggies are real cheap but some buyers don't like to see over packaging either so it's basically a judgement call on your part.  I always use new first-use packaging myself rather than used baggies - baggies are cheap & it's kinda depressing to find your items packed in crumpley or worse dirty old used baggies.

i do the same. each color/separate parts in their own baggie. makes it lot easier for oneself as well  to get the order correct.

[Vinetu]

Hey, thanks Exciter!

As I was saying, I tried to sell with the minimum amounts, didn't budge (N.B. I was selling only on French ebay, that's where I registered, I need few feedback more to be able to post internationally, you should be way better off from the start, posting on US ebay). Then (I just wanted to make the sales on the figs I didn't care about so I can post sets internationally), I posted them all on bidding, starting from 1€. And then the fireworks began! I sold Wyldstyle from TLM for 7€ The worst sold for like 1,50€ (slightly below BL price) that was the robot with knit cap also from TLM, but most sold for more then BL prices! So, yeah, I guess exposure does count for something...

[Phil B]

7 hours ago, Vinetu said:

7 hours ago, Vinetu said:

Hey, thanks Exciter!

As I was saying, I tried to sell with the minimum amounts, didn't budge (N.B. I was selling only on French ebay, that's where I registered, I need few feedback more to be able to post internationally, you should be way better off from the start, posting on US ebay). Then (I just wanted to make the sales on the figs I didn't care about so I can post sets internationally), I posted them all on bidding, starting from 1€. And then the fireworks began! I sold Wyldstyle from TLM for 7€ The worst sold for like 1,50€ (slightly below BL price) that was the robot with knit cap also from TLM, but most sold for more then BL prices! So, yeah, I guess exposure does count for something...

9 hours ago, Phil B said:

 

Hi everyone, I'm Philip, 41, living in Ohio (but originally European, Dutch to be precise )

I recently joined BrickPicker - absolutely loved LEGO as a child in the late 70s - early 80s, but entered my Dark Ages at the age of 15 and only came out into the light again 3-4 years ago when my kids got old enough to get LEGO sets. Have been feeding my LEGO collection needs through my kids, who have a sizable amount of bricks - sorted into bins by me :). My wife didn't see the appeal of LEGO for adults for a while, but started swinging the right direction after seeing a few LEGO displays at local shows (she now wants us to build a small town for the train to run through, and is absolutely supportive of getting a Christmas Village around the tree - so I bricklinked a 10173 - Holiday Train (still cost me >$200 with all the shipping fees) and managed to pick up a Winter Village Fair after retirement for MSRP, plus Toy Store and Santa's Workshop via LEGO LEGO Shop at Home. She also heard my stories about LEGO sets appreciating in value and is definitely supportive of me joining that game.

Last year was my real "coming out" - got the LEGO Trains bug, participated in the RailBricks contest and en-passant discovered BrickLink and the secondary LEGO market. Managed to get a few 10233s for personal use, and collected a number of My Own Train cars (10016 etc.) as a personal stash of trains. Got a good deal on a just-retired Maersk train as well.

Anyways, I have recently started an after school technology program for kids as my full-time occupation (let's see how long that lasts ) and use LEGO in that program (Technic and Mindstorms for now), but want to generate a second source of income. As such, I decided to get into LEGO reselling, but given my love for organizing LEGO, I decided to focus on the parting-out business. This holiday period really got me going and I now have ~$1k in sets stored, with the intent to part them all out and sell for parts (BL says total part value of the sets I have is ~$4k minifigs included). Hope to make 100-200% ROI in the coming 12 months. I consider this first investment as a test.

My investment has all been done using the (75% * Part-out-value) > ( 2 * Purchase cost) calculation. I obtained a few 10697 towers, 40158 Pirates Chess Sets, 75053 SW Ghost, 60036 Arctic Base Camp and 75046 SW Coruscant Police Gunship sets, all at 20-50% discount from MRSP. I also have 6 GHs across various LEGO.com/LEGO Store purchases.

My questions to you all, knowing my "parts store on BrickLink intention":

1. Should I part out all sets at once, or keep some (the nicest boxes) stored for a little while to see if I might have a hit in the post-retirement market? Or perhaps to keep my store stocked? I'm leaning towards parting it all out (22k pieces, 250 minifigs).

2. With regards to the Gingerbread Houses, assuming LEGO didn't mass-produce them and has them in stock until late-Dec, would it be worth parting out? Bricklink doesn't have an inventory yet and I have not cracked one open either (my kids will open one on Dec 6th (Dutch Sinterklaas)) after which I will be able to manually add the inventory. There are some nice and relatively rare bricks in those boxes (e.g. 1x4 brick-pattern bricks), but getting a quick $25-$35 for the sealed box is quite tempting and I don't want to miss the QFLL boat. If I were to sell these as sets I would list them on eBay, not BL. Or what about a split strategy? Part out 3, sell 3, any good?

Of course, your opinion on my set selection is really very much appreciated as well - did I pick right?

 

Hey, thanks Exciter!

As I was saying, I tried to sell with the minimum amounts, didn't budge (N.B. I was selling only on French ebay, that's where I registered, I need few feedback more to be able to post internationally, you should be way better off from the start, posting on US ebay). Then (I just wanted to make the sales on the figs I didn't care about so I can post sets internationally), I posted them all on bidding, starting from 1€. And then the fireworks began! I sold Wyldstyle from TLM for 7€ The worst sold for like 1,50€ (slightly below BL price) that was the robot with knit cap also from TLM, but most sold for more then BL prices! So, yeah, I guess exposure does count for something...

Hmmm that c&p went a little weird - just wanted to paste my original questions into this thread so others could respond as well ....

[Victorymike18]

On 10/23/2015, 10:11:30, betsy805 said:

I separate when feasible.  If they're only ordering 10 pieces, they all go in one bag.  But if they order 10 tiles and 10 bricks and 10 plates I'll go ahead and separate them.  I also bag the minifigures individually as well as minifigure parts (head, torso, legs).  And then into bubble envelope if it's in first class range, box if it will end up being priority anyway.

 

I've learned over time that it makes sense to bag items by lot & by color when separating & listing on BL.  If more than ~ 5 pieces in the bag, I'll also slip in a little piece of paper with the quantity of pieces written on it.   Doing this makes it fairly easy to pick & pack an order as everything is already separated as it will be.   The only trouble is when someone orders a lower quantity than my inventory, so I have to open the bag, pull quantity and re-write new stock quantity on the paper.    

Regarding that last part - I'll share two ways to minimize this as well:    

First, is that for run of the mill items I often make the Tiered Price very appealing at the exact quantity I have on hand.   So instead of having to pick and re-bag 8 out of 10 pieces I have, I'll set the 10 piece quantity to a reasonably lower price so the buyer purchases them all.   This really makes sense when I have a handful of parts that I'll likely only stock once, and they are relatively low value.   After-all, my time is valuable too, and I'd rather shave 10% off a quantity of parts knowing that I'll grab that bag of parts one time and be done with it, than have to split selling the parts out over 2+ orders and re-handle for a few cents more revenue.

And the second method is that on larger quantities of parts, I'll often use the "Bulk Amount" feature and set it at a quantity that won't turn off a buyer, but also reasonable for me to bag as a bulk lot.   So if I have 100 quantity of a little part, I may do 25x bulk and bag them as such.   Or, if I have 20 wheels with tires, I'll bag as 4x (a reasonable standard) and set that quantity as the bulk qty.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Victorymike18

[Victorymike18]

On 10/23/2015, 10:56:47, Thumper said:

 

it depends...  I generally try to keep each lot separated so the buyer doesn't have to spend more than a wink on their end (why not, you've already spent the time sorting your inventory - might as well pass that effort on to the receiver)...

...for windscreens I'll usually put a piece of light foam in to protect it's surface, you can get a roll of very lightweight laminate flooring foam underlay from the BORG for next to nothing & the roll will last years of packaging!  (BORG = Big Orange Retail Giant, ie: Home Depot)

Ziploc baggies are real cheap but some buyers don't like to see over packaging either so it's basically a judgement call on your part.  I always use new first-use packaging myself rather than used baggies - baggies are cheap & it's kinda depressing to find your items packed in crumpley or worse dirty old used baggies.

Hi Thumper,

I shortened your post a little to save space, but I have settled into doing things pretty much exactly how you describe in all respects!

Regarding the light foam:  it is phenomenal once you realize how useful it is.   I see it used a lot on furniture and have once successfully obtained a large garbage bag full (still going through it) by asking kindly at the dock side of a local furniture store.

[Victorymike18]

On 10/4/2015, 12:44:22, 4cs said:

I'm curious if anyone out there regularly parts out larger sets: Modulars, Exclusives, etc.  I would think there would be a demand for the exclusive minifigs, rare parts, or exclusive parts that one would need to piece together some of the builds with their existing inventory.  We regularly part out 10-20 each of the smaller sets and I would like the challenge of something larger.

For example, I'm thinking of parting out multiples of Tower Bridge, Helicarrier, Imperial Star Destroyer, and others.  Just curious on everyone's thoughts, experiences, pros & cons.

Very interested in the responses on this...

I have just started to dabble in this as well, but only have the capital to start with smaller sets.   I completely agree with parting out a quantity of the same set to build quanity in one shot, vs parting one big set at a time.   I generally bag my inventory by lot and color as I list it, so it's easier to approach this like a "production" line.

Here are a few of my perceptions on this, and why I'm dabbling in it:

• I hate Ebay...  Not yet interested in Amazon.
• ^ I'm concerned with selling investment sets as new and unopened, and having to deal with claims of missing parts, damaged boxes, etc.  Parting out puts my hands on each piece, and allows me to sell the box individually if desired.
• To-date my BL inventory has been used parts, sourced from Craigslist "bulk loose pieces in a bin" scores.  I've spent LOTS of time sorting, washing, researching & listing parts on BL.   It is fun & reasonably profitable, but takes a keen eye to not let damaged parts (cracks, fading, etc) slip through.  It is taxing & occasionally overwhelming when you are dealing with so many unknown parts which you may only ever handle one of, and may be worth pennies.
• We know people will buy to complete a set (for themselves, or to re-sell)
• I also think people buy for their MOC's which suits that need for bulk common parts.

 

[Thumper]

11 hours ago, Victorymike18 said:

...  I completely agree with parting out a quantity of the same set to build quanity in one shot, vs parting one big set at a time...

I agree it's soo much more efficient & you do get into a rhythm as you go, minimum qty for me is usually 5 sets... But every now & then there is a particular set that has just soo many unique lots or in-demand parts you can't help but breakdown what you find.  You do hafta be careful on the big sets, you should carefully balance the ratio of uniquely quick sellable parts against the number of never-gonna-sell parts.  Some big sets have soo many dud parts or parts that everyone else is selling (usually at a crazy low price) it's often not worth the effort despite the few good parts.

11 hours ago, Victorymike18 said:

...I hate Ebay...  Not yet interested in Amazon.

Ditto, ebay is just soo much more hassle & expense than it used to be, if they ever get Bricklink stable, less buggy & much less prone to failured updates & at least try to curtail the open doors to scammers  before what's left of it reputation is completely crushed it could become what it once was as the source.  & Amazon is a bit overwhelming to get started in especially if you're outside the US. 

11 hours ago, Victorymike18 said:

... I'm concerned with selling investment sets as new and unopened, and having to deal with claims of missing parts, damaged boxes, etc.  Parting out puts my hands on each piece, and allows me to sell the box individually if desired.

Also reselling the big ones you're putting allot of eggs in one basket, the failure rate of a $500 set being scammed in one transaction where as the same amount in parts would take possibly 20 orders.  Though the reduced time & effort on your part is the pay-off.

 

11 hours ago, Victorymike18 said:

... To-date my BL inventory has been used parts, sourced from Craigslist "bulk loose pieces in a bin" scores.  I've spent LOTS of time sorting, washing, researching & listing parts on BL.   It is fun & reasonably profitable, but takes a keen eye to not let damaged parts (cracks, fading, etc) slip through.  It is taxing & occasionally overwhelming when you are dealing with so many unknown parts which you may only ever handle one of, and may be worth pennies.

Used parts is a great way to gain the experience to get your store off the ground, but it eventually becomes such a hassle & time sink once one starts to work primarily with new right-out-of-the-box parts the used side of things diminishes pretty quickly, especially where the market has changed so much & the price differential between new & used is barely notable for all the additional effort required to inventory used parts.   Still it's hard to give up that Treasure-hunt fun you just can't get the same thing when you already know the contents of a new set.

Unfortunately the CL, Kijiji, Traders and City4Sales sites are becoming awash with significantly over-priced offers now a-days it's very difficult to find a bargain to work with or beat the other resellers to.

[10230]

16 minutes ago, Thumper said:

Ditto, ebay is just soo much more hassle & expense than it used to be, if they ever get Bricklink stable, less buggy & much less prone to failured updates & at least try to curtail the open doors to scammers

Bricklink seems to try that now. New sellers either have to provide proof of identity to Bricklink, or have already have a buyer account with some minimum of good transactions _and_ something like half a year lifetime. Simply opening a shop and start "selling" shady stuff should not be possible anymore.

[2x4]

16 minutes ago, Thumper said: Ditto, ebay is just soo much more hassle & expense than it used to be, if they ever get Bricklink stable, less buggy & much less prone to failured updates & at least try to curtail the open doors to scammers

Bricklink seems to try that now. New sellers either have to provide proof of identity to Bricklink, or have already have a buyer account with some minimum of good transactions _and_ something like half a year lifetime. Simply opening a shop and start "selling" shady stuff should not be possible anymore.

That's very new I think, and I'm glad to hear it!

I'm a newer seller, and I was able to start selling quickly, which I appreciated, but I'd also like to make sure there's at least some sort of litmus test in the marketplace, otherwise we all get branded the same way.

[Thumper]

5 minutes ago, 10230 said:

Bricklink seems to try that now. New sellers either have to provide proof of identity to Bricklink, or have already have a buyer account with some minimum of good transactions _and_ something like half a year lifetime. Simply opening a shop and start "selling" shady stuff should not be possible anymore.

It's been soo long overdue it's embarrassing, lets just hope the damage done isn't unrecoverable.

I'll bet there's gonna be a host of new phishing email campaigns  going to out trying to get access to existing accounts.  hopefully not, but it's not like it's so difficult to fake a few good transactions or sell a few dollar parts then go rogue.

[Thumper]

 

So I see Bricklink was hacked yet again a couple days ago, message from admin:

 

22 hours ago, Thumper said:

Dear BrickLink members,

We would like to update our members on a recent system breach.  We have become aware that we were hacked yesterday, November 29th (Sunday) at 6pm EST.  We immediately patched the vulnerability once it was discovered.  The hacker had very limited access due to security measures that were put in place from a previous attack.

The hacker changed the last login date to October 9th of 2014 for most users, which generated automatic emails warning sellers that their store inventory would be purged due to inactivity.  These emails were sent in error and are safe to disregard.  The last login date for all users has already been corrected and no data has been actually purged.  We apologize to all of our users for this situation. We can only imagine how upset and frustrated many of you are right now but we can assure you that your inventory and private data is protected and was not accessed by the hacker.

Any lost data is only temporary and will be restored as soon as possible. Our engineering team is making sure that the BrickLink system and user data are safe from any hacker attacks in the future.

Should you have any questions or are unable to login to your account, please contact us at [email protected].


In lighter news, we are currently working hard on a new look for BrickLink stores, and will have a public beta available for you to preview by the end of the year.  This update will bring the storefronts to modern times along the same lines as the catalog update earlier this year. We can?t wait to share our progress with you and get your feedback.

Sincerely,
Team BrickLink

 

[Guest betsy805]

42 minutes ago, Thumper said:

 

So I see Bricklink was hacked yet again a couple days ago, message from admin:

 

 

Well that explains one strange email!  Got another one this morning from Paypal warning me not to ship an item that had already been shipped until they conclude an investigation.  Too bad they didn't start the investigation till after I shipped it though.  

[Stragus]

1 hour ago, Thumper said:

So I see Bricklink was hacked yet again a couple days ago, message from admin:

My guess:

The hacker(s) wanted the user passwords, but BrickLink stored them as salted hashes. Therefore, they modified the login script to capture the decrypted HTTPS login information, and forced everyone to log back in by changing the last login time.

If they were successful, the hacker(s) will then want to try the harvested email/password combinations in PayPal, Amazon, eBay, Gmail, etc.

I would also be concerned about sellers using the on-site payment option. If they had access to people's PayPal API keys, what kind of damage can they do? I'm not familiar enough with Paypal's APIs and security to speculate on that.

[MathBuilder]

10 hours ago, Stragus said:

My guess: [...]

Excellent insight Stragus. You should post this and recommendations to change passwords immediately to people in a separate BL post. 

I know you already replied this in the big threads because I just searched your posts but most people don't read them all when they get to long. Personally I think BL should have ask all users to change passwords there and elsewhere if repeated just to be on the safe side but I guess they don't want to admit to the full extent of their vulnerability and are just saying that the hacker ONLY was able to change dates. 

I personally never recycle identical passwords in distinct sites and paypal/financial are of course the more complex and completely unrelated to the social/forums type but I think many people do use the same ones and is the weak links like bricklink that eventually get them hacked. 

[gregpj]

1 hour ago, MathBuilder said:

Excellent insight Stragus. You should post this and recommendations to change passwords immediately to people in a separate BL post. 

I know you already replied this in the big threads because I just searched your posts but most people don't read them all when they get to long. Personally I think BL should have ask all users to change passwords there and elsewhere if repeated just to be on the safe side but I guess they don't want to admit to the full extent of their vulnerability and are just saying that the hacker ONLY was able to change dates. 

I personally never recycle identical passwords in distinct sites and paypal/financial are of course the more complex and completely unrelated to the social/forums type but I think many people do use the same ones and is the weak links like bricklink that eventually get them hacked. 

Using the same password at multiple sites isn't the problem. If a site stores a properly salted and hashed password as Stragus suggests then the hackers can never discover your password from just hacking the database. Even if they gain access to the value used to hash it out, they need to know the original password to verify the match. UNLESS of course you use a crappy/weak password like 'password' or 'hello' or some commonly used password... in that case, they run a known list of common passwords against the newly discovered hash key and they can find matches that way.

It's lazy websites that store plain text passwords that are the biggest problem and unfortunately, you never know who does or doesn't store them that way so reusing them is a risk. If you however have a "strong" pattern for passwords and vary even just one character or number for each site you'll never have a hashed password get hacked.

The other one is that it's not cheap enough to get a security certificate for every to run their sites using SSL encryption (https) so hackers also steal passwords by snooping through internet traffic. ALL websites should just use SSL encryption but a monopoly of sorts has been created for distributing them and they won't want to give up that power.

[Stragus]

28 minutes ago, gregpj said:

Using the same password at multiple sites isn't the problem. If a site stores a properly salted and hashed password as Stragus suggests then the hackers can never discover your password from just hacking the database. Even if they gain access to the value used to hash it out, they need to know the original password to verify the match.

As I said, fetching the database isn't the only way to retrieve people's passwords. Compromising the login scripts and forcing everyone to log back in is another, very effective, way.

Of course, that requires a certain privilege escalation that the hacker(s) may not have had. But if that's the case, why force everyone to log back in by changing the last login time? Professional hackers don't perform actions that reveal their presence without a pretty good reason.

[gregpj]

4 minutes ago, Stragus said:

As I said, fetching the database isn't the only way to retrieve people's passwords. Compromising the login scripts and forcing everyone to log back in is another, very effective, way.

Of course, that requires a certain privilege escalation that the hacker(s) may not have had. But if that's the case, why force everyone to log back in by changing the last login time? Professional hackers don't perform actions that reveal their presence without a pretty good reason.

Absolutely.... it's a very interesting problem and there are tons of security measures that can and should be taken when you're a target and/or you're dealing with financial transactions. Most sites just don't bother though and that's kind of sad.

[2x4]

All I want to know is how come I didn't get an email about this from bricklink?!?

[Vodium]

I didn't get one either

[Thumper]

Gee, I got 3, a couple hours apart & my shop's been closed for 2+ years. (thou I do login every other day to see what the latest update induced bug issue has popped up... or if the scamming, squabbling & complaints have leveled out any)

maybe you only got the updates if you also received the "gonna remove your inventory" system message during the hack.

[2x4]

Just to reiterate the whole "count your pieces" statement- today I finished a part out of nine pencil pots. (40154)

So far there has been 1 2x2 DBG tile, the rest are LBG. Also the quantity on 1x1 green round plates was incorrect, AND the quantity on grass stems was incorrect... First time I've run into this, but I apparently hit it big!

[Guest betsy805]

And if you ever get the urge to upload several boxes worth of 10697 to your store before you count the pieces or even have the chance to sort them, DON'T DO IT.  What a pain....too many orders coming in and they're all ordering pieces from the unsorted lot!!!  First and last time that will ever happen!!

[Vinetu]

Well just today I did it with only one, I think I'm safe Tomorrow's the sorting...

[tacsniper]

Just curious, do you guys ever do an audit of your Bricklink store? As in, go through your drawer/envelope or whatever system you have to count the pieces to make sure it matches on Bricklink and remarks is correct. If so, what is the most efficient way to do this?

[Victorymike18]

My inventory ultimately ends up sorted in a tray system (for the most part).  I use the "Remarks" section to tag what tray the lot is in, so "T1, T2"  etc.   When looking at your inventory summary page you can sort by the remarks.  So sometimes I will spot check a tray by sorting for the "T2" remark and auditing.  I can only get about 30 lots in each tray, so it's manageable.

 

Happy to share pics of the trays I use if anyone is interested.