Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[eracine]

13 hours ago, DadsAFOL said:

You are using the wrong postage type and assuming risk that your package doesn't get mangled because you posted it as a "letter". Canada correct postage is $9.03 commercial base up to 8oz.

It says large envelope or flat.  I have been using this for years.   Not sure about Canada but I haven't had any issues before. 

[EiSeOoNiinJust]

Got my first order in (woo) and now I would need to change the items in there. I had sold 6 sets on a superlot and would need to remove 2 of them.

Can I do this somehow, or is the only way to cancel it and put those sets back in store and have the buyer make another checkout?

[Alpinemaps]

4 hours ago, EiSeOoNiinJust said:

Got my first order in (woo) and now I would need to change the items in there. I had sold 6 sets on a superlot and would need to remove 2 of them.

Can I do this somehow, or is the only way to cancel it and put those sets back in store and have the buyer make another checkout?

Make sure you've worked it out with the buyer before you cancel the order.

When you cancel the order, the items will go back into your inventory.  You can then make changes that you need to, and make it available again.   The buyer will need to check out again.

[supergman]

Person overseas wants to buy a set but have it shipped to a NY address.  Bricklink addess is in Columbia, Paypal address is the same - and verified - but delivery is elsewhere.  Is that "safe"?

[BearCrash]

12 minutes ago, supergman said:

Person overseas wants to buy a set but have it shipped to a NY address.  Bricklink addess is in Columbia, Paypal address is the same - and verified - but delivery is elsewhere.  Is that "safe"?

I think you're not covered by Paypal's seller insurance if you don't ship to the address listed in Paypal.

On the other hand, I've shipped from country A to country B for a buyer who's address was in country C and I didn't have a problem with that transaction.
If the buyer has sufficient feedback, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Deadfraggle]

1 hour ago, supergman said:

Person overseas wants to buy a set but have it shipped to a NY address.  Bricklink addess is in Columbia, Paypal address is the same - and verified - but delivery is elsewhere.  Is that "safe"?

Only ship to the address that auto populates into PayPal's shipping postage purchase feature or copy and paste that address exactly into another website if you purchase shipping outside of PayPal. 

If the buyer wants it sent somewhere else, refund their money and cancel the original transaction. Have them add the new address to their PayPal. Send them a new invoice in Bricklink to pay. Ideally, the Bricklink invoice, requested delivery, and PayPal address are all the same, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I'd google that NY address, and see if it is a freight forwarding company. Technically, PayPal won't cover you under the seller protection clause if you ship to a known FF company. I don't know if they enforce that policy in real life because I've never tested it. 

 

[supergman]

12 minutes ago, Deadfraggle said:

Only ship to the address that auto populates into the PayPal shipping postage purchase feature or copy and paste it exactly if you purchase shipping outside of PayPal. 

If the buyer wants it sent somewhere else, refund their money, cancel transaction. Have them add new address to PayPal. Send them new invoice to pay.

google that NY address, see if is a freight forwarding company. Technically, PayPal won't cover you if you ship to a known FF company, but I don't know if they enforce that policy on real life.

Yeah, that's what I figured.  I always -and only-ship to the Paypal address but this was an interesting request.  Thanks for the info.

[terrymc4677]

41 minutes ago, supergman said:

Person overseas wants to buy a set but have it shipped to a NY address.  Bricklink addess is in Columbia, Paypal address is the same - and verified - but delivery is elsewhere.  Is that "safe"?

I think I have the same person asking me to do the same. He lives in Columbia and wants the set shipped to New York. My store terms state that I only ship to the address linked to their PayPal account. One way around this though is if they pay with a friends/family payment, however they will forfeit any protection on their end. My person has 0 feedback. Yours?

[supergman]

Just now, terrymc4677 said:

I think I have the same person asking me to do the same. He lives in Columbia and wants the set shipped to New York. My store terms state that I only ship to the address linked to their PayPal account. One way around this though is if they pay with a friends/family payment, however they will forfeit any protection on their end. My person has 0 feedback. Yours?

Ha.  Yup...for a train?

[terrymc4677]

Just now, supergman said:

Ha.  Yup...for a train?

Yes. 60051 passenger train. He is asking a bunch of questions about box condition and if everything is included. I only sell new/sealed so of course everything is included, but I politely replied to all of his questions.

[Deadfraggle]

 

From PayPal Sel agreementPayPal Sellers agreement full text.

Basic Requirements:

• You must ship the item to the shipping address on the Transaction Details Page.

"Items that are not shipped to the recipient's shipping address on the Transaction Details Page. If you originally ship the item to the recipient's shipping address on the Transaction Details Page but the item is later redirected to a different address, you will not be eligible for PayPal Seller protection. We therefore recommend not using a shipping service that is arranged by the buyer, so that you will be able to provide valid proof of shipping and delivery."

[DadsAFOL]

Everyone should decide their own risk tolerance, but most freight forwarders are low risk.  We usually get several a month and these can be good large orders.  PayPal coverage extends to the US delivery address.  The forwarder assumes all risk in shipping from there to the buyer overseas.  We've never had a claim from one of these buyers.  Buyers that use these services are savvy enough to find better ways to ship goods internationally.  Someone that takes their time to research that service and set it up is (in my opinion) less likely to be a scammer than someone that wants you to ship international directly.

Shipping only to the PayPal address to have any seller protection is a myth.  All you have to do is ship to a documented address (i.e. the order details on BL).  if you are using onsite PayPal (you should have this turned on), BL feeds the shipping address to PayPal if that makes you feel any better.

[TomOOO]

Just a thought - bricklink was hacked about 1 month ago, but I note this is a new seller so maybe not relevant. 

[Deadfraggle]

5 hours ago, DadsAFOL said:

Everyone should decide their own risk tolerance, but most freight forwarders are low risk.  We usually get several a month and these can be good large orders.  PayPal coverage extends to the US delivery address.  The forwarder assumes all risk in shipping from there to the buyer overseas.  We've never had a claim from one of these buyers.  Buyers that use these services are savvy enough to find better ways to ship goods internationally.  Someone that takes their time to research that service and set it up is (in my opinion) less likely to be a scammer than someone that wants you to ship international directly.

Shipping only to the PayPal address to have any seller protection is a myth.  All you have to do is ship to a documented address (i.e. the order details on BL).  if you are using onsite PayPal (you should have this turned on), BL feeds the shipping address to PayPal if that makes you feel any better.

I concur with your FF assessment as I have had several great orders this way. I had a single scammer attempt to make an item not received claim. They eventually dropped the issue.

I think PayPal would have covered me as I sent the item with sig confirmation to the PayPal address. The Customer service representative did reference the terms of service pdf I linked above so I wanted to at least throw it out there for other to review.

I know you do a high volume on BL, so I am grateful that you can dispel some of the PP myth through real life experiences.

[newbie77]

saw this while trying to buy @ bricklink. didnot use to see this before

[Deadfraggle]

3 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

saw this while trying to buy @ bricklink. didnot use to see this before

Stranger Danger . If you'd like to just give some money away without any product in return, I can PM you my PayPal address.

On a serious note, I have seen that twice. It's almost like Bricklink is raising the BS flag, but can't or won't remove the suspicious listings.

[paulvdb]

It is relatively new. I believe it only shows when you place in order in a store with zero or low feedback.

[Zelgazra]

Why is it that many sellers will have the same part in the same colour listed many multiple times at marginally different prices?

I often like to search Shops by Wanted List filtered by Unique parts. When sellers have multiples of the same item listed, they count towards the unique lots counter. It's misleading and frustrating. Any insight on why this is a thing would possibly help. 

[Phil B]

1 hour ago, Zelgazra said:

Why is it that many sellers will have the same part in the same colour listed many multiple times at marginally different prices?

I often like to search Shops by Wanted List filtered by Unique parts. When sellers have multiples of the same item listed, they count towards the unique lots counter. It's misleading and frustrating. Any insight on why this is a thing would possibly help. 

I can think of a couple of reasons:

1) Used vs New make different lots

2) Even within Used (and within New if talking about sets) the parts/sets could have different condition notes in the Comments field, generating different listings. E.g. "Minor shelfwear" / "Slightly yellowed" etc.

3) There is a flag in the store settings that you can check/uncheck which determines if new stock gets merged with existing lots, or becomes a separate lot. Some sellers might prefer (or inadvertently forget to set this flag) having this feature set to separate lots

4) If you upload items to your stockroom, but the lot already exists in your normal inventory, the lot still gets merged (at least that's what I have seen). This might lead to stockroom items becoming normal inventory before you want them to. That might be why some sellers don't set the flag mentioned in 3. It might also be that once they move stock from a stockroom to the online inventory they forget to merge.

5) If you are tracking "My Cost" in Bricklink, you cannot keep this properly updated if you merge lots (unless you do a manual effort to recompute the merged lot my cost). So some vendors might have different lots just for cost tracking purposes.

There might be others ....

[Zelgazra]

A number of things to consider certainly. Cheers. I think it must be a combination of 3, 4 and 5. In the cases I've seen there have been no differentiating factors in the notes. Say one New listing of a 1x6 plate in DBG, but then 5 Used listings with varying quantities of the same part. Shows up as 6 unique lots when doing the Unique Lots by Wanted List search... that was the only real conclusion I could come up with, averaging cost of parts based on purchase prices of lots, rather than averaging all costs of all inventory on that one SKU across multiple lots. Guess it helps for CAGR calculation, but at the end of the day for profit margins, shouldn't matter if you merge everything. Should be mandatory or automatic for ease of buyer use  

[Phil B]

That's why I always change the field to unique items, not lots, when I do a wanted list search  With that tweak BL works "sort of" like BrickOwl (though I like BrickOwl's wanted list search a million times more)

[DadsAFOL]

16 hours ago, Phil B said:

I can think of a couple of reasons:

1) Used vs New make different lots

2) Even within Used (and within New if talking about sets) the parts/sets could have different condition notes in the Comments field, generating different listings. E.g. "Minor shelfwear" / "Slightly yellowed" etc.

3) There is a flag in the store settings that you can check/uncheck which determines if new stock gets merged with existing lots, or becomes a separate lot. Some sellers might prefer (or inadvertently forget to set this flag) having this feature set to separate lots

4) If you upload items to your stockroom, but the lot already exists in your normal inventory, the lot still gets merged (at least that's what I have seen). This might lead to stockroom items becoming normal inventory before you want them to. That might be why some sellers don't set the flag mentioned in 3. It might also be that once they move stock from a stockroom to the online inventory they forget to merge.

5) If you are tracking "My Cost" in Bricklink, you cannot keep this properly updated if you merge lots (unless you do a manual effort to recompute the merged lot my cost). So some vendors might have different lots just for cost tracking purposes.

There might be others ....

It's primarily #3.  Sellers part out sets at different times, and the average price fluctuates, so listing the same item tomorrow might result in a slightly different price.  As a buyer I also find this frustrating.  But a minority of sellers continue to do it because listing a new lot sends an email to people with that item on their wanted list.  Adding more stock to an existing lot sends no new notification.

[Alpinemaps]

I've had that happen on Bricklink, same exact circumstances.  I just dropped the buyer a note and asked if they really meant to purchase.  It's always been "oops, I was just checking out the system."

[Stragus]

32 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Then I went to check it and saw this

You really should set up your shipping methods so that customers never have to request quotes. BrickOwl customers expect to see shipping rates, being able to place an order and pay right away.

I only receive quote requests when the cart exceeds my shipping methods (like a 6kg international order a few days ago) ... or customers from specific eastern countries asking for a discount (I assume it's part of the culture?).

[Phil B]

3 minutes ago, Stragus said:

You really should set up your shipping methods so that customers never have to request quotes. BrickOwl customers expect to see shipping rates, being able to place an order and pay right away.

I only receive quote requests when the cart exceeds my shipping methods (like a 6kg international order a few days ago) ... or customers from specific eastern countries asking for a discount (I assume it's part of the culture?).

I've got my shipping options covered for the US - but haven't yet tackled International shipping on BrickOwl .... unless I pick a "middle of the road" number for all countries, doesn't this become extremely difficult to set up for all the possible shipment sizes and rates for international shipping? Or how have you done this?

EDIT: I guess I could add a flat-rate priority mail international envelope and a flat-rate priority mail international medium box to my shipping options, but I'd still need to enter rates for every country in the world, no?

Edited February 26, 2016 by Phil B