Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[tacsniper]

Is there a way to sync inventory between BL and BO?

[Phil B]

2 hours ago, tacsniper said:

Is there a way to sync inventory between BL and BO?

Yes, your fellow countryman and active BP-er @Stragus has built an awesome utility called BrickSync which does just that. Really recommend it.

[Stragus]

15 hours ago, Phil B said:

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?

I have no idea how it works with the USPS, but with Canada Post, there are 10 international shipping zones with little variations in prices.

Have you checked if anyone shared shipping methods you could reuse? It seems likely (I shared mine for Canada Post).

[BP]

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 had an Asian Guy last month asking me three times if he could get a discount. After three no's from my end, he asked me to include a present to his order.

I included a drawing by my five year old daughter.

[exciter1]

2 minutes ago, BP said:

I had an Asian Guy last month asking me three times if he could get a discount. After three no's from my end, he asked me to include a present to his order.

I included a drawing by my five year old daughter.

That's great!  I hope it had a good portrayal of your culture in it.

[MathBuilder]

1 minute ago, BP said:

I had an Asian Guy last month asking me three times if he could get a discount. After three no's from my end, he asked me to include a present to his order.

I included a drawing by my five year old daughter.

LOL

You never know, if your daughter grows to be a talented artist the drawing might be more valuable than the bricks.

[thegooch49]

There is an awesome article on reddit titled: "A beginners guide to bricklinking". Despite the title, it's got some awesome tips in there that are not just for beginners. He built a 3500 piece Venator-Class Star Destroyer that is submitted on IDEAS. There are some great tips in there for big or small time orders, and a great all around read. We should support the IDEAS project as well, it's an awesome result. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/47nmwv/a_beginners_guide_to_bricklinking/

[dcdfan]

There is an awesome article on reddit titled: "A beginners guide to bricklinking". Despite the title, it's got some awesome tips in there that are not just for beginners. He built a 3500 piece Venator-Class Star Destroyer that is submitted on IDEAS. There are some great tips in there for big or small time orders, and a great all around read. We should support the IDEAS project as well, it's an awesome result. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/47nmwv/a_beginners_guide_to_bricklinking/

While, it looks great & I will support it. I believe Lego will just steal the idea since they don't "approve" larger sets...

[Legbrick]

Sorry, I just heard of Bricklink. Buying / selling Legos.

Is it better than ebay?  As far as fees, users, etc.

More sellers tan buyers?  

I have yet to register there, thought I would seek out answers first. maybe some here have good or bad info.

thanks

(move if in wrong thread, sorry)

[Lordoflego]

 I wish it was that easy, all the info is on this site, just read and you'll find answers    

[justapilgrim]

how long does it take for BL to add new sets? for example the new marvel sets are uploaded but not parted out, so don't know how to sell the minifigures yet

[Zelgazra]

Call me lazy, I can deal with it, but I'm not trawling through 31 pages to find an answer to a question that may or may not have been asked.... [Edit: I did try using the Search a couple times, 0 results found, so not the laziest possible]

I seem to recall reading on here about some 3rd party tools for sellers that use both BrickOwl and BrickLink, allowing them to sync up their inventories on each platform. This is not what I'm looking for, but it's close, which leads me to wonder if a tool exists for what I need... 

BrickOwl conveniently allows you to upload an LXF file from LDD, and create a Wishlist from the parts in the model file. Is there a tool or some easy way to transpose the BrickOwl Wishlist onto a BrickLink Wanted List? There is one particularly rare part that nobody is selling on BrickOwl, but one seller has on Bricklink. Looking up that one brick was easy as it's a one off case. But now that I know he has it, it makes sense to try and order some of the other parts from him too. Usually I'd select my Wanted List while viewing his shop to see what he's got in stock. Except the list in question hasn't been created yet, and I dread the idea of manually adding in 100+ lots to the list one by one. Looking for the big red Easy button... does it exist? 

Edited March 4, 2016 by Zelgazra

[Phil B]

That's an interesting question. I found this article on Bricklink where someone describes how they maintain a wishlist across both BrickOwl and BrickLink:

1. Add the LXF file to Rebrickable.com

2. From Rebrickable, you can export in several formats, including XML (and you can import directly into BrickOwl - see this article)

3. Use the XML export and import the XML file into BrickStock (the article mentions BrickStore but that program has not been maintained for several years, BrickStock is the new version of BrickStore).

4. Maintain your wishlist in BrickStock, exporting it to BrickLink and BrickOwl whenever you want to check store stock.

Now, this doesn't answer the question "I have an updated wishlist on BrickOwl that I wish to export" as unlike BrickLink, BrickOwl doesn't seem to have an export feature for Wish/WantLists.

I have only very limited knowledge and usage experience on Rebrickable.com (I played around with it a few months back) but it seems like it is a good place to maintain your projects instead of doing it in BrickOwl. They have features integrating directly into BrickLink AND BrickOwl, allowing you to browse store availability right from Rebrickable. Here is a blog post on Rebrickable that details what you can do: http://rebrickable.com/blog/2015/bricklink-brickowl-integration

Edited March 4, 2016 by Phil B

[BP]

Hi,

I need some advice on the consolidate & concatenate option when parting out sets
and adding them to my inventory.
I'm not using this function right and need some help.

Here's an example.

I'm parting out a set and adding it to my inventory.
Let's say this set has 20x plate 1x2x2.
I'm already selling this brick 15 times.
I now want bricklink to add these 20 plates to the other 15
so that it becomes a total of 35 bricks listed for the same price.
I however want these 20 plates to have a new remark called YYYYY
so when they get ordered, I know from what set the parted out items come.

How do I use the functions correct?

[Zelgazra]

Great tips Phil! In the brief bit of googling I did, I found some discussion of Rebrickable, but it's a site I've never checked out yet. Guess it's time. Though I'm in the latter camp at this point, with an updated Wishlist on Brickowl that I'd like to bring over. It's not modified too far off the LXF though, worst case I can take some screenshots of the quantities required and re-input them on rebrickable after the fresh LXF import. A project to figure out over the weekend. Cheers man! 

[Phil B]

1 hour ago, BP said:

Hi,

I need some advice on the consolidate & concatenate option when parting out sets
and adding them to my inventory.
I'm not using this function right and need some help.

Here's an example.

I'm parting out a set and adding it to my inventory.
Let's say this set has 20x plate 1x2x2.
I'm already selling this brick 15 times.
I now want bricklink to add these 20 plates to the other 15
so that it becomes a total of 35 bricks listed for the same price.
I however want these 20 plates to have a new remark called YYYYY
so when they get ordered, I know from what set the parted out items come.

How do I use the functions correct?

There are several options you can look at in the add inventory screen. First there are the generic settings that allow you to keep or replace a specific inventory field during the update (e.g "keep old price"), and then there is a special field for remarks that allows you to merge old and new remarks. If you use thus second option, the newly added items will have both the old remarks as well as the remarks you add for the new items, while the old items will only have the old remarks. Hope this is what you're looking for....

[DadsAFOL]

 

4 hours ago, BP said:

Hi,

I need some advice on the consolidate & concatenate option when parting out sets
and adding them to my inventory.
I'm not using this function right and need some help.

Here's an example.

I'm parting out a set and adding it to my inventory.
Let's say this set has 20x plate 1x2x2.
I'm already selling this brick 15 times.
I now want bricklink to add these 20 plates to the other 15
so that it becomes a total of 35 bricks listed for the same price.
I however want these 20 plates to have a new remark called YYYYY
so when they get ordered, I know from what set the parted out items come.

How do I use the functions correct?

When you consolidate new uploads into existing inventory, there is only one record for the part.  So if you already had 15 listed with a remark of XXXXX, and part out a set that has 20 more, your choices are:

1. old remark --> 35 with "XXXXX"

2. new remark --> 35 with "YYYYY"

3. concatenate remarks --> 35 with "XXXXX YYYYY"

You can not have the new 20 have a different remark than the original 15.  They all have to be the same.

[Phil B]

46 minutes ago, DadsAFOL said:

 

When you consolidate new uploads into existing inventory, there is only one record for the part.  So if you already had 15 listed with a remark of XXXXX, and part out a set that has 20 more, your choices are:

1. old remark --> 35 with "XXXXX"

2. new remark --> 35 with "YYYYY"

3. concatenate remarks --> 35 with "XXXXX YYYYY"

You can not have the new 20 have a different remark than the original 15.  They all have to be the same.

What DadsAFOL said ... I was wrong. Concatenate indeed means all of them get that remark.

[BP]

4 hours ago, DadsAFOL said:

 

When you consolidate new uploads into existing inventory, there is only one record for the part.  So if you already had 15 listed with a remark of XXXXX, and part out a set that has 20 more, your choices are:

1. old remark --> 35 with "XXXXX"

2. new remark --> 35 with "YYYYY"

3. concatenate remarks --> 35 with "XXXXX YYYYY"

You can not have the new 20 have a different remark than the original 15.  They all have to be the same.

The third option is exactly what I want to do. 

So to do this, I got to check Consolidate, use old remarks & check concatenate old remarks with new remarks? 

Consolidate lots with my existing inventory and adjust quantity of items that are already in my inventory by using:
	Old Price and Old Tier Pricing       New Price and New Tier Pricing              Old Bulk Amount       New Bulk Amount              Old Sale       New Sale
	Old Remarks       New Remarks              Old Extended Description       New Extended Description              Old Stockroom Option       New Stockroom Option
	Old Retain Option       New Retain Option        Concatenate old Remarks with new Remarks

 

 

[Phil B]

5 hours ago, BP said:

The third option is exactly what I want to do. 

So to do this, I got to check Consolidate, use old remarks & check concatenate old remarks with new remarks? 

Consolidate lots with my existing inventory and adjust quantity of items that are already in my inventory by using:
	Old Price and Old Tier Pricing       New Price and New Tier Pricing              Old Bulk Amount       New Bulk Amount              Old Sale       New Sale
	Old Remarks       New Remarks              Old Extended Description       New Extended Description              Old Stockroom Option       New Stockroom Option
	Old Retain Option       New Retain Option        Concatenate old Remarks with new Remarks

 

 

Correct. Those are exactly my settings (with the checkmark on Concatenate and on Consolidate checked) and I do the same (my remarks carry the names and quantities of the sets I purchased them from - but I'm thinking of abandoning this concept since I now have a different external tracking system - I will likely start using the remarks section to put in the location of where I am storing these bricks (box #)).

[Alpinemaps]

3 hours ago, Phil B said:

Correct. Those are exactly my settings (with the checkmark on Concatenate and on Consolidate checked) and I do the same (my remarks carry the names and quantities of the sets I purchased them from - but I'm thinking of abandoning this concept since I now have a different external tracking system - I will likely start using the remarks section to put in the location of where I am storing these bricks (box #)).

I'd be curious to know how people utilize the Remarks section.   As you are considering doing, that's what I do.  I use the Remarks to indicate the location of a particular part in my inventory.  But what does everyone else do?

[DadsAFOL]

9 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

I'd be curious to know how people utilize the Remarks section.   As you are considering doing, that's what I do.  I use the Remarks to indicate the location of a particular part in my inventory.  But what does everyone else do?

Location, primarily.  Occasionally notes to ourselves.

Just to add to the discussion the difference between using "comment" and "remark"...  We occasionally have the need to force a separate inventory lot.  For example, if we are selling something for someone else on consignment that we need to track separately.  If you add an inventory item with a comment, and then part out a set that has the same item, it will not consolidate that lot (unless you put the identical comment in).  So this is a way to create exceptions to the consolidate everything decision if needed.  Having multiple lots of the same items irritates buyers that use wanted lists, so use the forced comment or the "don't consolidate" options sparingly.

Here's the best reason to never NOT use consolidate...  If you have 20x of something, and part out a set with 15x more but don't consolidate, you will end up with two lots of 20 and 15 respectively.  if a buyer is looking for 25x of that item through a wanted list, they will not see your store, and go shop somewhere else.

[BP]

7 hours ago, Phil B said:

Correct. Those are exactly my settings (with the checkmark on Concatenate and on Consolidate checked) and I do the same (my remarks carry the names and quantities of the sets I purchased them from - but I'm thinking of abandoning this concept since I now have a different external tracking system - I will likely start using the remarks section to put in the location of where I am storing these bricks (box #)).

Thanks, we have the same plans apparantely, both in current and future terms

4 hours ago, Alpinemaps said:

I'd be curious to know how people utilize the Remarks section.   As you are considering doing, that's what I do.  I use the Remarks to indicate the location of a particular part in my inventory.  But what does everyone else do?

Location. 

[Guest betsy805]

Good grief, I just had 3 quotes and one PM about the same items overnight.  Apparently bricklink doesn't 'hold' items in quote status?  I can only imagine I'm going to have some unhappy people when only one of the quotes can go through.

[Alpinemaps]

Good grief, I just had 3 quotes and one PM about the same items overnight.  Apparently bricklink doesn't 'hold' items in quote status?  I can only imagine I'm going to have some unhappy people when only one of the quotes can go through.

I'm pretty sure I've seen stores mention that Quotes are just quotes - it doesn't pull inventory. So yes, you might have trouble.