Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Phil B]

8 minutes ago, BrickLegacy said:

 

Yeah, that's a personal decision really. Depends on how many packages you ship and your risk tolerance. I've only had one package lost or misplaced so far (100s shipped) and that was marked as delivered but (allegedly) stolen before customer received it.

High price items I always get it, mostly for piece of mind.

I never considered shipping high priced items via BL, but someone is considering buying a bulk load of sets from me, which forces me to rethink this. My typical BL sales are within the $50 free insurance USPS offers. Thanks for the perspective!

[BrickLegacy]

I never considered shipping high priced items via BL, but someone is considering buying a bulk load of sets from me, which forces me to rethink this. My typical BL sales are within the $50 free insurance USPS offers. Thanks for the perspective!

Your protection is really through PayPal.

Only ship to PayPal confirmed address and use signature confirmation. Add insurance for high price items.

Good luck!

[donbee]

Your protection is really through PayPal.

Only ship to PayPal confirmed address and use signature confirmation. Add insurance for high price items.

Good luck!

This post came to mind.

A Colombian sent me a message today. Asking that I mail to his BL account, which is in Miami, rather than his PayPal credit card which has a Colombian address.

0 feedback, new user.

[minicoopers11]

On 12/1/2016 at 7:21 PM, Phil B said:

I never considered shipping high priced items via BL, but someone is considering buying a bulk load of sets from me, which forces me to rethink this. My typical BL sales are within the $50 free insurance USPS offers. Thanks for the perspective!

For me: BL = large orders from other resellers (either international, FBA player, or toy shop owner) and eBay = small orders from end users.

[minicoopers11]

10 minutes ago, donbee said:

This post came to mind.

A Colombian sent me a message today. Asking that I mail to his BL account, which is in Miami, rather than his PayPal credit card which has a Colombian address.

0 feedback, new user.

There is an element of risk, to be sure. I do this, but only if it seems legit. And if the value is over my "pain" threshold, I'll purchase insurance. 

One thing you could do, if you want to proceed, is require the buyer to pay for insurance in this scenario.

[BrickLegacy]

6 minutes ago, donbee said:

This post came to mind.

A Colombian sent me a message today. Asking that I mail to his BL account, which is in Miami, rather than his PayPal credit card which has a Colombian address.

0 feedback, new user.

What, this guy doesn't look trustworthy to you?

[donbee]

He hasn't placed an order yet. I assume it's a he.
I respect that he asked first. I'll see what he wants. I was just wondering what kind of protection I have? Will PayPal recognize his request through BL communications? Or will they reject it. If he wasn't a (0) feedback, I wouldn't worry so much.
@bricklegacy
I guess drug lords need their Lego too.

[BrickLegacy]

He hasn't placed an order yet. I assume it's a he.
I respect that he asked first. I'll see what he wants. I was just wondering what kind of protection I have? Will PayPal recognize his request through BL communications? Or will they reject it. If he wasn't a (0) feedback, I wouldn't worry so much.
/profile/16305-phil/'>@bricklegacy
I guess drug lords need their Lego too.

This happened to me once and I held firm on only shipping to PayPal confirmed address. They updated their address to the US mailing address and the transaction went smoothly. I forget the feedback rating.

If it's an expensive set, you might want to just simply trust your gut.

[redghostx]

In Canada, the sender has to pay for return postage so I assumed it would be the same using USPS into Belgium.
I have never done this, but I know people who sell from Canada and ship into the US from the US.  I am assuming they use their Canadian address as return?

I finally read this topic and can reply to your question.


No,

I use a US address as a return address and some retailers have offered their own store address as a return address. 602-1.5.4 of USPS explains this as only non-commercial items are exempt from requiring a US return address (ie. Postcards)

[Victorymike18]

Ok, I'm sure this has been asked before, but here I go just to make sure I'm doing this right:

Let's say I have 10,000 qty. of a piece in a color.   I'd prefer to sell them in small bulk lots of 250 pieces, but I also don't want to list all 10,000 in one shot so that any single buyer could scoop up everything at once.   IE:  I want to "throttle"  out the parts into my available inventory for sale.

Selling lots repetitively is new to me.   Is this where I would use the "Retain in Inventory After Sold Out" feature?    So once I see I sold out, then I can simply add more of the 250 piece lots to my active inventory?

The way I started doing it is tedious:  I would upload a few little bulk lots (like four 250 pcs. bags) to inventory, and then I upload additional groups to my stockroom that I can switch from stockroom to inventory once the inventory is sold out...   It takes a lot more time this way...

I assume this is what the "Retain" feature is for, but I'm nervous to try it and be wrong...

Edited December 20, 2016 by Victorymike18

[jlegomora]

What Happened to Justafrog?

[lego rules]

1 hour ago, Victorymike18 said:

Ok, I'm sure this has been asked before, but here I go just to make sure I'm doing this right:

Let's say I have 10,000 qty. of a piece in a color.   I'd prefer to sell them in small bulk lots of 250 pieces, but I also don't want to list all 10,000 in one shot so that any single buyer could scoop up everything at once.   IE:  I want to "throttle"  out the parts into my available inventory for sale.

Selling lots repetitively is new to me.   Is this where I would use the "Retain in Inventory After Sold Out" feature?    So once I see I sold out, then I can simply add more of the 250 piece lots to my active inventory?

The way I started doing it is tedious:  I would upload a few little bulk lots (like four 250 pcs. bags) to inventory, and then I upload additional groups to my stockroom that I can switch from stockroom to inventory once the inventory is sold out...   It takes a lot more time this way...

I assume this is what the "Retain" feature is for, but I'm nervous to try it and be wrong...

You enter amount of maximum you want to sell at one time lets say 1000, then enter 250 in bulk and click the retain button.  Once the 1000 runs out, the item is still in your inventory but with zero quantity and with stockroom checked.  You enter a new qty. in and uncheck stockroom and it will be available again.

[Victorymike18]

^ Thank You ^

That's exactly the functionality I need!

[Phil B]

My Dimensions minifigs are not synching with BrickOwl (I use BrickSync). I'm checking BrickOwl and see no listings for dimensions minifigs. Anyone know why? Am I looking in the wrong place? Or does BrickOwl not want to carry Dimensions minifigs? Non-dimensions minifigs carry over perfectly fine.

NOTE: I do see the parts for the minifigs in BrickOwl, but there seems to be no entry for the full minifig. This is unlike non-Dimensions minifigs, which have listings for both parts as well as the full assembled minifig.

NOTE 2: Doesn't seem to hold for ALL Dimensions minifigs - Stay Puft for example does have a minifig entry. Does hold for dim001, dim002, dim030 to name a few.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Phil B

[donbee]

My Dimensions minifigs are not synching with BrickOwl (I use BrickSync). I'm checking BrickOwl and see no listings for dimensions minifigs. Anyone know why? Am I looking in the wrong place? Or does BrickOwl not want to carry Dimensions minifigs? Non-dimensions minifigs carry over perfectly fine.
NOTE: I do see the parts for the minifigs in BrickOwl, but there seems to be no entry for the full minifig. This is unlike non-Dimensions minifigs, which have listings for both parts as well as the full assembled minifig.
NOTE 2: Doesn't seem to hold for ALL Dimensions minifigs - Stay Puft for example does have a minifig entry. Does hold for dim001, dim002, dim030 to name a few.

I don't use Brick owl much, but I did notice something similar on BL. If you part a fun pack, and the minifig is a reissue, it'll show up in the older category. Check Super heroes and Ninjago especially. For example, Wonder Woman shows up in super heroes category, not Dimensions.

[Phil B]

11 minutes ago, donbee said:

I don't use Brick owl much, but I did notice something similar on BL. If you part a fun pack, and the minifig is a reissue, it'll show up in the older category. Check Super heroes and Ninjago especially. For example, Wonder Woman shows up in super heroes category, not Dimensions.
 

Thought about that, but that's not what's happening. Take E.T. for example. On BL, this is dim030. On BO, there is no ET minifig, only the legs, body and head. Now look at Stay Puft (dim018). BO has both the parts (legs, body, head) as well as an entry for the entire minifig. You might say it's because the ET minifig is new, but then look at dim001 (Gandalf). Same story as E.T. I'm not sure what's going on.

[DadsAFOL]

You just have to be patient, or add the catalog entry yourself.  There are a lot fewer catalog volunteers on BO compared to BL, so things that need manual work take a while.  He's built some automation to pull inventories from the Lego cache server, but figures only come over as their parts.  A human needs to "assemble" those parts into the correct figures in the catalog.

[Phil B]

6 hours ago, DadsAFOL said:

You just have to be patient, or add the catalog entry yourself.  There are a lot fewer catalog volunteers on BO compared to BL, so things that need manual work take a while.  He's built some automation to pull inventories from the Lego cache server, but figures only come over as their parts.  A human needs to "assemble" those parts into the correct figures in the catalog.

Ah! Got it. I'll take a look at what it takes to propose some catalog updates on the BO side. Thanks!

[Phil B]

9 hours ago, DadsAFOL said:

You just have to be patient, or add the catalog entry yourself.  There are a lot fewer catalog volunteers on BO compared to BL, so things that need manual work take a while.  He's built some automation to pull inventories from the Lego cache server, but figures only come over as their parts.  A human needs to "assemble" those parts into the correct figures in the catalog.

Update on this: It's actually really simple. I constructed the E.T. minifig by going into the fun pack inventory and clicking on the "create minifig" link, then selecting the parts involved and submitting the new listing for approval. For Batman and Gandalf, it turned out they were already in the catalog, but not linked to their corresponding BL IDs - I added those to the inventory listing for each item and submitted all my changes for approval. Hopefully they'll get added soon and then I can run a deep sync in BrickSync and get both marketplaces aligned again. In the past when I submitted a comment to BrickOwl regarding their shipping tiers, the change was made very quickly, so I have high hopes these will be available in the next few days.

Again, thanks for putting me on the right track.

[donbee]

And thank you for correcting it for the rest of us =)

[Phil B]

11 minutes ago, donbee said:

And thank you for correcting it for the rest of us =)

You're welcome. Batman and Gandalf are already updated, my latest BrickSync deep sync got those included. Waiting for the ET minifig link to BL - guess that'll come tomorrow.

[Phil B]

Posted a Dimensions set on BL. Received Quote request asking for just the tags. What do I do?

1. Provide a quote for just the tags against the full item (but then BL shows a "fake" sale of the entire set)?

2. Create a new listing, reserve it for the person who asked the quote and message them?

3. Anything else?

 

[BearCrash]

1 minute ago, Phil B said:

Posted a Dimensions set on BL. Received Quote request asking for just the tags. What do I do?

1. Provide a quote for just the tags against the full item (but then BL shows a "fake" sale of the entire set)?

2. Create a new listing, reserve it for the person who asked the quote and message them?

3. Anything else?

 

I would go for option 2 - if you're willing to part out the set, that is.

[Phil B]

4 minutes ago, BearCrash said:

I would go for option 2 - if you're willing to part out the set, that is.

What do I do with the quote request in that case? Absolutely willing to part out.

[BearCrash]

Just now, Phil B said:

What do I do with the quote request in that case? Absolutely willing to part out.

I'm not sure if the person who requested the quote, can cancel it without having received the quote. You could provide the actual shipping cost for the complete set, just in case he'd accept it.

I would definitely not go for option 1 from you previous post. The quote would be for the entire set then and if you only send the tags, that person could open a PayPal case against you (assuming you're getting paid through PayPal )