Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Huskers1236]

How do you remove a portion of an order?  I have a figure that as I was pulling order I noticed is not in advertised quality  since I missed a cracked torso.  I messaged buyer and he no longer wants it which was an option I gave him.  Can you remove a lot from an order or do you just credit the invoice?  Thanks.

[newbie77]

44 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

How do you remove a portion of an order?  I have a figure that as I was pulling order I noticed is not in advertised quality  since I missed a cracked torso.  I messaged buyer and he no longer wants it which was an option I gave him.  Can you remove a lot from an order or do you just credit the invoice?  Thanks.

submit an item removal request:

https://www.bricklink.com/retractOrderItem.asp

use order number and follow the click button

[Huskers1236]

15 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

submit an item removal request:

https://www.bricklink.com/retractOrderItem.asp

use order number and follow the click button

Thanks.  Does the buyer then need to approve?

[newbie77]

7 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

Thanks.  Does the buyer then need to approve?

Yes.  that's the normal process. Lot of people bypass that and ship the stupid order and credit $ or just sit tight until buyer complains after receiving the order. Very rampant with some high volume sellers as well

[donbee]

I changed my minimum to 50 cents when I got an order for just 1 hand (the finger part) that cost 6 cents maybe.  I've had plenty of low orders before that, but that one kind of maybe me rethink my value of time for myself a little more.

I received an order for a quarter once. What's the point of spending $3 (after shipping) for 1 piece?
Then I realized that I was screwed too.
Paying ~5% on $3, not $0.25, plus the $0.35 per transaction fee.
I sometimes wonder if people place those small orders on purpose to teach us a lesson.

[Phil B]

An alternative to putting in a minimum is making a tiered handling fee structure. Like $2 fee for orders under $5, $1 for orders under $10, no fee for orders of $10 and more.

[donbee]

Do you guys have issues with buyers completing orders after receiving them?  As a buyer, I make sure to go through my order and complete if everything is acceptable.  It's a bit annoying to know that orders have reached their destination but nothing has been done on the buyers' end.  

It was several months, dozens of orders, before the first time I noticed someone "completed" their order. Didn't know they could do that. I too get just over 50% feedback. Most don't complete. I love it when they do, so I don't have to check the tracking myself.
I used to wait for them to complete or leave feedback before I would, but now I just leave feedback whenever I feel like confirming the order was delivered. But never before that.
Some people are very zealous about leaving feedback, will do it with in minutes of paying for the order. I don't get that.

[LegoMan1212]

1 hour ago, donbee said:

I received an order for a quarter once. What's the point of spending $3 (after shipping) for 1 piece?
Then I realized that I was screwed too.
Paying ~5% on $3, not $0.25, plus the $0.35 per transaction fee.
I sometimes wonder if people place those small orders on purpose to teach us a lesson.

I charge $3 shipping on orders less than 8 oz to at least cover the paypal fee.  In the end though it really is just a wash if not a loss overall with all other costs (packaging), not including time itself.  But whatever, I'm happy because I get to give a piece to someone who wants it for a reasonable price and I enjoy the small satisfaction that they came to my store and not someone else.  Smiles all around and I don't mind trying to generate a customer base from it too.  I've had plenty of return customers which is so awesome to see!     

[newbie77]

3 hours ago, donbee said:

I received an order for a quarter once. What's the point of spending $3 (after shipping) for 1 piece?
Then I realized that I was screwed too.
Paying ~5% on $3, not $0.25, plus the $0.35 per transaction fee.
I sometimes wonder if people place those small orders on purpose to teach us a lesson.

i think i posted once .. my absolute lowest is : 0.014 cent single part order.

and absolute killer is/has been : 648 parts : 492 lots : $27,48 order.

i don't have lot limit so of course it was placed to teach me a lesson and i still haven't learned from it

[tractorboy]

I'm probably one of those nightmare buyers, a lot of my orders will be high lot count/low part count but they're rarely less than €50 or so. I'm like one of those annoying kids in a newsagent buying sweets... 'can I have one of those, and one of those, and two of those, and erm... one of those' etc. I make an entry in my watch list for every set I'm completing, there's over 50 entries/sets in it right now, most just needing a handful of parts.

I always check the completed order box though and leave good feedback. i couldn't keep track otherwise.

 

Edited September 20, 2017 by tractorboy

[Fenix_2k1]

2 hours ago, tractorboy said:

I'm probably one of those nightmare buyers, a lot of my orders will be high lot count/low part count but they're rarely less than €50 or so. I'm like one of those annoying kids in a newsagent buying sweets... 'can I have one of those, and one of those, and two of those, and erm... one of those' etc. I make an entry in my watch list for every set I'm completing, there's over 50 entries/sets in it right now, most just needing a handful of parts.

I always check the completed order box though and leave good feedback. i couldn't keep track otherwise.

 

I'm probably in a similar position and the fact you can't filter out minimum average lot value when searching really irritates me. However one seller I recently bought from had a fair offer which was if you didn't meet the minimum lot average you could accept paying the minimum cost per lot for your order which in some cases to save on postage I'd be more than happy to do. Much better than "yes I have all the parts you want but you can't have them".  

[LegoMan1212]

8 hours ago, newbie77 said:

i think i posted once .. my absolute lowest is : 0.014 cent single part order.

and absolute killer is/has been : 648 parts : 492 lots : $27,48 order.

i don't have lot limit so of course it was placed to teach me a lesson and i still haven't learned from it

Didn't know you could put lot limits on, but I'd rather not restrict.  Largest order I've had was nearly 4,000 pieces with about 500 lots.  Probably took me about 3-5 hours to pull it taking breaks here and there but I had it ready within 1 day and out the door the next after payment came in.  It was exhausting but incredibly awesome at the same time.

[LegoMan1212]

3 hours ago, tractorboy said:

I'm probably one of those nightmare buyers, a lot of my orders will be high lot count/low part count but they're rarely less than €50 or so. I'm like one of those annoying kids in a newsagent buying sweets... 'can I have one of those, and one of those, and two of those, and erm... one of those' etc. I make an entry in my watch list for every set I'm completing, there's over 50 entries/sets in it right now, most just needing a handful of parts.

I always check the completed order box though and leave good feedback. i couldn't keep track otherwise.

 

Maybe I'll open my store to Ireland.  You can come by anytime   

[ichiroll]

Sorry, Brickstock noob here and I have a few questions:

1.  When loading a set and pulling average prices into each part, why is it that certain parts have no price with a red rectangle around it?

2.  What does the green checkmark and the blue plus sign mean under status?

3.  How come there are occasionally part numbers that are identical like 3974 and 3974a.  i.e. a set has 12x of 3974 and 12X of 3974a according to Brickstock.

Thanks for the help.

[Phil B]

Sorry, Brickstock noob here and I have a few questions:
1.  When loading a set and pulling average prices into each part, why is it that certain parts have no price with a red rectangle around it?
2.  What does the green checkmark and the blue plus sign mean under status?
3.  How come there are occasionally part numbers that are identical like 3974 and 3974a.  i.e. a set has 12x of 3974 and 12X of 3974a according to Brickstock.
Thanks for the help.

1. This happens when there have been no sales for that particular part and hence the priceguide has no data. Typically happens for new(er) parts with stickers applied to them.
2. Green checkmark means official part of the set. Blue plus means extra piece - the pieces LEGO supplies as extras in every set.
3. Typically those identical pieces will be marked with a number in the checkmark box. This indicates that some sets come with one variety of the identical part, others with the other. Key example is the 1x2 jumper tile, it has a version with a round dot on the bottom, and one with a stud holder on the bottom (4 little ridges on the inside rim). Newer sets always have the latter, older sets always have the older, but sets from 2015-2016 will often have different versions depending on production date or factory supply at the time.

[ichiroll]

Thanks for your response.  Very helpful.

12 minutes ago, Phil B said:

1. This happens when there have been no sales for that particular part and hence the priceguide has no data. Typically happens for new(er) parts with stickers applied to them.

I'm looking up the Tower Bridge 10214.   85 items have no pricing...

It's weird because when I follow the links to the Bricklink page if each part, it does show 6 month sales data.

Quote

2. Green checkmark means official part of the set. Blue plus means extra piece - the pieces LEGO supplies as extras in every set.

Understood, kind of what I figured.

Quote

3. Typically those identical pieces will be marked with a number in the checkmark box. This indicates that some sets come with one variety of the identical part, others with the other. Key example is the 1x2 jumper tile, it has a version with a round dot on the bottom, and one with a stud holder on the bottom (4 little ridges on the inside rim). Newer sets always have the latter, older sets always have the older, but sets from 2015-2016 will often have different versions depending on production date or factory supply at the time.

OK, I increased the width of the Status column and am seeing it now.  Looks like One of the numbers is Bold, and the other number is plain text.  I guess there is no significance to the actual number, looks like it's just counting the number of occurrences of these "alternate" parts.

[gregpj]

On 9/19/2017 at 4:34 PM, Huskers1236 said:

I entered all of mine manually.  I'm sure there is an easier way and it took me forever.  

So I managed to alter my excel sheet enough to bulk upload all my sets... I updated my splash/terms/shipping pages and opened the doors early this morning.

Got my first sale this afternoon, invoiced it right away and buyer paid right away. Kinda neat!

And if anyone is curious .. a Santa's Workshop for $1 less than the next cheapest set on Bricklink from Canadian Sellers. Need to get some sales experience.  Some sets I wanted to "sell" I opted to undercut by a dollar or two, others I went a few bucks more. And some I don't want to part with I priced around where I'd like to be when they do sell.

 

[4cs]

For those using both BrickLink and BrickOwl, what are you using to sync inventories? I've previously tried BrickSync, but ran into several problems (I think it was a non-static IP causing the issues). I've heard of Brick Packer, your thoughts?

[brickswomortar]

On 9/19/2017 at 9:09 PM, donbee said:

I received an order for a quarter once. What's the point of spending $3 (after shipping) for 1 piece?
Then I realized that I was screwed too.
Paying ~5% on $3, not $0.25, plus the $0.35 per transaction fee.
I sometimes wonder if people place those small orders on purpose to teach us a lesson.

Consider setting up a second paypal account that accepts micropayments.  A micropayment paypal account has a fee structure of 5% and .05 per transaction.  

RJ

Bricks w/o Mortar

[donbee]

Consider setting up a second paypal account that accepts micropayments.  A micropayment paypal account has a fee structure of 5% and .05 per transaction.  
RJ
Bricks w/o Mortar

I ended up just raising my minimum purchase. First $5, $10 and now $15.
I sell sets now more than loose pieces. But I'll still get a larger order about once a month for $20 worth of loose brick and minifigs.
Now, I kind of use minimum purchase as a way to control how busy I want to be. Or rather how busy my real job is, and how little time I have to dedicate to my store.

[gregpj]

I've been open for 4 days, 2 sales, 2 requests for shipping quotes to Australia (of all places?) and 1 message from a 0 feedback user "that it is frustrating to not know what the shipping costs are before purchasing." I guess people really don't read about asking for shipping quotes.

Any sellers in Canada with tips on using the Shipping Suggestion option? Is it accurate at all? Looked at a few stores I frequent but so far none seem to be using it.

 

 

[Huskers1236]

So I was asked to quote shipping a package.  I figured out how to do it, but not really seeing a place to submit so they see it.  I submitted my changes, is the potential buyer automatically able to see my changes?

[gregpj]

30 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

So I was asked to quote shipping a package.  I figured out how to do it, but not really seeing a place to submit so they see it.  I submitted my changes, is the potential buyer automatically able to see my changes?

Wow, someone used the quote feature? I just get messages asking for quotes... and then messages asking for tracking numbers because people let the BrickLink emails go to their junk.

[Huskers1236]

2 minutes ago, gregpj said:

Wow, someone used the quote feature? I just get messages asking for quotes... and then messages asking for tracking numbers because people let the BrickLink emails go to their junk.

Yep, first I have seen it.  I got a message about a quote to Brazil that I promptly deleted.  Have gotten people asking for tracking when I had already put it in their order page for convenience.  Fruitcakes everywhere! 

My 1 month anniversary is coming up tomorrow I think, I have been real happy with gross sales($1500) and the volume of orders(44) over that month.  Have purchased a few figure/accessory lots on ebay to supplement my store and has gone really well.  

[gregpj]

Just now, Huskers1236 said:

Yep, first I have seen it.  I got a message about a quote to Brazil that I promptly deleted.  Have gotten people asking for tracking when I had already put it in their order page for convenience.  Fruitcakes everywhere! 

My 1 month anniversary is coming up tomorrow I think, I have been real happy with gross sales($1500) and the volume of orders(44) over that month.  Have purchased a few figure/accessory lots on ebay to supplement my store and has gone really well.  

Where are you putting it on the order page? I've been using the drive-thru email and it doesn't seem to save that... I've been putting the tracking into PayPal as well so I can track stuff if needed, but it would be nice if it was in BrickLink too.

I'm up to 14 paid & shipped orders .. one day away from a zero feedback NPB. Annoying how many people don't respond.