Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Thumper]

3 hours ago, Pebble&Park said:

Anyone adept at editing brickstock files and willing to help me out? I spent quite some time creating a large upload of used parts but now I'm getting a parse error when I try to open it.

I've had that a couple times, generally what I do is:

- save the file of course, close Brickstock, logout of Bricklink, close you browsers

- delete the Brickstock cache (by default in "C:\Users\username\brickstock-cache", but you can find this under the Extras\Configure\Cache tab) 

- run Ccleaner (from piriform) to clean out the caches & junk files

- startup Brickstock & update the Brickstock database, under the Extras tab

- retry the upload

it may also help in the case of a large file to wait until a lower usage time when Bricklink isn't too busy

good luck

[Alpinemaps]

Ketchikan?

I had an order from there last week. Like the other 235 negatives, I didn’t get paid either. I’ve been too lazy to check.

[TANV]

18 hours ago, damnsanders said:

Ketchikan?

Yes!

[ichiroll]

I recently received an order where instead of a first and last name, the customer gives me a bunch of gibberish.

I cancel the order and I get a message that says that he is in China, and his name was provided by the "Transport Company" and that he can't change it...

I canceled the order...

 

[minicoopers11]

45 minutes ago, ichiroll said:

I recently received an order where instead of a first and last name, the customer gives me a bunch of gibberish.

I cancel the order and I get a message that says that he is in China, and his name was provided by the "Transport Company" and that he can't change it...

I canceled the order...

 

Probably his unique ID from the freight forwarder, I would guess. Still need a name, though.

[ichiroll]

Probably his unique ID from the freight forwarder, I would guess. Still need a name, though.

How does PayPal protection work in this type of situation? Fine to ship as long as the freight forwarders address is the buyers confirmed PayPal address?

[LegoMan1212]

If someone wouldn't mind, can you go into my BL store and check the terms vs what is happening at checkout and make sure the terms make coherent sense?  

The Instant Check-out is great for some reasons but not that great for others.  For 1, you don't get the option to "Not Instant-checkout" if you would rather get invoiced first.  I also worry about it letting something slip through that needs a Box over a bubble mailer.  

I've also added a .49 handling fee for orders 2.99 and less.  I've had my fun with 20 cent and 10 cent orders and am kind of tired of pulling those as the bubble mailer costs more than the money being brought in after all fees and shipping.

Overall, if someone just wouldn't mind reading the terms/shipping terms to make sure it makes sense, it would be appreciated. I've looked at it so much in the last 2 days that I don't know if I could see a blatant error or not anymore.  I've jumped around to other stores and their Instant Checkout has to be broken because it doesn't make sense but their terms are not that greatly written to being with so it's tough to really know what is going on.

Thanks in advance!  Store link is in signature.

[LegoMan1212]

Cancel the above. I simply created a dummy account to check things out.  Take care everyone

[Muffin Cup]

On 10/26/2017 at 11:25 PM, ichiroll said:

I recently received an order where instead of a first and last name, the customer gives me a bunch of gibberish.

I cancel the order and I get a message that says that he is in China, and his name was provided by the "Transport Company" and that he can't change it...

I canceled the order...

 

For future reference this is fairly common - as someone else noted, international buyers use services that mail bulk orders to them - great way to cut down international shipping costs and buy from stores that don't ship internationally. Some companies use names instead which I prefer, and sometimes you won't even know one is being used (BL account may switch to USA location temporarily, then once orders are forwarded, change back to home address). When I look back through my orders received, I see around 4-5 non-USA countries  (before I started international shipping) 

 

[Huskers1236]

When you get a message through the Bricklink system for shipping costs, etc., do you reply directly to that email?  I have been doing so and have noticed not a single one of those requests has ever actually bought from me and I'm quoting exact prices from USPS.  I am wondering if those emails are actually getting back to the prospective buyer.  Is there a better way or is this the correct mode of communication on these questions?  Thanks.

[ichiroll]

18 hours ago, Muffin Cup said:

For future reference this is fairly common - as someone else noted, international buyers use services that mail bulk orders to them - great way to cut down international shipping costs and buy from stores that don't ship internationally. Some companies use names instead which I prefer, and sometimes you won't even know one is being used (BL account may switch to USA location temporarily, then once orders are forwarded, change back to home address). When I look back through my orders received, I see around 4-5 non-USA countries  (before I started international shipping) 

 

Thanks for the information.  How would that work in the case of a PayPal claim though.

OK to ship as long the buyer sets up the forwarder as a "confirmed" address?

[LegoMan1212]

35 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

When you get a message through the Bricklink system for shipping costs, etc., do you reply directly to that email?  I have been doing so and have noticed not a single one of those requests has ever actually bought from me and I'm quoting exact prices from USPS.  I am wondering if those emails are actually getting back to the prospective buyer.  Is there a better way or is this the correct mode of communication on these questions?  Thanks.

It's a crapshoot.  Same happens here too but most of them are from overseas where I don't ship.  More than likely they are sending messages to a few at a time looking for cheapest route, or have a quick thought about something, send email, then dawns on them they don't want the item in the end anyway.  The only advice I can offer is to reply directly via the BL system and not through your emails so that there is record of any communication in the BL system.  I never use my actual email address to reply through.

[Huskers1236]

Just now, LegoMan1212 said:

It's a crapshoot.  Same happens here too but most of them are from overseas where I don't ship.  More than likely they are sending messages to a few at a time looking for cheapest route, or have a quick thought about something, send email, then dawns on them they don't want the item in the end anyway.  The only advice I can offer is to reply directly via the BL system and not through your emails so that there is record of any communication in the BL system.  I never use my actual email address to reply through.

Sounds good.  I just wanted to make sure that replying directly to the email that was sent to me through Bricklink was actually making to the buyer as they don't show up as a receiver unless it's some sort of blind carbon copy.  I don't even reply to those overseas that are looking to buy when it's pretty clear I don't ship there.  

[paulvdb]

I just looked at a message I received and replying to it would send the message to Bricklink and not the buyer. I think that used to be different. Or maybe it depends from which Bricklink page the message was sent. You can read the message on your Bricklink messages page and reply from there. Or you can reply to the email but replace Bricklink's email address with the email address of the person who contacted you. In the message that I checked the sender's email address was mentioned in the message so you can use that to contact them.

[donbee]

Sounds good.  I just wanted to make sure that replying directly to the email that was sent to me through Bricklink was actually making to the buyer as they don't show up as a receiver unless it's some sort of blind carbon copy.  I don't even reply to those overseas that are looking to buy when it's pretty clear I don't ship there.  

I reply directly through BrickLink’s messenger.

If you reply through email, i believe it goes straight to their email (email to email) and is not relayed through BrickLink. So there is a good possibility that it ends up in a junk folder categorized as spam. If your email is different from your store name, they may have no idea who you are. Also, their BrickLink email address may not be an address they use on a regular basis, thus they may not be expecting you to reply there and miss it.

[Huskers1236]

9 hours ago, donbee said:

I reply directly through BrickLink’s messenger.

If you reply through email, i believe it goes straight to their email (email to email) and is not relayed through BrickLink. So there is a good possibility that it ends up in a junk folder categorized as spam. If your email is different from your store name, they may have no idea who you are. Also, their BrickLink email address may not be an address they use on a regular basis, thus they may not be expecting you to reply there and miss it.

That's the thing, this is showing up in my email from Bricklink, not in my messages on Bricklink.  I'm not sure why when somebody contacts me for a quote or something that it's not showing up in the messages section of Bricklink vs. coming to my email.  

[donbee]

That's the thing, this is showing up in my email from Bricklink, not in my messages on Bricklink.  I'm not sure why when somebody contacts me for a quote or something that it's not showing up in the messages section of Bricklink vs. coming to my email.  

I see. That is odd. Maybe they got your email from the site and hope to circumvent the site to get a discount. I don’t recall an option to have quotes or anything sent to email only. Usually it’s the opposite, messenger only without tag along email.

[Huskers1236]

7 minutes ago, donbee said:

I see. That is odd. Maybe they got your email from the site and hope to circumvent the site to get a discount. I don’t recall an option to have quotes or anything sent to email only. Usually it’s the opposite, messenger only without tag along email.

The email is definitely going through Bricklink, it just doesn't show up through the messages portion of the site and the reply appears to go back to BL as they are the sender but does show the senders' email like you said.  I'm not going to worry too much about it but thought it was weird that it doesn't show up in my "quotes" section of the messages or any other section for that matter.  The only messages that show up for me there are the "regarding BL order XXXXX"

[LegoMan1212]

First odd-ball address attached to a BL sale.  It is the following:

DE 19706 New York NY DE 19706

 

Clearly this isn't a valid address and I've asked the buyer to update this before I even send invoice as even though I can probably assume 19706 is the Zip, how can I really trust any information within this?  New Buyer, Rating of (0) and account was created yesterday.  So I think i have to give benefit of the doubt that it could be real, but I'm assuming no one else would actually invoice until this is taken care of considering it has to be sent Priority Mail and it isn't 1st class.  The item is a $30 set so not shooting for the moon by any means there either.

Just looking for thoughts and actions I should be taking other than requesting the address be updated to something that works on the internet.  I've already stated that I will only ship to paypal address but it helps if they are either the exact same or very very close (home address vs PO box in the same city) Thanks

[Guest betsy805]

2 minutes ago, LegoMan1212 said:

First odd-ball address attached to a BL sale.  It is the following:

DE 19706 New York NY DE 19706

 

Clearly this isn't a valid address and I've asked the buyer to update this before I even send invoice as even though I can probably assume 19706 is the Zip, how can I really trust any information within this?  New Buyer, Rating of (0) and account was created yesterday.  So I think i have to give benefit of the doubt that it could be real, but I'm assuming no one else would actually invoice until this is taken care of considering it has to be sent Priority Mail and it isn't 1st class.  The item is a $30 set so not shooting for the moon by any means there either.

Just looking for thoughts and actions I should be taking other than requesting the address be updated to something that works on the internet.  I've already stated that I will only ship to paypal address but it helps if they are either the exact same or very very close (home address vs PO box in the same city) Thanks

Funny you should mention that as I just got a $400 order from him last night.  I too messaged that I will only ship to paypal confirmed addresses.  I fully intend on canceling the order later as I am assuming there is no confirmed address.

[LegoMan1212]

1 minute ago, betsy805 said:

Funny you should mention that as I just got a $400 order from him last night.  I too messaged that I will only ship to paypal confirmed addresses.  I fully intend on canceling the order later as I am assuming there is no confirmed address.

Glad this site exists for this sole reason. I appreciate you reading this topic!  How soon do you usually cancel?

[Phil B]

If you go one page back you see a few posts about this. Expect an account cancellation mail from BL shortly

[Guest betsy805]

2 minutes ago, LegoMan1212 said:

Glad this site exists for this sole reason. I appreciate you reading this topic!  How soon do you usually cancel?

I'll give him today to get back to me with a registered paypal address and then cancel in the morning if I don't have that.  It's no biggie as it's not the only copy of the set he's ordering so I am not in a rush to get the item back in my inventory.

[LegoMan1212]

8 minutes ago, Phil B said:

If you go one page back you see a few posts about this. Expect an account cancellation mail from BL shortly

At least that person did a better job of "creating" an address.  For a second I had to think if Delaware and New York actually shared a border.  My brain was going crazy trying to think of how and where they would touch!

Also, I didn't want to do it, but I've just activated the New Buyers must use Instant Checkout (until they have a rating of 5).  I only have this for smaller 1st class items but maybe that would deter some from possibly wasting my time.

Edited November 10, 2017 by LegoMan1212

[jkris53406]

2 hours ago, LegoMan1212 said:

First odd-ball address attached to a BL sale.  It is the following:

DE 19706 New York NY DE 19706

 

Clearly this isn't a valid address and I've asked the buyer to update this before I even send invoice as even though I can probably assume 19706 is the Zip, how can I really trust any information within this?  New Buyer, Rating of (0) and account was created yesterday.  So I think i have to give benefit of the doubt that it could be real, but I'm assuming no one else would actually invoice until this is taken care of considering it has to be sent Priority Mail and it isn't 1st class.  The item is a $30 set so not shooting for the moon by any means there either.

Just looking for thoughts and actions I should be taking other than requesting the address be updated to something that works on the internet.  I've already stated that I will only ship to paypal address but it helps if they are either the exact same or very very close (home address vs PO box in the same city) Thanks

I just got a $6 order from the same guy. Interesting to see how this all turns out.