Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[LegoMan1212]

Just now, jkris53406 said:

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

He's at -5 and plummeting.  

[Huskers1236]

Check his/her IP.  Guarantee it's from across the pond, India probably.  Cancel and move on.  

[jkris53406]

3 minutes ago, LegoMan1212 said:

He's at -5 and plummeting.  

When I got the order email he was only at 0 LOL! I'll just cancel the order.

[Muffin Cup]

I wouldn't ship to a freight forwarder address if the buyer had zero feedback

Internationally, I only ship to North America / European countries as well 

[Huskers1236]

Just now, Muffin Cup said:

I wouldn't ship to a freight forwarder address if the buyer had zero feedback

Internationally, I only ship to North America / European countries as well 

It's not even a freight forwarder, it's a spam account.  This is like the 3rd or 4th time that this has happened in the last few weeks.  

[Kevink24]

I just got an order from him too ...the account is now at "-6". I am just going to cancel and move on.

[Muffin Cup]

1 minute ago, Huskers1236 said:

It's not even a freight forwarder, it's a spam account.  This is like the 3rd or 4th time that this has happened in the last few weeks.  

Oh, hi Huskers! I bought some stuff from you recently. Good to see you here

I missed some of the previous context on fake accounts

I think the new instant checkout system would make a good defense against these accounts (in addition to rando non paying buyers). I have received zero sketchy phishing orders, just a few small cancellations from valid US addresses for non paying buyers, and that shouldn't happen anymore with instant checkout 

[Huskers1236]

Just now, Muffin Cup said:

Oh, hi Huskers! I bought some stuff from you recently. Good to see you here

I missed some of the previous context on fake accounts

I think the new instant checkout system would make a good defense against these accounts (in addition to rando non paying buyers). I have received zero sketchy phishing orders, just a few small cancellations from valid US addresses for non paying buyers, and that shouldn't happen anymore with instant checkout 

You would think that instant checkout would keep these types away from your particular store.  I didn't get hit this time around but did a few weeks ago.  Fortunately the process of cancelling and getting parts back in store is pretty easy.  I have held off from instant checkout until the bugs are cleared.  There has been a lot of complaining on the seller side in the forums about bug issues so I have stayed away.  

Thanks for the order, hope all went well.  I'm 2 months in and really like selling on BL so far.  I have sold on Ebay for about 15 years now, but this is new to me.  What I do like is that for the most part, you are dealing with informed buyers/sellers so it generally runs very smoothly.  

[LegoMan1212]

4 minutes ago, Muffin Cup said:

Oh, hi Huskers! I bought some stuff from you recently. Good to see you here

Was totally hoping that last part was going to be something like... "Where's my order? Two weeks not enough time, Huh Huh, I see you have internet access, where's my bricks B***"   

[Huskers1236]

3 minutes ago, LegoMan1212 said:

Was totally hoping that last part was going to be something like... "Where's my order? Two weeks not enough time, Huh Huh, I see you have internet access, where's my bricks B***"   

No hablo ingles

[paulvdb]

On 9-11-2017 at 2:31 PM, Huskers1236 said:

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.  

Did you correctly set up your contact settings to get messages sent to your Bricklink messages? Check https://www.bricklink.com/pref_contact.asp to see your contact settings and change them if necessary.

[Huskers1236]

45 minutes ago, paulvdb said:

Did you correctly set up your contact settings to get messages sent to your Bricklink messages? Check https://www.bricklink.com/pref_contact.asp to see your contact settings and change them if necessary.

Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!  Thanks.  

[Val-E]

Anyone else getting loads of quotation requests from UK addresses with 0 feedback recently?

[hockeyweasel]

I got a $7 order from the person when they were "only" at -15.  I see this morning that they are at -58.  Fun to watch.

What's their game in this, other than being annoying?

[LegoMan1212]

On 11/12/2017 at 10:27 AM, hockeyweasel said:

I got a $7 order from the person when they were "only" at -15.  I see this morning that they are at -58.  Fun to watch.

What's their game in this, other than being annoying?

Other than having some fun, the only other thing I can think of is to get your name and address.  

Other question though.  I've opened up my shop to Canada and plan on opening to other countries as well.  How do the following work?

I plan on only using 1st CLass USPS International SHipping ( up to 4 lbs tops)

1) How do you buy insurance, I can't find anything on this

2) Do you have to charge other taxes and fees, how do you find what this is per country.  

Anything else I should know about before doing this?  I've looked and have read quite a bit but can't find some answers that I thought should be fairly easy to figure out.  Thanks a ton!

[ichiroll]

Not sure where to post this but I have a TON of 4" x 8" bubble polymailers from Uline (S-8059).  I just bought a case (500 bags) of them which if it weren't enough already, I found another case of them lying around in my warehouse...  There is no way I will go through 1000 bags anytime soon, so I just wanted to see if anyone would be interested in them.

Willing to ship them to anybody that needs them for no charge for the bags, just pay shipping.  

If there is interest, I will see how many I can fit into a  poly bag without going over 1lb so shipping would be like $3 for USPS First Class Mail.

Details:

Outer dimensions 4"x8", inner dimensions 3-7/8 x 6-3/4".  Mainly been using them to ship mini figures and smaller lego pieces.  

[Majkl]

Question for BL sellers with instant checkout. Have you noticed a downfall of orders after setting up instant checkout? I was getting several orders per day and now almost nothing for week.

[Vinetu]

Question for BL sellers with instant checkout. Have you noticed a downfall of orders after setting up instant checkout? I was getting several orders per day and now almost nothing for week.

I noticed a general downturn on Bricklink compared to the same period last year. I have quite a large store and the effect is still noticeable. I still try to figure out the causes, no particular economic downturn, no major overhaul of the Bricklink system (when they had their major upgrade last year it was a disaster), november is not an expenses-heavy month for households, really unusual. Here’s hoping for a December uptick...

Has any other larger store in Europe also experienced this trend?

[SageFly]

My sales have dropped off as well. I was averaging 2-3 sales per day and now I'm averaging 2 sales a week. Hopefully it picks back up and it's just because there are black friday deals at retail stores.

[Huskers1236]

8 hours ago, ichiroll said:

Not sure where to post this but I have a TON of 4" x 8" bubble polymailers from Uline (S-8059).  I just bought a case (500 bags) of them which if it weren't enough already, I found another case of them lying around in my warehouse...  There is no way I will go through 1000 bags anytime soon, so I just wanted to see if anyone would be interested in them.

Willing to ship them to anybody that needs them for no charge for the bags, just pay shipping.  

If there is interest, I will see how many I can fit into a  poly bag without going over 1lb so shipping would be like $3 for USPS First Class Mail.

Details:

Outer dimensions 4"x8", inner dimensions 3-7/8 x 6-3/4".  Mainly been using them to ship mini figures and smaller lego pieces.  

Figures, just bought 100 from Amazon a few days ago.  Well, you can always build a fort out of them

[chinothegeeko]

Not sure where to post this but I have a TON of 4" x 8" bubble polymailers from Uline (S-8059).  I just bought a case (500 bags) of them which if it weren't enough already, I found another case of them lying around in my warehouse...  There is no way I will go through 1000 bags anytime soon, so I just wanted to see if anyone would be interested in them.
Willing to ship them to anybody that needs them for no charge for the bags, just pay shipping.  
If there is interest, I will see how many I can fit into a  poly bag without going over 1lb so shipping would be like $3 for USPS First Class Mail.
Details:
Outer dimensions 4"x8", inner dimensions 3-7/8 x 6-3/4".  Mainly been using them to ship mini figures and smaller lego pieces.  

PM sent

[Tpkuk]

17 minutes ago, SageFly said:

My sales have dropped off as well. I was averaging 2-3 sales per day and now I'm averaging 2 sales a week. Hopefully it picks back up and it's just because there are black friday deals at retail stores.

Since implementing IC at the end of October my sales have increased, with turnover during November already surpassing October.

Strangely my Brickowl sales have gone down during the same period.

[Pebble&Park]

I ran a sale recently so my data set is a little polluted but before the sale, my daily sales were about the same after IC as before (obviously with a small sample size of a couple of weeks). I have noticed a drop off in number of orders but dollar volume has been roughly the same, so I'm getting fewer, larger orders. I think that IC has possibly scared away some of those $1 orders because they see that $1 order turn into a $5 purchase after fees and shipping and have to immediately pay for it. Maybe people are saving up those orders into larger orders down the line?

[minicoopers11]

I haven't seen an increase in BL yet, but then I just got back from vacation and it could always be my popular stuff is already sold out.

 

Anyway, I placed a BL order last night for some parts and found I was discriminating against stores that don't have IC setup. Based on my anecdotal personal experience, definitely setup IC if you haven't already.

[minicoopers11]

3 hours ago, Majkl said:

Question for BL sellers with instant checkout. Have you noticed a downfall of orders after setting up instant checkout? I was getting several orders per day and now almost nothing for week.

Did you disable a "normal" invoice or "Request a Quote?" Not every item has volume and weight data and it isn't always accurate.