Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Huskers1236]

1 hour ago, legorunner said:

Hi, I've had 3 buyers in the past 3 weeks contact me to say that after placing an order they can not find any link to payment. The first person was new to BL so I wrote it off as a non issue, but this weekend I had 2 more users contact me who have been on BL for awhile. The other 15+ orders or so that have come in recently have not had a similar issue, and I have not touched my Invoice settings in I don't know how long. Onsite payment is turned on, I checked that. Anyone have any idea what the issue is? 

Do you have offsite payment as an option?  Maybe they selected that on accident and didn't know how to pay that way.  I've had this issue, but mainly with newbies and I had to guide them through the process of an offsite payment.  I should disable it as hardly anybody pays that way. 

[t_mafia]

I've noticed an anomaly with set 60052 Cargo Train. It appears there are 2 box variations, one of 58x48x9cm, and one 58x38x9cm. It looks like Europe got the 48 height while US is 38. Does anybody know if this happens often, US/Euro boxes are different?

Also, if anybody happens to have the 58x48x9 (larger) box, I'm looking to buy one. It's only 10 cm but it looks a lot better to me

[SageFly]

I don't think I've listed my store in here before: https://store.bricklink.com/NewTown_Bricks&utm_content=globalnav#/shop

I deal in parts and minifigures through BL and BO with an occasional set sprinkled in. I list my sets fairly strategically after they appreciate to a price that I want. Usually that's on eBay only rather than BL or BO. I'm also trying to hold back enough sets to stock a retail store later this year. 

Up until Wednesday last week, my sales were crazy. I could barely keep up with order packing in my free time getting $200-$300 worth of parts orders per day. Not sure if the new XP site killed it, but my orders have dropped off quickly and it's back to a manageable level again.

[TomOOO]

1 minute ago, SageFly said:

I don't think I've listed my store in here before: https://store.bricklink.com/NewTown_Bricks&utm_content=globalnav#/shop

I deal in parts and minifigures through BL and BO with an occasional set sprinkled in. I list my sets fairly strategically after they appreciate to a price that I want. Usually that's on eBay only rather than BL or BO. I'm also trying to hold back enough sets to stock a retail store later this year. 

Up until Wednesday last week, my sales were crazy. I could barely keep up with order packing in my free time getting $200-$300 worth of parts orders per day. Not sure if the new XP site killed it, but my orders have dropped off quickly and it's back to a manageable level again.

I only have a small store in the UK and deal only in sets, maybe selling a few a year.  Since January this year I have sold everything, the store was emptied.  I guess lock down has given people time want more lego.

[jaisonline]

just curious for those still selling sets on bricklink.

has traffic improved since the last major redesign and the acquisition by Lego?   the seller fees still a bargain compared to ebay and amazon. 

My last recent sale on there for a $210 used set plus postage was only $6.30 excluding paypal.   

[4cs]

I noticed a lot of discussion on the BL forums about the Beta for BrickLink XP. Is this something we need to sign up for as a seller? Spot checking a few of the searches in Beta, and none of my inventory is showing up there.

[DadsAFOL]

I noticed a lot of discussion on the BL forums about the Beta for BrickLink XP. Is this something we need to sign up for as a seller? Spot checking a few of the searches in Beta, and none of my inventory is showing up there.

No it’s a beta for buyers only at the moment. Your store must have onsite payment methods to appear to a buyer in XP.

[minicoopers11]

50 minutes ago, jaisonline said:

just curious for those still selling sets on bricklink.

has traffic improved since the last major redesign and the acquisition by Lego?   the seller fees still a bargain compared to ebay and amazon. 

My last recent sale on there for a $210 used set plus postage was only $6.30 excluding paypal.   

I haven't evaluated traffic, but I have noticed a large uptick in zero feedback buyers in the past couple months (normal for me during holidays, not now). Perhaps LEGO linking to Bricklink is driving those sales.

[jaisonline]

Just now, minicoopers11 said:

I haven't evaluated traffic, but I have noticed a large uptick in zero feedback buyers in the past couple months (normal for me during holidays, not now). Perhaps LEGO linking to Bricklink is driving those sales.

same  here

[Phil B]

I remain of the opinion that LEGO is going to make BrickLink the merged platform of B&P, PaB and the old Bricklink, and will become a seller on BL very soon.

After seeing XP, I think they are trying to mimic Amazon's interface, and the fact that we don't see the lowest price listed (and only one "preferred" seller) suggests to me that they will also make themselves the preferred seller for items they sell, and then leave it up to the marketplace to fulfill the other items. 

[Victorymike18]

Are any BL sellers encountering an issue with limited options under "Order Status" drop-down?

I have a couple of orders in various stages, and am missing options that used to be available.

[kaczy]

33 minutes ago, Victorymike18 said:

Are any BL sellers encountering an issue with limited options under "Order Status" drop-down?

I have a couple of orders in various stages, and am missing options that used to be available.

Yes, their new update messed up statuses. If you want to change status from 'Packed' to 'Shipped' you have to first change back to 'Ready' and then to 'Shipped'

Edited May 6, 2020 by kaczy

[$20 on joe vs dan]

Given shipping costs, is there a way to sort BL stores close to my region?

[Shortbus311]

I remain of the opinion that LEGO is going to make BrickLink the merged platform of B&P, PaB and the old Bricklink, and will become a seller on BL very soon.
After seeing XP, I think they are trying to mimic Amazon's interface, and the fact that we don't see the lowest price listed (and only one "preferred" seller) suggests to me that they will also make themselves the preferred seller for items they sell, and then leave it up to the marketplace to fulfill the other items. 

This makes sense to me. Unfortunately, I buy from bricklink instead of B&P because I don't normally want to wait a month for Lego to get around to sending out my pieces.

[Huskers1236]

2 hours ago, kaczy said:

Yes, their new update messed up statuses. If you want to change status from 'Packed' to 'Shipped' you have to first change back to 'Ready' and then to 'Shipped'

I have yet to see any of the issues that other sellers are experiencing.  The only change I have noticed is that you must be in the "pending" or "processing" status to send an invoice.  Orders have remained steady throughout the transition for me.  

[LegoMan1212]

14 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

I have yet to see any of the issues that other sellers are experiencing.  The only change I have noticed is that you must be in the "pending" or "processing" status to send an invoice.  Orders have remained steady throughout the transition for me.  

I agree, the changes were minimal and the fact that stores can't "adapt" says more about the person than it does the functionality.  It made sense before the change and makes sense afterwards.  

I mean, oh my gosh if we have to change the status from Ready to Processing to send the invoice again.  The horror!!!

Also, if anyone wants their buyer to know the current status, just send them an email.  They more than likely receive a notification on their phone of an email which is actually better than changing a "status" in the BL system.

[mrsl8r]

I don't think the status thing was that big of a deal.  It would have been nice if they shot out an email explaining that change before it randomly went into effect in the middle of packing orders though.

There are some issues with how invoices impact the NPB process now (if you send a second invoice as a reminder it resets the 7 day period), which I hear is going to get sorted out if it hasn't already. 

I think the biggest disappointment is how the search system has changed.  Before XP,  in V2, I could type "Minnie" and 41625 would show as a suggestion in the drop down.  It was rare that the set I was looking for didn't show in the drop down of the search, without actually needing to search and sift through the results, now that's gone.   Sometimes I would use that to help find a part with an uncommon name if I knew a set it appeared in (usually parts from used lots).  It only works like that now if you enter the set number in the search bar.

Changes made for the XP beta are definitely impacting the version we're currently using as well, which is a little scary given how busy it's been lately.

[LegoMan1212]

1 hour ago, mrsl8r said:

 It would have been nice if they shot out an email explaining that change before it randomly went into effect in the middle of packing orders though.

Their communication is terrible.  If I can handle 5 emails a day from Target trying to get me to buy Non-Lego, I can handle 1 from BL about important updates and changes.

Anything they feel is good enough to make an "announcement" about, they should feel comfortable sending out an email to sellers or all users on the site too.

[Al Legorical]

17 hours ago, LegoMan1212 said:

I agree, the changes were minimal and the fact that stores can't "adapt" says more about the person than it does the functionality.  It made sense before the change and makes sense afterwards.  

I mean, oh my gosh if we have to change the status from Ready to Processing to send the invoice again.  The horror!!!

Also, if anyone wants their buyer to know the current status, just send them an email.  They more than likely receive a notification on their phone of an email which is actually better than changing a "status" in the BL system.

For me all of a sudden “processing” status vanished, I had no idea why until I asked in the forum, then learned of this illogical flow. It’s not about an extra step.

how can an order be “ready” before being processed? That makes no sense.

i probably won’t bother with status changes other than marking shipped from now on

[minicoopers11]

59 minutes ago, Al Legorical said:

For me all of a sudden “processing” status vanished, I had no idea why until I asked in the forum, then learned of this illogical flow. It’s not about an extra step.

how can an order be “ready” before being processed? That makes no sense.

i probably won’t bother with status changes other than marking shipped from now on

The problem I experienced is, you need specific statuses to set the next status, to manually send an invoice, to manually send the "drive thru" email, etc. You probably won't be able to just marked shipped.

And I still see "processing"...I'm guessing that is only left in for orders that require a manual invoice.

[Al Legorical]

8 minutes ago, minicoopers11 said:

The problem I experienced is, you need specific statuses to set the next status, to manually send an invoice, to manually send the "drive thru" email, etc. You probably won't be able to just marked shipped.

And I still see "processing"...I'm guessing that is only left in for orders that require a manual invoice.

I suspect that stores with vs stores without instant check out may see different options?

 99% of my orders are instant check out. I'll have to take note next order, however once a new order comes in as "paid" I think the only option I don't have shown and available is "processing"

Now in the old days before instant check out, I believe most members actually picked an order before sending an invoice, hence ready would have been before processing, processing meaning (I'm guessing) printing shipping label etc.

Now if only we could have BrickOwl functionality along with the BrickLink database and search functions...

[Al Legorical]

Now this is odd. After 90 days, orders that haven’t been marked as completed by customer, I close them out by marking completed and file them... except that now I can only do that IF customer has not marked “received”. 
seems while LEGO go about “changes” that appear mostly inconvenient, Lawrence is adding more functionality to BrickOwl...

[Al Legorical]

Ok so here it is, order is marked paid by the system,

the drop down box to change status has everything except “processing” INCLUDING “completed” 🤯

[Shortbus311]

Not sure if this belongs here, the complaint thread or the Lego buy-out thread... But I really hope Lego does away with allowing stores to have their individual terms and conditions and just sets one site wide set.

I ordered a $10 order from a store, but they forgot to include one of the pieces that I ordered. Instead of sending me the piece that they forgot, they want to refund me the $0.10 the piece costs... so now I have to pay the $0.10 for the piece and s&h charges and my original order now becomes a $14-$15 order. I am tempted to open a PayPal dispute and request a return and refund for the entire order.

[Al Legorical]

8 minutes ago, Shortbus311 said:

Not sure if this belongs here, the complaint thread or the Lego buy-out thread... But I really hope Lego does away with allowing stores to have their individual terms and conditions and just sets one site wide set.

I ordered a $10 order from a store, but they forgot to include one of the pieces that I ordered. Instead of sending me the piece that they forgot, they want to refund me the $0.10 the piece costs... so now I have to pay the $0.10 for the piece and s&h charges and my original order now becomes a $14-$15 order. I am tempted to open a PayPal dispute and request a return and refund for the entire order.

I will answer you as a seller. I would never do this. Ever! If I make a mistake I correct it. Even if it means loosing money on the original order.

if I am short when picking, and if I cannot get the part, then I will offer the option of refund on part or buyer may cancel order.

i cannot advise you what action(s) to take however I will say (in my opinion) the seller didn’t send what you ordered, is in the wrong and should at least feel obligated to fix it. And I will say if it were me I wouldn’t accept their “resolution”