Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Phil B]

14 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 complained about this on here before. It's really a mixed bag. Some sellers will go the extra mile and send pieces (or find another seller and ship from there), but others just offer a refund. You're lucky if they have terms that even state that - most often it is just wait-and-see.

It's one of the downsides of dealing with BrickLink ... you can get all fussy about it, but in the end it is not going to make a difference. Best is to just keep that one piece on a Wanted List and there will be a next time you need to order something - just tack it on then.

It gets more frustrating when the piece you order is rare or has few sellers on BL, or even worse, when you are looking for a part variation and it turns out they have their item classified wrong. I was looking for a plate with handlebars on both sides (3839a), old version in black the other day and resorted to messaging all sellers that had them in stock in the USA before placing an order. Out of 6 sellers, 5 had theirs classified wrong

[Captain_chaos]

24 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.
 

A lot of sellers on Bricklink are surprisingly naive / unreasonable. Many will state that buyers must pay extra for insured shipping otherwise the seller won't be responsible if the order goes missing. Consumer law disagrees. If I sell something anywhere, I always accept that I'm taking the risk if I don't insure something (so I almost always do). 

[stackables]

1 hour 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.

Yep, hate this. Being forced to make another order is a killer.  If you request to return the order, you will probably he out shipping cost too.

[LegoMan1212]

7 hours ago, stackables said:

Yep, hate this. Being forced to make another order is a killer.  If you request to return the order, you will probably he out shipping cost too.

This is why in my shop I refund a minimum of $3 + the price of the piece so you can go to another store and not feel like you are getting gouged twice on shipping.

[Phil B]

PSA:

Recent Updates to Brick Owl

 

12th May - Brick Owl has changed it's IP address, if you use Brick Sync you may need to restart the application for it to continue working.

[Al Legorical]

2 hours ago, Phil B said:

PSA:

Recent Updates to Brick Owl

 

12th May - Brick Owl has changed it's IP address, if you use Brick Sync you may need to restart the application for it to continue working.

Wondered what happened! Did the usual “turn-it-off-and-turn-it-back-on-again”

[MotorCityMuscle]

Hi all, are there any resources pinning one selling platform vs. another? I haven't been active on eBay in quite sometime, but I thought to either go back there or give BrickLink a shot. I have just a few sealed sets, it wouldn't be anything crazy. Advantages/disadvantages to the different selling platforms? i'd prefer to keep my sales in the U.S. to start. If that makes any difference. 

[Al Legorical]

1 hour ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

Hi all, are there any resources pinning one selling platform vs. another? I haven't been active on eBay in quite sometime, but I thought to either go back there or give BrickLink a shot. I have just a few sealed sets, it wouldn't be anything crazy. Advantages/disadvantages to the different selling platforms? i'd prefer to keep my sales in the U.S. to start. If that makes any difference. 

eBay+PayPal  and Amazon fees are high +/-15% and 17%

bricklink and BrickOwl are 3% + PayPal 

sales prices are higher on eBay and Amazon 

amazon fix shipping fees, eBay you charge a set fee nationwide, not good if you ship one coast to the other.

brickowl and BrickLink allow for zonal shipping pricing.

sales probably quicker on eBay and Amazon as long as you price to sell

Great screen name! do I detect another mopar lover?

[MotorCityMuscle]

16 hours ago, Al Legorical said:

eBay+PayPal  and Amazon fees are high +/-15% and 17%

bricklink and BrickOwl are 3% + PayPal 

sales prices are higher on eBay and Amazon 

amazon fix shipping fees, eBay you charge a set fee nationwide, not good if you ship one coast to the other.

brickowl and BrickLink allow for zonal shipping pricing.

sales probably quicker on eBay and Amazon as long as you price to sell

Great screen name! do I detect another mopar lover?

thanks for this info! 

And yes, car lover in general, no affinity to Mopar or any one brand, per se. My entire family touches the automotive industry in some way. It's just in our DNA.

 

 

[4cs]

Is anyone seeing any issues with location changes (remarks) in BrickLink not holding? We've been doing a lot of location changes as inventory has gone up and down over the past few weeks and a large number of the changes are not sticking in BrickLink. In other words, we move a part to a new drawer, save the changes, and then when the part sells again the new location is gone, only showing the old location. This means we have to resort to pulling EVERY SINGLE DRAWER to find the part again.

This has happened multiple times over the past few weeks, but not to every location change.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[Randyipp]

49 minutes ago, 4cs said:

Is anyone seeing any issues with location changes (remarks) in BrickLink not holding? We've been doing a lot of location changes as inventory has gone up and down over the past few weeks and a large number of the changes are not sticking in BrickLink. In other words, we move a part to a new drawer, save the changes, and then when the part sells again the new location is gone, only showing the old location. This means we have to resort to pulling EVERY SINGLE DRAWER to find the part again.

This has happened multiple times over the past few weeks, but not to every location change.

Anyone have any thoughts?

You running bricksync?  If you forget to do a blmaster this will happen.

[4cs]

9 hours ago, Randyipp said:

You running bricksync?  If you forget to do a blmaster this will happen.

I am running bricksync, but I haven't missed a blmaster toggle in a long time. Strange...

 

[Randyipp]

Just now, 4cs said:

I am running bricksync, but I haven't missed a blmaster toggle in a long time. Strange...

 

Then you can go to your Brickowl store and check the history of the parts locations.  Should help you narrow down how/why this happened.

[4cs]

Just now, Randyipp said:

Then you can go to your Brickowl store and check the history of the parts locations.  Should help you narrow down how/why this happened.

Great idea, thanks!

[Mark Twain]

How long has pick a brick been part of SAH? Random question and not certain where to put it, but since LEGO acquired Bricklink I thought that they'd switch their pick a brick operation over there. I'm not used to getting free shipping and promos when I order elements!

 

[minicoopers11]

20 hours ago, Mark Twain said:

How long has pick a brick been part of SAH? Random question and not certain where to put it, but since LEGO acquired Bricklink I thought that they'd switch their pick a brick operation over there. I'm not used to getting free shipping and promos when I order elements!

 

I highly doubt they would SWITCH their PAB operation over to Bricklink. Maybe also operate it on Bricklink. I don't see the advantage in merely switching, personally.

[LegoMan1212]

Just an observation of the Bricklink forums... but I can't be the only one that thinks there are too many sellers that act like babies over there crying over every little thing or small expense they have to absorb.  You would think that margins are so tight that $5 is going to crash their year.

IDK, maybe it's me with the problem with seeing their problems and being like "huh, big whoop and get over it"  

[t_mafia]

39 minutes ago, LegoMan1212 said:

Just an observation of the Bricklink forums... but I can't be the only one that thinks there are too many sellers that act like babies over there crying over every little thing or small expense they have to absorb.  You would think that margins are so tight that $5 is going to crash their year.

IDK, maybe it's me with the problem with seeing their problems and being like "huh, big whoop and get over it"  

I once got a quote from a seller who had a “15% fee on all orders” so the initial price was low but then got kicked up like $20 on my $150 quote

[LegoMan1212]

1 hour ago, t_mafia said:

I once got a quote from a seller who had a “15% fee on all orders” so the initial price was low but then got kicked up like $20 on my $150 quote

There are a lot a amazing and great stores out there, but unfortunately there are plenty of duds as well.  The amount of Thumbs Down stores I have marked is too high.

[RightDwigt]

8 hours ago, LegoMan1212 said:

Just an observation of the Bricklink forums... but I can't be the only one that thinks there are too many sellers that act like babies over there crying over every little thing or small expense they have to absorb.  You would think that margins are so tight that $5 is going to crash their year.

IDK, maybe it's me with the problem with seeing their problems and being like "huh, big whoop and get over it"  

Right? Don't pin your operating costs on the buyer, at least not directly. Build it into the price, solved and you automatically look 86% less crummier than most sellers. I think it's mostly bricklink's fault for showing additional charge one and two right there.

I have nowhere near the volume of some other sellers but I'm able to securely and affordably package everything I sell just by saving boxes and packaging from my regular home deliveries. I can't remember the last time I actually paid for anything except shipping labels and cheap poly bags. Newspapers, bubbles, cut down or resizing boxes isn't that challenging.

[TomOOO]

I have put a link to the postage rates I use on my main page, and others, but maybe that is easier in the UK.  Often people mail me first for the price and I sort of hope they do.  As for packaging, I am a small seller to satisfy my hobby (so not many orders) and I have got plenty of old packaging material to keep me going for some time.  I have noticed that the new buyers recently that have found bricklink from lego are new to the postage as an additional cost.  Only one person queried it for an £300 item, and it sold 2 days later anyway.

[Shortbus311]

Anyone else having trouble viewing orders on Bricklink? I received a order and was trying to verify contents but my order page will not open.

[MotorCityMuscle]

tried to order some train components, from a shipper in the US and this is the message I get at checkout: The seller can't ship your order with any of the shipping methods available.

what the hell does that mean? there is no selection option even.

[Randyipp]

1 minute ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

tried to order some train components, from a shipper in the US and this is the message I get at checkout: The seller can't ship your order with any of the shipping methods available.

what the hell does that mean? there is no selection option even.

Something in your cart is interfering with their instant checkout shipping settings.  If you look in your cart something is usually missing weight or dimensions.  Easiest way to fix is to contact seller and let them know that there is an issue in your cart and you need a manual invoice option, or just link them here.  This happens occasionally when shipping rules are a bit too constrained and and an item doesn't have the proper dimensions/weight in the catalog.

[MotorCityMuscle]

1 minute ago, Randyipp said:

Something in your cart is interfering with their instant checkout shipping settings.  If you look in your cart something is usually missing weight or dimensions.  Easiest way to fix is to contact seller and let them know that there is an issue in your cart and you need a manual invoice option, or just link them here.  This happens occasionally when shipping rules are a bit too constrained and and an item doesn't have the proper dimensions/weight in the catalog.

i've tried twice to contact the seller. not sure why i'm not getting a response. but that's pretty much par for the course on Bricklink. it's a crapshoot to get a response.