Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[Al Legorical]

8 hours ago, Phil B said:

Does anyone have any tips on where to go debug the following: BrickSync is reporting ~220 lots less than BrickLink shows under "My Inventory" when I do a verify or a deep sync. I'm curious as to what those 220 lots are, and how to get BrickSync to see all lots again.

I'm hoping there is a better solution to this than to go and inspect the source code - perhaps a log or a setting that will tell me why BrickSync is skipping some of my lots? 

And before anyone mentions it: yes, I have _another_ 110 items in 9 lots that are not mapped to BrickOwl, so my BO inventory is even smaller. I know why this is (these lots need to be added to the BO catalog) but I am looking for reasons why BS wouldn't see some of my BL lots, actually, quite a lot of them.

EDIT: Figured it out, I think! I have "retain in stockroom" turned on for (almost) all my lots. 219 lots in total are currently sold out but in "retain" status. Those are showing in the summary on BrickLink, but are invisible to BrickSync. Phew. Hopefully this is useful for someone else too, learned something new!

Just about to suggest that. I got in the habit of moving stock to store after each upload, then turning off blmaster. Also if you add inventory to BrickLink you’ll find the number of lots with zero qty accumulating on BrickOwl. And lots that get zeroed on BrickOwl “disappear” on BrickLink necessitating adding location in remarks each time.

[MotorCityMuscle]

not entirely sure where to ask this, but this seemed as the most appropriate spot. 

I purchased a sealed, Rebel Combat Frigate off of Bricklink several months ago right when Clone Wars was coming out and Ahsoka was starting to blow up. The set came from overseas and showed up just a few weeks ago. Not entirely sure what I plan to do with the set; keep it and build or sit on it and see what happens. But when the set showed up, it "looks" like the tape has moved in a few spots and some bubbling/white space under the tape. Leading me to believe it could have been opened (and perhaps Ahsoka removed) or could just simply be tape shifting from old age, storage and shipping. Looking at these pics, what do you all think? I had hoped to keep the set sealed in the chance that I do resell it, but my Spidey Sense is telling me to open it up and confirm the contents. Both as piece of mind and to not have issues if I do resell later and something does turn up missing.

Any thoughts? And when you all sell a set open box, what do you normally provide as a description? Especially if someone straight up asks why it was opened?

Appreciate any insight.

[brickvoyeur]

5 minutes ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

not entirely sure where to ask this, but this seemed as the most appropriate spot.

Any thoughts? And when you all sell a set open box, what do you normally provide as a description? Especially if someone straight up asks why it was opened?

Appreciate any insight.

 

Open it and verify. There are a lot fewer box lickers than it seems, and that box wouldn't be up to par for them anyways. If you're not selling it on Amazon, there isn't a huge price drop between NISB and NIOB. Just list it as "open box, sealed bags". Just take a picture of the bags as well.

I've had to open many boxes from Walmart when they've hit deep clearance prices. Never had anyone ask why it was open.

Edited July 22, 2020 by brickvoyeur

[nolan808]

23 minutes ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

not entirely sure where to ask this, but this seemed as the most appropriate spot. 

I purchased a sealed, Rebel Combat Frigate off of Bricklink several months ago right when Clone Wars was coming out and Ahsoka was starting to blow up. The set came from overseas and showed up just a few weeks ago. Not entirely sure what I plan to do with the set; keep it and build or sit on it and see what happens. But when the set showed up, it "looks" like the tape has moved in a few spots and some bubbling/white space under the tape. Leading me to believe it could have been opened (and perhaps Ahsoka removed) or could just simply be tape shifting from old age, storage and shipping. Looking at these pics, what do you all think? I had hoped to keep the set sealed in the chance that I do resell it, but my Spidey Sense is telling me to open it up and confirm the contents. Both as piece of mind and to not have issues if I do resell later and something does turn up missing.

Any thoughts? And when you all sell a set open box, what do you normally provide as a description? Especially if someone straight up asks why it was opened?

Appreciate any insight.

To be honest I personally don't think it's been opened. The seals would have surely cause more damage if removed which you would be able to see. Everytime I've peeled one of those it destroys the underside.

Edited July 22, 2020 by raulaco

[MotorCityMuscle]

30 minutes ago, raulaco said:

To be honest I personally don't think it's been opened. The seals would have surely cause more damage if removed which you would be able to see. Everytime I've peeled one of those it destroys the underside.

it's tough. it looks borderline to me as well. but i feel like i owe the seller a response. the seller claims that it wasn't opened by them, but that they did buy a large lot from another seller of the same set. 

right now i've checked off that i've received the set, but have not yet confirmed it's contents.

[t_mafia]

I have a BL buyer claiming that the set arrived damaged and has a duplicate bag 2 with no bag 3. Him or her has sent pictures of a damaged outer and inner box.

Buyer did not purchase shipping insurance (that is noted on my shipping page that it at their expense). It was packaged and sent in excellent condition with bubble wrap and paper filler.

Set was sealed so I had no way of knowing of a possible error (I don't understand how this could have happened anyway). What am I looking at here? A full refund and return? I don't really know how this could have happened.

[stackables]

30 minutes ago, t_mafia said:

I have a BL buyer claiming that the set arrived damaged and has a duplicate bag 2 with no bag 3. Him or her has sent pictures of a damaged outer and inner box.

Buyer did not purchase shipping insurance (that is noted on my shipping page that it at their expense). It was packaged and sent in excellent condition with bubble wrap and paper filler.

Set was sealed so I had no way of knowing of a possible error (I don't understand how this could have happened anyway). What am I looking at here? A full refund and return? I don't really know how this could have happened.

Did they send picture of the duplicate bag?

[t_mafia]

21 minutes ago, stackables said:

Did they send picture of the duplicate bag?

Yes they did. No idea how that happened. Set was sealed in the box, with bubble wrap around it and tight seals

[t_mafia]

Thanks for any help people may offer. I don't know how this is my fault, I feel like the damaged box is a UPS issue, and a sealed set cannot be guaranteed complete. But I know that this is part of being a seller. Would PayPal step in at the buyer's request, for buyer protection? What would happen if I just denied their return request?

The buyer is going to give a negative (my first ever) either way. The buyer only has 3 feedback, all from within a month

[Jackson]

Does UPS offer damage insurance?

[stackables]

52 minutes ago, t_mafia said:

Thanks for any help people may offer. I don't know how this is my fault, I feel like the damaged box is a UPS issue, and a sealed set cannot be guaranteed complete. But I know that this is part of being a seller. Would PayPal step in at the buyer's request, for buyer protection? What would happen if I just denied their return request?

The buyer is going to give a negative (my first ever) either way. The buyer only has 3 feedback, all from within a month

Is this a retired set?  Lego does make mistakes once and a while. If the set was expensive, you should have bought insurance to cover you butt.

[Randyipp]

16 minutes ago, stackables said:

Is this a retired set?  Lego does make mistakes once and a while. If the set was expensive, you should have bought insurance to cover you butt.

Yes, what set is this?

PayPal is going to side on the buyers side most likely, but not always.  Currently in a more than month long battle with Quickjack to get my money back.

[Al Legorical]

2 hours ago, t_mafia said:

I have a BL buyer claiming that the set arrived damaged and has a duplicate bag 2 with no bag 3. Him or her has sent pictures of a damaged outer and inner box.

Buyer did not purchase shipping insurance (that is noted on my shipping page that it at their expense). It was packaged and sent in excellent condition with bubble wrap and paper filler.

Set was sealed so I had no way of knowing of a possible error (I don't understand how this could have happened anyway). What am I looking at here? A full refund and return? I don't really know how this could have happened.

From experience 

not as described includes damage “not as described” and includes incorrect contents. They return goods to you PayPal will refund them. Regardless of BrickLink tos as far as PayPal is concerned the goods are the sellers responsibility to get the item(s) to the customer in good condition. The sellers only coverage is when the goods show as delivered to the address given to PayPal by the customer and the customer says “not received”. You can, and I do, state “uninsured packages are buyers risk” but legally that’s not correct. They can claim and will prevail.

Sucks but insure valuable goods, there is absolutely no way to challenge not as described claims for a sealed set. 

[benjamin4172]

I think the Set hasnt been opened. Those Tapes tend to move when the Set is constantliy moved (for longer or shorter periods of time-especially when its warm). If it would have been opened the seals would look different. Most of the times you would see little marks on the edges of the tape, or small fine cuts from a knife on the box or other marks. I would recommend you try to peel a seal of off a set and try to tape it on again.(With a Fan, your Fingers or a knife or something else ). And i bet you wouldnt tape it on any other spot than the one where it was.

 

And btw I dont know how insurance works in the US. But here it would only insure the value of your Set at the Moment you bought it, and no insurance would see any less worth to it because of a seal that moved a little. I guess you would need a special kind of insurance for Art or something...

[Mark Twain]

Thanks for any help people may offer. I don't know how this is my fault, I feel like the damaged box is a UPS issue, and a sealed set cannot be guaranteed complete. But I know that this is part of being a seller. Would PayPal step in at the buyer's request, for buyer protection? What would happen if I just denied their return request?
The buyer is going to give a negative (my first ever) either way. The buyer only has 3 feedback, all from within a month

The damaged box is just dumb if they are planning to build it. Reach out to the buyer kindly and offer them a partial refund and then reach out to Lego’s broken and missing pieces dept. and explain the issue about the duplicate bag. If they cannot help you, find out what pieces were in the bag and offer to find sellers and pay the cost for the missing parts.

[benjamin4172]

Btw I recommend to make high qualitiy Photos of High value Sets prior to shipping. I also had a buyer who claimed the Set was incomplete. But on the Pictures you could see that the Seals had a different stamp on it. After I confronted the Seller he didnt answer ever again. I dont know what those Photos are worth when it comes to Ebay or Paypal...but they seem to intimidate fraudsters

[t_mafia]

Thanks everyone. I have photos of the set before it was put in the box, but it would still be easy for the buyer to win that claim based on the damage. I'm going to approach the buyer with the replaced bag idea (doubt they'll go for it) but worth a shot. Probably just refund it and then sell it as open box after I track down bag 3. It's 75930 Indoraptor Rampage by the way

[Belac]

LEGO BrickLink, Inc.  is New name (soon) . New terms of service Aug 4. As well as new tax implementation and such. https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2501

[Al Legorical]

7 hours ago, Belac said:

LEGO BrickLink, Inc.  is New name (soon) . New terms of service Aug 4. As well as new tax implementation and such. https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2501

This is nuts. eBay is also a “facilitator” and far far larger. Are there really more than $100k in sales in every state? A good number of states are higher than that. Only one, Kansas, is all sales.

How in the world do I/we go about reporting in-state sales, to state dept of revenue? seems I will be paying tax twice 

[Phil B]

19 minutes ago, Al Legorical said:

This is nuts. eBay is also a “facilitator” and far far larger. Are there really more than $100k in sales in every state? A good number of states are higher than that. Only one, Kansas, is all sales.

How in the world do I/we go about reporting in-state sales, to state dept of revenue? seems I will be paying tax twice 

I read through it and see nothing that is "nuts". BL is going to do the same as EBay and Amazon already do - they are collecting sales tax and sending it to the local tax authorities. BL (and BO) were the only venues for which I had to manually report sales to my local tax agency, now I will still have to file but will show even less taxable sales (only BO) as Ebay, Amazon and BL are already paying these taxes for me. Less work is better.

[Al Legorical]

54 minutes ago, Phil B said:

I read through it and see nothing that is "nuts". BL is going to do the same as EBay and Amazon already do - they are collecting sales tax and sending it to the local tax authorities. BL (and BO) were the only venues for which I had to manually report sales to my local tax agency, now I will still have to file but will show even less taxable sales (only BO) as Ebay, Amazon and BL are already paying these taxes for me. Less work is better.

So how do you report instate sales, will it be all out of state as far as reporting?

i also realized why   BrickLink is now LEGO group and obviously LEGO sell way over all the states nexus basis.

[exracer327]

1 hour ago, Al Legorical said:

This is nuts. eBay is also a “facilitator” and far far larger. Are there really more than $100k in sales in every state? A good number of states are higher than that. Only one, Kansas, is all sales.

How in the world do I/we go about reporting in-state sales, to state dept of revenue? seems I will be paying tax twice 

@Phil Bis right, this is the exact same as ebay, including paying taxes on the shipping amount.  And the Paypal fee is calculated on the total, including taxes.

Payment is received through facilitator (ebay, bricklink, etc.) who calculates taxes to be received.  Total money transaction, including taxes, are accepted from the payer via Paypal.  Paypal then directs the taxes received to the facilitator while the balance including shipping is directed to the seller.  The facilitator pays a fee to calculate and receive the taxes so the buyer isn't having to calculate every buyer's tax burden.  

On a side note, when I was filling my taxes this year my tax guy asked if I had made any purchases online that did not take taxes out.  If I had, I needed to claim those purchases and the gov't would charge me a flat fee of around 2% as a sales tax.  Bricklink is currently one of those websites.

[Al Legorical]

1 hour ago, exracer327 said:

@Phil Bis right, this is the exact same as ebay, including paying taxes on the shipping amount.  And the Paypal fee is calculated on the total, including taxes.

Payment is received through facilitator (ebay, bricklink, etc.) who calculates taxes to be received.  Total money transaction, including taxes, are accepted from the payer via Paypal.  Paypal then directs the taxes received to the facilitator while the balance including shipping is directed to the seller.  The facilitator pays a fee to calculate and receive the taxes so the buyer isn't having to calculate every buyer's tax burden.  

On a side note, when I was filling my taxes this year my tax guy asked if I had made any purchases online that did not take taxes out.  If I had, I needed to claim those purchases and the gov't would charge me a flat fee of around 2% as a sales tax.  Bricklink is currently one of those websites.

Got it, but how do I report instate sales made on BrickLink? Are ALL transactions, including instate, treated as exempt?

[Phil B]

Got it, but how do I report instate sales made on BrickLink? Are ALL transactions, including instate, treated as exempt?

My state (OH) asks me for total sales during the period, exempt sales, taxable sales and amount of tax already paid. Total sales is all states, exempt is all states minus OH, tax already paid used to be everything via AMZ and EBay, and will include BL now as well, so that only BO (and CL and Mercado and Faceboom MarketPlace and other platforms I don't use) remains to be reported.

[Al Legorical]

29 minutes ago, Phil B said:

4 hours ago, Al Legorical said:

Got it, but how do I report instate sales made on BrickLink? Are ALL transactions, including instate, treated as exempt?

My state (OH) asks me for total sales during the period, exempt sales, taxable sales and amount of tax already paid. Total sales is all states, exempt is all states minus OH, tax already paid used to be everything via AMZ and EBay, and will include BL now as well, so that only BO (and CL and Mercado and Faceboom MarketPlace and other platforms I don't use) remains to be reported.

Thanks. I’ll have to go look. I don’t recall seeing a line for tax already paid. Up till now I’ve had very few instate sales as sales tax is high in Tennessee,