Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[KvHulk]

You buy.

You pay.

I ship.

[V22driver]

The recent announcement about counterfeit minifigures was one of the most amateurish/reckless things I have ever seen from such a large, well established company.

We are told there are fakes "flooding the market" using real Lego parts however the email does not give any helpful information on how to ID a fake compared to a real piece or any actions or steps they are taking as a company to correct this problem.   The only way to ID  fake is by... the quantity being offered? Weak logicand brings up some other issues.

1.  Users selling "fakes" (if they exist) will simply lower their advertised quantities for sale

2.  Since I have been on Bricklink (5 years), primarily selling used minifigures, there have been sellers mainly located in Germany and some Asian countries, that have had enormous stock of figures and minifigure parts for sale in quantities that make it highly unlikely that they were from "parted out" sets.  In many cases the low sales numbers on the pieces or figures in question make it unlikely that these sellers printed their own pieces as it would be uneconomical and a bad business decision. So how did these sellers get their hands on such quantities?  The large quantity theory has a lot of holes in it since its been going on for a while and with obvious legitimate pieces.  

I also question the idea that people are printing their own fakes of such quality.  They would need a large number of mono colored pieces and an incredibly high quality printing device.  Keep in mind there are Asian knock off companies that have been trying to mimic Lego minifigures for years yet still have not been able to get the printing patterns right yet I'm supposed to believe a random seller in Hong Kong has cracked the code? Another reason that makes me dubious is that many of these figures require specialized pieces such as helmets, modified heads or headgear that would be difficult or impossible to paint over an existing piece.  

A far more likely explanation is that these sellers have people that work for Lego, likely in their factories, that are over producing valuable figures and selling them on Bricklink and other sites.... making the pieces unauthorized but genuine Lego which is why its likely so hard to tell the difference.  

All Lego has managed to do by this announcement is destroy the credibility of their marketplace with no plan to fix the issue, no help to ID "fakes" all for what is likely an internally caused problem

 

Rant over.  

 

 

 

 

[brickvoyeur]

22 minutes ago, V22driver said:

The recent announcement about counterfeit minifigures was one of the most amateurish/reckless things I have ever seen from such a large, well established company.

We are told there are fakes "flooding the market" using real Lego parts however the email does not give any helpful information on how to ID a fake compared to a real piece or any actions or steps they are taking as a company to correct this problem.   The only way to ID  fake is by... the quantity being offered? Weak logicand brings up some other issues.

1.  Users selling "fakes" (if they exist) will simply lower their advertised quantities for sale

2.  Since I have been on Bricklink (5 years), primarily selling used minifigures, there have been sellers mainly located in Germany and some Asian countries, that have had enormous stock of figures and minifigure parts for sale in quantities that make it highly unlikely that they were from "parted out" sets.  In many cases the low sales numbers on the pieces or figures in question make it unlikely that these sellers printed their own pieces as it would be uneconomical and a bad business decision. So how did these sellers get their hands on such quantities?  The large quantity theory has a lot of holes in it since its been going on for a while and with obvious legitimate pieces.  

I also question the idea that people are printing their own fakes of such quality.  They would need a large number of mono colored pieces and an incredibly high quality printing device.  Keep in mind there are Asian knock off companies that have been trying to mimic Lego minifigures for years yet still have not been able to get the printing patterns right yet I'm supposed to believe a random seller in Hong Kong has cracked the code? Another reason that makes me dubious is that many of these figures require specialized pieces such as helmets, modified heads or headgear that would be difficult or impossible to paint over an existing piece.  

A far more likely explanation is that these sellers have people that work for Lego, likely in their factories, that are over producing valuable figures and selling them on Bricklink and other sites.... making the pieces unauthorized but genuine Lego which is why its likely so hard to tell the difference.  

All Lego has managed to do by this announcement is destroy the credibility of their marketplace with no plan to fix the issue, no help to ID "fakes" all for what is likely an internally caused problem

 

Rant over.  

That's exactly what has been speculated upon for years. Employees running personal batches. I first crossed them a couple years ago and they've grown in number substantially. Many of these figures have sold for more than the cost of high end sets if you look at eBay sold listings.

Lego has lost control internally and someone is making a ton of money because of it. 

Back in 2020 it was only Darth Vader. Now I see C-3PO, Clone Troopers, Thor, Luke, Tie Pilot, Palpatine, Royal Guard, Batman, Hawkman. They're not making single parts, they're making full figures. The amount of moulds that would need to be copied to pull that off is very high.

Search for "lego prototype trans" and see the results. 

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by brickvoyeur

[Randyipp]

3 minutes ago, V22driver said:

The recent announcement about counterfeit minifigures was one of the most amateurish/reckless things I have ever seen from such a large, well established company.

We are told there are fakes "flooding the market" using real Lego parts however the email does not give any helpful information on how to ID a fake compared to a real piece or any actions or steps they are taking as a company to correct this problem.   The only way to ID  fake is by... the quantity being offered? Weak logicand brings up some other issues.

1.  Users selling "fakes" (if they exist) will simply lower their advertised quantities for sale

2.  Since I have been on Bricklink (5 years), primarily selling used minifigures, there have been sellers mainly located in Germany and some Asian countries, that have had enormous stock of figures and minifigure parts for sale in quantities that make it highly unlikely that they were from "parted out" sets.  In many cases the low sales numbers on the pieces or figures in question make it unlikely that these sellers printed their own pieces as it would be uneconomical and a bad business decision. So how did these sellers get their hands on such quantities?  The large quantity theory has a lot of holes in it since its been going on for a while and with obvious legitimate pieces.  

I also question the idea that people are printing their own fakes of such quality.  They would need a large number of mono colored pieces and an incredibly high quality printing device.  Keep in mind there are Asian knock off companies that have been trying to mimic Lego minifigures for years yet still have not been able to get the printing patterns right yet I'm supposed to believe a random seller in Hong Kong has cracked the code? Another reason that makes me dubious is that many of these figures require specialized pieces such as helmets, modified heads or headgear that would be difficult or impossible to paint over an existing piece.  

A far more likely explanation is that these sellers have people that work for Lego, likely in their factories, that are over producing valuable figures and selling them on Bricklink and other sites.... making the pieces unauthorized but genuine Lego which is why its likely so hard to tell the difference.  

All Lego has managed to do by this announcement is destroy the credibility of their marketplace with no plan to fix the issue, no help to ID "fakes" all for what is likely an internally caused problem

 

Rant over.  

Couldn't agree more, what a disaster.  Low quantity = Legit parts, what a stupid message to send to buyers and sellers.

[Billy Brick]

On 8/5/2022 at 7:40 AM, Randyipp said:

Couldn't agree more, what a disaster.  Low quantity = Legit parts, what a stupid message to send to buyers and sellers.

Years ago I bought expensive star wars torsos from a guy in Europe who had a ton of them, these torsos we needed for a custom set and he was the only person we had them. At the time we also assumed he got them somehow from the factory as they were all very legit. Awhile later during a Brick AFOL convention we were able to buy parts grab bags provided by Lego, in them were a lot of parts including figure parts from sets. After buying a few we discovered that it was all the same parts essentially recycled in all the grab bags, so if there were certain parts you liked, just go buy more grab bags. Directly from Lego. Morale of the story is there are other legal channels to acquire parts from the Lego factory, its not always nefarious.

[Randyipp]

3 minutes ago, wegj15 said:

Years ago I bought expensive star wars torsos from a guy in Europe who had a ton of them, these torsos we needed for a custom set and he was the only person we had them. At the time we also assumed he got them somehow from the factory as they were all very legit. Awhile later during a Brick AFOL convention we were able to buy parts grab bags provided by Lego, in them were a lot of parts including figure parts from sets. After buying a few we discovered that it was all the same parts essentially recycled in all the grab bags, so if there were certain parts you liked, just go buy more grab bags. Directly from Lego. Morale of the story is there are other legal channels to acquire parts from the Lego factory, its not always nefarious.

Of course, I don't think that has ever been in contention, except that one idiot on the forum that assumes that it is not possible.  During Covid I bought a couple of those 500 minifig packs from Legoland and they were full of unique parts, some weren't even in the catalog.  I think we can all assume that some parts on Bricklink were legally acquired and some were probably not.  One thing I can say for sure is that now someone with a large quantity of illegitimately sourced Lego parts can still sell them, they just are forced to do it in lower quantity so they don't arouse suspicion.

IMO Bricklink should have said nothing and done a private investigation into the matter without shutting down at least 1 store we know of.  I think reporting suspicious inventory is fine, I mean if I buy 1k joker figures you are damn sure I am running a serious business and will have all the receipts to back that up.  The whole situation was just handled poorly in a knee jerk way that made Bricklink look like a bunch of children running a 100 million dollar company.

[raindog]

25 minutes ago, Randyipp said:

The whole situation was just handled poorly in a knee jerk way that made Bricklink look like a bunch of children running a 100 million dollar company.

Until TLG bought it, it was essentially that.  I heard that, once they bought it, they put their crack IT team in charge of running it.  What could go wrong?

[Keyser Soze]

This is slightly unrelated but I could not find an appropriate thread, so apologies in advance.

Someone with a nivistores email address recently inquired about a set that I have in my Bricklink store, but instead of messaging me through Bricklink just emailed my personal email address. Now this person wants over 30 sets, has his own invoice number on the email, but of course this is still going through personal email instead of an official order. It happens occasionally, but not to this extent. I am curious if anyone has done business with a nivistores member because this obviously does not feel right at all. Thank you.

[bhambricks]

I have done business with this buyer when they were willing to place the order through BL.  Since that point they want to look through my BL inventory and place orders via email.  Not that I think that BL would find out, but I refused and quoted terms and conditions of BL and my desire not to find another marketplace to sell the 100,000+ parts I have on the site.

[legorunner]

I received a "return to sender insufficient address" for a package that I mailed out earlier this month. I used the address provided by the buyer and generated the label through PayPal. The address is a real address, I checked that, and the buyer is not new to BL and has 100+ feedback, so it is odd that the address didn't work (unless it was a drop ship). 

PayPal did auto change the abbreviated M.LK. of the street address to Martin Luther King. Would that be enough to invalidate the address? When googling the address it looks like M.L.K. is the official street name (according to google maps) but it is also listed as the full Martin Luther King on other websites. 

Just trying to figure out as much as possible before I reach out to the buyer today. 

Thanks!

[gmpirate]

24 minutes ago, legorunner said:

I received a "return to sender insufficient address" for a package that I mailed out earlier this month. I used the address provided by the buyer and generated the label through PayPal. The address is a real address, I checked that, and the buyer is not new to BL and has 100+ feedback, so it is odd that the address didn't work (unless it was a drop ship). 

PayPal did auto change the abbreviated M.LK. of the street address to Martin Luther King. Would that be enough to invalidate the address? When googling the address it looks like M.L.K. is the official street name (according to google maps) but it is also listed as the full Martin Luther King on other websites. 

Just trying to figure out as much as possible before I reach out to the buyer today. 

Thanks!

Happens.  Individual mail carriers can just decide it's the wrong recipient or whatever.  I frequently get letters sent back to me for insufficient address, vacant, etc. -- even to addresses I have been mailing to for a long time.

And I am assuming you used USPS.  Never had it happen with UPS or Fedex.

[legorunner]

I received a PayPal payment last week for a "Bricklink Order"; however, I do not have a Bricklink order that matches the name, address, or even order amount. I wrote to the email address associated with the payment, and I got an "undeliverable" bounce back. 

I do have one unpaid order from earlier in the week, but again, nothing (including order amount) matches. My only guess is that the buyer has a couple of open orders and sent me payment for the wrong order. I reached out to this buyer but haven't received a response. 

Can anyone think of anything else that I could be missing here? 

[Darth_Raichu]

20 minutes ago, legorunner said:

I received a PayPal payment last week for a "Bricklink Order"; however, I do not have a Bricklink order that matches the name, address, or even order amount. I wrote to the email address associated with the payment, and I got an "undeliverable" bounce back. 

I do have one unpaid order from earlier in the week, but again, nothing (including order amount) matches. My only guess is that the buyer has a couple of open orders and sent me payment for the wrong order. I reached out to this buyer but haven't received a response. 

Can anyone think of anything else that I could be missing here? 

This sounds like a Paypal problem to me.  It is up to them to make sure their users' primary email addresses are still valid.  I would contact Paypal and let them know I had a payment that was not associated with any order on my end.  The email associated with payment was dead so there was no way to contact the payment sender.  Paypal should be able to figure out if there is a different way to connect to the sender or to refund the payment back to sender.  

[SLL]

Does anyone know how to access the transactions beyond 6 months (think BL only shows you the past 6 months transaction)?  

I tried the "find orders" option and narrowed the date down but never got what I want.

[Randyipp]

6 minutes ago, SLL said:

Does anyone know how to access the transactions beyond 6 months (think BL only shows you the past 6 months transaction)?  

I tried the "find orders" option and narrowed the date down but never got what I want.

You can click download (bottom of orders page next to mass drive through) and get a spreadsheet but it will not have items in the orders just basic details about each order, goes back to the first order, or it should.

[legorunner]

Ok, trying to solve a mystery that I expect is more obvious than I realize. I have a few new boxed sets listed for sale on BL. All year I have received complaints that buyers get error messages with "seller cannot ship item with any of the shipping methods available". I have instant checkout for items under 16oz, but everything else is "request for invoice". I've sold a few sets no problem, but some buyers never are able to get to the request an invoice stage. This includes the same set - sold one copy no problem last week, but now a different buyer is getting the error message this week. 

The buyers who get the message are often new to BL - does BL require new accounts to only use instant payment initially? Is it user error on their end? Or do I have something weird in my settings? I have gone through my own settings and can't identify what the issue is, but maybe I'm just missing something obvious. I've sold on BL since 2016 and don't remember this as an issue until this year either. Thanks! 

 

[Huskers1236]

1 hour ago, legorunner said:

Ok, trying to solve a mystery that I expect is more obvious than I realize. I have a few new boxed sets listed for sale on BL. All year I have received complaints that buyers get error messages with "seller cannot ship item with any of the shipping methods available". I have instant checkout for items under 16oz, but everything else is "request for invoice". I've sold a few sets no problem, but some buyers never are able to get to the request an invoice stage. This includes the same set - sold one copy no problem last week, but now a different buyer is getting the error message this week. 

The buyers who get the message are often new to BL - does BL require new accounts to only use instant payment initially? Is it user error on their end? Or do I have something weird in my settings? I have gone through my own settings and can't identify what the issue is, but maybe I'm just missing something obvious. I've sold on BL since 2016 and don't remember this as an issue until this year either. Thanks! 

 

Are they international?  Generally, from my experience, this message is for when you don't have shipping set up for that country for that type of box weight.  So if you only certain regions set up for shipping, and this buyer is from another, they will get the message that there isn't a shipping method for them.  

[legorunner]

2 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

Are they international?  Generally, from my experience, this message is for when you don't have shipping set up for that country for that type of box weight.  So if you only certain regions set up for shipping, and this buyer is from another, they will get the message that there isn't a shipping method for them.  

Good question, but no, they are in the US. 

[Huskers1236]

4 minutes ago, legorunner said:

Good question, but no, they are in the US. 

If they buyers in question are new, and you have sold the set successfully to others in the US, I would guess the error is on the buyers' end and they don't have an address that is recognized by the site/USPS or have failed in setting up Paypal or something.  

[stackables]

I have had brand new buyers buy from me after I sent an invoice. Haven't received any messages describing your problem.  With that said, I wish Bricklink would simplify shipping.  

[Pseudoty]

I buy a lot on BL and have this issue as a buyer too often. I usually have to email the seller and then hope that the BL messaging system works because the instant checkout or the request quote do not. BL checkout although much improved over the past 2 years still remains a mystery to me. 

[paulvdb]

Do you have Paypal Onsite or Stripe as a payment method? One of those payment methods is needed for Bricklink to collect sales tax (for buyers in the US) or VAT (for buyers in the EU and UK). If you don't have an onsite payment method set up you won't be able to sell to buyers if Bricklink has to collect sales tax or VAT on their order.

[paulvdb]

Another possible cause: do you have it set up so that new members can only use instant checkout? In that case they won't get the option to request an invoice and won't be able to buy sets if they don't fit in the size and/or weight limits of your instant checkout shipping methods. On Bricklink store management page look for the option Seller protection Show only Instant Checkout methods to new buyers.

[legorunner]

4 hours ago, paulvdb said:

On Bricklink store management page look for the option Seller protection Show only Instant Checkout methods to new buyers.

Thanks, I had that checked. I actually had looked for that last week but I somehow missed it, so I appreciate you sending me back to look. Hopefully that takes care of it. 

[Goofball814]

I don't see an answer in past pages, so I'll ask here.

I'm trying to order from Canada.  It says it ships to US, but then says it doesn't support shipping to Nebraska (my state).

What does that mean?

I sent an email to the seller, but I'm not getting any response.