What happened to Brickclassifieds?

[SteveAlaska]

I've been out of the loop for a bit so forgive me if this has been discussed or covered. Im trying to figure out 

why Brickclassifieds won't load on my 'puter. Are they defunct or rebuilding their site?

[KShine]

On 1/29/2018 at 2:46 PM, SteveAlaska said:

I've been out of the loop for a bit so forgive me if this has been discussed or covered. Im trying to figure out 

why Brickclassifieds won't load on my 'puter. Are they defunct or rebuilding their site?

 

[marcandre]

They are working on something that will be on brickpicker rather than a separate site. 

I sold a couple sets on BC but it never really took off. Should have been part of brickpicker from the start imho. 

[Ed Mack]

The forum software has a marketplace app...Jeff is working on that.  As with anything, if there is little or zero monetary return, it is difficult to put hours and hours into any endeavor.  Jeff put a lot of work into the Classifieds over the years, but it was too much time and trouble to run it for no profit.  Plus, the world of affiliate advertising is nothing like it once was.  Retailers are paying very little for selling their products.  Many free websites will eventually cost money, downsize or disappear.  

[Guest TabbyBoy]

How about a small selling fee?

[KShine]

They put a lot of time & effort (and $$$) into getting it up & running, and once it was available, very few of the users (who were once so vocal, expressing their eagerness to have a selling platform) even bothered to get involved (people really want what they can't have, but when they can have it - not so much).

While I wasn't expecting that it would turn into the next ebay (or even bricklink) - I certainly thought that it would have been (and still should be) a great selling platform for the wholesale buyers and flippers.

[waddamon]

I sold quite a bit there. Then it just dried up.

[Ed Mack]

41 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

How about a small selling fee?

Sure.  That was always a possibility.  It was discussed (literally) hundreds of times.  But then if you charge something, the seller/buyer expectations increase exponentially.  Running a serious, legit online marketplace is a full time job.  Jeff and I already have full time jobs that we spend 60 hours a week doing.  We don't have the money to hire people to oversee such an operation and to be honest, at this point, reselling LEGO sets is not what it once was.  Bricklink has done a fine job with the secondary market, but they have a whole team of people working on the site.  The last time I heard, even Huw at Brickset has put all his energy and time into the site and stopped his day job to work full time on his site.  

I saw what Jeff was working on for the forum and it looked really great.  Bottom line is that it has to be easier to run.  The one thing that does intrigue me is Amazon and eBay tightening the screws on Mom and Pop resellers.  There might come a time in the not so near future where reselling LEGO sets by 3rd parties on Amazon is ancient history.  Maybe then, people will need other outlets to resell their products and the need for another LEGO secondary marketplace is warranted.

[Ed Mack]

24 minutes ago, KShine said:

They put a lot of time & effort (and $$$) into getting it up & running, and once it was available, very few of the users (who were once so vocal, expressing their eagerness to have a selling platform) even bothered to get involved (people really want what they can't have, but when they can have it - not so much).

While I wasn't expecting that it would turn into the next ebay (or even bricklink) - I certainly thought that it would have been (and still should be) a great selling platform for the wholesale buyers and flippers.

This...

19 minutes ago, waddamon said:

I sold quite a bit there. Then it just dried up.

The whole secondary market has taken a hit over the past few years.  Between counterfeits and reissues/remakes, I don't know if it will ever recover to what it once was.  

[Val-E]

@Alpinemaps want to merge with  Tumbler and Bubble threads?

[stackables]

I bought one thing from the classifieds.  I think being separate from the site didn't help and I was skeptical of it working.  I assumed that sellers would continue to ask for the same prices they expected to get from Ebay on brick classifieds.  As expected, when I would check for an item or set they were mostly more or the same price as ebay.  Sellers were not getting charged a fee but still wanted ebay prices. Because of this, I stopped checking for items I wanted. 

 

I would assume the site is made up of mostly sellers and if you were a buyer/collector, you would most likely be more price savvy.  .  So without buyers, brick classifieds didn't have much of a chance.  However, I did like the fact that you kind of knew the seller.  Seeing names I could identify from brickpicker made me feel more confident in buying.  It also never hurts to have multiple avenues to sell/buy Lego. 

[Ed Mack]

53 minutes ago, stackables said:

I bought one thing from the classifieds.  I think being separate from the site didn't help and I was skeptical of it working.  I assumed that sellers would continue to ask for the same prices they expected to get from Ebay on brick classifieds.  As expected, when I would check for an item or set they were mostly more or the same price as ebay.  Sellers were not getting charged a fee but still wanted ebay prices. Because of this, I stopped checking for items I wanted. 

 

I would assume the site is made up of mostly sellers and if you were a buyer/collector, you would most likely be more price savvy.  .  So without buyers, brick classifieds didn't have much of a chance.  However, I did like the fact that you kind of knew the seller.  Seeing names I could identify from brickpicker made me feel more confident in buying.  It also never hurts to have multiple avenues to sell/buy Lego. 

Yes, that was a main issue.  We would have liked for people to pass along the savings from no fees to the buyer, but many did not.  I had some excellent experiences, though.  Maybe this next iteration of the Classifieds (that is forum based) will let people do business with confidence and ease.

[waddamon]

It was a great experience for me,  I priced accordingly and sold a bunch.  Also would just ask for discounts and people accommodated.  My thought was I wouldn't make anymore here than eBay. But at least I would not be enriching those jerks, and,maybe save the buyer some money.  I appreciated it.