West End Toys Vendor Experiences

[bocastephen]

Hi All,

Been a lurker here for awhile, but signed up to participate as I have a question. I have a variety of sets that I've been selling online through the usual channels, Ebay, Amazon, etc., and read about West End Toys as an option to take everything off my hands and handle the sale and fulfillment directly, but I've heard some comments through the grapevine that the company has some issues. Not sure if these are financial problems, management problems or just bad communication as I wasn't given much in the way of specifics, but figured the community here is the best place to ask since I'm sure there are some West End Toys vendors here who have sold through them.

Any input would be appreciated! 

[Bold-Arrow]

@JOEBRICK376

[Migration]

I know a couple sellers that have used them, I wouldn’t recommend doing so. You’d probably be better served finding someone to simply buy out your inventory. Me, a random internet dude, can vouch for Ravenb99 or theplasticmanor. I’m sure there are several others with both the finances and ability to buy out even the largest collection but those are the two I’ve done business with. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Migration

[bocastephen]

2 hours ago, Migration said:

I know a couple sellers that have used them, I wouldn’t recommend doing so. You’d probably be better served finding someone to simply buy out your inventory. Me, a random internet dude, can vouch for Ravenb99 or theplasticmanor. I’m sure there are several others with both the finances and ability to buy out even the largest collection but those are the two I’ve done business with. 

Did they have a poor experience or a particular problem? I just don't want to send a lot of inventory and then get into a situation where I have the expense of retrieving all of it, especially if their warehouse is not local to my area.

[gmpirate]

Do the math and trust your instincts.

[Jimking23]

They sold my sets at a good price, for a fee I thought was reasonable, considering they handled all the packing and shipping. One downside is you lose control of what sets are sold and when they are sold. You should and need to track of your inventory there. They do not provide an inventory report but, they also do not charge for storage. They do provide good sales reports every month. I have a few sets languishing there that have not sold in months that I need to contact them about. If you just want to sit back and hand all work and control to someone else and let the money roll in it’s not a bad option. 

[redcell]

6 hours ago, bocastephen said:

Did they have a poor experience or a particular problem? I just don't want to send a lot of inventory and then get into a situation where I have the expense of retrieving all of it, especially if their warehouse is not local to my area.

I don't think that Raven or TPM have ever done business with West End, but, rather, are two people who buy large collections and are trustworthy.  I can vouch for both as well having bought from and sold to each multiple times over the years, as well as collaborating on larger deals.  They would be good people to reach out to if you want to unload your entire inventory in one shot for a very fair price and through a very easy transaction.

As for West End Toys, I've sold to them before, but never used them for consignment.  The sales all went pretty smoothly given the size of the transactions.  I've heard mixed reviews on the consignment side.  I suspect that it is a good service for certain types of sellers, but not for everyone.  The people who I know who had bad experiences were all people who had the capacity to manage their own sales, but went the consignment route because of the perceived ease.  At the end of the day, the complaints they had were all rooted in their lack of control over their inventory after consigning it.

I talked with West End about consignment a few years ago, but it didn't make a lot of sense for me given the infrastructure that I had already built up to move inventory and given that I'm way too Type A to be comfortable giving up the amount of control I would have had to have ceded to them to go down that road.  There are some benefits to doing business with them that you won't find elsewhere (e.g., information sharing, opportunity to participate in special deals).

It really comes down to what you're trying to accomplish.

[Thanos75]

I have used West End for several years. So far it has been a pretty positive experience.  I work 60-80 hours a week so it doesn't leave me much time to handle the selling and shipping side of the hobby. I use them because it's the easiest way for me to move my level of volume  while maintaining my crazy work schedule and time with the family. The few problems I have had have all been taken care of quickly. 

[Bricklectic]

How much do they charge for their services. Is it a flat % of the top?

[bocastephen]

8 hours ago, Jimking23 said:

They sold my sets at a good price, for a fee I thought was reasonable, considering they handled all the packing and shipping. One downside is you lose control of what sets are sold and when they are sold. You should and need to track of your inventory there. They do not provide an inventory report but, they also do not charge for storage. They do provide good sales reports every month. I have a few sets languishing there that have not sold in months that I need to contact them about. If you just want to sit back and hand all work and control to someone else and let the money roll in it’s not a bad option. 

Thank you - but I think having frequent inventory and sales reports is important, that would be a deal breaker for me

[bocastephen]

4 hours ago, Bricklectic said:

How much do they charge for their services. Is it a flat % of the top?

I read it is a 15% listing/shipping/handling fee, but maybe different people get different arrangements?

[Bricklectic]

1 hour ago, bocastephen said:

I read it 

can you share what you are reading? I dont see a link on their website. I assume that is 15% on top of marketplace fees and shippiong to them is on your own dime. I wonder in what order they sell sets that say 100 people sent them - is it FIFO?

[dragonmist64]

I’ve been selling with them for a few years now and it’s been awesome! They first approached me to buy my whole collection and after some talking they offered me the consignment/vendor services. I was very hesitant at first as I knew I would have to relinquish some control over my inventory. Also being in college, I didn’t have that much time to be selling so after some deliberation I decided to try them out with a few sets. They sold my sets at great prices and without much effort on my end. The rest is history. With them, I was able to grow from a little guppy to a seven figure seller and all the while completing my degree and now working full time. Although I’m still not a major player, without them I couldn’t have even gotten to my scale. They are great people to work with and the information sharing/unique buying opportunities are definitely a plus. For me though, the major plus is being able to do all the fun stuff (buying and organizing my sets beautifully) and having them take care of the less fun stuff (listing, packing, shipping).

[Banjoman]

4 hours ago, bocastephen said:

I read it is a 15% listing/shipping/handling fee, but maybe different people get different arrangements?

Would this be in addition to the 10-15% charged by their selling platforms (they have a heavy presence on Walmart.com.)

[landphieran]

3 hours ago, dragonmist64 said:

I’ve been selling with them for a few years now and it’s been awesome! They first approached me to buy my whole collection and after some talking they offered me the consignment/vendor services. I was very hesitant at first as I knew I would have to relinquish some control over my inventory. Also being in college, I didn’t have that much time to be selling so after some deliberation I decided to try them out with a few sets. They sold my sets at great prices and without much effort on my end. The rest is history. With them, I was able to grow from a little guppy to a seven figure seller and all the while completing my degree and now working full time. Although I’m still not a major player, without them I couldn’t have even gotten to my scale. They are great people to work with and the information sharing/unique buying opportunities are definitely a plus. For me though, the major plus is being able to do all the fun stuff (buying and organizing my sets beautifully) and having them take care of the less fun stuff (listing, packing, shipping).

7 Figure seller which is 1-10 Million in sales? But not a major player? I'm scared to know what the major players are doing :E

I am going to say, i think its strange to source product for another company when you are purchasing and storing 800,000$+ of product. Seems more fruitful to invest the money in the stock market or as a passive investor in a business.

[RedBaron]

Don't send them the larger more expensive sets.  PM me if you want to discuss further.

[bocastephen]

5 hours ago, Banjoman said:

Would this be in addition to the 10-15% charged by their selling platforms (they have a heavy presence on Walmart.com.)

I think there is only the 15% platform fee

[bocastephen]

7 minutes ago, RedBaron said:

Don't send them the larger more expensive sets.  PM me if you want to discuss further.

It looks like I am not able to send private messages

[RedBaron]

2 hours ago, bocastephen said:

It looks like I am not able to send private messages

PM sent.

[Shortbus311]

can you share what you are reading? I dont see a link on their website. I assume that is 15% on top of marketplace fees and shippiong to them is on your own dime. I wonder in what order they sell sets that say 100 people sent them - is it FIFO?

You pay the platform fee and shipping, they also charge 15% of the sales price for their fee. So out the gate you are down 30% + shipping. They charge you for shipping supplies used. They also charge a "picking fee", to find and pull your set from their warehouse to ship. The picking fee is very small... like 50 cents or something like that, can't remember exactly.

When I signed up with them the contract stated that I would be charged $.05/month/set storage. But I was never actually charged any storage fees.

They also have a optional sticker removing fee. If you are too lazy to remove clearance stickers yourself, they will do it for you for $.25/each. Although I think that they were considering (or did) raise prices on this because too many were just leaving stickers on.

Shipping sets to them is paid for by you, but they do have their own trucks that they send out to various parts of the country to do pickups from suppliers once or twice a year I think. They charge reduced rates if you are able to get your sets onto their trucks, but not sure how they come up with the exact amount. I was close enough to deliver everything to them myself, so I don't have much experience/knowledge on that side.

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[vasp]

Didn't these guys move out of Richmond, VA to somewhere in NC.

On amazon they changed their name to reVend

[brickvoyeur]

The attached comes from the pamphlet they sent out last year when they updated all their fees and such. 

Trust your math in the end, and send in what you feel comfortable not being able to sell personally if the set has a run up due to unforeseen hype. 

My experience with them was neutral+. Used them during a time when I was unable to handle things for myself at the time. They do a fine job actually moving the product, but I watched many things sell at much lower prices than I would have listed them at. But they did what they said they would, move the product. After the first round of stuff sent in I looked at their current for sale price on the set before sending stuff in, as that's what they will hold the price at. Essentially you're going to lose 40-50% of the sale price to fees depending on the shipping cost. So be cautious, divide their current listing price in half, and determine if you're happy with that. 

I still have a decent amount of inventory there that isn't worth the price of having returned. Mostly things I wouldn't want to look at anyways. 

Keep in mind, that the ungating that happened on Amazon really affected the pricing and hold times at a place that does consignment. At the time I dumped stuff there, there were fewer sellers and if you weren't already behind the gate you had little way to get onto the platform. Their main draw now would be Walmart sales, but even that has had a huge swell of sellers. Not only are you competing with other sales vendors, but you're also competing with other people in your own consignment arena as there is no telling if your product will get picked when an item sells.

[gmpirate]

2 hours ago, brickvoyeur said:

Not only are you competing with other sales vendors, but you're also competing with other people in your own consignment arena as there is no telling if your product will get picked when an item sells.

This is a big key that has not been mentioned.  Different types of sets sell well at different times of the year.  You can plan accordingly but you have no idea how much internal product you will be competing with.  Send in Easter sets and there's a good possibility you miss that window and are stuck holding the sets for another year.  They say they can create special prices for your individual inventory if so desired but like some other said options, they are not very practical to implement.

[Shortbus311]

This is a big key that has not been mentioned.  Different types of sets sell well at different times of the year.  You can plan accordingly but you have no idea how much internal product you will be competing with.  Send in Easter sets and there's a good possibility you miss that window and are stuck holding the sets for another year.  They say they can create special prices for your individual inventory if so desired but like some other said options, they are not very practical to implement.

Then you are paying a $1.08/set storage fee for the year until Easter comes back around again for maybe a chance to sell that year.

It's not a lot, but most Easter sets sell for what $20-$30? So it ends up being a larger % out of your profits.

$30 sale... $21 after 15% platform fees and 15% West End fees... -$4 First Class shipping (guesstimate) = $17 Say you bought the set for 20% off of $10 with no sales tax.. $17-$8=$9... $.70 handling fee and $.62 shipping supplies $9-$1.32 = $7.68 profit... storage fees for an extra year would come out to 14% less potential profits you would make in this situation.

That doesn't include the cost of getting the set to them in the first place. Or potential % fee for them to send your profits to you. I always asked them to mail me a check which was free, but to have them wire your payment directly to your bank they do charge a fee.

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[Ed Mack]

I can vouch for West End Toys and Evans.  They sold and shipped thousands of sets for me and enabled me to clean out my house and storage unit in less than a year.  Was it always a perfect experience?  No, but I was one of the early consignment customers and they have improved greatly since then. 

Evans has also always been generous when it came to the Brickpicker LEGO raffle/sweepstakes for my son's school.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.