What happened to Brick Owl?

[hollywdbri]

The site seems to have vanished and they haven't updated any social media. Did Bricklink cease and desist take them down for good?

 

 

[jaisonline]

Didn't know. Thanks for the C& D share. Maybe we'll hear more soon.

Sent from an iPhone using the Brickpicker app

[TheOrcKing]

I imagine the site is down for much need maintenance and alterations. That cease & desist is a bit old now with Brick Owl countering it by making significant changes to their site in removing BrickLink's name and number system as well as the 'sync' feature.

[@rtisan]

Interesting. Doubt that even if they make a host of changes they will be able to compete. Bricklink is simple, easy, fair, and effective, there is no reason for people to switch.

 

EDIT: The site looks good at least, I`ll have to play around with it for a bit.

[Jeff Mack]

I am not sure what people are talking about.  The site is up and working fine from what I can see. 

[Legodog]

It's up and working for me also. Looks fine.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Same here, everything seems to be good

[Darth_Raichu]

They (or their host) were probably doing some maintenance last night. This is why some kind of "Sorry we are doing maintenace. Be back in the morning" type of signs is good for any website.

[hollywdbri]

It's back! False alarm folks. That being said, how many of you sell on both Bricklink and Brick Owl?

[b-ran]

Perhaps this isn't the place, but I have only ever used Bricklink.  Anyone used Brick Owl before?

[humandroid]

Purchased a couple parts through vendors there. Good experiences so far.

OLY, WA

[justafrog]

I had about 20 2x4 blue bricks parked there just to keep our store "open" and my store name reserved for me, and darned if they didn't sell the other day. 

 

I really wish there was a reasonable way to sell on both BL and BO, but I'm not maintaining two sets of inventory and I'm not manually deleting all my orders from the mirror site.

[Stragus]

I have been selling on both, using some home-made software to synchronize inventory. I plan to release the software as open-source eventually, it's still very Beta and absolutely not user-friendly.

 

I just started 2 weeks ago, but I must say, sales on BrickOwl seem pretty good (even though few buyers leave feedback).

[legoman12323123]

I have been selling on both, using some home-made software to synchronize inventory. I plan to release the software as open-source eventually, it's still very Beta and absolutely not user-friendly.

 

I just started 2 weeks ago, but I must say, sales on BrickOwl seem pretty good (even though few buyers leave feedback).

 Would your software work for someone who has over 1 million peices on BL? 1 screwup and I would be screwed for sure lol. How are the sales compared to BL? I get about 15-30 orders a day via BL.

[Stragus]

Would your software work for someone who has over 1 million peices on BL? 1 screwup and I would be screwed for sure lol.

That's why I am slowly testing it myself, I wouldn't want to be responsible for wrecking anyone's inventories! Though it's constantly making backups as BrickStore .bsx files anyway.

My store only has 78000 parts (I'm just a builder with too many parts), and I have been getting ~1 order daily on both for the past two weeks.

I know that DadsAFOL wrote his own inventory software to sell on both marketplaces. Reading between the lines of his forum posts, BrickOwl seems to be about 30-40% of his business (just checking feedback is misleading, few BrickOwl buyers leave any).

[Ed Mack]

To see the future of BrickOwl, we have to wait and see what happens with Bricklink. They are almost done with their 2.0 version. I know the new owner had spent a ton of money on the site and has hired teams of programmers to come up with the new version. Jeff and my guesses are that the commission rate will increase, probably with good reason. If the prices go too high, many customers might move to BrickOwl.

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

[Alcarin]

Well anything by up to 5% is okish..... for me....

 

At 6% or more commissions I might have to rethink my prices a bit.......

 

I hope the Bricklink 2.0 will really be up to par and would go big and attract loads of buyers...... 

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

They (or their host) were probably doing some maintenance last night. This is why some kind of "Sorry we are doing maintenace. Be back in the morning" type of signs is good for any website.

 

To be fair, its tough to put up one sentence letting people know whats going on.

[Darth_Raichu]

To be fair, its tough to put up one sentence letting people know whats going on.

No need for detailed explanation, just an "under maintenance" sign will suffice

[Stragus]

To see the future of BrickOwl, we have to wait and see what happens with Bricklink. They are almost done with their 2.0 version.

 

"BrickLink 2.0" is now just some kind of MOC Shop, which was supposed to go live some days ago (not too sure what happened). The expected general update to BrickLink is now being referred to as "BrickLink 3.0" with no projected release date...

 

I'm betting more on the growth of BrickOwl these days, hence the software to synchronize inventory on both.

[justafrog]

"BrickLink 2.0" is now just some kind of MOC Shop, which was supposed to go live some days ago (not too sure what happened). The expected general update to BrickLink is now being referred to as "BrickLink 3.0" with no projected release date...

 

I'm betting more on the growth of BrickOwl these days, hence the software to synchronize inventory on both.

They made an announcement that the moc shop was delayed. Nobody cared, so if you blinked while reading their forums you would have missed it.

2.0 is the moc shop only, but launches the platform that will be used by 3.0, the general update, which doesn't yet have an estimated release.

Software to sync inventories (the art of books does it for the book selling world) would be fantastic.

[Jeff Mack]

I believe there was a discussion on Bricklink or Brickowl before that Bricklink would consider banning sellers that chose to run identical shops on both sites or other sites in general.  Whether it happens or not, who knows, but with the amount of money they are investing in it, I am sure they will have some Terms of Service changes.

[jaisonline]

Well anything by up to 5% is okish..... for me....

 

At 6% or more commissions I might have to rethink my prices a bit.......

 

I hope the Bricklink 2.0 will really be up to par and would go big and attract loads of buyers...... 

 

 

agreed. the site traffic i see warrants their current fee structure.  can't beat it despite the lesser traffic than other web sites.

http://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=38&q=fee

 

 Fees are...

$0 USD - $500 USD   = 3% of the Order Total 

$500 USD - $1,000 USD   = 3% of the initial $500 ($15) plus 2% of the remaining total  

Over $1,000 USD   = 3% of the initial $500 ($15) plus 2% of the initial $500 - $1,000 ($10) plus 1% of the remaining total 

[justafrog]

Like eBay, brick links rules are that your inventory must be uniquely offered on their site. eBay doesn't enforce it (you just get in trouble for not having the inventory you offer, if it has been sold elsewhere, especially under the new defect system.) Bricklink may be more aggressive, and they've already shut Brickowl down once, back when sellers could give BO access to their BL accounts and have their inventory downloaded straight to BOs site.

Any sync service might run into the same wall, it's very true.

Re fee increases, the moc shop does have higher fees (don't remember rate) and I'd be surprised if 3.0 does not as well, when the time comes.

[knarrff]

I believe there was a discussion on Bricklink or Brickowl before that Bricklink would consider banning sellers that chose to run identical shops on both sites or other sites in general.

That would be a reason for me to stay far away from Bricklink.