Bricklink site under maintenance

AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz

Anyone know what's up with Bricklink being under Monthly Maintenance a lot lately?

madforLEGO

I dunno, but a few nights ago I think the entire site was just down.

kylejohnson11

Brick Owl is up and running :)

akunthita

BrickLink always had a daily and montly maintenance. The time of the maintenance was changed slightly just recently, but other than that there is nothing hew. Here is the latest announcement from the BL admin about the maintenance times and dates: http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=779022

Maintenance is necessary for a site this large and this old. However BL 2.0 is in the works and should be released early next year.

I have checked out BrickOwl before. I wish them the best but they are still very small. They carry nothing from my wanted list.

AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz

@kylejohnson11 I'm signed up for brickowl but have yet to find anything available there when I needed it. @akunthita I hadn't read the forums for a while and didn't know about the time change for maintenance, so thanks for that info.

kylejohnson11

@AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz and @akunthita just curious as to what you are looking for that people do not have available on Brick Owl yet which is keeping you at Brick Link? Same question to others who are hesitant to make the jump.

For me personally, Brick Owl is the first place I check for my needs. If they do not have a solution, then I go to other sites.

akunthita

@kylejohnson11 it is not about being hesitant. I'm not attached to any particular seller or any particular site. I have a Wanted List on BrickLink with over 500 parts spanning several projects at any given time. I will go with the seller that will have most of the parts I need. I'm a MOC-er. I have no need for sets, or if I do I just buy them locally.

I have checked out BrickOwl several times against my wanted list, and the most parts I ever found from my wanted list was around 10. That just won't cut it for me. BrickOwl simply doesn't have enough sellers to fulfill my needs.

Also, it seems that BrickOwl is mostly UK sellers. So it is possible that for UK buyers or European buyers it is more beneficial. I'm in the USA and I rarely buy from international sellers. All my needs are met by USA BrickLink sellers and I'm happy with that. Hope this clarifies...(c:

kylejohnson11

@akunthita thank you very much for your insight. When you are searching your wanted list on Brick Link are you using the tool that was going around the forums to find the cheapest price or simply targeting the stores with the most coverage?

Also when you have searched in the past on Brick Owl and found the small numbers of your wants, did you use the feature that checks against all stores for the lowest total price? Also, are you looking for older parts generally or items from 2010-2014 sets?

Again thank you very much!


**full disclosure** I am a small time seller on Brick Owl, only 1,000 parts. My store is used to sell excess items to fund the hobby. With all that, insights on how to attract more people in to Brick Owl is much appreciated.

akunthita

@kylejohnson11, I'm not sure what you mean by "searching the wanted list by using the tool that's going around the forums".

BrickLink has it's own feature to build wanted lists. You can have just one main one, or you can also have separate wanted lists for different projects. Once I set up my wanted list I simply check which seller has most of the items on my wanted list. When I'm just starting out on a project this is the feature I use. In most cases I can buy everything I need for a project from 1-5 sellers.

Then I also have a generic wanted list with items that I would like to have to finish some previous projects, or just stuff that would be nice to have some day. I also build armies and I'm a minifigure customizer, so I regularly look for interesting accessories as well as newly released minifigure parts. In this case I usually look for the item I want the most and also which is the most expensive, check which sellers have the best price on those, then once I'm in their shop I simply hit the button to see what else they have from my wanted list. If they have at least 10 other items from my wanted list, the prices are reasonable, and the order is at least $20 in total, then I will most likely go for it.

Since my wanted list is quite varied and unique with very specific items, I usually check the top three sellers who has my most expensive/wanted item for the cheapest price, then compare what else they have from my wanted list (opening 3 separate windows), then buy from the one that has the combination of a good price and good quantity. I also check feedback and shipping fees and if the seller is on my favorite sellers list. (Also, as I said, in general I don't buy from overseas sellers. I think I have only done it a couple of times when I was really desparate for a very rare part.)

I'm not looking at items by how old they are or what year they were released. I'm looking at what I need for my project. Sometimes there are old parts, and sometimes they are newly released. And sometimes they are common, and sometimes rare. It really just depends on what makes my project work.

What I have done on BrickOwl is taking my top 50 wanted items from BrickLink and just doing a quick search if they are available on BrickOwl. Most of them were not for sale by anyone at any price. And the once I did find were from UK sellers. That just doesn't work for me. I buy LEGO on a regular basis as I'm always working on projects. I need reliable and abundant sources. The beauty of BrickLink is that amongst its huge number of sellers I will always find what I'm looking for. As I said; I'm not attached to sellers or websites. I'm working on projects and I will simply go where I can find the parts I need in the quickest and most efficient way. I also shop on eBay when it makes sense.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions just let me know. I don't want to highjack this thread with our conversation and go off topic, but you are welcome to PM me or contact me through my LEGO blog http://thebrickblogger.com/

graphite

^ he is talking about atxdad's automated cost minimization program that will try to find the lowest cost combination of sellers to fill a list.

AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz

@kylejohnson11 I was looking for a specific part that I didn't find. I never buy from sellers outside the USA as I've had too many packages never arrive through no fault of the seller/sender.