Bricksetters' Bricklink stores

ColoradoBricks

@dmcc0
Italy, I had a package that didn't arrive, it was w/ tracking and insurance. When I filed a complaint, I was pointed to regulation that you can't ship toys to Italy unless they are made of wood, so I lost the claim. (https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/il_008.htm)

France, too many issues related to custom, on 2 occasions NIB sets arrived open with some of the bags from the box also open, on 2 other occasions, the buyers refused the package because of the high cost of import fees.

China, high percentage of paypal claims during my first few years as a seller.

Aleydita

ColoradoBricks said:

@dmcc0
Italy, I had a package that didn't arrive, it was w/ tracking and insurance. When I filed a complaint, I was pointed to regulation that you can't ship toys to Italy unless they are made of wood, so I lost the claim. (https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/il_008.htm)

France, too many issues related to custom, on 2 occasions NIB sets arrived open with some of the bags from the box also open, on 2 other occasions, the buyers refused the package because of the high cost of import fees.

China, high percentage of paypal claims during my first few years as a seller.

Interesting to hear that they used the wooden toys rule to rule against your claim! I've seen this rule keep being mentioned but it doesn't affect me as an EU-based seller so never really looked into it. Seems an incredibly odd rule considering Italy has 2 of the largest ports in Europe where Chinese-made toys will be unloaded every day!

Regards China, I was very nervous when I received my first order from there. Have since had over €1,000 in several small orders from there without any issue whatsoever, including repeat customers.

KingAlanI

No orders to pack for the first time in weeks, staying in a couple hours before going out on Saturday was worth it. I got another payment just after I left, still not bad. I could catch up on sorting but also want to do some non LEGO stuff.

One international package and a couple domestic have gotten returned, but no other mail problems. I think all my China orders have gone through a freight forwarder, which itself has gone well. Sometimes the mailer has started to tear, so I might use two layers of mailers and/or extra tape (the latter also protects against light rain)

Wait 7 days before NPBing and another 7 to actually cancel - sometimes I forget and they get another few days, BL could be quicker. Just did a lot of copy/pasting of "No payment no contact". they all had quite a few negative feedback. I often just cancel when a buyer complains about even minimum S&H - once he negative feedbacked me, and I got that removed because of (mild) bad language, but I would've been screwed if he'd watched his mouth.

gunther.schnitzel

2 more orders since 19th. Woohoo!

KingAlanI

Added TLNM Volcano Garmadon and 2 N-POP Girl
Most of my recent orders have included used parts from 10234, so that was apparently good for business, but I've had to do a lot of sorting right away.

Klintan

Finally got my first order. :-) 

Got my second as well but unfortunately that order was made by mistake so it got cancelled.

KingAlanI

6 more N-POP Girl (now have 8 in stock), 7 Rocket Boy, parts from 12 Elf Girl. Slight price cuts on many CMFs.

Got caught up Saturday  but soon was busy again.

Already took a few days, it was before a long weekend, so I made a special effort. It's amazing how much quicker it goes when the parts are already sorted, I want to catch up on sorting without getting burnt out and without delaying current orders.

Got a payment that didn't automatically mark the order as paid, not unusual, but I had 2 recent orders for that amount so I had to look at it carefully.

gunther.schnitzel

3 more orders since September 25th. Woohoo!

KingAlanI

A #40178 (the new VIP promo set)
3 more Rocket Boy (up to 10), parts from 3 Elf Girl
Part out 5 #40161, 5 #40165
1250 white 2x1 curved slope
I'm afraid I'll never be fully caught up with orders

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA

@Basta
Whats the name of your Bricklink store?

Basta

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA said:

@Basta
Whats the name of your Bricklink store?

Brickscore
http://brickscore.me/ 

Basta

KingAlanI said:

Got caught up Saturday  but soon was busy again.

Already took a few days, it was before a long weekend, so I made a special effort. It's amazing how much quicker it goes when the parts are already sorted, I want to catch up on sorting without getting burnt out and without delaying current orders.

@KingAlanI So are you listing parts before you part them out? If so, you don’t find this to be too much work when pulling orders? That would drive me crazy.


In store news, I reached 127,000 parts in my store with the completion of my largest part out to date (24 copies of the Ultra agents HQ #70165). 

If anyone happens to be interested in seeing what I’m parting out you can check my stores  Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/brickscoreau/ 

Thanks

KingAlanI

Basta said:

@KingAlanI So are you listing parts before you part them out? If so, you don’t find this to be too much work when pulling orders? That would drive me crazy.

Yes. It is too much work. It is driving me crazy.

Maybe for my future part outs I'll sort first. Yet TLG packaging and BL inventories are pretty reliable so it isn't dishonest and I'd hate to wait when it takes long enoguh to sell a part as is.

Basta

KingAlanI said:

Basta said:

@KingAlanI So are you listing parts before you part them out? If so, you don’t find this to be too much work when pulling orders? That would drive me crazy.

Yes. It is too much work. It is driving me crazy.

Maybe for my future part outs I'll sort first. Yet TLG packaging and BL inventories are pretty reliable so it isn't dishonest and I'd hate to wait when it takes long enoguh to sell a part as is.

I understand what your saying, but in the long run it will be much more efficient and save you a lot of time to part out and have a good, easy to access storage system.

I only add parts to my store as I’m putting them away (after they have been parted out). I use the remarks field so I know which draw or container the part is in. When I get an order I know exactly where each part is located. 


This is part way through a part out.


Part of my store setup, every draw and container has a number and that is what I add to the remarks field of each part.

I understand that space is a big issue for a lot of people, so setup’s like this may not be so easy to do, but it’s definitely worth it if you can.

TheFew

@Basta WOW!

KingAlanI

@basta Yeah, it would take less time overall. I know where they're supposed to be. I have a fairly easy time finding sorted parts by labeling the storage containers. I don't need to use notes on the website; I figure that would be clutter and interfere with consolidating when I add a part I already have in my inventory. Maybe it's more necessary for you, since you appear to have even more inventory than me. Next part out, some 40165 and 40161 in transit from S@H, I will sort before listing, which will also be an incentive to finish sorting my current stockpile of those sets.

uriel

https://store.bricklink.com/vsimovic  20% off on bricks :)

elspankdog

Looks like instant checkout is live on BL.

If anybody knows how to arrange the order that shipping options show up on the checkout page for buyers, I'm all ears.  I have 3 options, USPS first-class, USPS priority, and Hold order open.  Not sure if BL is sorting by price or alphabetically, but in either case, "Hold order open" is showing up first in my list, and I would like it to appear last.

elspankdog

Never mind, figured it out.  Had to change my hold order open to a manual invoice method.  Should have read the setup guide better.

Aleydita

elspankdog said:

Looks like instant checkout is live on BL.

Already buggered :)

elspankdog

Haha, has anybody received an order since setting up instant checkout?  I haven’t 

Aleydita

I made a test order in my own store if that counts :) Went through fine, just cancelled it at the PayPal stage.

elspankdog

Yeah, that's as far as I went.  Some folks said they received payment without an order going through.  I didn't go far enough to see if that occurs.

elspankdog

Ok, first order with auto checkout worked just like a BO order...so easy once you get the setup right

asrfarinha

elspankdog said:

Ok, first order with auto checkout worked just like a BO order...so easy once you get the setup right

That's good to hear. I was thinking of letting the early-adopters test it out in the wild for a couple of weeks for all the bugs to be found and fixed. Might take the time to configure it this weekend.

koshka

I might still give it couple of weeks (although orders have dried up after a previously good week). The one time that I bought through BO I felt that I was overcharged for postage and it's the only time that I've ever contacted a seller to say so. They handled it well and refunded the difference. Not sure how the system will cope with Sweden's additional charge for letters over 3cm thick.

asrfarinha

koshka said:

I might still give it couple of weeks (although orders have dried up after a previously good week). The one time that I bought through BO I felt that I was overcharged for postage and it's the only time that I've ever contacted a seller to say so. They handled it well and refunded the difference. Not sure how the system will cope with Sweden's additional charge for letters over 3cm thick.

Some similar charge exists here in Ireland, where any package over 2.5cm is considered a packet instead of a large envelop, and postage price goes up considerably. BrickOwl has been dealing with it quite well, and only messed it up once or twice in more than 50 orders. You can always adjust the values so there's a bit of a margin to reduce the potential for problems.

elspankdog

Definitely some growing pains in dealing with missing catalog info (weight/dimensions) and how things are classified by default (weight vs volume).  Really need a bulk way to change the default status or see things that are missing catalog info in your inventory.  You can search for missing weights in your inventory but not missing dimensions.

I'm a flat rate by weight shipper so changing all collectible minifigs and polybag sets to weight bound manually really sucks.  Should be a way to do that in one click or a universal setting.  I wouldn't have to change them if so many weren't missing dimensions.  Missing dimensions + item classified as volume bound = manual invoice trigger.  Same goes for instructions.  Perhaps this will finally drive me to stop selling those.

I'll say this, BL was always proud of their database/catalog, but this kind of showed me they were missing quite a bit of info.  Missing just as much info as BO apparently.

KingAlanI

My old computer bit the dust (perhaps literally as it overheated). Amongst other things, this is slowing down my store management, but I've been able to somewhat keep up using other people's computers. I need to print out shipping labels of course but I've also printed out order details for orders to complex to read off my phone screen. it helps that my store is relatively slow right now.
Added a #30608 (the Kendo Lloyd promo from GameStop) and another N-POP Girl

elspankdog

Is anybody getting notification emails for orders?  I get the paypal payment emails, but no order notifications from BL

Aleydita

elspankdog said:

Is anybody getting notification emails for orders?  I get the paypal payment emails, but no order notifications from BL

Same here. I've installed the PayPal app on my phone which alerts me to an incoming payment.

Daragh

elspankdog said:

Is anybody getting notification emails for orders?  I get the paypal payment emails, but no order notifications from BL

I was not getting them and not getting many orders either, but tonight I am getting them again and also got 5 orders in the space of three hours, unheard of for me. 

I have not gone near auto check-out as it seems to be in such a mess. I would really like to use it, but not before they get some of their issues sorted. It works so well on Brickowl. 

Daragh

Separate question for any sellers that are on BO and BL, have you noticed a change in the split in volume of orders between the two sites, for the last month or more the swing has been away from BL toward BO, some days I get nothing from BL and 3 or 4 from BO. 

elspankdog

Daragh said:

Separate question for any sellers that are on BO and BL, have you noticed a change in the split in volume of orders between the two sites, for the last month or more the swing has been away from BL toward BO, some days I get nothing from BL and 3 or 4 from BO. 

If things hold, this will be my first month that BO has outsold BL...slowest month of the year so far, but for the year, BO has held a pretty consistent monthly average while BL is very cyclical.  Different type of buyers?

koshka

I don't think that I've had any issues with BL order emails. I've had a couple of orders in the last 36 hours so it's hard to say whether the temporary slowdown was related to the checkout changes. At this time of year I tend to sell more on the auction sites so I'm going to focus on those until Xmas and then look more seriously at auto checkout. 

asrfarinha

Daragh said:

Separate question for any sellers that are on BO and BL, have you noticed a change in the split in volume of orders between the two sites, for the last month or more the swing has been away from BL toward BO, some days I get nothing from BL and 3 or 4 from BO. 

Same here. Last month BO surpassed BL both in number of orders and in "revenue". And this month that trend is continuing.
Thinking about running a sale this weekend on BL, just to check if that has an effect.

TheFew

Can you have the same stock listed on both BL and BO, and manage it automatically? Or if you sell on 1 platform do you have to manually adjust your stock on the other?

ColoradoBricks

@TheFew, most sellers on both platforms are using http://www.bricksync.net/ for automatic synchronization

TheFew

@ColoradoBricks thanks! That's new to me. I will have to have a read!

KingAlanI

From another LEGO Store visit - 2 N-POP Girl and parts from 2 Elf Girl
Making progress on sorting #40161 What Am I? before I list them, #40165 Wedding Favor Set is very easy to sort when I get to it (they're easy to handle in and of themselves, and I have storage ready from parting those out before, though I often need to get out bigger containers for the increased quantity)
9 40161, 6 40165 and a #40301 in hand but not listed, some more parts listed but not yet sorted
Finished a couple small orders and made grand progress on the big one

KingAlanI

I delisted the 48x48 baseplate from #10234 as I wouldn't be sure how to ship it - my bubblemailers aren't big enough, and boxes wide enough are too tall.
32x32 baseplates are manageable in a gallon ziploc bag and a huge bubblemailer. So I listed a #10699.
Got another large PAB cup of white 2x1 curved slope, so increased the quantity with the disclaimer "Count may be inexact on quantities above several hundred". I have some 3x5 bags filled with exactly 175, and putting together more sucvh bags is one of many things in my inventory management backlog.
Also listed another #30608 and a #5004936

1stflabuyer

Please do not ship baseplates in just a bubble mailer, they will bend and warp - all it takes is one box resting on them the wrong way.
The best packaging I have received was wrapped in bubble wrap in a NEW pizza box. Second best was wrapped in foam (?) between two flat pieces of cardboard cut slightly larger than the baseplate. Both arrived in perfect condition.

Basta

elspankdog said:

Is anybody getting notification emails for orders?  I get the paypal payment emails, but no order notifications from BL

I only setup instant checkout yesterday, I’ve had two orders since. I got the BL notification email for the first order but not for the second. I have PayPal notification on already so it wasn’t an issue. 

It’s only two orders, but both of those were correct as far as postage charged etc. Not having to send an invoice is great, one less step I need to worry about.

Switchfoot55

^^I prefer my baseplates shipped in USED pizza boxes. Preferably with an extra slice or two still in there. 

KingAlanI

Good to know, hadn't thought of pizza boxes for wide but not too tall. But it's hard to reuse those, I don't sell enough baseplates to stock up on them new, and box weight adds to shipping cost.
For the one 32x32 I have sold, I heard no complaints

Added 3 more 30608, total of 5, I think that's all I'll be able to get of those

1stflabuyer

To get NEW pizza box, just ask at the pizza place - they will gladly give you 1.

VorpalRyu

KingAlanI said:

My old computer bit the dust (perhaps literally as it overheated). Amongst other things, this is slowing down my store management, but I've been able to somewhat keep up using other people's computers. I need to print out shipping labels of course but I've also printed out order details for orders to complex to read off my phone screen. it helps that my store is relatively slow right now.
Added a #30608 (the Kendo Lloyd promo from GameStop) and another N-POP Girl

Hate to think how much trouble that is causing you, when our old Laptop died a couple of months ago, it completely screwed me over & I'm not even running a BrickLink store. I'm still trying to find a Windows 7 disc so I can get everything running the way I had it on the old machine (the machine was meant to be windows 8 machine, but when I powered it up there was windows 10 staring back at me).

TheFew

Out of interest, what feedback rates do people typically get? At the moment around 60% of my Customers leave me feedback, the other 40% don't nor do they mark the deal complete.

How could I improve these returns?

Thanks for you thoughts/

ColoradoBricks

@TheFew , I would just let it go. Harassing buyer for feedback is never good, some bribe with coupons. If you think 60% is low on BL, wait to see what it is on BO, it hovers at about 25%...

TheFew

@ColoradoBricks ah ok! I must just be very nice as I ensure all the purchases I make have feedback and are set to complete :-)