Bricksetters' Bricklink stores

VorpalRyu

I was considering starting a BrickLink store to clear out parts I have no use for from sets I parted out for my MOC supplies, but with the fact that I'd be forced to agree to all this onsite payment stuff without option for offsite payments, yeah, nope... Will be looking at BrickOwl instead.

KingAlanI

I figure they might want to autobill monthly fee payments, perhaps quicker than manual fee payments are due. Billing by order would be a bunch of small transfers, and rounding could be significant on small orders.
One thing I like about BL is they don't have a dispute resolution process slanted towards the buyer, and it sounds like that could change.

-

Added another TLBM S1 Vacation Batman. Sold the previous one along with all I had of 2 TLNM figs.

I still have a long way to go on packing a 210 lot order, but splitting it into two packages might actually be cheaper postage or at least not much more, so I won't have to get everything ready all at once, not the first time I've managed a large order that way

TheFew

Created by Brick Owl store the other day. Fairly painless. The BrickSync software is fairly impressive, although it could not sync all of my BL inventory to BO. Within a day of creating my BO store I got my first order.

MiniBricks1

Sales were slow the first couple weeks of April, so I decided to have a sale.. 20% off of parts & 10% off of minifigs. It worked, just shipped out 7 orders this morning haha.

asrfarinha

MiniBricks1 said:

Sales were slow the first couple weeks of April, so I decided to have a sale.. 20% off of parts & 10% off of minifigs. It worked, just shipped out 7 orders this morning haha.

Well, that's one way of doing it.
Did you post about the sale somewhere or were the extra sales just organic?

MiniBricks1

asrfarinha said:

MiniBricks1 said:

Sales were slow the first couple weeks of April, so I decided to have a sale.. 20% off of parts & 10% off of minifigs. It worked, just shipped out 7 orders this morning haha.

Well, that's one way of doing it.
Did you post about the sale somewhere or were the extra sales just organic?

I posted about it on the forum but that’s it. After shipping those 7 out yesterday, I have made 5 more sales- just shipped them out this morning. 12 sales in the span of 4 days.. crazy! I totally did not expect a 20% sale to bring in so many orders. They have all been parts-only, I’m surprised that no figures have sold.

KingAlanI

Halfway through April I'm near my sales average for a whole month - a lot of this is S18 figs, with a corresponding spike in inventory purchases, but I also got a few ~$100 sales of older inventory

Basta

I‘m in two minds about PPM, I understand why BL want to do it and potentially it could make the customer experience better which is a good thing. Overall I wouldn’t expect too many issues from this change and a lot of the complaints some sellers have are either misinformed or unlikely to happen IMO.

That said, in general I’m never keen on giving more control to big businesses, organisations or government, as they already have so much control over our lives.

Aleydita

Just closed my BL store. Forcing me to accept PayPal for Marketplaces where they can hold my cash and make refunds on my behalf is a step too far imo. That, and the complete and total lack of engagement with customers on the forum.

KingAlanI

Still haven't made up my mind about PFM but even if I reject it I'd still take PayPal just not through the BL website, I think the change allows that.

business is steady, including an order from @pharmjod, but downtime isn't so bad because I can sort inventory or do something non-BL

VorpalRyu

With the fact that if I open a store I'll be forced to do PFM with no option for PayPal offsite, means my decision is made for selling, it won't be BrickLink, I'll buy through there, but I'm now looking at other options & until BL goes back to allowing offsite as an option for new stores, I'll just be a buyer.

TheFew

Balls to it. I accepted to use PFM and will see how it goes. If in 6 months time the world of BL is a horrible place then I will solely focus  on selling via brick owl.

KingAlanI

@VorpalRyu so while existing stores could offer PayPal offsite but not new ones?
Thinking of trying PFM like @TheFew is doing.
With PP in general, I've heard horror stories but haven't had problems.

VorpalRyu

@KingAlanI, changes to T&Cs last year, around June/July, any new stores have to sign up to an onsite payment system, no option for offsite payments by PayPal. From the FAQ page: "If you would like to request the ability to enable IBAN or bank transfer payment methods in your store, please mention this in your seller verification request." (source: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2440)

VorpalRyu

Dammit, missed the edit time, I wanted to find the actual bit, so here it is:

"Offsite payment methods are no longer available for new sellers as of June 8, 2017. However, you may request special permission to enable IBAN during or after the New Seller Verification process by contacting the Help Desk. 

***All new sellers will be required to have at least one onsite payment method available in their store to receive IBAN permission.**"

(source: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=18)

Several people have asked if this means new sellers can apply to have PayPal offsite too, like with IBAN, which has been met with a stony silence....not too hard to guess what that means, admin doesn't want to say it, but the answer is a clear no, no offsite PayPal, only onsite for new sellers.

sid3windr

So are they even going to force no "payment on pickup" as it's also off-site, or is that still in the clear for now? :O

Aleydita

I notice at least 4 different threads have been 'cancelled' by BL staff overnight, 3 of which I caught beforehand and were critical of BL. Seems they're cracking down on criticism.

Also I noticed that someone posted a graph showing the number of British BL stores had dropped dramatically, while the number BO stores increased by a similar amount over the same period.

pharmjod

Competition is good for everyone!

KingAlanI

Added a few more S18, including parts of Birthday Party Girl. Just shy of 100K parts, 5000 lots, 4000 lots not in stockroom.

Someone ordered all of my DUPLO figures that weren't licensed characters. They weren't interested in a discount on the reset, but it was a good question, and I was glad to sell just what they'd already ordered. That sort of thing has happened before. Once recently, I had additional quantity of a part, rushed to list them, and the buyer did take them.

KingAlanI

Finally finished sorting and listing 5 #41600. had a half sorted tub out for a few days, had enough of that and had the time to do something about it.

Gremer

I asked a year ago, but a bunch of personal issues have come up (parents getting divorced, dog dying...), so I'll ask again.

 Would anyone here happen to be selling a #7964 Republic Frigate for around MSRP? New is preferred, but used is acceptable if it's in good condition.

Bumblepants

@Gremer you might get more eyes on your post if you make a ''want to buy" in the marketplace.

Gremer

Bumblepants said:

@Gremer you might get more eyes on your post if you make a ''want to buy" in the marketplace.

Probably, but it's not very high on my list now. Not yet, at least. I was just wondering if anyone had one available currently. I've got other stuff to get first.

VorpalRyu

@sid3windr, well at least one person asked if stores established prior to that date would eventually lose PayPal offsite as an option, the admin in question responded with an obvious deflection about the no PayPal offsite is for new stores after June 8. When pressed again about it, the response was that there are no current plans about existing stores.

CCC

Gremer said:

I asked a year ago, but a bunch of personal issues have come up (parents getting divorced, dog dying...), so I'll ask again.

 Would anyone here happen to be selling a #7964 Republic Frigate for around MSRP? New is preferred, but used is acceptable if it's in good condition.

The likelyhood of that is low. This set is now almost six years since retirement. On BL the cheapest are about $180 (new), so 50% on top of the $120 RRP. They are $140-150 used. Given repetition in the SW line affecting aftermarket prices, it is unlikely that a  reseller would give up on their profit on this set that has done just about OK, when other sets are stagnating. If you really want it, I'd get it now befre the few cheaper ones disappear.

Gremer

CCC said:

Gremer said:

I asked a year ago, but a bunch of personal issues have come up (parents getting divorced, dog dying...), so I'll ask again.

 Would anyone here happen to be selling a #7964 Republic Frigate for around MSRP? New is preferred, but used is acceptable if it's in good condition.

The likelyhood of that is low. This set is now almost six years since retirement. On BL the cheapest are about $180 (new), so 50% on top of the $120 RRP. They are $140-150 used. Given repetition in the SW line affecting aftermarket prices, it is unlikely that a  reseller would give up on their profit on this set that has done just about OK, when other sets are stagnating. If you really want it, I'd get it now befre the few cheaper ones disappear.

Yeah, I figured it'd be nigh impossible finding one for around MSRP. I've basically given up just about any hope of finding it for a reasonable price. I just figured I might as well ask though, better safe than sorry.

I've wanted it for years now, but it just always seems too expensive. It was a bit overpriced at $120, so anything above that feels ridiculous.

Edit: would anyone here happen to be selling one at all? Again, new is preferred, used in good condition is okay. I might be willing to take the leap, maybe.

CCC

Yeah, anyone that has held it for that long is likely to be after the money now. For a recently retired set you might be able to find someone willing to pass one on, but after this amount of time it is likely to be an investment set.

Gremer

I understand and I don't blame people for it. I could probably do $160, but $180 seems a bit crazy to me. Oh well.

Aleydita

Currently offering free European shipping on orders of €30 or more (select quote request).
https://ras.brickowl.com/

Lobot

As it's rapidly approaching the PPM deadline, does anyone know if Bricklink have resolved the issue with the lack of payment notification emails?  I can't see anything about it in the Community/Admin forums which is a little worrying.

I'm still in two minds whether I should accept, or revert of offsite only....

asrfarinha

Lobot said:

As it's rapidly approaching the PPM deadline, does anyone know if Bricklink have resolved the issue with the lack of payment notification emails?  I can't see anything about it in the Community/Admin forums which is a little worrying.

I'm still in two minds whether I should accept, or revert of offsite only....

I've enabled PPM last week and so far haven't received any payment notification emails.

Daragh

asrfarinha said:

Lobot said:

As it's rapidly approaching the PPM deadline, does anyone know if Bricklink have resolved the issue with the lack of payment notification emails?  I can't see anything about it in the Community/Admin forums which is a little worrying.

I'm still in two minds whether I should accept, or revert of offsite only....

I've enabled PPM last week and so far haven't received any payment notification emails.

Unfortunately that is one problem with the change, there have been loads of complaints to BL but they are remaining silent, as usual, and have not commented. However from what I can gather from other users it's because of how PPM works and won't be changing. You can set up an alert for payments on your phone if you have PayPal app, otherwise you need to keeping logging in PayPal or check payment status on BL against the order. 

elspankdog

I dunno, for instant checkout it always updates to paid on the order page so the notification emails are no biggie to me.

DB361

No issues with notifications for me. In fact no issues whatsoever since the changes, though it is very quiet with orders at the moment.

KingAlanI

I haven't enabled PFM but I still got an order on the 1st with PayPal (onsite) selected and got the payment.
I like payment notifications as a reminder to check PP/BL, but it's duplicative to get an email and an alert from the PP app, sounds like that would be changed to only the app.

Aleydita

You now don't need to accept PFM. Complete back-track by BL, too late for me though as I deleted my account. Note that you will be required to migrate to PFM if you want to continue offering instant checkout.

One note of caution: "It [PFM] will also allow BrickLink staff to eventually initiate a refund if there is a problematic transaction that a seller refuses to handle."

This sets off a million alarm bells. Basically, BL plan to act as judge, jury and executioner and reserve the right to gift your money to another person. This is regardless of the legal position of whatever transaction they are arbitrating on. And if BL do refund someone and you object, what action can you take? Given that BL don't publish their business address, you can't even resort to court action for redress.

It's utterly ridiculous.

TheFew

Can you turn PFM off once it has been turned on?

KingAlanI

It's an improvement in using BL without PFM but still doesn't make PFM sound any better

elspankdog

The refund process sounds similar to Brickowl in how you can initiate them as a seller.

Aleydita

elspankdog said:

The refund process sounds similar to Brickowl in how you can initiate them as a seller.

Yes, except for "It [PFM] will also allow BrickLink staff to eventually initiate a refund if there is a problematic transaction that a seller refuses to handle."

elspankdog

Yeah, that part is definitely different haha

DB361

To be frank I think everyone’s over reacting to that part. If you’re a good seller that sells items as described, makes sure that all orders are the best they can be and keep proof of postage, then what is there to worry about? Surely this is only for extreme cases where no items have been received and the sellers gone AWOL?

Lobot

It's a shame that they didn't announce this a few days ago. 

I removed my OnSite option just before the deadline as I wasn't sure if it would cause a problem if I hadn't. But, the only OnSite option now available is to connect to Marketplace - I've just emailed Bricklink about it, hopefully they'll fix it.

Despite the reassurances, I'm not overly impressed with Bricklink's handling of it.

CCC

DB361 said:

To be frank I think everyone’s over reacting to that part. If you’re a good seller that sells items as described, makes sure that all orders are the best they can be and keep proof of postage, then what is there to worry about? Surely this is only for extreme cases where no items have been received and the sellers gone AWOL?

My thoughts too. This is there to protect buyers from bad sellers that take money and run. BL normally side with a seller in case of a NSS where there is evidence that the package was sent. If a buyer wants to scam a seller, then they can still do the claim at PayPal with or without this change fro BL. I don't really see it is that big a deal. The only difference in the case of scam sellers is that BL can say that they are doing something about it, rather than telling the buyer to do it themselves via PayPal.

Aleydita

You're looking at it from the "I have complete trust in BL" angle. But what have they done to earn that trust? What if they DO make a decision to refund someone that you don't agree with? Why, suddenly, do they need this power when PayPal already have a competent grievance procedure?

CCC

If they do it, then PayPal could have done it anyway. So there is not much difference. I don't really see why they need to have the extra power, but I guess PayPal like them to have the power, so that PP have less complaints to deal with as refunds are dealt with through the site rather than PP. For the same fees, of course.

Aleydita

PayPal are subject to British courts. BrickLink is not. If PayPal do something you believe to be in error, you can resort to court action. You cannot do that if BrickLink do the same thing.

Basta

It’s an interesting one, PFM is ok in theory, I mean sure I’d prefer to keep control, but this is the way these things are going.

I just wish BL did a better job at communicating with us, they really made this whole situation much worse than it needed to be.

As to BL authorising refunds, one issue is that a lot of sellers do not have much trust in BL. Having multiple security breaches in the past and the continued lack of communication and consultation do not help with this. I think BL really needs to get on top of this before they implement this part of the change, as I can see many sellers being worried that BL will not have a robust or fair process in place to deal with refunds. 

CCC

Weren't all of the security breaches during the time of the previous owners. I know there have been minor cockups since but nothing as major as the hacks.

MiniBricks1

I’ve added quite a bit of inventory over the past couple days. Up to ~38,500 total items. Still have more to list though haha

Sales were great in the last two weeks of april. Averaged 2-3 orders a day. Have had one order per day so far in may.