When you need an axle and end up buying a town

Ririnette

I had my first experience ordering from Bricklink yesterday. I needed a white axle to complete my UCS Yoda #7194 set and the store owner had a $10 minimum purchase. The axle was 50 cents. No big deal. It was also the only North American store that carried the part, so I thought I'd save on shipping.

30 minutes later and I had a 3 minifigures and 4 other parts (for other sets) in the cart. After shipping and dollar conversion, I spent almost 30 bucks. And I still need half a dozen parts for Yoda.

Any tips for saving on parts and not get carried away?

bandit778

I have found that the easiest way to save money is to use the wish list function. Go through the sets, find out what you need, then go on brick link and put in a wish list of the parts required, it should generate the stores that have the most inventory for the parts needed. This should save on shipping. Might be a idea to get to know the  average prices for the bits as well. Sometimes the store with the most parts may not be the cheapest but offset against shipping may be a better place to buy.

Bosstone100

I recently had a Bricklink wantlist of spare/missing parts for some sets that I have and I used that search by shop function and actually found a store in the US that had all of them. Really saved me some $$$ and time.

Ririnette

bandit778 said:

I have found that the easiest way to save money is to use the wish list function. Go through the sets, find out what you need, then go on brick link and put in a wish list of the parts required, it should generate the stores that have the most inventory for the parts needed. This should save on shipping. Might be a idea to get to know the  average prices for the bits as well. Sometimes the store with the most parts may not be the cheapest but offset against shipping may be a better place to buy.

This is a great tip, exactly what I needed! Thank you!

kizkiz

Finish sorting all your sets before buying anything.
Make a list of everything at the end. 
Then buy in as few lots as possible

drdavewatford

^ This.

bandit778

Also, give Brickowl a go. It doesn't necessarily have the range of parts of Bricklink but it is more user friendly to beginners (I used it myself for a start). 
You can create wish lists on there as well and one of it's biggest advantages is it gives you the shipping costs as you order.

Also, depending on how far down the burrow you want to go, if you want to keep track of it all, you could sign up to Rebrickable.
This site is linked to Brickset, so it keeps track of your sets, but , and i'm sure someone will correct me if i am wrong, I also think it can be linked to Bricklink and Brickowl so you can do a wanted parts list on there, then you can upload it to both. (Haven't done it myself so not entirely sure).

eanair

Yeah I need to decide exactly what I need before I start shopping, instead of thinking 'oh well I'll always find a use for this' - I must have about 40 chairs now for that reason.  My problem too is ordering lots of stuff to make shipping worthwhile....and don't get me started on those clever Bricklinkers who message you saying "your parcel weighs 210g, you can still add to your order up to 300g and shipping won't increase". Of course I add more stuff. I always fall for it and I work in marketing so should know better!

Tkatt

Don't drink and Bricklink.