Accurate Part Lists

klarkie

I'm currently checking and bagging up my nephews sets to make sure everything is there and to find out what pieces are missing  Is Bricksets parts lists the most accurate out there or is there another site which would be more accurate for me?

Cheers

Astrobricks

BrickLink.com ‘s parts inventories seem more complete to me. 

Huw

I'd recommend using bricklink too, especially for older sets, as we republish LEGO's which are not always complete and accurate.

SprinkleOtter

"Hey, Jim, does this set have the new or old version of this part?"

"Ah, screw it, I don't know- just put both in the inventory"

"Sounds good!"

-- Actual internal recording from the LEGO inventory department.

klarkie

Thanks guys, my nephew loved to mix and match everything so I'm going to have a fun time!

dulcaoin

SprinkleOtter said:

"Hey, Jim, does this set have the new or old version of this part?"

"Ah, screw it, I don't know- just put both in the inventory"

"Sounds good!"

-- Actual internal recording from the LEGO inventory department.

The Brickset inventories are based off the current replacement parts service inventories that are published online; the information is dictated by what parts are currently available to fulfill replacement orders; so you may see parts completely missing from the inventories (as they are no longer offered and permanently eliminated), or you may see the "wrong" item ID (different from what may have been printed in the Bill-of-Materials at the back of the instructions for the set when it was released) because they are using a differently moulded but still compatible part, OR you may see two different item IDs because they have palettes of replacement parts available from multiple part runs.

In the case of a "different" item ID from the original, those might use Item IDs from a later run (which makes sense), or even an earlier run (they probably ran out of the later stuff made at the time of the set's release, and have gone back to stock in the warehouse that was stored historically).

[I have reached these conclusions through a lot of research and puzzling through the conditions of the inventories on Brickset vis-a-vis BOMs and my own hand-entered inventories going back 25 years; but I don't have official contacts who have verified any of the above, so please take it as my well-researched opinion]

CCC

dulcaoin said:

The Brickset inventories are based off the current replacement parts service inventories that are published online; the information is dictated by what parts are currently available to fulfill replacement orders; so you may see parts completely missing from the inventories (as they are no longer offered and permanently eliminated), or you may see the "wrong" item ID (different from what may have been printed in the Bill-of-Materials at the back of the instructions for the set when it was released) because they are using a differently moulded but still compatible part, OR you may see two different item IDs because they have palettes of replacement parts available from multiple part runs.

Newer ones are, older ones are from rebrickable.

However (the bit in bold) I don't think that is quite right. Once the inventory is downloaded, I don't think Huw updates it if the parts are removed as they are no longer available. If the parts where there are the time of the initial download, then they will be kept in the brickset database. So it doesn't matter what is currently available, but what was available at the time at which the inventory was scraped. At least, I think that is how Huw described it before.

Keilup

When checking of inventory, I like to open the .pdf instructions and print the inventory.  Most are in the instructions, but not all.  Works quite well when working from physical checklist.  For example I was working on completing #3409 this week.  Inventory missing from instructions.  Some parts missing on Brickset such as the net and balls.  However, Bricklink seems to have all parts listed.

dulcaoin

CCC said:

dulcaoin said:

The Brickset inventories are based off the current replacement parts service inventories that are published online; the information is dictated by what parts are currently available to fulfill replacement orders; so you may see parts completely missing from the inventories (as they are no longer offered and permanently eliminated), or you may see the "wrong" item ID (different from what may have been printed in the Bill-of-Materials at the back of the instructions for the set when it was released) because they are using a differently moulded but still compatible part, OR you may see two different item IDs because they have palettes of replacement parts available from multiple part runs.

Newer ones are, older ones are from rebrickable.

However (the bit in bold) I don't think that is quite right. Once the inventory is downloaded, I don't think Huw updates it if the parts are removed as they are no longer available. If the parts where there are the time of the initial download, then they will be kept in the brickset database. So it doesn't matter what is currently available, but what was available at the time at which the inventory was scraped. At least, I think that is how Huw described it before.

[rebrickable]

I was specifically referring to the (tongue-in-cheek) comment about how both older and newer parts might appear in a BrickSet inventory; that isn't true of the from-Rebrickable inventories.  Also Huw's comment above that comment as well.

I'd add (since you brought it up) that many of the Rebrickable inventories originally came from Peeron and/or Bricklink; including any mistakes.  There has been a lot of cross-polination of information across the different systems.  I often have to smile when I see a set count on BrickSet -- that was old and guessed-at with less accurate information than we have now -- originally on LUGNET, where it migrated to Peeron automatically, then perhaps other sites by other means and it's been since fixed on LUGNET because we have since found a box scan with more accurate information.

[bolded portions]

As for the statements in bold, I was speaking from the perspective of the rpService API, rather than Brickset.  We are in agreement, it's just from the point of view of the service rather than Brickset.  The gist being, anything collected from rpService, while being among the most accurate information available (quantities, especially, but also accurate colors, color names, and part names), will actually CHANGE over time, and will often be incomplete, with either undercounts or even overcounts thanks to the duplication of parts being listed twice because they are functionally equivalent and they happen to have more than one of them available as replacements.

Huw

I don't routinely refresh inventories so @CCC is correct although have done from time to time and have to do so for the January releases, whose inventories are always initially published incomplete.