Bricklinking Cafe Corner

Bosstone100

Guys,

I've just compiled the checklist for the Cafe Corner off of Peeron. I remember someone saying that the dark red slopes were expensive and I see them for $1 a piece and I need 36. Well, that ain't gonna happen. Red slopes are about $0.19 a piece. I'm not really concerned about the minifigs or animals at this point.

My question is... what are the expensive pieces I should beware of? I don't mind changing the whole color scheme of the building. So, if I change the slopes to red, should I change any other colors? I can use blue instead of the dark blue, etc. I also picked up one of the XXL boxes (1600 pieces) and a smaller box so I have some newer common colored pieces.

Also, if anyone can help out on this and has some extra pieces lying around (that I'll pay for of course and I decide on any replacements), let me know. If this is successful, I may try market street and the green grocer. (Also, if I should pick up any pieces that are in the other two, please let me know.)

Thanks,


Mike

Jenni

Hi Mike,

This is our pieced together (by someone else) Cafe Corner. The changes he chose were swapping out the $20 arch, swapping the pieces holding the awnings on from white to grey, and the only really visible difference is the roof. He didn't want to pay $1 for each of the roof pieces so chose to use the x2 pieces instead. It is definitely different but not terribly obvious.

I think you may not want to go to the trouble that this person did but thought it would be something to think about. It is a nice color scheme and if you have the mini modulars you don't want to wander too far :).

111ins

The 1x2x3 dark red slopes are available from LEGO directly if you call for less than $1
:)

jpcz

^Yes, get them from Lego, much cheaper!!

Also, be patient on a few of the higher priced pieces (blue arch, right door) and you can get them for a good price. Just pieced mine together with all original pieces for 300....took me about a month though to get all the pieces, but i didnt overpay and got some good deals. Just have to keep checking, because you're not the only one looking for a deal or two on the expensive pieces!

caperberry

Brickstore is a very useful bit of (free!) software, great for this kind of thing.

You can Import a BrickLink inventory for a set then set the price to current Bricklink prices. Then it's very easy to select all pieces in a certain colour, change them to a new colour then run the price check again.

Bosstone100

I looked at Brickstore and you're right... it's pretty useful. I sorted the list by the most expensive item, which is the light bluish gray door. I'm certainly not paying $30 for a door. White will probably work well. No one I know will have any clue if it's the right one of not.

Now, to see if I can limit ordering for too many people and increasing shipping costs.

The_Brick_Builder

Check out this discussion :) http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/31193#Comment_31193

BrickDancer

^Bosstone100 another way to reduce overall costs, double up on all parts and source for 2 CC's. Then sell the other way with margin to bring yours down to comp for the time and labor. 2 Pence!

caperberry

^^^ I wish someone would write some software that would figure out the best way to buy from multiple buyers on BL. I guess the shipping is impossible to calculate though

jpcz

I limited my cost because i put together market street at the same time...if you dont want 2 CC's, buy for one CC and a different set of your choice!

Oh the door, if you want that color, just watch it closely...i got mine for 14.17 and .90 (yes, 90 cents both in February).

sidersdd

^^^ I wish someone would write some software that would figure out the best way to buy from multiple buyers on BL. I guess the shipping is impossible to calculate though

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/3662/automated-bricklink-cost-minimization-program-available

andystar

I just BrickLink'd Cafe Corner the other week using the tool sidersdd mentioned in the link above (thanks to @atxdad for writing it). The total came in just under $300 including shipping for orders split across 7 vendors.

I didn't want the minifigures, but did try to get the same colors and did so except for the blue arch, light grey door, dark blue birds, and white clips for the awning. I found it easier to get the other dark blue bricks direct from LEGO as they were hard to get from a few vendors on Bricklink. If I wanted to get the blue arch and door, I believe it would push the total up to around $370 and I couldn't justify the cost for those parts.

Duchessa

I just BrickLink'd Cafe Corner the other week using the tool sidersdd mentioned in the link above (thanks to @atxdad for writing it). The total came in just under $300 including shipping for orders split across 7 vendors.

I didn't want the minifigures, but did try to get the same colors and did so except for the blue arch, light grey door, dark blue birds, and white clips for the awning. I found it easier to get the other dark blue bricks direct from LEGO as they were hard to get from a few vendors on Bricklink. If I wanted to get the blue arch and door, I believe it would push the total up to around $370 and I couldn't justify the cost for those parts.

I just have to ask... dark blue birds? Aren't the birds supposed to be dark stone?

I traded my Santa Fe-sets for a nearly complete Green Groocer and a 2/3 complete Café Corner two weeks ago, so I've placed some Bricklink orders for the missing parts. I'm going to replace the lt stone door for the CC, and perhaps some other parts as well. All the dark red slopes were there, along with the other dark red parts. The problem is that IIRC, Lego made two versions of dark red. This set seems to have both of them. It doesn't look great, unfortunately....

allmybricks

@andystar - how long did your Cost Minimization search take for 7 vendors with that many items?

andystar

^ In general I find it easier split the search into multiple searches for up to 100 lots/search for up to 4-5 vendor solutions, then combine the parts list into a single search including all the vendors from the 100 lot solutions with a few other vendors that have high numbers of unique lots.

For the Cafe Corner I split the search into two runs, half the parts in each run, with each run limited to searching across ~110 vendors for combinations up to 5 vendors. This took about about 90minutes each. Then I took the entire part list and limited the search to only include 40 vendors, but forced it to include the 10 vendors from the previous results. This step isn't necessary, but it helped to find a solution that minimized the vendors ( and shipping costs) required to fill the order. The final search for up to 7 vendor combos took about 50 minutes.

I also found it helped by excluding certain vendors that charge high prices or that only sell parts in 20 unit increments.

I've done the same thing for Green Grocer and found a solution for ~$300, including all the sand green pieces (order them from LEGO).

dougts

@andystar - how long did your Cost Minimization search take for 7 vendors with that many items?

^ I may have described this elsewhere, but I couldn't get the CostMin program to run decently with that many parts, so I used a hybrid approach:

I first tackled all the rare parts, and bought those along with enough other items to meet store mins (doing some manual price checking to determine which items to buy), I then removed all these purchased items from the master list.

Next, I looked at the in stores count in bricklink for the remainder of the items. There were about 10 stores at the top of the list who all had a much higher % of items than everyone else. I went to each store, filled out my cart with all items they each had, then compared the totals. I also spot-checked all the most expensive items from each to ensure i wasn't getting gouged on any of them. I ended up choosing the store from this list of 10 that had the best overall price/value ratio, and ordered all the parts from them that weren't completely overpriced.

Yes, I fully realized that doing all this did not completely minimize my costs thus far, but I think it was close enough, and also got the most amount of items from the least amount of stores.

This left about 75 items, which I ran through the cost minimization program. The program found me a 3-store and two 4-store combinations, of which I selected the option that made the most sense when factoring shipping prices in.

allmybricks

@dougts your 1st step is basically how I bricklink'd the entire CC in December.

I think I need to learn how to reduce the number of vendors CostMin is searching. Right now it's doing 600+ stores on a 120 part list... this one has been running for about 6 hours and getting no where :-)

andystar

@Duchessa - Sorry, I meant the birds are dark stone grey, which I believe is also referred to as dark blueish grey on BrickLink. I am replacing them with ones that are "dark grey" on BrickLink, which I believe is "old dark grey" according to the LEGO colour palette lego.wikia.com/wiki/Colour_Palette

What do you mean by "IIRC"?

dougts

What do you mean by "IIRC"?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iirc

IIRC = "If I Recall Correctly"

andystar

^ Thanks Doug, thought it might be some lego terminology I wasn't familiar with. Next time I'll google it first.

StuBoy

^ You're not alone - I was wondering that too!

andystar

@allmybricks - I highly recommend you turn pruning on the limit the search from the original 600+ stores down to around 100 if you haven't already done so. This should run fairly quick for a 4-5 vendor combo solution. If no solution is found, either try breaking the part list into smaller groups, then run each group by itself using the same pruning.

sidersdd

All the dark red slopes were there, along with the other dark red parts. The problem is that IIRC, Lego made two versions of dark red. This set seems to have both of them. It doesn't look great, unfortunately....

I believe the original dark red that was used by LEGO was very inconsistent between elements. They later changed the dark red to a new mix, which was much more consistent - however does look different than the older dark red.

See this:
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=55386

Duchessa

All the dark red slopes were there, along with the other dark red parts. The problem is that IIRC, Lego made two versions of dark red. This set seems to have both of them. It doesn't look great, unfortunately....

I believe the original dark red that was used by LEGO was very inconsistent between elements. They later changed the dark red to a new mix, which was much more consistent - however does look different than the older dark red.

See this:
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=55386

Thanks for the link! I like the older version better - the new one looks pale in comparison. And I know for a fact that this set included both the new and old dark red, since some of the bags were still sealed. (The guy I bought the set from had used some of the parts for a MOC, and never touched the other ones). Unfortunately, the 36 dark red slopes - I have all of them included in the set - are a mix of new and old, so I can't use that part as a starting point for choosing one of the two...

ktmo

Can I ask a question here? There are two tables on the sidewalk. What piece should be the seats? I purchased one and it came with yellow chairs AND the yellow round plates. A few of the ones I see on ebay have the yellow chairs, but the instructions just show the yellow round plates.

RainingBoroSi02

@andystar
For pricing the Green Grocer, are you calculating this based on getting all of your parts from a second source (ie not including any of your own)? I'm in the market to make my own, maybe two. Any suggestions?

DaddyWhale

Can I ask a question here? There are two tables on the sidewalk. What piece should be the seats? I purchased one and it came with yellow chairs AND the yellow round plates. A few of the ones I see on ebay have the yellow chairs, but the instructions just show the yellow round plates.

Mine has the yellow 2x2 round plates, each on top of 2 black 1x1 round plates.

ktmo

@DaddyWhale thanks. That is what I thought.

ktmo

I've done the same thing for Green Grocer and found a solution for ~$300, including all the sand green pieces (order them from LEGO).

@andystar where did you find the sand green pieces. I checked Pick-a-brick online and can't find the sand green pieces.

LegoFanTexas

What is causing the search progrm to run slow? Is it having to access the web site over and over? 600 store inventories should be easy to compute once you have a local copy, why is it not taking just a few min?

Or am I missing the obvious?

vwong19

@ktmo - you can call Lego customer support with the part number or go the their online customer service and check out lost parts section... select the bricks that you are missing from the set that you parting together. Some older bricks are not available... do not be afraid to order more than is included in the set, they will charge for each brick for almost what they would through pick a brick.

ktmo

@vwong19 thanks. I just checked the Lego site again and I can see them going thru the missing parts section (but not thru PAB) so it looks like I should be able to order them. I will give them a call and place my order that way.

harrelmusic

@ktmo -- Do you think it's possible the 1x2x3 slopes are no longer available from LEGO? I tried to go through the missing parts section but didn't see it show up there....? Hmmm....

starfire2

^ You could try emailing Lego Customer Service with the part number and quantity needed. That is what I did. I even offered to pay, however the part(s) I needed were in a different color, so I passed. But you never know.

vwong19

@ harrelmusic - take a look at the Pet Shop missing parts list... there are 2 of the dark red slopes in that set. Not sure why it doesn't appear in the Cafe Corner other than to discourage people from ordering tons of them.... :-)

harrelmusic

I called them with the part ID from the CC and they said they didn't have them any more and offered me some other colors. Thanks for the tip about the Pet Shop!

vwong19

^ Let me know if you get a positive email from Customer Service. I have to wait a few more days before I can place my order, since they say it is back ordered.

Si_UKNZ

Not sure why it doesn't appear in the Cafe Corner

It's actually a different brick, with a different bricklink reference and a slightly different shade of red, too.

vwong19

Not sure why it doesn't appear in the Cafe Corner

It's actually a different brick, with a different bricklink reference and a slightly different shade of red, too.

I stand corrected. There seems to be an error on Bricklink then....
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=4460b&colorID=59&in=A

as it implies that part # 4267279 in Cafe Corner are the same as part #4623597 in Pet Shop.

I'd be very concerned about what you get from Bricklink before high supply suggests that those parts are being augmented by the Pet Shop bricks... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=4460b&colorID=59

dougts

^ which won't really matter so long as you sort all 36 slopes from the same source (and assuming the source hasn't inter-mixed).

vwong19

^ Wouldn't the shade of dark red be noticeably different from the other dark red CC components as SDSU suggested?

dougts

^ in my experience, no. only the slopes had a color change AFAIK (out of dark red in general), and it was very slight. mixing slopes might be noticeable, but in reference to other other dark red pieces in the set, it shouldn't be.

vwong19

Can someone take a picture of the 2 bricks next to each other? It's kind of disturbing that Bricklink considers the 2 bricks to be the same when Lego and some experts do not.... that doesn't seem right.

Si_UKNZ

There seems to be an error on Bricklink then

Ooh, that's interesting. They used to be 2 seperate items in bricklink. Maybe they decided they were similar enough to merge them.

The Pet Shop one is a brighter red, the Cafe Corner one is more browny coloured.

Duchessa

Can someone take a picture of the 2 bricks next to each other? It's kind of disturbing that Bricklink considers the 2 bricks to be the same when Lego and some experts do not.... that doesn't seem right.

It's not just the slopes, it's also the other dark red pieces. I mentioned before that I bought the set from another collector. About 1/3 of the parts were missing (he used it for a MOC), the rest was in their original polybags, so I know for sure that they weren't replaced. They are obviously different shades of red.

I'm at work right now, but I'll try to take some pics and post them here tonight.

Si_UKNZ

Actually, I noticed that when adding the 1x4 flats on my extra middle floor - some looked brighter (dark) red than others.

harrelmusic

I tired to email LEGO yesterday and got a reply that they no longer make the 1x2x3 red slope (LIE!!) after adding it to my order from the Pet Shop missing parts page. Perhaps the problem is I also tried to get the $20 dark blue arch from the CC missing parts page....?

vwong19

I tired to email LEGO yesterday and got a reply that they no longer make the 1x2x3 red slope (LIE!!) after adding it to my order from the Pet Shop missing parts page. Perhaps the problem is I also tried to get the $20 dark blue arch from the CC missing parts page....?

Really? I sent the request 4 days ago and I got the following reply....

"Thank you for getting in touch with us regarding your missing LEGO® pieces.

We will be happy to sell you the 200x #4623597 pieces but, unfortunately, the parts you need are temporarily out of stock. The demand for these particular LEGO pieces has been unexpectedly high and there is a delay while our factories make extra quantities. Don't worry though, the parts have been made and will be available for you on or around 03/30/2012. Please contact us during or after this date in order to complete your parts purchase.

Sorry for any inconvenience."

But in light of the Bricklink merging of 2 different bricks, I am hesitant as to what to do with these pieces if I do order them.

vwong19

Dark blue arches are definitely not available or being made. I tried as well.

Duchessa

Hmm... taking pics of the dark red pieces wasn't easy. This one was the best I could come up with. The two bottom pieces/left ones are more pale, the top pieces/right are more dark. And yes, they came from the same set.

Diggydoes

I'm currently bricklinking the CC together,i try to use no substitutes at all. I had no trouble at all so far,but i'm wondering what the difference between the "Door Frame 1x4x6"type 1 and the type 2 is? Looks like type 2 has replaced type 1,so this one is kinda hard to get/expensive!