Ordering from BrickLink

Renny

As a seller when I send an invoice to a customer I always write in there that if they wish to cancel just to let me know. Since I sell sets and not individual pieces it's not a big deal to me. I can see it being an annoyance though if you do deal in pieces, having to spend time picking them, weighing them and then possibly restocking them afterwards.

As for feedback I just leave it as soon as I mark the order as shipped. I would love if every customer left feedback or marked transactions as complete but I know that is not realistic. I think they would be more inclined to leave that feedback if they see the seller is not holding their feedback for the buyer at ransom.

Once a package has been delivered (verified by tracking number) and I hear nothing from the buyer I will mark the transaction complete 1 month later.

CCC

The feedback system on BL is what it used to be on ebay. If there is a problem, then seller pressure can lead to you not leaving the feedback they deserve.

I had a complaint with a seller in about my fifth transaction (the seller saying excellent condition for minifig torsos that were cracked) that bluntly stated that if I leave negative feedback then I would get negative feedback for being a complainer. And so nobody gets warned about what the seller is up to.

When I sell, I leave feedback the day I post the item.

When I receive an order as a buyer, I will leave feedback if the seller has left it for me once I have checked the order. I don't bother leaving it if they haven't. I will drop them an email to say the package has been received in this case, and mark the transaction as completed.

seonadancing

When a seller makes this threat, shouldn't you send it to the admins for resolution?

CCC said:

The feedback system on BL is what it used to be on ebay. If there is a problem, then seller pressure can lead to you not leaving the feedback they deserve.

I had a complaint with a seller in about my fifth transaction (the seller saying excellent condition for minifig torsos that were cracked) that bluntly stated that if I leave negative feedback then I would get negative feedback for being a complainer. And so nobody gets warned about what the seller is up to.

CCC

seonadancing said:

When a seller makes this threat, shouldn't you send it to the admins for resolution?

Bricklink is very difficult to use when you are a new user. Would a new user know to do that? I don't think I did at the time.

Come to think of it, I didn't even know about the forums at the time. And in fact, when I did first see the forums, I saw a relatively new user say something about how clunky bricklink was for new people and made some suggestions. S/he got roundly told that they didn't know what they were talking about, and that bricklink is fine as it is and that they know nothing because they are new. I didn't bother looking again for a few months after that.

DadsAFOL

First rule of BrickLink - don't discuss BrickLink!

Brickarmor

BL has an undeniably steep learning curve, but once you learn the ropes you can kinda (kinda!) symapthize with those, shall we say, rather peckish sellers in the forum who want everything to stay the same. Every single time I went to the forum with a suggestion, I was politely (seriously!) shown how it was already possible. Just IMpossible until someone showed you.

Renny

Had a question about new buyers with little to no feedback. I have a store policy that I will not sell high value sets (anything over $300) unless the buyer has an established feedback track record (by that I mean at least 10 feedback with no major red flags). Recently a new buyer from overseas asked about purchasing a $1500 set and I kindly informed him of my store policy. Is this a fair policy or would you allow a sale like that to go through?

Amberyl

I can tell you that as a new Bricklinker, I've had trouble building up feedback (sellers don't consistently leave it), and I'm pretty much a model buyer -- transactions of $150+, paid by Paypal within a few hours of receiving the invoice (and clearly marked Bricklink username, invoice number and items on the Paypal note-to-payee), I mark orders immediately upon receipt, and I open and check items when I receive them and leave positive feedback for the seller.

10 feedback is a fair amount -- if you buy a set a month from Bricklink and consistently get feedback, it'll still take you a year to build up that much feedback. $300 seems a relatively low threshold to cut people off at, but $1500 for a user with no feedback seems to suggest the use of an escrow service.

(Logically, AFOLs coming out of their dark ages will be new users with no feedback and a desire to acquire high-priced sets.)

stickbug29

Hello fellow Brickset users,
I'm looking for some help with Bricklink. I have quite a few pieces missing from a variety of sets, and I'm trying to get them all replaced. No store has every piece I need, so I'm not sure how to get everything without checking through tons of stores to get the most for the least price.
So what do you guys do when trying to make bulk piece orders on Bricklink?

Oh, and this is most likely in the wrong category.

Joseph

This program is great for finding the best price http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/3662/automated-bricklink-cost-minimization-program-available/

111ins

also go to BL and look up how to make a wanted list so that at least you can find which stores have the most items. this does not give you the best prices but it is better to pay 0.10$ per part more from 3 sellers than save the 0.10$ and buy from 5 sellers.

0.02

seonadancing

Hi, I just want to ask, can you allow other people to see the items that are already inside another buyer's cart? There are some buyers that takes awhile to pay for an order so i'm wondering if there's a way outside of the order cancel process to allow other buyers to buy the same items. Thanks.

Brickarmor

Short answer is no. I think if a buyer has placed an order those items are not visible in your inventory. If you have a problem with slow buyers, send a message at 4 days than another at 7 and cancel the order at 10 if you haven't heard from them. I've only had to cancel one order and never gotten any complaints about this method. Just be sure to ask if they are wanting to keep it open and for how long.

Brickarmor

As mentioned, learn to work with your Wanted List, it is the cornerstone for BL buyers in my opinion. Use the By Shop tab to see which shop has most of your items.

StuBoy

Definitely use the Wanted List. It can be a bit hard to get used to and time-consuming to add all your parts, its the best way to achieve what you want.
If you have quite a few missing parts from one particular set, you can part-out that set into a wanted list, but just add the missing parts, rather than the entire set. It will save time searching and adding each part individually.

CCC

^^ It's not just that they are in their cart, they are in a placed order.

I wouldn't be happy if I had placed an order for some parts, and by the time I had been invoiced and paid someone else had taken the parts away from my order.

alexwil

Once you have placed the order the parts are effectively yours, no matter how long you take to pay, nobody else would be able to come along and order those same parts!

stickbug29

Ah ha! Never caught the "By Shop" tab before. Thanks for the help! :)

Mods, you can probably close this thread.

Rykeer

Hi everyone,

About two weeks ago, I placed ten orders from ten different sellers on Bricklink for a moc that I'm working on. Nine of the ten arrived within a week and a half. The last one, went from New Jersey to Federal Way, WA. (normal, since I live in Idaho), and then went to Memphis, TN of all places. It keeps leaving Memphis and returning every three days or so according to the tracking number. I did buy insurance on it, and Sat., Dec. 8 will be 21 days since it shipped. I was wondering what others thought about this: is it the buyer's or the seller's responsibility to contact the Postal Service about this? I would have thought the seller's, but maybe I'm wrong. I was going to wait until Monday to contact the seller again, but he just contacted me and told me to call Customer Service at the Post Office about it.

Here's the tracking info, in case anyone wants to see it, or wants some amusement at our efficient Postal Service. :)

Processed through USPS Sort Facility December 05, 2012, 8:22 pm 38199 Processed through USPS Sort Facility December 04, 2012, 7:32 pm 38199 Depart USPS Sort Facility December 03, 2012 38199 Processed through USPS Sort Facility December 03, 2012, 6:18 pm 38199 Processed through USPS Sort Facility December 01, 2012, 11:24 pm MEMPHIS, TN 38136 Depart USPS Sort Facility November 27, 2012 MEMPHIS, TN 38136 Processed through USPS Sort Facility November 27, 2012, 9:02 am MEMPHIS, TN 38136 Depart USPS Sort Facility November 24, 2012 FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003 Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility November 23, 2012, 8:05 pm FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003 Dispatched to Sort Facility November 17, 2012, 12:36 pm NORTH BERGEN, NJ 07047 Acceptance November 17, 2012, 12:15 pm NORTH BERGEN, NJ 07047

By the way, is it possible to create a "spoiler" box here? Looked around and couldn't find out how here.

Rykeer

forumreader

Generally, I believe the seller is supposed to refund the buyer and then be reimbursed through the insurance he or she (seller) purchased for the missing package.

You can certainly call the post office and see if they know anything, but ultimately the seller should be dealing with them on the insurance claim, since he shipped the package out.

ColoradoBricks

@Rykeer, I got once a bricklink order that went 4 or 5 times between CO and CA. It was eventually delivered after 7 weeks... (First Class package)

mressin

It seems to me that the postal service has a business agreement with the sender/seller, but not with the receiver/buyer. So it should be the sender who sorts this out.

monkeyhanger

Definitely seller to sort it. Some carriers only allow dialogue between themselves and the sender, not the intended recipient.

LegoFanTexas

Rykeer said:

I was wondering what others thought about this: is it the buyer's or the seller's responsibility to contact the Postal Service about this? I would have thought the seller's, but maybe I'm wrong.

If you want the legal answer... This is the seller's responsbility...

If you paid via PayPal, they will ultimatly enforce it if the seller doesn't take care of it, but before it gets to that, usually a friendly e-mail to the seller will take care of it.

As a seller, in cases like this, I ask the buyer to give it 5 weeks for 1st class mail. That leaves the buyer 1 week to file a PayPal claim (PayPal gives 45 days or 6 weeks) so they feel comfortable I'm not just trying to push it off. After 5 weeks, I'll refund if it doesn't show as delivered yet. The vast majority of the time, it does end up getting there within those 5 weeks.

As a buyer, I'll do a seller the same favor, I don't mind waiting since it is indeed the post office that is kicking the package around. At 5 weeks, I expect a refund from the seller. In return, if the item is ever delivered, I'll pay them back for it.

What the seller does with an insurance claim, is their own business.

Rykeer

I'm certainly not blaming him; I realize that this is the Post Office's fault. I just wanted to verify that it is up to him to deal with the Post Office. And I did pay using PayPal, wanted to make sure that I had that extra layer of security since up till now, I had never bought anything through Bricklink stores. I'll contact the seller again, and ask him politely to check with the Post Office himself, since it is his responsibility. Thanks everyone.

graphite

This type of stuff doesn't surprise me with the USPS. I've never had any real trouble with them but the systems they use for certain things are just trash.

Just went to the post office today to mail something to Sweden and it was the first time I decided to fill out the customs form online instead of using the paper one since they have to type it all in at the counter when using the paper form. The online one is actually a bit more of a pain than the paper due to formatting but you print out something you can attach to the package and the other part for the post office. When I got to the post office and they scanned it the address including the city/postal code all showed up under "address 1" and not in the fields in the form that I filled them out in. The display on the PO screen looked exactly like the form I filled out so their database queries are just wrong or something. Also the clerk still had to fill out the contents/value manually into the computer even though I did it online and the form already had it on it.

The people at my post office are actually pretty nice for postal workers but I avoid the counter and use the self serve machine for anything that fits in the drop box just to avoid dealing with the pointless crap they have to go through at the counter.

Rykeer

I'm actually a bit surprised that I didn't have problems with the other 9 orders that I placed. That was why I paid for insurance on all them (except one, where I only spent $2 or $3). I'm wondering if part of the problem with this order, has to do with Hurricane Sandy last month. Although my order was shipped several days afterwards, I was expecting some problems. Except for the fact that it made it all the way to Washington with no problem, and then went back east again. That was not a problem that I was expecting. lol

chrisdojo

@Rykeer Have you ever seen news articles about letters FINALLY being delivered by the USPS decades later?

Hope you get your bricks soon.

Rykeer

@chrisdojo lol, yeah I have seen those now and then. Be amusing if someday, someone ended up with a UCS MF that finally got delivered decades later. ( I know, I know, those wouldn't have been shipped USPS, but still... :) )

jpcz

I've received mail as far back as 2 years after i bought something. A note attached said the PO was cleaning out their areas and found this behind a machine. I had totally forgot i ordered it and had actually ordered another in the meantime. So, things do eventually get to where they have to go, i guess.

NatureLego12

I bought some pieces off on Bricklink and The sellers page said their will be a $1.50 handling/shipping fee. But later the seller charged me extra. I sent a cancell request and does anyone know what will happen.

CCC

NatureLego12 said:

I bought some pieces off on Bricklink and The sellers page said their will be a $1.50 handling/shipping fee. But later the seller charged me extra. I sent a cancell request and does anyone know what will happen.

Just refuse to pay it. If you refuse to pay, they cannot force you to pay. They might leave negative feedback, and you can do the same for adding on extra fees not stated up front.

alexwil

If I were you I'd email the seller, probably just a misunderstanding somewhere.

That $1.50 fee would be a flat fee he charges all buyers, you'd have shipping to pay on top of that, assume you realize that?!

mrtonytj

Hi, i was wondering if someone could help me..

I want to know how to look up previous sales on bricklink?
I cannot for the life of me work it out???

mrtonytj

I have also heard of people looking at averages for certain sets etc.. How do you do that??

mressin

On a bricklink catalog set page (example), click on the link beneath "View Price Guide Info" in the lower right (example).

Was that what you were looking for?

mrtonytj

Ahhhhhhhh ok.. I was looking in search not catalog. Thanks.

proskater1

Hello BrickSetForum, I have just joined. So let me begin with what happened. Two years ago I had a massive lego clone army, And lego collection. But I had to move and i needed some extra $. So I sold all of my lego. I just got back into building M.O.C when i saw an old lego set and couldn't pass it up. I need lego clones for the base I'm building but there is no lego clones anymore. I'm talking about plain white clones. But i am on a budget and cant spend over $1.50 per clone. And I dont like purchasing from bricklink. Any suggestions?

monkeyhanger

What's wrong with bricklink? I have had many transactions that have all gone smoothly. You could try ebay also, although i'm not sure how often plain white clones are available there. You will definitely find the most comprehensive inventory of them on bricklink, and with fixed pricing there should be no surprises about how much they're going to cost you.

proskater1

monkeyhanger said:

What's wrong with bricklink? I have had many transactions that have all gone smoothly. You could try ebay also, although i'm not sure how often plain white clones are available there. You will definitely find the most comprehensive inventory of them on bricklink, and with fixed pricing there should be no surprises about how much they're going to cost you.

Yes but I have personally used bricklink. Are they trustworthy?

proskater1

monkeyhanger said:

What's wrong with bricklink? I have had many transactions that have all gone smoothly. You could try ebay also, although i'm not sure how often plain white clones are available there. You will definitely find the most comprehensive inventory of them on bricklink, and with fixed pricing there should be no surprises about how much they're going to cost you.

Sorry *never personally used bricklink.

Brick_Obsession

8 out of 10 purchases I do are done via Bricklink, I live and build by them.

Don't knock it, till you have rocked it. I mean, you cannot formulate or speculate on something unless you have tried it.

I am not going to get into a Bricklink vs. Ebay debate here but I would encourage you to try Bricklink before you judge it.

Oldfan

Bricklink allows you to purchase exactly what you need, in the quantities available in the various shops; you get to see very accurate parts/minifig/sets descriptions, so you know exactly what you are buying. You usually pay a slight price premium compared to other sales sites for this certainty. With ebay, you're limited to what people are putting up for auction (i.e. more bulk sales than individual parts and minifigs), and for the chance of a cheaper price you are somewhat at the mercy of the seller's accuracy in their description.

I've purchased Lego from both sites. I tend to buy individual parts from Bricklink and sets from ebay, but I've also purchased many sets from Bricklink and have been able to find some real bargains from time to time.

Bricklink is an emporium of individual sellers, all with their own shipping policies and costs; there is no "standard" shipping, fees, or pricing policy among the sellers. The vast majority of Bricklink issues seem to stem from not understanding this concept; read the Bricklink terms and each store's terms carefully before committing to purchase and you shouldn't have any problems base on my experience. Good luck and welcome back to the moneysink Lego hobby!

BrickDancer

For your purposes, Bricklink is the better route than Ebay. There you will be able to find a single seller with large numbers of clones to reduce your overall shipping costs.

CapnRex101

It might be worth waiting for the new Clone Battle Packs and Planets sets (they are not out in Europe yet) to be released more widely which will lower the price and collect the Ep.2 Clone Troopers rather than Clone Wars ones. They will also no doubt be included with the rumoured AT-TE and Republic Gunship this Summer which will further drive down the price online for individual Minifigures. I just think that might be a cheaper option, but if you cannot wait and want to go for Clone Wars Clone Troopers, Bricklink is certainly the way to go, and further to other comments, I can assure you having made quite a few transactions on the site, the sellers (at least all of the ones who I have dealt with) are perfectly trustworthy. Good luck!

sctty1987

why is it so hard to buy a sw set with the figs included even tho it is out of my control it is really starting to frustrate me

CCC

It's easy. You go to lego, or amazon, or wherever, and pay them the money.

RomanticWarrior

I'd love to help answer, but I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Can you rephrase that?

sctty1987

the newer sets can be bought new and complete but the older ones i am after all i can find is sets with figs removed

GIR3691

Bricklink usually has sets, just specify "used" and "complete" in the search.

When selling old sets, the minifigures are the most valuable and are often sold separately.