BrickLink Discussion Forum

Status:

Open

Don't know if anybody have noticed (I just did) but some improvements were
made
in inventory upload form and inventory change request form
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2453

Great to see that!

Author:

legnasloot

Posted:

Mar 8, 2019 21:40

Subject:

Inventory change request set #9786

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Item 32039 is double listed with old light great and new light gray. Should only
list the old color, as the new color is listed as an alternate.

Should include 3 gear items, a mat, and 2 posters.
4189432
4189447
4189444

Author:

POPS_BLOCK_SHOP

Posted:

Mar 8, 2019 08:51

Subject:

Lego Store Pick a Brick Worth it ??

Viewed:

128 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Made a video after I purchased 3 Large cups from a Lego Store pick a brick wall
to see if the value compares to Parting out actual Lego Sets.

https://youtu.be/qYBYTIyy5bg

Author:

jesuguty

Posted:

Mar 7, 2019 15:40

Subject:

Re: paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

16 times

Topic:

correct, that's why I did not know how to do it, thanks

Inventories, JusTiCe8 writes:

Hi,

short answer is no, if I have understood what you mean by painting (ie: changing
texture of part, like decorated brick or sticker).

If you mean something else, please be more explicit.

For the record, I have looked a while back if there is any textures actually
used for decorated parts, and found none at all. Looks like textures has been
converted into raw colour data of some kind, but I didn't dig too much into
this.

Too bad we can't just put any pic somewhere in data to create custom decorated
parts.

In Inventories, jesuguty writes:

Good afternoon, can you paint the bricks in Studio 2.0? If I want to put a white
brick with a red beater for example, can you do it on the show? There are more
pallets of bricks... Can be updated?

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 17:55

Subject:

Re: paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

17 times

Topic:

In Inventories, JusTiCe8 writes:

We are talking about a format created in the 1990’s. Maybe you aren’t old enough
to remember how slow personal computers were at this time. I am

Drawing a simple mesh of a couple hundreds triangles took minutes if not hours.
Drawing what shows on each frame in Studio (bricks, some faces hidden, shadows,
Phong lighting…) would have taken hours. Now Studio does it dozens of times
per second.

“Simple” was misleading. Sorry for that. I didn’t mean it was theoretically
complicated (most 2D/3D graphics algorithms are way older than LDraw), I meant
it was practically infeasible and useless.
Also:
1. vectorial patterns are lighter and often better than bitmaps, especially for
the patterns that appear(ed) on LEGO parts,
2. patterns weren’t quite as important when there were so many basic parts not
yet modelled,
3. and I’m sure there are other sensible reasons

Now, yes, it’s debatable the LDraw Official Library took a bit too long to use
the texmap feature (AFAICT, the feature was added in 2012).

I can't believe anyone modelling 3D object would not use it... and regarding
Studio, as it use Unity, it wouldn't (ans shouldn't) be such a challenge,

I don’t know why Studio doesn’t implement texmaps. LDView and LDCad (among others)
do.
It’s true the official library didn’t use them but it does now (or will, as the
parts are still Unofficial for now).
I’m sure Studio will do too very soon.

except because of those parts from Ldraw.

Well, if it weren’t for LDraw, Studio wouldn’t have so many parts now.
So Studio is what it is now because of LDraw but also thanks to LDraw

(shortly UV Mapping is just given each vertex of a 3D object another set of coordinates:
U,V matching a point in the texture area which is basically a 2D tilled "world",
it is very visual and a standard after the basic plain face colours from the
90s)

Author:

JusTiCe8

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 16:52

Subject:

Re: paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

22 times

Topic:

Hi, thanks for your complete answer.

It's just weird even LDraw author pick this way to make "textures", UV Mapping
is not a new thing and it's pretty easy for most of the decorated LEGO parts,
minifigs are a bit more tricky to do.

I can't believe anyone modelling 3D object would not use it... and regarding
Studio, as it use Unity, it wouldn't (ans shouldn't) be such a challenge,
except because of those parts from Ldraw.

(shortly UV Mapping is just given each vertex of a 3D object another set of coordinates:
U,V matching a point in the texture area which is basically a 2D tilled "world",
it is very visual and a standard after the basic plain face colours from the
90s)

In Inventories, SylvainLS writes:

LDraw (the underlying format for parts in Studio) is an old format. It’s not
a bad thing but it explains why, at the time it was created, mapping images wasn’t
a priority or a simple thing.
So, yes, most patterns are “in the flesh” of the parts: they are coloured surfaces
amongst the parts’ surfaces.
BUT, there’s also a (somewhat recent) feature to use common image files (PNG…)
to be mapped on the parts surfaces. The LDraw official library (that Studio
uses, mostly) has started to add parts that use that feature.
Unfortunately, that feature is not (yet?) supported by Studio.

Note that there’s also “stickers” in LDraw: Parts that are only coloured surfaces
and that can be placed in front of any plane surface to add patterns (like real
stickers but not bendable).
Studio chose not to add them in its palettes but they should be usable as custom
parts.

[...]

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 14:06

Subject:

Re: paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

19 times

Topic:

In Inventories, JusTiCe8 writes:

Hi,

short answer is no, if I have understood what you mean by painting (ie: changing
texture of part, like decorated brick or sticker).

Longer answer: soon.

If you mean something else, please be more explicit.

For the record, I have looked a while back if there is any textures actually
used for decorated parts, and found none at all. Looks like textures has been
converted into raw colour data of some kind, but I didn't dig too much into
this.

Too bad we can't just put any pic somewhere in data to create custom decorated
parts.

According to Summer (forum_admin on the dedicated forum for Studio: http://forum.bricklikn.com/
), and if I remember correctly (there are several highly awaited features), this
feature is in QA (testing) and will be released soon.

Author:

NavySTi

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 13:08

Subject:

Re: how to? - hypothetical inventory from a haul

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

In Inventories, MichiKen writes:

I am looking for a tool that will help me identify inventory bulk lot purchase
of Bionicles.

There were about 2 cubic feet of Bionicles that I would like to sell. There were
only 3 instruction sets in the lot. Traditionally I would find the sets on BL,
then print them to check off those sets I have, and what on the lot is found.
I put these into bags, and work my way through the lot until I have complete
sets, or know just some small parts to replace/purchase.

This appears very old-school. What I would like is a like a "hypothetical" inventory,
that I can add a complete set, then click on the items as "found". This would
be nice if I could tag this to a lot for when I buy things off eBay or Facebook
Marketplace.BL to do this?

Not sure how helpful this is, but the way I've always sorted Bionicle is
by face or mask. Most of the masks didn't appear in too many sets, so it'll
help you narrow down what you have there.

Robert
Little Bug's Bricks

Author:

JusTiCe8

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 12:53

Subject:

Re: paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

14 times

Topic:

Good afternoon, can you paint the bricks in Studio 2.0? If I want to put a white
brick with a red beater for example, can you do it on the show? There are more
pallets of bricks... Can be updated?

Author:

jesuguty

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 10:07

Subject:

paint in studio 2.0?

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Good afternoon, can you paint the bricks in Studio 2.0? If I want to put a white
brick with a red beater for example, can you do it on the show? There are more
pallets of bricks... Can be updated?

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 06:19

Subject:

Re: how to? - hypothetical inventory from a haul

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

In Inventories, MichiKen writes:

Use this tool to identify sets:

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogIn.asp?viewMulti=Y

Author:

MichiKen

Posted:

Mar 6, 2019 05:57

Subject:

how to? - hypothetical inventory from a haul

Viewed:

129 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Author:

Brickwilbo

Posted:

Mar 2, 2019 19:39

Subject:

Re: Deleting purchased items from wanted list

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Inventories, lorivanderbilt writes:

New to this. I just ordered over 200 bricks from a seller. I want to place
another order but need to eliminate the purchased ones. How do I easily do this?
Any way besides doing it one by one?

The easiest way to manage is to enable the 'Items in order on Wantlist'
icon in the settings of the orders Placed page. A little scroll will appear.
It takes you to all bought items in that order.
Select the bought items and move all bought items into a new Bought Wantlist.
Then you can do a new search for the remaining items.

Author:

lorivanderbilt

Posted:

Mar 2, 2019 18:37

Subject:

Deleting purchased items from wanted list

Viewed:

49 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

New to this. I just ordered over 200 bricks from a seller. I want to place
another order but need to eliminate the purchased ones. How do I easily do this?
Any way besides doing it one by one?

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 10:01

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

26 times

Topic:

In Inventories, Teup writes:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, Teup writes:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

HI there sorry I missed this thread earlier

Please bear in mind that Teup's comments do not really apply to the UK.

Well.... it does. I'm just saying that the averge price that you see here
in Bricklink is not equal to the average price in Brickstock. These do not match.
Parting out a set at average price on Bricklink will result in you having higher
priced items than parting out that same set at average price in Brickstock.

Whether you wish to match the price of other stores including VAT, or whether
you want to compare yourself to their prices ex VAT... yeah, here you're
right, those are all your own business decisions.

But the fact is that the Bricklink priceguide does not match the Brickstock priceguide.
It's important to be aware of this. Pricing at the Brickstock average is
pricing below the Bricklink average.

As I said or at least implied - average pricing in the UK includes VAT and once
you adjust the downloaded price in Brickstock it matches as close as can be expected.
Nothing is perfect and Brickstock could use work on this but so could Bricklink.
The currency conversion is a bigger issue than vat as it applies to all apart
from the USA. Bricklink could do a lot more there and haven't.

Do USA prices include sales tax ? That differs depending on whether you ship
in state or out of state. So the whole pricing scenario based on Bricklink is
a bit shaky - it should be used as a guideline only not a 'real figure'.

Do the last 6 months sales prices include tzes of any kind or is it net. If something
sells at 10p that is the price that should be reflected. If you are vat registered
and can claim back the vat go for it - but for the majority of UK sellers that
is not the position - what you see is what you pay and that is what your cost
is. Pricing needs to be based on cost + not some weird price guide which no one
fully understands. They can tell you how it works but when you look at it you
only see a single figure not how that figures has been made up.

Again for example 1000 units sold at 8p one month but 10p the next month so average
is 9p, but that is not remotely accurate. If the currency conversion rate has
fluctuated then they might be selling at a totally different price, or the same
price.

The price guide needs major re-working and I do not believe that is going to
happen. It currently is a very crude tool which has to be manipulated to get
anywhere near reality.

If the design of the system is anywhere near what it should be there is only
one table with prices and those are converted from an exchange rate table each
time they are displayed, Somehow I doubt that.

Well, I guess that's all true enough. Some take the priceguide as just a
guide, some ignore it, some take it as some holy prescription. I tend to be kind
of the latter type... but that's not because I think these numbers are inherently
all so correct (you pointed out some of its shortcomings) but I just remember
that when I was a buyer I'd check the priceguide on everything and buy things
depending on them being at or below average. So it's more a presentation
matter that I want my prices to line up with that reference than that I give
that reference any "scientific" credit. So the priceguide is my starting point
and from there I decide what to buy. Instead of first buying, and then based
on what I spent deciding what my prices should be.

But that's just a personal decision of course. You could invent any kind
of pricing policy for yourself and there are good arguments for all of them.
Maybe in some of them it is actually a blessing that Brickstock downloads the
ex.VAT value.

But in what ever case, no matter what your pricing policy is, and no matter whether
you are VAT registered, no matter if you're a buyer or a seller, if you live
in the area where Bricklink displays prices including VAT for, for all these
people, it is just important to know this difference: priceguide on BL includes
VAT, priceguide downloaded through Brickstock excludes VAT. Then you can do whatever
you want with that information. But knowing it is important as it prevents us
from sleepwalking into a race to the bottom.

Ah what a grand place to start re-developing

(I think something might freeze over before that happens)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 09:33

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

23 times

Topic:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, Teup writes:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

HI there sorry I missed this thread earlier

Please bear in mind that Teup's comments do not really apply to the UK.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 07:51

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

In Inventories, Teup writes:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

HI there sorry I missed this thread earlier

Please bear in mind that Teup's comments do not really apply to the UK.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 05:25

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Inventories, calsbricks writes:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

HI there sorry I missed this thread earlier

Please bear in mind that Teup's comments do not really apply to the UK.

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 05:18

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

34 times

Topic:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

HI there sorry I missed this thread earlier

Please bear in mind that Teup's comments do not really apply to the UK. There
are very few stores in the UK which are registered for VAT. In addition to that
if you are not registered for VAT, and we presume you are not you are still paying
vat for your Lego and the total price that you pay should be reflected as your
cost - not a VAT exclusive price.

Example - you buy a large cup of 2 x 4 bricks from your local Lego store and
pay £11.24 for that cup. That is a VAT inclusive price, so the cost of your bricks
is 11p each. Now you wish to list those on Bricklink - you obviously need to
cover your costs so your price is based on cost + (whatever margin you wish to
set). You do not reduce the 11p per brick to 9p and use the same process against
9p - that would be financial suicide.

Other EU countries have different guidelines for VAT - many you have to register
if you have a business with no real threshold.

The UK prices that you see in the price guide on Bricklink contain VAT - you
can be sure of that.

What isn't good is the currency conversion factor between Bricklink and Brickstock
- that requir3es a lot more fine tuning than taking a 10% inc/dec. We have been
usint Brickstock for almost 10 years now (pre Brickstock was Brickstore) and
have had no problems with pricing. Of course we have our own way of doing it
but if you look at it carefully and know where you want your prices to be you
can use it and it is much quicker and easier than using Bricklink - although
with sellers tools coming (maybe) who knows what will happen there.

There really isn't a single way to use the product - like everything in life
you have to make adjustments - especially to get where you want it to be. We
have learned by trial and error and experimentation how to use it and so can
you - it just takes time and patience. We also have our own external system where
we have tracked prices for nearly 10 years which helps us to get where we want
to be.

Author:

bb334139

Posted:

Feb 28, 2019 03:53

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

Guys,

Appreciate both your responses as they shed some much needed light. It is a little
strange that BrickStock doesn't seem to have a Help section explaining all
this.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 26, 2019 16:15

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Inventories, greenman writes:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Hello all,

I have a couple of questions on Brickstock which someone might know the answer
to.

My store uses EURO and in Brickstock I have ticked Currency, Use the local currency
$1 = €1.

I have changed my asking price in Brickstock to the Last 6 months sales (average).

Question 1: Is my setting local currency $1 = €1 correct? I am not trying to
convert my store currency as it is in Euro now and I wish it remains so.

Question 2: Is the revalued asking price the Last 6 month sales average in Euro?
I read other forum posts that stated that BrickStock only uses sales data in
USD to compute its averages.

Question 3: if indeed the above is correct (in relation to USD and sales data)
is there any means to determine the actual average 6 month Sales data for the
World or European market?

Thanks for any help with either of these queries.

The prices you see in BrickScout are in Dollars.
So, if you let BS set your prices to the Average, you see (with 1 = 1) Dollar
prices.

In BS under "edit"-"price"-"incr or decr" you have to lower your prices with
about 10% to come to the Euro prices, as shown in BrickLink.

....but it´s never as accurate as you would like it to be, the DollarEuro
exchange rate is fluctuating all the time.

Klaas

Brickstock prices are excluding VAT.. that is why I definitely recommend NOT
using Brickstock for pricing if you are in the EU. You'll never be able to
retrieve the true priceguide prices that you see on Bricklink, no matter what
conversion factor you enter.

(And I still have no response from the author of Brickstock about this....)

Author:

greenman

Posted:

Feb 26, 2019 16:08

Subject:

Re: Brickstock questions

Viewed:

42 times

Topic:

In Inventories, wilton1975 writes:

Author:

bb334139

Posted:

Feb 26, 2019 08:31

Subject:

Brickstock questions

Viewed:

130 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Author:

axaday

Posted:

Feb 23, 2019 00:03

Subject:

Re: status of 10268-1 and 853815-1 ?

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

Yes, fill out the manual section, but a few seconds after you go to the next
screen it will ask if you want to use Lego's data and when you say yes it
dumps it all in. It is the list of possible pieces you can order from Lego when
your set is incomplete and it often leaves a few pieces out, but it gets you
a long way down the road.

In Inventories, trueger writes:

In Inventories, axaday writes:

In Inventories, trueger writes:

In Inventories, axaday writes:

In Inventories, trueger writes:

These are the new release Vestas wind turbine and a holiday bauble ornament.

If these are in progress, great, thank you, please disregard. Otherwise, I'd
be willing to help provide them.

-Tim

They are both in the catalog. If you are talking about providing inventories,
no one has them reserved or pending.

Thanks for the info; yes, I was referring to inventories. I've since discovered
how to figure this question out on my own. I'll look into providing them.

Is there a way to submit an XML file using the Lego part+color codes as used
in the set instruction inventories, instead of itemid and color?

E.g., using "3x 614101" instead of "3x white 4073"?

Not that I know of. But if you just open the thing up it is going to practically
fill the whole form out from Lego.com's info. You'll need to add the
stickers and extras and check some part variants, perhaps add a few new pieces,
and then check that everything is there. You aren't going to need to type
in every part.

I wasn't aware of that, it does sound like a lot less work. Does it appear
as an option here after I reserve a set for inventory?

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogInvAdd.asp

I apologize for my ignorance, I've not tried to help out before.

Author:

trueger

Posted:

Feb 22, 2019 22:33

Subject:

Re: status of 10268-1 and 853815-1 ?

Viewed:

34 times

Topic: