BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Help, Bricks_And_More writes:

Finally set my mind to do the instant checkout thingy

Since Bricklink has no test function for this(as far if I know), could someone
place a bogus order, without checking out, to see if it works and if it's
correct?

Would appreciate it!

Regards,
Henk

- At first glance, lettermail and boxed parcels NL seem to be calculated correctly!

- You're allowed to make a separate account for the specific purpose of testing
your store

- Be aware that Bricklink centimeters are not real centimeters

That is, Bricklink's
volume calculation is extremely optimistic. I have set letter shipment method
to 20 x 21 x 2.8cm, which is less than half the real max volume, but from trial
and error, it seems to amount to the same thing.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 28, 2022 04:23

Subject:

Re: Just a thoought

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

In General, calsbricks writes:

On the other hand eliminating a large part of the market based purely on payment
method does not make good business sense. You can collect the sales tax in a
more conventional method - like bill us for it., or is that too difficult .

I am unsure whether or not the modern system should be compatible with offsite
payment methods, but on the topic of eliminating parts of the market because
of payment methods: We already know Bricklink is extremely comfortable with doing
that. They don't even do the most obvious and straightforward thing they
have to do: Simply add more onsite payment methods - iDEAL, Klarna, Giropay,
Bancontact... They are losing a whole lot of business because consumers don't
see the payment methods they're familiar with and trust (I know, because
they come to my webshop

) .

It took the BrickOwl admin a day, maybe a couple of days to implement them. It
took me 15 minutes to add them to my webshop. Bricklink has been wanting to add
them for several years now and has still not succeeded..... clearly, with Bricklink
not even doing the most obvious, no-loss, first thing they can do, I don't
see a point in discussing the more complicated stuff...

Yes, I'm going to be a broken record on onsite payment methods until the
day Bricklink has finally succeeded (= pressed "ok" in Stripe)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 27, 2022 10:40

Subject:

Re: How to upload 71741-1 for partout?

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

LEGO products

In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:

Today I decided to try and figure out BrickStore. Not precisely to solve the
(still unsolved!! Bricklink come on!) problem of parting out large sets but for
a slightly different purpose. I'm looking to see if I can do a part-out of
a set into an existing bsx file. I'm having a hard time with the last step
above - what exactly do I copy from my inventory and how? My inventory list doesn't
match the much shorter set inventory list of course.. and why is comments relevant
for consolidating? Isn't that just about the lot ID? I would expect I have
to add the lot IDs from my inventory to the set inventory list somehow, and add
my existing quantities to the quantity in the set, then export that new amount
with correct lot ID? Is that wrong or right and if right how exactly do I do
that? BrickStore is pretty tough to understand if you've never worked with
it or any of its previous iterations before

and why is comments relevant for consolidating?

Comments is relevant for consolidating as that is one of the fields that BrickLink
uses in order to consolidate e.g. if you had 2 lots that were identical except
for different comments, you would end up with 2 separate lots in your inventory.

I would expect I have to add the lot IDs from my inventory to the set inventory list somehow, and add my existing
quantities to the quantity in the set, then export that new amount with correct lot ID?

BrickLink takes care of all that for you during the upload process.

what exactly do I copy from my inventory and how?

In BrickStore;
If you have't already, import your store inventory.
You need to have your store inventory file open.
Then from your parted-out file, on the Edit menu select 'Copy Values from
Document'.
A pop-up will appear showing a list of all the open files. Select your inventory
file from the list and hit Next.
You will then see a list of all the fields that you can copy.
Set the Comments field to Copy.
Make sure you set the other fields to Ignore.
Hit Finish.

This will copy all the comments from your store inventory to the parted-out file
(where parts match of course), allowing BrickLink to consolidate correctly.

Hope this helps

Aha I see, thanks! So it's creating a lot-id-less XML update and Bricklink
handles consolidating same as with an on-site part-out, so no need to gather
the lot ids from the inventory. I just noticed those options on the upload screen.
Haven't paid attention to them before as I've only been using these XML
updates to target specific lots.

And thanks for pointing out that copy feature, there's zero chance I would
have found that on my own

I was trying out BrickStore today not for this part-out problem specifically
(although I will in a few months, still have 20 Ninago City Gardens sitting around

) but to use it for some offline inventory management for a stock of parts
that is not connected to any Bricklink shop. As far as I can see, doing part-outs
into that stock bsx file entails nothing more than just Ctrl+C Ctrl+V (unless
I'm missing something).

Only thing is the price guide keeps showing up in USD even though I set the default
currency to EUR.. and I can't see whether or not it includes VAT.. (I know
this issue was addressed because I raised it, and resolved, I just haven't
looked at the result of that discussion until now)

8. Final check that you're happy with the data (everything has a price etc.)
9. Select item 1, scroll down to e.g. item 500, shift-click to select all items
from 1 to 500.
10. Export to BrickLink Mass-Upload XML to Clipboard.
11. Open BrickLink - Inventory - Upload.
12. Paste the XML into the upload box.
13. Set your consolidate options (old or new pricing etc.)
14. Verify File.
15. BrickLink will check the data and show you what it will upload (or any errors).
16. Once that batch has uploaded, go back through steps 9 to 15, selecting items
501 to 1000, 1001 to 1500 etc.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 27, 2022 06:16

Subject:

Re: How to upload 71741-1 for partout?

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

LEGO products

In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:

In LEGO, Teup writes:

In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:

In LEGO, MXbricks writes:

I have a problem with parting out 71741 NINJAGO City Gardens. When I try to verify
the items in the partout screen, it takes so long that server gateway times out.
I get error #504 gateway time-out. I was wondering if somebody has a solution
for this or a workaround.

Greetings Max

This issue comes up a lot in the forums... there's an additional note added
to the set (see pic).

Basically, you need to upload in smaller chunks.
If you use software like BrickStore, I'd recommend using that. If you do
it through the BrickLink part out screen you have to select/deselect an awful
lot of checkboxes.

IMO that note is an embarrassment to Bricklink. No person is going to spend over
30 minutes clicking checkboxes. It would look better if the message would simply
say it's a known issue, they're working on it, and that you should use
third party software.

Yeah, having to click hundreds of checkboxes individually is beyond silly.

I'm also interested in this set and a few days ago I actually sent a message
to the helpdesk asking for an ETA on the fix. This has been an issue for years
now, I really do hope a fix is around the corner, especially as LEGO sets are
gradually getting bigger and this many lots will become increasingly common.
Adding stock is really core functionality of a Lego selling platform, so they
better get their act together.

I have no experience using BrickStore, in case Bricklink will keep on not giving
a damn, could anyone tell me what the easiest route will be to parting it out
through BrickStock? Can I get it to generate an upload XML for the updated lots?
I suppose I would have to read an export of my existing inventory into it so
it can consolidate?

A very basic guide...

1. Import your store inventory (for use later).
2. Import the set inventory into a different tab; setting import options as desired.
3. Sort the set inventory by Status.
4. Scroll to the bottom and delete any counterparts, extras and/or alternate
items you don't want.
5. Select all and consolidate lots (so you don't have duplicate lots).
6. Select all and set prices to e.g. BL's 6 month average.
7. Copy Values from Document... copy comments, remarks etc. from your inventory
that was imported earlier. Make sure to copy comments as BL uses this field
for consolidating lots.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 26, 2022 16:22

Subject:

Re: Is this a scam attempt or an Extorsion?

Viewed:

115 times

Topic:

In Problem Order, SezaR writes:

Just saw this.
I already received a negative feedback from this buyer and there is nothing to
be done for this order but I thought other sellers wanted to know what headache
I had and decide to stoplist him (or not) based on what happened.

He ordered on 26th dec.
He paid on 29th dec.
I shipped on 5th January.
Based on the tracking, the package was received on 13th January. So he received
the package 15 days after he paid. See attached.
Based on my terms, it takes between 2-3 weeks for the package to be delivered
after it is paid.

So the buyer felt 15 days waiting for package sent from Canada to Germany as
like "weeks" and decided to order it from Germany!

I am not sure what "might" and "hopes" can mean here:
I'm not going to wait weeks in hopes that they might actually send
a replacement part.

but when the order was shipped, I sent a notification that if there is a problem,
please let us know. This is the most natural thing to do.

I believe (if I recall right) that consumers usually have an obligation to at
least let a business correct a mistake in a reasonable time frame. You were given
exactly no time frame at all. As for feedback, of course, everyone can leave
whatever feedback they wish at any time, but when it comes to customer service
and refunds, buyers do have obligations in the process too.

But it was a good move to link to the forum post in your feedback, so everyone
can see magical writer has magically disappeared when asked about pictures

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 25, 2022 13:39

Subject:

Re: Been away a full year, what's new?

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

In General, MidwestBrick writes:

In General, SylvainLS writes:

In General, MidwestBrick writes:

[…]
Very helpful information and thank you for the post. I will have to track down
this session if it was recorded and available for re-watching.

Here it is: https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1321609

Perfect timing. I have a meeting coming up that I'm not a part of but have
to sit on so this will help pass the time!

It's about EU VAT so it won't be relevant to you, but maybe it's
interesting to see some of it anyway. As a result of that session, the idea was
to have such sessions more often, about various topics. Even though the session
didn't lead to any improvements, Bricklink's new attitude of honesty
- acknowledging things are not ideal and that it simply doesn't have the
ability to do better in the short term was very refreshing and to me. One of
the best things that happened on Bricklink in a while!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 25, 2022 09:45

Subject:

Re: Been away a full year, what's new?

Viewed:

72 times

Topic:

In General, MidwestBrick writes:

Happy 2022 everyone. 2021 was very busy for my family and I as we built a new
house and moved to a new area as well do i had to shut down the store in Feb
2021 to start packing everything up. There were plenty of delays in the home
building and overall a great experience but also an exhausting one too.

Just checking in to ask if someone is able to summarize what is new on BL from
early 2021 until now. Any big new develops or changes on how things are done
or is it pretty much the same as before? The last big thing I recall is implementing
the tax per sale based on the state making the purchase. Also, anything that
deals with international processes can be left of any summary. I only sell domestically.

Hope all is well with everyone. I built my new Lego room all by myself and am
very pleased with how it has turned out. Everyday I'm putting in the work
to get organized more and more and although I could probably open later this
week, I want to put in some more improvements so picking orders csn be sped up
even more than I had it organized prior which takes further planning and organizers.

Thank you in advance to anyone that responds to this too.

Business as usual, except that Bricklink now has a CEO from LEGO and LEGO wants
to have video sessions with the users with 'some' frequency, on hot topics
that arise or otherwise. The first session was at least refreshing. So hopefully
some long overdue things will finally start moving in the coming months/years..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 24, 2022 09:49

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

52 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

I'm still having lots of cancelled payments on Stripe. Mostly from American
users, but also some European. There is one user who made 3 attempts in one day,
and did not end up placing an order. Every unsuccessful payment seems to say
"a check-out session has expired".

I receive payments for my own webshop through the same channel, and while I have
more orders, I have maybe one unsuccesful payment per month there.

I've tried to reach out to the buyers but most have not responded. Two told
me it was indeed intentional, but I still worry about the ones that didn't
respond, as there are quite many of these attempts. This could be a real problem,
right..?! Is it because of that last page that Bricklink has where you have to
(redundantly) confirm your payment? Often when I pay onsite I forget this step
exists and find it an hour later somewhere in my browser tabs.. but as it is
mostly American users, it could be because of sales tax changing the buyer's
mind, too.. I really have no idea. And even in the best case that all were somehow
intentional, it was still a lot of time wasted for the buyers.

I am surprised this thread is not getting more replies than it does. I think
that must mean that this affects only certain stores? Why mine, what could be
different about mine? I have these failed payments daily now..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 23, 2022 14:49

Subject:

Re: I spent 5+ hours on an $11 order 😐

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:

In Selling, peregrinator writes:

In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:

I usually empty the big bag and all the little ones come out. Then find the category,
and empty that specific bag out (20-50 parts per bag). I find the piece and spend
20 seconds looking at the conditions (I keep all the parts together no matter
the condition).

Do you mean Used vs. New here, or various grades of Used (e.g. light playwear
vs. heavy playwear)?

In either case you should really keep them separated - that would save you at
least 20 seconds per lot. And with Used vs. New, I don't think it's possible
to reliably tell the difference between them without keeping them separate.

I separate everything New and Used in two separate bins. In the new is separated
by color then by piece.

Ohhh always separate by piece, then color.. not the other way around! Eyes can
easily spot colors (well, unless you sell mixed old and new grays) but spotting
1x1 bricks, 1x1 with stud, 1x1 headlight in all the same color is a nightmare.
Seriously, don't do it, and totally explains why it takes so long.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 23, 2022 11:27

Subject:

Re: Order direct invoice/laten betalen

Viewed:

47 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, smink45 writes:

Hoi Allemaal,

Ik ben nu al een tijdje bezig met mijn store maar krijg steeds vaker orders die
worden gecanceld nadat ik de invoice heb verstuurd.

nu zat ik te denken als ik het direct laat betalen ziet heb ik dat natuurlijk
niet meer. hoe zou ik dat het beste kunnen instellen.

ik maak gebruik van paypal en iban betalingen, en als verzend opties bied ik
PostNL en DHL aan.

ik heb al het eea geprobeerd in te stellen maar wil mezelf niet in de vingers
snijden zodat ik de kosten van verzenden en paypal voor mijn rekening krijg.
het is voor mij nog een hobby shopje.

Graag wil ik dit instellen met behulp van iemand. misschien is het makkelijk
om dit via whatsapp of messenger te contacten

gr
Jeroen

Bricklink is al jaren bezig om iDEAL te implementeren en ze vinden het kennelijk
allemaal erg moeilijk om voor elkaar te krijgen. Als dat er eenmaal is kunnen
de Nederlandse klanten gewoon direct onsite betalen en heb je het probleem dus
niet meer. Tot die tijd moeten ze het zelf overmaken, maar een automatische betaalinstructie
(wat Bricklink een invoice noemt) te laten versturen kan dus wel.

Naar mijn mening is het het handigste om gewoon een paar vaste schijven te bedenken
voor de klant. Als je als uitgangspunt niet neemt "wat kost het allemaal precies?"
maar "wat zou ik er ongeveer voor willen hebben om mijn kosten te dekken?" maak
je je leven een stuk makkelijker. Er zijn zelfs verkopers die maar één vast verzendtarief
hanteren voor alle bestellingen. Dat is het uiterste, maar als je voor jezelf
bedacht hebt dat je zo onder de streep aan het einde van het jaar je kosten gedekt
hebt, waarom niet. Mooie van instant checkout is dat de klant direct ziet hoe
veel het kost en er akkoord mee gaat, dus het hoeft niet overeen te komen met
frankeerkosten, zoals op Marktplaats.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 23, 2022 05:58

Subject:

Re: I spent 5+ hours on an $11 order 😐

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:

Now that I think about it, this order took so long as the buyer bought something
of EVERY single color. I had to keep moving lots and colors, etc. My list became
a rainbow if I scrolled really fast 😂

I attached an image of all the parts. You will see how long it must have been
to pick a different part of every color.

Well, those are actually my favourite orders. When buyers buy the same part in
multiple colours I can all pick them at once from the same bag. If an order is
50 lots but it's 5 colours of every part, it's essentially picking 10
lots for me. Plus, I can toss them all into the same bag without having to worry
if the buyer will be able to identify everything (I wouldn't do that if someone
buys only black things with minimal variations)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 22, 2022 12:28

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

I received a reply from a user that had multiple failed payment entries in my
list:

" I attempted to check out and purchase an item from your Bricklink store using
Stripe. However, it declined my card multiple times - I would guess due to it
being an international purchase. I ended up purchasing the item from another
Bricklink seller, so I don’t know whether Stripe would have allowed me to complete
the purchase if I had tried again after notifying my bank that it was an authorized
purchase."

Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.

I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...

There is a setting on Stripe to decline the payment if the address doesn't
match excatly, I have that one disabled and I experience far less declined payment
and had no errors with those orders.

Interesting, could you tell me where? While I was trying to find it, another
failed payment came in...

The one of the postal code: https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/radar/rules

Thanks! If I understand correctly, I have only the first two mandatory ones enabled.
But besides that, it shows that it only blocked one payment since last summer,
so seems this isn't what is causing the failed payments.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 22, 2022 09:21

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.

I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...

There is a setting on Stripe to decline the payment if the address doesn't
match excatly, I have that one disabled and I experience far less declined payment
and had no errors with those orders.

Interesting, could you tell me where? While I was trying to find it, another
failed payment came in...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 22, 2022 07:37

Subject:

Re: Coupon bug

Viewed:

24 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

I reported this before, but oh well. The "exclude items on sale" option in coupons
is bugged. It doesn't only exclude items with a reduced sale price, but also
the ones that have an increased price by using a negative sale amount. Negative
sales are not visible to the buyer, so buyers don't understand what is going
on. They think they will get e.g. 10% discount because the coupon says so, but
if 90% of the items in their basket actually have a negative sale amount, their
discount is only 1%. This is really misleading.

Please fix this by making the "exclude items on sale" option still include the
items with a negative sale amount. Thanks!

This is still not fixed, why doesn't Bricklink ever solve any of the bugs
that I report, even though I post them on the forum and send them to tech support?

(Bricklink's empty cockpit is one thing, but where's the cabin crew?

)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 22, 2022 04:37

Subject:

Re: Is this a scam attempt or an Extorsion?

Viewed:

128 times

Topic:

In Problem Order, magical_writer writes:

In Problem Order, SezaR writes:

I have a situation with a buyer and I think other sellers may want to know this
and stoplist him.
I also guess the buyer could already be in my stoplist and this is his second
account. I have many buyers on my stoplist and cannot check this easily.

He has zero feedback and ordered the set

7750-1 (Inv) Steam Engine
254 Parts, 2 Minifigures, 1980
Sets: Train: 12V

for price $469.99 USD. This is the lowest price for this set on BL.
Shipping costs (from Canada to USA): $19.74 USD
From the get-go, I had a feeling something was not right for this order so I
took many photos (I don't take photos in general). I only upload one photo
here (the bag in which the wheels were included).
After he received the order, he wrote me that one wheel was broken

4180c05 (Inv) Brick, Modified 2 x 4 with Red Wheels, Train Spoked Large (29mm D.) and Red Pins (4180 / wheel4 / 2344)
Parts: Wheel

and that he bought the part from Ebay (from a seller in Germany) and requested
me to refund $35.53 USD (shipping and tax included)!! He attached two photos
(see the second and third photo attached here)
Note that I sell this part for $19.89 and based on his photo, only the pin and
wheel-holder was broken and their value is $1-2 USD.
As I sell big sets, about 100 times customers claimed something was missing or
broken and I always believed them and fixed the issue but in this case, I certainly
don't believe the wheel in his photo was the one I sold him. This wheel does
not break so easily, specially if it is inside a bag together with many other
parts and the Lego was wrapped with bubble mailers too and was packaged inside
a small box. (I pack sets in small boxes because larger boxes tend to get crushed
specially if they are not full)
If you have had these train wheels, you know that they are not likely to break.
How come the pin of the wheel is broken inside the package but the wheel

wheel4 Train Wheel Spoked Large (29mm D.) with FreeStyle Pin Hole
Parts: Wheel

is intact?!

So the buyer decided that since something was missing, he could just go ahead
and buy the part from elsewhere for whatever price and the seller did not need
to know and agrees this but had to refund the buyer for all the costs of his
purchase!(what?) What company agrees to refund this way?! Amazon, Lego.com, playmobile,
Samsung, BMV,...?
Based on his logic, what if 4 parts where missing or broken? Then would he
assume the seller is supposed to refund like $100 USD?!

I certainly don't believe he actually bought or or maybe he simply wanted
to buy and have an extra wheel.

I had checked the parts twice before shipping and the wheels were ok. I wrote
him back that the parts were ok when I shipped them and I have photos but I can
sent him replacement for the broken pin and wheel-holder.

This time, he replied me that the box was delivered damaged because there
were not enough packaging material and he does not want the replacement parts
and he will leave an appropriate feedback.

The money is not that important but I did not refund him because this is not
correct and I do not believe any of his words. I just consider this as an attempt
for scam and will never comply to this.

I replied that my packages were never arrived so damaged in a way that one part
was broken but in any case, the package was fully insured and if he sends
me photo of damaged package, I can file a claim for partial refund from the shipping
company (UPS mail innovation) and that they always check with their own photos
and notes of postmen to make sure the claim is legitimate and would eventually
issue a refund.

No more message from him, so he does not want the replacement parts, he does
not want to send me photo of the damaged package (guess why) and now, he left
me my first negative.

"Paid $540 USD for train shipped in a flimsy box w/no cushioni. Had broken
part."

By the way, the price of set was $469.99 USD and the total with shipping and
tax was $521.56 USD and not $540 USD.

I reply to this thread and add our correspondences.

I spend thousands of dollars a year on eBay and other collector sites buying
and selling on eBay and when someone orders an expensive item like this one and
when someone spends $540 (includes customs tax)you don't ship their item
in a flimsy beat up amazon box that it barely fits in with no cushioning to protect
it. This was a gift for my son who had to wait weeks for it to arrive and was
upset that it was broken so I ordered the same wheel from eBay when a seller
is careless in sending something the right way the 1st time I'm not going
to wait weeks in hopes that they might actually send a replacement part. The
bottom line is if you took a bit of care in wrapping up the item and didn't
have an attitude about it and make threats to me about getting sellers to blacklist
me here on Bricklink you wouldn't have gotten negative feedback. You have
a bad attitude and a fusing me of trying to extort or scam for m you for 30 something
dollars is an absolute joke and an insult. Just because I am new to Bricklink
doesn't make me a bad person. I do not tolerate ignorance for m anyone, especially
from rude people like you. This was my 1st purchase here and will be my last
thanks to you and your ignorance.

So why didn't you simply send pictures? Every single time a buyer of mine
had a problem with something in the order, they attached pictures. Surely everyone
has a smartphone nowadays? Everyone knows a picture says more than a 1000 words.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 22, 2022 04:31

Subject:

Re: We have a new Inventories Administrator!

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

Inventories

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Hello everybody,

We have appointed a new Inventories Administrator, member TakeAbrick!

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/member/community_experts.page

She comes to the Community Experts Program with high levels of catalog and inventories
experience. She is also a specialist in early LEGO items and has done extensive
work with the BrickLink system to upgrade the data we have for the 1960s and
1970s:

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogListOld.asp?pg=1&itemVerUserID=91173&catType=S&v=1

TakeAbricK has also been a well-known and successful seller for many years, a
Forum contributor, and great member of our BrickLink community:

https://store.bricklink.com/TakeAbricK?p=TakeAbricK#/shop?o={%22showHomeItems%22:1}

Please join me in welcoming her to our team. We are very pleased she is joining
us!

Gefeliciteerd Diana!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 21, 2022 15:45

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

39 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.

I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 21, 2022 11:48

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 21, 2022 06:55

Subject:

Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:

In Technical Issues, Mesken writes:

Same here, only just two customers. Stripe tells me, that there is a new customer
created, while no payment has made.
I think too, that the additional step, which conforms the payment, is not necessary.

It's pretty much how PayPal works on many other sides. Maybe the problem
is applying the PayPal paradigm to Stripe payments?

I should add though: I don't have a credit card, I've only paid onsite
here using PayPal, so I don't actually know if Stripe creditcard payments
on Bricklink also work with that extra step or not. Just the fact that it keeps
saying the sessions expired reminded me of how I forget to confirm PayPal payments.
I've never seen that extra step on other websites, so I tend to forget to
complete it. (Actually, Bricklink also doesn't have that extra step when
paying the monthly fees)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 21, 2022 04:48

Subject:

Still a lot of cancelled payments......

Viewed:

207 times

Topic:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 20, 2022 08:01

Subject:

Re: Bypass Password non-shipping country doesn't

Viewed:

35 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:

The Bypass Password for a non-shipping country doesn't work.

Buyer can add items, but when he opens the cart, there's no box to enter
the bypass password. Only the button [proceed to checkout]. After pressing this
button he gets stuck and the following message appears:

store.bricklink.com diz
DOES_NOT_SHIP: You will be redirected to the cart page

I checked all settings, but can't find anything what I am supposed to do,
then give in a bypass pasword.

Anyone any ideas?

Diana

There is a ship-to-country list. It shows up on your Terms page and it shows
all countries that occur in 1 or more of your shippingmethods.

That's exactly what I mean: The list was not specified, it is a result of
the shipping methods. If the list was specified, a bypass password could simply
ignore that list. But as there is none specified, what should the bypass password
do? How does it know which shipping method to pick?

IMO the system seriously needs an overhaul. We should be able to just specify
anything we want in the shipping methods and then restrict that with a master-setting
on top of that. The bypass procedure would then lifts that restriction, and automatically
find the appropriate shipping method. Right now I find it very confusing.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 20, 2022 07:39

Subject:

Re: Bypass Password non-shipping country doesn't

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:

The whole bypass system confuses me.. what is the intended/expected behaviour
exactly? There isn't such a thing as a ship-to countries list, which a bypass
password could then bypass. The ship-to countries are a result of what you have
specified in your shipping methods. Should the bypass password add the country
to one or more shipping methods but if so, how does the system know which ones?

I also struggle with the minimum buy bypass, since shipping methods obligatorily
(vacuously) need to have that same minimum buy baked into them - so I guess it
would result in a manual invoice if I give a bypass password, even though I just
want one of my shipping methods to qualify.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 19, 2022 16:28

Subject:

Re: Newbie confusion!

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Help, ccroxton writes:

I have over 1000 pounds of Lego to list. I am confused by some terminology in
BL store setup. Is each color of each part number a LOT? In other words, black
2x4 is a different lot than red 2x4?

A lot is just an article that you have listed for sale. When you create a new
lot, it gets a unique lot ID number. Different kinds of parts will be listed
in your store as different lots by necessity, but theoretically (don't do
it) you could make a separate lot for every single part that you own. You'd
just get an extremely long list of the same kind of part, but they're different
"lots".

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 19, 2022 11:00

Subject:

Re: New IRS Reporting Req's for 2022

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

In Selling, Bitay15 writes:

In Selling, ZSchoonover writes:

All,

In the event you haven't seen it, the IRS is requiring payment platforms
to issue 1099-K's to individuals who gross $600 or more per year, starting
this year... The previous threshold was $20,000 with at least 200 transactions.

https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/2021-11-04-New-US-Tax-Reporting-Requirements-Your-Questions-Answered

It is incredibly unfair. If you buy something at a cost of $1500 and sell it
for $2000, your gain in income is $500. That should be what is reported and taxed.
But that is not how this works. You will show $2000 gain in income and have to
pay taxes on all above the $600 threshold. Only businesses can write off expenses,
we cannot. It may be time to go back to craigslist and sell for cash.

If it really works like that, that would be very strange indeed. I know that
the Dutch tax agency only counts profit as income in that situation. I know there
are vastly different rules in different countries but you would think that it's
universal maths that private possessions (all taxes paid) being turned back into
money doesn't count as "income"...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 19, 2022 08:08

Subject:

Re: Typical profit margins

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

Announce

In Announce, SylvainLS writes:

In Announce, Teup writes:

[…]
as I think that roughly gets
you an hourly pay of something in between €15-€25 which is an acceptable "career"
for people.

For the business or for the employee/worker? (Employer costs?)
With or without social security / unemployement / retirement?
Before or after taxes?

Just to say that what Teup says is about Nederlands and in some neighbouring
EU countries (but not all EU countries) and it’s difficultly comparable to other
countries, like the USA (different systems).

Yeah, true... it's a very rough estimate

But let's just say at least
it's unlikely to find 'gold mines' in your own area that give you
new sets at such great prices that you can sit down and relax, because probably
your fellow countrymen will have brought down the prices of those parts until
their value is just enough to make it worthwhile.

I did actually find some great 4x-5x part out value set that I bought 25 of...
that was like 5 years ago... and the parts are all still around in my shop, to
remind me what a "great" deal I had

It seems to have been a worldwide overproduced/underdemanded
set. So even when you get a great profit rate, economics will pull you back towards
the 2x region

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 19, 2022 06:08

Subject:

Re: Typical profit margins

Viewed:

99 times

Topic:

Announce

In Announce, runner.caller writes:

In Announce, Teup writes:
Money = time = space. If you want to earn more money, you need either more time
or more space. You can work long hours at a low profit rate, or you can crank
up your profit rate by growing your store which enables higher prices. My strategy
has always been to go nuts on space and save time

You bring up a good point about time.

I'd say the best % return on paper would be from cheap used bulk with figs
and listing every possible piece.

I recently acquired 60lbs for $330 that included approx. 125 figures.

Now, if I were to take the time to list EVERYTHING I could, the unrealized gains
would be huge. A couple thousand dollars maybe, but it would take me a super
long time to list and even longer to realize those gains + I don't have the
space to do all the parts.

I already flipped one architecture set to ebay out of that lot weighing around
2 lbs for approx $80 after fees and shipping. I'll do this with all the bulk
from this lot eventually and probably 2X to 3X on just that as an immediate realized
gain and this will leave the 125 figures as "free" that I will then add to my
BL store.

The % gains are not there, but I can process way more lots if I sell off the
bulk in 2 or 3 listings and then add 100 or so figures to my store vs taking
the time so sort, store, list, pick, pack, and ship 24,000 pieces over the long
run.

Just different strategy, I also know a lot of sellers that do very well with
parts and having a huge variety.

Ah, that makes sense, I was talking strictly about parting out new sets. Those
will usually be 2x or 3x almost by definition, as I think that roughly gets
you an hourly pay of something in between €15-€25 which is an acceptable "career"
for people. If we'd have sources all over the place that give us 5x, pretty
soon the prices will just drop until we settle at the 2x-3x level again.

But as for used, yes, a whole lot more work is involved there, so it makes sense
that you can have 5x there - and probably still end up with that same hourly
pay as you would for parting out a new set at 2x (with the benefit of course
that you have much more cool and unique things to draw customers with).

I think it depends on where you live whether you can source used stock at an
acceptable price, though. Here it's pretty hard. I get the impression that
in America it's common for people to not really be aware of what they have
and just dump it for cheap, while in the Netherlands everyone thinks they're
suddenly an expert or somehow have hidden gems in their attic that the world
was waiting for, even though they don't know anything about Lego. The same
way all Americans know "don't eat yellow snow", all Dutch people know "don't
sell your Lego cheap"

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 18, 2022 08:14

Subject:

Re: PayPal Micropayments: welke cutoff?

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, BasKrie writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Gaston.La.Brick writes:

Gebruikt iemand PayPal met micropayments (als tweede PayPal account)?
Tot welk bedrag gebruik je dan best die micropayments ("cutoff" bedrag)?

Grtjs,
Gaston

Ik heb zelf geen micro account, maar ben er al wel een keer mee aan het rekenen
geweest.
Daar komt uit dat er niet 1 magisch getal is te noemen.
Voor het gemak neem ik even alleen de betalingen in Euro, betalingen in USD liggen
weer anders.
Binnenlandse betalingen: 18,74
Europa (excl Engeland): 11,53
Engeland: 22,90
Rest van de wereld: 49,18
Onder de genoemde bedragen is een micropayment voordeliger.
Maar daarmee kom ik nergens op de door PayPal genoemde 5,00
"Tarieven voor microbetalingen kunnen ideaal zijn als alternatief voor standaard
tarieven voor commerciële transacties voor een bedrijf dat betalingen van minder
dan 5,00 EUR verwerkt."

Nu weet ik niet of dat een grens is die PP alsnog zal hanteren, maar gezien de
rest van de tekst kan dat haast niet.

Ergens zal je zelf moeten gaan kijken wat de meest voorkomende betalingen zijn
voor jou en daarvandaan bepalen wat je grens wordt. Je kunt op BL helaas gen
grens per land en munt instellen.
Een ideale instelling lijkt er dan ook niet te zijn. Het blijft schipperen en
zal voor iedereen net iets anders zijn vooral afhankelijk van hoeveel je orders
uit welk deel van de wereld je krijgt die met PP betaald worden.

Ik snap niet waarom PayPal niet gewoon zelf de correcte (=goedkoopste) versie
berekent en dat hele onderscheid tussen die 2 accounts opheft, of denk ik nu
te makkelijk

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 18, 2022 05:19

Subject:

Re: Typical profit margins

Viewed:

158 times

Topic:

Announce

In Announce, StickyBrickit writes:

Just wondering what sort of % profit margins people generally make, if they know?
I don't know the exact number but I usually try to buy parts at a price that
allows me to sell them for at least double what I paid. This allows me to make
about 30% on the parts, once fees, shipping etc is taking into account. I sell
on eBay as well so the fees there are a much bigger % of the sale than they are
on Bricklink.

I've heard of people regularly making x3, x4, x5 their money back but I have
no idea where they are sourcing parts if they are making this level of profit.
Other than the occasional "unicorn" find (rare figures in a cheap bulk lot for
instance) I struggle to make double my money. Just wondering what the general
rate of return is for other sellers?

I think the unwritten rule many sellers have in their heads is that x2 = OK.
x3 is great, x4 is exceptional and x5 is fishermen's talk. Well, I heard
that in America there can be some crazy discounts of 50% or even more, but
I doubt there are sellers who manage to make a robust steady x5 on the majority
of their inventory. If I had that, I would need to work only a few hours a week

And it would mean everyone would dive into the business, and bring down the
price. I think eventually things always gravitate towards something between x2
and x3, since that's the level that generates an acceptable pay per hour.

By the way what you describe is not x2 but less, since you have included postage/fees/taxes.
Sometimes smaller stores need to settle for 1.5x in order to beat the competition.
Bigger stores will draw customers anyway and can afford to be more expensive.
I started out with x2, now I'm near x3.

Money = time = space. If you want to earn more money, you need either more time
or more space. You can work long hours at a low profit rate, or you can crank
up your profit rate by growing your store which enables higher prices. My strategy
has always been to go nuts on space and save time

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 17, 2022 08:31

Subject:

Re: Massive increase in # of pieces for sale

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In General, Stellar writes:

In General, AlohaBrickRoad writes:

Hi all. I’m in my first year of selling and have been doing well so far. I
notice over the past few days my sales have essentially dropped to zero, and
there’s a MASSIVE corresponding increase in pieces for sale in the marketplace.
Is this common every year after Christmas with all the gifted and clearance
sets out in the world? Is this an experience others have been having as well?
It’s definitely disheartening, after putting hundreds of hours of work in for
it to all suddenly fall flat. I focus on used parts, but what’s the point in
that when there are suddenly 150,000 new pieces of a lot available for the same
price.
Should we expect things to increase after some of this excess inventory from
new sellers clears out and they realize how much work it is to run a successful
BL store? Or is this in some way related to further mainstreaming of the BL
platform.

Any veteran opinions?

Some stores close for Christmas/New Year Holidays, so a lot probably reopened
in the last week.

Good point! That must be the explanation. I was wondering what the explanation
could be. Here there are no good deals around at all this month. Usually the
best deals are in autumn. And with winter usually being the busiest time of year,
I doubt many sellers have had time to prepare large uploads.

And to the OP: Don't worry too much, my rule of thumb is to never look at
periods shorter than 4 weeks, due to the large random factor. You will have dry
spells and busy days with no explanation, even if it had seemed steady for a
while. That's all part of the game.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 14, 2022 05:09

Subject:

Re: N00b Questions- How Often Should I Notify?

Viewed:

37 times

Topic:

In General, yorbrick writes:

In General, Upstate_Brickz writes:

Hello All,

Should I be notifying members every time I add items to my inventory or does
that just create spam for people? Maybe I should just wait until I add a large
amount?

Thanks,

AJ

If you load infrequently in batches, it is often best to wait maybe a week. That
way, people actively searching can find the parts they want (plus other parts).
Then you get a second hit when you notify.

Plus, save up any small batches, it is not worth notifying a few parts.

Yes, that's what I do. To spread the orders, but also to be able to catch
it if I underpriced something. When you have a fairly big store and you notify
the world, and an item is too cheap, they will pretty much all be gone the next
day. If you don't notify, you can still adjust them as orders trickle in
slowly

Sometimes I even wait months.

But for small stores that just want orders, I'd say just go and spam the
notify button as often as you can

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 14, 2022 05:03

Subject:

Re: 0-50 gram buspakje ook Covid toeslag

Viewed:

44 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, BasKrie writes:

De eerste factuur bevatte alleen 2 pakjes, zojuist de 2e factuur van het jaar
bekeken.
Wat blijkt, ook de buspakjes (product 6440) naar buiten de EU onder de 50 gram
worden belast met een COVID toeslag (1 euro per zending).
Ik dacht eerder gezien te hebben dat 0-30 en 30-50 gram daarvan uitgezonderd
waren.

Dat waren de eerste verloren euro's van het jaar

Nu meteen maar aangepast, komende factuur zal ook wel wat verlies nog geven.

Goed gespot. Waar stond uberhaupt dat buspakjes toeslag zouden kunnen krijgen?
Ik kan er nergens wat over vinden. PostNL linkt naar de tarieven van 2021 op
hun site.... lekker handig..
https://www.postnl.nl/klantenservice/coronavirus/tijdelijke-toeslag-bestemmingen-buiten-europa/

Inderdaad gewoon niet acceptabel. Ze moeten rekenen wat ze zelf aangeven.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 13, 2022 09:30

Subject:

Re: Bricks and Pieces merging into Pick a Brick

Viewed:

71 times

Topic:

In General, par016 writes:

To me it depends on how much Lego tries to make this a part of their main business.
If they are pushing to have this service more front and center on their website
and better promoted, it could easily diminish sales on BrickLink.

Except that they are expensive, very slow, bad at counting and disasterous at
packaging

Besides the fact that it's an annoying website to use and it's
annoying to pay (here, we have to wait for an invoice which can take days).

It's too labour-intensive I think, in order to achieve something that LEGO
has mixed feelings about in the first place - taking away the magic from the
sets by selling all parts individually. They are already struggling with the
order volume they are getting right now, while meanwhile sets are sorted and
boxed by machines at high speed. It's definitely Lego out of their element

It could be just a matter of optimising the current situation (maybe even saving
money on the whole thing) rather than expanding in that direction. But let's
see.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 12, 2022 15:00

Subject:

Re: What does this mean?

Viewed:

26 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Cosyrow writes:

What does this mean and how can I correct it?

"The seller can't ship your order with any of the shipping methods available
- Please contact seller."

It means that the seller made a mistake in their shipping method setup. They
have included Israel as a country they ship to, but your particular order weight,
size or value combination does not match with any of the shipping methods that
the seller had specified.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 12, 2022 08:18

Subject:

Re: Accidentally order bricks

Viewed:

64 times

Topic:

In Problem Order, bricksinbins writes:

In Problem Order, Teup writes:

It's easy to accidentally place an order.

I have to disagree with you there. At the very least, when it comes to the paying
step, I find it hard to believe you log in to PayPal and accept to pay "by accident".
And that from two different stores.

Well, this has actually happened to me, so I don't find it hard to believe,
it's an actual memory

I've also sent duplicate payments because I
was too busy with many different things. A new member may not always be aware
of which cart they are in or which items are in their cart. Note the OP didn't
even say they placed an entire order by mistake - it could be just some items
in the order that they bought twice (which I did many times). They also didn't
say that both orders were mistakes - so it's probably just about some duplicate
items.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 12, 2022 06:26

Subject:

Re: Accidentally order bricks

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

In Problem Order, Yellow.Brick writes:

1 - You went to their store.
2 - Manually adjusted how many parts you wanted to add to your cart.
3 - Proceeded to checkout.
4 - Agreed to continue.

...

I'm kind of new on the site as a seller so I'm trying to figure out what
- if anything - I can do to avoid accidental orders.

You missed out

5 - logged into paypal.
6 - paid by paypal.
7 - received order confirmation email.
8 - received paypal payment confirmation email.

LOL, That's what the ellipse was for.

Like I said in another comment; maybe they ordered the wrong color or the
wrong stormtrooper (one where there are open eyeholes on the helmet versus ones
with painted out eyeholes) - but unless the store has a return policy for stuff
like that, that's on the OP.

If you accidentally bought the wrong thing in a store, that's not "on you"
- you will return it of course. Or if you buy something on Amazon and afterwards
you realise you don't need it, of course you will return it and not keep
it. AFAIK in the US you actually have the right to return things you bought online,
and consumer rights do apply on Bricklink - it says so explicitly in the seller
terms which the seller has agreed to.

It's easy to accidentally place an order. Bricklink is a complicated website
and much to take in for a new user. When I placed my first order I had no clear
idea at which store I actually placed it. With Bricklink remembering multiple
carts, it's definitely possible someone checked out the wrong one by mistake.
But in the OP's case it seems even more logical: They were shopping in a
second store and forgot they already bought some of the items in the first store,
so they accidentally bought them again. This happened to me many times when I
was a buyer here.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 12, 2022 06:03

Subject:

Re: Price Guide - Part Out Value.

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

Suggestions

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

In Suggestions, Hugi501 writes:

Hello There,

I'm sure this has been suggested.

1: But when doing a part out, why do we have to select NEW or USED each time.
Can I suggested you just need to enter the set one know. From there the part
out screen lists both on the same screen.

Because what you are parting out is either new or used. Doing both at the
same time is likely to lead to errors.

Also you can set the default for what you do most often.

I think the OP may be referring to the part out value screen. In that case: I'd
say logically it should be either all or nothing - if it's going to display
New and Used on one page, it should also display whole minifigures vs minifigure
parts, break sets in set yes vs no.

Besides, there's a little bug in the page where if you choose minifigure
parts, it considers the whole minifigures as "missing" items. I've reported
this and it was going to be fixed, but that must have been 5 years ago or so
by now.. but that's business as usual on Bricklink.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 10, 2022 14:24

Subject:

Re: Seller gives negative feedback as a revenge

Viewed:

100 times

Topic:

In Help, VonMartz writes:

Hello all,

one month ago I placed an order and paid for it right away. Ten days after I
asked the seller if he shipped the items where he rudly answered that he is not
fast-processing seller and it is not his main job and so on. Long story short
he didnt. Now it is month from the payment and still nothing. (The seller is
by the way from Czechia, same as me so the delivery process takes 2 days maximum.
Also I checked carefully his "terms" site and no mention about long delivery
times). I sent another emails but without response. When I checked his reviews
I noticed there were some negative feedbacks describing exactly the same problem.
The issue is that the seller never gives his feedback first. All the buyers that
gave him well deserved negative feedback all of them got negative feedback from
him too for giving him negative feedback. It seems to me like some kind of indirect
extortion. Same with me, one month and no feedback from him eventhough I paid
on the same day. I believe this kind of behavior is not ok. Is there a way to
report him? Or is there at least a way to give him negative feedback without
getting one? Im new to the bricklink and have only few feedbacks so Im very cautious.
Im planning on waiting for the order because it is hard to find those items anywhere
else but even after I hopefully recieve those Im convinced that the seller deserves
negative feedback.

Thank you for your time reading such a long story

I will be glad for any reply.

Sounds like the seller was sick and tired of getting orders and realised that
posting revenge feedback is the most effective way to destroy your own reputation.

As others have said do start an NSS, because when it completes it will remove
that negative feedback you received. And if it's the seller's third case
- which may well be the case - it removes the seller along with it.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 9, 2022 11:20

Subject:

Re: VAT threshold

Viewed:

54 times

Topic:

In Selling, LeeGo73 writes:

In Selling, Teup writes:

Wel hebben BTW plichtige verkopers te maken met wat nieuwe wetgeving waarbij
je boven de €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen extra administratie krijgt (unieregeling).
Dan grijpt Bricklink wel in. Maar ik geloof dat niet-BTW plichtige verkopers
daar niet het mikpunt van zijn (en zo ja kun je het admin team je KOR toepassing
tonen)

Sorry, het zit anders: Als je de grens van €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen
overschrijdt, moet je die nieuwe regels toepassen voor al je bestellingen naar
andere EU landen (dat wil zeggen: je moet een BTW nummer hebben, en BTW heffen
over die bestellingen). Die regel gaat dus vóór de KOR.

(Je mag voor je Nederlandse omzet wel gewoon de KOR blijven toepassen, maar dat
lijkt me een slechte deal aangezien je dan ook geen BTW kan aftrekken van je
inkopen)

Bedankt voor de uitleg, het ging mij over het BTW gedeelte. De 20k/10k kom ik
niet eens in de buurt. Ziet de overheid verzendkosten als omzet?

Ja, verzendkosten, transactiekosten e.d. zijn ook omzet. Als je alleen maar je
eigen privéverzameling aan het verkopen bent hoef je niet KvK geregistreerd te
staan, maar in alle andere gevallen moet je dit allemaal opgeven als omzet (en
als je zakelijke kosten).

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 9, 2022 08:55

Subject:

Re: VAT threshold

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Selling, Teup writes:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 9, 2022 08:49

Subject:

Re: VAT threshold

Viewed:

72 times

Topic:

In Selling, LeeGo73 writes:

I have some questions regarding VAT limits for a shop located in the Netherlands;

As I'm a small private seller, I do not have the 21% vat collecting enabled.
When I started I remembered seeing the limit was eur 6k, above that you needed
to enable VAT collection.

When I looked today there is no fixed limit mentioned, just the remark that VAT
collection needs to be enabled when you reach the country threshold, which would
eur 20k for the Netherlands.

I don't have the ambition (or time) to grow into a 'real' shop with
all added administration attached.

Any Dutch sellers now more details?
- is the limit 20k
- is shipping national, eu, non-eu included in the limit

Ik neem aan dat je de kleine ondernemerregeling toepast. De bovengrens om die
te mogen toepassen is inderdaad €20.000 omzet.

Voor Bricklink maakt het verder niets uit, voor zover ik weet. Ik geloof niet
dat daar specifieke regels over zijn. De Belastingdienst bepaalt of je BTW moet
heffen en een BTW nummer krijgt.

Wel hebben BTW plichtige verkopers te maken met wat nieuwe wetgeving waarbij
je boven de €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen extra administratie krijgt (unieregeling).
Dan grijpt Bricklink wel in. Maar ik geloof dat niet-BTW plichtige verkopers
daar niet het mikpunt van zijn (en zo ja kun je het admin team je KOR toepassing
tonen)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 11:37

Subject:

Re: 100% Priase ruined by a new member

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

Feedback

In Feedback, ck.brick.lego writes:

My store used to have a track record of 100% praise.

But recently a new member ordered and requested to cancel after that, for which
he left a neutral feedback. The comment itself is neutral, just a word "thank
you". But it ruins the 100% record, unfortunately.

Any suggestions for preventing things like this?

My thought is to deny any cancellation request--and include that in the store
terms.

But if buyers feel they are forced to buy--sellers are putting himself to
a dangerous situation as well. Buyers may look for defects and a negative feedback
may still result.

P.S. Suggestions regarding store is also welcomed. I am looking for that to improve
as well. Thank you in advance.

Sorry to hear about this. I had the same thing happen to me today. Not allowing
cancellations is not the way, the best thing you can do is explain to the buyer:

- what neutral feedback means on Bricklink
- what it means to you and the future of your business
- how they can change or remove their feedback (provide this link: https://www.bricklink.com/feedbackDel.asp)
- that you provided good service, in accordance with everything they wanted

In my experience, this is usually enough to change their mind. I just saw my
buyer changed their feedback. Hope yours will do the same!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 11:03

Subject:

Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

In Selling, patpendlego writes:

In Selling, Teup writes:

Inspired by an incorrect comment yesterday in the EU distance selling call that
shipping costs don't include VAT, I went to check a VAT invoice of my orders
to the UK and yep, I noticed that VAT was only calculated over the item total
and not the shipping costs. This is not right, VAT needs to be calculated over
the grand total. I wonder, could this be the reason for some situations where
people need to pay VAT twice? I don't know what invoices (if any) get attached
when importing into the EU, but if the ex.VAT price of the grand total does not
match with the VAT percentage charged, it is logical that authorities will not
accept it.

I don't know precisely for which countries shipping costs have VAT (I checked
UK, seems yes), but even if there would be a country that doesn't, it would
still be incorrect because S&H charges include handling which is always subject
to VAT. (And sometimes the postage costs are visible on the label, and if that
doesn't match the shipping cost in the invoice, for which no VAT was charged,
that's going to raise some eyebrows)

Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)

In The NL the VAT % charged on shipping, handling, etc. must be the same as the
VAT % charged on the goods shipped. So, if seller must charge 21% VAT on the
goods, s/he also must charge 21% on the shipping. If the seller sells margin
goods (which cannot be charged VAT) there is also no VAT on the shipping.

If there is a mix of VAT % on the goods, then the highest % must be charged on
the shipping.

Yikes, I read on a British site that they calculate VAT on shipping proportionally
to the rates of the products, rather than assuming the highest percentage. Good
luck implementing that too.. this VAT stuff is a neverending head ache for Bricklink

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 09:52

Subject:

Re: EU distance selling - Online session

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

In Administrative, TBS writes:

Is this because when one reaches the 10K (?) treshold, one is regarded a 'business'
with different tax regulations?

Not really, becasue you are a business to begin with.
Thing here is: If your company gone over the 10K treshold on sales from EU to
EU,
you are obliged to register for OSS and redo all your invoices and tax-reports,
because you must pay the specific country VAT-Rate then to that specific country.

As far as i know, that OSS-System is doing this combined, so you don´t have to
register and file your reports anymore and payments in each 1 of 29 EU States
yourself like before.
But you have to redo it anyway. And then are obliged for it the next years.

Germany has more strict rules maybe? I read in a Dutch explanation that you need
to apply the local VAT rate from the first invoice in which you exceed 10K for
that fiscal year. So nothing needs to be revised.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 09:43

Subject:

Re: EU distance selling - Online session

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Administrative, TBS writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

The webinar reg. EU Distance selling took place today. First of all thank you
to every one who participated and shared very valuable input, questions, etc.

Please find the link to the meeting recording here:
https://bricklink.s3.amazonaws.com/EU+Distance+selling-20220107.mp4

Have a great weekend!

The BrickLink Marketplace team

Hi Tanya and Team,

thank you. It was a most important meeting.
Please continue to adress such upcoming changes in future, and maybe even ahead
of its time.

So as a conclusion, it just confirmed my opinion of not joining the IOSS-Crew.
The fact that the VAT is calculated "Crude or incorrectly" was a big letdown
for me.
However i can understand you went for this route because the bricklink system
itself is unable to handle NET prices on such a level.
So if you could have added the countryspecific VAT-Rate on top of our Netprices,
it could have been handled, but i won´t let me deduct some 5% to 27% from my
German Total/Gross pricing, and that even on handling and shipping.
I am sorry. Thanks, but no thanks.

Which leaves us in an even tighter spot.
Dear buyer from the European Union reading this.
Don´t hesitate on getting your parts needed, there is just a narrow timeframe.

Some time in spring to summer i (we as other sellers) might not be allowed to
deliver your items within the European Union anymore then, because the threshold
is reached.
That means for you, further orders are only possible from January 2023 then,
or as a registered business with an confirmed VAT-ID (B2B-Sale).

Sorry for this, but my friends from the EU - if you need something, Hurry up.
For all other buyers - Exports outside the EU are not affected by this, and maybe
the only business left alongside domestic sales after spring/summer.

Have a nice weekend
Tom

Hi Tom, while I agree with you the implementation is fundamentally incorrect
(violates price discrimination law plus is annoying for bookkeeping), to take
a pragmatic angle: Is it really that big a problem that it is worth giving up
a portion of your sales?

As for the price discrimination part, I don't expect we can get into trouble
as individual sellers since we don't have an option to change it. And in
case you happen to be a seller who calculates the cost of good sold based on
the turnover: You could always take the inc.VAT price of the annual sales, deduct
VAT as if they were all German customers, and from that hypothetic 'ex.VAT'
amount calculate cost of goods sold.

And if it's because you apply margin VAT, contact the helpdesk: They're
still figuring this out and maybe they can help you.

The call gave me confidence that the reason Bricklink is not improving this is
completely because of the limited resources, and that Bricklink understands full
well that this is is a poor patch that needs to be revised eventually. So there's
no real reason to stop selling out of protest, either.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 09:17

Subject:

Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

You have completely misunderstood my post. There is a problem with people having
to pay double VAT. I have identified a mistake in the way Bricklink makes invoices.
The numbers are incorrect, in plain sight for the customs or other authorities
when they look at the package.

The only illogical thing here is arguing to keep the mistake in the invoice,
because you would like there to be no VAT in the shipping costs. VAT is paid
on shipping whether you want to or not, it has always been that way, nothing
changed. And most sellers have made the setting to enable VAT on shipping costs
already, so for their invoices nothing changes if Bricklink corrects the mistake.

Btw, it's your goverment in this case

But your government's policy
makes sense, otherwise there's a loophole where you can evade tax easily
by branding it 'shipping costs'.

In Selling, tjb01527 writes:

I did read it that way. Perhaps an email to his government rep would be more
helpful rather than moaning about BL. It is totally illogical to me as to why
postage should be taxed with VAT. All it does is hurt the small seller. Let’s
face it, whilst taxes are the law and needed, there is only so much you can afford
before it breaks the camels back. It just seems that governments are getting
too greedy. When I buy on BL, I ask the seller to put the VAT invoice on the
package. Maybe I have been lucky, but I have never had any problem. I do the
same for my buyers. On EBay, I use their IOSS and again have had no problems

In Selling, yorbrick writes:

In Selling, tjb01527 writes:

Perhaps it's just me, but this is this a begging letter to pay more taxes.
I do not agree that you should pay VAT on shipping. Since the UK has left the
EU, it has become very expensive to buy from the EU due to the addition of VAT.
I know from sales that buyers from the EU feel the same judging from a drop in
sales. Now we have someone complaining that we are not paying enough VAT. One
way to help kill sales. Thanks!!

I didn't read it that way. VAT should be collected on shipping when importing.
It's the law, not a choice. If BL store settings are allowing orders to go
through without properly collecting the full VAT it is right for him to point
this out, as otherwise the buyer is caught with the problem of thinking they
have paid the correct VAT when in reality they haven't. And then they get
the issue of the extra VAT to pay and the Royal Mail processing costs, which
are likely to be way above the VAT difference that is still due.

In Selling, Teup writes:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 06:29

Subject:

Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

This is besides the point.. I am not a politician

There is VAT on shipping,
it's a reality whether you agree to it or not. This is just about whether
or not Bricklink accurately reflects reality. It's just a shot at figuring
out what causes some buyers to have to pay VAT twice on import - so it's
actually precisely about not paying too much.

In Selling, tjb01527 writes:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 05:57

Subject:

Re: EU distance selling - Online session

Viewed:

64 times

Topic:

Thank you for yesterday! I really appreciate this initiative. Nice to see transparency
and honesty and feel like our input is taken seriously. Will definitely attend
again if there will be more sessions in the future!

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

The webinar reg. EU Distance selling took place today. First of all thank you
to every one who participated and shared very valuable input, questions, etc.

As promised below is a link to the recording of the meeting, what you are not
able to see in the recording are all the comments and questions, and there were
a lot! we will be taking some time to group the input and the questions and share
our responses to these with all of you.

Please find the link to the meeting recording here:
https://bricklink.s3.amazonaws.com/EU+Distance+selling-20220107.mp4

Have a great weekend!

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink member,

We have recently launched a new feature enabling EU distance selling on the BrickLink
site. Because we have had a number of questions and concerns expressed from some
of you, we are setting up an online sessions to take you through the new guidelines
in more detail as well as addressing your concerns. The online session will take
place this Friday at 9-10 am PST

During the meeting you will have the option to write additional questions in
the session chat and have them answered directly in the session to the best of
our ability.

In order to participate in the session you will need to sign up, in order to
sign up, please write to CE_Tanja and share the email you would like to participate
with and we will invite you to the session. The deadline for signing up is Thursday
1/6 at 9 am PST.

There is a limit of 350 participants. Participation will be on a first come first
serve basis. We will be recording the session for those of you that are unable
to participate, this way you will be able to watch the recording afterwards.

Kind regards,

The BrickLink Marketplace team

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 05:40

Subject:

Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

In Selling, gvbricks writes:

On our UK VAT invoices provided by BrickLink UK VAT is always calculated on the
total net price (items + shipping + additional costs). Unlike you we have VAT
enabled on everything in the store settings.

In Selling, Teup writes:

Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)

Ok, then yes, it's this feature that is causing it. It was a useful practical
option for me because it automatically increases outside EU shipping rates without
me having to enter a separate table, but if it results in incorrect VAT invoices
it should be ignored or removed. The seller shouldn't be choosing whether
or not to include VAT on shipping, the importing country should (and then still
there is always VAT on the handling component).

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 8, 2022 05:07

Subject:

Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly

Viewed:

193 times

Topic:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 6, 2022 10:58

Subject:

Re: What am I not getting?

Viewed:

82 times

Topic:

In Selling, kurigan writes:

I need out of this business so bad, but I need to sell out my inventory first.
As much of it as I can as I still owe money back, plus a promised return on investment,
but the orders I get take too much to fill and I can't keep up. One of everything;
a $3 order takes me on an hour long tour of my inventory. What can I do?

I can't sell things any cheaper and the changing nature of the business has
made it impossible for me to make a liveable income. (Almost) No one places expensive
enough orders that don't take up to large a chunk of my work hours to allow
enough of them through at a time. I take a few orders, calculate the hours it
will take to satisfy them and I have to close the store after only a day or
two, yet I've only sold $100-$200. I've tried adjusting settings like
lot ratios/restrictions, minimum buys, opting out of rebrickable, but to little
to no avail. The more I do to try and encourage simpler orders, bulk buys, etc.
the more inconvenient it becomes to shop my store.

If ya can't tell, I'm at my whit's end and I just need to put it
out there incase there is a life line or something I'm missing that I'd
never find if I kept it to myself. I've been hard at this since 2016, trying
to make this a serious business and every year it gets more difficult. I can't
be the only struggling but how are you all handling it? What am I not getting?

Dave

I don't have time to join in on the discussions on inventory sorting methods
(I strongly prefer catalog based sorting over remark based sorting btw), but
just a remark on another aspect of your issue:

The parts vs lots factor determines to a large extend how labour intensive your
orders are going to be. I have the same number of lots as you do or less, but
5x the stock. The result is that I get bigger orders with fewer lots. So, if,
besides inventory storage, you want to improve the efficiency on the orders side
of things, it's better to buy more of the same stock so you can sell larger
lots.

Warning: That means having fewer lots (unless you just grow!), and that means
fewer buyers, since lot count is very important for drawing buyers. But sometimes
life is better getting less businesss, if it means you make more money per hour
on the orders that you do get.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 6, 2022 10:46

Subject:

Re: In the EU it is legal to charge PayPal costs!

Viewed:

36 times

Topic:

In Selling, 1001bricks writes:

My eventual solution was to just ditch PayPal completely

And that happens
to save me a lot of transaction fee money

Agree with almost all of this, but...

* PayPal is 80% our buyers payment mode (our accounting for 2020); I just can't
get rid of 80% of my orders

* As myself as a buyer, I *do* appreciate when I buy (at any place), that PayPal
protects me. The last time I used PayPal protection (2 years ago) it was for
1000€+ order; never shipped, but all refunded. If I'd pay with IBAN, I'd
lose this.

* Some pay using their Credit Card, meaning (here) we pay the bill at the end
of each month, while IBAN and such are immediately debited. This is both a bit
dangerous, sure, but also UBER convenient if you correctly manage this delay.

Sincerely I also dislike it, but it has major pros...

Sylvain

True, it was just my personal solution, not a recommendation for all

I understand
why you need PayPal, which is after all a result of how PayPal works - they make
businesses need it. I'm just lucky that I can live without it because I happen
to live in a country where it's not so popular. Outside of Bricklink (most
of my sales), I actually do have PayPal enabled, but luckily only around 5% of
buyers use it.
You wouldn't lose 80% though - I think at least more than half of those would
agree to pay by Stripe's card method. And if Bricklink finally succeeds in
adding the payment methods they've been meaning to add for several years
now, you'd lose even less.

As for protection, true, it's a service and services cost money. But IMO
(again, just my opinion) I prefer the official authorities to protect me rather
than a private business, since A. who checks PayPal? They're not an authority
and their interest is usually to side with the buyer (useful though if you ARE
the buyer, as you said

) and B. I rather have things like protection as a
public service rather than funneling money to some foreign CEOs for keeping us
safe. However, it's probably going to take decades before the police has
a decent way of protecting us online.... (However, once I actually did get my
money back from a foreign scammer once as a result of a police report!)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 6, 2022 10:37

Subject:

Re: Part 15490 - why so expensive?

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

In Buying, stecre writes:

Does anyone know why this part commands such high prices in Pearl Gold?

15490 Minifigure Armor Shoulder Pads with 4 Spikes Pointed
Parts: Minifigure, Body Wear {Pearl Gold}

In addition to what others have said, I noticed that these things - shoulder
pads without body armor - are extremely popular in general. Whenever I part out
a pile of a set that has these, in some form or shape, all of them tend to sell
in the first weeks. I guess they're in demand for custom figs, since it allows
you to make a badass warrior while still being able to show a torso with a cool
print.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 5, 2022 19:18

Subject:

Re: In the EU it is legal to charge PayPal costs!

Viewed:

37 times

Topic:

In Selling, SylvainLS writes:

In Selling, Stellar writes:

In Selling, Leftoverbricks writes:

It is often repeated in the forum that charging PayPal costs to the buyer would
be illegal in the EU. I was of that opinion myself.

However, this is not the case.

Yes, Teup generally chimes in in such discussions to remind us

As far as I can see, there's no immediate violation going on on PayPal's
side - if I recall right the EU directive restricts charging payment processing
fees to a maximum of the actual cost of processing, and then the PayPal
terms in many countries (not the Netherlands

) PayPal restricts this further
by disallowing charging their fees at all. No conflict there - there would be
a conflict if PayPal somehow demanded you to charge more than the actual fees.

However...

It does beg the question what such companies can get away with putting in their
terms. You cannot charge their fees in many countries. You are not even allowed
to speak negatively about PayPal. Yes. I am literally breaking their terms by
expressing my opinion here. You must make PayPal just as visible in your shop
as other payment methods - but if you enable some PayPal plugins in a webshop,
your webshop gets spammed with yellow banners everywhere on your website screaming
"YOU CAN PAY BY PAYPAL!! WHAT IS PAYPAL? CLICK HERE! YOU CAN PAY BY PAYPAL DID
YOU KNOW THAT??? DO IT NOW!" They put stuff in their terms not because it's
fair but simply because they get away with it.

And I have a problem with that. PayPal operates like one of these toxic venture
capital businesses - kill the competition, then go rampant on fees. With these
terms, PayPal found a way to cheat the natural capitalist free market priciple
where the person who decides is the person who pays. At PayPal, the customer
decides, but the shopkeeper pays. PayPal loves screaming everywhere that PayPal
is free, to get as much customers to choose their service as possible. And the
more customers choose it, the more PayPal tightens their grip on businesses and
increase their fees, because shopkeepers have no choice but to offer what the
customer wants. The costs of PayPal are deliberately being hidden in this way.
I recall 2 significant price increases over the years, and what's next? If
they reach their goal of every customer wanting PayPal, they can charge whatever
they like. I once posted a reply on one of their posts on Facebook that they're
actually not free and very expensive compared to other methods, and my comment
was removed and I was banned from commenting anything ever again on their posts.
That is how PayPal works. The truth has to be hidden at all costs.

So, I really like the concept of passing on fees to the customer for the sake
of transparency. As far as I can see it's the only remedy to the problem.
PayPal will be forced to charge a fair fee, just like every other service or
product. Unfortunately, the majority of customers on Bricklink are not used to
this the way we are used to it in the Netherlands (I get transaction fees tagged
on even if I order a pizza here, and I'm fine with it). So the dilemma for
me was whether to charge the fees or whether to match customer expectations.

My eventual solution was to just ditch PayPal completely

And that happens
to save me a lot of transaction fee money

My personal opinion: It would be good if governments decided principally what
payment processing is allowed to cost, the same way the Dutch government decides
how much the postal service should cost, even though it's private business.
PayPal is just cheating the system with their hidden cost construction and it
needs to be tackled with policy.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 4, 2022 05:02

Subject:

Re: Links to other sites in a forum posting

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In General, SylvainLS writes:

In General, crazylegoman writes:

In General, MiniFigKen writes:

Has the Bricklink policy to linking to other sites in a post changed? From what
I've heard from banned stores, It used to be that was a no no!!! I recently
came across post(s) linking to a website, instagram and twitter...not the first.
Can this now be done?

The only prohibited links are ones that lead to another site selling any kind
of LEGO brand products. Instagram and Twitter don't do that, so they're
fair game.

David

Links to offensive content are also forbidden.
The help page is there: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=126
and it contains the same thing as the ToS: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/terms_of_service.page

I thought all links are forbidden? Because BL understandably doesn't have
time to moderate the whole www. If some links are allowed, then it would still
be super easy to put some ads on that linked site or social media profile.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 3, 2022 11:01

Subject:

Re: HS CODE

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, Alico64 writes:

In LANG Nederlands, TempleOfBricks writes:

Bij het versturen van Lego naar het buitenland..

Kan iemand mij vertellen welke HS code ik moet invullen op het doaneformulier??

Gr,
Alexander

Hoi Alexander,

Het is niet verplicht om de GN/HS code in te vullen op je CN22 formulier, maar
dit kan wel helpen bij het voorspoedigen bij de douane van het land van import.

Speelgoed van kunststof heeft code 9503 00 35.

Zie o.a. https://www.sendcloud.nl/hs-code-voor-online-retailers/

Bij PostNL zakelijke zendingen is het volgensmij wel verplicht. Ik doe ook altijd
9503 00 35, soms ben ik lui en gebruik ik het ook als een bestelling alleen stickers
of zeilen bevat (dat heeft weer heel andere codes) en tot nu toe gaat alles goed.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 2, 2022 08:42

Subject:

Re: Allow to add shipment options

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

Suggestions

In Suggestions, VJBricks writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, VJBricks writes:

Hi,

It would be great the have the ability to set shipment options. In Switzerland,
Swiss Post can deliver parcels on Saturday. This implies an additional fee that
a buyer should choose at checkout.

For now, the only way to do this is to define a new dedicated shipment method
with the fee incorporated to the shipment prices. The buyer would have a new
option, beside the other methods, only to receive its parcel on saturday.

In my vision, a seller will set an option with a description and additional fees.
The buyer will have a checkbox to enable the option.

Thanks in advance for your read and I wish you a happy new year.

Regards,

Jey

I see what you mean, but how many shipping methods do you currently have? You
could consider to just, as you say, add separate shipping methods for them. I
don't think it would clutter the customer's interface too much if you
make sure that all the shipping methods that are not relevant are hidden (e.g.
by placing them into the same group so only the cheapest one is displayed, or
by making their specifications mutually exclusive).

I just finish to configure the new methods and this is an abstract of what I've
done :

- Group 1 : Economic shipment (small bubble mailer, oversized small bubble mailer,
big bubble mailer, parcel)
- Group 2 : Priority shipment (small bubble mailer, oversized small bubble mailer,
big bubble mailer, parcel)
- Group 3a : Priority shipment for parcel that can be delivered on Saturdays

- Group 3b : Priority shipment with tracking, for all kind of bubble mailer of
group 2
- Group 4 : Priority shipment with tracking and insurance, for all kind of bubble
mailer of groupe 2

I've setup all this various methods to have constraints on the packaging.
The Swiss Post allow so much options and I tried to apply those options to reduce
the shipping cost.

With options, the buyer would, firstly, choose between Economic and Priority.
And then, if it choose Priority, he will chose the options, like it is able to
do with the tracking and/or insurance.

That sounds very complicated. Not saying you should do the same, but here's
some food for thought: I don't offer any options. I have put all of my 10-or-so
shipping methods into the same group.
Maybe by introducing some of that philosophy into your system you can straighten
things out a bit. Sometimes good service means not "annoying" a buyer with optionss
- they are not as familiar with postal services as you are, so you're in
a fair position to make some of the decisions on their behalf. It's often
not rocket science what buyers want, they usually just want their order in a
decent timeframe at a good price. I would at most offer one rudimentary choice
between very fast expensive shipping and slow cheap shipping if this really is
a meaningful preference that buyers can have.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 2, 2022 07:45

Subject:

Re: Allow to add shipment options

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

Suggestions

In Suggestions, VJBricks writes:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 2, 2022 04:34

Subject:

Re: Cancelled payments? Problems with ordering?

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

Happy new years folks!
I noticed I suddenly have a lot (5) of cancelled payments in my Stripe for 30
and 31 December. Something going wrong at Bricklink? People having difficulty
to place orders? Did anyone else notice a lot of cancelled payments?

If they are different then don't worry, you can see the BL username, so you
can ask them if something went wrong or they were just testing.

Good idea, thanks. They are all American customers. I reached out to them but
only one replied (oddly), saying he indeed changed his mind. So I have no clue
about the others. I think something is going wrong here. Even if they didn't
have technical difficulties placing orders, the fact that they all change their
mind must mean there's a problem somewhere - maybe they are not aware of
added sales tax until the end. That can waste a lot of time.. one of the cancelled
payments was a €160 order. People don't fill a huge cart and then just leave
for fun..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 1, 2022 09:27

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, patpendlego writes:

In LANG Nederlands, BoekelbriX writes:

Ik vraag me af of je de verplichte registratie als bedrijf kunt voorkomen door
je winkel "op slot te gooien" bij de stand van EUR 9.900 euro ?
En loopt dit van 01-01 tot 31-12 ?

Want de hobby is leuk en ik heb er veel schik mee, maar een bedrijf oprichten
met alle registraties die daarbij horen, de belastingdienst die precies kan zien
wat je naast je werk nog aan inkomsten genereert, liever niet

Zomaar een gedachte...

Het gaat alleen om 10k verkoop naar andere landen binnen de EU. Dus niet
de verkoop in eigen land of buiten de EU.

Als je tegen de 10k aanzit, hoef je alleen maar de EU landen uit te sluiten en
kan je nog gewoon doorverkopen in eigen land en buiten de EU.

Zoals gezegd moet je inkomen altijd geregistreerd staan. Ik vind het heel
raar dat deze vraag openlijk gesteld wordt en dat er ook dit soort antwoorden
gegeven worden. Tenzij dit een "puur academische" discussie is over een hypothetische
verkoper die gratis zonder winstmarge werkt hebben het hier echt over fraude
van duizenden euro's. Dat is gewoon een misdrijf.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 1, 2022 06:05

Subject:

Re: Cancelled payments? Problems with ordering?

Viewed:

37 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Teup writes:

Actually I just reopened my store, so I can't say how long this has been
going on already..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jan 1, 2022 06:04

Subject:

Cancelled payments? Problems with ordering?

Viewed:

95 times

Topic:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 31, 2021 14:48

Subject:

Re: I didn´t receive my package...

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In Buying, vascofarias writes:

I didn´t receive my package;
the seller put a wrong adress; he already receive the payment, he knows and he
identified the problem, but he refuses to give my money back;
how can I complain?
to whom?
I want to report this on his profile, but how do I do it?

Sorry to hear that. You paid and the seller did not send the order to you. That
means it's an NSS - a Non Shipping Seller.

From this page you can start the NSS procedure: https://www.bricklink.com/retract.asp

When the seller doesn't resolve the situation and it completes, it gets marked
in their account. 3 NSS results in the seller losing their selling privileges.

Secondly, you can leave negative feedback, which will be visible to future buyers.
Sellers really don't like this, so telling the seller that you will do that
if he doesn't refund, sometimes proves to be a useful way to 'inspire'
the seller to be a little nicer.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 30, 2021 13:09

Subject:

Re: What can we do to remove NSS?

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Problem Order, Friend.bricks writes:

In our store terms and conditions is written that if order is not insured we
are not responsible for damaged or lost shipment. Isn’t it so that, if buyer
requires shipping without tracking and insurance and if we have in our store
terms and conditions written that we are not responsible for lost or damaged
shipments if they are not insured, so if he place an order he agrees with our
terms and conditions and he is accepting that risk of damaged or lost shipment
is on his shoulders?

No. I also believed this in the past, but I was wrong. If your buyer is from
the EU, or AFAIK the UK or US, consumer rights apply to them. This includes not
having these risks in ecommerce. As a seller, you have agreed to the Bricklink
seller terms. If you read them, you'll see it asks you explicitly to respect
consumer rights.

So the NSS is correct. Put yourself in their position: If you bought something
online from a store, and you did not receive anything, I think you'll demand
your money back or receive the item, too? It would be odd to just shrug and move
on.

It's great that you didn't have this problem in the past. That means
that if you simply refund all lost orders, remove the "risky option" from your
store, your customers are going to be much more impressed by the professionalism
of your store, while it hardly costs you anything (after all, it rarely happens).
Everyone profits, so it's a simple solution IMO.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 30, 2021 10:20

Subject:

Re: What the 45 means in Slope 45 ? Resolution

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

Catalog

In Catalog, patpendlego writes:

LEGO got stuck with the lip height of 1.5870 which does not match e.g. a Plate,
just because they wanted a 45° angle at the start.

No, they didn't want that from the start, it's a logical result. That
lip is simply a panel width. Brick width + panel width = brick height. Removing
one panel width from the bottom of the brick and you're left with a perfect
cube. Then you cut the cube diagonally (=45 degrees) to get the slope.

Then the next Slope brick (known as Slope 33) was created with the same lip height.
Somehow this got called 33 on BrickLink, but it's not 33° but 31° close enough.

Hmm, I think it's like 26.57 degrees? 2 steps wide and 1 step high, that
gives a tangent of 0.5... calculator says that's 26.57 degrees...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 30, 2021 04:42

Subject:

Re: 10255 Asembly Squar - List of bags

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

In Help, XPete1 writes:

I bought 10255 in unsealed box and I need to vertify, if I have all bags.

Do you know about some list of the bags from this set?

You can check the weight: 4666g

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 29, 2021 11:50

Subject:

Re: When do you contact seller re: missing parts?

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

In Buying, NedsBrickShop writes:

I'd like to know people's general approaches as to when they decide to
reach out to sellers about missing/broken/incorrect parts. Based on the sheer
size of the BrickLink catalog, the variations of some parts, the similarities
between some parts and colors, and the proneness of some parts to nearly imperceptible
hairline cracks, it is downright silly to expect every seller to fulfill every
order with 100% accuracy.

It's nice that you are a cooperative and easy going customer, that's
always very nice for a seller! But actually, the above is exactly what you can
expect, if you want to be strict. You buy something, it belongs to you, and you
should get it. And after all, buying individual parts on this platform, you are
paying premium, and knowing variants is part of the job that sellers are getting
paid for.

Even if I sent you a slightly different version of a part than you ordered, I
would send you the correct part. At the very least you should expect to get a
refund. You can't ever under any circumstances be expected to pay money for
things that you did not receive (even if you got wrong parts instead of it).
Even if something is worth 1 cent, I would go and send a refund for that, just
out of principle. No coupon, refund.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 23, 2021 15:28

Subject:

Re: Selling new Lego as used?

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Selling, pitz8008 writes:

In Selling, 9_lives_bricks writes:

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone is listing both there new and used Lego as used. I
can see a lot of benefit to it and very little reasons why I shouldn't. Just
wondering if anyone has tried it and how it effected sales.

Thanks

There's numerous reasons why I think this is a horrendous idea. Number 1
being, the more lots people see that you have for sale, the more likely they
are to check out your store.

Yes, if they are different parts. Having many lots draws customers, because the
chance is higher that a part someone is looking for is in a shop. With lots that
are the same part, this chance isn't increased. So that doesn't really
do much.

Plus, the quantities will be small, so that increases the chance that the shop
will be disqualified for not appearing to have enough of a part.

(And if you really wanted to bump lotcount artificially, you could just list
1000 technic pins as separate lots..

)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 23, 2021 04:31

Subject:

Re: YAY. Shop Items Now In Correct Order

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Selling, Shiny_Stuff writes:

I have been told by long-time sellers that for years and years it was normal
for items to be displayed in the proper order and the random shuffle has only
been occurring for the past few years and nobody knew why. I am glad the shuffle
is gone.

Yeah, that kind of thing seems to happen on Bricklink. Some year or so ago, suddenly
the past list of a part-out got mixed up, and Russell said they were going to
fix this "next week" which was about a year ago. This is still very annoying
every time when doing part-outs, and I hope Bricklink will one day fix this bug
that suddenly came for no reason..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 20, 2021 16:35

Subject:

Re: RRP

Viewed:

52 times

Topic:

LEGO products

In LEGO, Poncke writes:

It is frustrating because it is confusing or misleading. Example: Set cost 50
euro on LEGO, advertised on random website for 45 discounted from 55. I think,
nice 10 euro off, but its 5 euro off.

If I recall correctly, this is against the law starting next year. If you spot
any such stores doing that, you can let them know. From 2022, EU businesses may
only advertise a price discount if the "original" price truly was the original
price they were selling it for for at least a month before the discount. (It's
a Dutch law but if I'm not mistaken it's from a EU directive)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 18, 2021 18:09

Subject:

Re: Issues with placing orders

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

Thank you Tanja! Very pleased with the communication and quick solution after
the initial silence. My buyer's order just came in successfully

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

The issue has been fixed.

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

We hear you, we are working on the solution and we will let you know as soon
as the issue is fixed!

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

We are currently working on fixing this issue. The solution is expected to be
delivered on Monday.

The current workaround for sellers is as follows:
Turning off the feature that has 'Handling cost rule' set up or removing
the handling fee settings and manually adding a handling fee. The easiest way
to keep track of this is to leave 1 domestic and 1 foreign shipping method.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

We will keep you updated.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 15:01

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

118 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, patpendlego writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Teup writes:

In LANG Nederlands, pineBRICKS writes:

He is selling mostly used parts so that should be okay?
Maybe even sharing his hobby with his partner?

Well you can buy used stuff with the intention of making profit, but yes, technically
if they are selling off their own collection without a significant profit margin
(basically getting spent money back), then it is ok. I guess it would take a
huge amount of space to have a collection that's good for several years of
€20000+ sales but well, some people have the space.. I just know that I don't

Selling your own collection is not seen as income, you can do that only once.

Buying LEGO just to sell it again with the intention to make a profit, that is
income and must be reported. However if the cost of doing so is higher than what
you earn, then not. Obviously you cannot report a loss as income hahaha.

Also an option, yes. But if you're good at something, never do it for free

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 14:51

Subject:

Re: CANNOT PLACE ORDER CUSTOMER TOO

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Technical Issues, Luxurybricks writes:

Hello!

Some customer notified me that they are not able to check out.
They always get the message "Technical Problem".
I tried it by myself on a store from a friend and it doesn't work.

It is not the first time we have these problems.
PLEASE CHECK IT OUT.

Sincerely,
Artur Alaverdyan

I have a customer who's telling me the exact same thing. Hopefully it will
be fixed quickly.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 11:57

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

62 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, pineBRICKS writes:

He is selling mostly used parts so that should be okay?
Maybe even sharing his hobby with his partner?

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 09:28

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

78 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, pineBRICKS writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Teup writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Dino1 writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Teup writes:

In LANG Nederlands, BoekelbriX writes:

Zomaar een gedachte...

Post je nou serieus publiekelijk dat je meer dan €10.000 zwart verdient? Ik mag
hopen dat dit een soort van grapje was.

Why should that be "black" earned? As long as you declare it in your income tax.

The OP suggested not doing that at all.

It's tax free to a certain amount when its your hobby. (not 100% sure of
the exact rules but it seems the case if you google it)

VAT - yes. But for income, there are no thresholds. The Belastingdienst wants
any income to be registered and reported.* Officially, you need to report it
from the first euro. Not that anybody does that, though. A more realistic decency
threshold that most people seem to use is somewhere at 500 to 1000 euro. Over
that, it really becomes fishy. And having a whopping €10.000 in sales to other
EU countries probably means selling at least €20.000 annually. That's serious
tax fraud, and running your shop on public money like that shouldn't be something
that can be talked about in a forum as if it's no big deal.

There are specific small business schemes in many countries, intended for just
this. In the NL, the Belastingdienst allows you to have a hobby that generates
turnover up to €20.000 per year without having to pay VAT. It's very useful
for small sellers and it again underscores that they really, really want you
to register any income, even a hobby.

*The exception being selling second hand private possessions - here, you just
liquidate a possession that you already owned, neither gaining nor losing something
in the process.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 06:51

Subject:

Re: Is this a legally valid invoice?

Viewed:

83 times

Topic:

Problem

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1315447

In Problem, Dino1 writes:

In Problem, Stellar writes:

In Problem, Dino1 writes:

Hi Russell, hi Tanja!

Only a simpel question.

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1316689

Regards
Werner

That seems the email notification that you have one invoice, the actual invoice
PDF can be downloaded from here:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/mystore/fee.page

Top right: Download Bills and select the month.

Thank you!
And this simple question couldn't be answered by Bricklink for months?

Almost as annoying as people not reading answers and keep asking

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 05:54

Subject:

Re: New Lego color for 2022: Vibrant Yellow!

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

Colors

In Colors, WoutR writes:

In Colors, randyf writes:

In Sales, ryanaitch writes:

...and it is in my store

Glows brighter than even Trans-Neon Green under a blacklight, to my eyes.

Taking votes for names in 3, 2, 1...

I am leaning towards having it added as Neon Yellow myself.

Please keep it simple, use the LEGO name if possible. What happens if LEGO releases
a Neon Yellow in a few years time? There is enough confusion for historical reasons,
let us not add to that.

Vibrant Yellow.

One of Bricklink's main selling points is the fact its catalog is so much
better than Lego's own way of categorizing things. If we started to adopt
their catalog, that would be a serious step backwards. There will be lots of
strange names that don't make sense. And adopting only some of them while
not adopting others leaves us with the same inconsistency that we already have,
so we'd win nothing.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 17, 2021 05:33

Subject:

Coupon bug

Viewed:

62 times

Topic:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 16, 2021 04:21

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

74 times

Topic:

Thank you for your update, much appreciated!

Sounds like the price discrimination issue will not be solved in time, good to
know at least, I guess I will sell the old way for the first half of 2022 and
register for OSS for the second half. I think that should work, as long as things
are fixed by then.

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

A bit more update to share,

Based on the input we have received, we are currently implementing a solution
that will enable B2B transactions for EU customers which is expected to be completed
in early January.

B2B transactions for UK and US customers will follow while we review the proper
compliance needed.

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

We are sorry for the lack of reply to this thread, we understand that this is
causing a lot of frustration and is leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

We are currently working with our Tax partners to make sure we provide proper
responses and guidance, unfortunately it is a complex matter and taking longer
than we had hoped for.

Once we are able to answer your questions we will share them in this thread.

We will also be inviting everyone to an online call in the beginning of January,
in this call we will elaborate on the issues raised and it will be possible to
ask further questions.

Thank you for your patience.

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Dear BrickLink Members,

We have released our Distance Selling feature for sellers who plan to or have
reached the EUR annual 10 000 distance sale of goods threshold. To see where
your current BrickLink sales totals are, you can download the order information
here:

https://www.bricklink.com/orderExcel.asp?orderType=received

To turn this feature on, navigate to your Store Settings page and enable distance
selling. You will be asked to enter your One Stop Shop (OSS) number:

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/oss_en

or foreign VAT registration information and provide valid documentation. Once
enabled, the prices of your items will remain the same on your storefront, however
the VAT rate charged and collected will be changed to match the country’s rate
in which the buyer is located.

This has been implemented to comply with the new EU marketplace regulations.
For more information, please see the European Commission article on this topic
here:

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/online-sellers_en

You can find additional guidance on the BrickLink EU Marketplace Changes Help
Page:

https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2517

This message will be sent via email to all sellers at the beginning of next week.
Please add any questions about this feature (along with any bug reports) to this
thread.

Thank you,

The BrickLink Team

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 15, 2021 11:31

Subject:

Re: New Lego color for 2022: Vibrant Yellow!

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

Colors

In Colors, Teup writes:

In Colors, randyf writes:

In Sales, ryanaitch writes:

...and it is in my store

Glows brighter than even Trans-Neon Green under a blacklight, to my eyes.

Taking votes for names in 3, 2, 1...

I am leaning towards having it added as Neon Yellow myself.

Agree, if that is not neon yellow, I don't know what is

By the way, am I the only one who is (still, after all these years) confused
by the name "trans neon green"? To me it's really "trans neon yellow", and
"trans bright green" is actually "trans neon green" for me.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 15, 2021 11:29

Subject:

Re: New Lego color for 2022: Vibrant Yellow!

Viewed:

50 times

Topic:

Colors

In Colors, randyf writes:

In Sales, ryanaitch writes:

...and it is in my store

Glows brighter than even Trans-Neon Green under a blacklight, to my eyes.

Taking votes for names in 3, 2, 1...

I am leaning towards having it added as Neon Yellow myself.

Agree, if that is not neon yellow, I don't know what is

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 15, 2021 06:14

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

In Administrative, patpendlego writes:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

In Administrative, patpendlego writes:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

In Administrative, 1001bricks writes:

Hi!

I strongly support what others wrote here; we in Europe need to be able to manage
B2B orders.
IOSS or not, but with the legal choice to account VAT or not.

Concerning our shop, those B2B sales represent approx 10 to 15% of our recent
yearly sales.

I guess that it's even higher for bulk/wholesalers - like those in Germany,
Netherlands, Poland, Czech Rep, Hungary, in no specific order - etc.

Also, forgive me if I remind you that B2B may represent *more than a double income*
for BrickLink: you get BrickLink fees when a shop is buying PLUS an higher fee
when the shop is reselling at higher price...

In short: for the sake of all of us, including yours - see above - PLEASE do
consider IOSS (which is mandatory) along with a VAT check box exclusion (or such
feature), which is also mandatory, in case of B2B transactions.

Thank you!

PS: While I'm still reading Forum for now 15 years (yes!), I've voluntarily
been off of it those last years for personal reasons (too few time...)
But now this feature / decision directly concerns us and many others - including
friendly shop owners here (hi !) - it forces me to post again.

Please all of you who remember my zillion posts

please thank you, you wonderful
people - wishing you the best.

Sylvain

Everything that concerns VAT is a mess.

- EU VAT has to be calculated on NET price
- B2B as said (no VAT-id registered on Store Terms Page)
- Price Guide is a mess, within EU it's registered with VAT and outside EU
without VAT, while my sale price is in both cases exactly the same

The first problem shouldn't be there in the first place, because it has been
on the forum 6 months ago, HOW it should be done. And now there are no replies
at all from Bricklink.
I really don't know what to do, I didn't register for OSS yet.
Thinking about removing EU shipping every year when I'm about to reach the
10.000

$$$$$

It all seems quite clear... BrickLink complies with law as far as they absolutely
need to, but that is about it. Sellers position is not interesting, and why should
it? It seems to me TLG is more interested in selling directly from them, then
selling indirectly through BrickLink. The profit resellers make on BrickLink
is a loss for TLG. So... discourage selelrs on BrickLink.

Why would this be a loss for TLG? Alle Lego that is sold on Bricklink comes from
TLG.
As I see it, they earn an extra 3% (on a much higher price) for every part they
ever sold from every seller on Bricklink. A lot of parts are even sold several
times. They are also still making profit on parts that they produced in the 50's,
etc.

Profit on direct sales is higher then profit on indirect sales.

It is nonetheless a weird situation that TLG first sells directly to resellers
and then earn 3% fee on sales by those resellers on the SAME item!

Do they count direct sales to resellers as turn-over and profit? Although these
items are not sold to consumers? If TLG would be registered on the NY stock exchange
they would have a major issue on this, because it is not real turn-over or profit.
The items are just lying around with resellers. And TLG owns the OMP those resellers
are active on. Weird.

Imo TLG earns a lot on every single part they produce.

Move away is what it suggest, implicitly.

Well.. there are alternatives.

Bricklink is a place for selling and buying Lego, that appears to think the part
where you can actually buy stuff properly, as well as the part where you can
actually sell stuff properly, are overrated. I don't think there's any
rationale behind any of it, it's just Bricklink's empty cockpit again.
I think the simple answer is that currently there are no people who have an immediate
interest in a prospering Bricklink. The people who work there simply want job
security, and seem OK with spending their working hours in this stagnant system,
and TLG hasn't really taken the lead yet - on purpose, because they respect
Bricklink and the AFOL community and want to watch it from a distance before
changing anything. Maybe once the new head of Bricklink is properly installed,
the cockpit will, finally after all these years, no longer be empty and we might
see a bit of vision.

For now, I'm also very happy to sell outside of Bricklink. It's just
very annoying that this 10K limit is for your whole business, so having to stay
under it because of Bricklink's mess-ups means you have to do that both on
and off Bricklink, so it's also impacting our business outside of Bricklink.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 14, 2021 11:04

Subject:

Re: Change ,oftenbrings chaos

Viewed:

42 times

Topic:

In General, calsbricks writes:

Having looked back a long way in the forum (before the current lot of compliance
issues being addressed) I could find no real issues being brought up over sales
tax, vat etc. The stores where it applied were dealing with it with no real issues.
All of a sudden legislates get involved, without thinking things through, as
usual, and we have a degree of chaos here on Bricklink. How odd that the individual
stores, where applicable coped more than adequately, until this load of changes
emerged,

The moral of the story is let well enough alone. Yes they may have missed the
odd amount of tax or vat but things were being dealt with - no pressure on BL
to come up with a total solution and no forum posts raising holy hell.

Still there is no going backwards only forwards and we are all now waiting for
the issues to be dealt with - they are far more complicated than what people
believe but if others have dealt with it I am sure BL will in due course.

Well, life was simpler in the past in general... That doesn't mean we can
recreate that by not having the rules we have today. They're there for a
reason. Today's world can't exist without improved legislation on e-commerce,
just like it can't exist without something like cyber security. The problem
is just that Bricklink doesn't see changes in the world as opportunities
to make this platform professional and respectable, but rather behaves like a
poorly motivated teenager who does the bare minimum to pass the class at the
very last moment (and in some cases less than the bare minimum and later than
the last moment).

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 13, 2021 03:58

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

74 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Bricklink, we really need a response now. It's becoming very awkward for
Bricklink and offensive for the sellers.
Simply tell us: Will the bugs be fixed or will they not be fixed. I need to know
whether I need to register for OSS and modify my software before January 1 or
not. Sellers need to be informed and be able to make a decision.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 11, 2021 07:30

Subject:

Re: "lost" package rant

Viewed:

76 times

Topic:

In Selling, peregrinator writes:

In Selling, yorbrick writes:

How would they record it? A buyer is unlikely to supply that information and
unless the seller proves they have had to refund through PayPal, the seller can't.
Plus would LEGO make that information about an individual public?

I don't think it should be made public but I do think that a seller should
be able to make such a report, perhaps when issuing a refund - BL could just
add a reason like "seller states item was shipped, buyer reports lost in transit"
or something. A buyer's account could then be suspended if this is a frequent
occurrence.

I haven't sold on BrickOwl for a while but from what I recall that's
how they do it, yes.

In Selling, cosmicray writes:

I understand the theory here, but what is the penalty, and how would you enforce
it ?

For one thing it would definitely help me in the decision whether or not to refund
a lost order. If a buyer has 10 such reports marked on their account, I'm
just not going to do it. In the case of PayPal payment, it could help defending
the seller's position. But yes it is tricky, also because there can be several
reasons why a user has unusually many reports: a high score does not necessarily
mean "this is a scammer" - it could also mean "this guy's address is incomplete"
or "the mailman hates this guy". (Consumers have rights, but they also have an
obligation to make sure they are capable of receiving mail normally, so whatever
the reason, I think a seller shouldn't have to refund someone who's claiming
on a weekly basis)

I remember two cases on BrickOwl, initiated by me asking about a user or the
admin starting investigating something on their own initiative and reaching out
to sellers to warn them. From the admin's perspective it's often extremely
easy to put two and two together if they have access to a user's full track
record. I'm not 100% sure either on how such a feature should work, but I
know there's a lot of untapped potential there, as it can be really frustrating/impossible
to gauge what's really going on on the buyer's end for an individual
seller.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 11, 2021 07:19

Subject:

Re: "lost" package rant

Viewed:

54 times

Topic:

In Selling, peregrinator writes:

In Selling, Teup writes:

This is why Bricklink seriously needs to start recording the number of ONRs (order
not received reports) in user profiles. Now a buyer will get the benefit of the
doubt and a refund every single time. You need to see the whole picture to discover
the scammers. Bricklink is sitting on that information but doesn't appear
to do much with it.

I don't know if they have that information quantified though.

Not yet, but it would be easy to start doing it.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 10, 2021 14:23

Subject:

Re: "lost" package rant

Viewed:

87 times

Topic:

In Selling, helge writes:

You know that the package will end up being "lost" when this is the first communication
you receive from a buyer:

"It has been 2 weeks since you claimed you shipped this order and have not recieved
it yet. Since you are not able to give me a tracking number I will have to start
a claim if O\I do not get it by friday."

And when you check his feedback you see that he has a long list of negative feedbacks
and is described as "1 of the worst buyers and sellers on Bricklink", "Compulsive
liar.", "very rude" (multiple times), "Lowsy Buyer", "100% unreasonable buyer"
and "Crazy Swindler" among other things.

Strange that it is only when a buyer has this attitude that packages gets lost.
Thankfully most buyers are nice, honest and decent people. When a buyer is patient
and understanding over a delayed shipment, it always shows up sooner or later.
But when the buyers starts to send threats after two weeks, it is a near 100%
guaranty that the package will be lost, or rather: "lost"

And yes, I know that some will respond with "always send with tracking", but
that is too expensive here for low value shipments, and I do not want to punish
all the honest buyers for the actions of the very few dishonest ones.

This was just a small order, so no real consequents, but this will end in a negative
feedback, completed Paypal claim, and the buyer gets away with theft. And he
will continue to do the same to other sellers.

Regards,
Helge

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 8, 2021 20:01

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Bump

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 7, 2021 11:36

Subject:

Re: Organizational change in BrickLink

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

Good point and good answer, thanks!

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Hi Jen,

Thank you for your responce!
Casper Thingholm will be moving to California with his family in the beginning
of next year.

And you are absolutely right! We need closer collaboration and we will have that,
in and outside the forum (at Fan events, in the Panels, through regular updates
reg. the development of the platform, etc.).

I am happy to hear that you want more collaboration

In Administrative, jennnifer writes:

Thanks for posting this update. Marvin was always very kind, and I wish him the
best in any new endeavors.

Could you share any information with us about where BrickLink will be managed
from? I see that Casper Thingholm is based in Denmark.

My most important question will be: Will anyone be taking a more proactive approach
here in the Forum directly communicating and answering questions from our members?
These occasional 'We're listening!' posts don't mean much unless
someone is actually available for follow-up and community input.

I, for one, am hoping for a more collaborative experience with BL staff in the
future.

Thanks,
Jen

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 6, 2021 17:43

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

105 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, Dino1 writes:

In LANG Nederlands, Teup writes:

In LANG Nederlands, BoekelbriX writes:

Zomaar een gedachte...

Post je nou serieus publiekelijk dat je meer dan €10.000 zwart verdient? Ik mag
hopen dat dit een soort van grapje was.

Why should that be "black" earned? As long as you declare it in your income tax.

The OP suggested not doing that at all.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 6, 2021 17:03

Subject:

Re: Organizational change in BrickLink

Viewed:

118 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink Members,

When BrickLink was acquired by the LEGO Group in 2019, we did so with the vision
to get closer to our committed adult fans, and over the past two years, we’ve
invested greatly in supporting and developing BrickLink to better deliver on
your needs.

At the same time, we have seen a significant increase in the LEGO Group’s adult
audience, and we want to build strong, direct relationships with them. Given
BrickLink’s increasingly important role in being a voice for the AFOL community,
we see a need to bring BrickLink closer to the LEGO Group and ensure that their
valuable insights can influence the LEGO Group’s full adult strategy.

As part of the journey to bring BrickLink closer, Marvin Park, formally Vice
President of BrickLink, will become an external advisor, supporting us with his
experience and knowledge about BrickLink.

I would like to warmly thank Marvin for his contribution to BrickLink and the
LEGO Group. Marvin has brought forward a number of strong initiatives that have
been instrumental in shaping BrickLink and developing it to where it is today.
Since the acquisition, he has been dedicated to connecting BrickLink and the
LEGO Group together, while staying focused on creating value for the fans and
the LEGO Group.

The role as Head of BrickLink will be taken on by Casper Thingholm. Casper is
well-positioned to step into this role as he has been intimately involved with
BrickLink over the last two years. This, combined with his solid LEGO leadership
experience and his passion for the fan community, makes me confident that he
will lead the future integration in a smooth and seamless way and enable the
LEGO Group to strongly support BrickLink’s development.

With this change, we will foster closer collaboration, become even better at
developing products that will benefit BrickLink users, and strengthen the voice
of the community towards the LEGO Group.

In this transition and in the future, we are as committed as ever to serving
the AFOL community. Creating value for the BrickLink community and ensuring that
we are meeting their needs will continue to be our top priority and we look forward
to doing even more of that with this change.

Best wishes,
Julia Goldin
Chief Product & Marketing Officer at the LEGO Group

Thanks for the update Tanja! Really appreciate you sharing this. I hope this
will be a step towards Bricklink becoming more professional. There are still
lots of things to improve, and broken features that should not exist on a serious
platform, such as these: https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1316888. So
I am welcoming any change! Will be interesting to see where Bricklink is headed
the coming years.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 6, 2021 16:54

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

65 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Stellar writes:

This message will be sent via email to all sellers at the beginning of next week.
Please add any questions about this feature (along with any bug reports) to this
thread.

Bugs:

1. VAT is not calculated correctly. An item can't cost the same for a buyer
in Germany than a buyer in Hungary.

100€ sold to Germany would be 15.97 (19% VAT) leaving the seller 84.03 net
100€ sold to Spain would be 17.36 (21% VAT) leaving the seller 82.64 net
100€ sold to Hungary would be 21.26 (27% VAT) leaving the seller 78.74 net

The price of items should be calculated like this: (SellerListPrice/SellerVAT)*BuyerVAT

So for me it would be:
(100/1.21)*1.19 = 98.35 for German buyer
(100/1.21)*1.21 = 100 for Spanish buyer
(100/1.21)*1.27 = 104.96 for Hungary buyer

2. B2B transactions should be 0% VAT. As of now this is not possible because
when enabling the OSS the checkbox for VAT is disabled.

Just not disable it and we are good to work. VAT is responsibility of the seller.

These bugs are not suggestions, these are facts of how business work in Europe.

Thanks,
Sergio
Stellar Bricks

As an update, I opened 2 tickets on the help desk for this topic, one for each
of the described "bugs", and now I see they are merged into one ticket, but still
without comments from BL.

I emailed them to Steve too just in case.

Any updates?

Bricklink, seriously. Your silence is offensive.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 6, 2021 16:51

Subject:

Re: Winkel sluiten bij 9.900 euro verkoop ?

Viewed:

102 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, BoekelbriX writes:

Zomaar een gedachte...

Post je nou serieus publiekelijk dat je meer dan €10.000 zwart verdient? Ik mag
hopen dat dit een soort van grapje was.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 4, 2021 12:28

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling feature is now live!

Viewed:

128 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Wow, still silence?

Bricklink, please come forward with a statement. The year is soon over. Please,
please, please let us know ASAP if you ARE or ARE NOT going to
be in time before the end of the year rolling out a proper implementation of
this feature.

If yes, I will register for the OSS and modify my software for the next year,
if not, I am going to have to stay under the threshold and should keep my software
in its old form. I need A. the ability to turn off VAT and B. the ability to
sell without breaking laws on price discrimination.

And I can imagine many other sellers need an update too.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 1, 2021 04:53

Subject:

Re: Packing slip or not?

Viewed:

48 times

Topic:

In Buying, Alico64 writes:

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to see what you are thinking about adding the packing slip/order
overview to a shipment. Do you prefer this as a buyer? Or are you typically verifying
your order with your tablet or laptop at the side?

Curious to see if the packing slip improves the buyer experience or not.

Cheers,
Arnold

I don't. For reasons mentioned: Environment, weight
And reasons not mentioned: The extra time it takes to print, maintain/troubleshoot
the printer, the extra costs of paper and ink, the space a printer takes up and
such. These are all going to be factored into the costs eventually, thus higher
prices for the buyer.

In my webshop, I always send digital invoices with parts listed in alphabetical
order, and I pack the order in numbered bags in that same order, so it's
easy to verify. On Bricklink, I pack larger orders alphabetically with the letters
written on the bags.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 1, 2021 04:47

Subject:

Re: Someone from Europe who can place test order

Viewed:

36 times

Topic:

In Help, brickconnector writes:

Is there someone from Europe (not Dutch) who can place an order in my shop to
see if this works? Of course I will cancel the order immediately afterwards.
I have the idea that this is no longer possible and I want to rule this out.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this.

If you have a second account for IC testing, you can simply modify the country
of that account, so you can see directly what people in various countries are
going to see. For me it's the most effective way to set it up correctly.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Dec 1, 2021 03:27

Subject:

Re: UK orders limitation to 135 GBP?

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Help, TDH_Bricks writes:

In Help, Teup writes:

In Help, TDH_Bricks writes:

I am still not sure it is correct. Please this article on UK GOV web:
https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register

Most important is following part:

Businesses outside the UK
There’s no threshold if neither you nor your business is based in the UK. You
must register as soon as you supply any goods and services to the UK (or if you
expect to in the next 30 days).

This is correct, dealing with the UK = being registered there. Bricklink, which
in this case is the seller, is.

My summary is that below 135 GBP registration and VAT collecting is covered by
Bricklink. For shipments over 135 GPB this is responsibility of Seller.

I think the problem is you're confusing the threshold of annual turnover
with the threshold of the order value. If you deal with the UK, no matter how
much turnover annually have, you must be registered there. Then, whenever you
ship to the UK, you use this (Bricklink's) registration for orders up to
GBP 135. For orders over GBP 135 you don't use it.

Okay, thank you, now it seems clear to me.
Because we are not registered in the UK and do not plan to register there we
cannot not sell/ship any shipment over 135 GBP to the UK.

Huh? The whole point was that for selling over 135 GBP you don't need anything.
Below 135 GBP you need to attach an invoice to prove that VAT was collected,
over 135 GBP the order excludes VAT and the buyer pays it upon import so you
don't need to do anything.
And as I said, you *always* need to be registered in order to be able to sell
to the UK, value is irrelevant, but in this case Bricklink is registered for
its sellers.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 30, 2021 18:56

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In LANG Nederlands, brickconnector writes:

Heeft iedereen bij de instelling Store Settings Management dit staan?
Zoals het er nu uitziet ben ik niet in staat om te verkopen aan EU landen.
Ik heb vandaag nog geen orders gehad en de laatste keer dat ik dat mee heb gemaakt
is lang geleden..

Het vermoeden is dat de tekst gewoon totaal onnauwkeurig is, en dat ze met "distance
selling" eigenlijk doelen op OSS geregistreerd zijn. Het feit dat je geen buitenlandse
bestellingen hebt is waarschijnlijk puur toeval, bij mij staat het "distance
selling" ook uit en ik heb ze ook gewoon.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 30, 2021 11:05

Subject:

Re: EU Distance selling - More Bugs

Viewed:

87 times

Topic:

In Administrative, enig writes:

In Administrative, Stellar writes:

This message will be sent via email to all sellers at the beginning of next week.
Please add any questions about this feature (along with any bug reports) to this
thread.

In regards to the visible prices for end-users in countries with different VAT
rates - I gave a call to my tax helpline and their answer was that Lithuanian
Tax Law does not state that the end-price must be the same. To me it was
explained that I can apply the OSS taxing in either way and that it is solely
up to me to decide how I wish to apply it. However. It was made clear that this
answer is strictly from the point of view of Tax Law. NOT from Consumer Law point
of view. They could not comment on the latter.

Thought this distinction should be made so to not confuse what exactly we are
discussing/complaining.

Point being - if I enable it, I will be fine from the VAT Law point of view.
Not sure about other types of law or regulations.

Good that you add this distinction, because yes, from a tax point of view it
makes sense that that in and of itself is fine. However, there could be one slight
tax related problem : In case you calculate COGS (cost of goods sold) based on
your turnover. With this .... creative "solution" that Bricklink came up with,
they took the liberty to make turnover variable - profit will depend on who you
sell to. Now, I don't think the tax agency over here will go crazy over a
few percent inaccuracy, but still. It makes things variable, when first they
were fixed.

Anyway, yes, I think the main issue is price discrimination which is about consumer
legislation. So if ever we get an audit from a tax agency, they shouldn't
be looking into how our business works, how we treat our customers, etc. For
all they care, we could be scammers

The numbers just need to add up. It's
going to be mostly Bricklink that's in trouble, in case some non tax related
authority checks the way business is conducted here.

Either way, Bricklink just needs to go back to the drawing board and roll out
a proper feature.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 30, 2021 10:53

Subject:

Re: Why does Bricklink allow bogus shipping terms

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

Terms and Policies

In Terms and Policies, randyipp writes:

In Terms and Policies, Teup writes:

Well, if they remove the whole terms system (as far as you can call it a "system"
at all.. it's just an empty textbox without any form of restriction), there
wouldn't be any need to do so. BrickOwl doesn't have this problem and
they have even fewer people working on it.

The only thing I don't like about Brick Owl is there is not real terms.
Even just for finding out things like how often a seller ships, or their policy
on missing items.

I'd rather have a non-policed terms section than to go without one completely,
I think that is a really poor solution.

I guess it comes down to: How many people actually shy away from Bricklink because
of it. And my estimation is that it's really a lot, and that Bricklink is
severely underestimating this problem. For hobbyists, who have patience for it,
it's of course better to have all these options - that's a no-brainer.
But my guess is that we could really see a lot more business here if Bricklink
became more accessible to the mainstream market if they simply set 1 standard
for all stores, a standard that people are already familiar with.

That may go at the expense of some hobbyists who like to set exotic terms (let's
assume for a moment they don't break the law), but in my experience, talking
to hobby sellers with strange terms, they are often actually quite willing to
adapt and are still learning the ropes. So for some of them, Bricklink forcing
them to have different terms is a help more than a limitation.

Anyway - personally I don't mind that Bricklink is the way it is... it is
in my personal interest

Many customers in my webshop are people who are uncomfortable
buying on Bricklink. There's actually a physical Lego shop here in the country
that is referring their customers to my webshop for missing pieces, purely because
of the fact that Bricklink's terms are so erratic.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 30, 2021 09:59

Subject:

Re: Why does Bricklink allow bogus shipping terms

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

Terms and Policies