BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Administrative, CE_Uday writes:

In Administrative, Teup writes:

Can you be more specific here: Does this mean 2FA or not?

So it turns out the 'hacker's comment that 2FA wouldn't save us was
indeed bluff. It very much would have saved us. So is Bricklink going
to prevent this from happening again? I hope 2FA will be put in place before
the devs are going to be put through another series of sleepless nights...

At this time, we can't comment on specific security measures in development.
However, we will communicate about any new security features as they become available.

Thanks for the reply. I hope it will include 2FA or something else that in this
case would have prevented the outage. Both for the team and the sellers/buyers
sake..

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 9, 2023 05:17

Subject:

Re: Update on November 3rd incident

Viewed:

89 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

We take the safety of BrickLink and our members very
seriously and will continue to step up security across the platform.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 15, 2022 16:53

Subject:

Re: Reserve your LEGO® account nickname today!

Viewed:

101 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin writes:

Dear BrickLink member,

We’ll be making some changes to the LEGO® Account system in 2023 that’ll make
things a bit easier for you and other BrickLink® members. We’re introducing a
universal LEGO nickname that will work in all online LEGO experiences, including
BrickLink. This means that your username on BrickLink will be the same as your
LEGO Account nickname. That way, you’ll only have to keep track of one nickname,
and it’ll be easier for others to follow you and enjoy your LEGO content.

Right now, we’re giving our BrickLink and LEGO Ideas members a chance to create
and reserve their preferred nickname before we open the service to other LEGO
account holders. If you already have a LEGO Account, we’ll ask you to do a quick
setup on that account by following the link below. All you must do is submit
your BrickLink username as your new LEGO Account nickname. That’s how we’ll make
sure you get the nickname you prefer, on BrickLink, LEGO Ideas and everywhere
else!

If you do not have an account already, follow the link below to create an account
and to select your own nickname.

We understand how important it is to you that other BrickLink members recognize
you on our site, so we encourage you to complete the nickname setup as soon as
you can.

There’s one more thing, though. For trademark and copyright reasons, nicknames
can’t contain words like “LEGO” or “BrickLink” We appreciate all our BrickLink
members, and we understand that changing your nickname isn’t necessarily something
you’d like to do. It’s all part of our work to provide our BrickLink members
with the best possible way to connect with the LEGO brand and each other, and
we hope you’ll feel the benefits of this going forward.

If you find your nickname is rejected for this reason, we encourage you to use
other words related to the LEGO brand like “brick” or “build.” See what fun and
personal combinations you can make!

Anyway, here’s what you need to do:

• Follow this link to log in to your LEGO Account or to create a new LEGO account

https://identity.lego.com/en-US/profile?returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bricklink.com%2F&clientid=0fd7ca3b-3a33-48e3-a747-8ec6f09557c1&appContext=false&adultexperience=true&hideheader=true&hideclosebutton=false&hideexternallogin=false&childsignupexperience=

• Click the Edit icon next to your avatar
• Choose your preferred nickname in the field
• Click Submit and wait a few seconds for your nickname to be approved
• That’s it! You’re all set!

Please select your preferred nickname by the 16th of January 2023. If you’re
not able to change it by this time, we’ll give you an auto-generated nickname.

PLEASE CHECK THESE GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING A NEW NICKNAME

A nickname...

• can be created in the languages available within a LEGO experience, e.g., LEGO.com
or LEGO Life.
• must be between 4-25 characters in length
• can contain both upper- and lower-case letters
• can be a mix of characters and numbers
• can include a maximum of 4 numbers
• can only include the following special signs: ‘.’ and/or ‘-‘and/or ‘_’
• can include spaces, but not two or more consecutive spaces
• can’t contain the LEGO wordmark including any variations that make it look
as if the name indicates an individual representing the LEGO Group
• can’t contain a LEGO franchise that is a trademark owned by the LEGO Group
• can’t contain a name from another intellectual property not owned by the LEGO
Group (example: Star Wars)
• can’t contain an email address or other contact info
• can’t contain references to other social platforms
• must adhere to the standard LEGO moderation guidelines including but not limited
to political or religious topics, drugs and alcohol, weapon references, hate
speech, profanities, violence, or abusive language

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Please visit our Help Center for a list of Freqeuntly Asked Questions

https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2576

If you would like to recieve information about this type of topic in the future,
you can sign up for Personalized Marketting here

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

It says "Teup" contains vulgar language. Can't proceed.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Nov 15, 2022 14:07

Subject:

Re: Inevitable thread for recent nickname email

Viewed:

54 times

Topic:

Media

In Media, Nubs_Select writes:

Just got this email and though I’d post the first thread for it to confirm others
got it also and
1. That’s is legit.
2. That I’m not going crazy (at least in regards to this

)
3. Can’t remember what the 3rd reason was

It says my nickname is a vulgar word, lol. And it tells me I have to try it again,
but then it tells me I'm only allowed to try once in 30 days. Mad IT skillz

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Aug 3, 2022 04:48

Subject:

Re: Bricklink email? is it real?

Viewed:

98 times

Topic:

In Help, Nubs_Select writes:

Just wanted to ask if bricklink recently sent out an email regarding the selling
of minifigures as the entire email is just a bit off

Normally I don't come here on this forum anymore but this email was so silly
it made me laugh. So basically they are sending a direct message to all SELLERS
(not buyers) to look out for this even though Bricklink literally OWNS this database
and can see directly where the problems are without anyone's help. Except
now they lost this ability, because they have just told all counterfeit sellers
to sell in small batches.

I'm honestly wondering if the person who came up with this idea was just
honestly extremely naive, or if it is a deliberate instruction to all counterfeit
sellers to keep their quantities down in order to avoid Bricklink looking like
a suspicious marketplace, in light of item legitimacy being a hot topic lately.
I would not expect that from Bricklink, but I'm not sure which scenario is
more credible.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Apr 24, 2022 04:39

Subject:

Re: Teup out, see ya guys!

Viewed:

87 times

Topic:

In General, Teup writes:

As some of you miiiight have noticed I haven't been around for a while here.
Just a last post to say I'm quitting this forum, as I feel we have plenty
of channels to discuss all things Bricklink and Lego selling in general these
days, and I no longer feel this forum has any merit to me. I might post something
someday if there's some kind of urgent selling emergency because of new rules
or whatever, but that'll be it. So, it's been fun, see you guys elsewhere
or good luck on all your Lego endeavours

I will just leave a couple of usual replies to common topics right here:

- Wear that first negative feedback like a badge of honor
- You have to separate payment status and order status, set payment status to
none, then try again
- Just pay your taxes
- You need Brickstore or other software to be able to do that
- Yeah, I'm also waiting until Bricklink lets me part out my Ninjago Gardens
- Those are all pearl gold
- Wow! Yes, I would love to buy that driver's license and US passport

Hope this way my input is going to be relevant for many years to come

Thanks for the responses guys

I figured there are benefits and drawbacks to
an "official" forum (well, this one anyway), the main benefit is you can give
input, but since they're never gonna do anything with any input I gave anyway,
that leaves us with just the drawbacks

So, hope to see each of you around
through one of the other channels sometime, we have Facebook, Reddit, Discord
(still have to learn the ropes on this one)..

All places where we - in the
absence of Bricklink's forum rules and other intervention - inexplicably
haven't burned down the place yet

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Apr 23, 2022 02:51

Subject:

Teup out, see ya guys!

Viewed:

294 times

Topic:

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 3, 2022 10:21

Subject:

Re: Sellers not using on site payment, why?

Viewed:

75 times

Topic:

In Payment Methods, yorbrick writes:

In Payment Methods, Teup writes:

In Payment Methods, yorbrick writes:

Can you imagine those "good ol' days" are still every day reality in 2022
for Dutch customers on Bricklink?

Place an order, wait for an invoice, grab your identifier, enter the code to
access online banking, copy all the details of the seller to the form, submit
it, again grab the identifier to sign the transfer, mark the order as paid or
send the seller a message that you paid...

All because Bricklink doesn't
care much about adding more onsite Payment methods.

Do Dutch banks allow third party sites to set-up and control bank transfers?
I'm wondering how you expect BL to setup onsite bank transfer.

Plus, they would presumably need to do this for each bank, in each country, leading
to a very large number of payment methods that they wold need to monitor and
keep up-to-date.

The Dutch onsite interface for this is called iDeal. It can be enabled by pretty
much checking a box in Stripe's settings. Some other countries have similar
things, and they are all supported by Stripe. For my business outside BL, I just
checked pretty much all of the boxes in the settings. Great thing about Stripe
is, I have no idea how my buyers are paying, but it's all funneled into my
account

Presumably that still has the Stripe fees associated with it, if it is going
through Stripe and not free as it would be if you did a manual bank transfer.

Aside from the level of the fees, PayPal is somewhat similar concerning the origin
of the transaction. You don't know how the buyer is paying (existing balance,
debit card, direct debit through their bank account or credit card).

The fee for iDeal is €0.29 and no percentage fee, so it's only slightly more
expensive than a completely manual bank transfer. Usually too little to resort
to the extra hassle of doing it manually even if the seller would pass on these
costs.

Yes, with PayPal people can source it in different ways, but the nice thing about
Stripe is that it shows the customer the usual checkout interface that they are
used to, without mentioning "Stripe" anywhere. It's a seamless integration
whereas with PayPal AFAIK you are still aware that you are paying by PayPal.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 3, 2022 05:52

Subject:

Re: Sellers not using on site payment, why?

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

In Payment Methods, yorbrick writes:

Can you imagine those "good ol' days" are still every day reality in 2022
for Dutch customers on Bricklink?

All because Bricklink doesn't
care much about adding more onsite Payment methods.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 3, 2022 04:24

Subject:

Re: Sellers not using on site payment, why?

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

In Payment Methods, wildchicken13 writes:

In Payment Methods, eileenkeeney writes:

In Payment Methods, peregrinator writes:

In Payment Methods, eileenkeeney writes:

There is no sales tax in my state, so that is moot.

That is why sellers can continue to offer offsite PayPal in your case (and in
the case of any other buyer who lives in a sales tax-free state). But the request
for friends and family is a red flag. I wonder what would happen if you paid
as "goods and services" instead. Probably nothing good.

Not charging sales tax, to states that do not have a sales tax, is already well
handled by most systems. LEGO never charges me sales tax unless I am shipping
to someone in a State that has a sales tax. So that is not a valid reason for
not using on-site payment. I see no valid reason why this should be allowed.
I am sure it is a Legacy feature and will be changed at some point. For now,
I will just choose to not support the request even if the invoice did say "please"
when asking me to use the friend option. I am still deciding if I am going to
cancel the order or just pay using the option for purchasing goods. It does
have one rare piece, but a few other sellers have the piece. It is a low demand
rare piece.

Reminds me of the good ol' days of BrickLink. Place an order, wait for an
invoice, go to PayPal.com, type in the seller's address and the total, choose
"Goods and Services" or "Friends and Family", click send, and mark the order
as paid on BrickLink. If a seller was nice, they would give you a link so that
you didn't have to type everything in manually. Then onsite payment and instant
checkout changed everything…

In retrospect, it is such an outdated system.

Can you imagine those "good ol' days" are still every day reality in 2022
for Dutch customers on Bricklink?

All because Bricklink doesn't
care much about adding more onsite Payment methods.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 2, 2022 15:08

Subject:

Re: Sellers not using on site payment, why?

Viewed:

76 times

Topic:

In Payment Methods, eileenkeeney writes:

I thought bricklink had started using onsite payment for all sellers.
I remember reading a thread, where a seller's buyers were getting messages
indicating he did not ship to that country, and the fix was to turn on onsite
payment.

I filled a cart, and went to check out, and saw that postage had been calculated.
The postage calculation was such that I did have to remove stuff from my cart
to meet the package size required for checkout. With everything so tediously
calculated, I fully expected auto-checkout. But instead it said I would get
an invoice. At that point I was fine with it, as long as the invoice would show
the same (or very close to the same) total cost. Then I get the invoice, and
the shipping cost is the same. So I look for the link to pay the invoice, but
it isn't on the invoice. Instead there are instructions telling me to use
paypal and to use the Paypal as friend option.

Do you mean instant checkout or onsite payment? From your description it's
not completely clear if this order was instant checkout or not (that is, whether
the invoice was generated instantaneously, or if the seller compiled it).

In this case it could have been offsite payment to avoid PayPal fees by instructing
buyers to use the Friends & Family option. It's always nice when people are
so generous with their friendships, but AFAIK it's against BL's terms.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 2, 2022 11:44

Subject:

Re: Funding methods for Stripe (and PayPal)

Viewed:

50 times

Topic:

In Payment Methods, SylvainLS writes:

In Payment Methods, cosmicray writes:

[…]
Does BrickLink support any of the payment funding sources other than credit/debit
cards (on Stripe or PayPal) ?

The day BL supports iDeal or other bank transfer method through Stripe or PayPal,
even the deafs will hear Teup sing thanks

You beat me to it

But actually no, I'm just pushing it because the fact
they don't support it annoys me on principle, but financially it's a
blessing Bricklink doesn't care, because it's one of the reasons my business
outside of Bricklink is so successful.

So the answer: You raise an excellent point and no, Bricklink does not support
any other methods, and yes, they've been 'wanting'/'trying'
to add them for years now (the BL team told me in a call 2 years ago that they
were trying to add them). I think there is simply not anyone at Bricklink whose
paycheck directly depends on how much business Bricklink generates - people at
the office just have their positions and want to keep them, LEGO wants to maintain
Bricklink the way it is (at least as long as they don't feel 100% confident
they know the ropes), and that's it. Adding payment methods would be a very
easy and virtually costless way to generate much more sales here, pretty much
a nobrainer for an entrepreneur, but it seems for them it's not important.

By the way, the LEGO website is actually the same way here. Besides Bricklink,
it's the only webshop I know where we can't pay onsite; we have to wait
until Lego sends an invoice. So I don't think the LEGO takeover is going
to inspire much change there anytime soon

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Mar 2, 2022 06:33

Subject:

Re: New Medium Brown

Viewed:

50 times

Topic:

Colors

In Colors, randyf writes:

In Colors, crimson30 writes:

Maybe I missed it, but with the new Medium Brown coming out (Hogwarts Magical
Trunk is for sale today), I wanted to see if there would be another discussion,
like there was with Neon Yellow.

It strikes me as similar to BL Medium Brown, so I could certainly see "New Medium
Brown". Also I made a swatch based on similar colors. I'd really like to
see what everyone thinks, but honestly one of the key reasons I'm bringing
it up is that I *do not* want to see both colors covered by one BL name.

This one is a tough situation. The official LEGO name is "Medium Brown", but
BrickLink already has a "Medium Brown". The BrickLink "Medium Brown" is LEGO
"Brown", but BrickLink already has a "Brown". The BrickLink "Brown" is LEGO "Earth
Orange", but BrickLink already has an "Earth Orange". *sigh*

Maybe go with "Medium Brown 2022", like Bladerunner 2049.

Two possible choices I have come up with that would avoid any color renaming:

"Light Brown" - This is a name used by LEGO for what is BrickLink "Fabuland Orange",
but BrickLink does not use this name yet. It is simple and short.

"Nougat Brown" - Since this color comes between "Reddish Brown" and "Medium Nougat"
on the skin tone scale, this one is a blend of those names. It is also simple
and short.

More to come on this...

Actually I like both more than Medium Brown in the first place. The "Medium"
word always confuses me, as sometimes it means "lighter" and sometimes it means
"darker".. it basically just means "another"

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 28, 2022 11:39

Subject:

Re: Risks of buying from Russia right now

Viewed:

78 times

Topic:

Buying

In Buying, axaday writes:

But please be ready to welcome our Russia stores back when
things are more settled one way or the other. Whether they agree with it or
not, none of this is their fault.

Though I tend to agree, it's actually something you can debate, and I do
follow the logic of stores that would keep some kind of boycott. But IMO it's
not going to be effective unless perhaps it's going to be part of a real
dramatic change in everyday life (and actually, we are kind of going in that
direction). Knowing Russian nature a bit, I think the people would only stand
up if they really run into a dead-end in their life. If it's just going to
be some online businesses nagging them by not sending things anymore, it could
quickly be accepted as just another one of those annoying things you just have
to bear in an already pretty harsh daily life. That would just be a loss for
everyone.

To Russians who may be reading this: Maybe it's comforting for you to know
that even if sanctions are hitting you very hard right now, people over here
at least do understand it isn't the Russian people who wanted this war. We
have plenty of media coverage of Russian protests, Russians against the war,
and the problems Russians are facing right now. People here don't hate you!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 27, 2022 05:57

Subject:

Re: Why are these terms allowed?

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Help, Ellum writes:

I found this in a seller og vintage sets terms

What is included and excluded in the sets

We mainly sell complete sets. Sometimes, we also sell a number of parts. When
there is something missing in the set, it is mentioned in the description of
the advertisement. Please note: we only check sets by inventory lists, we do
not build them in general. If so, the set will be send in build condition. This
is always mentioned in the description. However, for some vintage sets, minifigs
have a feather on their hat. In the inventory list is mentioned that each feather
must be there in three sizes. We only add one size of feather: the one that is
actually on the minifig its hat. The other feather sizes are just extra, as they
were sold originally all three bundled together. You do only need the one we
add to have the set complete by building it. Furthermore, in case there is a
horse included in the set, the plate and brick in the same color for "in" the
horse are not included. This is because a saddle is always on the horse. This
plate and brick are not used when playing with the set.

Seller sells complete sets with this in terms. Why is this allowed? I sell vintage
sets as well and will only list a set as complete with the extra parts because
that is bricklink listing policy. This is unfair behaviour from this seller.

You're right that's a terms violation:

Complete - Contents are brand new and may have been removed from their plastic
bags and handled for inventorying purposes only. Includes all contents that originally
came with set including extra parts, stickers, instructions (if any) and original
box/packaging.

At the very least the seller should add these comments in the listings themselves
rather than hidden in the terms field.

But as for that terms field in general: BL doesn't care about it or moderate
it, as long as it isn't a US seller who charges PayPal fees (probably under
pressure from PayPal). Just today I was trying to buy a part and couldn't
find a single store (I checked about 10) that offered it without having a legal
violation in their terms. It's 'business as usual' that I just accepted
long ago, but when you think about it that's pretty crazy.

I will keep repeating it: Terms should be abolished and replaced with BL's
own terms plus some multiple choice settings for the seller (that the buyer can
filter on). In other words, BL should look at how BrickOwl does this. This case
is just once again an illustration that that would be much better.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 26, 2022 19:54

Subject:

Re: N00b Questions- How To Gauge Sales?

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

Selling

In Selling, Upstate_Brickz writes:

Hello Bricklink,

I'm just curious if there is any way to gauge how well I'm doing with
sales?

I don't know of any data or charts I can look at on BL to compare
my store to other stores of similar size that opened around the same time, or
if it's just a question I have to ask here and get responses to. Is 13 a
good or bad number of sales for only being open 2 months?

I'm kind of adrift with BL's lack of data for sellers. I wish I knew
if people were coming to my store because I had the lowest price for an item,
buy now on their wanted list, advertising, people buying to get feedback to open
their own stores or a specific search.

Thanks for any advice!

Upstate_Brickz

I know how you feel, it's often hard to figure these things out, and usually
there's no hard evidence. If you're doing "ok" really depends on what
country you are in, what kind of things you sell, which payment methods you accept,
etc, etc.. No two stores are the same. I guess the answer is, 'it is what
it is': Your store is doing the way it should be doing. And if you want to
compare, compare your store to your store + a change. Like, see what adding inventory
does for your sales, see what higher or lower prices does, etc. Getting to
know your own store is most important. For example, I know that my busiest month
is January, and that is really useful info for my planning. But this is different
for every store. I don't know what other stores are like, but at least I
know what to expect from mine.

(But when experimenting with changing things, evaluate the results after some
months, not after some days. That way you're sure you're not being fooled
by random factors.)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 25, 2022 09:10

Subject:

Re: What, if anything, do sellers use lot id for

Viewed:

29 times

Topic:

In General, calsbricks writes:

Just curious - if it wasn't there would that be a problem ?

Yes, of course it would be a problem. Products always need SKU's. Without
barcodes, the supermarket would be a giant mess.

But it's true you could in some situations derive SKU's from a kind of
part+colour code, which is actually what I personally do in my inventory management
outside of BL. But principally it's a little bit dirty because those numbers
aren't meant to serve that purpose, and functionally it's a downgrade.
Because obviously that makes it impossible to list the same part+colour(+condition,type,..)
multiple times, and means consolidation is obligatory. Also, if an item number
changes (rare but it happens), you're in trouble if you don't have a
separate SKU to fall back on.

And if we talk about not just hiding it but really removing it from the
code, we're in trouble as obivously it's not uncommon for a particular
part to be in the inventory of not just one but multiple sellers worldwide

In order to facilitate that, items would need a list of which seller sells them
and how much. So instead of sellers having lotIDs, lots would be having sellerIDs

I won't call any data structure "wrong", it's all a matter of style,
but let's say the current one does make sense

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 24, 2022 13:56

Subject:

Re: Upcoming sanctions against Russia: BL?

Viewed:

109 times

Topic:

In General, Leftoverbricks writes:

In light of the upcoming international sanctions against Russia, what is Bricklink's
stand?

I suppose that when all international economic traffic with Russia will be disallowed
this also implies that BL (as an American registered company) may no longer handle/support/allow
traffic between shops and buyers located in Russia and the rest of the world.

@BL admin: please update the community.

My estimation is that sanctions (I guess the idea being to motivate changes at
the highest level by changing people's minds about their government) are
going to be completely ineffective/counterproductive for the reasons I outlined
here: https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1329597

But of course, if governments should decide on it, it makes sense Bricklink has
to follow along.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 24, 2022 09:21

Subject:

Re: How do I change to countries were I ship to

Viewed:

129 times

Topic:

Shipping

In Shipping, Fenneke_Jose writes:

hi all,

Where can I find the settings to change the counries where I am shipping to?
Due to the political situation I would like to put a stop to some countries.

Kind regards,

José

Sorry if this is political, I'm not posting specifically to voice my political
preference or opinion as I know that's not what this forum is for... but
as for the sanctions topic and whether those are relevant: I don't believe
this has any desired effect in any way form or shape even if I grant that the
entire Russian population would be unanimously cut off from all international
ecommerce. I think:

- It's in Russian nature to accept ever new levels of daily problems as just
hardships of life - a "high pain threshold" to sanctions as it's sometimes
called;
- This proves those in power right saying Russians don't have any friends
beyond the borders;
- This increases the grasp of those in power as they seem to want the population
to be fully dependent on the domestic world and not be exposed to contacts that
lead to international comparison. They don't even need Western sanctions
to cut people off from LinkedIn etc;
- Even if this would lead to a bottom-up protest, which is the goal of such sanctions,
Russia is, well, let's say not a country where initiative arises through
a bottom-up kind of mechanic.

I think the main effect that is that Russian people have less Lego to play with...
But that's just my 2 kopeck.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 23, 2022 10:51

Subject:

Re: show only IBAN-shops in "Buy Wanted Lists"?

Viewed:

21 times

Topic:

In Help, 1001bricks writes:

In Help, tbds writes:

Hello Sylvain,

thank you very much for your answer.

I don't have Paypal or Stripe or anything like that. And I only want to
buy from sellers in my country.

That's the point - you DON'T need either a PayPal or a Stripe account
to pay with them.
Simply input your Credit/Debit Card number for example.

You need to have a compatible card though, and I don't know what cards in
Germany are like but ours for example are not. And it seems some of the failed
payments I've been getting in Stripe are because of some cards that are not
being accepted..

But yes, whenever it works with your card, Stripe's card method should be
very convenient and doesn't require any signing up.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 23, 2022 10:43

Subject:

Re: show only IBAN-shops in "Buy Wanted Lists"?

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Help, tbds writes:

This is really stupid. I wonder, if any of the bricklink programmers have checked
their 'baby' from the perspective of a buyer. I'm inclined to doubt
that, because bricklink really has a lot of design flaws

They don't, and they don't really care. There are many things they could
easily do to increase revenue, but it's not in anyone's direct interest
so it doesn't happen. It could be worse though, at least what we have works.
Once you accept the fact that there isn't some kind of vision or plan behind
Bricklink it saves a lot of frustration

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 22, 2022 08:43

Subject:

Re: Enabling of B2B transactions for EU orders

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, 1001bricks writes:

[…]
I also think it may not be 100% legal to refuse (or overcharge), but I can be
wrong.
I couldn't find a precise text.

Rule of thumb: Does S@H do it?

Well, hard to know because I think they have a presence in every country, so
the intra-EU-import situation doesn't occur. But when I think about Dutch
webshops that ship to NL and Belgium, I can't really imagine they all have
a system to accommodate 0% VAT transactions.

But even if they have a right to refuse it, it would be nice if EU sellers could
at least choose to enable this feature in their store if they want to. That would
really save a bunch of hassle asking and answering "hey do you make 0% VAT invoices",
verifying the VAT ID on ec.europa.eu, removing VAT, and hoping the buyer didn't
already pay so you have to go and book a refund for the VAT amount, etc... it
could really boost B2B transactions within the EU if buyers can see immediately
that their B2B order will be accepted and even pay when checking out.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 22, 2022 08:11

Subject:

Re: Enabling of B2B transactions for EU orders

Viewed:

74 times

Topic:

In Administrative, 1001bricks writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear 1001bricks,

Please try to reset your browser or clear the cache.

Ah oh - that's not very clear, as Teup wrote it only works for Imports (from
outside EU to EU)?

I was expecting B2B within countries inside Europe.

This last one feature I was expecting, and would greatly be welcomed!

Sylvain

Yep, agree. This new feature is great news for American shops, but it would be
really nice if it applied to EU shops too. But for that, first we need to figure
out whether sellers are legally allowed to refuse doing 0% VAT intra-community
transactions. I don't think they are, and certainly not for a fee as some
are doing, but I'm really not sure about it... maybe someone knows?

It means extra administrative hassle and some sellers are not confident that
the tax agency is going to accept the 0% VAT transactions, so I do understand
the reasons why some sellers like to be able to refuse it.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 22, 2022 04:19

Subject:

Re: Enabling of B2B transactions for EU orders

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In Administrative, 1001bricks writes:

In order to make use of this new feature, simply click on the 'Verify your
VAT ID' link under the Order Summary section to enter your valid VAT registration
number during checkout

Quick tests:

I tried in 3 different shops including Brick24, and couldn't see no "Verify
your VAT ID" link or whatever even close to this, up to the very last step of
the check out (4th).

It's late, tired - please have a good evening!

Looks like it only works on stores outside the EU, I wonder why? I like how it
works, I think the same could be applied to EU stores, no? Or should stores be
able to refuse accepting them? According to the tax agency helpdesk here, it's
not something stores are allowed to refuse, but I've also seen on the forum
that intra-community transactions are problematic for sellers in certain member
states.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 18:45

Subject:

Re: Why most orders on Mondays?

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

Off Topic

In Off Topic, SylvainLS writes:

In Off Topic, Teup writes:

[…]
Useful tip: When it's really busy (holiday season), it could be smart to
send out orders on Tuesday. Mondays are sometimes so busy for PostNL that they
leave some of the Monday bags untouched until a week later to avoid a domino
effect. So shipping out on Tuesday in busy times can actually make things arrive
faster.

And now everybody will post on Tuesday, so Monday will be okay again… or maybe
better post on Wednesday

Actually yes that's right, what they told me is that it's Monday "and
sometimes Tuesday"... so Wednesday is safest

But for me so far, almost all
of my delayed orders can be traced back to Monday batches

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 18:32

Subject:

Re: Why most orders on Mondays?

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

Off Topic

In Off Topic, tonnic writes:

In Off Topic, Leftoverbricks writes:

Hi all,

I am puzzled by the fact that I receive most orders on Monday and not on Saturday
or Sunday.

I understand that you use the weekend to spend on your hobby, but why do you
place the order on Monday, the day you should be at work? And not on Sunday evening?

Do you use Sunday night to 'sleep on it?' And if so, why?

Of course I understand that orders from the USA that are placed on Sunday evening
will only arrive on Monday evening. But I'm not talking about that.

It is the orders from Europe that always arrive on Mondays. And the rest of the
week you can just forget about: no orders. This, of course, only pertains to
my small shop.

Anyway, I have packed my weekly 3 orders placed on Monday (all from The Netherlands)
and ship them tomorrow.

For me it is not getting the orders on monday but most of the time monday is
‘shippingday’.
I receive the orders during the weekend, pack them and ship them on monday.

Same here, and it's actually the usual pattern for webshops. People tend
to do their shopping in the weekend. (But Lego parts orders are complicated so
maybe in the OP's case people just finalize them a little later)

Useful tip: When it's really busy (holiday season), it could be smart to
send out orders on Tuesday. Mondays are sometimes so busy for PostNL that they
leave some of the Monday bags untouched until a week later to avoid a domino
effect. So shipping out on Tuesday in busy times can actually make things arrive
faster.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 12:23

Subject:

Re: Why most orders on Mondays?

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

Off Topic

In Off Topic, Leftoverbricks writes:

I agree that's odd, and most of mine actually are on Sunday evening. Monday
and Tuesday are sort of the cooldown days for my shop where I have a change to
catch up with everything. It can't be a timezone thing either, because BL's
timestamps are earlier rather than later.

As for this particular Monday: A lot of people are staying indoors these days
because of the storm and it caused a huge surge in orders for me, like a lockdown
kind of effect.

Maybe some business buyers who were missing parts for their weekend orders?

I can't really think of a better possible reason...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 11:44

Subject:

Re: List of renamed/recategorized items.

Viewed:

26 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, 1001bricks writes:

That's just your personal method and opinion. I have soooo many benefits
to category based sorting that remark based sorting seems really stupid to me

Sorting is way faster when you're searching something different.

Imagine you're searching for a Black small part in a stack of Black parts
on your table.
It'll be long, tedious and subject to errors.

Now if you're searching for the same part in between many different colors,
it'll be different and way faster.
And if it's the only Black part, then there couldn't be any possible
error.

Of course - but in both cases - assuming your inventory is correct.

In short, searching 1 Torso in between a drawer of 50 different bags of torsos
is like the above solution.

At the contrary, if it's the only bag of Torsos in a drawer with bags of
different parts, you don't have to think at search; your visual search is
optimal, and you read the sticker just to be sure, you don't have to search
using the stickers (reading is long and subject to errors).

Conclusion: I don't sort by Color neither by Category; it's way better.

And it may be an error to think this is stupid

Sylvain

Not sure if I see the analogy with colour, but on the topic of colour: I've
noticed that most of my many-lot orders have the same part in multiple colours,
so I get them all out of the same bag. (And there's no need to waste time
searching, either, because the bags are transparent and none are so big that
you can't see the part you need) - just one out of many advantages of category
based sorting.

Well, I'm exaggerating saying it's 'stupid', I know it's
not

As clearly many sellers are doing it, so clearly it works for many people.
It's just something I don't understand well, because I haven't learned
how to do it, because I don't have any problems that it could solve. I don't
understand how the remarks get there in the first place (in a way that doesn't
require lots of extra manual labour), or how it works when a lot grows bigger
so you need a different location for it, or what the chronology of the workflow
is when you add parts while some already have locations and some don't. Probably
interesting to watch a video on how it works sometime, but as I said I don't
have any problems - I can stock parts immediately and pick the immediately -
so there isn't really much I could gain from that method even if it was perfect
and remarks were all automatic.

One exception though is minifig parts, your torso example is a good one. I've
got those sorted on minifigure series number, or year, as it would be too
much in one category otherwise. So I am kind of using remarks there. But it's
extra work that's only really worth it for problematic categories like those.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 06:09

Subject:

Re: List of renamed/recategorized items.

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Joshua.Burrier writes:

As you clean up the sight, things get renamed or re-categorized on the site,
but I'm not notified and can move the parts in my physical inventory boxes
accordingly.

"Wait, that part was Minifigures, Weapon, Spacegun. Now it's in Minifigures,
weapon, gun. And now I have to refund the customer because I can't find
it. Or what is currently a 1x1 Technic, Liftarm used to be in Technic and Technic,
Connectors."

Please, when you move something, tell us. Make a list.

Thanks,
Joshua

Besides the existence of such lists, there are also topics about it in the forum.
As with all important things, the forum is far from an ideal place for communication,
but at least it's something. Oh, there's actually also the catalog newsletter,
which I hope will continue to be a thing.

I agree this is tricky, and that's why the catmins have been doing the more
drastic changes in batches with a notification about it in the forum at least
1 month ahead of the move. Especially if you have to move not just parts but
entire bins/furniture that's very useful.
(However, last time the admin team came in and decided to use that month to think
about whether or not to approve the proposed changes, which of course ruins the
preparation month completely. Hopefully they won't do that again!)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 21, 2022 06:00

Subject:

Re: List of renamed/recategorized items.

Viewed:

42 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, 1001bricks writes:

In Suggestions, Joshua.Burrier writes:

As you clean up the sight, things get renamed or re-categorized on the site,
but I'm not notified and can move the parts in my physical inventory boxes
accordingly.

Oh Gosh

While that still could be a problem, the idea is DO NOT use Categories to organize
your Shop Inventory.

At least use the Remarks field - and BrickStore

(some may start to think I've Stock Options there...)

You can put drawer 12 : "#DR12" in Remark for example.
It won't change (unless you change it).

That's just your personal method and opinion. I have soooo many benefits
to category based sorting that remark based sorting seems really stupid to me

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 20, 2022 06:33

Subject:

Re: Snack Bar 1x8 brick 3008pb013

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

Catalog Requests

In Catalog Requests, Wingman_bricks writes:

Under "Items Appears In" should this decorated brick appear as part of set 675-1.

Hey, what kind of hairpiece is that? Unreleased? Never seen it before.
https://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/ON/0/675-1.png

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 20, 2022 04:57

Subject:

Re: can't ship to Italy?!

Viewed:

49 times

Topic:

Shipping

In Shipping, woodelf writes:

I just had a buyer from Italy, and since it's a large and valuable set, I
was double checking things like insurance options. In the process, I discovered
that according to USPS, it is forbidden to mail "toys not made wholly of wood"
to Italy. Some further research shows that this is an Italian law that has been
on the books for quite a while—it frequently shows up in lists of "wacky laws"
and such.

Should I be concerned? Anybody know if this applies to small personal sales,
as opposed to large commercial businesses? Is it pretty strictly/reliably enforced?
(I'm shipping from the US, if that makes a difference.)

(I've sent the buyer a message to confirm that they're aware of this
law and either know it's not really enforced or are ok with channcing it.
But no response yet.)

-Nat

I never understand this thing with EU countries having weird import rules and
how they can be real. If they were real, then surely businesses would have popped
up that simply let you send it to another EU country and then send it to Italy
from there? There's free traffic within the EU after all.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 19, 2022 08:51

Subject:

Re: Dual Molded Parts

Viewed:

45 times

Topic:

Catalog

In Catalog, hpoort writes:

In Catalog, Teup writes:

In Catalog, randyf writes:

Please make absolutely sure that the part is molded in more than
one color of plastic and not just painted. This is very important!

That begs the question how well the users of the catalog will be able to tell
the difference. Just saying.. if it's going to be just encyclopedic info
then that's fine, but if it's going to inform categorization and affect
findability.... tricky. Are we sure we'd really gain something by distinguishing
printing from dual moulding?

So far I've found only the friend legs with tan shoes as the only example
where both variants appear, but yes: I would say it matters to distinguish and
make this a consistent attribute of part listings.

What does that mean precisely though, in your opinion? That the names include
the term "dual molded"?
And parts with print and dual mold would be classified as "decorated" and the
ones with dual mold without print would be considered not decorated?

It could get tricky with things like shorts. If someone is making a summer city
and wants minifigs in shorts, it's not really intuitive having to search
two separate categories that are based on how a part was manufactured. However,
if the "decorated" term get replaced by "multi color", that could hold both dual
molded and printed parts.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 19, 2022 05:44

Subject:

Re: Dual Molded Parts

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

Catalog

In Catalog, randyf writes:

Please make absolutely sure that the part is molded in more than
one color of plastic and not just painted. This is very important!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 17, 2022 16:13

Subject:

Re: Define Neutral Feedback

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Feedback, yorbrick writes:

We don't really have the numbers of course, but I do think that does depend
on what's written. If someone posts that the seller behaved super weird or
that the parts were extremely dirty, I do think that can put off buyers. You're
right though that in general a neutral probably doesn't have much effect,
but the fact is, the way the interface is designed makes it very easy to read
the neutral and negative feedback messages. And since it's 'forever',
it really gives what's written there a lot of weight.

Much more than their numerical effect, at least. The fact that a negative feedback
substracts 1 from the score is just plain silly, and IMO is a good illustration
that not too much thought went into the system. You are probably right that neutrals/negatives
are not the end of the world as much as sellers often feel it to be, but I do
think in reality, a negative may be worth -100 or even more. In fact I'm
unsure if I'm rather set back -1000 or get 1 negative

If a buyer reads one neutral (or even negative) out of 100s or 1000s of positives
and believes that one over all the rest and decides not to purchase because of
it, the store is probably better off without that buyer. There are plenty of
sensible buyers out there too.

Well, consider there are a few stores selling a part at a good price. You check
the first one and it has a zillion positive but only one neutral or negative,
and that is exactly about your situation. For example, the store is mostly about
new parts, but you're after one particular used part they have and someone
wrote the used parts smelled horrible and had grime on them. Or shipping to your
particular country took months. All things equal, that might just be the push
you need to check out if the next store could be any better.

So yes, score-wise a neutral is irrelevant - everything over 90% is probably
all good. Nobody in their right mind would think "oh no, 2000 positive and 5
neutral, run!!". But the message that's written there sticks around forever,
it's just 1 click away when checking feedback. You're right it won't
have any dramatic effects, but whatever warning you as a buyer leave there can
have *some* effect. At least more than 100 positives that end up pretty much
invisible and hardly visually change the feedback score if it's already in
the thousands.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 17, 2022 15:42

Subject:

Re: Define Neutral Feedback

Viewed:

25 times

Topic:

In Feedback, yorbrick writes:

(The fact that negatives substract the score by one and that neutrals don't
change the score is just silly and has no meaning. Even if they would add +10
to the score, the fact they stick around in the feedback profile is much more
significant, so their 'punishing' effect remains the same.)

Punishing implies that the seller is somehow punished for having a neutral. When
clearly this is not the case as buyers still buy from stores that had a single
neutral last week, or one three years ago and loads of positives since. In fact,
buyers still buy from stores that have many negatives. I know in the past I have
bought from one big store that was running at about 97% at the time I ordered.
It was good to get the warning, but I used common sense to decide that even if
the worst of the feedback left by others had come true I would not be out of
pocket and would have only wasted my time (and not got some decent parts I was
after at such a low price).

If buyers still buy from stores after being made aware of warnings, it is not
exactly a punishment for the store. The only punishment is to the seller's
ego, no longer being 100% perfect. And I think that more than any real damage
to a store is the root cause of the complaints. The feeling of not being seen
to be absolutely perfect, rather than buyers being put off from buying from a
store. Obviously that is easy for me to say, as I am still 100% perfect (at least
according to my feedback) but I have a plan to deal with it when I get a non-positive.
I will simply reply to it, then ignore it, and I will stoplist the buyer leaving
it so they can no longer buy from me. Not being able to buy from a seller (especially
if they have items that the buyer wants at a decent price) is probably a worse
punishment than a single neutral for a store that will not put off buyers.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 17, 2022 15:34

Subject:

Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Help, rankster writes:

In Help, Teup writes:

So, Bricklink is a little bit more strict

I’m wondering how is it possible that some (if not most) of the biggest EU stores
haven’t turned on OSS yet? They might calculate the VAT of each country manually
using their own invoicing system?

That's what I would do, yes, but even so, Bricklink simply won't let
you sell past 10K without turning it on. So if big stores didn't turn on
the OSS setting then that's very strange, yes.

I suspect that soon I will reach Bricklink's threshold although I'm planning
to use OSS not before July. Hopefully BL will allow me to keep selling until
then if I show them paperwork that proves my fiscal years starts on 1 Jan.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 17, 2022 04:35

Subject:

Re: Define Neutral Feedback

Viewed:

37 times

Topic:

In Feedback, gogogovro writes:

Bricklink doesn't define what neutral feedback means on the feedback help
page (https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=248). What do you as a buyer
or seller define neutral feedback as? What are some reasons you would leave neutral
feedback?

I don't currently have a use case for using neutral, so I'm hoping on
learning from your replies.

If I focus not necessarily on my opinion but purely on the way the website interface
is designed, I would say that neutral or negative is any message that you want
future users to read before ordering (in other words, warnings).

A positive feedback will immediately disappear in the long list of positives
that nobody will ever read (its only effect is a contribution to the score),
while negatives and neutrals stick around, because their lists are much shorter
and their scores draw attention and curiosity because they are low numbers.

(The fact that negatives substract the score by one and that neutrals don't
change the score is just silly and has no meaning. Even if they would add +10
to the score, the fact they stick around in the feedback profile is much more
significant, so their 'punishing' effect remains the same.)

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 14, 2022 19:29

Subject:

Re: Label Transparent Elements as PC or MABS

Viewed:

22 times

Topic:

Actually this is the only difference that you can tell with your eyes closed

Because the new PC parts make quite a different (less sharp) sound when you
handle them. Of course, it becomes tricky if they're mixed

In Suggestions, peregrinator writes:

Speaking as a seller, I don't think telling the difference is easy.

In Suggestions, slick_bricks writes:

I think it would behoove the online marketplaces to add labeling for PC versus
MABS Transparent LEGO elements. This would help builders and set restorers match
the color of the plastic since it is becoming apparent that the new MABS formula
is affecting the coloration significantly and consistently.

Just putting it out there, it would be a good idea to initiate this sooner than
later, as the color differences between the old Trans-Clear and new Trans-Clear
elements are quite stark. Should labeling options get into place early, it could
save a lot of work later on down the line as it becomes a growing discrepancy.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 14, 2022 19:27

Subject:

Re: Label Transparent Elements as PC or MABS

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, slick_bricks writes:

I think this idea stands or falls with whether LEGO really made a clean transition
to the new colour, the way that the transition from old gray to bluish gray was
(fairly) clear cut. If there's a significant period of random variation,
it's going to be a difficult story because set inventories are going to get
messy.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 14, 2022 19:10

Subject:

Re: What would you do?

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

Selling

Sometimes I get orders from the city nearby, it's like 20-30 minutes cycling.
I need exercise anyway, so I usually just drop off those orders myself. Refunding
shipping is a nice gesture but not strictly needed IMO, it's actually an
improved bit of service already, since it's 1 day faster and safer than regular
shipping. (In my own webshop I do have free shipping within my area though, but
on Bricklink there's no option to do that.)

In Selling, popsicle writes:

I received an order earlier today from an address less than 2 miles from our
home. (It was a simple order totaling $50, containing a single minifig) Packaged
and invoiced within 10 mins. The newish-to-BL/new-to-us buyer, paid immediately
followed by “thanks, I just paid” comms. So the order was labeled and ready for
USPS drop-off within 20 mins of it being placed. I normally wait for other outgoing
packages at the end of the day to post. But as my daughter had a package awaiting
pick up, I figured I'd take the single package to the PO to grab her package.

I jumped into our truck with the package, started the truck only to pause staring
forward down the driveway, contemplating: The man only lives 6 minutes away,
shouldn’t I just drive to his home and place the package on his front doorstep?
How silly is it to drive the same distance to mail the package? He’ll likely
receive his order within 24 hours anyway, but still? I could file for a refund
for the $3.27 label, later?

It’s not the first time this scenario has play out though, as I’m certain
it has for some of you too.

Tell me what you’d do and I’ll tell you what I did...

-popsicle

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 14, 2022 10:30

Subject:

Re: Buyer is req. to pay VAT again!-REFUND?POST IT

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In Help, StarBrick writes:

IF and WHEN Dutch buyers object/claim at the Dutch tax office and get there double
paid taxes refunded, PLEASE post this in the forum to HELP other buyers and sellers.

This is a good point. Also, there may be other places/resources out there on
the web as this must be happening to many Dutch/European consumers in general
right now. I can imagine that if many consumers have to deal with this problem
when buying online, it could at least reach the media.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 14, 2022 07:46

Subject:

Re: Retiring CEP admin

Viewed:

71 times

Topic:

Catalog

In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:

Hello everyone,

One of our administrators from the Community Expert Program is officially retiring
today - Paul (username paulvdb) is stepping down from his position as Catalog
Associate.

We thank Paul for his great contribution as a CEP and wish him all the best for
future endeavors.

Please scroll to the end of this page and click the Expand triangle to view the
BrickLink CEP Hall of Fame. Paul first joined our team in April of 2019 as an
Inventories Admin:

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

Bedankt voor al het werk dat je verzet hebt Paul!

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 11, 2022 11:52

Subject:

Re: Who should leave feedback first?

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Feedback, peregrinator writes:

In Feedback, TheBrickGuys writes:

Actually your feedback ratio is better then 70%, it is 81%. For a store with
5000+ orders that is a really good percentage. Makes we wonder if Euro countries
take leaving feedback more seriously or are you just a really nice guy?

It's 77% (5111/6659) - maybe you factored his buyer feedback in? In any case
that's pretty exceptional.

Hm yes, you guys are right, I checked after I posted that and noticed it was
over 70%. Half of my orders are from Dutch customers. My idea, purely a theory,
is that it could be a Dutch cultural thing. I think Dutch people like to give
(blunt) feedback to other people, tend to be community/cooperation-minded because
it's a small country, and they have always been kind of internet nerds -
they like to spend a lot of time online and are really overrepresented on the
web (I believe that, at least in the past, .nl was the most registered domain
after .com and .co.uk). I don't know... Something like an online community
where you leave feedback about other people just strikes me as something Dutch
people are into. Could be wrong, but just one theory - the second one is of course
that I am just an amazing seller

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 11, 2022 08:15

Subject:

Re: Who should leave feedback first?

Viewed:

52 times

Topic:

In Feedback, peregrinator writes:

All -

I'm interested in doing a bit of a study. For myself, as a seller and
as a buyer, I'm firmly of the belief that the seller should leave feedback
first. I myself leave feedback when I've shipped the order, even in some
circumstances once the order is packed - at any rate, definitely before the buyer
would leave it. Some have the opposite opinion - that the buyer should leave
feedback first.

Limited evidence (I have a small store, not many orders, maybe my store attracts
a certain kind of buyer?) suggests that leaving feedback when I do has a positive
effect on whether or not I receive feedback in kind. The reason I say this
is that my feedback-to-orders ratio has consistently been between 65-70%, and
yet I've heard that the average feedback-to-orders ratio across BL is more
like 50%. Now I try to be professional and communicative, and because my store
is small I can ship quickly, but many other stores on BL that are larger than
mine offer exemplary service, and I don't think my service is so good as
to account for the higher feedback ratio.

So, if you're willing to answer, would you mind answering with:

- when you leave feedback (before or after the buyer: I don't know if it
has to be specific)
- what your store's current feedback-to-orders ratio is

Thanks!

I too leave feedback when my buyer pays. I don't really care whether or not
they leave feedback about me (as long as it's not non-positive

). Feedback
isn't a trade - to me it's a service to the community to flag whether
or not a user is OK for doing business with. It's not a gift or a service
to the person I post the feedback about, and not something to negotiate with.

You could be right about leaving feedback immediately increasing the odds of
getting feedback back, I had the same impression. Leaving it upon payment, I
think my feedback ratio is around 70% as you say.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 11, 2022 08:07

Subject:

Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

Catalog Identification

In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:

In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:

In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:

In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:

In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:

Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?

Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.

If thats true thats interesting to know. I'm aware of unreleased colours
but never really gave it much thought as to why that might be (apart from red
prototypes etc..) but since I have Breastplates in Tan and also Viking helmets
in Tan it would certainly make sense as these you would expect to find in colours
like gold or silver and maybe a few other colours but certainly not Tan

Could it be that these Reddish Bown Dwarf helemts were intended to be Copper?

60748 Minifigure, Headgear Helmet Castle with Cheek Protection and Studded Bands (Dwarf)
Parts: Minifigure, Headgear

Yes, I was also thinking about the Dwarf and Viking helmets

I had some helmets
in Light Bluish Gray (for metallic silver) and Tan (for metallic gold). I never
had any Reddish Brown, but yes, Copper would make sense as (at least this type
of) Copper seems to be the same kind of metallic coating as the other two. And
maybe there are also some black parts out there that should be Speckle Black
Silver?

In fact the more I think about it the more this seems to ring true as you have
this Troll King only found in one set but some came with Reddish Brown Crown
and some with a Copper Crown. My inital thought was that Lego made a mistake
and manufactured in the wrong colour or simply had a change of mind mid production
when it actually sounds likely they just had a quality control issue where they
forget the coating

Minifig No: cas420 Name: Fantasy Era - Troll King with Reddish Brown Crown

cas420 (Inv) Fantasy Era - Troll King with Reddish Brown Crown
Minifigures: Castle: Fantasy Era

Minifig No: cas420a Name: Fantasy Era - Troll King with Metallic Copper Crown

cas420a (Inv) Fantasy Era - Troll King with Metallic Copper Crown
Minifigures: Castle: Fantasy Era

Ha, that crown came to my mind, I didn't know it came out in Copper as well
- so yes that makes sense. Reminds of this variation;

Minifig No: pi114 Name: Imperial Soldier II - Shako Hat Plain

pi114 (Inv) Imperial Soldier II - Shako Hat Plain
Minifigures: Pirates: Pirates II: Imperial Guards

Minifig No: pi090 Name: Imperial Soldier II - Shako Hat Printed, Scowl

pi090 (Inv) Imperial Soldier II - Shako Hat Printed, Scowl
Minifigures: Pirates: Pirates II: Imperial Guards

Which also came out in the same year. Maybe because of costs or some production
reasons there can be variation in whether the print/coating is applied.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 11, 2022 06:11

Subject:

Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

Catalog Identification

In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:

In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:

In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:

Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?

Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.

60748 Minifigure, Headgear Helmet Castle with Cheek Protection and Studded Bands (Dwarf)
Parts: Minifigure, Headgear

Yes, I was also thinking about the Dwarf and Viking helmets

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 11, 2022 04:20

Subject:

Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

Catalog Identification

In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:

Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?

Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 10, 2022 12:48

Subject:

Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Help, 1001bricks writes:

I've set my account to not charge VAT on shipping, when of course
I do. This helps me keep the shipping table simple. All my international customers
pay the same shipping rates but for EU this includes VAT, which nicely aligns
with the fact that postage costs within the EU are cheaper as well.

Oh you're smart, you know?

The combination of experience and laziness will do that

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 10, 2022 12:48

Subject:

Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees

Viewed:

40 times

Topic: