BrickLink Discussion Forum

In General, SezaR writes:

I was used in have many sales in Nov. and Dec but not this year.
Are sales low for others?

If so, does it have to do with November 3rd incident?

Maybe it has to do with what country you are selling in? Our sales in parts have
been really good for the past few months.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Dec 12, 2023 20:43

Subject:

Re: Problem with verification

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

Problem

In Problem, L79M writes:

In Problem, L79M writes:
Just double checked my store is still closed awaiting verification been 8 days
now

Do you mean that it has been 8 days sense you applied? If so, then you will most
likely have to wait a while longer. I think I remember some comments from admin
that because of the back log that it can take at least a few weeks.

As a side thought, maybe some others here that have read these posts and have
recently been approved to open your own store can comment on how long the process
took to finally get approved.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Dec 9, 2023 21:44

Subject:

Re: Is this a fake pin?

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In General, randyf writes:

In General, Yosemitesam writes:

Hello people,

I am checking a recently bought set and it has 2 fake lego parts.
Now I'm checking the blue pins, it has 3 versions in it.
I recon the left one is fake but I'm not sure.
Does anyone know?

Regards,

Sam

Yes, it is a clone brand part. The LEGO versions of the part never have the pin
slots line up with the slots in the main body of the part.

Cheers,
Randy

Good to know.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Dec 9, 2023 21:37

Subject:

Re: Requirments for new sellers

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

Suggestions

In Suggestions, cosmicray writes:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

In Suggestions, TallyToyBricks writes:

I voted yes, not because this is the best solution, but there needs to be some
solution. If buyers don't trust the marketplace, eventually sales decline.

BrickLink needs a high enough bar to limit scammers, but low enough to allow
legitimate new sellers. The current bar is way too low.

Maybe, a staggered sales limit for new stores (Ebay model); month 1 limit sales
to $250, then month 2 to $350, etc. BrickLink has the data to optimize the sales
limits.

If you can delay the amount of time scammers need to wait for their payday, you
limit the number of scammers. Additionally, any that are using fraudulent Bank
Accounts/PayPal/Credit Cards will probably be discovered within 3 months. Basically,
let the Trust and Security Departments of large financial institutions weed out
the bad actors.

I agree something must be done, but an issue with this is that a scammer sets
up multiple accounts and let's them sit for a few months.

You are absolutely correct. This (and thank you) opens up the topic of small/medium/large
sellers. Most of the problems seen here are not from small sellers selling cheap
parts, it's always someone trying to make the maximum money as fast as possible,
before the game is up. The current problem (L and N) may well involve many thousands
of dollars.

Where we end up is, a small seller needs very little vetting and identity checking.
A large seller, or anyone stacking their store up with lots of high ticket desirable
sets, needs a laser focused identity check and proof of inventory. Any seller
account moving up the ladder, regardless of the day they apply, or several months
down the road, should cause that check to be done. This is as more about allowing
the limited resources on the admin team to be applied to where the problems occur.

Nita Rae

I think your proposal are excellent. Probably over 95% of new legitimate beginning
sellers would not sell more then $250.00 worth of Lego in their first couple
of months. In fact, most new stores would probably be thrilled to make that much
and more importantly, most scammers wouldn't even want to waste their time
for $250.00.

I also think your ideas on vetting sellers who want to sell high ticket items
would also be important and would dissuade most scammers from even wanting to
go thru the vetting process.

Great ideas!! I hope BrickLink will seriously consider them.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Dec 7, 2023 11:12

Subject:

Re: Should I accept a prepaid level from buyer?

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

Help

In Help, Nubs_Select writes:

I mean after about 10k shipments across sites I’ve had exactly 1 case opened
against me which I won so it’s not really much of a concern

Same here. Out of all the orders we have received only a couple went bad and
we just went ahead and approved the refund for missing packages.

Because our postage software uses PayPal's addresses we use those but we
always do a quick compare to make sure they are the same but not not because
about worrying about scams, we just want to make sue the order is shipped to
where the customer wants it to be shipped to. When the addresses differ we just
contact the buyer and ask which address they want the order shipped to. This
has happened just a handful of times and when we shipped it to a different address
then what is on PayPal it has never caused any problems or chargebacks.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 26, 2023 11:39

Subject:

Re: Can I list these?

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Selling, Nubs_Select writes:

I recently purchased some lego from a long time lego seller (local) and included
was a whole bunch of torsos with a variety of different colour arms and hands
(all in about 100ish torsos) mixed in were some

973 Torso Plain
Parts: Minifigure, Torso {Flat Silver}

and

973 Torso Plain
Parts: Minifigure, Torso {Olive Green}

which
don't exist in those colours as is. I cant be 100% certain but they don't
seem to have had a print wiped off. i remember a while ago there was a big thing
about some parts in unofficial things like this couldn't be sold as they
were stolen from lego but to the best of my knowledge these are from long before
that was a thing so i wasn't sure if I was allowed to list them on bricklink
or not as many of those listings were taken down and similar
19x Flat Silver torsos
15x Olive Green torsos

I dont see why not considering they are for sale, and have been sold here, so
BL definitely allows them to be sold in those colors.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 25, 2023 23:09

Subject:

Re: How should I list these?

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

Help

https://store.bricklink.com/EToys?itemID=363339147#/shop?o={%22invID%22:%22363339147%22}

In Help, The_Boyz_Bricks writes:

How should I list these parts? Are they new from Lego or are they used and sealed
by a reseller?
Thanks!

It may be from this set:

8293-1 (Inv) Power Functions Motor Set
10 Parts, 2008
Sets: Power Functions

I think you are right and looking at the picture, it looks like your parts are
in the same type of bags so I would say that you could probably sell them as
new if you wanted to as long as you look at them really well to make sure they
dont have any dings on any edges or scratches on any of the flat surfaces.

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 21, 2023 22:08

Subject:

Re: File an order

Viewed:

39 times

Topic:

Help

In Help, Adrienhb writes:

Sorry, to clarify, order items are purged, you should still be able to get an
overview of the old ones (try Download).

Ok thanks. I'll keep a copy.
But you mentioned an app. Is there an app to use Bricklink on iOS ?

For windows you can use BrickStore. A fantastic program!! Indispensable if you
are a seller.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 19, 2023 17:14

Subject:

Re: Wanted: Breaking Bad build instructions

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

Searching

In Searching, 1001bricks writes:

i guess i'll jump the shark here...

item # 52

*facepalm

Where?? item 52??? I guess im being thick, but no idea where you mean.

Please ignore; nobody knows what that means.

Apart this, it's an interesting quest!

I guess you may use/learn studio, and build it yourself starting from this "compatible"
set (erm erm).

a Compatible set is probably the best option,I don’t imagine Lego will be coming
out anytime soon with a drivable meth lab.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 18, 2023 17:03

Subject:

Re: 1 year selling on Bricklink!!

Viewed:

55 times

Topic:

Announce

In Announce, The_Boyz_Bricks writes:

We have now been selling on Bricklink for 1 year!!

A big thanks to all our buyers and sellers that helped us get to where we are
today!!

Congratulations!

I think the best feeling you get from selling. Is from the very first sale you
get and the first out of country sale. I would say that they are the most memorable
ones but I can’t remember either ones, I just know that they were the ones that
felt the best.

And don’t forget to also celebrate with what my dog Really loves - grape licorice
and milk duds!! His most bestest snacks.

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 17, 2023 22:05

Subject:

Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

In LEGO products, Nubs_Select writes:

In LEGO products, 1001bricks writes:

I think that the LEGO Group also needs to include more chickens in their sets.
There are 33 billion chickens in the world, yet chickens appear in very few LEGO
sets. It would be nice to see LEGO include more ecological diversity in their
sets.

Now that was good!

(I used a plain smiling emoticons instead of
the laughing one with oversized teeth and used 4 instead of 3 to differinacate
myself from that OTHER person here on the forums who posts always lauhing at
everything

)

Reminds me one of the 'instutions' of Imgur (yes, really):
https://imgur.com/user/onlyporridge

Took me a minute to realize that it was an emoticon, or at least could be. BL
should add it.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 17, 2023 18:49

Subject:

Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures

Viewed:

52 times

Topic:

In LEGO products, TheBrickGuys writes:

In LEGO products, popsicle writes:

In LEGO products, TheBrickGuys writes:

Speaking of emoticons, BL may need to think about some changes. There is 1 blue,
1 light blue, 1 red and one green to choose from but but there are 8 yellow ones.
Hmmm.

Didn't we have meaningful exchange about "color"

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1382931

Here's a cleaned-up pic file of Skragle

Now that is a beautiful color!!!

Dog's are truly man's best friend.

Thanks for sharing the picture (or would that be resharing).

This one is probably the skraglest shot of him.

Or maybe this one is...

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 17, 2023 18:44

Subject:

Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

In LEGO products, popsicle writes:

In LEGO products, TheBrickGuys writes:

Speaking of emoticons, BL may need to think about some changes. There is 1 blue,
1 light blue, 1 red and one green to choose from but but there are 8 yellow ones.
Hmmm.

Didn't we have meaningful exchange about "color"

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1382931

Here's a cleaned-up pic file of Skragle

Now that is a beautiful color!!!

Dog's are truly man's best friend.

Thanks for sharing the picture (or would that be resharing).

This one is probably the skraglest shot of him.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 17, 2023 13:02

Subject:

Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

Speaking of emoticons, BL may need to think about some changes. There is 1 blue,
1 light blue, 1 red and one green to choose from but but there are 8 yellow ones.
Hmmm.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 17, 2023 12:52

Subject:

Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In LEGO products, wildchicken13 writes:

In LEGO products, jadonut writes:

I wanted to post here to see how many other LEGO fans have felt similar frustration
and confusion about LEGO's own cultural stance to printing yellow only minifigures
for their non-IP sets (ICONS, City, Winter sets etc, etc).

For those of you who are already on-board with this, I'll link a great article
I found that excellently argues this point and cites its sources:

https://womensbrickinitiative.com/diverse-lego-minifigure-petition/

For those fans who haven't put much thought into this or are opposed to diversifying
the LEGO minifigure population, I'd urge you to read the above article. It's
well-written and researched, and says everything that needs to be said on this
topic.

In short, I don't at all agree with LEGO's staunch position on "yellow"
washing its minifigs that don't represent a certain IP. Their argument (as
quoted in the above article) that yellow is "race-neutral" is insulting,
as only light-skinned people can truly relate to that tone of color.

I'm personally interested in buying my first modular sets, but I also know
that I will have to spend money to swap out the heads, arms and some torsos to
make it representative of the world I live in, and the people I know.

I strongly believe that LEGO needs to do better, swallow its pride and discontinue
yellow minifigures. They're boring and lazy anyway.

I love LEGO and will be a lifelong fan. I just wish the brand matured with the
times quicker, and embraced cultural diversity.

Now that was good!

)

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 10, 2023 19:03

Subject:

Re: Silver Linings Post - Pics

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

In General, popsicle writes:

In General, Nubs_Select writes:

The first one almost looks like a picture from an alien planet

Your right, it does!

Captured an image of extraterrestrial intelligent life, in which case. Looks
to be primitive though, not advanced intelligence

from an old sci-fi movie! Nice!

Looks like your taking a pee.

Actually, that brings up a question that has plagued me for years and that is...

Why do we say when we need to go the the bathroom to take care of business, why
do we say, "I have to take a pee" or if you plan on sitting for a while,
"I have to take a poo"??

Than makes no sense at all! I have never seen anybody who said that they had
to take a poo go the the bathroom and leave there with a bag full or even
a hand full of poo - same with pee - you dont see people leaving bathrooms with
a glasses of pee. So why do we say that we have "take" a pee or "take"
a poo? Shouldn't we it be more like "I have to go LEAVE a pee or LEAVE
a poo"?

One of life's little ponderables.

Side note: I used the words pee and poo instead of their more common descriptives
so as to be polite and not offend any with a more delicate constitution.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 8, 2023 13:25

Subject:

Re: Well, that was weird and stressful

Viewed:

92 times

Topic:

In Selling, Fidelito writes:

As a seller, what measures will you take as a response of what we, as a community,
just experienced?

Safety measures, diversification of selling platforms, inventory backups, contingency
plans, etc...

We are going to download our store inventory with BrickStore on a more regular
basis, at least twice a week. Aside form that we have thought about selling on
other platforms but have not taken the plunge yet but that may change.

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 8, 2023 13:11

Subject:

Re: Update on November 3rd incident

Viewed:

144 times

Topic:

Administrative

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Welcome back and thank you for your patience. We were down for longer than anyone
would have wanted. Now that we’re back up and running, we can share with you
what’s happened.

As many of you will know, we received a threat and ransom demand on Friday, November
3rd. We’d been aware of and actively managing some limited suspicious activity
since mid-October, with unauthorized sellers offering products at huge discounts
and fraudulently accepting payment from buyers.

As soon as we were aware of the potential escalation on November 3rd, we put
the site into maintenance mode out of an abundance of caution. We did this to
protect our members and keep complete control of the platform while investigating.

We found that a relatively small number of BrickLink accounts may have been accessed.
It is important to note that there is no evidence so far that our systems were
compromised.

At this stage we believe this was a ‘credential stuffing’ incident, where
someone obtains lists of usernames and passwords from a third party, often illegally,
and opportunistically tries to use them on a website.

Actions we’ve taken

Although we know that the BrickLink site was not breached, we've further
strengthened our security. We take the safety of BrickLink and our members very
seriously and will continue to step up security across the platform.

We’ve informed people where we have reason to believe that their accounts or
stores may have been impacted, and reminded members of ways they can make their
accounts safer and more secure by practicing good data security. Keep your systems
up-to-date with the latest patches, Use security software and create strong,
unique passwords for each website you use.

Again, we’re sorry for the interruption and inconvenience this has caused you.

If you have any questions or concerns, have a look at the FAQ for more details,
or reach out to customersupport@bricklink.com.

Many thanks,

Your BrickLink Team

Thanks for working to get us back up and running quickly. It was surprising just
how much we depend on BrickLink, I felt literally lost at times without it so
thanks again.

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Nov 1, 2023 20:16

Subject:

Buying bulk

Viewed:

148 times

Topic:

A few months back we received a message from a seller on BrickLink with an offer.
I can't remember the wording, but the main offer was to help us build up
our inventory by selling to us in bulk. They have a store here and if I remember
correctly they have just a couple hundred feedbacks. I put off calling them at
the time because we were very busy doing other things.

About a month back I was finally going to call them but I could not find the
message they sent us. I looked thru all of our messages but nada. I would really
like to get in touch with them to find out what they are offering and I would
imagine that we were not the only store that received their message so I was
hoping that someone else may have received a similar message and could possibly
send us a private message with at least their store name so we can contact them.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 31, 2023 11:33

Subject:

Re: New policy on Forum sales posts

Viewed:

81 times

Topic:

Administrative

In Administrative, lotsofbricks writes:

I feel that changing from once per day to once per month might be too big of
a change. Perhaps once per week would be more appropriate. I've never posted
sales in the forum and I do agree that once per day is too much -- almost
like spamming.

I was thinking the same thing but then I thought a little bet more about what
constitutes a sale, or at least what it is supposed to. A sale is supposed to
be when you lower your prices a certain amount lower then what you normally charge.
If you are constantly running a sale then your sale prices are just your normal
everyday prices.

We to have never posted in the "Sales" forum but we usually always have
all of our parts priced at any given time at 9% to 15% off the 6 month sales
average so we could potentially advertise a sale every week in the forums but
where is the "sale" in that? We price our inventory below the 6 month
sales average to increase our overall selling of parts so advertising a "Sale"
would just be false advertising.

I think once a month is a good idea.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 25, 2023 16:49

Subject:

Re: seller has got my buying privileges revoked

Viewed:

108 times

Topic:

Buying

I have to point out that even if all you say is true, it would be hard to feel
any sympathy for you considering that a little over 2% of your buyers have left
either a neutral or negative (117 total)feedback against you for doing the exact
same thing, and a lot worse, to your customers.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 25, 2023 12:30

Subject:

Re: How to sell only figures from 10316 Rivendell

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

Incomplete sets have to have a considerable amount of the set to be a reliable
listing I think.

Going along with that... When you think of a set, you dont think of the minifigs
as much as you think about the model you will build with the set. I would imagine
BrickLink admins look at sets that way also. Minifigs do not make the set a set,
the model does and it makes sense that BrickLink would delete listings of sets
that only contain figs as they are no longer sets or even incomplete sets,
they are now just minifigures. I think it would be like trying to list a set
under minifigure with the note that "This is for the model - no minifigures
included".

Jim.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 22, 2023 15:48

Subject:

Re: Set Condition Technicality

Viewed:

45 times

Topic:

Abd when comparing them, doing it under a bright light really helps - under a
dim light they can still look very close to the same.

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 22, 2023 15:46

Subject:

Re: Set Condition Technicality

Viewed:

45 times

Topic:

In Selling, Qxuto writes:

I’m uncertain whether a used set I have can be considered complete. The pieces
I have for the set are old light gray, but the Bricklink inventory says they
should be new light gray. Does this color difference mean that those pieces are
technically missing? I’ve listed the set as incomplete for now.

The differences between light bluish gray and light gray are subtle and unless
you are very familiar with them you really need to compare them side by side
especially sense light bluish gray can fade to the point of making you think
they are light gray until you compare it side by side with a piece you know for
sure is light gray as ghyde suggested.

Jim

Author:

TheBrickGuys

Posted:

Oct 19, 2023 12:30

Subject:

Re: Modular Courthouse MOC

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

My Own Creation