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| | | Author: | krystensprouse  | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 15:33 | | Subject: | PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 155 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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| | | | | Author: | Nubs_Select | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 15:36 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 61 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| | | Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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That's what selling on bricklink is about  it's unavoidable!
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| | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 16:47 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, krystensprouse writes:
| | I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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I don't do very many partouts, but I used to sell new and used parts from
a variety of sources. There's no minimum size required to run a BrickLink
store, but in general, the greater the breadth and depth of your inventory, the
larger and more frequent your orders will be and therefore the greater potential
there is for profit. There is also a certain strategy involved, choosing sets
with high-value parts and minifigures so as to maximize profit. I think there
is a tool somewhere that allows you to compare the part-out value of a set to
its retail price.
I don't have a minimum. I charge enough for shipping and handling that I
can actually make a couple of dollars of profit on small orders, and the time
required to pack and ship is minimal. I also don't have a maximum. If you
would like to buy my entire store, I would be more than happy to supply you with
it.
Of course, all of this is irrelevant now that I don't sell parts, but this
is just my 2¢.
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| | | | | | | Author: | Nubs_Select | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 16:49 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 52 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| | | I don't have a minimum. I charge enough for shipping and handling that I
can actually make a couple of dollars of profit on small orders, and the time
required to pack and ship is minimal. I also don't have a maximum. If you
would like to buy my entire store, I would be more than happy to supply you with
it.
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but you sell digital files? I'm now confused do email now cost money to send
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 16:52 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 44 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, Nubs_Select writes:
| | but you sell digital files? I'm now confused do email now cost money to send
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Technically, they do. It doesn't cost me money to send an email, but someone
is paying for those servers, the electricity they run on, the coal used to generate
that electricity, the salaries for the software developers, etc. But I don't
charge shipping for PDF instructions.
It's all fun and games until tax day comes around…
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Nubs_Select | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 16:53 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | 1001bricks | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 18:43 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, Nubs_Select writes:
| | | | I don't have a minimum. I charge enough for shipping and handling that I
can actually make a couple of dollars of profit on small orders, and the time
required to pack and ship is minimal. I also don't have a maximum. If you
would like to buy my entire store, I would be more than happy to supply you with
it.
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but you sell digital files?
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And mustard!
Ah no, he gave up this fructful branch of his activity 
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Nubs_Select | | Posted: | Jul 4, 2022 18:48 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| His business will now enter a turbulent sales period. I think the only way to
save his store now is the return the products in demand!
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| | | | | Author: | calebfishn | | Posted: | Jul 5, 2022 10:25 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, krystensprouse writes:
| | I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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Selling parts takes a significant amount of work.
One factor of success is the ability to locate enough sets for parting out at
good prices that are well below MSRP.
All sets have parts that will sell quickly, as well as other parts that may take
years to sell. You should not expect that you will part out a set and sell all
the parts and reap the full part out value - at least not for a long time.
Shipping does not have to be stressful. Only stores with very large inventory
are going to have to ship multiple orders per day.
I started without a minimum, because my store was small, and I wanted to get
as many orders as possible. I did that for a few years, and then put in a minimum
buy. That was because my store was getting larger, I had a pace of order that
I was comfortable handling, and I found that I lost money on small orders.
I hope this helps. You do not need to expect chaos, but should do your homework,
and prepare your systems. First, do not make a large capital investment in inventory,
before you know what you are doing, and what you can handle. Second, have a decent
system for sorting, storage, and retrieving parts. You don't need a big,
expensive system at first. As long as it is efficient, it can grow with your
inventory.
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| | | | | | | Author: | Shiny_Stuff | | Posted: | Jul 10, 2022 12:30 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, calebfishn writes:
| | In Sales, krystensprouse writes:
| | I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
|
Selling parts takes a significant amount of work.
One factor of success is the ability to locate enough sets for parting out at
good prices that are well below MSRP.
All sets have parts that will sell quickly, as well as other parts that may take
years to sell. You should not expect that you will part out a set and sell all
the parts and reap the full part out value - at least not for a long time.
Shipping does not have to be stressful. Only stores with very large inventory
are going to have to ship multiple orders per day.
I started without a minimum, because my store was small, and I wanted to get
as many orders as possible. I did that for a few years, and then put in a minimum
buy. That was because my store was getting larger, I had a pace of order that
I was comfortable handling, and I found that I lost money on small orders.
I hope this helps. You do not need to expect chaos, but should do your homework,
and prepare your systems. First, do not make a large capital investment in inventory,
before you know what you are doing, and what you can handle. Second, have a decent
system for sorting, storage, and retrieving parts. You don't need a big,
expensive system at first. As long as it is efficient, it can grow with your
inventory.
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+1
My store is small and I am still a newbie -- open just 15 months so far.
But I think I have a pretty good handle on things.
My investments in storage are in wire-rack shelving. The shelves are filled
with corrugated cardboard boxes that cost me pretty much NOTHING. Most are Lego
casepack boxes of all the same size plus a lot of banana boxes. I also have
lots of Blue and Red Lego Tubs and clear plastic shoebox containers. My sorting
trays are Lego set boxes with the backs cut off. As my inventory shrinks and
grows, I simply add or swap boxes around. I store by BL category, so my labels
are simple, hand-written bits of paper taped to the boxes.
I have ZERO use for teeny-tiny pick-a-nut drawers. They cost more than they
are worth and simply waste wall space and don't hold enough Lego. For items
that I have onesies and twosies, I put them in small zip bags and pin them to
cork boards so that I can find them in about two seconds.
I do buy zip bags by the thousands in many sizes. I store all parts in pre-counted
bags of 20 or 100 pieces, so I do not waste time counting parts when picking
orders. For example, it takes me the about the same amount of time to pull 20
pieces as it does 600 of the same item.
I store all of the same part of all colors together in larger zip bags (quart,
gallon, or larger sizes). This does result in having a bag in a bag in a
bag, but my time to locate and pull the correct items for picking orders is very
minimal. My best trick = placing bags back into storage in nearly the exact
same location each time so finding it the next time is very quick.
LABEL stuff with part numbers whenever necessary. Especially minifigs, minifig
parts, wedges, wheels and tires, deco items, and whatever might cause confusion
or wasted time when picking orders.
An accurate shipping scale is an important tool. A small electronic shipping
scale that can handle 10 pounds of weight will be fine. Some of the newest models
available can be connected to your computer and integrated with shipping software.
Storage space is important to have and manage well. Space to store active inventory
that is listed in your shop as well as storage space for future inventory, such
as stacks of Lego sets. Storage space for shipping supplies is important so
that you can purchase in wholesale bulk quantities of bubble mailers, boxes,
tape or labels, plus zip bags in various sizes. If selling Lego sets, having
a stock of shipping cartons on hand is very helpful but that requires storage
space, too.
As for what LEGO sets to choose for parting out, what you choose is dependent
on so many factors. Mostly how much money you have available to spend and what
sets are available when you are ready to buy them. I also suggest buying sets
that you will enjoy parting out -- certain themese you may like or dislike
may influence what sets you select for parting out.
And the best and oldest piece of advice for parting out -- It is always better
to part out 25 copies of the exact same set than it is to part out 5 copies of
5 different sets.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Sell lots of Lego, Make lots of money
____
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| | | | | Author: | Upstate_Brickz | | Posted: | Jul 10, 2022 00:54 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, krystensprouse writes:
| | I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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I'm not sure if I'm successful yet, technically, but I'm a new store
that currently only sells parts. Started with 38k parts, up to 42k now. My sales
are slower than I'd like for sure. I will say this- I had no sales for quite
a while after opening, and once I got rid of my small ($2) min buy I started
getting sales pretty constantly.
Also, be careful. I love parting out and find it highly addictive, but storage
capacity needs can be very costly (those damn akro-mils drawers arrrghh!) and
grow very fast.
I don't stress about shipping small orders too much anymore, but the idea
of shipping sets stresses me out, which is why they are still in my stockroom.
Good luck with your store!
Upstate_Brickz
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| | | | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Jul 10, 2022 01:29 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 51 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | I had no sales for quite
a while after opening, and once I got rid of my small ($2) min buy I started
getting sales pretty constantly.
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Sounds about right. I used to sell parts with no min buy and most of my orders
were under $2; many were under $1.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | Upstate_Brickz | | Posted: | Jul 11, 2022 08:41 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, wildchicken13 writes:
| | In Sales, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | I had no sales for quite
a while after opening, and once I got rid of my small ($2) min buy I started
getting sales pretty constantly.
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Sounds about right. I used to sell parts with no min buy and most of my orders
were under $2; many were under $1.
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Oh wow, that's a pain! My order avg is usually around $10 so maybe I am doing
pretty good, orders just not as frequent as I'd like. Are selling sets the
way to go then?
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Jul 11, 2022 10:19 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 36 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | Oh wow, that's a pain! My order avg is usually around $10 so maybe I am doing
pretty good, orders just not as frequent as I'd like. Are selling sets the
way to go then?
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$10 is a pretty decent average. My store was pretty small, so I did not have
as much variety. I do not understand what compels some buyers to pay $4-5 to
have a single LEGO brick shipped halfway across the country, but I charge enough
for shipping to cover the PayPal fee and then some. I figure that if the buyer
is willing to pay the price shown to them at checkout, then it is okay to overcharge
for shipping.
I don't have much experience selling sets, but it is a very different market.
Generally speaking, there is a greater potential for profit if you sell the parts
individually than if you sell them as a set, but selling parts requires more
labor (pulling and packing orders, trips to the post office, etc.). There's
no such thing as a free lunch—you're being compensated for your services
(in this case, parting out sets).
I see that you also sell a lot of minifigures, which is good. I don't have
much experience selling minifigs, but many of them fetch a high price on BrickLink.
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| | | | | Author: | i_r_on | | Posted: | Jul 11, 2022 12:18 | | Subject: | Re: PARTING OUT | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| In Sales, krystensprouse writes:
| | I've been looking into this parting out stuff, and I dig it. For the people
who are successful at this, how big of a collection did you start off with? How
quickly did that set start to dissipate? How stressful was shipping out small
mass amount of packages? AND Did you have a minimum, why or why not??
Basically I just wanna make sure I'm not jumping head first into chaos that
I'm gonna regret!
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The answer I've given to a similar question. It may be helpful
https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1347014
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