expected ship date of 3/16.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Brickpicker mobile app

I bought the 4184 POTC Black Pearl.

Incompetech's Catalog of Amazon.com Box Sizes - (thanks No More Monkeys)

Amazon Boxes Sorted list by length - courtesy of pstebbing

I've scoured the forums and here is a list of box sizes with basic set information:

Boxes:
24x20x8 : Super Star Destroyer; Death Star, Roller Coaster, UCS Sandcrawler, Assembly Square
24x20x6 : Thicker sets like Town Hall, Tower Bridge
24x16x6 - 60052 Cargo Train, R2-D2, Maersk Line Triple-E, 7939 Cargo Train
24x16x4 - Helm's Deep, Vampyre Castle, Black Pearl, Friends Riding Camp, Parisian Restaurant, High Speed Passenger Train, Jabba's Palace, Downtown Diner
24x20x4 : Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, Imperial Shuttle, Haunted House, Palace Cinema, Fire Brigade
24x14x4 : Dolphin Cruiser, Coast Guard Patrol
24x4x12 - Dolphin Cruiser, Coast Guard Patrol
20x16x4 - Volkswagen Camper Van, Olivia's House, Sonic Raider, Sopwith, Creator Bike Shop, Batcave, Quinjet, Moria & Ambush
20x16x6 : Thicker sets like the Republic Gunship; City Cargo Plane
20x14x4 : Attack on Weathertop, Hulk 's Helicarrier Breakout, X-Wing 9493, Black Gate
16x16x4 : Gungan Sub, Pre Viszla, Tie Fighter
16x10x4 : Council of Elrond, Desert Skiff, City Grand Prix Truck
16x10x6 : Thicker sets like Creator Family House, Hillside House
15x12x4 : Funhouse, Orc Forge, Tumbler Chase, Daily Bugle Showdown, Hulk Lab Smash
12x12x4 : Uruk Hai Army, City Cargo Truck, Creator Treehouse, City Fire Emergency
11-3/4x8-3/4x4-3/4 : Wolverine Chopper, Arctic Batman, Power Armor Lex, Droid Escape, Cloud Cuckoo Palace
12x8x3 - Battle Packs, CA Avenging Cycle, Catwoman, Gandalf Arrives, Holiday sets
10x8x4 : Battle Packs, CA Avenging Cycle, Catwoman, Gandalf Arrives, Holiday sets

Envelopes:
4x8 : Minifigs & small polybags
6x9 : Polybags small & larger
10.5 x 16 : Larger shipments of 3 x polybags or more

Packing Tape : buy in bulk or on sale : you can throw some in during a Staples coupon promotion to get up to free shipping
Walmart.com Duck Brand Packaging Tape
http://www.staples.com/Staples-Standard-Grade-Packaging-Tape-Clear-189-x-110-yds-6-Rolls/product_380107

Retailers:
Uline.com : holiday sale starts first part of November (usually 30% off)
Staples.com : use coupon promotions - $10 off $30, $20 off $75, free shipping over $60
Walmart.com
USPS Priority Mail (free boxes at USPS.com)

Michigan Box Company:

Flat Boxes 18"-23" L  (thanks pstebbing)

GBE Packaging (thanks pstebbing)
 

PackingSupplies.com

http://www.packaging...ated_boxes.html     (thanks pstebbing)

Bubble Wrap:
3/16" thick x 350' ft x 12" wide - eBay

Sams Club

3/16" - 12"x240' $12.98 (In store) ($.05/LF) (thanks pstebbing)

I like to use large and small retailer plastic bags to wrap items in, even after I bubble wrap it.

For battle packs and even small sets, I sometimes use Wal-Mart, Target, or plastic bags from any store. Additional packing isn 't really needed. Usually like 2 bags on bottom, one to wrap the item, and two bags on top. Make sure to cover the corners of the item real nice to provide extra padding.

Rule of thumb : ship & pack all of your items the same way you 'd like to receive items you've purchased.

Shipping Paper:
Collect it when you receive shipments.
http://www.amazon.com/Pratt-Multipurpose-Packaging-KPR30241200R-Length/dp/B00AI652CM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408061459&sr=8-1&keywords=pratt+kraft+paper+1200?

Shipping Labels & Printers:
Dymo 450 & Dymo 400
Brother QL-700

DoNotInsertIntoMouth's : How to setup your label printer for shipping on eBay


Feel free to post a follow-up or point out anything I missed. I 'll update it with what everyone wants added. I hope this is helpful.

Quote

While the new vehicles would improve working conditions for USPS staff considerably by including air conditioning and heating, improved ergonomics, and advanced vehicle safety technology including air bags and 360-degree cameras, they would not provide significant improvements in fuel consumption or carbon emissions. USPS' existing fleet averages 8.2 miles per gallon; the new trucks would return an average of 8.6 mpg. The EPA challenged the move in February.

https://autos.yahoo.com/usps-sued-states-climate-orgs-160700437.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_15

Everyone can argue about the environmental impacts, but all I see is higher costs of shipping going forward

31119    Ferris Wheel
31120    Medieval Castle
31132    Viking Ship and the Midgard Serpent
 

Any idea why these don't sell? Thanks

I ordered 3 31120's medieval castle a while back.  They arrived looking like the typical Best Buy ordered.  Seals busted, taped to hell, labels everywhere, rips in the box face.  So I returned them.  I must have hit the wrong button because I only got a refund for 1 set, and then all 3 of them came back to me.  So now I have 3 sets for the price of 2 at least.  Customer service was no help so I figured I'm stuck with them and put them in a box to deal with later.

Long story short.  Do not order from best buy.  They are completely useless.  My son is getting one of these, my daughter another, and I'll probably hold onto the nicest box for 20 years till it's worth something.

I have 3 of them, now priced at a loss for 195 euro. 

What is with this set that people don't want it? 

Of course, accepting the return means I'd be out selling fees and round-trip shipping, which totals around $60. Recognizing this, I offered him a small discount. He rejected and filed a claim with PayPal. The individual is apparently a reseller who is uninterested in less-than-perfect boxes. I am expecting PayPal will side with buyer because it seems like that's eBay's default.  

So what would you have done? How much of a discount would you have offered, or would you have just accepted the return request? Do you have anything in your store's terms and/or the item listings to head off such situation?

Incidentally, do you ship the frustration-free packaged box in a second box? 

Unrelated, have you seen a large increase in buyers ghosting after invoice; particularly those with minimal feedback? Typically, I just cancel the order and put the item back into inventory. Do you leave negative feeback?

Set Counts per LEGO Shipping Carton:

thanks in advanced! 

I just noticed something tonight while listing an item for sale on Mercari. I am new to selling on that platform so I am sure that some of you have probably already noticed this.

Mercari charges 10% fees. But while building the listing if you list it as free shipping for the buyer then Mercari charges you 10% of the shipping fee as well (kinda like Ebay applies their fees to shipping costs as well). But, if you list it as buyer pays for shipping then you do NOT get charged the 10% on shipping.

For example, if I sell a item for $100 and it costs $15 to ship this item nationwide (only option on Mercari) then I pay 10% of $100 to Mercari leaving me with $90 and then I pay $15 for the shipping leaving me with a take home amount of $75.

However, if I list it at $85 and have the buyer pay $15 shipping then I am only charged the 10% on the $85. Leaving me with a take home amount of $76.50.

Not a huge difference but one definitely worth mentioning, especially if you sell a lot on there. None of my listings on Mercari will be free shipping haha.

We are excited to offer 12% off to all Brick Picker community members again. Please use code "MEMBER25" at checkout on our site (minifiguresplus.com). I have linked the products with the pricing below.

The price works out to the following:
Box - $151.36
Set - $56.75

We always offer free domestic shipping on orders over $75, so feel free to take advantage of that as well.

Pre-orders will ship mid-late January.

Happy building,

Jon

I'm thinking that it may be time to sell my collection. Just wanted to see if anyone has any tips like where to sell, how I could possibly sell the whole collection together, and generally anything you may have found helpful when you were selling. I appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Note: Don't get crazy with this, obviously one could list every set at there local store, but that would defeat the purpose of this.  I'm hoping this might help with impulse buying, which I'm sure many of us have done from time to time...

Including the Toy section. I chatted with one of the employees, and the prices and such will automatically update, so they no longer have to replace tags. Obviously, this will take some of the advantage away from us who know and share what the prices are ahead of time. No idea how it will handle Clearance items, or if they will still stick Clearance Yellow Tags on the shelf next to clearance items to draw attention to them, as they certainly aren't as "eye grabbing" as the yellow clearance tags among a sea of white.

I assume they are simply experimenting with them, as it seems a rarity thus far. It seems like it has to be staggeringly expensive for the store to undertake. Had to have been tens of thousands of the little buggers all told. Also seems to be some work to relocate all of them when the POG gets reset and whatnot, as opposed to simply tearing out the old tags and putting in the new ones. But we will see.

Any of you out there seeing these as well? Any thoughts/experiences with them?

I could sell these on eBay or something and then turn around and buy LEGO, but I'd rather just do a trade. Is there any market for that, or any good community for it? Is there any chance anybody here is interested? If not, any tips to make sure I don't get screwed when selling online as these are single rare items?

Thanks for any help!

Asking $275

Who else has collected these items and has some advice on how to order them, or where to order them from?

Should I order them as whole, or just the unique molded pieces? (Meaning, the torsos and legs may independently be cheaper than a whole Trans Clear Vader.)

Thoughts?  

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I am relatively new to utilizing the eBay shipping tool. I like the convenience of it for sure. To those who have used or still use this tool, who do you normally ship with (USPS or FedEx)? I seem to find that FedEx is the cheaper of the two, but I see people referencing USPS as a cheaper option regularly. When I compare the (inserting package dimensions and weight) I might see $15 for FedEx and $36 for USPS Priority Mail. Am I missing something?