Bricklink/BrickOwl - Discussion, questions, & answers

[raindog]

2 hours ago, Billy Brick said:

Stripe is a gremlin bro

I find that it works more smoothly than Paypal.  I've been using it for nine years now with nary a problem.  But please, if you have specific problems with it, I'd love to hear them.  Most often I've found that, when the wheels come off the wagon, it is because there was a loose nut behind the wheel.  But that's just my $.02 (and probably worth even less.)

Edited May 25 by raindog

[Migration]

Overnight had a bricklink buyer buy a single $0.01 piece, shipped it out earlier today. Same dude just bought 2 more of the same piece. Is there some scam I’m missing here? Dude just trying to gain reviews, PayPal history?

[raindog]

Probably just trying to get feedback to open a store.  Setting a $5-$8 minimal order will end such Tom Foolery.

 

[NIevo]

 

So a question about the LEGO/Bricklink integration coming up.  What about those of us banned from LEGO?  Will that have an effect on our Bricklink buying/selling ability?

[stackables]

Interesting question.  I never thought about that. 

 

I do not want to link my bricklink and Lego accounts at all.  I plan to see if I can set up another Lego "dummy" account and link the two. 

[Billy Brick]

10 minutes ago, stackables said:

Interesting question.  I never thought about that. 

 

I do not want to link my bricklink and Lego accounts at all.  I plan to see if I can set up another Lego "dummy" account and link the two. 

Bricklink has been pretty ruthless about merging accounts without even asking. Dont think it will be worth trying g to resist unless one truly has multiple shipping billing locations.

[NIevo]

24 minutes ago, Billy Brick said:

Bricklink has been pretty ruthless about merging accounts without even asking. Dont think it will be worth trying g to resist unless one truly has multiple shipping billing locations.

Yeah, the latest "update" is that if you don't merge your accounts by the end of the year your Bricklink account will be deleted, not just suspended but gone.

[raindog]

The move is a bullshit one for larger stores that have worked to build a name for themselves.  I have over 2000 business cards with my name on it and now they expect me to change my name?!?  To change my avatar?  LEGO would be better suited worrying about Pantasy, Lumibricks, etc instead of exerting control over sellers.

 

[iahawks550]

On 8/18/2025 at 10:26 PM, raindog said:

The move is a bullshit one for larger stores that have worked to build a name for themselves.  I have over 2000 business cards with my name on it and now they expect me to change my name?!?  To change my avatar?  LEGO would be better suited worrying about Pantasy, Lumibricks, etc instead of exerting control over sellers.

 

I get the frustration, but you could always make your own website? Whenever you are reliant on a third party, with no signed contract regarding obligations, isn't it expected you are at their mercy, from a business perspective. 

[raindog]

3 hours ago, iahawks550 said:

Whenever you are reliant on a third party, with no signed contract regarding obligations, isn't it expected you are at their mercy, from a business perspective.

Actually, it is more like having an agreement with one person, then having a second person buying the system while stating "we will not be interfering with the selling process."   But I guess, if I saw things like you stated, I would have no room to complain if my electricity bill went up 3x.  After all, the only signed contract is that I will pay my bill, not how much I'll be charged.  From a business perspective, I'm at the electric company's mercy.  I mean, after all, couldn't you just Will Prowse your home and store your own electricity?

BTW, the whole website comment above reminds me of another way this affects sellers: Many of us have purchased and kept domain names for years to point at our BrickLink site.  it's much easier to tell someone to go to mybricks.com than explain how to find your store once they find BrickLink.

@iahawks550, I'm curious.  Do you run a BrickLink store?  If so, for how long?  It would be interesting to get people's take on this vs their time as a seller.

[Thanos75]

I have a Bricklink store but I have never opened it or really done much with it. Lately I have been organizing , adding parts and getting all of the necessary ducks in a row. This is setting me back a little bit as I think it might be best for me to wait till the dust has settled .

[iahawks550]

20 hours ago, raindog said:

@iahawks550, I'm curious.  Do you run a BrickLink store?  If so, for how long?  It would be interesting to get people's take on this vs their time as a seller.

I do have a store, but it's pretty minor. I've done much more on Ebay and Amazon. 

I get your point and not trying to minimize it, but it's the same as selling anywhere else. The seller has no recourse for policy changes (buyouts and policy changes). I figure it's all part of not having the upfront costs that might occur elsewhere, had I made my own website or opened my own store.

[raindog]

@airhannyAre you here?

[airhanny]

27 minutes ago, raindog said:

@airhannyAre you here?

Yes. Thank you.

[raindog]

Starting a BrickLink store is a ton of tedious work.  But its work that I enjoy.  If you have ever worked in a parts house, like a NAPA store, it's really no different.  You won't see many customers at all until you hit at least 50,000 parts.  At 75,000-80,000, things will probably pick up even more, depending on your store. 

There are three ways to go.  If you have access to a parts distributor, you might specialize in having a ton of well-used parts, such as having at least a few hundred of most colors of 2x4 bricks or a heavy concentration of minifigs.  The second way is to try to have the widest possible selection, even if that means having only one or two of each piece.  Personally, I do the third thing which lies somewhere between the other two.  There are many parts in which I have 100s of and I try to have a wide selection of parts but it is all give and take.

There are a ton of other things to share but I will offer this: Find the space that you think that you will need.  multiply that by 10x and you MIGHT have the space that you will eventually need.  There are many YT videos to watch to get you started but, honestly, those are starting to look dated.  You might try this one to get started:

 

[baschloinka]

One thing I rarely see mentioned is accounting for dead inventory.  There are simply parts where supply vastly exceeds demand.

Need to keep that in mind when looking at PO value.  It drives up your storage space requirements the longer you run a store.  It is a notable factor in the gap between perceived value and actual value when you want to sell out the store inventory.  

Maybe this isn't as large of an effect when you hit that 80-100k size.  I've mostly been around the 10-50k size and can definitely feel it.