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.

 

[airhanny]

Thank you for all the suggestions

6 hours ago, raindog said:

There are a ton of other things to share

I can narrow down with the way I will source my parts and my current situation.

I have opened BL store years ago but never put anything so I'm at 0 inventory and 0 feedback. 

When sourcing the parts I will only focus buying new discounted sets (from Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc) and part them out.

The only knowledge I have now when choosing sets to part out, I need to check BL part out values and make sure the values are 3x of buy outs. The problem it's really hard to find 3x value sets. I will probably focus buying sets that have good minifigs to recoup most money from the minifigs. But, once you hit 75,000-80,000, does it really matter if I buy sets with only 2x value or sets with decent minifigs? 

[raindog]

It just depends on the parts.  I'll throw you a freebie that someone else passed to me (thanks @Pseudoty😞

Set #75685, Emerald City Wall Art.  $160 at LEGO.  Part out is $422, but that includes 51 items in 6 lots that they do not have price data for yet.  Those usually sell way overpriced for a few months until more sellers get the parts and start a race-to-the-bottom.  Also, minifigs are worth about $98-$105.  The lion is another $17.

These are the types of sets that I look for.
 

Edited 3 hours ago by raindog

[legorunner]

28 minutes ago, airhanny said:

ut, once you hit 75,000-80,000, does it really matter if I buy sets with only 2x value or sets with decent minifigs? 

I don't have an inventory of this size, but the thing about 2x value is that it will take awhile to even break even unless it just happens to have a lot of really desirable parts. It might take months to years to sell 50-75% of the parts from a particular set. I'm not saying its a bad idea - maybe the minifigures sell for break even right off the bat, but just something to consider. 

A couple of other points regarding opening a store: 1) there are a LOT of BL stores. why should anyone shop at yours? Obviously you'll get hits from people auto cart generating off of wish lists, but beyond that, you need to find what works for you to get customers to your shop. In my example above, it won't do you any good if the minifigures from a set allow you to break even but for whatever reason no one is coming to your store to buy them. 

2) Time!!!! Parting out and pulling orders takes a lot of time. The more organized you can be the less time it takes, but more organization generally means more investment in space and storage. My advice is to make sure that this is something you really enjoy. 

[Randyipp]

1 minute ago, legorunner said:

2) Time!!!! Parting out and pulling orders takes a lot of time. My advice is to make sure that this is something you really enjoy. 

This can not be overstated.

After selling New part out sets for 10+ years, with a very organized system of drawers and comments with nearly 400k parts, burn out has set in. Been closed for ~3 weeks and have had the chance to spend a lot more time with my kids and that has been amazing.

[raindog]

I'm coming up on 15 years.  About once every 3-5 years I say that I am done and start coasting and selling down stock.  I usually am over it in a few months.  Second to the last time that I went dark, I missed the Cloud City set  .  Now, at 65 years old, I have to think about my adult daughter having to clean up my mess if I die so I really need to think seriously about my end game.  But the game has been good to me.......
 

[airhanny]

1 hour ago, raindog said:

It just depends on the parts.  I'll throw you a freebie that someone else passed to me (thanks @Pseudoty😞

Set #75685, Emerald City Wall Art.  $160 at LEGO.  Part out is $422, but that includes 51 items in 6 lots that they do not have price data for yet.  Those usually sell way overpriced for a few months until more sellers get the parts and start a race-to-the-bottom.  Also, minifigs are worth about $98-$105.  The lion is another $17.

These are the types of sets that I look for.
 

I saw this freebie from @Pseudoty and thank you. 

However, I don't want to play a game that quickly buying current hyped/excellent part out value sets and then race-to-the bottom. If this is the only game to survive running BL then probably i will not want to do it. I do not mind to have this kind of game once in a while (it's part of the fun and making money while it lasts). I'm looking something more sustainable, slow and steady for long run.

Like selling sets, I do not like to flip, most of the time I wait 2-3 years before selling. Besides selling sets part-time, I have full time office job but fully remote. With this remote job I often feel bored, and want to add BL for fun and make a little bit of money long run.

I have some sets that I bought years ago and kind of stalled, for example 75940, 43181 (I bought them with 40% discount of msrp). Would I be able to part out these kind of sets, and off course keep adding good part out value sets, and finally make some sales once I have enough inventories?