Short story that leads to my question for Ed or Jeff. When I first started this LEGO investing thing some of my purchases were not very investment based, therefore I have some sets that might be past their investment prime or never really had an investment prime really, just a few examples are The gungan sub from 1999 and the Jedi starfighter with hyper boost ring from 2007 (that might have a gold C3PO inside). My question is is it kosher to advertise items I want to sell on this forum? I really just don't like selling stuff on eBay, it eats up profit. Ed what is your rule on this?

Short story that leads to my question for Ed or Jeff. When I first started this LEGO investing thing some of my purchases were not very investment based, therefore I have some sets that might be past their investment prime or never really had an investment prime really, just a few examples are The gungan sub from 1999 and the Jedi starfighter with hyper boost ring from 2007 (that might have a gold C3PO inside). My question is is it kosher to advertise items I want to sell on this forum? I really just don't like selling stuff on eBay, it eats up profit. Ed what is your rule on this?

I'll have to check with Jeff, but selling is prohibited by EBAY I believe. We cannot and do not want to mess with EBAY and their rules. Swapping sets with others is allowed and we were discussing this weeks ago. We have a good idea, so stay tuned...

Sounds good Ed thanks for answering.....I know you are in somewhat of heated debate on another thread lol!!!

Sounds good Ed thanks for answering.....I know you are in somewhat of heated debate on another thread lol!!!

Well, I enjoy a good debate every once in awhile. It brings back good memories from the Battlefield forums on the XBOX 360 site. That forum was a blast. My XBOX gamertag is xTKAx Pvt PUTZZZ for anyone who plays Battlefield.

My XBOX gamertag is xTKAx Pvt PUTZZZ for anyone who plays Battlefield.

Wow, that gamertag is....quite a mouthful.

If you can pronounce it. Heh.

I'll have to check with Jeff, but selling is prohibited by EBAY I believe. We cannot and do not want to mess with EBAY and their rules. Swapping sets with others is allowed and we were discussing this weeks ago. We have a good idea, so stay tuned...

I don't quite understand. Is there some contract with ebay that says you cannot sell things on your website?

I'd be willing to bet that there is a lot of "fine print" when entering into a deal like the one Ed and Jeff have with EBay. Makes sense that we shouldn't be allowed to sell our sets on here, who would click on the eBay links or buy any sets there for that matter if we could just deal amongst ourselves in this friendly environment they have created? Not many I would think. While it is none of our business (as stated previously by a member), the partnership Ed and Jeff have with eBay plays an integral role in the function of this website.

Makes sense that we shouldn't be allowed to sell our sets on here, who would click on the eBay links or buy any sets there for that matter if we could just deal amongst ourselves in this friendly environment they have created?

That sounds logical.

I'll have to check with Jeff, but selling is prohibited by EBAY I believe. We cannot and do not want to mess with EBAY and their rules. Swapping sets with others is allowed and we were discussing this weeks ago. We have a good idea, so stay tuned... The potential to 'swop' sets would certainly be something to explore. I for one would be happy to try and trade a few investment sets for the one's I need/want/desire in my collection. But would a couple of 10210's and a Taj Mahal get someone to consider offering up a 10179 for example? Mmmmmm....! As long as it is a true swop and doesn't include any cash payments to make up differences between the sets, then I reckon a swop area might work out. I'd really be interested to know what idea Ed and Jeff may have.

I'll have to check with Jeff, but selling is prohibited by EBAY I believe. We cannot and do not want to mess with EBAY and their rules. Swapping sets with others is allowed and we were discussing this weeks ago. We have a good idea, so stay tuned... The potential to 'swop' sets would certainly be something to explore. I for one would be happy to try and trade a few investment sets for the one's I need/want/desire in my collection. But would a couple of 10210's and a Taj Mahal get someone to consider offering up a 10179 for example? Mmmmmm....! As long as it is a true swop and doesn't include any cash payments to make up differences between the sets, then I reckon a swop area might work out. I'd really be interested to know what idea Ed and Jeff may have. Welcome back to the site. It was actually your idea that got Jeff and I talking. Money issues are a sticky issue because of our agreement with EBAY. That being said, we have some pretty cool ideas on how to make it work. I don't want to give to much away at this time, but we are constantly trying to figure out ways to make LEGO fans happy.

I don't quite understand. Is there some contract with ebay that says you cannot sell things on your website?We buy our LEGO sales data from the EBAY Terapeak program. It is quite expensive and they make you agree to certain stipulations as a EBAY Partnership member...one is not to compete with EBAY by selling items that we are buying data about. We cannot sell items on our site, but we can refer members to other sites that sell LEGO sets. It's really a win-win-win for everyone. We get data and affiliate fees from EBAY to pay for data and we drive specific traffic their way. Also, the other retailers like LEGO, Walmart, Amazon, Target, etc.. benefit from us driving traffic their way and we get an affiliate fee. It is rather difficult to make it all work, but Jeff does a great job.

Anyway you slice it, we promote LEGO sets better most other sites out there. LEGO should give us a set or two for our efforts...LOL

The contract is pretty significant and there are a few factors in different areas involved here. The overall gist of the issue is that Ed and I really can't become a LEGO distributor and have a link on our site that says Store/Shop and list LEGO sets that we are pocketing profit from and being a direct competitor of them. They actually don't even really care for the Amazon links or LEGO shop links. But the bottom line is, we are not selling them ourselves so we are still allowed to do that. Like Ed mentioned in a reply above, we have some good ideas that are allowed and will help a lot of people out in many different ways.

I look forward to seeing some of those ideas rolled out. You guys have done and are doing a marvelous job with the site.

Anyway you slice it, we promote LEGO sets better most other sites out there. LEGO should give us a set or two for our efforts...LOL

Damn right!