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My Daughter received a LEGO Friends house for Christmas. While My Daughter and I where building the Lego Friends house My son said I wish I had a house for Batman. My son

kind of messy.

Got lucky today in NJ. Open box 10188 with sealed interior boxes for $266. Someone returned it. Sent from an iPhone using the Brickpicker app

Way too many... This is pre-Ninjago invading the town to the time of about 20 sets. We also have a VW, R2, MF (7965) and IS up. No room for the star destroyer (yet) or TB. Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker

Yeah website traffic is BY FAR the biggest part of the equation. Inventory helps some, but it really doesn't matter on Ebay. So many people shop on there, and Amazon, that your stuff will sell way faster. Even competitively priced on Bricklink, EBay sells faster. You can tell because Bricklink is almost always cheaper. Fact remains, no matter what you do, the more people that see your item, the better chance someone is gonna click that button to buy it. Plus Ebay is the only place you can really make yours unique.

I find it best to just have a nominal shipping fee and NEVER worry about DSR's or feedback. If you ship promptly, professionally and your items are as described, you will be fine. Of course, this is if you're selling primarily small items. And your DSR's might get a hit or two, but honestly, the DSR hit or a neutral feedback is just as likely to happen if you charged $1.00 for shipping. Some people are just stupid. If you're selling a lot of larger items, sure, there's a difference and incentive for the Ebay statuses. Charge $2.50 - $3.00 for your shipping and go. Why not make a few extra coins to cover expenses? For larger items, either raise the price to reflect the difference(as well as Ebay fees from shipping increase) or if you're making enough already, just eat it. If you're selling for profit, them maximize it. If you worry about DSR's and feedback and a million what its, that's a "cost" of a different kind that I personally would prefer to not have to deal with. If you still want to offer free shipping for small items, then bundle them for bigger dollar amounts that can appear a better deal to the buyer. The cost to ship one minifig is the same as shipping five. Sell parts? Again, it's usually the same shipping cost to ship say, 30 pieces as it is for 5. Don't get me started on Ebay's push to offer free shipping. For selling $1 items/orders via Ebay, it's borderline ludicrous. Selling each lot of 1-5 pieces on Ebay for $4 with free shipping is wonderful for sellers but rediculous for buyers. It's wonderful when buyers buy multiple lots--very profitable for sellers, but crazy expensive for buyers. So you cannot offer it on $1 lots. Therefore, you must charge for shipping. So make it worth it, since you will NEVER have perfect DSR's across the board. So just don't worry about it for selling small things.

Prizes and Surprises: As part of the February 8 in-store event, attendees can enter a raffle to win one of two exciting prizes. One lucky winner at each Toys

I use a combo of free and added shipping, some listing just work better with free shipping, mini figs come to mind. A decent BIN with free shipping just seems to work better. When selling using an auction I almost never offer free shipping. As far as the USPS goes I've never had any problems with them, I guess I've just been lucky.

Either way the customer should always end up paying shipping charges, even if they think it really is "free". I will continue to offer free shipping while adjusting the total price by whatever the fee increase on a particular service.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to buy at a B&M Lego store for the remainder of your Lego Exclusive purchasing life. You will assume the identity of John Doe. You have no transaction history, order history, browsing history, or credit history. Essentially you are off the grid. Below the radar. Should you be caught you will be deemed an enemy of the corporate Lego world and prosecuted under grounds of plastic-brick-reselling, a hefty violation of the unwritten Lego code of Purchasing Limits. Your existence will be of no knowledge to owners, members, or onlookers of Brickpicker.com and all sites affiliated with the secondary Lego market. Should you choose to accept, your outline is as follows: The mission is straight forward: locate your nearest Lego outlet store. Drive to said location. Side note: your choice of clothing is essential to remain inconspicuous. The following attire is standard for this sort of operation: Very tight pink neon pants, bright orange T-shirt, a pair of red stilettos (please don`t ask, we don`t know either....), sunglasses, and an afro wig. Now just as a warning, the afro has been known to over attract the attention of onlookers and store employees, so stick with the previous, minus the wig. Arrive at said location. Purchase 1-2 of any desired sets per-transaction. Pay in cash, small denomination bills (optional, but $1`s and $5`s have been known to be more effective at covering your tracks). Thank the employees for all their assistance (even though you didn`t ask for help, and they were too busy helping the little girl and her dad in another section of the store, it is always best to leave on a positive not). Should you desire more then the number of sets purchased in your previous transaction, change your clothes, return to the store under a new auto name, and repeat. Lastly, enjoy the comfort of having obtained all your desired sets and having safety covered all trace of your existence. Give yourself a pat on the back! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k55NuWQCh78 End note: Or you could just buy from the clearance isle and save more money/effort

I'm guessing you tend to track and worry about your DSRs. If you charge $2 for shipping, in the long run I think you would sell more figures without including free shipping. The average buyer sees a figure for $5 and might think what else do you have, especially if you combine shipping which is probably still going to be $2, so 3 figures would cost them $17 roughly. They also see those 3 figures you're selling with free shipping, but at $7 each, they save $4 by buying them from someone else. I'm also guessing that parting out sets to you means break it down between minifigures and large portions of the set? When I wrote about parting out sets, I meant it completely, even down to breaking the figures themselves into hat/headgear, head, torso, legs, etc. Then people are more likely to buy the parts and not look at a vehicle from a set that is pretty much 60% of the set and just reason to buy the complete set instead. I might have interpreted that one differently. For parting sets out completely, adding .24 to shipping hardly affect buyers at all. They will still buy as they did previous to the rate increase. I say that because it's what happened the last time, and the time before that.

Much better! I have a newfound respect for the shuttle after seeing it next to the others, that thing is HUGE.

That is why investors pick sets that are 99% guaranteed to make them a profit. Trying to find those sets that grow 100% out of nowhere is a waste of time IMO.

I cannot bare to take a built set down. It gets built, it stays built.

What ?? Price increase? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Insert Darth Vader clip from the blue ray version of ROTJ here... Seriously, we knew this was coming since November. (we even had a thread for it). It looks like USPS price increase is an annual event now. Better be ready for 2015 as well

I don't know if anyone has looked in to it or seen the USPS commercials, but they are in a sore spot. They receive no funding from the government. All of their money comes from postage. However, they are forced to pay in to the government for long term things. My understanding is that they overpaid by many millions, but the government won't reimburse them. We sell some books on Amazon and while the USPS has increased their rates many times over the last 5 years, Amazon has NEVER increased the $3.99 shipping charge. FedEx has always been better for me on anything that won't fit in a Flat Rate box. Five day home delivery is always cheaper and quicker than Parcel Post. You can get a business account that saves even more and they supply me with those nice clear envelopes which saves time (and money) having to not tape down a shipping label.

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The best thing for Ebay sellers is for Bricklink to redo the site and make it killer. If EBay actually saw established sellers moving over, The Lego sections fees would go way down. Listing fees too. Thats why its better to sell certain things on Ebay - some fees are as low as 4% and listing is like 5 cents.

Welcome! Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker

I think you need some ninja turtles in the sewers below your modulars...

If you are talking about Collectible Minifigures than there are websites like this one: http://swapfig.com/ which is a dedicated trading platform for the Collectible Minifigure series. If you are more generally asking if there are people out there who solely collect minifigs as opposed to sets, then yes they do exist too. Personally in that regard I keep any duplicate minifigs worth over ~$50 USD, since they are handy to have for trading and usually keep gaining value over time. It is really a personal preference though, since sell a few of those and you are able to buy a nice LEGO set or two.

Welcome to the madness

Welcome to Brickpicker!!

Hi FalloutWench1979, and welcome! It's good to see another long time LEGO collector around here.

Welcome to the site. There are members here that are strictly collectors. Most have found they can further build there collection by investing in the right sets. All members here regardless if they are a collector or investor are very friendly and enjoy this forum, hope you enjoy it as well. If you have any questions about the site let us know!

Oh no, nothing to see here, move along.....My word man! Kind of messy?.....Kind of AWESOME!!!!

Yeah men let beautiful women get away with a lot. lol. I was a fairly unpopular guy with the ladies in high school... except right around test time. Never minded letting a girl copy my answers. lol.

Lego is a fairly large company with offices around the world. Inventory management is not easy as there are so many physical shops, retailers and even online shops across the globe. To add to complexity there's returns to deal with. So I don't think there's a scheming executive sitting in billund whose day job is to coordinate the retirement information to confuse and confound secondary mkt sellers.

A few 'real' behind the scenes clips are flooding in over at The Brick Fan starting with the voice acting sessions. Chris Pratt - Emmet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y84-_mc1V0 Elizabeth Banks - Wyldstyle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyQjL9n3P8w Will Arnett - Batman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbaPfj2ZAi8 Nick Offerman - MetalBeard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfNYoKOYQP0 Liam Neeson - Good/Bad Cop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ylCbJ562Ic Will Ferrell - President/Lord Business http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1maYJjfU8

I would let the buyer decide whether they want the Lego box at an increased postage cost. I did that with my recent bricklink sake consisting of 5 sets(2 used). to a buyer in France. He decided to have me fold the 10198 box inside the shipping box and forego the 10144 box. Personally, I don't see a problem listing the set as "new" as long as all baggies are sealed, included, and you have pictures of the bags and manuals spread out to see everything in 1 picture. Also put "open box with new sealed bags" in the title. I see sets like this listed as "new" all the time on eBay and bricklink. All that is keeping this set from being sealed are pieces if tape. The bricks / elements are new (never used). Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

Thank you for the black-u-weather forecast, Ollie.

The Brickfolio prices are based on US data alone. There is not enough data right now to cover UK, EU or Australian Brickfoilios. Are you based in the US?

I did for a while. now I just make sure I don't check out with some super hot model girl. Usually that isn't a problem at Walmart.

I recently met a guy at his house. We had been corresponding via texts for almost a week, but I was still nervous because I had $1200 in my car. But it was totally cool, the guy was a bigger collector than I am and we talked about toys for an hour. His wife even invited me to stay for dinner but I politely declined because my wife said I couldn't play anymore because it was dark outside.