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Walmart issued me a 20% refund. All I really had to do was send pictures.

So I called eBay for a dumb buyer issue, and brought up the new free listing policy and shared my honest feedback while I was on the call. The customer service person documented my feedback and said she would be forwarding to management. She also encouraged me to write to eBay directly, using a feedback link on their site. In addition, she also mentioned they have been getting a lot of negative feedback since yesterday, and the more people call in and write, the greater the likelihood of any modifications to the upcoming policy change, maybe a middle ground resolution. I was just stating my opinion as a matter of course. I didn't even *demand* a change and I was calm, professional, and collegial the entire time. Point is, if you care enough, you may want to consider writing to them and/or calling. Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

Lol... You are on to me... In all seriousness, I was that guy when I joined in the site. You get caught up in the frenzy and next thing you know you have a huge CC bill on your hands. Sets retire all the time and you can't buy everything , so just stick to you plan and budget as much as you can ( I know , I know it is not easy here ).

I think it is prudent that people don't get caught in a buying frenzy and end up buying every single R2, SSD, DS, Architecture, and GE set that pops up. you will be in for a huge sticker shock when those CC statements hit......just saying Carry on

If you use ALL 50 of your free listings a month...that's $15. With that many listings you should be creating some significant revenue. Are people actually thinking of changing their investing strategy for a few dollars? If so than it seems to me that your model wasn't a very good one to begin with. To put this in perspective I have sold all 9 of my Captain America Cycles on 1 free listing over the last 3 months. That's a whopping .90 against $270 in revenue that I would have to pay. Not saying I like it, but really, it is an immaterial amount. If you are a "small time" investor with 10 listings that's $3. Do we get all worked up if the price of gasoline goes up .05 per gallon? The reality is that probably affects your investing profit/loss just as much.

This sounds like a "I didn't get to buy what I wanted at the price I wanted to pay to get the figure I wanted so I'm going to hope the figure becomes worthless" post. This figure's existence in any future novels, games, movies, shows or anything else is completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter what Disney decides to do with the character. The minifigure exists and people will want it. Unless it shows up at TRU at some point, there will be a lot less of these around than many other minifigures. Even if Disney decided to pretend the KOTOR universe doesn't exist, it doesn't take this character out of the minds of people who already like the games and/or character. If anything it only increases the chances that this minifigure will never be remade again, thus making it more valuable. The minifigures of Malgus, Vader's Apprentice, etc. aren't going to become worthless just because Disney decided they don't really exist. They do exist, as LEGO minifigures.

Since I started the "Sets of 2013" thread as a way of cataloging every single set for this year, I thought to do the very same for the next one here. Anyway, here is what is currently known or rumored to be released in the year of 2014. Juniors Vehicle Suitcase - $24.99 House Suitcase - $24.99 Spider-Man: Spider-Car Pursuit - $12.99 Digger - $9.99 Construction - $14.99 Princess Play Castle - $14.99 Turtles Lair - $19.99 Fire Station - $19.99 Batman: Defend the Batcave - $29.99 Race Car Rally - $29.99 Pony Farm - $29.99 Police: The Big Escape - $29.99 Knight's Castle - $49.99 Creator Fast Car Cute Kitten Transport Plane Red Thunder - $4.99 Power Digger - $4.99 Emerald Express - $4.99 Sunset Speeder - $12.99 Highway Cruiser - $12.99 Forest Animals - $19.99 Twinblade Adventures - $17.99 Furry Creatures - $19.99 Turbo Quad - $24.99 Yellow Racers - $29.99 Roaring Power - $29.99 Mountain Hut - $39.99 Bike Shop & Cafe

You said in your previous post that if someone used all of their 50 free then they must be generating significant revenue. This is the assumption you were making. If someone uses 50 but only sells 2-3 items then that might not justify paying $16-20 a month for a store. I understand what you are saying and I agree. It's not going to change what I do. I will either pay for a store or pay for the listings. My point is that I am cheap and I hate paying for something that I was getting for free before. Life goes on. Sent from my iPad using Brickpicker

The IR remote that I ordered in early March finally arrived on Monday. Getting the IR sensor to fit in the box car required a little modification from my original design, and I'm still working on some finishing touches (roof), but overall I am happy with how it's turning out. I'll do a brief write up on the new design, but tourist season is in full swing now so it'll be a while before I will be able to get to it. Anyway I had a couple requests for video so here ya' go...

I have some silver mines and other LR sets in my portfolio. So if you spread this idea other people will do the same and buy my ranger sets. haha

"There is always another deal." One of the hardest things for me to live by when I first started. Life has become more calm once I started repeating that to myself.

ah ah More like 'New Arctic sets spell doom for the 2012 Mining theme ?'.

Now we need a threat that states that 'New Arctic sets spell doom for the Winter Village theme'? I'm kidding of course.

So I've noticed recently that LEGO has been making several changes. Some may be good, some may be bad, but they don't exactly hurt us as investors, except for maybe #3 which is could technically. But let me know if you have some more to add to the list, or is it just me that these things are happening? 1) Condensed boxes. It seems like that the most recent sets I got were almost bigger. This may be because the boxes themselves were smaller to actually fit the set better. I'm not POSITIVE, but I am pretty sure that boxes for most sets (except for battlepacks or $13 sets) have gotten smaller and are a better fit with the set you buy. A couple years ago, I remember buying a $30 Star Wars set and the box was huge! I don't remember which one, but I remember it felt smaller than I was expecting because of the size of the box. A week ago, I picked up the new General Grievous Wheel Bike for $25, but the box seemed so much smaller, and same thing for the Batman: Riddler Chase set (which I got at the same time). You can tell just buy swooshing the boxes around (sealed of course), that it's harder to hear the pieces floating around in there, because it's more condensed. 2) HIGHLY detailed figures. We all like minifigures and I think most of us appreciate authenticity, but it just might be getting out of hand. The new Luke Skywalker that comes with the Sand Crawler will have Mark Hamil's mole (beauty mark etc., someone correct me if my terminology is wrong) on his face. A MOLE! I don't really know if this is a good thing or not. I appreciate authenticity, but that seems really odd to me. And the new Darth Vader and Obi-Wan in the Summer 2014 wave will have printed on cloaks. Vader gets a cape (because he actually wears one, I guess), but all of Obi-Wan's garments are screen-printed. I DON'T like that in the LEAST. 3) Separation of Figs and Set In case you were wondering, that was supposed to be sort of a pun like "Separation of Church and State" (not to get political, but as a joke, but I went to the dentist and got nova cane, so none of this may make any sense...). Anyways, the sets are separated in numbered bags to make building simpler, which as a collector I like, and the figures are also separated in said bags. I appreciate this, as a teen who still plays with LEGO. It adds more anticipation in building the next part, rather than wanting to use the minifigs for hours and THEN build the set. But as a parter-outer, which some of you are, but I am not, it makes selling minifigs apart from sets difficult since you have to open 2, 3, or 4 bags to get 1 or 2 figures. It does help with selling the model parts though, since having a dozen bags all opened at once to build a tiny section is time consuming. 4) DC Comics (no longer DC Universe as it was in 2012-13) Overall, I appreciate this because I am a huge DC fan and comic reader. I don't read EVERY comic, but I read the biggest story arcs and know several characters (including the Martian Manhunter which has caused some stir in the investing world). Many characters have been given interesting looks that some did not expect, such as the Flash. His design is somewhat based on the New 52 (which is DC's relaunch of comic books, negating some things that happened in original comics, and starting fresh). If it wasn't, he would probably have been given the same helmet as in the LEGO Batman 2: The Videogame. Other characters with a New 52 look include: Martian Manhunter, Nightwing, Damian Wayne Robin, Batgirl, and (sort-of but not quite) SDCC Green Arrow. This is probably an effort of WB to streamline the New 52 into all aspects of DC, which now includes LEGO sets/minifigures. 5) Chinese Manufactured Parts I am not talking about the fake figures you see going for $0.03 on eBay, I am referring to LEGO approved parts that are not exactly the quality standard of normal Denmark manufactured LEGO. Some have wondered how to identify for sure if it was manufactured in China or not. Apart from just noticing look and feel differences, there's some branding you can look for. As seen in picture 1, I have compared 2 new, recently unpackaged and built, DC Super Heroes 2014 minifigures, Batman and Martian Manhunter. Manhunter is the Chinese manufactured figure. In picture 2, compare the right arms of the figures. On Batman, you can see the first thing very close to his hand is a number (not sure what the number means exactly), and then the word LEGO. On Martian Manhunter, you can see closer to his armpit (I don't know what it's called...arm pin maybe?) there is an indentation with a number. I didn't want to remove the arm in the event I might damage the torso. In picture 3, the legs of Batman feature the LEGO branding and numbers. Manhunter's legs do not. That is summary is how to identify a Chinese manufactured minifigure. So is it just me? Did you catch any of those before? Learn something new? I want to hear anything you noticed happening in recent years of LEGO history.

^ Lol the mods did not delete your thread. They merged it to "what I heard from store employee" thread

Here is where I've been asking my retirement questions. http://www.indra.com/8ball/front.html

You always make the best ebay posts. Now every time i see a listing that I know has been on ebay forever I am going to label them oldy moldies.

eBay wants to push those kind of items off the site. A large part of the new Cassini search engine is burying the listings of items that are stagnant, and further burying a seller's complete line of offerings if his/her overall listing and selling habits miss certain thresholds, including old, slow-moving inventory. eBay wants their site to be full of fresh, competitively priced offerings from sellers who aren't dumbos. I am sure you have the non-dumbo part covered and you may be competitive in price, but they don't like your oldy moldies and if they can encourage you to get rid of them by taking away the freebies, they will. (As the proud owner of a large number of oldy moldy listings myself, I do understand and sympathize with why you were relisting them -- eventually, most of them sell, but it can be a long eventually -- but that is a business model that eBay is actively discouraging through the new search engine and now through targeting specific categories that probably have a high number of oldies and/or are so saturated eBay's pleased to lose some of us from them.)

Darn Family Guy made me think of Footloose which lead to this Kenny Loggins track. Then there is this classic that Archer always goes on about. Oh yeah, and here is one I'll never forget.

Here's the Arctic Ice Breaker. Via Brickset:

Note to self.................. Steve Buscemi guy is a joker/trixter. Thanks for the DGW0 code though, got 4 free poly's out of that one

FIFA seeding is borderline joke...the way they tally points doesn't really reflect the reality on the pitch. Also the WC has become way too diluted with subpar teams solely for marketing/financial reasons. I used to enjoy the 24 team more as the group stages were more competitive . In all cases this is gonna be a fun one. Can't wait.

capturedvideo.MOV Hope this one works.

Batteries, the one thing a woman can never have too many of. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LifiFYzNE

What do you do if you charge free shipping.

Just ignore it. Other potential buyers can see that you have a pending offer and might be worried that you will accept and instead buy it for the full price. This definitely worked for me at least once. Sent from my iPad using Brickpicker

Until the bitter end.

Still in the works

From reading the verbiage included with the e-mail, and on the corresponding eBay link, it's "insertion fees," so regardless of whether an item sells or not, looks like we're going to have to pay up-front. This is such a bummer for me too. Very casual, small-time, don't need a store. So apparently we can still use the 'Buy It Now' option along with auctions, but the major problem I have with this is: Will they extend the duration of auctions, or keep it at 7 days max? (For free, that is) When I first started selling on eBay a couple years ago, I followed the eBay 'research' and was only listing auction-style. It did nothing for me. Ever since I switched, I've only been using the 50 Buy It Now listings. So something's gotta give. I guess the big takeaway for me is... RIP (almost) polybag and minifigure investments.

Unfortunately eBay won't let you do this, ask me how I know

Got same email. Needless to say I was pretty pissed.

An easy way to look at the cost of an Ebay store- if you're making $2000 in sales a month, then the 1% FVF reduction pays for the $20/month store cost. If you want to be a bit more technical, here's what I use my math skills for: .01x + .3y - 20 = ???? x is your total monthly sales. y is your monthly listings over your free 50 (up to 150, since that's what you get free with a store) If you end up with a positive number, then you should get a store. The equation is taking the money you would've saved from the FVF reduction and extra listing fees then subtracting the $20 store fee.

Sooooo.... is R2D2 10225 retiring, or just a shortage?

You can always counter offer with a price more that what you were originally asking. It works for the Old man on Pawn Stars.

I was just about to ask why everyone wanted to "canon" Darth Revan. Now I know. He looks amazing coming out of that thing.

Putting "the boy" to work with a supervisor watching over his shoulder. He's even wearing an original trilogy t-shirt. My daughter took out her hair clips and I have no idea how to put them back in so her Wookie do is in full effect. Talk about "girl power". Final build steps have officially started. Sent from an iPhone using the Brickpicker app

Sold one (1) Simpsons minifig today!

I still believe that there is a good chance the SSD will make one more appearance

I try to be polite at all costs IF I respond. Thank you for your generous offer but I will pass. No need for any explanation. No verbal fighting. If you try to haggle by suggesting you will take a little less you may leave yourself open to a lot more messages. I don't like to be ignored when I submit offers so I try to respond to most offers I receive. I low ball on occassion but it usually based on the type of seller. Does the seller only list Lego or is it someone who lists all kind of used knick-knacks and misc stuff. The typical junk dealer probably got it in an estate sale or in some other fashion and may be more apt to just get the quick flip. All you need to do is look at what they are selling. I also submit lower offers for people only selling one item at a time. Most of the time larger volume sellers will only lower prices if you buy in quantity...so sometimes I do. I have found and bought some great deals using the basis of these ideas.

Occasionally I'll joke around with them and say something along the lines of "Actually, I'm only going to be charging a fourth of the original price, you just need to pay me that five times and then you can have the item". Usually I'll ignore any low ballers, it doesn't hurt to ask, but if you honestly think someone will take half of what an item is worth when they don't absolutely need to sell it, then they're "cray cray" as my friend would say.

As stated above, this figure stands a better chance of becoming valuable than another figure the could be included in a set. I am a huge STAR WARS fan, but I don't live and breath it like some other people do. I really don't care if it exists in the Disney STAR WARS world. As Mos Eisley stated though, I am an anal LEGO STAR WARS collector, and if it is a minifigure, I want one...or 5. LOL

It's probably some stupid Brickpicker trying to get a deal. Just ignore them.

"Thank you for the offer, but this is our best price at this time."

It's gonna be Elmo

Aaaanndddddd this is why I have way way way too many sets and not enough storage space left. I buy stuff that I find just "OK" basically as an insurance policy in case A) I like it later or It rockets in value. Lost count of how many times I told my wife "worst case I'll get my money back"

I just wanted to give a big thank you to wholovesboo for finding the Disney Princess/Rapunzel polybag combo deal at Target. I managed to drive by mine and was thinking about going for the smallest set of Ariel's Treasures to combo with but found Cinderella's Dream Carriage on sale by $5 off so I choose that instead. It was little bit more but all things considered I just saved roughly $9 (before tax) between the discounted set at $24.99 and free polybag retailing for $3.99. Again, thank you so much for the tidbit, wholovesboo. Wholovesboo? Iloveboo! ....Okay this would be the part where I do the happy dance with song and everything but it really doesn't translate so well over text. :pardon:

The cartoon these are taken from or starring in (however that was supposed to go) is mind-numbingly painful to watch as though my brain found itself lodged into a void less vacuum. As for the character builds themselves go, they are rather amusing to look upon. Dare I say good for a laugh or two. Haha. Befitting these critters with their oddball attitudes is their equally unique selection of parts in varying colors which for me is a great reason to buy them all up other than their low price that makes obtaining a complete series rather affordable and reasonable. A complete series of nine costs $44.91 with each including roughly fifty pieces so you end up with about 450 parts give or take which includes plenty of the new small ball & socket joints. I see no problems with myself buying a couple extras of certain characters with particularly rare pieces in the future as a sort of random impulse buy since I feel as though I get more from these than the typical polybag honestly although I do love my minifigures. Anyway, I am looking very forward to the later series like number three.

The quality of the CMF is quite clearly less than the regular minifigures you get from regular sets. The minifigures from the CMF line as well as things like magnets are made in China while, up to this point, the minifigures that you find in regular sets have not been. It's pretty easy to tell the difference but it has been discussed on many other sites for a couple years now. The CMF minifigures feel a little cheaper, have a more milky, translucent quality to the plastic and they do not have the black strip on the neck post. Maybe this isn't as obvious to newer collectors, but I would say that anyone who has been collecting a long time can tell the difference without being told there is one.

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