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Let me be the politically incorrect one...You are a clown. The topic was brought up to see how members felt about paying for advertising their listings to weed out spammers and fraudulent listings. I'm sorry that a person of your knowledge of websites and their costs of operation was incapable of posting a few simple courteous responses. Let me educate you on how much money the site costs to operate and the time involved running it. Your non-US data costs us over $20,000 annually to obtain. We asked for nothing from members. The data is not yet up to par to the US data beause the US data has been in our system for a full two years more than the non-US data. It takes time to get enough listings to get accurate prices, but I guess you knew this...becuase you are a internet guru. Besides that one cost, there are thousands of other dollars that are spent monthly to maintain the site. Also, the time Jeff and I spend on the site probably doubles whatever hours you put in working at your job...if you even have one. Whatever other sites you inhabit, I suggest you go there. I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with fools like you. This is one of the top 5 busiest LEGO sites on the internet and asking about advertising on it is a valid question. Jeff and I might not charge anything for posting items or we might charge hundreds, that is what we are trying to determine. But it will be without you, this I can assure you. Have a nice life.

Guys, some if you are spot on and some of you need to see the bigger picture. BC is exactly what it's name suggests, an online classifieds section for LEGO. The fact of the matter is, classifieds are places to find deals, not market prices. Normal newspaper classified ads are generally always bargains. It's like a year-round garage sale. When used correctly, the Brick Classifieds will be a great place for us to sell sets directly to collectors and to each other. Also, this whole price issue is bullsh*t. Newspaper classifieds are not even free. And if you aren't willing to pay some money to have more exposure and be able to sell more sets to different demographics than that is just dumb. Frankly, I'd be willing to pay $100 a year for a service like this, because I know, in the long run, it will be cheaper and I will be able to make MORE money than by selling on eBay or Amazon. And if you can sell somewhere else, on other "forums", for free, THEN GOOD FOR YOU! You obviously are already doing fine and able to make enough money doing what you are doing. Nobody is making you use the Brick Classifieds, and frankly if anybody is complaining about a fee, they are quite simply bluffing. Greed is obvious. I'm super excited about this feature!! Like others have said though, I would like to see a very indepth feedback service to go along with it.

So Ed and I spend time together on the weekends and obviously a lot of talk is about the website. This is always a good thing and always very productive. As time goes by on the site and certain things come up, ideas change, new questions come up and we discuss what we should do about it. Keep a steady course or change direction and build a new plan of action. Many people here have been waiting to see what Brick Classifieds is and what it has become. That is all great, but one thing Ed and I have started to talk about is what do you expect out of it and honestly, what do we expect out of it. This is what I am talking about. A brand new site has come out recently, BrickOwl. It is put together very nicely, has a nice feature set, has been talked about many times here and has lower rates than both eBay and Bricklink, but yet, I sure don't know of many people from here or anywhere that have been buying or selling from there. Sure there are some stores there, but I am wondering and concerned as to why more of you have not been trying it out. What do you have to lose? I thought it would have been overloaded by now. Is everyone waiting for Bricklink 2.0? We offered the ability to advertise here on this site and I have yet to really get anyone to do it? If there are so many serious Lego dealers, why wouldn't people want to advertise their store to get people to try and buy their stuff. Everyone that visits this site is not a seller. We have quite a large number of visitors that come here looking for deals, so why would you not want to invest in your business to get more eyes on your products and make transactions so that you can buy other inventory? This really doesn't bother me, but I have just been shocked that no one really want to advertise their eBay business, etc. Like I said earlier, we kick a bunch of ideas around. Here is something we would like to know. Would you be open to paying a yearly fee to list as many items as you want and have no commission at all. That way, there is no need for any type of billing, transactions, nothing. You list the sets, sell you sets, and deal with your customers. In the end, if you are a casual or serious seller, you would be able to save a boatload in fees/commissions. Why would this be good? Well for one, it will help to site continue to grow. It would be reinvested back into the site to pay for the data, purchase more locations in the future, more contests, advertising and possibly help build a kick butt mobile app. It would also be positive to make people want to make sure they get their pennies worth and list sets to make their investment worth while. All these sites that don't charge anything and have free listings are nice, but many people bail, leave their listings, post crazy prices, etc. Could help with buyers knowing that the sellers have to be paying members in order to have listings. I am sure Ed will post more of his thoughts later, but we want to know where all of you are at. Launching something like this is no small feat. Everyone has been patient and we appreciate that.

I know if I see a BC listing from Barca or Akohns, I'm gonna get what I pay for. And they know that if I buy their stuff from BC, they just saved 7-8% commission fees. The forums are growing too quick for me to keep up these days, but there are still plenty of familiar faces around. Any time I can buy from or sell to a person with known character is worth whatever sacrifice I made in moving away from mass sites like ebay. A couple days of conversation is worth loads more than a feedback score. That alone makes BC enticing. Frankly I don't care about the format, tools, or fees. To me, a bit of trust is worth more.

A big benefit to buying/selling/trading here would be the confidence given by real members who've established themselves and can be transparent about their intentions versus the anonimity of eBay. As prices go up, it would be nice to be able to trade a few sets with other members to stock our inventory with something we are missing or want more of versus using cash. This could be a huge benefit and fill a business need that I don't think exists yet.

As Jeff has pointed out, we are at the point of where we have to decide what path...if any, the Classifieds will take when dealing with price and commission structure. Jeff has most of the framework finished to make the Classifieds active. The problem is, as I can see by the earlier responses, there are many different expectations. Let's go over some main points from my perspective: First point I want to make is that the site is much more active than you think. We monitor the site activity and members very closely and pay a large fee monthly to know exactly what every member does on the site at any given second. The amount of people who post about investing is extremely small in comparison to the people who actively use the site for information on sets, prices and deals. We see what pages people read most and it's not always about investing. Many of you are underestimating the amount of non-investors on this site. There are ways to promote the "selling" aspect of LEGO sets that would help draw new people into the mix, but until we actually do sell sets, we cannot make this happen. To many of you who feel they need to sell their sets to uninformed to make money, I cannot help you beyond letting you post your eBay and Amazon listings for free and extra exposure. With all due respect, this site is not about fleecing people to make a profit, it is about charging fair prices and to help everyone make money and enjoy the hobby. Our basic philosophy for the Classifieds is to give you fair prices to list your sets so you can pass the savings onto others. If you use our savings to pad your wallet, instead of trying to pass some savings onto buyers, then your item might not sell as quickly as one would hope. I am not knocking those sellers who look to take advantage of the less informed. Buyers have the ability to research prices and should make better choices, but if they want to pay huge markups, all the power to you. My point is, our Classifieds might not work for some beyond the extra eBay advertising. Jeff and I don't want this to become a huge pain in our @$$. Excuse my French, but the prices that we are discussing to list items on one of the most active LEGO sites in existence is very small...maybe too small to make this worth our effort to be quite honest. Giving such exposure for so little money can open up a litany of issues...mainly having members spamming the site with fraudulent listings and expecting eBay type service for free. This will not happen. We cannot or will not guarantee any transaction. The Brick Classifieds will be about "listing" items in a newspaper type format with the same sort of principals. Newspapers do not guarantee any listings or items, they just advertise them. If you can see and agree to this sort of philosophy, then the Classifieds will work for you. If you are looking for guarantees, then we cannot help you. How can we be assured only serious people listing items on the site? Charging the upfront fee is one way. As I stated earlier, there are many different expectations and we cannot meet them all. It might just work out that a simplified version of the Classifieds is released. I don't know how to make it work for everyone. Jeff and I love working on the site and giving members more and better features, but we have to examine if our efforts in developing an elaborate LEGO sales feature will be worth it financially to us. When all is said and done, we are not here for kicks, but to make money from the site. The Classifieds could help us make money or become a burden. We are hoping to figure that out with this thread and to develop a commission structure that will benefit buyers, sellers and us at the same time, while preventing fraud and poor transactions. Thanks for your time.

Let me put a simple example together about ways in which I think this can be beneficial to the buyer and seller. We get a lot of traffic to the price guide pages. Especially the more popular sets. So lets take the Imperial Shuttle for example. When i do a redesign on that page for the Classifieds, members and non members will see the Classifieds listings along with the eBay listings. So say the set goes on eBay for $450, then you subtract your $45 in fees. You just sold the set for $405. If you list it on here for say $415, even $425, you can attract that buyer and still make more money than at eBay. Yes, I understand that eBay gets more traffic, they are in the top 10 of all sites in the world. But people to look at our guide pages quite regularly, so there is a good chance when people are doing comparison shopping, they would bite on a site that is dedicated to the buying and selling of Lego. Edit....Wow Fcbarcelona101 and I are having the same thought process right now...

So why are you even wasting your time or our time with your posts. You already knew before even reading this that you had no interesting in posting here. So go post on eBay. You obviously have your own interests somewhere else, so take your cost-benefit analysis and go there. Wow, where is that thumbs down button when you need it.

I would like to see this take off. What I'm looking for in the next couple years is to list some pirates sets and Harry potter sets for under the brick picker price point, selling to other members here. I want to be able to make a good return and I'm not looking for top market value. In exchange for a lower than eBay price I'm hoping to sell to a fellow collector or investor quickly and hassle free without spending much time trying to use eBay and dealing with idiots scamming. I'm ok with selling a couple queen Ann's revenge for 200 now if I could be pretty much sure it would go smooth

It will take a lot of help from the regular members here. I will definitely list all I have here. It will take time, but no successful site was built on one day

The price is pretty high, but you have to figure in a few factors other than just price per piece: 3 custom minifigs. They are custom painted and look great. The Chem enthusiast was priced at $20 individually, so you could say $60 worth of minifigs. Sure that may seem high for a minifig, but is in line if not better than many custom minifigures of this quality from other vendors Printed pieces. There looks to be quite a few custom printed pieces included in the set. That probably isn't cheep to do when factoring in design right through to the actual print cost. Design time. This probably took quite a while to research and design. I know from experience that takes a while. I'm not very creative and I'm sure a decent designer could do it fairly fast, but that is still some good looking design that would have taken quite a bit of work Packaging and instructions. no doubt there is custom packaging and a set of build instructions that would cost a bit per set given the probable low production numbers Then there is their margin on top, which I'm sure is decent. But they have a website and business to run with plenty of taxes and overheads etc. It probably is higher than it could be, but good on them for making a run at profiting off the current BrBa hype while it's hot.

Because Jeff asked the question and I don't think that anyone in his position benefits from an echo chamber of thumb's up posters who praise every idea he has. If you don't like what I have to say, don't read my posts.

This would also rely on sellers pricing their items taking into consideration there are no 10% fees involved. That should mean we can sell at lower prices here and get the same amount of profit, giving us an advantage over other sites.

He also has a vested financial interest in creating the impression that there are a lot of buyers here. I'm not saying he's making up,what he's saying, but, unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure how the owners of this site would have any special insight on the willingness of the lurkers to begin buying sets on this site through a marketplace that doesn't yet exist. They are certainly privy to more information than I am, but I have not yet heard anything to suggest that there is a huge demand from people wanting to buy on this site. If you're talking business to business, I could see that much easier than a consumer marketplace, but, again, I still don't see this site as filling an unmet need in the marketplace. I already sell a lot of sets in bulk to resellers through Bricklink and think that there are plenty of others who do as well. Unless I thought that there was a group of customers who would come here to buy, but who wouldn't go to bricklink or eBay or amazon to buy, I don't see a huge reason to expand and begin trying to sell here. If you think it's worth it to give it a go here, by all means do so. For me, it's a straight cost-benefit analysis...the fees may be really low, but the time that it would take to manage listings and complete transactions would kill it for me.

First off, I would just like to applaud Jeff for posting this topic and discussing it openly with the members. That alone shows that both Ed and Jeff and quite serious about trying to figure out what the members want and what helps out the site. Sure, everybody wants what is best for their interest and they want things to be free, but free I don't think helps out developement of the site. From what I read, they would put funds received back into the site which in return would mostly likely lure more customers and more eyes on your listings. To me, paying a fee to have feeless transacations the rest of the year is a winner. Not going into each listing thinking, "Ok if I sell this set for $250, I need to take of $25, etc,etc" The potential savings could be vast for some of you. Someone here posted that they sell $20k? Sure, I know the traffic isn't ebay, but then again, how many sites are. You have to take what you can get. Some of you sound like a broken record. If you think all you will be doing is selling to the same people over an over, that is pretty narrow minded. If the funds are there, they can open up Adwords accounts and pay enough to have #1 placement on google for selling sets. Go on other family sites to let moms and dads know that there is a new place to buy and sell LEGO. I am sure there are many others as well. But it takes money to do all this. If they are trying to pass on an opportunity for the possibility of massive savings over time, then why should they take the hit in the pocket as well. I know this is just a discussion for them to get feedback, but open your minds to the possibilities.

I guess you don't read my posts either

Regarding Brick Owl, the problem might be that it really is no more than a prettier Bricklink - and Heaven knows Bricklink needs prettying up, but pretty isn't enough to make people jump from old to new. But I think of Bricklink as more a parts site than a set site. I'd think the classifieds here would be more for complete in box or complete out of box sets, with outliers like me listing some customs, etc. as well. I'd also think that it would make an excellent trading venue, and that's something nobody else really offers. If I find myself with 200 small whatevers and am looking to trade them 10 to 1 for 20 larger whatevers, I might just be able to make that deal with one or more other users here who'd like to get out of their large sets a bit and diversify to quicker moving smalls for a season, etc. The sellers here who find the really fantastic deals on sets could find themselves able to flip them quickly and in bulk to sellers who can't find those deals local to them, too. If I'm stocking up on Joe Schmoe's Amazing Riding Lawnmower sets and the best I can find locally is retail, but some guy in Outer Nowhere has a toy shop close down and he finds himself with 50 of them at 75% off and wants to make a quick buck, what quicker way to a positive cash flow than to list them for 30% off here to a pack of hungry investors?

Check out this neat custom set. It comes with a little more than 500 parts and three minifigures; all with printing. Only $250! Site link. Hmm, now I just need to page good buddy, Grolim....

Its funny, I was just looking the other day how to make the "Friends" feature of these forums useful. I was checking to see how I can add a "Check Brickpicker Friends" filter so you can look and search their listings. Will make it easier.

For you, sure, but it will cost you 1 million Brickpoints for each minifgure your post Yes there will be a custom category for people to put, well honestly whatever the heck they want as long as its LEGO related.

I was gonna say Sarah Jessica Parker.

Dude, that's Snake from the Space Police III theme. I should know cause I had to buy all those sets up! The link will bring up the BrickLink page stating he was available in three sets. He also was in an exclusive polybag without a visor for some reason.

Thanks for posting the mock-up -- I had a much more boring vision in my head, I like the current reality much better. One of the things that has made me successful as a seller over the years is being ready to jump on low-risk "try and see" options as they come up. This is definitely a low-risk try-and-see option that I can't imagine any sensible reason to pass up (at the VERY least the free eBay and Amazon pointer ads, etc.) It does get a bit wearying to have people claim anyone with a little enthusiasm or a positive attitude is a filthy boot-licker just looking to curry favor with the Mack Brothers because... er... well, I'm sure those folks think there's some reason. Maybe if I post 3 more agreement posts y'all will send me a set of steak knives?

Anyone notice these roughly mirror the Simpsons intro? Bart's Skate Trick - Starts at the end of school bell Homer at the Control Panel - Finishing work when nuclear material falls on Homer's shirt Lisa's Sax Performance - Band practice where Lisa improvises out the door Springfield Shops - Where Bart weaves his way in and out of foot traffic Simpson's House - They all arrive home at the same time While this is probably just a coincidence, I found it interesting that even the order matched the order they occur in the title sequence. Anyone see any other gunmen on the grassy knoll?

I will be quite honest with you guys. If you use the service when its up and running then great. I hope you do. If you don't use it fully, then maybe you will use parts of it. It will be different than the other sites. This here was a simple conversation to gauge interest and talk about some options. I can't believe that Ed and I owe people all out business plans, traffic statistics and I guess our last two years of tax documents. We have gotten the site to this point in a short time, I guess we still need to prove ourselves more. Yes I would hope that the people that use this site would care enough to share that their listings are here. That is the fastest way to let people know. We are trying to put money in your pockets. I think you would realize that once it is live, that I would do some of my own advertising to announce it.

Are you saying that only a microscopic number of people know that Bricklink has a priceguide based on their values. I am quite sure after all this time that there are quite a number of people that know of the price guide on that site as well as the price guide on this site, but yet people still buy from Bricklink. Is Bricklink not a Lego site that people know has had a marketplace for all these years. Is every buyer out there an idiot that does not know how to search for a good deal or what a good price is? Are there really that many people that are just stupid and go for the highest prices first? Somehow it's ok that Bricklink can have a catalog, price guide and sell sets after all these years, but its not ok for this site? Maybe you and I don't read the articles the same way, but this site isn't all just about getting the lowest price. It also talks about sets/themes in general. Buyers will buy what they want from wherever they can get it at a price that suits their budget.

From the first post: "(...) pay for the data, purchase more locations in the future, more contests, advertising and possibly help build a kick butt mobile app"

I get that you don't agree with him, but not sure why you are bringing so much emotion into your posts. Seems to me like he's just trying to make a logical evaluation of how he sees the site coming to be, and he's providing honest feedback, which I think is what Jeff wanted from all of us here.

Yes, the savings in fees would be a big attraction, and the reason why I have been looking forward to this. But are there enough of these non-investors to adequately purchase items at a rate fast enough for someone like you (I don't actually know your volume rate of sales, obviously) to continue to list here and move items at a rate that would encourage you to keep selling here as opposed to ebay? If passing the savings off to the consumer by lowering the listing rate to undercut ebay due to the saving of fees, is it worth it if it takes longer to sell, for example? Not trying to be facetious, just trying to consider all aspects.

Ok, I should've explained this better. What I mean't was that we don't know if the non-investor userbase here is willing to pay prices comparable to ebay going rates. And I know you didn't explicitly say that, it is something I've hypothesized based on the concept that was mentioned that there is a userbase of members on here who don't regularly post yet are willing to use the classifieds. Will they pay a price for items comparable to ebay median values is the question I'm exploring.

I like the idea that was brought up about tiered levels of Classifieds membership. You will be able to attract the small and big fish. Having a set fee of, say, $50-100 may be too much for a beginner investor, but pocket change to somone that is selling $10k + each year. This may also add a lot more work for you, though, as opposed to a set fee across the board. Whatever is decided, I will be sure to have listings there because I know that there will always be guys/gals here looking for that elusive new/used set that they didn't want to spend top dollar on ebay for, but a cheaper listing here will save everybody a few bucks. And to those that think people here won't spend top dollar, I think you are dead wrong. Everybody misses on a set they want for a collection, and even us investors will be willing to spend a little extra on something we want. I know I've spent big money on sets after they went EOL because I wanted them in the collection.

I've been looking forward to Brick Classifieds. I've held off on looking at BrickOwl because I thought Classifieds was on it's way, probably others here are the same. I think a tiered annual fee for a fixed amount of listings would be a good start point. Making it open and unlimited could see sections spammed with hundreds of overpriced listings. Classifieds would be another avenue to market. That can't be a bad thing. Especially as transaction costs would be lower than the other big markets. If we truly see this "Lego game" as a real investment market then we as investors should be willing to buy off each other at Market Prices.

Good that you bring this up, and I would be open to paying that yearly fee for as many listings as you think fair. It reduces transactions and time for everyone. This is not strictly about the Classifieds, but something I had been meaning to bring up regarding the ads. Personally, it just not make sense for me to advertise right now just because I am a very small time seller with a small inventory, and I feel this is geared up more to the high volume kind of guys. One thing I think you should consider is offer some kind of free trial of whatever length you consider appropriate. This way you will show those who sign up how much their sales or traffic increases by advertising on the site, making it more likely for them to pay for the service in the future.

Some might say the same thing about Back to the Future. I am looking forward to seeing the minifigures. I feel like they will be the main selling point behind these sets. The builds themselves sound neutral to me. Good call on the sets following the suit of the intro.

I have 3 of their U.S. Army Ranger and 2 of their U.S. Marines. They are $20 each and even though I got them all for free at WWB, I still would buy them at that price. The pad-printing on them is amazing and very high quality. Citizen Brick makes top-of-the-line custom LEGO minifigures in my opinion. WW2 U.S. Army Ranger I really like the printed brown strap on the helmet. The strap is historically accurate. Here is a picture of some U.S. Army Rangers from the 2nd Ranger Battalion during WW2. The back of the minifigure. WW2 U.S. Marine This helmet is printed in a nice camouflage. Here is a picture of the helmet. Here is a group of U.S. Marine reenactors. The figure in comparison looks spot-on! Lastly, here is the back of the minifigure.

Exo, I will be the first to admit that I don't get all your posts. I do think i know where you are coming from on many of them. On this post however, I think you have nailed it. Seriously, much better than anything that I have tried to say. Kudos to you for this one for sure!! I don't care if others flame me, but yes, I think this is what Brick Classifieds is all about.

Just called the store, no crawlers in the shipment today. Possibly the first time ever someone has been happy to hear a set is not available lol.

This is the other side of the coin that I think has a lot of potential for sellers. Everyone wants to maximize their returns, but if you can list a set for slightly less than the market value per BP and sell it quickly with no fees, I see that as being a net positive. Tack on a relatively inexpensive yearly fee, and I really think there's some serious potential for this. This site's price guide is so much better (and clearer) than any of the major Lego online retail outlets like eBay and Bricklink. What other site could you include in your listing "below market value" and provide a link to a web page that clearly shows your listing price to be less than an average market value? As an example: Sample listing: "For Sale - 10189 Taj Mahal below retail - $1,500 OBO. Check current retail pricing here." What buyer looking for a Taj Mahal wouldn't strongly consider your listing rather than waiting for the right listing to come by on eBay? I think it's important to understand the opportunity the information may provide sellers on this site, and the ways sellers can use it to motivate buyers. If Brick Classifieds took off, it could easily become the best place for buyers to purchase retired sets confidently as there is no other venue that aggregates sales prices and displays them in clear, effective manner. As an aside, I would definitely list all of my sets on Brick Classifieds, and not just because I'm an unapologetic homer (which I am). I just think it has a great chance to see reach thousands of motivated Lego buyers ready to buy. With a little ingenuity, you can easily turn Brickpicker's data into a marketing tool.

First, noone demanded Ed and Jeff to create this site and offer it for ''free'' (only consuming our time etc)... Noone ever demanded ANYTHING as far as I saw (and i read most of the forums!) We are all writing our ideas and thoughts out here nothing else.... As i said the biggest problem with this site selling system (whatever it will be) is the fact it actually educates our buyers and as such contradicts the profit type of selling... (unless you are one of those lucky 40%+ discount finders) It is against common logic of capitalism (kinda) to educate buyers about price (data comparison) and then trying to ''undercut'' other similar sites (Ebay) with different fee system. To me that holds little logic. So prediction for the opening and a few months down the road is that here we will mostly see collections and old vintage LEGO being sold (50%+) and very little MISB stuff. But thats only my thoughts...

The classifieds sound interesting. I like the comparison pricing example between the savings of brickpicker and ebay. I'm looking forward to seeing the prototype.

I find it quite amazing that people want data, and service for free. Based off Fcbarcelona101's example fo a $50 a year fee, (just an example!!!), and you sold your Techinic 41999 set for $500 on ebay, that would be the same fee to ebay which none of you seem to have a problem with. But then here, you can go the rest of year and have ZERO, yes ZERO fees, so the rest goes in your pocket. Plus then the owners can then use that money to invest into the site like they have many times already. SuperLegoTroll, you are a class act. I am going to write eBay later and say, please stop charging fees, SuperLegoTroll says he shouldn't have to and doesn't need to on his other forum sites. I am sure they will cave in, same with Bricklink. These guys, like many others are trying to run businesses, they were just asking for feedback.

Well in all honesty, your posts this morning don't come across too well. Basically you just crushed and beat up on everything done here, but now say you like this site. It seems people are very good at criticizing, but not very good at offering any help or suggestion. At any time you can PM me, talk to me about what you are seeing wrong on the pricing. We do have have links on the price guide page to click if numbers don't look right, just fire off an email. We have also stated on numerous occasions that as each month goes by and we have more data to fill these new regions, the data will become more solid. Each time we are able to filter out bad listings and fill it with good ones. We have explained that this process also happened with the US data back in the beginning. Each ebay listing we get to work with doesn't not come with this perfect data that lays everything out ideally. June and July will be released shortly and hopefully that makes it better. I am sorry it is not up to your standards yet, but our goal is to improve it as time goes by.

Man, every time I see this thread title I think it it's about selling Lego into China

I am gonna call tomorrow to try to get the 15% off sale on some other stuff, so I will ask and see if they have any info.

Sure, I see your point. I'm a Rikki Tikki Tavi kinda girl - run and find out! (And, with minor exceptions I'll probably limit my selling here at first to either the very scarce - I'm looking at you, 1999 McDonald's Set - or the items I have in multi quantities so they can safely be listed here AND there and everywhere, and may the best site win.

I never said that you shouldn't try to build the product. When I first became aware of this site, it seemed pretty clear to me that you would try to build a user base first and then try to add some type of marketplace to monetize your traffic. Nothing wrong with that...I was just saying that, as a seller who has been at this for a number of years, there is nothing about this site or the ideas being discussed that would lead me to sell here because you are talking about starting a new marketplace for a product that already has multiple marketplaces that are are mature and well utilized. Unless you are bringing something new to the table that the other outlets aren't, then my view is that you're, at best, creating a niche marketplace that will be used by small numbers of consumers. Could I list products her and possibly close a few sales, probably. However, if I could sell those same sets elsewhere on platforms that I'm already using, what's the point? I have to disagree with you on Bricklink. They offer users something very special...they were the first game in town as a dedicated lego marketplace and have a large base of buyers and sellers as a result. There is a lot I don't like about bricklink, but I have not found anywhere else where I can consistently, year after year, close as many large transactions as I can through bricklink. Last year, I had five deals that were $3k or greater. In the past two days, I've had two deals that were over $400. I'm sure that non-resellers come here as well, but that doesn't mean that they re willing to buy things when they come here. Prove me wrong and I will be happy to sell here, but, right now, I just don't see a reason to.

Personally, I wouldn't pay to list or advertise sets on this site because of the audience it attracts. When I sell sets, I don't want customers who are like me and are buying Lego to resell because they aren't willing to pay the prices that I need to sell at,to make the profit I want to make. For me to sell or advertise here, it would have to attract true consumers who are looking to buy sets for personal use and don't care about the price. Right now, I just don't see what this site has to offer in terms of a viable marketplace that would make me want to add another sales channel to those that I already use.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-City-4203-Excavator-Transport/dp/B007456TMW%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJQSYTIGRBKVM26KQ%26tag%3Dbrickpicker-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB007456TMW I grabbed 5 of these..only 19 left. These seem to be selling for 40+ on ebay for some reason. Warm deal...but it is unique..and there are a lot of mines out there.....that may want this for their display.

Just a thought: How about a tiered annual fee? 12 listings/year for one rate, 25 listings/year next rate, 100 listings/year next rate, unlimited (up to 1 per day) listings at top rate? That would give the big AND little guys an attractive option and keep your bookkeeping almost as simple.

Tought to say, kinda just depends on the popularity of that particular fig, and whether or not it gets re-released as part of another set. Jor-El is available for an entire month, but the Hoth Han Solo that was only available for two days isn't even reaching 20 bucks shipped at this point. Why? Probably because alot of people didn't really care for the fig and drove down demand. Plus there a bunch of other Han's in other outfits anyway. Jor-El? Who knows. Only the head is unique from what I understand, and I don't regularly read Superman comics so I'm not up to date with his popularity as a character. But if they never release another Jor-El in a set ever, he could wind up being worth something. Those are the kinds of things you'll have to consider.