Sad news from ERIC Admin

Leaving BrickLink.com

In case you don't know me, my name is Eric Smith. I was originally involved
with BrickLink as the web host, starting back in 2001. I assisted Dan with 3
or 4 server upgrades as the site traffic grew and helped out occasionally with
technical questions he had. It was exciting to see this site grow over those
years, watching the number of users and parts climb each month. I continued hosting
the site for Dan Jezek until he passed away in September 2010. I was asked to
serve as BrickLink Administrator by Dan's family, in addition to hosting
the site. The site saw an explosion of growth between 2010 and 2013, which was
rewarding to see.

After the site was sold in June 2013, both the family and the new owners asked
me to continue in my role as site administrator to aid in the transition between
owners. I wasn't sure how things would go, but I was invited to meet the
new owners in Seoul in July 2013. At our meetings, they convinced me that they
would be good stewards of the community that Dan built. Building a replacement
site seemed like it was the immediate priority, and I was looking forward to
providing guidance and serving as a user representative during this process.

When the chief communications officer role was created in November 2013, the
original charter was to serve as the liaison between BrickLink and AFOL groups,
conventions, etc. While I continued to do my job as site administrator, this
person managed to convince the site owners to put all customer service under
the chief communications officer role, effectively demoting me from a role I'd
been performing for more than three years.

This change occurred in December 2013. I asked ownership several times for a
reason for my demotion and was never given an explanation. This demotion and
new organizational structure was announced back in December with a little blurb
announcing the new customer service team. Since December, I have been relegated
to supporting her team, which has grown to five people including her. These five
people are now doing the same job I did, part-time by myself, for more than 3
years.

My contract is up at the beginning of June and it has no automatic renewal clause.
At the end of April, I contacted the leadership of the company to determine my
status. My assumption was that the answer was that I was being let go in favor
of her local team. Instead, the chief communication officer offered me only 10%
of my current contract fee to help her team do my old job. It would have been
far less insulting to simply not renew the contract. Sadly, as a result of this
response, I will no longer be involved in BrickLink as of June 5th, 2014.

If you have questions, please send them to me privately at eric ( at ) northcomp
( dot ) com. Thanks to those of you who have provided encouragement and support
during my time in this position. I'd like to hope Dan would be happy with
how I managed the community he created.

- Eric

 

Post can be found here:

http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=820935

When the fees rise .. either you adapt or go out of business .. there really is no point in bickering about increase fees .. if it happens it happens learn to adapt ... Do you think ebay started with such high fees 10 years ago? Im sure people bitched and moaned yet its one of the most visited websites in the world .. just saying

When the fees rise .. either you adapt or go out of business .. there really is no point in bickering about increase fees .. if it happens it happens learn to adapt ... Do you think ebay started with such high fees 10 years ago? Im sure people bitched and moaned yet its one of the most visited websites in the world .. just saying

True, but it makes it more difficult. Adaptation is key if you want to continue making money, but that`s not easy in many cases. If someone sells $10K worth of product at 3%, but fees double to 6%, it`s $300 less. Might not seem like a lot, but who knows what kind of impact that might have. Bricklink doesn`t charge a lot to sell, I`ve been adding parts to my store for quite some time on the side now, but have yet to open. Hopefully in a couple months, but point is every little bit adds up. 

True, but it makes it more difficult. Adaptation is key if you want to continue making money, but that`s not easy in many cases. If someone sells $10K worth of product at 3%, but fees double to 6%, it`s $300 less. Might not seem like a lot, but who knows what kind of impact that might have. Bricklink doesn`t charge a lot to sell, I`ve been adding parts to my store for quite some time on the side now, but have yet to open. Hopefully in a couple months, but point is every little bit adds up. 

 Than raise your prices by 3%? Or be willing to take less profit if you decide to keep the prices the same. 

I think most people on BrickLink are price-sensitive because most of us are both buyers and sellers. It is a community in a sense that eBay is not - people who have a shared passion for Lego. Sure, I could raise my fees and prices to compensate. And I would then expect that I myself will have to pay more to get the pieces I want. The beauty of BrickLink now isn't the interface (clunky) or the styling (ouch) - it's the ease with which I can find the pieces I want/need for the projects I am working on, at reasonable prices, from other builders/hobbyists, who are as likely to buy from me as I am to buy from them (or trade). Anything that might move BrickLink towards a power seller model is, in my opinion, bad.