Pemil_99 Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Hey! I've been buying a lot from bricklink during the last years and of course there has been stores that has been really expensive and had minimum buying price really high. But I never really had any problems with the stores, until now. As I almost do all the time I've placed carts in a few different stores. When I should checkout I realised that it stood the average price on the pieces was too low. So I had to by more stuff, more expensive stuff, "throw" the cheaper stuff and so on. When I after 45 minutes were done, I had the same problem with one of the other two. So I did the same thing there. When finally all three orders were done I tried to checkout. Then in one store the sellers hasn't written what the shipping is, at all. Which to me is really strange. One other store takes extra money for handling and to pak the stuff and really high shipping. They used to have different prices depending on how much the weigh was, but here, one cost. For all orders upto 10000g. That's sick. The shipping cost was almost as high as my order. The third one wanted every lot to be worth at least 2 euro each, otherwise he took a fee of 0.59 euro per lot that was too cheap. Because I for example don't wan't more than 1 of every face and they don't cost 2 euro each, I would have to pay 17 euro extra which is like the half cost of the complete order. So my question is, has the rules changed a lot since I ordered last time so that you can't make "small" orders? (like the thing about the average price per piece) Or have I just had the "luck" to find the stores of a bunch of not that good sellers?
TheLegoDr Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 I think it has always been like that. You have to read the splash page before buying anything because each seller is different and have different requirements. I find a store with pieces I want, I immediately go to the splash page to see if I can even shop at that store, or I keep looking. It can be unfortunate at times, but I assume they have a reason for why they do business that way.
Robianco Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 I'd say that's just bad luck. I've had a couple of stores that have had an average price per piece rule and I just don't order from them. I've recently made several small orders from around Europe, the US and here in the UK and as long as I met any minimum order I was fine. I've had a couple of small charges for picking etc in the past but maybe £1 per order and never much more. I also like to use the 'get a quote' option which more stores are offering now to make sure I know the shipping cost before committing.
Pemil_99 Posted July 23, 2016 Author Posted July 23, 2016 Okay (not ok-ey), well thank you. I've never seen any store that has the average thin before though. But I guess I'll just have to continue looking for a better store. But I bet it will be hard to find those 35 or so heads for that good price. Or well the price I thought it was. xD But yeah, I'll take that advise and check these kind of things before I fill the shopping cart.
dr_spock Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Shop around and ask for quotes if available. Each store is individually owned and people do change. I know one owner who raised his shop's limits because he doesn't find it worth his time and effort to fulfill small orders any more.
ReplicaOfLife Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Not sure if they changed anything lately (haven't shopped there since the redesign), but as others said, some stores have always had these kinds of rules. I always check the Splash pages first before I start to put pieces in the shopping cart, too. Learned to do that the hard way when one time I initiated an order and was shocked when I got the invoice with >10€ of extra fees because my average lot cost was a lot less than the 2€ the shop required. I was able to work it out with the shop-owner, but still this has been a lesson for me. I usually place several orders at once when I buy the pieces to build my next MOC, and in this case I had to place an additional order at another store (without such restrictions) to get all the pieces I needed.
VintageLegoEra Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Well, BL is not working with me. I mean i can view and brows but when i log it says: Request entity is too large!!!!!!! any one has this issue????
SevenStuds Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Shipping charges, terms and lot averages are all individually chosen by each BL store owner. Bricklink doesn't advise anyone on those. I only know of very few stores that have either lot averages or very high min buys. I usually put those stores onto my "least favorites list" so I no longer see their store as an option to buy from. When I find great stores (like the ones with fixed shipping fees or €5 min buys) I add them to my favorites list. It's all your choice at the end of the day. Good luck and happy shopping!
deraven Posted July 23, 2016 Posted July 23, 2016 Agreed with the others on it being bad luck, but I will add that I've seen a lot more stores with those kinds of minimum cost per lot type of rules than I ever saw in years past. I think that especially the folks that run smaller stores saw that and found a way to increase their margins so it's just a "fad" if you will, and will hopefully not spread too far. As RogerSmith said, I always read through the splash page rules before filling my cart, and overall I'm betting that there are plenty of stores that have lost more business than revenue recovered from the fees because of it. I have no problem with things like "$2.50 handling charge for orders under $XX," but the examples you gave are pretty bad.
Fugazi Posted July 25, 2016 Posted July 25, 2016 While I understand your concerns, this is a matter that would better be discussed with Bricklink admins or users in their own forums.
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