dr_spock Posted April 23, 2015 Posted April 23, 2015 Hidden fees seem like a sneaky business practice. Unfortunately LEGO does not qualify under U.S. price gouging laws. Period of Emergency: The majority of laws apply only to price shifts during a time of disaster. Necessary items: Most laws apply exclusively to items which are essential to survival. Price ceilings: Laws limit the maximum price that can be charged for given goods.
fred67 Posted April 24, 2015 Posted April 24, 2015 I admit it might not of been the best word to describe it. Its just that in this situation, a seller with just 1 of the parts in question wants about $1.50 for it. The seller who has 8 of the same part wants $6 for them. For me, it actually was cheaper to buy the number I needed from the higher priced seller, instead of having to pay the same shipping cost x4 from 4 separate sellers at the lower price...some of which have minimum purchase requirements... Which is exactly why that store was charging more. When you go to the catalog, you can look up minimum prices, but they also give a number for quantity minimum... those stores know they can sell for a higher price because of shipping and convenience. I understand the frustration, but it's just how it works... I may have sounded a bit harsh, but I have a problem with the phrase "price gouging." BirdOPrey explained why, in my opinion, the phrase is often misused and the connotations it gives are misplaced.
Deathleech Posted April 27, 2015 Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) I wouldn't be happy too. You sell bricks and you make a profit of out it - so box, tape, peanuts, and gas to drive to the post office is more or less covered. Otherwise you might also charge how much electricity you've spent while processing an order... If you need to drive miles to post office - I could suggest setting up "minimum order" to certain level, so group of orders would cover it. Don't be silly. Of course no one is going to charge for the electricity used, it's mere cents and would be used regardless in most cases. Why would I pay out of pocket and take a hit on shipping and materials though? It's not a few cents, its a few dollars and I actually DO take a small hit on most shipping regardless. I can't even find small boxes for under 50 cents each, packing tape is another $2 or so a roll, and a bag of peanuts is like 10 bucks. Gas is also currently nearly $3 a gallon and that's half a gallon per trip to the post office and back. All in all I am prolly spending $1-4 per package on all of this depending on the box needed. That's not even including the actual shipping charge, just for the materials. If you are making a huge profit off something then I can maybe see eating the shipping and handling fees. Usually people offer free shipping in those cases. But if you are only making a few dollars off something, why on earth would you totally negate that profit by paying for all the shipping materials out of pocket? You act like everyone is making 20 dollars or more off each transaction when in reality the profit it usually only a few dollars at best. Don't forget it takes time and energy to make any said profit and most eBay and Bricklink sellers aren't rolling in dough just from re-selling items. Most do it on the side for a little extra income. There also are seller fees from these places which charge 10-15% final value fee, a fee on shipping, and a processing fee when you are paid. If I buy a polybag for $5 and sell it for $7 I am making very little profit as is. It takes a good 15 minutes to photograph the item, write up a description, upload the photos, and list the item. Then you take out the 15% in fees and my 2 dollar profit suddenly becomes 0.95, Then if I eat shipping cost I could actually come out LOSING money. In all honesty I would be better off taking a second job at McDonals and working minumum wage if all I cared about was making money. It would be more profitable. You don't seem like someone who has actually sold much on Bricklink or eBay so I am guessing it's hard for you to understand all the work that goes into it and all the fees you pay as a seller. I forgot to mention with the guy complaining about the extra dollar he paid for shipping (not even a full dollar, it was like 78 cents), I took a best offer of 5 less dollars on the item than I had it listed for. People absolutely astonish me. I came off 25% of my price and only made a few dollars profit, but he complains about shipping when I still was probably eating about 50 cents of the shipping cost. Edited April 29, 2015 by Deathleech
talos Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I keep having bad luck. I tried to order from a seller on BL, 9 days ago now, and they won't reply, or even read my email asking what is going on. They invoiced me, and I paid them that same day. The status has not been changed, so I have no idea if its been sent to me yet or not. No communication at all. I can't figure out why. They keep getting feedback from other people with all positive, things like 'super fast shipping' and 'all just perfect' so it doesn't make any sense why I am being treated this way. The only thing I can come up with is that when I paid, I accidentally got the wrong invoice with a total that didn't include an added item, that updated the order. They sent a new invoice, but I mistakenly used the earlier one to send the amount owed. I realized this and sent a second payment, which was just under a dollar. I realize now that they might of been charged a second transaction fee for it. I apologized for the mistake, but maybe they are just jerks? I don't know.
talos Posted May 15, 2015 Posted May 15, 2015 My gosh, its been 13 days now, and I finally got a reply from this person with my BL order. I get a not too believable excuse for the huge delay, and that they sent out my order. Well, I got it today and (big surprise) there is a mistake. One item is completely missing from it. I have really had enough. I do everything right, pay right away, am polite, and for some reason, get treated like this. I can't help but think its intentional. I keep seeing them get all positive feedback and all of them say how fast they got their orders... I think this is going to be my first Negative feedback for a seller. I don't want to, but I think it really deserves it.
zux Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 talos, for some reason most of my last orders had some issues as well it terms of wrong/missing part or being in wrong condition. However I managed sorting all these issues, which is good (not excellent though). However such way I find excellent sellers that are way too much customer focused and I might end up ordering from them as well. Raising NSS or NRS are the best options in BL when seller does nothing post placing an order. I didn't have a chance to use it (and hope will not have), but heard it makes magic
talos Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 The seller's solution for me was to refund for the missing parts, it would of cost them a lot more to send them to me. So we will just move on, I won't ever go to their store again, though. I have never had to use the NSS or NRS options either, and am glad I didn't have to this time. I do know that I have some good and reliable sellers as well, and will try to stick with them as much as I can. This all probably sounds pretty petty to others, but after waiting for 2 weeks, and stalling the project I am working on, I just wanted to vent a little. I am just not going to give any feedback for them instead of retaliating with a neutral or negative, and am pretty sure they won't leave me any either.
BirdOPrey5 Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 I'm taking a chance on a store that only had 1 feedback, which was positive and from 2 days ago. Keeping my fingers crossed.
fred67 Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 (edited) I argue that it's not retaliatory feedback, it's deserved, and you're doing others a disservice by not accurately reporting feedback - it's one of the reasons online ratings, especially ones where both buyer and seller leave feedback, cannot be trusted. I understand completely - and I have this argument with sellers on the BL forum (and have been stop listed at shops despite having perfect feedback). They argue that the buyers have more power (like claiming to paypal they didn't receive the merchandise), and I don't disagree, but they are the first ones to whine about buyers making a legal commitment to pay when they submit their order, and that they shouldn't be allowed to back out of it - but when the shoe is on the other foot, and it's like "uh... I don't actually have that part," they're the first ones to ask for leniency and it pisses me off... "it's just one 5 cent part, why should I receive a negative for that?" Because you made a legal contract by offering to sell it, too! It's worse when they have the part, and say "it's not worth it to me to send you what you ordered and paid for." If I was 5 cents short on my payment, you wouldn't send me the order... people don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot. Edited May 17, 2015 by fred67
TitusV Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 I'm new on briclink, and wanted to order my first...eh order, but got some questions: •what's the best shop in Belgium •what's the difference between darj grey and blueish dark grey? Wich one uses TLG in their Current sets? Thank you for the answers
BirdOPrey5 Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 I believe Dark Bluish Grey is what is currently used. There is a small but noticeable difference, especially if the two colors are next to each other. Sometimes piece is only in one color or the other and you just make do. In the above picture the arch is light grey and the rest is light bluish grey. Sorry I don't have an example of dark grey.
fred67 Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 Yes, the key word is "blue-ish" meaning, just a hint of blue, as BirdOPrey5's picture shows... It can be really hard to tell them apart, sometimes even when right next to each other - but in the right light, the difference is glaringly obvious.
TitusV Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 Thank you! I just thought some if my bricks werd old and had yellowed, but now i can see they are just light grey, and the rest light blue-ish gray
SweetiePie88 Posted August 7, 2015 Posted August 7, 2015 Does anyone know if there's a way to make search results/store listings rule out stickered parts? I am going to be doing a BL order soon, seller of choice known. Problem is that i prefer quality printed parts over stickers.
Ultron Posted August 10, 2015 Posted August 10, 2015 So I was trying to order 2 minifigs off bricklink but the seller hasn't responded to me and I placed the order 4 days ago. I even emailed them separately to see if they were still selling but they haven't responded to that either. So since I've already lost time and I wish to get these two minifigs within the next two weeks, I put in a cancel order request under "seller not responding to emails". Now Bricklink emailed me and says it can only be cancelled if the seller approves. What!? The whole problem is that he's NOT RESPONDING. I just want my figs, ugh.
fred67 Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Sorry you're having such problems. BL is not reliable for things you need in a timely manner - some sellers will ship very quickly, others not so much, and even ones that send quickly sometimes have off weeks or months. We're spoiled by Amazon Prime. Unfortunately your only recourse is to file an NRS (non-responding seller alert); the details can be found here. You need to wait a week from order submission, if you still haven't heard from the seller you can submit the NRS. Two weeks (yes, two weeks) after submitting the NRS, if the seller still has not responded, you can cancel the order. Sorry... that's how it works. I know it doesn't help you right now. You can try ordering from someone else - in fact, you can ask on the bricklink forums for what you want, and I'm sure you'll get some sellers that will guarantee to send you what you need right away, but you'll still have this old order hanging over your head until it's completed, and if the seller decides to wake up and send you an invoice, then you're obligated to pay it (or get hit yourself with an NPB - non-paying buyer). The sellers there will likely disagree, but they often have the upper hand once you've submitted your order.
badbob001 Posted August 23, 2015 Posted August 23, 2015 (edited) I've seen some sellers split up their inventory of an item into multiple batches, with a slight change in the item name. eg: White Brick 1 x 2 White Brick 1 x 2 A-1 White Brick 1 x 2 A-2 White Brick 1 x 2 A-3 What is the purpose of this? It's rather annoying when showing what wanted list items are in a store and then have so many repeated items being shown. Is it related to how the seller has physically organized his or her inventory? Or is it an artificial way to boost up the ranking in search results? Often some batches of a part would have slight differences in price. Obviously I would add the cheapest to my cart, but if a particular batch doesn't have enough, I have to choose from another batch. And now my cart looks like it has repeated items and I have to do mental math. :) Edited August 23, 2015 by badbob001
TheWolffe Posted August 23, 2015 Posted August 23, 2015 Some sellers rank their bricks quality. So for instance A-1 could be 'as new' while A-3 can be 'light scratches with play wear'. If a store has something like this it's usually described in their stores T&Cs.
Boettner Builds Posted September 11, 2015 Posted September 11, 2015 Is there a way to search for the cheapest minifigs on BL? I know if I add a minifig to my wanted list it will show it from cheapest to most expencive it all available stores. But is there a way to search ALL minifigs from cheapest to most expencive?
fred67 Posted September 11, 2015 Posted September 11, 2015 Not really; not without extra software ("brickficiency"). I don't normally use Windows, so I can't use it. One thing I do is look for the most expensive item on a wanted list, and just search for the cheapest one of those; when I go into that store, I click on the "show items in my wanted list" link to see how the rest stack up. I might do this for several stores, in different browser tabs, trying to find a good combination. If your list is large, it's a lot more difficult. I actually don't start with searching for items for sale, I go to the price guide and click on the link to the store with the cheapest (usually new) one of what I want.
62Bricks Posted September 19, 2015 Posted September 19, 2015 (edited) Is there a way to search for the cheapest minifigs on BL? I know if I add a minifig to my wanted list it will show it from cheapest to most expencive it all available stores. But is there a way to search ALL minifigs from cheapest to most expencive? Yes, but I'm not sure what use it would be to have 13,000 pages of minifigs listed by price: http://www.bricklink...rchSort=C&sz=25 If you use the old search function, you can sort the results by lowest (or highest) price: http://www.bricklink...rchAdvanced.asp Edited September 19, 2015 by 62Bricks
Boettner Builds Posted September 19, 2015 Posted September 19, 2015 This is why I wanted to know how to do this: I just ordered 33 minifigs + the Unikitty I didn't have from ONE seller for $36.00. Thank you 62Bricks!
jimim Posted January 12, 2016 Posted January 12, 2016 I'm starting to put together lists of parts I want for some builds for my daughters city display. I made a want list on bricklink. I'm not set on colors really. I can mix and match. when I make my list should I not specify a color so I get more hits and pick colors from what buyers have available. I'm trying to make this as easy as possible to get what I need. I did put in colors but I'm only finding certain pieces from certain buyers. I really want to ty and get everything from one person. thanks aot, jm
zux Posted January 12, 2016 Posted January 12, 2016 I think you are asking for Brickficiency. It is a software helping to buy pieces in a most efficient way.
fred67 Posted January 12, 2016 Posted January 12, 2016 @jimim: You can specify no color and get a lot more hits, but the problem is that stores with many multiples of those parts tend to pollute the "list by shop." In other words, if you're listing by largest number of matches, a 2x4 would match stores that have 2x4 in many colors, and each one would count as a unique (someone correct me if I'm wrong). But then if you limit by color you get less hits. It's a pain. I don't know what a good work around is. Brickficiency might be a good solution if you use Windows. I do sometimes, but not generally.
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