BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

A few years ago, most sets parted out for 2x the retail price of the set. Today,
that number is maybe 1.3x. I certainly would not say that prices on parts are
inflated. The opposite -- they're depressed.

1.3x ?

If any sellers are parting out sets on that multiple they are heading for a loss.
They'd have to sell most of the set just to break even without any compensation
for their time.

Or not pay retail price.

"and" not pay the retail price

Robert

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Mar 22, 2017 05:53

Subject:

Re: price overview when buying a wanted list

Viewed:

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Topic:

1.3x ?

If any sellers are parting out sets on that multiple they are heading for a loss.
They'd have to sell most of the set just to break even without any compensation
for their time.

Or not pay retail price.

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Mar 22, 2017 05:13

Subject:

Re: price overview when buying a wanted list

Viewed:

69 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, FigBits writes:

In Suggestions, mgiglio writes:

of course i am not suggesting that parts be given away for free. i'm saying
maybe part prices are inflated if sellers are actually willing to sell for less.
as a seller, if i think a part is too cool to sell for a nickel, i keep it, cause
i know no one's gonna pay a quarter for it. or if i have a ten dollar minifig
and i dont want to sit on it for a year, i'll list it for 9 and try to move
it out.

1.3x ?

If any sellers are parting out sets on that multiple they are heading for a loss.
They'd have to sell most of the set just to break even without any compensation
for their time. It is quite easy to sell half of the parts in a set but the others
take quite some time. I think some must blindly price without any business consideration
and that won't last, they'll soon realise they are working for someone
else not themselves. I agree some of the recent system tweaks have encouraged
some into this but at the end of the day I do believe demand and supply rules...
and that is the real problem - over supply. Some seem to think that if 100 of
part XXX sold for average 10c each over the last 6 months there is a market for
BL'ers to part out 10000 of them when in reality there is little price elasticity
of demand and if the price was 5c the 6 month demand might still not be more
than 100. That is why many are getting frustrated, having rash sales and trying
to get their investment back that they thought would make them a quick profit.

Robert

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Mar 22, 2017 05:11

Subject:

Re: price overview when buying a wanted list

Viewed:

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Topic:

of course i am not suggesting that parts be given away for free. i'm saying
maybe part prices are inflated if sellers are actually willing to sell for less.

In some cases, I think it is not willing to sell for less, but feeling the need
to sell for less to get a sale.

Part of the problem is that the average doesn't take into account location.
A few times I have had buyers contact me asking me to give them a better price
"because they can buy cheaper from the US", although this happens on single parts
as well as larger amounts of parts when the wants list price tool was there.
I tell them to buy from the US and to pay the extra shipping, to pay the £8 RM
fee for importing the items, to pay VAT on top when they import. None of those
fees appear in the tool, yet the more expensive stores look bad compared to other
stores where these fees would be applicable.

or maybe let bricklink set the price. millennium
falcon radar dish: $10. seller paid more for it originally, tough crap, you can
only sell it here for $10. that's not fair to the seller though, is it?

It is also illegal in many countries. BL would also lose many sellers to rival
free markets such BO, ebay, etc.

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Mar 22, 2017 04:53

Subject:

Re: Counterfiet Set Reporting

Viewed:

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Topic:

In Suggestions, WoutR writes:

In Suggestions, qwertyboy writes:

In Suggestions, rofreder writes:

Hello All, and to my recent seller please accept my appologies.

Got in some other sets today straight from lego.com and compared elements. Couldn't
distinguish any serious differences. I suppose there is a little variation among
genuine lego factory molds and plastic composition.

Thank you all for your help and concern. Got my first set in the 70's and
thought I was an expert. Guess not.

Thank you for reporting back.

Nowadays, especially in online discussions, I see far too few people willing
to admit a mistake. I really appreciate this.

Niek.

+1
Thanks.

sorry to add yet another +1 to the thread without further comment but in this
case I think it is well warranted.

Robert

Author:

FigBits

Posted:

Mar 22, 2017 00:31

Subject:

Re: price overview when buying a wanted list

Viewed:

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Topic:

In Suggestions, mgiglio writes:

For those of us whose BrickLink stores are trying to support us as a full-time
job, that a part being too cool doesn't factor into it. It's a business.
I try to sell for more than I paid.

A few years ago, most sets parted out for 2x the retail price of the set. Today,
that number is maybe 1.3x. I certainly would not say that prices on parts are
inflated. The opposite -- they're depressed.

Those $10 minifigs are only $10 because that's what they've been selling
for. It used to be as you described -- a few sellers would list at $9 to
try to sell them faster, while most listed for $10, and many listed for $11 or
more.

But now, ten stores list them for $8. Then when they see that everyone else is
doing that, they relist them for $6. Then someone lists 300 of them for $2.50.

All of which is fine (more or less). But it becomes a bit of a problem when sellers
who want to list that "$10" minifigure for $10 show up on a BrickLink tool as
being 75% higher than average.

if bricklink has a problem with sellers undercutting each other, i don't
think limiting the buyers information is the smart way to fix it. why not limit
sellers ability to list a part for less than a certain price.

That would be a terrible idea, and possibly illegal.

regarding sellers and buyers having equal access, that's just not true. a
seller can part out a set and list the pieces automatically at the 6 month avg,
but a buyer cannot then shop for those same parts in that same sellers store
without seeing all at once whether they are above or below average price. that's
not equal access. that makes the buyer work much harder than the seller to determine
whether each individual part is listed at fair value or not.

You are mistaken. Sellers do not have the ability to part out a set and automatically
list the pieces at the 6 month average, using any BrickLink tools. It's possible
to do so with 3rd-party tools (off BrickLink), but those tools are available
to buyers as well. The access to pricing information is identical for buyers
and sellers.

--
Marc.

Author:

mgiglio

Posted:

Mar 21, 2017 22:30

Subject:

Re: price overview when buying a wanted list

Viewed:

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Topic:

In Suggestions, FigBits writes:

In Suggestions, mgiglio writes:

In Suggestions, tillmanbalazs writes:

few weeks ago when I went to a wanted list, and selected the items which I wanted
to buy, then the shop, it showed what is the price of items in this shop compared
to the average price of the items.
Now this function is not available, can I ask why?
Is it possible to have it back?
Thanks,
Balázs

Voted Yes. Having this comparison helps me to buy hundreds of pieces at a time
and easily know whether the store I've chosen is charging me double what
each piece is worth, without having to check each piece manually. The only ones
to blame for a downward spiral in pricing are sellers listing their parts cheaper
than everyone else. If a part can be sold cheaper, maybe it should be.

But tools like this enourage sellers to continue listing their parts cheaper
than everyone else. That's part of the problem. And I'm not sure what
you mean my that last sentence. Of course a part can be sold cheaper. It can
be given away for free. So it should be?

Providing sellers with this information easily when they list parts, but not
making it easily available to buyers when buying, puts sellers at an unnecessary
advantage in this marketplace. It erodes my confidence when purchasing, or requires
me to spend an inordinate amount of time researching to save what amounts to
pennies per piece. While some would say that I should just suck it up and pay
the pennies if I don't want to do the legwork, I'd say that'd make
sense if the sellers had to do the legwork of looking up each individual part
price and entering it manually, but they don't.

What do you mean? Sellers have EXACTLY the same access to average prices that
buyers do.

I think a nice compromise would be to show the over/under comparison against
current listing prices, instead of 6 month average.

I thought that's what it already was.

--
Marc.

thanks for your thoughtful reply.

of course i am not suggesting that parts be given away for free. i'm saying
maybe part prices are inflated if sellers are actually willing to sell for less.
as a seller, if i think a part is too cool to sell for a nickel, i keep it, cause
i know no one's gonna pay a quarter for it. or if i have a ten dollar minifig
and i dont want to sit on it for a year, i'll list it for 9 and try to move
it out. if bricklink has a problem with sellers undercutting each other, i don't
think limiting the buyers information is the smart way to fix it. why not limit
sellers ability to list a part for less than a certain price. 1x1 cheese slope
dark red - minimum price, $.02. or maybe let bricklink set the price. millennium
falcon radar dish: $10. seller paid more for it originally, tough crap, you can
only sell it here for $10. that's not fair to the seller though, is it?

regarding sellers and buyers having equal access, that's just not true. a
seller can part out a set and list the pieces automatically at the 6 month avg,
but a buyer cannot then shop for those same parts in that same sellers store
without seeing all at once whether they are above or below average price. that's
not equal access. that makes the buyer work much harder than the seller to determine
whether each individual part is listed at fair value or not.

and on your third point, yeah, that's what i thought it was too, but this
thread seems to be referring to 6mo avg, so i assumed i was misremembering.

Author:

WoutR

Posted:

Mar 21, 2017 20:40

Subject:

Re: Counterfiet Set Reporting

Viewed:

84 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, qwertyboy writes:

In Suggestions, rofreder writes:

Thank you for reporting back.

Nowadays, especially in online discussions, I see far too few people willing
to admit a mistake. I really appreciate this.

Niek.

+1
Thanks.

Author:

qwertyboy

Posted:

Mar 21, 2017 20:31

Subject:

Re: Counterfiet Set Reporting

Viewed:

72 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, rofreder writes:

Thank you for reporting back.

Nowadays, especially in online discussions, I see far too few people willing
to admit a mistake. I really appreciate this.

Niek.

Author:

rofreder

Posted:

Mar 21, 2017 19:33

Subject:

Re: Counterfiet Set Reporting

Viewed:

105 times

Topic: