BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In my opinion, icons that accurately represent functionality are a key part in
having a good interface. It has come to my attention that the icon of the Community
tab is outdated and needs improvement. Briklink has changed alot and the smiley
face simply does not suit a modern Bricklink where a forum is intended for poorly
informing the community of unwanted selfish business decisions only to ignore
the responses.

I've designed a better icon for this tab. Hope to see this implemented soon!

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Oct 24, 2017 06:10

Subject:

Re: Convert all units to Metric

Viewed:

34 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, WhiteHorseMatt writes:

In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:

In Suggestions, Brickler writes:

Hi,
I do prefer the metric system, hands down, but in the US we have standard measurement
system.
So all our weights and sizes for the mail are in Standard. Changing it make no
sense.

In the rest of the world we also have a standard and universal measurement system,
the metric system.

Sort of, but when was the last time you were out for the night and bought 0.568
litres of beer?

Fortunately metric / imperial isn't the end of the world to convert.

Matt

A glass of beer? One beer? A bottle of beer?

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Aug 22, 2017 16:27

Subject:

Re: [IMPLEMENTED] Allow IBAN payments in new stores

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Admin_Jaclyn writes:

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you to Teup for writing this post. I've heard from many
other users about this and since we certainly have no intention of "killing"
the European market, nor do we want any users to feel marginalized, we've
decided to allow IBAN for new sellers again.

Here's how it will work:

-New sellers who have not upgraded from a buyer in good standing† will need to
go through the verification process to open their store and will also need to
request IBAN permission.

-New sellers who have upgraded from a buyer account in good standing will need
to contact the help desk to request IBAN payment.

†"Buyer account in good standing" = Has had an active account for 100 days and
has received positive feedback from 5 different legitimate sellers.

***All new sellers will be required to have at least one onsite payment method
available in their store in order to accept IBAN**

I'll be updating the help topic for onsite/offsite payment methods and will
mention this on the new seller verification page as well. If anyone would like
to request IBAN for their store, please send me a direct message.

Thanks!

-- Jaclyn
BrickLink Customer Support

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In another thread someone brought this to my attention:

Offsite Payment - No longer available for new users as of June 8, 2017.
To cover various payment options, BrickLink also provides Offsite Payment Methods.
Please note that BrickLink cannot provide any transaction related support for
the Offsite Payment Methods listed below. All responsibility for Offsite Payments
is solely upon buyer and seller.

I'm lost for words. Does Bricklink really want to kill the European market
or something? In my real life I don't even know anyone with PayPal (or a
Credit card). In the NL €20,000,000,000 is spent in webshops per year, and almost
all of these transactions are bank transfers. Almost no-one that I know will
consider PayPal, certainly not since it costs money while bank tranfers are free.

IBAN has really become simple in use; Transactions are free, fast, and bank account
numbers have been standardised to IBAN recently. Interfaces for bank transfers
(such as iDeal in the NL) are thriving more than ever and are the undisputed
standard.

And now Bricklink is moving in the opposite direction.

They will lose the Dutch market, which is the 4th largest country on the platform
in terms of store count. Bricklink always seemed a bit America First but this
decision right here really changes my opinion of Bricklink. I personally will
survive since it doesn't affect existing stores and I will move more of my
business over to BO which does support bank transfers. But they will certainly
scare away lots of potential customers here, and for new sellers this is crazy
unfair. This is either a huge mistake or Bricklink just isn't interested
in the European market..

Please support my suggestion to re-enable IBAN/Bank transfer, also if you don't
use it. For an accessable and thriving site that benefits all of us, and a site
that is fair to everyone.. it's really in all of our interest if you want
Bricklink to be #1..

So the legend that Bricklink didn't care what seller's ask is not true
Jaclyn I'm in need for a new car can you please ask your financial team for
a donation?
Regards

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Aug 21, 2017 05:01

Subject:

Re: Offsite payment no longer possible??

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, nectara writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, nectara writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

and basically, PayPal is something for internet nerds. That is simply a reality.
Limiting Bricklink to PayPal is limiting it to internet nerds and lose a massive
market..

Your huge market is almost NON in other country's
From 1300 orders in my store only 3 where payed by IBAN
Saying that PayPal is for nerds...
,,This payment volume was generated through the 1.73 billion transactions which
PayPal processed during that quarter. In 2016, the payment provider's annual
payment volume amounted to 354 billion U.S. dollars.,,

mean the nerds one pay half of the volume of your country in one year

,,The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Netherlands was worth 770.85 billion US
dollars in 2016.,,

As MarieA put it, this is not about opinions, arguments, preferences. I don't
like this kind of d*measuring contest but anyway, UK and NL are not that far
apart in size on Bricklink.

In the NL and many other countries PayPal is limited to a handful of internet
nerds, such as me. This is simply a fact that does not change depending on what
numbers you throw at it. These numbers are just total sums and say nothing about
distribution. The vast, vast majority of people here who buy online either don't
have it, don't know how it works, or have never even heard of the name.
You may not like it, but this is simply a reality. PayPal-only would mean virtually
eliminating a portion of Bricklink turnover that is really significant, bigger
than the UK portion.

Even if you would explain to the European (and perhaps Australian) consumer how
PayPal is really the bees knees, they will not understand why they should pay
money for a transaction. It's an anachronism to them.

These are just realities, I'm not talking about what payment method is best.
If the entire world suddenly decided to pay by doing a silly dance, I will happily
do silly dances. I don't care how, I just want to be able to pay my bills
and not be cut off from my customers.. they want IBAN, so I want IBAN.

Don't understand me wrong I agree with you but bank transfers are so yesterday
and without any protection
I do offer IBAN and Stripe but I don't like them I prefer to pay PayPal fee
but to be protected
None of the payments platforms offer protection like PayPal so be sure PayPal
will be bigger and bigger...

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Aug 21, 2017 00:51

Subject:

Re: Offsite payment no longer possible??

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, nectara writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

and basically, PayPal is something for internet nerds. That is simply a reality.
Limiting Bricklink to PayPal is limiting it to internet nerds and lose a massive
market..

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Aug 20, 2017 08:24

Subject:

Re: Offsite payment no longer possible??

Viewed:

85 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

People are not trustworthy and with IBAN transaction your protection is null
nada zero nulua нула nulový nul tyhjä μηδενικό nulo

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Jul 19, 2017 13:11

Subject:

Re: Employ real support staff

Viewed:

74 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Hypertrophy writes:

In Suggestions, RobErNat writes:

In Suggestions, MarieA writes:

As I understand it, BL sellers and buyers are earning BL several million quid
a year via commission. Can I humbly suggest that some of this profit is redirected
into giving the platform an active customer support staff that is available 24-hours
per day. That such a site relies on volunteers to keep the wheels greased is
a bit perverse given the circumstances.

The site does not run on volunteers, only the forum and the catalog does (translators
of pages as well).
Development and Admin tasks are run by 'professionals' (= paid staff).
A 24/7 service just on the Admin team would require 4x as much people (8 in stead
of 2) to cover a full week, I doubt Bricklink is making enough to cover that
(considering there is also an IT team working during workdays)

And if you check online, BL is not making 'several' million per year.
I can't access US tax reports, but I'm sure a larger US seller can obtain
actual figures?

There have been almost 1.3 million orders in the last 12 months. At a $40 per
order average, that's $52,000,000. The 3% fee on that is $1,560,000 USD.

Average order is much lower

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Mar 14, 2017 14:48

Subject:

Re: Better Forum

Viewed:

52 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, ranarn writes:

Haven't been using the forum much on Bricklink, but the recent change of
Average Price removal got me to want to discuss that topic.

And the forum is very poorly implemented, impossible to follow a thread or get
a overview of current topics.

So my suggestion is a modern forum, that works like most other forums, i don't
know what the current is, something from the 90:s ?

Waiting for the old farts to tell us that on Windows95 this forum works perfect
and no change need it

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 15:27

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, axaday writes:

In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:

In Suggestions, axaday writes:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

I believe that if Bricklink will allow new sellers to set up a shop ONLY AFTER
THEY HAVE COMPLETED 10 successful transactions as buyers- the scams by 0 feedback
sellers (that pop everyday) will stop by a high margin.

The beauty of this is that they can't start multiple new seller accounts
to prop up their buying feedbacks too.

I think this will work...

What is stopping them from making a few fake seller accounts and "selling" themselves
some fake stuff and giving themselves feedback for it?

They can’t create those “few fake seller accounts” because these accounts also
would need to buy before starting selling.
If you can’t create one seller account before having bought, you can’t create
10 more.

Ah, yes. Just so.

Just setup a window chat on all new stores so the experienced user can ask or
write their opinion
After you have the window chat is enough to ask for real pictures and everybody
can see the answer
It will stop 100% of the scammers

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Sep 15, 2016 18:08

Subject:

Re: PLEASE enable Payment at checkout

Viewed:

50 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, FigBits writes:

In Suggestions, nectara writes:

In Suggestions, Cob writes:

Please make the site upgrade and enable payment at checkout. I have so many
buyers confused on what to do and how to pay. If they had the option to pay
at checkout it would be so much more streamlined and convenient for everyone.

I am fully prepared and ready to handle payment at checkout, I already give my
buyer the maximum they will be charged for shipping in my terms (and yes, I never
charge more than my terms state, even if I would lose money). Therefore, the
buyer already knows the cost of their order at checkout, why can't they pay
at checkout?

Cob

They are tens of thousands of active store each store with different fee each
store from different country with different postage fee
Who will take this huge task to solve?
Regards

It is already solved. ON BRICKLINK! It just isn't implemented yet.

Right now, hundreds of stores already use the Shipping Cost Suggestion tool.
All that needs to be done is make that visible to buyers (it is currently set
up so that only the seller sees it).

--
Marc.

Shipping Cost Suggestion tool didn't work properly everybody know this
Still long way ...
Regards

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Sep 15, 2016 17:06

Subject:

Re: PLEASE enable Payment at checkout

Viewed:

71 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Cob writes:

They are tens of thousands of active store each store with different fee each
store from different country with different postage fee
Who will take this huge task to solve?
Regards

Author:

nectara

Posted:

Jun 13, 2016 03:33

Subject:

Re: BrickLink by Bookmark

Viewed:

29 times

Topic: