Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | Teup  | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 18:19 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
|
I would imagine so, as converting a to b to c doesn't always give a to c,
even at xe.com.
|
Agreed but the way most multicurrency systems work their is a base currency as
well as a reporting currency as well as individual, currencies. You define what
is the base and you advise how you wish that to be reported. You also have things
like spot rates, rate tables etc, which just about covers all angels. Here it
looks a little bit like a free-for all in trying to accommodate all frequencies.
In fact if this was the case the price guide is almost useless on current items
listed - as for those items sold - you would need to see what rate they were
converting at when they were sold and factor that in. All in all vry messy and
inaccurate. Mixing 37 different currencies into gbp is problematic at the best
of times.
Hmmm.
| |
For example, right now, 1 USD = 0.878393 EUR and 1 USD = 0.777160 GBP. Also 1
EUR = 0.884895 GBP. (They use six sig figs).
1 USD = 1 USD, so 0.878393 EUR should equal 0.777160 GBP. Yet this gives the
rate as 1 EUR = 0.884752 GBP, different in the fourth figure to the EUR-GBP rate
they quote.
|
|
Sorry if this came up before and I missed it, I just can't spot it right
now.. anyway.. not to be annoying but to me the million dollar question is why
actually do you want to know?
If somehow you need it for tax purposes, for tax agencies it is not required
to be that hardcore precise, and for personal business diagnostics and
stats those tiny fractions of difference probably aren't that interesting,
especially with the prospect of fluctuation in the future anyway.
Anyway, if you are working (partly) with software, what you could always do to
distill the exchange rate is refer to the GBP version and the USD version of
the priceguide, extract the two "current average" numbers and divide one by the
other. That gives you the exchange rate that was used. (Probably best to do it
with an expensive part or add up a couple of parts, to get the decimals more
accurate)
|
 |
| Author: | bje | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 14:04 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)
|
The rate that customs use is actually fixed in advance, and is valid for a month,
and published online usually about 5 days before the end of the month. There
is a small window of ordering time where it won't arrive under next month
and the exchange rate is unknown (like now!). But if you place an order right
at the end of the month after these are published, or in the first couple of
weeks of the next month, you know the customs rate in advance.
See for example here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743999/exrates-monthly-1018.csv/preview
|
My apologies, should have checked that your revenue authorities are perhaps less
inclined to milk citizens for all their worth Last time I checked with ours
earlier this year and questioned this practice, I was of course categorically
informed that all countries where VAT is charged, use this system, go figure
The above was an example though, our actual rate is 10% added to the rate of
exchange the day the goods are presented for clearance, not on the day it arrives.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 13:35 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)
|
The rate that customs use is actually fixed in advance, and is valid for a month,
and published online usually about 5 days before the end of the month. There
is a small window of ordering time where it won't arrive under next month
and the exchange rate is unknown (like now!). But if you place an order right
at the end of the month after these are published, or in the first couple of
weeks of the next month, you know the customs rate in advance.
See for example here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743999/exrates-monthly-1018.csv/preview
|
|
| Author: | bje | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 12:40 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| My honest view here is that the indicative values given by Bricklink, is just
that, purely an indication and it is what I have always used it for.
Bricklink's currency conversions are not set, and neither are the values
on xe.com set and neither are the values displayed in the window of your local
forex broker. The reason being, and this is true for all forex conversions, is
that transactions are recorded at spot rate, not at the rate you see or the rate
that may be quoted in an advertisement. Spot rates further is a weighted mean
average, and not a perfect figure, which is why you will find differences in
cross rates. If you were to convert USD to ZK, ZK to GBP and then GBP to USD
you will end up with a difference, irrespective if you do all of the conversions
at the exact same moment simply because of the demand and supply on different
rates.
Spot rates are your responsibility, for the simple fact of the matter is that
spot rates can change in 1/1000th of a second. You set the rate at the time you
do the transaction and that is it. So if Bricklink is showing you a rate when
you list an item or wish to purchase an item, it is your responsibility to
ensure that the spot rate you use is applicable to you at the time you perform
the transaction, including converting for price guide purposes. So if you want
to be precise, you actually need to have xe as well as paypal open at all times,
not forgetting the differences between buying and selling the forex, which you
are seeing as the weighted mean average at any time.
If you are interested in purchasing 10 x 3001 in white from a store that uses
its base currency as USD, you contract in USD, because that is the currency the
invoice will be made out in. Whether you wish to sell the product in GBP, pay
in GBP, carry it in inventory in GBP, or anything to do at all with your currency
is not germane to the spot rate being fixed at the time of the order (this is
why sellers should not take days to do invoices!!!).
To make matters simpler, the spot for Bricklink's purposes is fixed at the
time of the order, not the invoice (this I assume is because of that unique American
oddity where a purchase order is a credit agreement). So the only concern should
be that the currency conversion should be 100% correct at the time the order
is placed. It is improbable that any site such as this will have the capacity
to do this 100% correctly, so I would agree that for recording purposes, the
exchange rate used at the time of the order should be on the order, even if it
is an hour old. The invoice only affects what you will pay in your own currency,
it has nothing to do with the rate at which you purchased.
Would it not be easier to show the time of updating the forex rates at the top
of every page as well clearly state which is the base currency in force site
wide (I think it is USD, since fees are calculated in USD, but I might be wrong)?
In other words, should bricklink not just show us that the rates now in force
for all transactions, was last updated at x time? That way you can either wait
for the next update and fix your spot rate, or proceed at the ruling rate, which
will then automatically become your spot rate for the transaction at the time
you are performing the transaction, which will include the time you view the
price guide. And, of course, you will then be able to see that these rates are
actually updated every hour, not that we do not trust the masters at Bricklink,
but because it makes good sense to disclose transaction issues at all times.
See below for a transaction example. And I do agree - not disclosing the rate
at which you are performing the transaction is not only confusing, but it can
lead to inadvertent losses. This, like much else in life, can also lead to inadvertent
gains, so I think unless you are dealing with hyper-inflation, you will find
that over time things do tend to even out. Besides, anything to do with forex,
whether it is a spot rate, CFD, FEC, spread trade, currency swap, forex hedge
or whatever other fancy term that is the flavour of the month, is nothing more
than institutional gambling.
(And this might all be as worthless as ﷼)
Jean
Example (using simple rates) for 10 x 3001 in white:
View price at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.4)
Order at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.5)
Invoice at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.7) 5 days later;
Pay at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.8) 3 days later
Ship FOB at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.6) 6 days later
Arrives in bond at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.9) 14 days later (VAT and customs calculated
on 8.9 +5%)
Receive at post office at USD10.00 (GBP rate 8.8) 5 days later;
Cost in inventory at GBP8.50 + VAT and customs (unless you claim the VAT back,
then just include customs as cost)
Forex loss for the time between order and pay, gain for the difference between
pay and shipped, and loss between shipped and received;
That is the contractual treatment, and will be the same whether you buy from
Amazon or Bricklink or whether you actually walk into your bank and order USD
in actual notes. Clearly the price guide cannot show all of these variables,
and you would only use 3 figures in the ordinary course of business - the rate
you order at (which is your cost for inventory purposes), the rate you pay at
(which is your financing of the purchase) and the rate you pay VAT and customs
at (which is the consumption tax rate applicable to the transaction as a whole),
everything else is only impacted if you draw a balance sheet at a certain time.
In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.
Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.
Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.
Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.
Thoughts ?
|
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 12:21 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 25 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, hpoort writes:
| | Reverse engineering and assuming the API provides us with a clue about the underlying
data structure, I would conclude that the price is recorded in the local currency
of the store. This makes sense as this would remove all currency calculation
from the equation when looking at the internals of a store.
The API for the GetPriceGuide says:
"This method returns price in the specified currency code
- If you don't specify this value, price is retrieved in the base currency
of the user profile's"
http://apidev.bricklink.com/redmine/projects/bricklink-api/wiki/CatalogMethod#Get-Price-Guide
The page generator will have to convert from many different currencies to the
currency requested by the viewer. No intermediate conversion through another
currency is needed, although mathematically there will always be any reference
currency in the currency conversion table.
For the 'items sold' prices, the engine will look up the currency conversion
table of that specific time frame, according to the help.
It seems pretty clear to me how it works.
|
Thank you for your thought's and comments they are helpful and it now seems
that several things are obvious. We do not have access to the API so it is not
possible for us to determine the information you have introduced.
A lot of calculations seem to be taking place when the price guide is called
up by an individual member, e,g, UK store looks up a common part which is sold
everywhere in the world and the system is converting all those store held currencies
(Could be 37 of them) to GBP at a rate that is being held in a currency conversion
table. That table gets updated by a link to xe.com on an hour by hour basis,
but the rate used for the page is not shown - this would be clumsy and create
a vastly complicated screen display. Maybe a link could be created against the
currency which would reveal the exchange rate used. Maybe that is not worth it.
Hmm. More to think through now.
Thank you again for adding your comments to this thread. They are helpful.
| |
Hans-Peter
In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.
|
I understand why you'd want it in the price guide, but there are many (37)
exchange rates to GBP, or any other single currency. While many pieces are listed
in USD, plenty are also in EUR, with other currencies also used. That's a
lot of extra information to list. You also wouldn't need to go back and forth,
as if it was set for one hour, you could note down the exchange rates of interest
and you would know they are guaranteed until the next exchange rate update time.
|
Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
I do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | hpoort | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 12:06 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 24 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| Reverse engineering and assuming the API provides us with a clue about the underlying
data structure, I would conclude that the price is recorded in the local currency
of the store. This makes sense as this would remove all currency calculation
from the equation when looking at the internals of a store.
The API for the GetPriceGuide says:
"This method returns price in the specified currency code
- If you don't specify this value, price is retrieved in the base currency
of the user profile's"
http://apidev.bricklink.com/redmine/projects/bricklink-api/wiki/CatalogMethod#Get-Price-Guide
The page generator will have to convert from many different currencies to the
currency requested by the viewer. No intermediate conversion through another
currency is needed, although mathematically there will always be any reference
currency in the currency conversion table.
For the 'items sold' prices, the engine will look up the currency conversion
table of that specific time frame, according to the help.
It seems pretty clear to me how it works.
Hans-Peter
In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.
|
I understand why you'd want it in the price guide, but there are many (37)
exchange rates to GBP, or any other single currency. While many pieces are listed
in USD, plenty are also in EUR, with other currencies also used. That's a
lot of extra information to list. You also wouldn't need to go back and forth,
as if it was set for one hour, you could note down the exchange rates of interest
and you would know they are guaranteed until the next exchange rate update time.
|
Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
I do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
|
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 10:16 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 27 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
|
I would imagine so, as converting a to b to c doesn't always give a to c,
even at xe.com.
|
Agreed but the way most multicurrency systems work their is a base currency as
well as a reporting currency as well as individual, currencies. You define what
is the base and you advise how you wish that to be reported. You also have things
like spot rates, rate tables etc, which just about covers all angels. Here it
looks a little bit like a free-for all in trying to accommodate all frequencies.
In fact if this was the case the price guide is almost useless on current items
listed - as for those items sold - you would need to see what rate they were
converting at when they were sold and factor that in. All in all vry messy and
inaccurate. Mixing 37 different currencies into gbp is problematic at the best
of times.
Hmmm.
| |
For example, right now, 1 USD = 0.878393 EUR and 1 USD = 0.777160 GBP. Also 1
EUR = 0.884895 GBP. (They use six sig figs).
1 USD = 1 USD, so 0.878393 EUR should equal 0.777160 GBP. Yet this gives the
rate as 1 EUR = 0.884752 GBP, different in the fourth figure to the EUR-GBP rate
they quote.
|
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 09:46 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 21 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
|
I would imagine so, as converting a to b to c doesn't always give a to c,
even at xe.com.
For example, right now, 1 USD = 0.878393 EUR and 1 USD = 0.777160 GBP. Also 1
EUR = 0.884895 GBP. (They use six sig figs).
1 USD = 1 USD, so 0.878393 EUR should equal 0.777160 GBP. Yet this gives the
rate as 1 EUR = 0.884752 GBP, different in the fourth figure to the EUR-GBP rate
they quote.
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 09:29 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.
|
I understand why you'd want it in the price guide, but there are many (37)
exchange rates to GBP, or any other single currency. While many pieces are listed
in USD, plenty are also in EUR, with other currencies also used. That's a
lot of extra information to list. You also wouldn't need to go back and forth,
as if it was set for one hour, you could note down the exchange rates of interest
and you would know they are guaranteed until the next exchange rate update time.
|
Interesting point - might need a bit more detail from Bricklink now. We understand
how the currency thing works in certain areas but we thought that the underlying
base currency for all prices was USD which Bricklink converts everything to and
then uses the xe.com exchange rate as and when necessary. So if what you are
saying is correct and the prices being shown for each country on the price guide
are converted directly from their currency to gbp that is a different story and
more thought would have to go into this. Unfortunately the help page isn't
really clear on how they are holding the currency from the outset. What you are
suggesting that if someone in India adds items in rupees then the system would
have to convert from rupees to gbp as well as any other currency and that would
be a different proposition entirely.
I do believe Bricklink should clarify this issue which would be helpful.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 08:08 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.
|
I understand why you'd want it in the price guide, but there are many (37)
exchange rates to GBP, or any other single currency. While many pieces are listed
in USD, plenty are also in EUR, with other currencies also used. That's a
lot of extra information to list. You also wouldn't need to go back and forth,
as if it was set for one hour, you could note down the exchange rates of interest
and you would know they are guaranteed until the next exchange rate update time.
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 07:01 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | | | | | I thought current items for sale were all displayed using the exchange rate of
this moment. Why is it that important though if the exchange rate would be an
hour older?
|
That isn't how it works unfortunately. They change hourly, according to the
help pages. It would be far simpler to show the rate used at the top of the column.,
hence the suggestion.
|
I imagine doing instant lookups is just not efficient, as every time someone
accesses the price guide or looks at a store or a cart in another currency,
BL would need to access the exchange rates from xe.com. Plus I don't think
their (xe) rates are continuously updated anyway - aren't they something
like every 10 or 15 minutes, plus they also have some lag. I can totally understand
why BL sets them and fixes them for one hour, given how slowly they change (at
least change significantly, not in the 4th or 5th decimal place).
|
Understand what you are saying but it all depends on how the code is put together
to display the current data. It would be highly unusualk as well as inefficient
if they were storing the figures - good code isn't written that way, so when
we call up the price guid for a given element it should be doing those calculations
then and presenting the data - if that is the case then it is a simple matter
to add a single or couplof fields to the display.
| |
It wouldn't do any harm to either have the exchange rate on the price guide,
or possibly better still, have a separate page where all the current exchange
rates being used are listed along with the time they were updated for those interested.
That way, it is one less thing on the price guide page. Of course, you can always
get the current BL exchange rate, by doing the calculation yourself, to about
4 decimal places.
|
I would prefer it on the price guide so I didn't have to go back and forth.
Mind you this is all hypothetical cause they really are not doing anything with
the classic site whilst they work on XP.
Still one can hope - it really isn't rocket science or a lot of development
time to simply display the number you have used for the calculation.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 04:32 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | | | I thought current items for sale were all displayed using the exchange rate of
this moment. Why is it that important though if the exchange rate would be an
hour older?
|
That isn't how it works unfortunately. They change hourly, according to the
help pages. It would be far simpler to show the rate used at the top of the column.,
hence the suggestion.
|
I imagine doing instant lookups is just not efficient, as every time someone
accesses the price guide or looks at a store or a cart in another currency,
BL would need to access the exchange rates from xe.com. Plus I don't think
their (xe) rates are continuously updated anyway - aren't they something
like every 10 or 15 minutes, plus they also have some lag. I can totally understand
why BL sets them and fixes them for one hour, given how slowly they change (at
least change significantly, not in the 4th or 5th decimal place).
It wouldn't do any harm to either have the exchange rate on the price guide,
or possibly better still, have a separate page where all the current exchange
rates being used are listed along with the time they were updated for those interested.
That way, it is one less thing on the price guide page. Of course, you can always
get the current BL exchange rate, by doing the calculation yourself, to about
4 decimal places.
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 01:40 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, BricksThatStick writes:
| | In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
It's just a guide.
|
Yes, true so why not make it informative, rather than having to use guesswork
and trial and error.
| |
If sellers want to use it to actually price their listings to the averages they
accept its not 100% perfect.
|
I am not sure anyone makes that assumption - we don't it is supposed to be
a data average and the currency conversion should be dynamic not hourly. Not
sure why this would cause any real problem for any developer.
| |
Otherwise sellers should just see it for what it is and adjust their prices/set
prices as they see fit.
|
Many of us do but the adjustment should be based on real - not supposition.
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 25, 2018 01:37 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.
Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.
Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.
Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.
Thoughts ?
|
I thought current items for sale were all displayed using the exchange rate of
this moment. Why is it that important though if the exchange rate would be an
hour older?
|
That isn't how it works unfortunately. They change hourly, according to the
help pages. It would be far simpler to show the rate used at the top of the column.,
hence the suggestion.
Don't we all.
|
|
| Author: | BricksThatStick | | Posted: | Oct 24, 2018 14:26 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
It's just a guide.
If sellers want to use it to actually price their listings to the averages they
accept its not 100% perfect.
Otherwise sellers should just see it for what it is and adjust their prices/set
prices as they see fit.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 24, 2018 14:06 | | Subject: | Re: Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, calsbricks writes:
| | We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.
Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.
Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.
Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.
Thoughts ?
|
I thought current items for sale were all displayed using the exchange rate of
this moment. Why is it that important though if the exchange rate would be an
hour older?
By the way, in case you didn't know and it's useful - you can always
flip the currency of the priceguide by changing the vcID parameter in the URL:
Euro: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=2&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005
Dollar: https://www.bricklink.com/priceGuideSummary.asp?vcID=1&vatInc=Y&a=p&colorID=110&itemID=3005
I just wish this was properly interfaced (and that there was an easy simple to
understand API to access these things without downloading the page and run into
download limits imposed by Bricklink)
|
|
| Author: | calsbricks | | Posted: | Oct 24, 2018 13:01 | | Subject: | Price guide improvement | | Viewed: | 217 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| We are aware that nothing is going on on the classic site whilst the development
team focus on Bricklink XP, so we will make this as short and sweet as we can.
Having contacted the forum and put all elements of this together it is plain
that a subtle but important change needs to be in place for the price guide screen.
Understanding full well what happens with the 'sold at' columns those
can be left as they are until the whole price guide is revisited, whenever that
is going to be. The current items for sale, however needs s small but important
change, in our view. It is currently not possible to determine the currency conversion
rate for those figures. It could have been anyti8me in the last hour or this
hour or whenever.
Please simply add the two fields which are used to convert e.g. for example $1
= 'x' £;s and £1 = 'x$). This will enable any member, buyer or seller,
to at least get their figures correct when working offline. This is not a complicated
change/fix - it merely requires placing those fields on that screen each time
they change. The fields are held somewhere in the system even if it is a temporary
table, so it should be relatively straight forward to display them on the price
guide screen.
Thoughts ?
|
|
| Author: | burghbricks | | Posted: | Oct 17, 2018 17:35 | | Subject: | Re: Archive completed wanted lists | | Viewed: | 21 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | I like to have a feature to archive my completed (100%) wanted lists.
|
I agree that this would be a very helpful feature. My thought is that if it were
a checkbox or toggle to archive, it could then exclude the selected list when
using the want list feature in a store as well as categorize it under a different
section. Personally, I find it helpful to use my wanted lists as a reference.
Depending on the project, I sometimes add to an existing list as I'm expanding
so the ability to toggle from archived to active would be very helpful.
|
|
| Author: | MMillere | | Posted: | Oct 16, 2018 22:38 | | Subject: | Re: Instant Checkout testing simulation | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, cosmicray writes:
| | Please implement a testing framework for Instant Checkout such that …
|
Goot Idea Ollie, voted yes
Milissa
|
|
| Author: | nectara | | Posted: | Oct 16, 2018 12:55 | | Subject: | Re: Instant Checkout testing simulation | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, cosmicray writes:
| | Please implement a testing framework for Instant Checkout such that …
1. Any seller can determine a number of test cases to valudate their IC shipping
parameters.
2. Those test cases can each be expresed as a script (textual or GUI object based).
3. The seller can then select all, or a subset of the test cases.
4, The seller can then submit those test cases as a batch request.
5. The BL system will then schedule and run those test cases.
6. The seller will then receive an email back showing which test cases were run,
what shipping methods were allowed, etc. This would be roughly analgous to what
is reported via the shopping cart display.
7. This would not involve actually taking any items out of inventory, nor creating
any real orders, but would be a test case simulation of that.
8. The seller could retain those test cases for later reuse, as various parameters
are modified.
thank you, Nita Rae
|
For what?
|
|
| Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Oct 16, 2018 09:19 | | Subject: | Instant Checkout testing simulation | | Viewed: | 116 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| Please implement a testing framework for Instant Checkout such that …
1. Any seller can determine a number of test cases to valudate their IC shipping
parameters.
2. Those test cases can each be expresed as a script (textual or GUI object based).
3. The seller can then select all, or a subset of the test cases.
4, The seller can then submit those test cases as a batch request.
5. The BL system will then schedule and run those test cases.
6. The seller will then receive an email back showing which test cases were run,
what shipping methods were allowed, etc. This would be roughly analgous to what
is reported via the shopping cart display.
7. This would not involve actually taking any items out of inventory, nor creating
any real orders, but would be a test case simulation of that.
8. The seller could retain those test cases for later reuse, as various parameters
are modified.
thank you, Nita Rae
|
|
|
| Author: | randyf | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 17:41 | | Subject: | Re: Physical dimensions on Catalog pages | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, cosmicray writes:
| | Currently, for parts, the Catalog page only displays the logical dimensions of
the part (i.e. the stud counts + brick height).
Please add the physical dimensions. This exists, but is only seen under a lot
listing when custom values are enabled.
thank you, Nita Rae
|
A big YES! This should have been done ages ago. Then, everyone like me who does
not sell on BrickLink but loves to contribute to the catalog could add physical
dimensions where they are missing for Instant Checkout. It would be a big win
all around.
Cheers,
Randy
|
|
|
| Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 13:45 | | Subject: | Physical dimensions on Catalog pages | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| Currently, for parts, the Catalog page only displays the logical dimensions of
the part (i.e. the stud counts + brick height).
Please add the physical dimensions. This exists, but is only seen under a lot
listing when custom values are enabled.
thank you, Nita Rae
|
| Author: | alahaka | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 11:47 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| So I do agree that your proposal does provide better information, which if valid
eliminates the one of secrets I mentioned.
|
|
| Author: | alahaka | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 11:40 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 36 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, cosmicray writes:
| |
What would be better, is if the buyer were required to specify their shipping
address, then have two checkboxes under that …
One would be something like "Home address in same country as shipping address".
The other would be "Payment funded from same country as shipping address".
If either is unchecked, then it would be required to specify which country is
correct for that item.
This would not solve the indicated problem, but it would give us better information
to tell what buyers are more likely to be legitimate buyers.
Nita Rae
|
I think your suggestion above opens the door toward couriers, which in turn for
some buyers places courier, their packing, and their shipping responsibilities
on sellers, as opposed to ending seller responsibility at courier receipt.
I recognize couriers' value as well as the added risk they can present, and
have no solution at this point.
I do not like things big brother-ish, however admittedly would prefer to not
have the final destination and possible re-packing or breaking down of something
I've packed be secrets.
|
|
| Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 11:17 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Hagbart writes:
| | Hi
Would it be possible to block a buyer having an email from a given country eg
Russia, but his postal address is the UK?
Just got yet another scammers ordering from my shop with this very suspicious
config, even got negative from himfeedback from him.
Or a setting that enables us to block and oblige the buyer to pay buy only with
iban
|
This is a poorly thought out suggestion. As it is written, it should be tossed.
Having said that, I believe there is a need for better information disclosure.
What would be better, is if the buyer were required to specify their shipping
address, then have two checkboxes under that …
One would be something like "Home address in same country as shipping address".
The other would be "Payment funded from same country as shipping address".
If either is unchecked, then it would be required to specify which country is
correct for that item.
This would not solve the indicated problem, but it would give us better information
to tell what buyers are more likely to be legitimate buyers.
Nita Rae
|
|
| Author: | Rarah | | Posted: | Oct 15, 2018 11:08 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, matejo writes:
| | In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| |
People move. Either for years or only months or even weeks. And the Internet
has no frontier.
Will you force buyers to open a new e-mail account in the country they are while
they had had one for years that works pretty well anywhere in the world?
|
Hi,
I stated that associating emails with countries would be messy (i.e. I agree
with you), and I was not supporting the original suggestion.
But instead I wondered if BrickLink could verify member addresses against IP
address locations. A recent transaction indicates that PayPal is doing something
like this.
Sorry to cancel my previous post, not knowing if anyone might be replying. This
forum is a lot of (good) clutter, and after posting I weigh the value of my inputs
against adding to the clutter.
Thanks for the IBAN information, Matthew
|
Please don´t even joke about this! I live in Slovakia spend the year in ASIA
my IP is from Vietnam/Japan/China whatever. I come back home on christmass and
open all my post sent home in the year. I use gmail which has "gmail.com" means
global ... I have enough troubles with money transfers just because some pages
need to have my address locked to IP which I find is the stupidest thing on earth
in 2018 !! Some helpdesk guy even told me to travel home change my country and
come back ... 1200 €for fligh ticket just to change my country of origin if I
have all document with it on them to buy a 10 € token ... oh yes! Please think...
rules like these make a lot of hell for people like me.
|
|
| Author: | Vegitt | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 11:38 | | Subject: | Re: Payment | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| Each seller chooses the payment methods they want to accept. There are many that
offer alternatives to PayPal such as bank transfers, Stripe etc. If you have
an issue using PayPal then just check what other methods the seller has set up
before ordering.
|
|
| Author: | jimbo23uk | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 11:26 | | Subject: | Payment | | Viewed: | 90 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| Isnt it time Bricklink was to offer other payment methods , we used to have our
church group on paypal then a couple of year back they said no ,you now have
to nominate a single person . if that person dies or goes on holiday or any other
reason our buying and selling comes to a stop (unless we use amazon ) we are
currently going through a situation where our account has been put on hold while
paypal investigate £1.01p the reason why i could go on and on,i just so happened
that we had placed 3 orders with brick link and a purchase with ebay , so the
question s how do you pay , one of the orders was paid via Pingit .its becoming
classed as restrictive practice will a government in one country take action
against this ,i can see it happening , so is it no paypal no bricklink !!!!!!!!!!!!!answers
on a toilet roll please
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 04:38 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Brickwilbo writes:
| | In Suggestions, randyipp writes:
| | I would love it if the "note to seller" when a buyer is checking out were handled
more like a message and show up in the messages inbox, with the notification
number. The note looks like a message when using "contact your buyer about this
order" link but can easily be missed by sellers. It has happened to me a few
times, and can be frustrating if you see it too late!
Thanks,
Randy
|
The 'note to seller' is also in the order confirmation email.
Do you read the confirmation email?
Perhaps the order of the order details page should be customizable. Then the
notes can be moved to the top between the Details and parts section.
|
That's a good idea I think. On the internet we are kind of programmed to
completely disregard mumbo jumbo at the bottom of pages (like "© 2018 BrickLink
Limited. All rights reserved. Some LEGO® sets contain small parts that are NOT
suitable for and may pose a hazard to children under 3 years of age. LEGO® DUPLO®
sets have larger pieces which are specially designed for children under 3. LEGO®
is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize,
or endorse this site. Use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Terms
Of Service and Privacy Policy."). Something above the parts list would be much
more noticable, and also the message may affect how the order needs to be sorted/packed
so it's kind of a bummer if you forget to scroll down and read it only when
you reach the end of order picking 
|
|
| Author: | harro | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 04:38 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 21 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| I do agree!
Just a layout change would be ok.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 04:35 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, bricksahead writes:
| | .. How do you know that you've never missed a message?
|
Well, how do you know you packed all your orders correctly? Just a feeling, you
never know for sure of course if it comes to actual evidence. But as soon as
I open an order with a message attached to it I notice that right away, it's
the very first thing I notice. Right as you open the order, where there's
otherwise nothing, there's suddenly an icon, and a line "This order has an
attached message (view it)". In my opinion that is very clear. To the people
who do miss it, isn't simply a bigger font, bigger icon, enough?
If I would get the message in my inbox also, as sort of a duplicate thing, it
would make things less clear to me as it will show up as an item I need to handle
while I already did or already am going to. I will be more likely to miss
real messages that way or mix up something. The "(un)read" flag would lose parts
of its meaning as there will be messages that have already been read but still
appear unread in the inbox.
In my opinion anything regarding the processing of an order should be strictly
on that order page, and everything else - general inquiries, service - should
be in the inbox. I don't go through messages and orders crosswise, I have
a list of orders I need to do and a list of messages I need to work through and
I do one of these tasks at a time.
|
|
| Author: | Brickwilbo | | Posted: | Oct 13, 2018 03:47 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, randyipp writes:
| | I would love it if the "note to seller" when a buyer is checking out were handled
more like a message and show up in the messages inbox, with the notification
number. The note looks like a message when using "contact your buyer about this
order" link but can easily be missed by sellers. It has happened to me a few
times, and can be frustrating if you see it too late!
Thanks,
Randy
|
The 'note to seller' is also in the order confirmation email.
Do you read the confirmation email?
Perhaps the order of the order details page should be customizable. Then the
notes can be moved to the top between the Details and parts section.
|
|
| Author: | bricksahead | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 19:08 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | In Suggestions, randyipp writes:
| | I would love it if the "note to seller" when a buyer is checking out were handled
more like a message and show up in the messages inbox, with the notification
number. The note looks like a message when using "contact your buyer about this
order" link but can easily be missed by sellers. It has happened to me a few
times, and can be frustrating if you see it too late!
Thanks,
Randy
|
You mean just as a "regarding order ..." message and not attached to the order
itself? In that case, no!
I don't process orders and read messages at the same time. I always read
the attached notes and never missed one. But if it's troublesome to others,
maybe change placement, font, something in the interface. But definitely, for
bricks sake, doooon't detach it from the order page... :o
|
I agree with you that the message shouldn't be detached from the order page.
When a buyer sends a message from the order page it is appears on the order page,
in the buyer's outbox as well as in the seller's inbox. When a seller
sends a message from the order page it appears on the order page, in the seller's
outbox as well as the buyer's inbox. I think it should work the same way
with a message that is attached to the order when the order is placed. A seller
would then be reminded at log in to Bricklink if there are any unread messages.
.. How do you know that you've never missed a message?
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 18:14 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, randyipp writes:
| | I would love it if the "note to seller" when a buyer is checking out were handled
more like a message and show up in the messages inbox, with the notification
number. The note looks like a message when using "contact your buyer about this
order" link but can easily be missed by sellers. It has happened to me a few
times, and can be frustrating if you see it too late!
Thanks,
Randy
|
You mean just as a "regarding order ..." message and not attached to the order
itself? In that case, no!
I don't process orders and read messages at the same time. I always read
the attached notes and never missed one. But if it's troublesome to others,
maybe change placement, font, something in the interface. But definitely, for
bricks sake, doooon't detach it from the order page... :o
|
|
| Author: | jenwick | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 17:25 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 55 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| Randy,
I totally agree! Voted yes.
Jennifer
|
|
| Author: | alahaka | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 13:41 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| |
People move. Either for years or only months or even weeks. And the Internet
has no frontier.
Will you force buyers to open a new e-mail account in the country they are while
they had had one for years that works pretty well anywhere in the world?
|
Hi,
I stated that associating emails with countries would be messy (i.e. I agree
with you), and I was not supporting the original suggestion.
But instead I wondered if BrickLink could verify member addresses against IP
address locations. A recent transaction indicates that PayPal is doing something
like this.
Sorry to cancel my previous post, not knowing if anyone might be replying. This
forum is a lot of (good) clutter, and after posting I weigh the value of my inputs
against adding to the clutter.
Thanks for the IBAN information, Matthew
|
|
| Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 13:22 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, matejo writes:
| | Attempting to associate emails with countries sounds messy, however it seems
that BrickLink could verify member's country addresses against their IP address
location.
I know this is imperfect, not to mention a little big brother-ish, however it
would clean up the accuracy of members' locations and probably reduce order
problems.
|
People move. Either for years or only months or even weeks. And the Internet
has no frontier.
Will you force buyers to open a new e-mail account in the country they are while
they had had one for years that works pretty well anywhere in the world?
| | Do IBAN transfers use a particular service? I guess I need to conduct such a
transaction to see how they work. If they can decrease fraud with greater payee
control over funds, that sounds nice.
|
So-called “IBAN transfers” are just bank transfers.
When you do a bank transfer, you need to identify the accounts (more precisely,
the banks and the accounts within the banks), so that the banks can talk to each
other. IBAN (International Bank Account Number), is just a scheme to identify
accounts, it’s an international standard, ISO 13616.
One other identifier that’s often used is BIC (Business Identifier Code), which
identifies the bank in the Swift network (an agreement network between banks).
In the olden times (and in remote locations), transfers were (still are) a PITA,
involving letters and faxes to correctly identify and verify who’s who. When
it’s at all possible.
In the modern times (and enlightened countries   ), you just need an IBAN.
There are services that proxies for the banks, like iDEAL (NL-based), making
bank transfers a bit easier than from the bank’s own website, and “instant” (meaning
they can immediately tell the receiver the transfer has been entered).
What’s great in EU is that we created an(other) agreement: SEPA, which states,
among other things, that any payment in Euro in the SEP-Area has to be treated
the same way as a local payment. And as local bank transfers have mostly become
free in the past decades (especially online), that means they are mostly free
for the whole SEP-Area
So, see if you have an IBAN somewhere in your bank papers, or ask your bank if
you can easily (and cheaply) receive or send international bank transfers with
just an IBAN.
And if your bank can’t or won’t, you can still see if another one does. Opening
an account shouldn’t be expensive, even in the USA. (Don’t you get a free toaster
when you do? That’s what I learned watching US shows )
|
|
| Author: | Hubby | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 10:34 | | Subject: | Re: Block buyers with a different country email p | | Viewed: | 61 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, NicoBuma writes:
| | How'd you know for sure they are scammers? Maybe they are Russians who moved
to the UK, but didn't change their e-mail provider.
I myself have an hotmail.com (US) mailaddress, but live in The Netherlands, so
I would be a scammer too by your definition?
If they pay, it's ok; would be my motto. And yes, if I were you I'd prefer
IBAN as well, as it's a lot more secure than paypal and you as a seller have
a lot more rights, and your own bank has a lot less fees than paypal as well.
In Suggestions, Hagbart writes:
| | Hi
Would it be possible to block a buyer having an email from a given country eg
Russia, but his postal address is the UK?
Just got yet another scammers ordering from my shop with this very suspicious
config, even got negative from himfeedback from him.
Or a setting that enables us to block and oblige the buyer to pay buy only with
iban
|
|
Yes true Nico, I'll agree, but just got another fake account ordering from
my shop, that's the second guy from Russia. Just asked 2 things from him.
Provide a proof of his address is legit in france (e.g. electricity bill) and
send the money to my IBAN. After 11 days, no payments nor response....
But just added another faker to my block list.
|
|
| Author: | rikitikitaviguy | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 08:56 | | Subject: | Re: 3003 and 3003old | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| FWIW....
means "For What It's Worth"....
LM
In Suggestions, WFMTF writes:
| | If you search item nr. 6223 in catalog items, you get one set and item 3003!
I am getting a bit confused....
By the way: "FWIW" means ? sorry, do not know. BR Waltraud
In Suggestions, mfav writes:
| | FWIW, all my not-Pat Pend trans- 2x2s are 6223 and have walls identical to 3003old.
None of my opaque 2x2s have 6223.
Should 6223 be an alternate number for 3003old and NOT an alternate for 3003?
| | As far as I know none of the Trans- and Glittercolors have inside supports.
WHY do these colors appear as known colors on item 3003 and do not appear as
known colors on item 3003old - without inside supports.
This is a mismatch of catalog criterias - seen from my view.
I think that a short explanation in the additional notes would be good.
|
|
|
|
|
| Author: | WFMTF | | Posted: | Oct 12, 2018 08:46 | | Subject: | Re: 3003 and 3003old | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| If you search item nr. 6223 in catalog items, you get one set and item 3003!
I am getting a bit confused....
By the way: "FWIW" means ? sorry, do not know. BR Waltraud
In Suggestions, mfav writes:
| | FWIW, all my not-Pat Pend trans- 2x2s are 6223 and have walls identical to 3003old.
None of my opaque 2x2s have 6223.
Should 6223 be an alternate number for 3003old and NOT an alternate for 3003?
| | As far as I know none of the Trans- and Glittercolors have inside supports.
WHY do these colors appear as known colors on item 3003 and do not appear as
known colors on item 3003old - without inside supports.
This is a mismatch of catalog criterias - seen from my view.
I think that a short explanation in the additional notes would be good.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | mfav | | Posted: | Oct 11, 2018 11:51 | | Subject: | Re: 3003 and 3003old | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| FWIW, all my not-Pat Pend trans- 2x2s are 6223 and have walls identical to 3003old.
None of my opaque 2x2s have 6223.
Should 6223 be an alternate number for 3003old and NOT an alternate for 3003?
| | As far as I know none of the Trans- and Glittercolors have inside supports.
WHY do these colors appear as known colors on item 3003 and do not appear as
known colors on item 3003old - without inside supports.
This is a mismatch of catalog criterias - seen from my view.
I think that a short explanation in the additional notes would be good.
|
|
|
| Author: | WFMTF | | Posted: | Oct 11, 2018 08:05 | | Subject: | 3003 and 3003old | | Viewed: | 84 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| As far as I know none of the Trans- and Glittercolors have inside supports.
WHY do these colors appear as known colors on item 3003 and do not appear as
known colors on item 3003old - without inside supports.
This is a mismatch of catalog criterias - seen from my view.
I think that a short explanation in the additional notes would be good.
Thank you for a response
Waltraud
|
| Author: | bb1227754 | | Posted: | Oct 10, 2018 21:57 | | Subject: | Studio 2.0 | | Viewed: | 62 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| | Hinge tool additions |
| Author: | WhiteVanMan | | Posted: | Oct 7, 2018 16:07 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, SezaR writes:
| | You also showed your age
|
Ha Ha Ha......
| |
In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
|
Looks like the “special ads” section in some 1980’s newspaper
|
Now you are showing your age... lol
|
|
|
|
| Author: | SezaR | | Posted: | Oct 7, 2018 00:24 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| You also showed your age
In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
|
Looks like the “special ads” section in some 1980’s newspaper
|
Now you are showing your age... lol
|
|
|
| Author: | steelwoolghandi | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 14:22 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, EmblaRonja writes:
| | I thought about something...
It was great wheen BrickLink for about a year ago had some articles where we
could meet some sellers. Fun to read and great for any BrickLinker, I think specially
for sellers.
Coldn´t we have something just the same with some buyers? Invite them to participate
and show of their collection. What do you collect? Are you a builder or just
collecting? Any special finding to tell about? What do you seek now? Any goal
whit your project, collection?
Et c.
I been a collector my self and I often think it´s not so easy to share my passion
with ordinary friends, not that many of them understand Passion of Lego at all.
Maybe more people out there thinks the same?
I think this would be a very good byer friendly marketing thing that could increase
traffic and sales to the site.
God or bad idea?
|
Not sure if God has anything to do with it. (just yanking your chain).
I meet a few sellers and buyers when I was at a Show (called Steam) in the UK.
I had to drive to Swindon (not impressed by the way with Swindon). Met some great
Bricklinkers, I had met them when we still had a Chat section and got to know
them.
It might be a good idea to meet at a neutral place and not a dark alley or at
there house at 2 am (might be a set up). If they offer you candy and they drive
a Van with no windows don't stop just drive on!
|
|
| Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 14:05 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 44 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
|
Looks like the “special ads” section in some 1980’s newspaper
|
Now you are showing your age... lol
|
Nah, it’s only second hand knowledge
What it shows though is I think “dirty” otherwise I’d have referred to spy stuff,
like 1940’s BBC’s “Les Français parlent aux Français” (French speak to French,
résistance’s coded messages).
|
|
| Author: | Adjour | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:53 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | *waves but still hides* |
| Author: | WhiteVanMan | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:52 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
|
Looks like the “special ads” section in some 1980’s newspaper
|
Now you are showing your age... lol
|
|
| Author: | DoMT | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:26 | | Subject: | New Data Field for the cost/lb paid for stock | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| For sellers that buy their lego by weight a field in the settings where a seller
can enter cost per weight would be really useful.
If there was, then the cost per piece field could automatically be filled in
for the seller, instead of having to work it out manually each time. And the
cost of inventory would then be quickly reflected.
|
|
| Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:20 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:
| | | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
|
Looks like the “special ads” section in some 1980’s newspaper
|
| Author: | WhiteVanMan | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:04 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
Maybe do a detour to the UK, and bring a UCS Y-wing instruction book with ya....
I'll let you build my Eiffel Tower if you want....
Paul
|
|
| Author: | goldknight | | Posted: | Oct 6, 2018 12:01 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Adjour writes:
| | In Suggestions, EmblaRonja writes:
| | I thought about something...
It was great wheen BrickLink for about a year ago had some articles where we
could meet some sellers. Fun to read and great for any BrickLinker, I think specially
for sellers.
Coldn´t we have something just the same with some buyers? Invite them to participate
and show of their collection. What do you collect? Are you a builder or just
collecting? Any special finding to tell about? What do you seek now? Any goal
whit your project, collection?
Et c.
I been a collector my self and I often think it´s not so easy to share my passion
with ordinary friends, not that many of them understand Passion of Lego at all.
Maybe more people out there thinks the same?
I think this would be a very good byer friendly marketing thing that could increase
traffic and sales to the site.
God or bad idea?
|
I did see a seller that has something like "send me a pic of what you built and
I'll share it on *insert social media here*" Which is something I thought
was neat. I'd love to so something like that.
In person, meh, not if they know who I am (as in they have bought from me and
now have my address). Unfortunately being a woman in a mainly "male" hobby sets
me up for all sorts of stalkers.
Honestly, I feel your pain, not being able to share, but thats what expos/events/etc
are for right?
|
Now I know your in California as I am —I’ll be right over !!!
|
|
| Author: | Adjour | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 18:35 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 107 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, crazylegoman writes:
| | In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+.
|
|
This is hilarious, but I do admit I'm happy to have a $30 non set order and
would consider it large. I honestly have made about 40+ orders here and don't
think I've ever spent $30 at once except when I was finishing a #6985 and
the parts were very expensive.
What I really find is when people are selling as HUGE LOT of lego online/craigslist
without pictures that some questioning reveals its like 3 lbs worth. That's
what it reminds me of.
Anyway, I see both sides,
|
|
| Author: | Adjour | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 18:29 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 85 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, EmblaRonja writes:
| | I thought about something...
It was great wheen BrickLink for about a year ago had some articles where we
could meet some sellers. Fun to read and great for any BrickLinker, I think specially
for sellers.
Coldn´t we have something just the same with some buyers? Invite them to participate
and show of their collection. What do you collect? Are you a builder or just
collecting? Any special finding to tell about? What do you seek now? Any goal
whit your project, collection?
Et c.
I been a collector my self and I often think it´s not so easy to share my passion
with ordinary friends, not that many of them understand Passion of Lego at all.
Maybe more people out there thinks the same?
I think this would be a very good byer friendly marketing thing that could increase
traffic and sales to the site.
God or bad idea?
|
I did see a seller that has something like "send me a pic of what you built and
I'll share it on *insert social media here*" Which is something I thought
was neat. I'd love to so something like that.
In person, meh, not if they know who I am (as in they have bought from me and
now have my address). Unfortunately being a woman in a mainly "male" hobby sets
me up for all sorts of stalkers.
Honestly, I feel your pain, not being able to share, but thats what expos/events/etc
are for right?
|
|
| Author: | mikmo | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 18:10 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 68 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, chetzler writes:
| | In Suggestions, crazylegoman writes:
| | In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+.
|
|
People have different budgets and levels of disposable income. I am happy to
get a $30+ order, aren't you? Mocking the OP only reenforces his viewpoint,
so way to go, I guess.
Regardless of OP's budget, his complaint is has merit, I have felt the same
way shopping in some seller's stores.
|
+1
|
|
| Author: | Addict2Brick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 17:29 | | Subject: | Re: What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 70 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, EmblaRonja writes:
| | I thought about something...
It was great wheen BrickLink for about a year ago had some articles where we
could meet some sellers. Fun to read and great for any BrickLinker, I think specially
for sellers.
Coldn´t we have something just the same with some buyers? Invite them to participate
and show of their collection. What do you collect? Are you a builder or just
collecting? Any special finding to tell about? What do you seek now? Any goal
whit your project, collection?
Et c.
I been a collector my self and I often think it´s not so easy to share my passion
with ordinary friends, not that many of them understand Passion of Lego at all.
Maybe more people out there thinks the same?
I think this would be a very good byer friendly marketing thing that could increase
traffic and sales to the site.
God or bad idea?
|
It isn't a fun idea
|
|
| Author: | chetzler | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 17:20 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 85 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, crazylegoman writes:
| | In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+.
|
|
People have different budgets and levels of disposable income. I am happy to
get a $30+ order, aren't you? Mocking the OP only reenforces his viewpoint,
so way to go, I guess.
Regardless of OP's budget, his complaint is has merit, I have felt the same
way shopping in some seller's stores.
|
|
| Author: | EmblaRonja | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 17:19 | | Subject: | What about meeting the Buyers? | | Viewed: | 193 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| I thought about something...
It was great wheen BrickLink for about a year ago had some articles where we
could meet some sellers. Fun to read and great for any BrickLinker, I think specially
for sellers.
Coldn´t we have something just the same with some buyers? Invite them to participate
and show of their collection. What do you collect? Are you a builder or just
collecting? Any special finding to tell about? What do you seek now? Any goal
whit your project, collection?
Et c.
I been a collector my self and I often think it´s not so easy to share my passion
with ordinary friends, not that many of them understand Passion of Lego at all.
Maybe more people out there thinks the same?
I think this would be a very good byer friendly marketing thing that could increase
traffic and sales to the site.
God or bad idea?
|
|
| Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 16:56 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 82 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, crazylegoman writes:
| | In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+.
|
|
Why is there no like button for posts like this ?
|
| Author: | crazylegoman | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 16:01 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 107 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | chetzler | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 15:35 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
Sounds like you just needed to vent. Hopefully you'll stick around, I just
sent you a 20% off coupon for my store. I hope you'll stop by, I know you
will have a good experience. My only "restriction" is a minimum buy of $9.95,
this is enough to cover my overhead (baggies, shipping box, etc.) without any
additional nonsense fees. My shipping tables are clear and the rates are enforced
by instant checkout.
As others have said, not all stores play the kind of games you have described.
I can understand why sellers may want to impose lot fees--we have all had
those kinds of orders. What I don't understand is actually instituting them,
much less other fees. I even occasionally like receiving a high lot/low quantity
order, it ensures I never have to count higher than 5 when pulling any given
lot . If a store's inventory is well-organized such orders really shouldn't
present a headache. If you really love LEGO, you shouldn't mind a little
extra work to help out a fellow builder.
|
|
| Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 13:08 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Teup writes:
Perfect
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 12:54 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | No, I'm simply stating that the "rocket science" argument is flawed. It
implies that you don't need the intellect of a very scientific person, as
if said person has the capacity to know how to do everything very well.
|
Er, no. The “rocket science” argument means it’s intellectually difficult and
outside the capabilities of average people. It doesn’t imply that the person
should be very scientific, just very intelligent. And it doesn’t imply a “rocket
scientist” would have the capacity to know to do everything very well, just rockets.
The same argument is often rendered as “it’s not brain surgery.”
If you think a task needs someone with rare abilities, then it is “rocket science.”
Otherwise, that means you think anyone could do the task, and then “it’s not
rocket science” applies.
Well, you could also think that it both doesn’t need someone with rare abilities
but it also demands attention and time. Then, it’s both not “rocket science”
and not “not rocket science”
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I
|
|
| Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 12:45 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | No, I'm simply stating that the "rocket science" argument is flawed. It
implies that you don't need the intellect of a very scientific person, as
if said person has the capacity to know how to do everything very well.
|
Er, no. The “rocket science” argument means it’s intellectually difficult and
outside the capabilities of average people. It doesn’t imply that the person
should be very scientific, just very intelligent. And it doesn’t imply a “rocket
scientist” would have the capacity to know to do everything very well, just rockets.
The same argument is often rendered as “it’s not brain surgery.”
If you think a task needs someone with rare abilities, then it is “rocket science.”
Otherwise, that means you think anyone could do the task, and then “it’s not
rocket science” applies.
Well, you could also think that it both doesn’t need someone with rare abilities
but it also demands attention and time. Then, it’s both not “rocket science”
and not “not rocket science”
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 11:18 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
|
This is where IC could be improved. The current postage cost could be displayed
when in the store and get updated after each addition, and flagged up if an item
is included that stops the IC working. This is pretty much how it works on BO
- it is great to see if adding one part increases the postage costs, you can
then decide whether the real cost for that part is worth it.
|
And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
Yes, seems sensible to me.
It might also be a good idea to flag any parts that do not have dimensions or
similar, as that seems to be a fairly common complaint for getting postage calculations
wrong (especially for large minifigures). That way, the seller could be prompted
to input the data for all to use, or do the workaround so IC cannot apply to
an order with that part.
|
|
| Author: | cosmicray | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 11:04 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 52 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
I wish the best of luck in your purchases over at the big-A and the big-E. As
a seller, those two are significantly more expensive to do business upon, and
I have to increase my prices to compensate. If you're OK with paying higher
prices, then perhaps we all should take note here. Thanks for the heads up.
Nita Rae
|
|
| Author: | tEoS | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 10:57 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| No, I'm simply stating that the "rocket science" argument is flawed. It
implies that you don't need the intellect of a very scientific person, as
if said person has the capacity to know how to do everything very well.
In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | So, you are saying it is difficult. We're talking about sellers here, people
who decide that they can handle selling Lego. Not every person who signs up on
Bricklink has to understand how to set up shipping methods. But I think it is
only fair that for the small portion of those members who really are serious
enough to get into selling, it should be expected of them that they're able
to handle it. If they're not, they should either ask for help or just use
some other way to sell Lego that they do understand (In fact, I think setting
things up at Brickowl is easier than at BL.)
In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | I grow tired of reading the old "it's not rocket science" argument, as if
it somehow substantiates a person's claim.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | steelwoolghandi | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 10:56 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
I feel you're pain. When I started out as just a buyer on bricklink I had
a hard time with the restrictions but it took my a little while to figure out
how to check the best stores out and ignore the ones that would not work for
me. I will never buy Lego parts on Ebay again.
When I became a seller I then understood restrictions much better Lot restrictions
made much more sense. I have spent hours pulling 1 and 2 single parts for orders
that the list of small parts were as long as both my arms! Is it fun, no it is
not. Do I make anything off those orders, most of the time no due to time spent
vs order cost. I do feel that this is the price I pay to sell my Lego and I don't
get those orders all the time so I suck it up and forge ahead because I want
return customers and most of the time I get that.
I do feel the quote function is not used enough. It should be used more get a
better idea of what you will pay as a whole and if you are good with it then
just hit accept and you don't have to go through and pull that order again
just buy it.
I have worked with some awesome sellers on Bricklink and found that most are
willing to work with you as long as you communicate with them. If they don't
communicate with you move on, but don't think you will get treated better
on Ebay this "a trap".
Sorry for the frustration, but hang in there!
SWG
|
|
| Author: | bb745370 | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 10:52 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders
|
MMh yeha had the same again just now. Havent bought anything in a while cause
i couldnt bother the time it takes to setup an order so i get what i nee dfor
my projcts, just now i tried again and was happy that i had an store in the want
list buy thingy having almost everyhting. So i took my time created a few carts
wiht some additional stuff from other vendors and wanted to proceed, in the slection
it didnt say anything and accepted my order, then in cart overview there is suddenly
a: There is a problem you need to resolve. So i check it out and the large cart
of 50+ euro does not work out because of avg lot restrictions of 1,70€ ... oh
common, so half an hour for nothing, starting at zero again... sucks to a point
were i am not motivated enough to start again
|
|
| Author: | Adjour | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 10:46 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Abels_Bricks writes:
| | In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
|
This is where IC could be improved. The current postage cost could be displayed
when in the store and get updated after each addition, and flagged up if an item
is included that stops the IC working. This is pretty much how it works on BO
- it is great to see if adding one part increases the postage costs, you can
then decide whether the real cost for that part is worth it.
|
And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
The best thing that Bricklink could do and I am amazed that BL has not done this.
A sandbox for sellers to test postage options.
This would allow us all to check out settings and tweak them to make sure they
are correct for the way we want to sell.
|
I love this idea. I still don't have my shipping the way I'd like, mainly
because I can't see what the buyer is seeing.
I'm no dummy and I've shipped thousands of packages on 2 other platforms
before coming here and found setting up shipping to be quite difficult. This
site is not intuitive, but I suppose that weeds out most would be sellers, so
I can't complain too much.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 09:45 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| So, you are saying it is difficult. We're talking about sellers here, people
who decide that they can handle selling Lego. Not every person who signs up on
Bricklink has to understand how to set up shipping methods. But I think it is
only fair that for the small portion of those members who really are serious
enough to get into selling, it should be expected of them that they're able
to handle it. If they're not, they should either ask for help or just use
some other way to sell Lego that they do understand (In fact, I think setting
things up at Brickowl is easier than at BL.)
In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | I grow tired of reading the old "it's not rocket science" argument, as if
it somehow substantiates a person's claim.
| | And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | LearnedBrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 08:04 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 82 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
Sorry to hear that. Certain stores have their reasons for their restrictions
and terms, and your frustration and anger are valid but hopefully short-lived.
We have just one rule: Spend a dollar.
Spend a dollar, and I'll figure out the rest.
I hope you find a store that meets your needs.
|
|
| Author: | tEoS | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 07:59 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 67 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| I grow tired of reading the old "it's not rocket science" argument, as if
it somehow substantiates a person's claim.
| | And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
|
|
| Author: | Abels_Bricks | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 07:42 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Teup writes:
| | In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
|
This is where IC could be improved. The current postage cost could be displayed
when in the store and get updated after each addition, and flagged up if an item
is included that stops the IC working. This is pretty much how it works on BO
- it is great to see if adding one part increases the postage costs, you can
then decide whether the real cost for that part is worth it.
|
And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
The best thing that Bricklink could do and I am amazed that BL has not done this.
A sandbox for sellers to test postage options.
This would allow us all to check out settings and tweak them to make sure they
are correct for the way we want to sell.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 07:09 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
|
This is where IC could be improved. The current postage cost could be displayed
when in the store and get updated after each addition, and flagged up if an item
is included that stops the IC working. This is pretty much how it works on BO
- it is great to see if adding one part increases the postage costs, you can
then decide whether the real cost for that part is worth it.
|
And I think on the seller's side of the interface, it should also warn that
not all weight/volume/value/country combinations are covered. I think it's
the sellers responsibility to make sure that they have it all covered, it's
not rocket science. But it is true it takes some concentration and staring at
the screen to make sure everything is OK, so an algorythm that checks if there
are no holes sounds like exactly the type of thing we have computers for.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 06:27 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 93 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, tEoS writes:
| | Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
|
This is where IC could be improved. The current postage cost could be displayed
when in the store and get updated after each addition, and flagged up if an item
is included that stops the IC working. This is pretty much how it works on BO
- it is great to see if adding one part increases the postage costs, you can
then decide whether the real cost for that part is worth it.
|
|
| Author: | tEoS | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 06:08 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 93 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| Instant checkout isn't so simple. You can think you have all bases covered,
but later discover something that prevents a buyer from ordering.
In addition, we have no way to test our setup or see a buyer's cart to troubleshoot
an issue.
I use instant checkout, though I would never recommend, as I'm certain to
have lost orders because of it not functioning quite right.
| | A size restriction sounds ridiculous, I never saw that... How can a buyer possibly
anticipate this? There's no way of knowing how big your order is going to
be, nor is it the job of the buyer to be a mathematician even if it was. I think
sellers should have shipping methods ready for all sizes.
But sounds like the lot average problem could actually be fixed by Bricklink
itself. If they flag stores who use it properly, it will solve this frustration
instantly for every store that uses it. And is this lot average indicated in
the listings, in the same way that minimum order is? I really think it should
be.
|
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 06:01 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 64 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Bricks_NW_UK writes:
| | As a seller your terms should be clear and transparent. I don't get this
"lot" charge business to be honest. I sometimes think it is a case of sellers
offering silly discounts and recouping their money through these fees. it could
also be a way of avoiding BL fees!
For our part, we charge Royal Mail rates plus a nominal amount to cover packaging
& printing cost, and don't have any minimum order sizes.
It is all about transparency and honesty!
|
Lot minimums are there to ensure that sellers can offer good prices, but not
be picking orders consisting of 100s of lots, each of a single 1p part. Now sellers
can easily input lot minimums, and these are shown to buyers, so any extra lot-related
fees not declared this way should be banned.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 05:58 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 58 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions.
|
Did you not look at the top of the screen by the cart when you were in the store?
It should identify the minimum buy and the lot average price needed to check
out. BL has made changes so that these restrictions are made clear.
|
|
| Author: | Bricks_NW_UK | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 05:46 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 69 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| As a seller your terms should be clear and transparent. I don't get this
"lot" charge business to be honest. I sometimes think it is a case of sellers
offering silly discounts and recouping their money through these fees. it could
also be a way of avoiding BL fees!
For our part, we charge Royal Mail rates plus a nominal amount to cover packaging
& printing cost, and don't have any minimum order sizes.
It is all about transparency and honesty!
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 05:32 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 100 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
A size restriction sounds ridiculous, I never saw that... How can a buyer possibly
anticipate this? There's no way of knowing how big your order is going to
be, nor is it the job of the buyer to be a mathematician even if it was. I think
sellers should have shipping methods ready for all sizes.
But sounds like the lot average problem could actually be fixed by Bricklink
itself. If they flag stores who use it properly, it will solve this frustration
instantly for every store that uses it. And is this lot average indicated in
the listings, in the same way that minimum order is? I really think it should
be.
|
|
| Author: | SezaR | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 03:36 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 101 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| So frustrating.
Read first their terms. Most good sellers do have good and clear terms and nice
feedback. I know many of them.
By taking a quick look at terms, you can know if it is a good store or not.
I have found good stores and nice sellers. Honestly, the quality of Lego and
service you get on BL is much better than on Ebay where most sellers don't
know much about Lego.
Good luck.
In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
|
|
| Author: | StarBrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 02:37 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 118 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | RTFM ? |
|
| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Oct 5, 2018 00:17 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 116 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.+
|
I understand your frustration. There are some sellers with so much going on
in their terms that I X out and never go back. But there are many more sellers
here that are straight forward, simple, and quick to pull, invoice, and ship.
As a seller myself, I believe my store is easy to understand, has a quote section
available, and I respond to inquiries quickly.
I can only suggest to weed out the stores you do not like and find the diamonds
in the rough that work for you. There are many out there to choose from. Best
of luck!
|
|
| Author: | Build_Zone | | Posted: | Oct 4, 2018 23:18 | | Subject: | Re: Restrictions kill sales! I'm outta here! | | Viewed: | 133 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, npl writes:
| | Twice today I spent time making LARGE orders (two different vendors) for about
$30 or so USD+. The first had a shipping box size restriction I didn't see
until I was checking out and the seller did not respond to a query for a 'bypass'
in time to be useful. I bought what I wanted on Amazon instead. It will be
here day after tomorrow! Just now I put together another order of over 150 items,
spent 20 min, only to learn it had a ^%#^*^ LOT average of a dollar, and again,
I was required to ask for a bypass. Screw that. I don't have the time for
this nit-noid nonsense. So here's the suggestion: Price your stuff for
what you want and either make the restriction clear on the main page or can the
restrictions. As for me, I'm head for e-bay where I am sure I can get what
I want and where any restrictions are clear.
|
What is wrong with those sellers here:/ I am new seller but I'm not hiding
anything if i want add handling fee so I'll say for what if i have the reason
to do it. Some orders can be big for example but everything else in my store
is negotiable. Sellers please care about your customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
| Author: | Tech_M | | Posted: | Oct 2, 2018 23:05 | | Subject: | Brickheadz Prints in Stud.io | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| I and some of my friends are a bit disappointed by the lack of prints from the
Brickheadz series, especially the eyes. Does anyone else want these added?
|
|
| Author: | Etown | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 15:22 | | Subject: | Re: Note to seller is not very good | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, randyipp writes:
| | I would love it if the "note to seller" when a buyer is checking out were handled
more like a message and show up in the messages inbox, with the notification
number. The note looks like a message when using "contact your buyer about this
order" link but can easily be missed by sellers. It has happened to me a few
times, and can be frustrating if you see it too late!
Thanks,
Randy
|
I voted yes. I have been guilty of missing a message until I'm ready to invoice.
Ron
|
|
| Author: | Etown | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 15:16 | | Subject: | Re: 90-percentile as new average price ? | | Viewed: | 66 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Gaston.La.Brick writes:
| | I noticed the highest prices of items sold (or of items that are on sale), have
an out of proportion influence on the average prices.
Example: when 9 people sell (or have sold) an item at €0.10 but 1 person has
sold that item for €10.00, the average price would be €1.09
You may say this example is not realistic, but it's not that unrealistic
either. Check out item 6558. The avg used price of last 6 month sales is €0.023,
while the majority of the sales are for less as €0.02
If you look more closesly, you see a few sales at a high price, but not a lot.
(Note: someone even sold a few of these for €1.00 !)
It's my suggestion to change the calculation of avg price to use the 90-percentile
method. So only the 90 percent (lowest prices) are taken into account. That way,
the top 10-percent highest prices are not taken into account when calculating
the avg price.
To avoid weird behaviours, the rule could be in place only when there are 10
items sold/for sale.
Example would become an avg price of €0.10
Another somewhat more complex method would be the use the median. Not the mathematic
average, but the middle price: 50% of the sellers have a lower price, 50% of
the sellers have a higher price.
What do you guys think?
|
I voted no because I am hesitant to support anything that would expedite the
race to the bottom. It's getting more and more difficult to find sets with
a large enough margin to make it worth while. Besides, adding something that
makes the calculations even less transparent isn't a good move for Bricklink
in my opinion.
Ron
|
|
| Author: | bb1158246 | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 12:47 | | Subject: | Like feature | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Open | | Vote: | [Yes|No] | |
|
| I'm sure someone has suggested this before, but since I can't find an
earlier post that suggests this, I'll just make a new one.
Why not add a 'like' feature to the forum? So many times I read a comment
that I like, but I don't feel like responding to the comment to show I agree.
A like button would add a level of convenience.
|
|
| Author: | Bricks_NW_UK | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 11:10 | | Subject: | Re: 90-percentile as new average price ? | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| I agree with the point Teup makes on this.
"The race to the bottom" is something that concerns us as well.
Constant "sales" just harm the overall selling prices. Same goes with
store clearance, liquidation sales, closing shops etc.
Other have commented that the selling price is just going down
The same goes with the stores that overprice and then offer silly discounts.
We have already seen the damage caused to set prices where incomplete sets are
included in the average price and then driving down the set prices.
None of this gives any credibility to Bricklink at all.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 10:56 | | Subject: | Re: Price offer | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | |
In my opinion this wouldn't work!
They have this function on eBay and it is a nightmare to be honest.
The sellers have set their prices and if you don't want to pay the listed
price then you simply buy elsewhere.
I suppose if you want to make someone an offer you could do this via the quote
function and ask if they are prepare to sell for "x"
Bricklink needs to stay well clear of this.
Just my thoughts!
|
I think it could work if:
1) Sellers opted into it on an item by item basis.
2) Sellers could set two extra prices where (i) the offer is automatically rejected
if below and (ii) the offer is automatically accepted if above. So for example,
if a seller lists at $25 and would definitely accept $23.50 but wouldn't
want to be bothered by offers lower than $22, then they would enter those three
numbers. If a buyer offers $24, they would purchase instantly. If a buyer offers
$22.50, the seller needs to consider it. If a buyer offers $21.50, the buyer
is rejected instantly and the seller need not bother with it. A seller could
always set the definitely accept price to their normal price, to consider all
offers over their absolute minimum threshold. Of course, there would need to
be some checks in place to limit the number of offers, so a buyer doesn't
just offer $20, then $20.25, then $20.50, ... etc going up in small increments
to hit the minimum price the seller will accept.
It would be good for those rarer items where pricing is difficult due to lack
of similar sales. I don't think it would work at all well for general parts
or orders where you are likely to have multiple items. But for one-off, expensive
items (presumably either sets or rarer minifigures) it might be a good idea.
|
|
| Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 10:45 | | Subject: | Re: 90-percentile as new average price ? | | Viewed: | 63 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | You are jumping to conclusions. I never said prices are unfair. I'm saying
the average calculation, although mathematically correct, is not a good indication
of what a piece is actually sold for most of the time.
|
Throwing away data using some other biasing gives an even worse indication of
what it has sold for.
| | Because that is what the average amount implies: the average price to which an
item is sold for most of the time.
|
The average value reports the average (mean) value - it is exactly what it says
it is. The average is not the value an item is sold for most of the time. Although
sellers might want to know a more reasonable price to list their items at, the
average is there as a guide, not a definitive value.
| | For me, I use the average price to set my pricing. But currently it becomes unreliable,
when you have to verify how many items have been sold at a price that's not
realistic (or at least: that has something strange going on -- $1.00 for
a typicall $0.02 item, seems strange to me).
|
Why is it unreliable? It is reporting the average of all sold prices. If a $0.02
item frequently sells for $1.00 then it should be included as the sales are frequent.
If it is a one off, then it will hardly affect the average price at all if the
item is commonly sold at $0.02.
| | You are not for, because it would make the calculation less transparant. But
it doesn't have to be clear how it was calculated, as long as it's accurate.
|
There is no such thing as an accurate average when data has been removed. You
don't want an accurate average price, you want an accurate average based
on a 90-percentile, so only taking the lowest 90% of the data. What happens if
there are low outliers? Why do you want to include those, but not the high end
of the distribution. If you average over the lowest 90% then base prices on that,
then average over the lowest 90% and base prices on that, then average over
the lowest 90% and base prices on that, and iterate so on, then prices will necessarily
tend towards zero, even if the price distribution is Gaussian each month.
| | In the end, to me, it still feels the average price as a purely mathematical
average, is not very useful.
|
Any statistic like this has to be mathematical. Your suggestion is also mathematical.
The algorithm you suggest is to take the lowest 90% of prices and take the mean.
That is no less mathematical than take all the prices and average.
Averages are a bit pointless for distributions that are not Gaussian / bell-shaped,
and on BL many have either long tails left or right, or are bi-modal (or worse).
There are other ways of getting averages, such as fitting a Gaussian distribution
to price regions with dense sales, ignoring others. Or fitting the middle 95%,
or 90% or 60%, etc. You can do this, as BL supplies all the data you need to
choose your own algorithms.
A much bigger problem is that the data you are using to fix your sales prices
are worldwide, yet prices vary by region. Some regions include tax, others do
not. For example, why base your price on an average mainly coming from US sales,
when the EU market might be willing to pay more?
|
|
| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 10:33 | | Subject: | Re: 90-percentile as new average price ? | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Gaston.La.Brick writes:
| | | | I really don't think prices on Bricklink
are unfair at all considering all the work that goes into running a store.
|
You are jumping to conclusions. I never said prices are unfair. I'm saying
the average calculation, although mathematically correct, is not a good indication
of what a piece is actually sold for most of the time.
Because that is what the average amount implies: the average price to which an
item is sold for most of the time.
For me, I use the average price to set my pricing. But currently it becomes unreliable,
when you have to verify how many items have been sold at a price that's not
realistic (or at least: that has something strange going on -- $1.00 for
a typicall $0.02 item, seems strange to me).
You are not for, because it would make the calculation less transparant. But
it doesn't have to be clear how it was calculated, as long as it's accurate.
It's like Google search engine: you don't need to know the algorithm
behind it, as long as the results are accurate (which they typically are).
Your remark about why not the middle 90p (so 5p-95p range), is valid but I'm
in doubt about that. It still is a seller/buyer market. So a low price actually
does mean a very solid competition that influences the seller/buyer market. This
in contrary to a very high price, which is not relevant for the seller/buyer
market.
The reason I wouldn't include the lowest 5p, I give you that, is to exclude
the sellers who price very low but add a ridiculously high fee per lot.
In the end, to me, it still feels the average price as a purely mathematical
average, is not very useful. You imply it's good for sellers, since the buyer
gets an (unrealistic) idea about the amount he should spend on the item. Unless
it's a smart seller that looks at other stuff than average amounts... (and
I think most of them do).
|
A low price puts in all those sales where people are "selling out".
Overall, to each their own on pricing. I have my own methods which vary from
color to color, type to type and category to category, and use multiple buckets
to put items into rather than one. If I have a piece and want to sell it for
$1 when the market is $0.05 and it sells. That's a great business decision.
Price is only one factor of many when buyers choose your store.
|
|
| Author: | Gaston.La.Brick | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 09:57 | | Subject: | Re: Price offer | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Bricks_NW_UK writes:
| | In Suggestions, mikmo writes:
| | Can you imagine getting 2000 messages offering you 3$ for your Chrome black Darth
Vader minifig ?
There should at least be a min. amount if this option is implemented.
Kind regards
Mikael / MikMo
|
In my opinion this wouldn't work!
They have this function on eBay and it is a nightmare to be honest.
The sellers have set their prices and if you don't want to pay the listed
price then you simply buy elsewhere.
I suppose if you want to make someone an offer you could do this via the quote
function and ask if they are prepare to sell for "x"
Bricklink needs to stay well clear of this.
Just my thoughts!
|
I'm not a seller on eBay, but I have used the "Make an offer" as a buyer
a few times (with always reasonable offers) and sellers have accepted my offer
in about 50% of the cases. Or made a counter offer that I thought was still acceptible.
Of course, you are right: this is ridiculous to do for common items. But for
items that aren't that highly available (often very expensive items), I find
it useful.
But to be honest: I think there are more urgent items to be implemented on BrickLink
(Responsive Design please!)
|
|
| Author: | Gaston.La.Brick | | Posted: | Oct 1, 2018 09:54 | | Subject: | Re: 90-percentile as new average price ? | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| | | I really don't think prices on Bricklink
are unfair at all considering all the work that goes into running a store.
|
You are jumping to conclusions. I never said prices are unfair. I'm saying
the average calculation, although mathematically correct, is not a good indication
of what a piece is actually sold for most of the time.
Because that is what the average amount implies: the average price to which an
item is sold for most of the time.
For me, I use the average price to set my pricing. But currently it becomes unreliable,
when you have to verify how many items have been sold at a price that's not
realistic (or at least: that has something strange going on -- $1.00 for
a typicall $0.02 item, seems strange to me).
You are not for, because it would make the calculation less transparant. But
it doesn't have to be clear how it was calculated, as long as it's accurate.
It's like Google search engine: you don't need to know the algorithm
behind it, as long as the results are accurate (which they typically are).
Your remark about why not the middle 90p (so 5p-95p range), is valid but I'm
in doubt about that. It still is a seller/buyer market. So a low price actually
does mean a very solid competition that influences the seller/buyer market. This
in contrary to a very high price, which is not relevant for the seller/buyer
market.
The reason I wouldn't include the lowest 5p, I give you that, is to exclude
the sellers who price very low but add a ridiculously high fee per lot.
In the end, to me, it still feels the average price as a purely mathematical
average, is not very useful. You imply it's good for sellers, since the buyer
gets an (unrealistic) idea about the amount he should spend on the item. Unless
it's a smart seller that looks at other stuff than average amounts... (and
I think most of them do).
|
|
Next Page: 5 More | 10 More | 25 More | 50 More | 100 More
|
Netherlands, Utrecht
South Africa, Western Cape
United Kingdom, England
USA, Pennsylvania
Denmark
Slovakia, Trnavský Kraj
France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Austria, Burgenland
Canada, British Columbia
Sweden, Västra Götaland
Germany, Rheinland-Pfalz
United Kingdom, Scotland
Ireland, Westmeath
Belgium