| Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | yorbrick  | | Posted: | Dec 26, 2019 17:21 | | Subject: | Re: BRICKS & PIECES availability and price | | Viewed: | 91 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| | | . Finally, specialized parts
like printed parts and minifigure parts from licensed sets are never available
at B&P.
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They are. They shouldn't be, but they are. Less so these days, but it is
often still possible to buy some licensed parts.
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| Author: | 62Bricks | | Posted: | Dec 26, 2019 09:25 | | Subject: | Re: BRICKS & PIECES availability and price | | Viewed: | 70 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, Tholwin writes:
| | Hello,
While I favor buying other people's unwanted pieces, I always check the price
of each piece on "BRICKS & PIECES" (Lego website), in an attempt to avoid buying
on bricklink pieces I could get cheaper and brand new from Lego.
This is the reason why I would love to see in bricklink if pieces are available
on "BRICKS & PIECES", and at which price, without having to search.
Best regards
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I don't sell new parts, so I have no dog in this race, but it does make me
imagine what might happen if Lego put links to the BL listings from the Bricks
and Pieces site.
This is what Amazon did when they bought and then integrated Bibliofind, a used
book site. That is when they started offering items from independent sellers
alongside the ones being sold directly by Amazon.
Lego's customer support has already been sending people to Bricklink for
years to find parts they no longer offer themselves. What if they started linking
directly to them from the Lego site?
I might be able to predict what could happen - the same thing that happened when
Amazon did it. For a while, individual used book sellers made good money. The
added exposure resulted in lots of sales. A brand new book with a sticker price
at $25 was being sold by Amazon for $20, and booksellers could list (and sell)
a used copy for $15.
But then market forces rolled up. People realized that by increasing efficiency
and accepting tiny margins, you could commodify used books. They bought them
up in large remainder lots and from the stock of stores that were closing, set
up software that let them easily scan the barcode and manage large inventories
of stock, and bots that would scrape price information and automatically set
and adjust prices. That $15 used book was now being sold for 99 cents (the minimum
price Amazon allowed at the time). They were making mere pennies per sale, but
they were making thousands of sales every day.
I don't think we have much to fear by pointing Bricklink buyers to Lego,
but I fear what might happen if Lego started pointing people here.
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| Author: | Dino | | Posted: | Dec 26, 2019 08:53 | | Subject: | Re: BRICKS & PIECES availability and price | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, Tholwin writes:
| | Hello,
While I favor buying other people's unwanted pieces, I always check the price
of each piece on "BRICKS & PIECES" (Lego website), in an attempt to avoid buying
on bricklink pieces I could get cheaper and brand new from Lego.
This is the reason why I would love to see in bricklink if pieces are available
on "BRICKS & PIECES", and at which price, without having to search.
Best regards
|
When B&P opens a shop here, the prices are included in the price index. If not,
the B&B prices have no business here.
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| Author: | infinibrix | | Posted: | Dec 26, 2019 07:52 | | Subject: | Re: BRICKS & PIECES availability and price | | Viewed: | 70 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:
| | In Suggestions, Tholwin writes:
| | Hello,
While I favor buying other people's unwanted pieces, I always check the price
of each piece on "BRICKS & PIECES" (Lego website), in an attempt to avoid buying
on bricklink pieces I could get cheaper and brand new from Lego.
This is the reason why I would love to see in bricklink if pieces are available
on "BRICKS & PIECES", and at which price, without having to search.
Best regards
|
1- This does not account for volume limits on B&P so while a store here may allow
a higher amount than the qty LEGO allows- some people would pay a little more
to buy a higher QTY from one shop.
2- This does not account for a certain variety that a store here may have that
LEGO might not have that would be more favorable to the buyer to buy in one place.
3- This does not account for VAT that may be charged on LEGO but not here.
4- This does not account for speed, some buyers are willing to pay a premium
for faster service.
5- This does not account that many sought after pieces run out quickly on B&P
or simply go out of production and then you'd have a buyer comparing between
a BL store and a non available MSRP.
6- B&P is not available for all countries but BL is available for most.
7- last but not least: You are asking sellers on this platform (those who actually
pay the dues that maintain the operation of BL) to support a proposal that would
siphon traffic and business away from BL- that would not go very well.
What your proposal fails to comprehend is that there are many added values (like
the ones i mentioned above) to shopping at Bricklink VS. LEGO S@H beyond just
price.
Therefore, if you don't see or agree with the idea that there is an added
value to support this community- why would you expect this community to support
your idea?
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I think you still have to appreciate why from a buyers perspective they would
wish to see Lego B&P prices among the price comparisons on Bricklink. It may
not exactly be the ideal scenario from a sellers point of view but if were to
assume you are correct with the points you are making then sellers like us should
have little to fear after all Lego only offer current generic bricks with minimal
availability of themed bricks and minifig parts
Either way if Lego decide they want to have an official Lego B&P’s BL account
it will be out of our hands anyway plus those that managed to find their way
here to Bricklink probably already know about Lego B&P’s so could we really just
be talking about a more efficient market place comparison site rather than a
path that leads to Lego taking extensive business away from its BL sellers?
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Dec 26, 2019 04:48 | | Subject: | Re: BRICKS & PIECES availability and price | | Viewed: | 64 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, Tholwin writes:
| | Hello,
While I favor buying other people's unwanted pieces, I always check the price
of each piece on "BRICKS & PIECES" (Lego website), in an attempt to avoid buying
on bricklink pieces I could get cheaper and brand new from Lego.
This is the reason why I would love to see in bricklink if pieces are available
on "BRICKS & PIECES", and at which price, without having to search.
Best regards
|
I get why this would be a useful feature for an independent comparison site to
have. But on Bricklink itself that makes little sense, for reasons others
have mentioned. Maybe propose this at a site that is not a marketplace, such
as Rebrickable? I don't know Rebrickable very well but they do have a channel
through which you can buy on BrickOwl (maybe als on Bricklink?). It'd sound
like the best place for that helicopter overview where it's OK to compare
apples and oranges, just like sites for comparing retail prices of sets from
different sources.
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