BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

In Administrative, jennnifer writes:

In Administrative, swilhelm writes:

In Administrative, jhess writes:

re: shipping zones

are you talking about ADDING the option for zones or REPLACING shipping costs
by weight WITH zones?

Hello jhess, the conversation was around replacing the current shipping method
with shipping by weight to zones. We are looking into API solutions with USPS
among others as our current system doesn't support adding zones.

Ah... Hi. Don't mean to be rude, but who are you and who is we? Do you work
for BrickLink?

Also, the concern here was that you all understand that the USPS uses weight
and location, not one or the other.

Jen

He is our new Product Manager for the Marketplace Team.

Ah, thank you for sharing the information...perhaps an administrator banner is
in order.

Jen

Author:

Admin_Russell

Posted:

Jun 3, 2021 16:49

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

131 times

Topic:

In Administrative, jennnifer writes:

In Administrative, swilhelm writes:

In Administrative, jhess writes:

re: shipping zones

are you talking about ADDING the option for zones or REPLACING shipping costs
by weight WITH zones?

He is our new Product Manager for the Marketplace Team.

Author:

jennnifer

Posted:

Jun 3, 2021 16:25

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

78 times

Topic:

In Administrative, swilhelm writes:

In Administrative, jhess writes:

re: shipping zones

are you talking about ADDING the option for zones or REPLACING shipping costs
by weight WITH zones?

Author:

swilhelm

Posted:

Jun 3, 2021 16:06

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

103 times

Topic:

In Administrative, tEoS writes:

This page has been "temporarily disabled" for many years now:
https://www.bricklink.com/storeSettings.new.asp

Hello tEoS, thanks for your input. We are currently looking into this page and
will post an update soon.

Author:

swilhelm

Posted:

Jun 3, 2021 16:04

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

124 times

Topic:

In Administrative, akr2355 writes:

I also hate to be a "party pooper" but Bricklink is still striking out on the
easy stuff.

Any update on tax exemptions that should have been available 6 months ago?

Hello akr2355, we are looking into the tax exemption issue, but will be prioritizing
the EU Marketplace facilitator rules and US state tax updates that are set to
go into effect July 1st.

Author:

swilhelm

Posted:

Jun 3, 2021 15:47

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

103 times

Topic:

In Administrative, jhess writes:

re: shipping zones

are you talking about ADDING the option for zones or REPLACING shipping costs
by weight WITH zones?

Author:

ABCollectables

Posted:

Jun 2, 2021 01:25

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

102 times

Topic:

Great selection of users, hope in the future be able to participate. Thanks for
the info and looking forward to the enhancements and fixes.

Author:

brickbiters

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 18:34

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

106 times

Topic:

so in an OPEN discussion forum, someone raises valid concerns and is threatened.

i hope this isn't a foretelling of how it's going to be from now on.

bricklink has done just fine for 20 years without this sort of policing and has
always been community driven. no need for these 'teams' that are not
chosen by the community.

it's not just buyers on here but people who have invested a lot of money
'slinging' bricks, some of which do it full time and these decisions
affect their families and their livelihood.

if you want to know what's best for the community just open discussion with
the them and they'll tell you, if you're actually willing to listen.
no need for some special 'teams'.

for anybody other than the 'community' to think they are the voice of
the community it's...well, it's just not good.

it's not ok to call out a panel member but it's ok to do so to a concerned
member of the community in the public forum instead of with a private pm? interesting.

personally, i'd be more than happy to give my input to help bricklink be
a better place. would i want to join one of their 'teams'? no, not really.
because bricklink was built by the community and any improvements should include
input from the entire community, not a select chosen few.

it takes a modular village to raise a brinklink.....

i'm not calling out any particular individual. i'm just making an observation
of what i see in the threads here that i'm not sure i appreciate.

just heard somewhere that my comments and input were really appreciated, and
it's a shame that any time folks have a comment that they have to feel worried
that they are going to get kicked off of bricklink. to me that doesn't really
make it feel like a community anymore.

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear All,

I really appreciate your comments and input, most of which are both kind and
valuable, thank you! The intention is to be transparent, however I kindly ask
that in the attempt to be so, you all stay on the ball! Calling out any individual
panel members in a negative context will not be tolerated.

Thank you for your understanding.

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 17:08

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

114 times

Topic:

In Administrative, VOTB writes:

Thank you Tanja for summarizing the new panel and a brief look at what transpired.
I know in the past that attempts like these have fallen flat, and disappointed
those that have been around much longer than I have.

I am excited about the life that TLG is breathing back into BL. I know it all
takes time and a metered approach is going to be the most beneficial long term.
I have appreciated this update as well as the catalog newsletter, and look forward
to other updates and ways we can help participate in this platform.

I have had personal conversations in the past, with a few of the panelists and
feel that some great choices were made for the first round.

Thank you VOTB I appreciate the input and your offer to participate!

/Tanja

Author:

VOTB

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 14:59

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 11:34

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

84 times

Topic:

In Administrative, wildchicken13 writes:

In Administrative, tEoS writes:

I may be wrong about Studio, but I thought that LDD was still very active at
that time.

Studio may have been a worthwhile investment in its own right. Still, that was
likely resources that may have been better used for improving the marketplace,
which is BL's primary function.

— LDD 4.3.10 was out in March 2016 (many parts added).
— They added ONE part in February 2017 (26604, Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Studs
on 2 Sides, Adjacent).
— LDD 4.3.11 was out in January 2018 (many parts added, but only to Extended
mode, “normal” mode became totally useless).
— They also “released” a totally counterproductive 4.3.12 for Windows only in
August 2019: it was supposed to fix installation problems on Windows 10 (caused
by Flash) but ended up with a very outadted and non-updatable parts library.

So, on my count, there was two (real) updates since the abandonment announcement,
one just after the announcement and before Studio was out, and the other one
long-after and very final. So I wouldn’t say “LDD was still very active at that
time” either

However, LDD
doesn't work on more recent versions of macOS,

… and you have to be creative to install 4.3.11 on Windows 10…

so many have been forced to
switch to Studio. I can't say for sure how many BrickLink sales are generated
in whole or in part by Studio projects, but I can say for sure that many of the
BrickLink orders I place are.

There’s also a lot of buyers who use Rebrickable… for projects made with Studio…
or with LDraw tools or LDD or Mecabricks or…, but I don’t think BL can know which,
so, yeah, it’s very hard to tell.

But I agree with you in that BrickLink is first
and foremost a LEGO marketplace and that should be its primary focus.

Author:

akr2355

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 09:48

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

99 times

Topic:

I also hate to be a "party pooper" but Bricklink is still striking out on the
easy stuff.

Any update on tax exemptions that should have been available 6 months ago?

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 07:51

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

101 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Teup writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

In Administrative, Teup writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Please find the minutes from the first Marketplace Panel meeting.

Minutes from the first Marketplace Panel meeting May 20th. 2021

Agenda

- Panel member introductions

- Marketplace panel program presentation

- Workshop

- BrickLink vision

- Marketplace plan 2021 & Prioritization discussion

- Next steps

Ad. 1 Panel member introductions

We have selected the initial panel members based on criteria such as: Having
both buyers and sellers represented, BrickLink experience, ability to engage
in constructive dialogues about the future of BrickLink and ability to consider
the greater good for the BrickLink sellers and buyers.

The initial panel members are:

Constructibles, SimplyBricks, Dcarmine, Calsbricks, Erkiles, Legoman77, Faro,
BrickCoast

During this first part, all panel members introduced themselves and it is clear
that this is a diverse, multitalented group that are all passionate about BrickLink.

No doubt that this select group will be a fantastic first Marketplace panel.

Ad 2. Marketplace panel program presentation

The structure of the program had been shared with the panel ahead of the meeting,
so in this session, we mainly dug into the basics of the program and collaboration
principles:

4 annual meetings with an opportunity to impact the future development of the
BrickLink Marketplace

Between the meetings we will collaborate through a Teams channel, making it possible
for us to engage outside the meetings as well.

We aim to increase the number of members in the panel to a max of 14 people throughout
the next 1-2 years.

We will invite new members to the Panel annually, to ensure fresh perspectives
by shifting 50% of the panel members with new members meeting above criteria.
We will be promoting the opportunity to sign up for the panel in Q1 2022.

In our collaboration, we will be looking to the future as opposed to the past.

We will be mindful of one another in the dialogues we have, remembering that
we are all in this with the best of intentions.

This panel is focused on the Marketplace specifically. There will be other initiatives
similar to this one, that focus on e.g. Studio, The Catalog, etc.

Ad 3. Workshop

This being the first Panel meeting, we felt a need to make sure we got the frustrations
out of every one’s system, in order to be able to focus on the future of BrickLink,
as opposed to being stuck in the past. This was done in a workshop where everyone
was able to share frustrations but also the things, they love about BrickLink.

Ad 4. BrickLink vision

Marvin Park shared thoughts related to the vision and mission of BrickLink as
a platform through which LEGO fans can also realize their dream designs. As for
the long-term roadmap, it was highlighted how BrickLink marketplace and Studio
can evolve to meet diverse needs of the AFOL community and become an integral
part of the entire LEGO ecosystem.

Ad 5. Marketplace plan 2021 & Prioritization discussion

BrickLink’s new Senior Product Manager Stephen Wilhelm presented the current
Marketplace roadmap. This roadmap is now mainly focused on development related
to VAT compliance rules (initiatives that we are bound to by law and that we
are not able to de-prioritize) and initiatives intended to support e.g., the
ability to lower response rate for new seller verifications, etc. There are several
user experience related initiatives the BrickLink Marketplace team plans to work
on, but we are looking to the Marketplace Panel members to help us prioritize
what enhancements would provide the most value.

Aside from above, several focus areas that we have picked up based on input from
the BrickLink members in general were presented with the intention to prioritize
them. We were not able to finish the prioritization discussions completely at
this meeting, but a couple of things were highlighted as being critical to prioritize:

Seller tools (e.g., Inventory management, store management, seller page updates)

Continue modernization of the BrickLink platform. This is already ongoing, but
we aim to apply more resources later this year.

A few less critical but still impactful areas were introduced:

Telephone support and the ability to have expert engagers to reach out to

Order Item Refund Request (OIRR) & Refund enhancement

Rewriting storefront pages to support mobile / native.

Provide BrickLink shipping methods (preferably one shipping cost per customer)

Overhaul/update payment processes

The above list varies greatly in level of complexity, and we will need to take
all input in to consideration in upcoming plans. Status on above and long-term
plans will be shared in minutes from the next Panel meeting.

A few other things we will be looking in to due to the input from the panel:

Ability for Sellers to make use of BrickLink’s access to Google Analytics.

On-site payment and why some sellers choose not to use this option.

Shipping price calculations based on zones instead of weight (US specific)

Ad 6. Next steps

It was decided to disclose the BrickLink panel members to the general BrickLink
membership base, this is not to be seen as an invitation to reach out to the
panel members directly with input for the Panel, but a way to be transparent
about who is in the panel as per the request of many members. Any ill manor
targeted directly at the Panel members may result in abandonment from BrickLink.

We need everyone’s input!

We have recently taken input from all BrickLink members in the survey, and we
take input regularly in the NPS survey, this input has already played a huge
part in shaping the focus for BrickLink in general and will be part of shaping
the future of BrickLink also.

During the upcoming Panel meetings, we might come across items to prioritize
that are not straight forward, in terms of defining what is best for the majority
of BrickLink members, in these cases, we will have a poll among the members in
general in order to ensure solid facts to back the decisions.

Upcoming meetings

The next meetings are planned for August and November.

Reflections

No doubt that we are blessed to have members on BrickLink that are prepared to
spend hours in their busy lives, participating in dialogue to make sure that
we have the best outside-in perspective we can when deciding how to prioritize
our efforts on BrickLink going forward. This is not something we have been able
to prioritize to the same extent in the past (hence numerous understandable frustrations),
but it is something that we are committed to prioritizing going forward!

BrickLink members, you can be proud of your Panel members, they did an amazing
job in representing you. Everyone spoke freely about critical issues to be addressed,
this is highly appreciated because then we won't have to waste time (mis)interpreting
this and we can get moving on the things that matter.

We hope that you will read this and share any feedback you might have, in this
topic or directly to ce_tanja. We have just started this journey and we are happy
to take your input to the process and adjust along the way.

Thank you!

The BrickLink Team

This is pretty impressive Tanja, thanks for sharing this and for coordinating
these efforts!

Just a bit of input on this one:

On-site payment and why some sellers choose not to use this option.

One obvious reason (which I have been stressing and repeating more times than
I could count

) is.... Bricklink better payment methods!! PayPal has just become
too expensive. Catch up with BrickOwl here. A year ago I had a call with the
team and raised this point, they said they were working on it, but sadly still
no results. The Netherlands, and I think a bunch of other countries, have onsite
interfaces for bank transfers. Once that is implemented I can guarantee Dutch
domestic offsite payments are gonna drop by at least 90%.

Also I would add, fix the bugs!

Very good to hear there was some space for
people to share their frustrations and that they are taken seriously now. IMO
the best thing BL could possibly do is prioritise a good bug report&fixing infrastructure.
I myself have reported a bunch of bugs over time, through the report system,
through email, and through the forum, and even when I got affirmative response
through those channels, most are still unfixed. I feel like Bricklink has bug
reports scattered all over the place and there is just no structure. Only once
bugs are dealt with efficiently, the next step is to think about improvements
and new features - that's my opinion at least. Bricklink needs to respect
its own core functionality. I don't need a store with fancy storefront features
as long as I can't even list my stock because it's impossible to part
out large sets due to site timeouts!

To be honest I pretty much gave up on Bricklink and sell elsewhere now, but I'm
still available to give input or be in a panel (I owe Bricklink that much) and
will definitely come back if Bricklink becomes a convenient option for me again.

Hi Teup,

Thank you for taking the time to share this input! Yours and everyone else's
input will be taken in to account and I agree, it is not new input, it is something
that we are aware of and that we are making an effort to solve. I am sorry to
hear that you have given up on BrickLink. Hopefully we will be able to apply
the needed changes and once again welcome you back on BrickLink as a Seller,
perhaps as a Panel member in the near future.

/Tanja

Thank you for your feedback Tanja, I'm available for a panel anytime. Good
luck!

Great to hear!

Thank you!

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 07:50

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

83 times

Topic:

In Administrative, infinibrix writes:

In Administrative, Captain_Q writes:

In Administrative, randyipp writes:

In Administrative, leopard37 writes:

Perhaps that seller is selling so well they have no time for the forum...

Agreed, someone with nearly 10k feedback in a year seems like a member who might
have some decent input as to what sellers might need.

Besides, I think calsbricks makes up for this member never using the forum, haha

I agree, not everyone of the panelists needs to be the exact same and if one
of them does not post much on the forum, then does it matter?

But dang! Someone with 10k feedback in a year probably has some useful insight.

I fear by replying to you all I will only end up in further trouble so I will
try to generalize my response so it reflects on future chosen panel members as
a whole rather than targeted at existing panelists though it should be said that
all your replies have skirted around my main concern/issue to which I cannot
further discuss for obvious reasons?

Of course it goes without saying that any member whether they do or don't
post on the forum may still be a valuable asset to the panel however those that
already engage with the community to either offer help to others be that identifying
parts, sharing advise/knowledge and contributing to the catalog I feel would
add even more value to any panel not least because that extra layer of passion,
enthusiasm for the site and engagement with the community already exists which
can only be a good thing but yes I accept some sellers may be doing so well and
be so busy that they don't have time for the forum(though being a panelist
in itself takes up time right?)

however (and yes I'm generalizing again here and not targeting!) if a panelist
is given that special privileged benefit of speaking on behalf of the community
then being a community based role I feel a certain level of buying/selling ethics
should also be expected and taken into consideration within that selection process
likewise I wonder whether inactive users not currently using the site for its
primary use of buying/selling can actually add as much value insight into issues/problems
compared with users that are currently actively buying/selling and experiencing
problems on the site and whilst I accept that BL is also used by many members
as just a reference source having awareness of current buying/selling issues
are an important aspect of helping towards improving to the site

Overall I feel my observations are fair and relevant even though others may disagree
but in the spirit of the chosen panelists and at the request of the admins I
will respect their wishes by not engaging in any further discussion on the matter!

Dear Infinibrix,

Thank you for your input! This seems like a good occasion to share a bit of information
about the concept we are currently introducing called Community Voice. The Marketplace
Panel is one of many initiatives under this umbrella. We will be introducing
a Studio and a Catalog panel within the next month as well and I invite anyone
who would like to be a part of either of these panels to let me know, even if
someone is not selected for the first Panel, we will be partially exchanging
the Panel members annually in order to apply fresh perspectives to apply as broad
a representation as possible. Also, once we get this up and running, we are planning
to increase the size of the Panels.

These are new initiatives on BrickLink and all the input that you and others
share is valid and valued, and will be taken in to account. Thank you!

If you or anyone else prefers to share their input with me directly, I welcome
that and look forward to more great input.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 07:49

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

In Administrative, Teup writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Thank you for your feedback Tanja, I'm available for a panel anytime. Good
luck!

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 07:36

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

110 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Teup writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 06:47

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

83 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Captain_Q writes:

In Administrative, randyipp writes:

In Administrative, leopard37 writes:

Perhaps that seller is selling so well they have no time for the forum...

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 06:35

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

106 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Author:

Captain_Q

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 01:42

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

85 times

Topic:

In Administrative, randyipp writes:

In Administrative, leopard37 writes:

Perhaps that seller is selling so well they have no time for the forum...

Author:

wildchicken13

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 01:08

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

In Administrative, tEoS writes:

If I recall correctly, Studio was released in December 2016, shortly after the
LEGO Group announced that they would stop supporting LEGO Digital Designer in
January 2016, although they have made a few updates since then. However, LDD
doesn't work on more recent versions of macOS, so many have been forced to
switch to Studio. I can't say for sure how many BrickLink sales are generated
in whole or in part by Studio projects, but I can say for sure that many of the
BrickLink orders I place are. But I agree with you in that BrickLink is first
and foremost a LEGO marketplace and that should be its primary focus.

Author:

brickbiters

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 00:55

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

82 times

Topic:

re: shipping zones

are you talking about ADDING the option for zones or REPLACING shipping costs
by weight WITH zones?

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Author:

randyipp

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 00:45

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

In Administrative, leopard37 writes:

Perhaps that seller is selling so well they have no time for the forum...

Author:

tEoS

Posted:

Jun 1, 2021 00:03

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

82 times

Topic:

Studio is love. Studio is life.

Author:

leopard37

Posted:

May 31, 2021 23:48

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

Perhaps that seller is selling so well they have no time for the forum...

Author:

wildchicken13

Posted:

May 31, 2021 23:45

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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Topic:

In Administrative, tEoS writes:

[…] Instead, BL worked on weird projects like Mosaic and Studio that weren't
really necessary at the time. […]

Studio is love. Studio is life.

Author:

tEoS

Posted:

May 31, 2021 23:29

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

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Topic:

BL doesn't need outside the box thinking. Plenty of site issues have been
posed that should be well within professional website developers realm of understanding.

This very outside the box thinking is what caused the new BL to lack features
that the old BL had. Additionally, it seems to have caused the previous roundtables
to be about worthless.

This page has been "temporarily disabled" for many years now:
https://www.bricklink.com/storeSettings.new.asp

Instead, BL worked on weird projects like Mosaic and Studio that weren't
really necessary at the time.

I don't want to be a party pooper, but anyone that's been here for quite
some time will probably have come to recognize a pattern. My expectations are
very low.

Sometimes I think that the catalog is the only thing holding this site together.
At least, I am grateful for all of the volunteers over the years.

with his sometimes weird answers,and posts about ''what happened''
who's died'' and who is having a birthday.. funny and different ...and
for me when reading always a smile on my face.
seems to me a man that ''thinks outside the box'' and therefor
an asset

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

May 31, 2021 21:46

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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85 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Tanja I do respect what you are saying but I hope you can also appreciate that
my comments are not necessarily targeted against any of the selected panelists,
after all they didn't select themselves but were chosen and as such should
of course be able to continue to contribute to the panel as intended. To be clear
I really have no ill intention towards any of them

I only point out factors that may be of benefit for taking into consideration
when selecting future panelists to which the BL team may agree/disagree but to
which I feel would be to the benefit of helping to strengthen the panel further
when the time comes....

Author:

Macaronis

Posted:

May 31, 2021 21:37

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

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Topic:

seems to me a man that ''thinks outside the box''

wouldn't that be outside the brick?

Author:

SecondChildhood

Posted:

May 31, 2021 21:13

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

78 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

With all respect, Tanya:

Telling the names of the actual panelists was probably not a useful choice. It
will only put undue pressure on these people who are giving of their time and
effort to help the entire community. A better choice may have been (and still
would be, as I--like, I would imagine, many other folks on the forum--don't
know who these panelists are at all) to tell us some general facts about them:
what countries they represent, what levels/types of BrickLink activity they represent,
etc. I think their anonymity should have been preserved!

Nevertheless, I am hopeful that good will come of this!

Martin of "Second Childhood"

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 31, 2021 20:52

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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Topic:

Author:

Macaronis

Posted:

May 31, 2021 20:03

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

I really hope this is something that is actually going to happen and not like
years past of so called "meetings" and "panels" to get people hyped up only to
be left for dead on the side of the road with nothing to show for it other than
wasted time.

Author:

macebobo

Posted:

May 31, 2021 19:54

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Please find the minutes from the first Marketplace Panel meeting.

This is an exciting first step. I really appreciate the transparency on the
topics discussed. I feel like there is an excellent mix of personalities and
representation on the panel (based, of course, on their public view on the forum.)

I look forward to future minutes from the meetings.

Thank you to the members who took the time to do this for all of us and the future
of Bricklink. I appreciate you all!

Sincerely,
John

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

May 31, 2021 19:35

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

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Topic:

In Administrative, tEoS writes:

John P. is a confusing choice, simply based on site activity in recent years.

I share your thoughts in that it would probably be wise for BL to choose panel
members that have bought or sold at least something within the last year along
with showing some participation in the forum however small that might be. Likewise
when selecting sellers I think a few more checks would be beneficial:-

https://www.bricklink.com/messageList.asp?overTP=Y&q=&qS=Y&qM=Y&msgID=&uName=brickcoast&ID=&status=&v=c&max=50

If a sellers only participation in the forum is an apparent never ending 70%
off weekly sale it doesn't exactly showcase the best and most transparent
of selling practices from which to represent the selling community but I respect
that the panel has already been chosen and my intention is not to take anything
away from any of those selected and already contributing their efforts towards
helping to improve the site yet I can only hope bricklink take similar factors
into consideration when selecting panelists going forward given they will be
the voice of us all

That said the plans sound good and the overall panel looks to be a great representation
of the community

Author:

Andrsv

Posted:

May 31, 2021 18:33

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

When prioritizing something, then something else is unprioritized. Finding things
to prioritize is easy. The difficult part is to unprioritize less important stuff.
If you do not unprioritize anything, then you'll loose.

I'm very interested to hear about what you decided to unprioritize

Good luck and thanks for bringing customers to the discussion table

Author:

Posted:

May 31, 2021 13:11

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

121 times

Topic:

disagree !!

with his sometimes weird answers,and posts about ''what happened''
who's died'' and who is having a birthday.. funny and different ...and
for me when reading always a smile on my face.
seems to me a man that ''thinks outside the box'' and therefor
an asset

Author:

Stuart9

Posted:

May 31, 2021 12:26

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

93 times

Topic:

Thank you, should prove interesting, look forward to future postings.

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Author:

tEoS

Posted:

May 31, 2021 12:26

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

109 times

Topic:

John P. is a confusing choice, simply based on site activity in recent years.

An excellent group of BL members!

Author:

popsicle

Posted:

May 31, 2021 12:16

Subject:

Re: Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

125 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

An excellent group of BL members!

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 31, 2021 12:03

Subject:

Marketplace Panel meeting minutes

Viewed:

783 times

Topic:

Author:

Lord_Barthon

Posted:

May 28, 2021 04:13

Subject:

Re: We are extending the BrickLink Designer Program

Viewed:

139 times

Topic:

Dear Admins,
Can you tell us the exact time (UTC) when we can start preordering on July 1st?

Thank you

In NEWS, Admin writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Based on your feedback to the structure of the BrickLink Designer Program, as well as challenges related to the current Covid situation, we decided to extend the Designer program and postpone the crowdfunding start a bit. This change aims to accommodate for equal opportunities for the designers and maximize the number of designs that can achieve crowdfunding.

What is the new structure?

Instead of one round of crowdfunding, there will be three rounds. For each round, eight to ten projects will be chosen based on feasibility and part availability. The first five of these designs that are successfully crowdfunded will then go into production.

In the illustration below, you can see the difference between the old and new structure.

Will the projects I can crowdfund remain the same?

The designers are currently working hard to make sure that their projects can reach crowdfunding, and we are rooting for all of them to make it, no worries, they are well on their way! The projects available for crowdfunding will still be the ones currently in the BrickLink Designer Program.

The downside to the new structure is that some designs will be available 3-6 months later than with the old structure. On the other hand, that might make it possible for you to support all the projects you like!

When can I start pre-ordering?

Pre-ordering begins July 1st with the first round of crowdfunding. Rounds 2 and 3 will begin in September and November respectively. To see which projects will be ready for the first round of crowdfunding, please visit the BrickLink Designer Program landing page.

You can also visit the FAQ page for more information about the program.

Thank you,
The BrickLink Team

Author:

phillwright

Posted:

May 19, 2021 06:47

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

139 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ErwinNL writes:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ErwinNL writes:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

As we announced here:

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1270750

there is downtime scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT
(BrickLink time).

At this point, the Brexit release is a GO.

Thanks,

The BrickLink Team

This deployment has caused the Orders API to spit out a 500 error causing a lot
of pain and suffering to those of us that rely on that API for daily store management.

Can you please publicly acknowledge that this is an issue and provide updated
when this will be fixed ASAP?

Not sure if this is related, but when I click on the 'My Inventory'; drop
down and put in a part number, nothing happens, it just goes to a blank page.
If I want to amend, for instance, a 2x2 brick, I've got to type '2x2
brick' in the search box, it won't do anything if I put the part number
in.

Can this be sorted please Admin?

Do you have AVAST or AVG by chance? there seem to be issues with those virus
scanners atm.

Excluding BL might fix it.

We've got AVG Free on the PC, but it hasn't updated since last week.
Has the latest BL update caused this then? The order summary page seems to
be working, its just putting actual part numbers in the search box thats causing
issues.
Claire

UPDATE: It seems AVG is the problem but I can't work out how to fix it and
I cant find any information on AVG website.

I don't have AVG, there is a dialog somewhere in the app where you can exclude
things it should not scan.

https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=AVG-Antivirus-scan-exclusions

thank you Erwin, just followed that link you posted and fixed the problem.

Phew!!!

Claire

Author:

ErwinNL

Posted:

May 19, 2021 06:03

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ErwinNL writes:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Do you have AVAST or AVG by chance? there seem to be issues with those virus
scanners atm.

Excluding BL might fix it.

UPDATE: It seems AVG is the problem but I can't work out how to fix it and
I cant find any information on AVG website.

I don't have AVG, there is a dialog somewhere in the app where you can exclude
things it should not scan.

https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=AVG-Antivirus-scan-exclusions

Author:

phillwright

Posted:

May 19, 2021 05:51

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ErwinNL writes:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Do you have AVAST or AVG by chance? there seem to be issues with those virus
scanners atm.

Excluding BL might fix it.

UPDATE: It seems AVG is the problem but I can't work out how to fix it and
I cant find any information on AVG website.

Author:

phillwright

Posted:

May 19, 2021 05:35

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

55 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ErwinNL writes:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Do you have AVAST or AVG by chance? there seem to be issues with those virus
scanners atm.

Excluding BL might fix it.

Author:

ErwinNL

Posted:

May 19, 2021 05:33

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Administrative, phillwright writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Do you have AVAST or AVG by chance? there seem to be issues with those virus
scanners atm.

Excluding BL might fix it.

Author:

phillwright

Posted:

May 19, 2021 05:20

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

62 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Author:

needful_things

Posted:

May 18, 2021 16:16

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

Since this last update I'm having messages from my AVG anti-virus.
Message is URL:blacklist (see image). I have tried to access Bricklink from two
computers and different browsers (Chrome and Firefox) and all give the same message.
AVG has not changed in the meantime, is there something in the last update which
causes this?

Regards

Author:

ralphs_bricks

Posted:

May 18, 2021 15:30

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Author:

Mevitsbricks

Posted:

May 18, 2021 15:29

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

67 times

Topic:

API isn't working after the update.

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Author:

Llewyn

Posted:

May 18, 2021 15:04

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

55 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

Seems to me that means either lots of tracking or lots of trust.

A lot of trust. The seller's VAT remittance will be quarterly* and will be
a summary of all VAT due for the relevant period, which will probably not be
the one that's just ended. I assume the sales VAT and import VAT will be
accounted for separately, as my recent order history shows sales from Amazon
EU SarL (direct sale, I think) and Amazon EU (import, I think), but it's
possible even that the two will be aggregated. Obviously there will be invoices
to back this up in the event of HMRC auditing, but they won't be audited
every quarter (or ever, as HMRC are massively underresourced for large audits)
and there will be no link to individual "VAT paid" shipments, and no realistic
means of generating one.

As an aside, the last time I was involved in an audit it was still HM C&E (and
duty, not VAT). It was an interesting experience. They brought in a gunboat.

*I'm assuming that nothing has changed about the mechanics since I last had
to care about this many years ago, but I could be wrong.

Author:

BrickCompulsion

Posted:

May 18, 2021 03:59

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Hi I concur with the other member - please do email this out as its helpful to
sellers

Thanks for letting us know here though

Author:

BigBBricks

Posted:

May 17, 2021 23:22

Subject:

Re: Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

98 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

This would be good information to be emailed to sellers. I actually enjoy getting
emails from the BL team, please don't think that users don't want to
be notified when service will be unavailable.

Thank you,

Big B

Author:

Admin_Russell

Posted:

May 17, 2021 22:18

Subject:

Last minute announcement regarding Brexit

Viewed:

454 times

Topic:

Author:

TakeAbricK

Posted:

May 17, 2021 04:43

Subject:

Re: Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

71 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:....

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1269534

To avoid having two scheduled downtimes within a short period, we have consolidated
the regularly scheduled monthly maintenance downtime with the Brexit release.
This extended downtime is scheduled for Tuesday from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT (BrickLink
time).

In case the Brexit deployment is further delayed, we will still carry out the
monthly maintenance at 1:00 PM, but the total downtime will last only one hour
instead of 90 minutes.

Thanks for your patience,

The BrickLink Team

Questions:

- can you please provide an example of the VAT Invoice?
Should be as short as possible to save Ink, paper (weight);
Standard size for all orders, without a list of order details.

- is 20% Sales Tax calculated over order amount only, or also over shippingcosts
and other fees?

- will other countries (like Norway..) follow in the near future, do you have
some kind of a plan that lets us see which countries will follow for Sales Tax
charged by Bricklink to the Buyer?

Hope to get answers, before I loose these 1.5 hours working time tomorrow??

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 16, 2021 12:43

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Dino1 writes:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

And if they do, will they turn on the buyer to pay VAT? For less than £27?
Several months too late?

No. The buyer has the proof that he has paid the tax. The invoice and the payment
receipt from Paypal or the bank.

Not really: the invoice is a fake as it says, in my example, “Amazon” (or uses
Amazon’t VAT ID) when it’s not Amazon that collected the VAT. The buyer may
be able to prove they paid a certain amount, but they can’t prove a part of it
was VAT.

Then, there’s two types of frauds:
1. The frauding seller says they collect the VAT but doesn’t remit it, so the
buyer paid something that’s called VAT on the invoice but it’s not VAT as it’s
never remitted.
Now, in that case, as it’s the responsibility of the seller to collect and
remit and they faked having done so, the buyer may get off scot-free (literally)
as they were duped too.

2. The frauding seller doesn’t even fake collecting VAT, they just fill the paperwork
on the package to fake it. Then the buyer is complicit and they can’t hide behind
“I didn’t know I should have paid VAT.”

Author:

Dino

Posted:

May 16, 2021 11:11

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

And if they do, will they turn on the buyer to pay VAT? For less than £27?
Several months too late?

No. The buyer has the proof that he has paid the tax. The invoice and the payment
receipt from Paypal or the bank.

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 16, 2021 08:15

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Administrative, infinibrix writes:

[…]
The ironic thing is with an order over £135 I'm guessing there's always
still potential for those packages to slip through the border unnoticed even
though that type of order should almost certainly be paying VAT whereas the little
guy that places a small order will not only definitely pay VAT but could potentially
pay twice?

Who knows since the changes perhaps every order over £135 is being properly checked
and always made to pay its dues but if the past is anything to go by, border
control has never been very consistent about which packages they apply import
charges to?

I think most of the imports in UK/EU are below £135/€150, and small packages
/ buble wraps, many even under or around or falsely claimed as below £15/€22,
which were exempted but are not anymore.
IOW, I believe our taxing overlords (pun intended) know how to do maths.

What I don’t get is that it seems very easy to fraud, at least for the seller:
claim it’s, say, Amazon that collected the VAT and let Amazon prove to Customs
/ the fiscal administration that they didn’t.
I mean, at Customs, they just check that someone claims to have collected
the VAT. They don’t check in real time that VAT was actually collected and that
the invoice really exists for Amazon, do they?
Do they even record the amount to be checked against what will be remitted (or
have already been remitted, delivery isn’t instant) by Amazon?
Do they record the total amount or each package?
And if one transaction doesn’t match, will they believe Amazon it was not them?
And if they do, will they turn on the buyer to pay VAT? For less than £27?
Several months too late?
Seems to me that means either lots of tracking or lots of trust.

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

May 16, 2021 07:38

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

In Administrative, wildchicken13 writes:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

Hi Russell,

A few questions

- can you please provide an example of the VAT Invoice?
Should be as short as possible to save Ink, paper (weight);
Standard size for all orders, without a list of order details.

- is 20% Sales Tax calculated over order amount only, or also over shippingcosts
and other fees?

- will other countries (like Norway..) follow in the near future, do you have
some kind of a plan that lets us see which countries will follow for Sales Tax
charged by Bricklink to the Buyer?

Kind regards,
Diana

Just wanted to share these messages I received from a UK member:

Question:
Hi, you have a brick I really need. But I see you don't ship to the UK
Is there any way you could make an exception? I would really appreciate it, thank
you.
My Answer:
Sorry, but I can't ship to the UK untill Bricklink fixed the VAT issue and
answered my questions (with a link to this thread).
His Reply:
Horrible excuse. You can just drop the one stupid brick in a parcel and send
it, it's not hard. It's probably the easiest way to make money anybody
has ever seen.

Easiest way to make money? Buy packing 1 brick in a Parcel?

Anyway, this is why I would like to know if a UK buyer has to pay 20% over shippingcosts
also. PayPal already charges Fee over Shippingcosts and also over Sales Tax.

Hope to get some answers soon, so I can start selling to the UK again as soon
as Bricklink makes it possible (in 5 days?).

So far (since Brexit) I received 2 orders from buyers outside the EU, with the
request to ship it to the UK and a lot of requests like the one above. I only
ship to the address on PayPal though and I can't wait for the day that I
can give a different answer to requests like above.

Diana

I still don't fully understand the whole Brexit/VAT situation, but from what
I can gather, it sounds like as long as the buyer pays onsite and you include
the invoice with the package, you should be good. If the buyer is willing to
pay the VAT, then I see no reason not to ship. Worst case scenario, the buyer
gets screwed over and has to pay VAT twice (once to BrickLink and once to Royal
Mail), but with a proper invoice, that shouldn't happen. Someone please correct
me if I am wrong.

BrickLink is definitely not the easiest way to make money anybody has ever seen.

Since brexit I have only placed a couple of orders outside UK but both times
I have ensured that the goods value has been over £135 because that way I know
I will only pay exactly what I'm supposed to pay when it gets stopped at
customs. At the moment I've been avoiding placing small orders so as to rule
out the potential of being charged twice and any hassle that may come with needing
to rectify that kind of issue!

The ironic thing is with an order over £135 I'm guessing there's always
still potential for those packages to slip through the border unnoticed even
though that type of order should almost certainly be paying VAT whereas the little
guy that places a small order will not only definitely pay VAT but could potentially
pay twice?

Who knows since the changes perhaps every order over £135 is being properly checked
and always made to pay its dues but if the past is anything to go by, border
control has never been very consistent about which packages they apply import
charges to?

Author:

TakeAbricK

Posted:

May 15, 2021 07:14

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

70 times

Topic:

In Administrative, wildchicken13 writes:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

I don't understand why, but I DO understand what a seller is supposed to
do.

A seller has to register as business in the UK and pay VAT to the UK for every
single order. Selling without minimum order amount - like I do - this will take
too much time for every single small order of a few cents. So for that reason
I removed the UK from my 'Countries I ship to'-list.

If Bricklink collects this VAT and pays the UK, sellers won't have to register
and pay this VAT themselves. So I am very happy with this option. I already ordered
small plastic pouches for the Invoice.

I'm sure more sellers are happy with this option. But as long as there are
no answers to our questions, they probably won't ship to the UK.

Diana

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Questions:

- can you please provide an example of the VAT Invoice?
Should be as short as possible to save Ink, paper (weight);
Standard size for all orders, without a list of order details.

- is 20% Sales Tax calculated over order amount only, or also over shippingcosts
and other fees?

- will other countries (like Norway..) follow in the near future, do you have
some kind of a plan that lets us see which countries will follow for Sales Tax
charged by Bricklink to the Buyer?

Author:

Captain.M

Posted:

May 14, 2021 16:08

Subject:

Re: Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Last week we announced our Brexit marketplace solution, which is due for release
on Tuesday, May 18. This is considered a major deployment and will require site
downtime.

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1269534

To avoid having two scheduled downtimes within a short period, we have consolidated
the regularly scheduled monthly maintenance downtime with the Brexit release.
This extended downtime is scheduled for Tuesday from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT (BrickLink
time).

In case the Brexit deployment is further delayed, we will still carry out the
monthly maintenance at 1:00 PM, but the total downtime will last only one hour
instead of 90 minutes.

Thanks for your patience,

The BrickLink Team

Thanks for the heads up, really appreciate it

Author:

i_r_on

Posted:

May 14, 2021 05:19

Subject:

Re: We are extending the BrickLink Designer Program

Viewed:

171 times

Topic:

Any change in the eligible countries?

Author:

Admin_Russell

Posted:

May 14, 2021 00:19

Subject:

Re: Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

131 times

Topic:

In Administrative, KingAlanI writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Normally the downtime is 1 AM, is PM a typo or is it changed (at least this time)

It has been changed.

Author:

KingAlanI

Posted:

May 13, 2021 23:15

Subject:

Re: Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

98 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Normally the downtime is 1 AM, is PM a typo or is it changed (at least this time)

Author:

IanTaylor

Posted:

May 13, 2021 22:27

Subject:

Re: Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

103 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Author:

Admin_Russell

Posted:

May 13, 2021 20:42

Subject:

Site Downtime and the Brexit Deployment

Viewed:

3543 times

Topic:

Author:

wildchicken13

Posted:

May 13, 2021 13:24

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 13, 2021 09:50

Subject:

Re: LEGO Certified Professional program-hiring!

Viewed:

72 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Stellar writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink Members,

I thought it might be interesting to some of you (especially Russian and Mexican
members) to know that The AFOL Engagement team within The LEGO Group is looking
for candidates for two new LEGO Certified Professional positions in Russia and
Mexico.

You can read much more about this here: https://www.lego.com/da-dk/aboutus/new-lego-certified-professionals.

/Tanja

BL forum doesn't likes characters at the end of links like ")" or ".".

Corrected link:

https://www.lego.com/da-dk/aboutus/new-lego-certified-professionals

Thanks for sharing it!

Thank you for kind assistance!

Author:

TakeAbricK

Posted:

May 13, 2021 08:21

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

71 times

Topic:

In Administrative, TakeAbricK writes:

Author:

Stellar

Posted:

May 12, 2021 09:56

Subject:

Re: LEGO Certified Professional program-hiring!

Viewed:

79 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

BL forum doesn't likes characters at the end of links like ")" or ".".

Corrected link:

https://www.lego.com/da-dk/aboutus/new-lego-certified-professionals

Thanks for sharing it!

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 12, 2021 09:49

Subject:

LEGO Certified Professional program-hiring!

Viewed:

354 times

Topic:

Author:

TakeAbricK

Posted:

May 12, 2021 01:42

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

Author:

calebfishn

Posted:

May 11, 2021 22:26

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

Its really about making sure people feel free to express their opinions.

Board meeting minutes are sometimes considered public documents, but then they
are usually written to reflect only the decisions, not the sort of back and forth,
(even arguing) that would be exposed in an audio recording.

Author:

steelwoolghandi

Posted:

May 11, 2021 22:03

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

We are launching a new initiative on BrickLink called the Marketplace Panel,
the initiative aims to achieve an outside-in driven approach to decision making.

In 4 annual Panel sessions, the purpose is to:

- Ensure and improved prioritization of tasks (development, bug fixes, etc.)
within the Marketplace team, in order to reflect the needs in the Seller and
Buyer community as much as possible.

- To investigate opportunities for improvements to the current setup of the Marketplace.

- To pressure test new opportunities, concepts, legislative requirements, etc.

- Build future strategic plans for the Marketplace

To start out with, we have invited 8 Sellers and Buyers, going forward it will
be possible for all to sign up for Panel participation (we will have a limit
of 10 members per year though).

We have great expectations for this initiative and hopefully this is something
that more people will want to take part in going forward.

The first Panel meeting will take place on May 20th. We will be sharing minutes
with all of you after each of the 4 annual meetings.

The BrickLink Team

This is awesome I'm all for this to help improve Bricklink.

Author:

ralphs_bricks

Posted:

May 11, 2021 19:50

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In Administrative, calebfishn writes:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

Thank you for your comments and questions!

To start the Panel and test the concept, we have invited eight people that we
trust to be able to represent the greater Bricklink Seller and Buyer community
in a proactive and constructive manner.
Once the concept is tested and working smoothly, we will be able to bring other
community members on board.

But first we need to get to the first meeting

This is something we look very
much forward to!

We will keep you posted in the forum as well as in an upcoming Marketplace newsletter.

The BrickLink Team

In my day job we run a marketplace for app developers. We also run a marketplace
"council" with key members of the ecosystem. Can you share some additional details
as well?

1. Who are these members? What criteria did you use to choose these members?
3. Are these members only invited to this first meeting? If not is there a
term for each of these members to serve?
4. Can you share recordings of the meetings in addition to the meeting minutes?

5. How can we track the progress of suggestions that are raised by the marketplace
members?

Thank you for starting this. I think this is a great thing for Bricklink to
do to gather feedback on the ecosystem we all depend on.

I personally would never participate in a board, or a council that distributed
recordings of the meetings. Official written minutes are good enough.

Thats fair. We record ours but now that you say this I think we only use them
internally for our records and don't distribute them externally.

Author:

calebfishn

Posted:

May 11, 2021 17:22

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

79 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ralphs_bricks writes:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This is something we look very
much forward to!

We will keep you posted in the forum as well as in an upcoming Marketplace newsletter.

The BrickLink Team

I personally would never participate in a board, or a council that distributed
recordings of the meetings. Official written minutes are good enough.

Author:

ralphs_bricks

Posted:

May 11, 2021 16:22

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

93 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This is something we look very
much forward to!

We will keep you posted in the forum as well as in an upcoming Marketplace newsletter.

The BrickLink Team

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 10, 2021 16:06

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

112 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This is something we look very
much forward to!

We will keep you posted in the forum as well as in an upcoming Marketplace newsletter.

The BrickLink Team

Author:

cynbins

Posted:

May 10, 2021 14:13

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

I think that this could be a great program, but considering the diversity of
stores (countries, markets and size) I hope that the people on the panel take
all of that into consideration.

Author:

dcarmine

Posted:

May 10, 2021 13:57

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Yo_Yo_Flamingo writes:

I hope this works out some of
the issues sellers have been having (USPS postal zones, for example)!

+100

Author:

jennnifer

Posted:

May 10, 2021 13:48

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

76 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

To start out with, we have invited 8 Sellers and Buyers, going forward it will
be possible for all to sign up for Panel participation (we will have a limit
of 10 members per year though).

This sounds like a fine way to start including the community. However, if you
don't have at least one Contributor or Admin(Expert), then you are going
to have a glaring hole in your representation. Our Catalog is complicated and
most sellers and buyers are not aware of how it operates and how it affects the
Marketplace.

You will be wanting someone from one of these pages if you intend to have any
kind of detailed discussion of the site.

https://www.bricklink.com/memberAdmins.asp
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogMembers.asp

Jen

Author:

calsbricks

Posted:

May 10, 2021 13:21

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

MTAP for short ?

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 10, 2021 12:27

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

59 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SecondChildhood writes:

[…]
This could be a good thing. In the interest of transparency, can you tell us
how you selected the participants? No need to name them. of course, but I think
folks would be interested in knowing what kinds of sellers and buyers are involved
in this important initiative. For example: are they from all different parts
of the world? Are they representative of different classes of buyers? Are they
sellers with different size/style stores? Thanks!

Indeed, I’d say “panel” implies some sort or representativity.

Or that:

4215b Panel 1 x 4 x 3 - Hollow Studs
Parts: Panel {Trans-Clear}

Author:

UnitedParts

Posted:

May 10, 2021 12:21

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Thank you for the information, it would be great if important updates like this
were sent as newsletters so that people don't miss it and have to rely on
stumbling across it in the forums.

A panel sounds like a great idea and a definite improvement on the current process.
However, I am not sure that just 8 buyers or sellers could accurately reflect
the joint view of issues that Bricklink currently has. What may be a gap for
someone in the US, it not necessarily an issue in the UK for example, or vice
versa. Also, the needs of a smaller store, will vary from that of a larger store
with multiple staff. It would be good to know how and why each store/individual
was picked and what they bring to the panel that the other 7 don't. It is
certainly something I would be interested in being a part of going forward if
I had the option to. On a final note, it is great to see that improvement is
on the way, I just hope they are value-adding improvements and can benefit the
majority of people.

Author:

Yo_Yo_Flamingo

Posted:

May 10, 2021 12:03

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

56 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This is wonderful news, and a long time coming! I hope this works out some of
the issues sellers have been having (USPS postal zones, for example)!

Author:

SecondChildhood

Posted:

May 10, 2021 11:56

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

65 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This could be a good thing. In the interest of transparency, can you tell us
how you selected the participants? No need to name them. of course, but I think
folks would be interested in knowing what kinds of sellers and buyers are involved
in this important initiative. For example: are they from all different parts
of the world? Are they representative of different classes of buyers? Are they
sellers with different size/style stores? Thanks!

Author:

Stellar

Posted:

May 10, 2021 05:23

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

79 times

Topic:

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

This seems a good initiative, hope it works great for the BL community.

Author:

CE_Tanja

Posted:

May 10, 2021 04:03

Subject:

BrickLink Marketplace Panel

Viewed:

905 times

Topic:

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 9, 2021 15:21

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

70 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ghyde writes:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, ghyde writes:

Does the UK still apply VAT for goods received which do not have a VAT paid declaration?

Every goods imported in UK incur VAT. What these new marketplace laws do is
make the marketplace responsible for collecting it at the sale point for values
under £135.
Above £135, the import VAT will be charged as it was before 2021: the postal
services will charge it to the buyer, with a fee.

So if the invoice is somehow missing, even though it's supposed to be there,
does the package still get delivered, or would I expect it to be sent back with
"no CN23 form" or some such text?

Regarding charging it to the buyer above £135, with a fee, does that still happen
if the CN23 form is missing for any reason?

Example of definition for 'missing': Parcel damaged on CN23 section during
shipment through the postal system, resulting in torn or illegible CN23 form.
I know what the US postal system does to some packages. I'm curious to how
shipping incidents will alter the processing of the package.

It all depends on the Customs agents.

If the VAT should have been paid but there’s no proof, in the best case, they
can let it be delivered… but with VAT added again and with Royal Mail (or other)
charging their £8 fee. The buyer may then dispute the charge as they’ll have
a copy of the invoice. But that certainly won’t make your buyer happy.
And in any case, if some paperwork is missing, they can reject… or simply destroy
the package.

Author:

ghyde

Posted:

May 9, 2021 15:04

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, ghyde writes:

Does the UK still apply VAT for goods received which do not have a VAT paid declaration?

Author:

Stellar

Posted:

May 9, 2021 06:36

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Dear BrickLink members,

Starting Tuesday May 11, BrickLink will enable VAT collection for goods imported
into the UK and Northern Ireland to comply with the new Brexit marketplace rules.
Below is an overview of what this will entail.

Changes at a glance:

* The UK will be excluded from the EU country list and will have its own VAT
regime (like Norway). UK buyers will see VAT exclusive prices from EU sellers
and EU buyers will see VAT exclusive prices from UK sellers. UK buyers will see
VAT inclusive prices from UK sellers only.

* BrickLink will collect and remit VAT on orders up to a value of £135 imported
into the UK and sold to consumers. There will no longer be a VAT exemption for
small consignments up to £15. In this case, the payment method will be restricted
to onsite methods only.

* UK VAT will be added during the checkout process or at the receipt of the final
invoice and will not be included in the item price.

* Where BrickLink is responsible for collecting VAT on orders sent to a UK delivery
address, this amount will be shown separately at checkout.

What this means for you:

* For each qualified transaction, BrickLink will provide a separate VAT invoice
that can be used as proof to customs that VAT has been sufficiently collected.

* In case of refunds, we encourage sellers to use the BrickLink refund feature
to ensure the correct amount of VAT gets refunded. The refund page can be accessed
from the Issue Refund link on the order detail page.

* If you are a non-UK seller and you want to sell goods to UK buyers, you should
opt in to at least one of BrickLink’s onsite payment methods.

An email with this same communication will be sent out later today. For additional
information, please refer to our new Brexit Marketplace Changes Help Page:

https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2514

Thank you,

The BrickLink Team

A couple of things,

"UK buyers will see this notification when buyer is in a store where BrickLink
needs to collect VAT if order is under £135, and seller does not offer on-site
payment."

That means that a cart of +135GBP can be processed with an off-site payment method,
right?

Also the refund calculator text needs to be updated to just say "tax" instead
of "sales tax", just to be in accordance with the rest of the website.

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 8, 2021 17:40

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

In Administrative, ghyde writes:

I have questions regarding how this would affect an Australian seller selling
to a UK buyer:

How does the VAT system apply to Australia?

Strictly speaking, it does not apply “to Australia,” it applies to UK buyers
who buy from non-UK sellers (so including Australian sellers).
The sellers don’t have anything to do but join to the CN23 the invoice BL will
provide as proof that the UK VAT was paid.

Is it required for Australian sellers to opt-in to this system?

You need an Onsite payment method, otherwise BL can’t “intercept” the payment
to charge and collect the VAT from the buyer.
If you don’t have PayPal Onsite or Stripe, and if it works like the US Sales
tax, the buyer will be told that you “don’t ship to them.”

Note that, since last year, you already need an Onsite payment method to sell
to most US buyers for BL to collect Sales tax.

Does the UK still apply VAT for goods received which do not have a VAT paid declaration?

Is this sent to the seller or the receiver?

The buyer pays the VAT, the seller does nothing but attach the invoice.

BL adds the VAT at checkout, and collects it, and will remit it the UK authorities.
The seller doesn’t see the money (if it works like US Sales tax, it will appear
in the PayPal/Stripe transaction as a fee). The buyer will receive an invoice
with the VAT. And as the package needs to have the information that the VAT
was already paid, the seller will be given a copy of that invoice to join it
to the export papers (CN23).

Is this VAT added on top of Australia's 10% GST?

As GST is a VAT-like system, you should not charge Australian GST to your non-Australian
buyers. You should export GST-free. So there should not be double-taxation.

Does BrickLink also charge
for and collect my GST on my behalf to buyers I'm selling to? Do buyers also
get VAT charged for GST charges?

BL doesn’t collect Australian GST. (Maybe BL will if/when Australia have a marketplace
law that forces BL to.)

Does this charging of VAT and or GST apply to orders sent out of Australia to
foreign buyers?

The Sales tax collection only applies to US buyers.

The UK-VAT collection only applies to UK buyers who buy from non-UK sellers.

Soon, BL will also collect EU-VAT for EU buyers who buy from non-EU sellers.
And Norway-VAT for Norvegian buyers who buy from non-Norvegian sellers. And
New Zealand…. And all the countries who will jump on the marketplace bandwagon.

I forget some of these requirements, it's been a while since I sold anything
so I would like enlightenment on that which applies to my situation. This whole
taxation system is more confusing the more I look at it!

Read the FAQs:
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2511
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2514

You might also want to read the one about US Sales tax:
https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2501

The only apparent difference for a (non-UK) seller between UK-VAT and US Sales
tax is that UK-VAT is checked by Customs, hence the need for a real invoice to
join to the package.

Author:

ghyde

Posted:

May 8, 2021 16:13

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

I have questions regarding how this would affect an Australian seller selling
to a UK buyer:

How does the VAT system apply to Australia?
Is it required for Australian sellers to opt-in to this system?
Does the UK still apply VAT for goods received which do not have a VAT paid declaration?
Is this sent to the seller or the receiver?
Is this VAT added on top of Australia's 10% GST? Does BrickLink also charge
for and collect my GST on my behalf to buyers I'm selling to? Do buyers also
get VAT charged for GST charges?
Does this charging of VAT and or GST apply to orders sent out of Australia to
foreign buyers?

I forget some of these requirements, it's been a while since I sold anything
so I would like enlightenment on that which applies to my situation. This whole
taxation system is more confusing the more I look at it!

Cheers ...

Geoffrey Hyde

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

May 8, 2021 14:07

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

In Administrative, chris38911 writes:

UK Bricklink sellers who turn over less than £85,000 per annum do not have to
register for VAT, nor do they have any obligation to charge VAT on their goods.
So why is Bricklink now going to add VAT to these sellers prices?

It isn't charging VAT for UK-UK sales when the seller isn't VAT registered.

Author:

chris38911

Posted:

May 8, 2021 12:31

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 8, 2021 01:16

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

66 times

Topic:

In Administrative, cosmicray writes:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, cosmicray writes:

[…]

And the rare UK buyers that are also UK VAT-registered businesses can deduct
the import VAT from their collected VAT.

How can they do that, if BL is collecting/remitting all their VAT ?

Nita Rae

The buyer doesn’t care whether it’s the seller who directly collected the VAT
or if it’s the marketplace, all they need to know and prove is that they did
pay VAT (and to whom), and that will be on the invoice.

At the end of the month (or trimester), they declare the deductible VAT (what
they paid) and the collected VAT (from their sales) and the difference. At the
end of the month (or year), if the difference collected minus deductible
is positive, they pay, if not, they can reclaim it or keep it for next month
(or year).

Please slow down on your rate of posting, and read carefully what I wrote.

The buyer (in this transaction) will have a tough time offsetting the VAT, if
they (the buyer, but when they become the reseller) collect no VAT, because their
sales on BL has the VAT being managed by BL (and not by the reseller). This of
course doesn't apply if they are buying on BL to sell elsewhere, unless the
marketplace they are selling on also does manages the VAT for them.

No. BL (or any other marketplace) will only manage the import VAT, not all the
seller’s VAT.

The (current) simple VAT mechanism on BL is only there to follow the “prices
should include local VAT for local buyers and should exclude it for foreigners”
rule and pre-calculate the VAT field, it doesn’t “manage VAT” in the sense that
the seller is the one who’s responsible to collect and remit the local VAT.

Yes, I understand about them claiming the VAT they paid, but the issue here is
where does the VAT they (theoretically) collect in order to offset it ?

Nita Rae

We are talking about a business VAT registered in UK, so:

There’s three cases when they buy, however they buy:
1. From a VAT registered UK seller: they pay UK VAT.
2. From a non-VAT registered UK seller: VAT does not apply.
3. From a non-UK seller: they pay UK import VAT.

Only in case 3, and under £135, does BL/the marketplace collect the UK VAT.

In both cases where they pay VAT (1 and 3), they have an invoice that shows they
paid some VAT and can then write it down in their “deductible VAT” account.

Then, when they sell, there’s two cases:
1. They sell to a UK buyer: they charge, collect, and remit VAT.
2. They sell to a non-UK buyer: they export at 0% VAT.

In case 1., they write the collected VAT in their “collected VAT” account.

Then, when it’s time to declare & pay, all that is deductible is deducted from
what was collected and the difference is remitted or claimable.

Also, if, in case 2., they export to a country with marketplace laws, like the
US or, soon, the EU, then BL, or any other marketplace, will collect US Sales
tax or some EU VAT… but that has nothing to do with their VAT registration in
the UK: they just export at 0% VAT and don’t care about what happens to the buyer
and the buyer’s local taxes. What the new mechanism is is a simplification of
their exports: they don’t have to register for VAT or Sales tax collection in
these countries (and states and counties and towns…).

I hope that’s clearer.

Author:

jbricks

Posted:

May 7, 2021 18:30

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

58 times

Topic:

In Administrative, cosmicray writes:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, cosmicray writes:

[…]

And the rare UK buyers that are also UK VAT-registered businesses can deduct
the import VAT from their collected VAT.

How can they do that, if BL is collecting/remitting all their VAT ?

Nita Rae

I don't now how this works in the US, but in most (if not all) European countries
you also get back the VAT if its negative, you don't need to collect vat
to claim vat.

If i would stop selling within the EU, then i would only get VAT back and not
pay any.

Nita Rae

Author:

cosmicray

Posted:

May 7, 2021 16:35

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

54 times

Topic:

In Administrative, SylvainLS writes:

In Administrative, cosmicray writes:

[…]

And the rare UK buyers that are also UK VAT-registered businesses can deduct
the import VAT from their collected VAT.

How can they do that, if BL is collecting/remitting all their VAT ?

Nita Rae

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

May 7, 2021 15:43

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

69 times

Topic:

In Administrative, yorbrick writes:

Indeed. I was looking at it as “which foreigner is better?”

There is no answer to that!

Oops, just add “ sell” after “gn”

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

May 7, 2021 15:16

Subject:

Re: BrickLink Marketplace Changes Due to Brexit

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

Indeed. I was looking at it as “which foreigner is better?”

There is no answer to that!

Author:

Admin_Russell

Posted:

May 7, 2021 14:49

Subject:

Re: Changes Due to Brexit - UPDATE

Viewed:

155 times

Topic: