Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | MidwestBrick  | | Posted: | Aug 25, 2022 12:53 | | Subject: | Re: buyers see ship to nowhere in my store. help | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| In Help, redsman writes:
| | In Help, jennnifer writes:
| | In Help, redsman writes:
| | I have not received orders for the last three days and buyers are now contacting
me to say my store says I ship to nowhere. I only ship to the U.S. but I have
changed nothing. What do I do ????? HELP
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I just checked and confirmed this.
Can you show us your shipping settings for the US?
Has anything changed with your payment settings?
Jen
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I have changed nothing in my settings since I opened my store 3 years ago. In
'my store settings" it shows I ship to no countries and does not let me change
it. This started 3 days ago but I just thought it was a slow time until buyers
started contacting me.
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Do you have shipping methods set up to ship domestically? I know you've
probably checked this but doesn't hurt to recheck.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Aug 24, 2022 16:19 | | Subject: | Re: Let's give away $100 to a fellow BL member! | | Viewed: | 25 times | | Topic: | Contests | |
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| In Contests, popsicle writes:
| | Guess the number of
contained within the vase pictured below.
Contest rules are few:
~ The first to enter the exact amount, wins
~ One guess per member per 24 hour period
~ Identical entries are adjudicated by timestamp
~ All members worldwide are welcome to participate
The winner will receive a $100 store coupon, or $50 cash. Your choice.
-Christman Family
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419
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Aug 23, 2022 13:18 | | Subject: | Re: Let's give away $100 to a fellow BL member! | | Viewed: | 22 times | | Topic: | Contests | |
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| | 409 |
| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Aug 18, 2022 21:24 | | Subject: | Re: UPDATE on the LEGO Sports haul | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| In Announce, ImperialFleet writes:
| | Once everythings done and listed made $300 profit. All for sale now, so if you're
interested let me know!
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Unrealized Profit.
Nice haul and best of luck making it a realized profit.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Aug 16, 2022 14:08 | | Subject: | Re: Getting close! Final update | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| In Announce, popsicle writes:
What is so fascinating with the logistics of mail is how quickly packages can
go across the country.
If no one has ever visited a distribution center (of any capacity), I would strongly
encourage checking one out as it is just amazing on how fast everything moves
to get from point a to point b and back on a truck or plane to move to the next
location.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Aug 9, 2022 15:52 | | Subject: | Free shipping on orders $25 or more 24/7/365 | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| Each and every day, any order $25 or more is free shipping. Any order less than
$25 is $4.99.
That's it. Nice and simple and instant checkout available on every purchase.
On top of all that, I get any orders to USPS or UPS quickly.
If today isn't a shopping day, simply adding my shop as a favorite to check
out later on may save some clicks another day.
Hope all is well and take care!
- Midwest Brick
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 28, 2022 11:24 | | Subject: | Re: Selling for a couple of months! Need Tips! | | Viewed: | 55 times | | Topic: | New Stores | |
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| | | And finally, April is generally when sales start to slow for the year in my experience.
Very typically to see a decrease in sales from April through September.
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I was going to mention this more than anything else.
I would bet that anyone that sells consistently day after day, week after week,
saw a big decline about two weekends ago when the USA warmed up to 70+ nearly
everywhere so customers went outside to enjoy the outdoors rather than think
about their Lego builds. This period of the year is just dedicated to other
activities, vacations, get togethers with friends/family as the temps warm up
across the nation more consistently. Of which, I 100% understand. I'm the
same way and want to enjoy the outside too when it is warmer. It's been
a long winter and cold snap this year. In upper Wisconsin, hitting the 50's
these days is a huge win!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 26, 2022 02:05 | | Subject: | Re: Looking to buy extensive parts list | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
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| In Wanted, RaptureNation writes:
| | If any sellers would be willing/able to put together a list of parts I need and
sell them(over 5000 pieces) I would be highly interested and greatly thankful.
This is my first post on this site so I apologize if I posted this in the wrong
section of formatted something wrong. I am not even sure if it is possible to
put together a list like this or if pieces are meant to be bought individually.
However if it is possible please contact me to discuss payment and other details.
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Create a wanted list and see where you can get the items you need from, then
shop around.
I may have quite a bit that you need but no idea to what extent.
I'll just say this... At my Store it is Free Shipping on any order once you
spend at least $25 (USA only)
Best of luck in your journey in getting everything you need!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 25, 2022 14:25 | | Subject: | Re: Got my Orange Brick! | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, par016 writes:
| | I finally got my orange brick over the weekend; no negative or neutral feedback
yet (knock on wood). Maybe I should update my profile picture to be holding
an orange brick.
Next goal is pink; hopefully it doesn't take another 10 years.
-Pete
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Congrats!
Update picture to hold red and orange. capture both 
Best of luck on your next goal
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 21, 2022 09:56 | | Subject: | Re: New IRS $700 selling threshold | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | Taxes | |
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| In General, aboyer writes:
| | In General, SylvainLS writes:
| | In General, aboyer writes:
| | […]
In H&R Block, on the Deductions page, there’s a single field for hobby expenses.
If you sold a $15 set for $20, you’d put $15 in that field and be done with it.
Presumably TurboTax is similar.
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Isn’t there a code for each field in your forms?
That’s useful to communicate. We have them in France (things like “2CA” “3VC”).
When we get papers from banks (yearly reports of interests, capital gain, deductible
fees, what we already paid…) or corporations (shareholder dividends…) or anything
that has to be reported, we know where to report/check them on the standard form.
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That is true if you are filling out the forms yourself, but no sane American
does so directly. We pay $35-$100/year for tax software that does it for us or
even more for a pro to take care of it.
The US filing system is ridiculous, at least partly on account of lobbying by
an alliance of anti-tax conservatives (who want people to hate the IRS) and the
tax prep companies (who depend on it for their livelihood). The IRS already has
almost all of this information; all they do with your filed return is double-check
that it matches what's already on file.
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Sorry but I do not agree with this take. For a large percentage of Americans
that just have a W2 and take the standard deduction, yes they know "enough" about
you cause it is easier to track, but for everyone else, no, they do not know
everything about you. They have no idea which purchases are business expenses,
they can not track cash transactions as in they do not know what a payment is
for, so if we would like the American government to tax us based on all cash
flows into our bank accounts, we would all have much higher tax liabilities as
each transaction that increases our balances would get scrutinized to the highest
degree and be assumed to be revenue and taxable, and it would be on every person
to break out what is revenue vs what is not and we would have to trust each other
that friends/family would report the same gifts/trading of cash the same ; which
IMO, would be far worse than it is now.
As an example, imagine going out to dinner with a group of friends, you split
the bill with one person paying the tab and 7 others Venmo you their share to
you. The government would see all those Venmo's as revenue to you and then
2 of the 7 friends want to deduct the payments as expenses cause they want to
cheat the system. It could be an absolute nightmare and it would be.
Or you buy something at a store for $200, use it for a year, end up not liking
it so you sell it for $50 cash, then deposit that cash into your bank and boom,
another item to report as revenue, that you took a loss on (not counting depreciation
here) but the government sees it as revenue to report. An example of how keeping
money out of banks would be a valid tactic to avoid taxation.
For purposes on this topic, when I knew I was going to start selling Lego, I
immediately kept track of every purchase I ever made, every set from a store,
every expense incurred, every cash transaction through craigslist, every mile
driven, etc... to keep records of it all. This is what is expected of any citizen
that is selling anything cause it is the law. Now, there are differences between
a Hobby and Business; of which, I made sure to meet the business criteria to
be able to gain all those deductions. Thousands and thousands of records; thank
god most stores allow us to buy more than 2-3 sets at a time to reduce the paperwork.
For anyone out there that is worried about paying taxes on their revenue here,
report it to the best of your ability and expect the government to know about
it from paypal transactions. In reality, just about every State requires selling
permits, tax to be paid to your home state, and every person should be reporting
every craigslist item sold or facebook marketplace sale, etc... It all falls
under revenue/sales for taxation.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 20, 2022 11:01 | | Subject: | 24/7/365 - Spend $25 and get Free Shipping | | Viewed: | 120 times | | Topic: | Sales | |
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| Free Shipping with orders of $25 or more.
Instant Checkout is available for any order as well.
Any orders are shipped quickly as well. I had one yesterday for nearly 3,000
pieces and it is already in the mail.
I only ship within the USA.
Take care and have a wonderful rest of the week!!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 13, 2022 12:50 | | Subject: | Re: Feedback score (praise) calculation | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, brickshomeUK writes:
| | The total feedback score / praise percentage calculation at the top right corner
of the stores embarrasses me.
I have a store with almost 3000 orders. My feedback score is 97.62% what looks
really bad. In covid times it was really challenging to go post office regularly,
so I received couple of negative feedbacks. But it was 2 years ago now... I haven't
received a bad feedback since then.
My suggestion would be to show the recent 1 year or 6 months feedback percentage
of the top right corner, because it's more reflects the actual quality of
a store.
Dear Bricklink team please consider my suggestion. Thank you!
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It literally says on your store that your next shipping date is 14 days from
today.
The item that your customers are talking about most doesn't seem to be getting
adjusted or fixed.
As a comparison, I just recently opened back up, and every order is being scanned
by the Post Office within 1 day so far with many of them the same day. Now,
my post office and my availability may be very very different than yours, but
that is the expectation that most online shoppers have across all online vendors,
regardless of website they are visiting... to order something and have it shipped
very very quickly. The only thing that none of us can fix is what happens to
a package once it gets dropped off at a post office. This is where we hope
customers are watching the tracking and hopefully realizing that there is nothing
any of us can do to make USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc... operate better or faster.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 12, 2022 00:27 | | Subject: | Fast search Heads | | Viewed: | 80 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| It appears whatever site I used to use to help identify mini-fig heads is not
existent anymore or the URL changed.
Can someone point me to what the go-to site is for helping ID mini-fig heads
or remind me the tricks?
Thanks
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Apr 6, 2022 23:34 | | Subject: | Re: Store is back Open | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| In Announce, Sadler_Bricks writes:
| | Congrats and welcome back. We are in the process of buying a new house so plan
to have more space for our store. So big congrats on your new house and future
lego journey
Sadler_bricks
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Best of luck in your search...
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Feb 6, 2022 23:17 | | Subject: | Re: Feedback Advice for Noob | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Problem | |
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| In Problem, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | Greetings Bricklink,
I am a new store with only 6 orders so far. the last 4 orders I sent out have
all received their parts, but haven't left any feedback. It's been a
few days for most of them and I don't think they are going to leave any.
I have posted in my terms that I will leave feedback if they do. The 4 buyers
were all new, most of them with zero feedback. Should I leave the buyers positive
feedback anyway since they were all perfectly fine and maybe it looks better
for my biz if I do, or should I stick to my terms and not leave any because
I really need their feedback too? You would think if they were trying to get
the feedback to become sellers they would be aware of all this. I also don't
want to look like I forgot to leave feedback. Let me know what you think!
Thanks,
Upstate_Brickz
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Here's my order of processes..
1. Receive order
2. Pick, pack and mail order
3. I Leave Feedback
Rinse and repeat. The buyer's did what they are asked to do. Order and Pay.
So it is my turn to complete the rest and if they wish to leave feedback, that's
great, but it doesn't bother me if they don't either. Life is busy enough
as it is. Regardless though, I always leave them feedback for stopping by.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 31, 2022 15:33 | | Subject: | Re: Hill Country Bricks is now open | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
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| In Announce, ccroxton writes:
My advice would be the following:
Used is expected to be in playwear (fair to good+) condition by its definition.
If you have to make a remark that there are cracks/heavy scratches etc.. then
it probably shouldn't' be listed at all unless it is still useable or
described as rough shape
So with that, you are going to save yourself a lot of time and energy if you
don't describe every single piece that you have as the condition of "USED"
speaks for itself.
Buyers will return more frequently though if your Used condition is in fact in
good or better condition though.
Best of luck on the store!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 28, 2022 10:39 | | Subject: | Re: Just got a fun one... | | Viewed: | 63 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, par016 writes:
| | 1/19 - Received order in my store
1/19 - Packed and shipped
1/22 - Package delivered
1/27 - Buyer asks for tracking number
1/27 - I message them back with the tracking and point out that it has already
been delivered
1/28 - 8:51 - Buyer sends a message saying there were 10 pieces missing from
4 lots in a 98 piece order including 2 full lots. Says he wants the pieces over
a refund and is letting me know before he "files a complaint with BrickLink."
1/28 - 9:22 - I respond saying that I specifically remember packing some of the
peices they say they are missing and ask them to check to see if they got stuck
in the packaging. Then I go on to say that if they didn't get the pieces
that's my fault and I apologize.
I tell them I am sending a refund for the parts and will also ship out the replacements
today. So I sent refund for the part, pack replacements, adjust my inventory
because it was still acurrate, print shipping label.
1/28 - 9:44 - "im so sorry, i actually found the tan pieces behind a crevice
in my closet, and when i looked through the trash to see if i threw out the pieces
on accident i found the dark green piece, then i found the light bluish gray
piece on the floor, so the order is 100% perfect, all my fault, i apologize for
the inconvenience."
-Pete
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Everyone loves a happy ending!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 26, 2022 22:07 | | Subject: | Re: Filing Taxes | | Viewed: | 55 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| In Help, sweettiara27 writes:
| | Hello,
I was wondering if anyone can help with how to go about filing taxes? This is
the only income I have and I have two dependents. I believe I file it all together.
What do I need to file? Something from Bricklink, Paypal and Stripe, or just
from Bricklink plus my expense receipts, I am guessing.
Any info would be great
Thank you
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https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf
Some night time reading. Good luck
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 16:57 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, axaday writes:
| | In General, MidwestBrick writes:
| | Been away a full year, what's new?
|
Did you hear about coronavirus?
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Thankfully all the Lego Mini's have survived thus far... Lots of unopened
boxes though so we won't know for sure for a long time!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 13:14 | | Subject: | Re: BL collecting sales tax on resale purchases | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, kzinti writes:
| | Any time a purchase was made on BrickLink by a legitimate reseller, the taxes
paid on the sale should be excluded, or paid back upon request and presentation
of a reseller license. That's all.
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I see. I don't file for tax exemptions and just tack it on to the cost of
the item. I should do this, maybe tomorrow.
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 12:54 | | Subject: | Re: BL collecting sales tax on resale purchases | | Viewed: | 90 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, oasis writes:
| | I just got off the phone with my state's department of revenue, and here's
what they said.
BL collects state sales tax from purchases made by all of the US sellers, instead
of collecting our resale certificates. BL owes us all, every penny of that, and
the total keeps climbing with every purchase-for-resale that each of us makes.
I was told that BL has to initiate the refunds, not us. BL has two choices, as
to how to process all of that money back to us.
A) request a total refund from each state, and refund us each individually, or
B) formally, legally assign the refunds to each of us, for us to process with
our state, individually
Either way, it's complicated; B is way more complicated for the sellers.
Either way, BL has to take our resale certificates and stop charging us. I'm
in SC. The options might be different in other states, but the person I spoke
to thinks it's most likely all the same. This is stupid. They owe me about
$400, how much do they owe you?
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So you are saying that every Tax collected by BL should be paid back to you,
regardless of which state it was collected for and not just sales within your
own State?
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 12:19 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 27 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, Nubs_Select writes:
| | Don’t forget to celebrate the new house with a pizza party!
|
Great advice, thank you. We celebrate each Friday as Pizza Friday!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 12:17 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 24 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, zorbanj writes:
| | I already got burned on this:
Shipstation sorts postage options by price, which means Media Mail is always
the first postage option. Pitney Bowes (the prior vendor), ebay, USPS, etc. always
have Media Mail at the bottom. I mistakenly selected Media Mail a couple of times
before I realized it.
In General, MidwestBrick writes:
| |
OMG, this probably scares me the most
* Most, if not all, PayPal users have been transitioned from Pitney Bowes to
Shipstation for shipping labels. The consensus here is that Shipstation sucks.
I think I just saw an advertisement for this on Hulu and heard the "it saves
me money" line and was just like Ohhh you mean commercial vs retail. Ya, everyone
gets commercial if you know how to print your own label. If it wasn't this
company, it was something quite similar in name.
Thanks for the heads up. I look forward to navigating this and seeing how much
pricing has gone up for shipping too!
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Very helpful information to know how it sorts. Thank you!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 10:58 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, SylvainLS writes:
Perfect timing. I have a meeting coming up that I'm not a part of but have
to sit on so this will help pass the time!
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| Author: | MidwestBrick | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 10:57 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | General | |
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| In General, jennnifer writes:
| | In General, MidwestBrick writes:
| | Happy 2022 everyone. 2021 was very busy for my family and I as we built a new
house and moved to a new area as well do i had to shut down the store in Feb
2021 to start packing everything up. There were plenty of delays in the home
building and overall a great experience but also an exhausting one too.
Just checking in to ask if someone is able to summarize what is new on BL from
early 2021 until now. Any big new develops or changes on how things are done
or is it pretty much the same as before? The last big thing I recall is implementing
the tax per sale based on the state making the purchase. Also, anything that
deals with international processes can be left of any summary. I only sell domestically.
Hope all is well with everyone. I built my new Lego room all by myself and am
very pleased with how it has turned out. Everyday I'm putting in the work
to get organized more and more and although I could probably open later this
week, I want to put in some more improvements so picking orders csn be sped up
even more than I had it organized prior which takes further planning and organizers.
Thank you in advance to anyone that responds to this too.
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Not sure all of this is exactly 2021 but here's what seems new to me.
BL has a new boss from LEGO.
They still don't want to have an active presence here on the Forum, but they
communicate occasionally and when there are major outages so that's nice.
They are meeting with panels of members on various topics to involve the community
in BL stuff.
We have some new admin (ah, I mean experts) and some admin in new roles. They
are doing amazing work for our catalog. There is a Catalog newsletter you may
have to subscribe to.
There is lots of hubbub with VAT and US sales tax. You have to have an Onsite
method for any to work. Still no method of tax-exempt purchases. Some countries
require a VAT receipt on the outside of the package which BL has been providing.
The AFOL Designer Program was very popular. Especially if you are very patient.
Although I can't find a link to it anywhere at the moment.
Jen
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Oh thanks for the reply as this reminds me to check all the "adjustments" of
items being moved from one category to another. I store all my pieces by category
so it really saves me time if I make sure I move my store around to correlate
with BL catalog categories.
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