BrickLink Discussion Forum

In LEGO products, jennnifer writes:

Happy New Year!

So, I drove about 45 min this morning to wait in line at a LEGO store and try
and get a modular. There were 30-40 people waiting and the store had 14 sets
available. Did they dole these out carefully first-come-first served? Nope. They
'held' them behind the register and you could buy one when you got there.
Of course, there were two lines moving at different speeds. And then, some people
decided to just reach behind the counter, take a set, and then get back in line.
LEGO employees did nothing to stop this. The person in front of me got the last
available set. There were two people in line behind me holding sets they hadn't
purchased yet. Nice system LEGO. It was a painful reminder of why I stopped going
to their stores.

Also, who would risk an entire year's worth of bad karma by doing something
like that on New Year's Day? I am keeping my share of good luck and will
wait (impatiently) for my set to arrive from shop@home.

Jen

There is also the added value from ordering the new modular online, the free
Blacktron spaceship.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 23, 2022 12:57

Subject:

Re: Stores in China

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Buying, UTLF writes:

They seem to be legit, I've never had issues with legitimacy, but the means
of how these parts and such are acquired in such high quantities is the real
question

If you pay attention, a lot of stores around Asia/Europe get high quantities
of minifigs shortly after they're released and don't upload parts from
the sets they belong to, which is what makes me question how they acquire them

It's not mainly EU/Asia though, I've seen it happen with NA as well;
very strange to me

I have seen the same pattern with some stores located close to one of the main
factories in eastern Europe. They had rare parts even before the release of the
set. Now this is forbidden here so this practice stopped. But the same stores
keep getting parts from very new sets very soon after they are released. There
is no way to tell whether these are factory rejects with very minor issues barely
visible or if some factory workers take out parts and sell them through these
stores. Or maybe there is a different explanation. It is hard to know.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 23, 2022 12:52

Subject:

Re: Stores in China

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Buying, SDF_Bricks writes:

I do not want to alienate anyone here, just asking some hopefully legitimate
questions.

There are a couple of stores in China who have very interesting parts, and one
begs to wonder if those are legit or copycats.

Any one has experience ordering parts from that part of the world?

I have ordered from two stores in China with positive experience. One order was
some rare minifigure heads in decent quantity at a decent price. The second was
hair combo pieces with some missing paint, so factory rejects. The latter I bought
for making custom figures and these parts were just what I needed for that.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 17, 2022 12:28

Subject:

Re: How sharp are your eyes?

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

Administrative

In Administrative, Leftoverbricks writes:

In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:

Hello everyone,

There is a thin yellow banner that pops up to remind you about the upcoming monthly
maintenance. Please notice that the date on the banner is exactly one week later
than usual:

[REMINDER] The site will be down during the monthly maintenance scheduled
at 12/28 from 01:00 AM to 02:00 AM EST.

Thank you.

I have very bad eyesight for which I use various aids such as reading glasses
and I view websites in my browser at 120% or more. If the print is really small
I use a magnifying glass on top of that.

If the monthly maintenance differs from previous times, you would do better to
change the design of the banner, or even better: send all your customers
an email that this month is different from previous times.

I find the title of your post offensive to people with low vision and feel offended.

Surely you can do better ???

I am sure soon someone will complain that the banner does not show the LGBT+
colors and feel offended by not being included.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 17, 2022 12:21

Subject:

Re: Etiquette for lost shipment completion

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

Help

In Help, HotPixelAction writes:

Hey all… I searched the forum for a bit for past guidance but didn’t see anything
relevant, forgive me if this is old hat but. Recently had a large order back
in early November go lost in the mail - been through all the channels etc etc.
It’s not coming back.

How do we best get closure on order completion? My seller has been great about
the issue, totally sure the problem was on my end, I’m resigned to the loss.
But how do we finish the sale? Is it more correct to just delete the order, or
should I mark it complete and give feedback anyway? What do you all do?

Hope you have a great holidays -

-=Tim

I would not just accept the claim from the seller that the fault was on your
side. If you paid with Paypal for example, the seller has to make sure that the
goods reach you in good condition. If the seller cannot demonstrate this (by
e.g. a signed receipt) you can file a Paypal claim and Paypal would normally
side with you. You should first sign a NSS to prevent the seller from leaving
negative feedback.

I had cases where I reached a reasonable agreement with the seller like e.g.
splitting the loss in half or the seller refunds the value of the parts minus
the shipping. Some sellers also offer a full refund right away. But just throwing
the loss on the buyer is in my view very bad policy one should not accept.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 17, 2022 06:23

Subject:

Re: Does Not Ship To Me

Viewed:

63 times

Topic:

In Buying, manganschlamm writes:

Hello,

this is going to be a rant about the ever increasing shipping restrictions on
this site.

I am collecting mainly rare minifigures and minifigure parts and would say that
I have a positive reputation among sellers, with many positive feedbacks and
not a single negative or neutral.

Over the last 12 months or so I start to see more and more absurd shipping restrictions.
Many stores in the UK and USA have now stopped to ship to continental Europe.
This includes several stores from the UK from which I bought many times in the
past with positive and flawless experience from both sides. I understand that
customs fees have made purchases from the UK more difficult, but then let the
buyer decide if they want to take on this burden.

As if this were not enough, I start to see that more and more stores in eastern
Europe have now stopped to ship to other countries in the EU, but still ship
to the US and Japan or China of whatever far away place. What is the point of
a common EU market if you do not ship to any countries in this market.

Further to that, some stores ship to Germany or some countries in the EU, but
have an excessive minimum buy of 150 Euro for them to be so generous to ship
to my country. I am sorry I am not going to spend some extra 130 Euro so that
you grant me the favor to ship to me.

In summary, I see an epidemic of arbitrary and absurd shipping restrictions,
which makes shopping for anything but very common parts increasingly frustrating
on this site. If this continues, we are approaching a state of affairs that reminds
me more of a planning economy than a free market.

And the site really has to provide a tool that automatically excluded stores
that do not ship to your country. I simply do not want to see and waste any time
on any offer that is not an offer because of shipping restrictions, period.

The bottom line is that out of this frustration I am starting to increasingly
look around at other platforms that have less restrictions. Ultimately we vote
with our feet and our money.

I could add that some of the stores that do not ship to me or do only ship to
me if I order at least for 150 Euros ship to me on the other platform. And they
offer the very some items. As said before, we vote with our feet and our money.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 17, 2022 03:06

Subject:

Does Not Ship To Me

Viewed:

126 times

Topic:

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 14, 2022 05:32

Subject:

Re: Repairing cracked minifigure torsos?

Viewed:

44 times

Topic:

General

In General, manganschlamm writes:

Dear all,

I am looking for suggestions how to most effectively repair cracked minifigure
torsos.

The cracking of torsos is a particular problem with old parts and with certain
colors like for example Dark Red, Dark Brown and Reddish Brown.

Not long ago I received a batch of new LOTR Uruk-hai torsos which had no arms
and hands. So I wanted to add new arms and hands to them. When inserting the
new arms, about half of the torsos cracked in the process.

As this was a quite annoying experience and also once in a while you get cracked
torsos that were not described as such from some shady stores, I started to think
about just repairing / gluing the torsos.

Maybe one could use superglue ion a thin needle for this repair, but I am asking
myself what you be the best technique for keeping the crack open while applying
the glue.

Has anyone experience with this?

Best regards, Thomas

Thanks to all for useful advice. As it happened today I experienced another issue
with old Dark Brown parts. I received a used leg assembly of Uruk-hai, which
looked at first OK. They were a bit dusty, so I tried to gently clean the part
with a soft tissue. When doing so, both legs broke off (i.e. pins connecting
legs to the hips broke). Unbelievable. This is not the quality of ABS I would
expect from LEGO actually, even after 10 years.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 12, 2022 08:51

Subject:

Repairing cracked minifigure torsos?

Viewed:

125 times

Topic:

General

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 10, 2022 10:44

Subject:

Re: How to build instructions for a MOC?

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

My Own Creation

In My Own Creation, iprice writes:

In My Own Creation, askdrhook writes:

Hi folks,
does anybody have a good hint, how I can create a building instruction for a
MOC containing vintage parts?
I once found a software to do so, but it didn’t provide many of the old parts.

Have a lovely season
All the best
Anselm

BTW The front headlights of that car are using an illegal build technique (between
the two 2x2 black plates and how they connect to the car itself). There is a
modern part (bracket) that you can replace that with so that you're not stressing
the Lego and bricks with studs on the side to hold the headlight bracket.

So what will happen if I use an illegal build technique? Will a good squad enter
my home and arrest me?

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 3, 2022 14:33

Subject:

Re: Unscheduled down time

Viewed:

70 times

Topic:

Administrative

In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:

Dear all,

Today we experienced unscheduled down time due to a routine security scan. We
apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Everything is back to normal but please let us know if you are still experiencing
any issues.

Too bad that the cartoon guy is not around any more. Or is he actually?

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 3, 2022 14:25

Subject:

Re: Karen attack

Viewed:

105 times

Topic:

Feedback

In Feedback, shonboi writes:

What's with all the disgruntled buyers communicating through feedback lately?

Today I got this: "Bad service. Said prices were incorrect and delivered an incomplete
order."

I received the order and discovered that I had accidentally listed 12 of Boat,
Hull Unitary 41 x 12 x 5 with Light Bluish Gray Top - New. Part No: 23997c01
for $.095 each.

I messaged the buyer: "It looks like there was an inventory error. I only have
one boat hull. The Bricklink Gremlins seem to be having fun with things again.
Not sure how I ended up with 12 available for 10 cents each instead of one for
$12. Congrats on the amazing deal!"

I then noticed that I was missing one of the minifigures ($3.60) that had been
ordered, so I messaged again: "I found another BL Gremlin issue with your order.
Chunk has wandered off and is nowhere to be found. I will be refunding $6 for
the inconvenience."

Order total was $31. $20 for a set, $10 in figs, and $1 in parts. $6 was refunded
and I shipped that $12 hull without complaint. It was well within my rights to
cancel the order outright. Technically I broke even on the transaction, but I
don't feel like I deserved a negative FB.

Thanks for listening to my vent.

I can understand your frustration and as a buyer I would not have issued negative
feedback after the matter has been settled in a generous way from your side.
But what would have really annoyed me is that you reported all the missing items
not in one message to your buyer but one after another with two separate messages.
It can happen that inventory is incorrect and parts can disappear. All fine and
it can be sorted out. But I would expect that a seller sends me exactly ONE message
reporting all of the missing items. Not as bits and pieces.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 3, 2022 06:29

Subject:

Re: feedback before NPB Completed as warning

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

Problem Order

In Problem Order, HC writes:

hi,
just an idea
with some non paying buyers you just know''they are never going to pay''
but while the NPB is running at my store,they can order at another shop and do
the same
there and at dozens of shops for a week and waste a lot of time...

what about when a NPB is initiated,give the ''buyer'' a temporary
negative feedback with the text''NPB in progress''[and delete
it if paid ofcourse]

then other sellers are warned what to expect and can avoid or prepare
is this a stupid idea or possibility ?..[I can take hard honest answers]

kind regards,Hans

Controversial, to be honest. Then with the same right non shipping sellers should
also get this as long as the NSS is running. And wait. What is about retaliatory
feedback that is being issued because of this? This also works and potentially
harms both ways.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Dec 2, 2022 01:18

Subject:

Re: Recurring buyer has different profile

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

Problem Order

In Problem Order, MWBD writes:

Hi,

I have an order from a buyer whom I sold to before. Now he ordered from a new
profile, the other one has buying privileges revoked.
I don’t really know how to proceed from that. Do I request BL merge profiles,
or am I supposed to open the cancellation process for this order?
What will happen to the order when profiles are merged?
I didn’t find too much info on that issue, other than it’s a violation of TOS.

Thanks

Sorry, but I think this is none of your business. This is the typical German
attitude to control and report your neighbors for about anything. We have seen
in the past 3 years where this leads to.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Nov 16, 2022 02:08

Subject:

Re: Still broken

Viewed:

44 times

Topic:

Technical Issues

In Technical Issues, Nubs_Select writes:

Just tried sending an invoice after the monthly update and got this

For me several functions are broken. Cannot go to my account or see my messages.
System asks to log in again (despite being logged in already) and then goes to
some crazy error page. The people with the recycle bin are probably back today.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Oct 9, 2022 11:11

Subject:

Re: Paypal and Politics in the news...

Viewed:

80 times

Topic:

General

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/new-paypal-rule-the-company-can-take-2-500-from-your-account-for-sharing-misinformation/ar-AA12KrF5

In General, kzinti writes:

The drivers behind this are the totalitarian forces which want to take away all
our freedoms, including the freedom of speech, and turn now humans also into
a commercial good. As they have done with everything else of this world, from
land to nature to ecosystems and to traditions of the people and their interactions.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Feb 8, 2022 02:37

Subject:

Re: Neutral feedback for cancellation

Viewed:

45 times

Topic:

Feedback

In Feedback, jaromil writes:

So I should prepare every orders. Waiting for weeks for payment. when I ask the
brand new buyer with zero feedback and he starts to indoctrinate me how ridiculous
is the shipping price compared with his 1 cent order value, then i should accept
the cancel request and wait for his feedback? This doesn't sounds a good
solution for me.

In Feedback, 1001bricks writes:

In Feedback, jaromil writes:

Same with me, and I got a negative too... Solution? I won't accept any cancellation
request anymore.

Seeing your FB History, you've got a Negative because you placed an NPB then
cancelled the NPB...

Solution: always accept cancellation.

But if the buyer doesn't communicate, stick with the NPB, the buyer won't
be able to give a Feedback.

Sylvain

Do not prepare orders before payment has been made. Make new buyers pay exclusively
with OnSite payment.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Jan 30, 2022 08:51

Subject:

Re: Feedback that does not correspond to reality.

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

Feedback

In Feedback, eprespite writes:

Hi,

is it possible to delete feedback that does not reflect reality?
One of my customers received your order incompletely. That's what he told
me. And immediately after 2 and a half hours I even sent the missing parts. She
then gave a negative feedback.

I didn’t object, I didn’t dispute whether she was right or not, I sent the missing
items at my own expense, plus lightning fast, not days later. I can prove it
by tracking it with package numbers.

The second shipment was also received by the customer, however, the negative
feedback remains.

I think this behavior is inappropriate, I don’t understand this behavior.
Unfortunately, 3 parts were missing, but I recognized this and replaced it as
soon as possible.

Is there no way to remove such feedback?

Thank you

Officially you cannot get this removed, as long as the feedback does not contain
insults or inappropriate language. But my suggestion would be that you contact
the buyer, who seems to be new on BL, and explain that this harms your reputation
as a seller and that he/she could perhaps reconsider the feedback.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Jan 14, 2022 06:48

Subject:

Re: PAB & B&P Merging

Viewed:

61 times

Topic:

LEGO products

In LEGO, calsbricks writes:

Could it possibly be a good thing for PAB & B&P merging? Currently the TLG Retail
store managers are restricted to an order form which only allows them to choose
a limited number of items from the 1600 that are available to PAB. With the addition
of the B&P elements might they have a wider choice to make available? Is that
good or not so good. Depends on how you want to look at ir really.

Another issue concerns the current limitation to 200 of each part that you order
from B&P. That limit is not in PAB. So what will be the new limit?

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Jan 12, 2022 07:17

Subject:

Re: Buying from Germany - ship to UK

Viewed:

53 times

Topic:

In Buying, StickyBrickit writes:

In Buying, yorbrick writes:

In Buying, StickyBrickit writes:

I'm looking to buy a large order from Germany worth about £500 and have it
shipped to the UK. I understand that because it's over £135 that UK Customs
will hold the package and ask for the 20% Import Tax.

I was wondering if Lego is subject to additional Customs charges though? Has
anyone Imported orders into the UK of this sort of value and did you have to
pay any additional charges as well as the 20% Import tax?

Thanks

It will be 20% VAT + £8 if Royal Mail handle it. If another courier, there might
be a different processing fee.

Okay thanks for the reply! £8....argh! The costs of leaving the EU never end...

At least you got rid of most of the New Normal restrictions. Her in Germany we
are really suffering.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Nov 6, 2021 05:50

Subject:

Re: Ungerechtfertigte Bewertung

Viewed:

88 times

Topic:

LANG Deutsch

In LANG Deutsch, Schmausi writes:

Guten Morgen Kollegen,

Wo kann man sich hinwenden, wenn man eine negative Bewertung bekommen hat, die
nicht gerechtfertigt ist? Kurz zum Fall:
Ein Kunde hat eine order Platziert und bekam von uns eine Nachricht mit den Zahlungsinformationen.
Kurz darauf bekamen wir die Antwort, daß die Bestellung noch erweitert werden
soll, so daß sich die Versandkosten ändern werden, da das Volumen bzw. Sich das
Gewicht ändern wird. Wir setzten die Order daraufhin wieder auf Bearbeitung,
löschten alle Kosten und warteten. Kurz darauf überwies der Kunde den Preis der
Teile woraufhin Wir dann die Porto kosten nachverlangten. Er storniert daraufhin
die Order weil wir angeblich zuviel berechnet haben sollen. Da bei solch einem
Fall Paypal 35 Cent fixgebühr einbehält, haben wir ihm diese natürlich nicht
zurück bezahlt. Heute kam die negative Bewertung.

Gruß Josef

Ich würde versuchen, Kontakt herzustellen und eine einvernehmliche Lösung zu
finden. Die lächerlich geringe Paypal Gebühr ist nicht eine weitere negative
Bewertung wert. Hört sich ansonsten eher als ein Misverständnis an.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Oct 23, 2021 12:26

Subject:

sw1167

Viewed:

95 times

Topic:

Catalog

Status:

Open

Hello,

along with a recent purchase I received a freebee minifigure head which according
to the picture appears to be the head of the stormtrooper sw1167.

Now I have the trouble that I cannot give this head the proper name, because
sw1167 has not been inventoried as of yet.

Is there some approximate timeline when all the new star wars and super hero
minifigures which are in the catalog will be inventoried?

These series include many nice new head prints, and I very much look forward
to them becoming available on this site.

Best regards, Thomas

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Sep 29, 2021 06:18

Subject:

Re: Something is wonky?

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

Technical Issues

In Technical Issues, 1974 writes:

In some shops I cannot see all the lots for sale?

Like in this shop :

https://store.bricklink.com/Mads.A#/shop

Trying to see the inventory of say "modified plates", I only get a handfull,
not 404

Doesn't matter if I change 10 per page to 100 per page

Cleared my cache and cookies

What gives?

Cheers,

Ole

I think this has been broken for weeks now. You see the first page, but it does
not display in the navigation the other pages of this category. However, you
can go forward by clicking on the double arrow symbol. But the information on
which page from this category you actually are is not displayed.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Sep 29, 2021 06:15

Subject:

Re: Fees gone wild

Viewed:

73 times

Topic:

In Buying, pitz8008 writes:

In Buying, randyipp writes:

In Buying, zorbanj writes:

See photos. The 2nd photo is from the Terms.

360 lots x 0.5 EUR = 180 EUR in lot fees for 46 EUR of parts.

Ridiculous.

Will forward the name of the store to whoever messages me. Hoepfully one of the
admins reaches out.

Agreed, those fees are crazy!

Then again, as a seller you are buying 360 lots, you must have some idea of how
long that would take to pack for ~$50 worth of parts. I would just pick another
seller and move on. The store is designed for bulk purchasing, which is probably
why the prices are better than others and why you selected that store in the
first place.

A 360 lot order would drive me nuts. I wouldn't even care how much the order
was for. But for 50 dollars, it would really make my blood boil. So I'm going
to give out these words of wisdom that are against my best interest to share
but a benefit to anyone who takes them. However, I'm pretty confident that
nobody is going to instill them in their store so I guess it won't matter.

Back when ebricksonline had their problem with their inventory, Russel said to
put a limit on the amount of lots someone could order from your store. I never
knew this existed and actually got pretty excited by it. So I set the limit at
300 lots. Which is still way more than I want to deal with. Then one Sunday (which
is my Funday), I got two 190 lot orders in the middle of the day (which ruined
my mojo). So I went down to 125 lot order max. Still hated this number too. But
was willing to deal with it.

Then in the beginning of April I went skiing in Breckenridge for 10 days. Brought
a bunch of figures there to list while on vacation. Ended up listing about 5,000$
worth of figures that week. It's remarkable how much you can list when you
don't get sidetracked with ridiculous number of high lot orders.

So it was Friday morning and we were going to leave Sunday night to drive back
to Chicago. Which means we would get back sometime Monday night. And if I opened
my store Friday morning, it would give me enough time to get all my orders bagged
Monday night and have them at the post office Tuesday morning just like every
other week. So I decided to re-open my store that Friday morning and set the
lot limit to 40 lots so I wouldn't have to deal with anything ridiculous
when I got back home. Well from that Friday morning to Monday night, I ended
up with 78 orders. It was crazy. Got home at 7pm, stayed up until 4am bagging
them. And finished the rest when I woke up. Managed to get everything to the
post office on time.

When I got back from the post office and took a nap, I had like another 6 orders.
I decided to keep the 40 lot limit in place and see how it goes. Since instilling
this lot limit. Every month has been the best month I have ever had by far for
that particular month. 3 of the months have been by far the best months I have
ever had for any months. Alot of these high lot orders start by someone maybe
just wanting 30 lots. But then they start adding a single lot of a penny here.
Another one there. And the next thing you know, it's a 90 lot order. With
60 of the lots only being a penny or two each, that they added just to capitalize
on the shipping. I want nothing to do with those orders.

Now here's the important part, without spending an additional hour (give
or take, plus it mentally wears me out) on an additional three dollars worth
of parts, I get to spend that time listing an additional 50-100$ worth of parts
in my store. Deal with 2 of these orders, and that's potentially an additional
200$ of inventory added in a single day. I assure you that all adds up and leads
to many more orders.

I love Bricklink and the freedom it has given me. I've been wanting to share
this piece of advice with my fellow sellers (along with buyers) for awhile. Figured
this blog was the perfect time to do it. Take it or don't take it. But I
would highly recommend it. Thanks Bricklink.

Please consider another reason why people occasionally may want to place orders
with many lots. They might have purchased MOC instructions, and are working their
way through the wanted list for this MOC. Obviously, when you want to build such
a MOC with 4000+ parts distributed over 200 lots, and are only in need of a few
of most parts, you do not want to place 20 or 50 orders and pay a fortune in
shipping costs.

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Sep 29, 2021 06:07

Subject:

Re: Fees gone wild

Viewed:

62 times

Topic: