BrickLink Discussion Forum

Hey all,
i might be being silly here, but i cant find an option when i create a wanted
list, to check off items i have in my own store.
Is it possible to do this without creating a new account?

Author:

jbroman

Posted:

Jan 15, 2023 02:52

Subject:

Re: Administration

Viewed:

84 times

Topic:

In Buying, MarshMan80 writes:

Good day administration. I have a buyer that is blackmailing me and if you could
reach out to me ASAP I would appreciate that.

Marshal

You can also report the member here:
https://www.bricklink.com/problemMember.asp

Author:

MarshMan80

Posted:

Jan 15, 2023 01:30

Subject:

Administration

Viewed:

162 times

Topic:

Good day administration. I have a buyer that is blackmailing me and if you could
reach out to me ASAP I would appreciate that.

Marshal

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 20:03

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

78 times

Topic:

In Buying, jennnifer writes:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

A single combined shipping/handling fee makes it simple to understand and so
what’s to be peeved about? Almost anywhere you buy from online operates there
shipping charge in this way and as long as it’s not extortionately above actual
shipping cost then I see no problem!

My peeve isn't that sellers are combining costs. It's when they claim
they charge no fees and add a handling fee into the shipping cost. It's the
claim that irks me, not the process.

I say: I charge actual postage cost + $1 fee for handling: $4.99

Other sellers say: No Fees here! Shipping cost: $4.99

If you are charging no fees, then the order is the LEGO plus postage only.

Jen

Whats the difference? I really don't get your point because a shipping charge
is a shipping charge regardless of whether the seller chooses to include a small
amount of handling in that charge or not. One seller may charge $4 shipping whilst
another may charge $6 shipping but they're still just an upfront shipping
charge and unrelated to any other hidden or added fee that you or a buyer may
later take issue with!

When a seller claims "No Fees" it very much relates to any hidden fees
beyond that of the basic shipping/handling charge which every buyer already anticipates
and appreciates having to pay. This chosen shipping/handling charge amount can
vary between sellers (within reason!) and so to be concerned over delving so
heavily into the way a seller words and merges their shipping charge is just
being overly pedantic over something that the buyer really doesn't care too
much about!
The buyer just wants to know your total shipping charge, they don't need
to know a breakdown of how you came to decide upon that shipping charge as with
that logic you may as well also disclose to them how much you paid for your parts
and how much profit you're making from the sale of each of those parts!?

Author:

qwertyboy

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 16:26

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

40 times

Topic:

In Buying, LeeGo73 writes:

Some sellers put in an additional fee to cover stuff like driving to the post
office. Pretty much anyone else agrees these costs should just be considered
overhead, and be covered in the price of the product. Then you get a request
for local pick-up, which obviously doesn't need that drive. Are you suggesting
pricing-including-travel-costs is now unfair to the person doing local pick-up?

Keep things simple, don't stack on fees but offer price-of-product plus shipping
cost.

My CAD 0.02 (for free).

Niek.

Author:

1001bricks

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 15:14

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

Imagine a Bricklink where sellers could make up their own fictional and inflated
exchange rates to convert from USD to their native currency when invoicing

Isn't it exactly what PayPal does?

I'm off to bed, still sick, freaking flu...

Author:

Nubs_Select

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 14:59

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

35 times

Topic:

In Buying, BricksThatStick writes:

In Buying, popsicle writes:

the added after-commitment costs through inflated shipping or additional charges,
sometimes both. At least with some vendors using the invoice method.

Example: Just paid a member within the EU, for some heads. Having never transacted
with this member before, I initially thought the price good. Silly me. At least
they only used one of the two available "additional charges" columns

In moving forward, what I typically do is create a note for the member (collected
quite a few over the years) so that the next time I am pondering a buy with them,
I’ll know to factor these types of costs (shipping rate and additional charges)
before pulling the trigger. For me it’s that simple.

I gotta say though, that it's been buyer experiences like this, that have
motivated me early on to structure our selling practice with no additional charges
and low shipping costs, to the point that we often subsidize the shipping by
a small amount. I'd rather bake any ancillary costs into our prices than
hit the buyer with them afterwards.

-popsicle

Could be worse...

Imagine a Bricklink where sellers could make up their own fictional and inflated
exchange rates to convert from USD to their native currency when invoicing

Author:

BricksThatStick

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 14:53

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

46 times

Topic:

In Buying, popsicle writes:

Could be worse...

Imagine a Bricklink where sellers could make up their own fictional and inflated
exchange rates to convert from USD to their native currency when invoicing

Author:

jennnifer

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 13:37

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

50 times

Topic:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Jen

Author:

WhiteHorseMatt

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 12:10

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

In Buying, Rob_and_Shelagh writes:

In Buying, peregrinator writes:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

"A $3 handling charge applies to all orders for envelopes, padding, tape,
gas, waiting in line*, unforeseen medical expenses, wear and tear on automobiles
and footwear, storage, proper lighting, ventilation, Bricklink fees, PayPal fees,
etc."

*queue for the UK folks

If we charged for queuing in the UK everything would be unafordable

But we would still do it, and tut under our breath at those who do not.

Author:

Nubs_Select

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:57

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

In Buying, 1001bricks writes:

In Buying, peregrinator writes:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

For such discussions, Timothy Smith invented 15 years ago the "Stamp licking
fee"

don’t forget the fee for the time it takes to calculate and add the fee
to the order

Author:

1001bricks

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:49

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

27 times

Topic:

In Buying, peregrinator writes:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

For such discussions, Timothy Smith invented 15 years ago the "Stamp licking
fee"

Author:

manganschlamm

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:23

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

In Buying, popsicle writes:

Be happy that the seller does not charge some absurd lot limit or lot size or
whatever lot fee that is not explained properly in the terms.

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:16

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

This would be unfair to a large portion of the buyers within the EU who have
the option to pay with IBAN (if the seller has this activated). With IBAN there
are no fees. Why would a buyer paying with IBAN be confronted with higher part
prices that include the paypal fees?

Sellers who are not charging additional fees, but rather hide these in inflated
shipping costs or increased part prices are actually overcharging buyers who
pay with payment methods without cost (like IBAN).

If the vast majority of your buyers pay with IBAN, I can understand you wanting
to keep your prices low for them and then inflating prices for other buyers to
cover the PP fee. It is then how many other buyers do you put off because you
charge them more than the advertised price because they cannot pay by IBAN or
simply want to buy from a business rather than through a more personal transaction
like a bank transfer.

When I see a UK seller charging paypal fees, I normally least favourite the store.
I cannot be bothered to work out extra costs or start building a cart before
realising they charge more once you factor the paypal fees in. It is simpler
to just ignore the store as there are plenty of others. If they later decide
to stop doing it, I still ignore them as I don't go back and review least
favourites. First impressions matter.

Automatic checkout makes all costs clear before you place the order. But unfortunately
it's not possible in BL to add fees based on a payment method that combines
a fixed value and % of total order. It is possible for the % of total order part,
it's the fixed value that cannot be added for any given payment method.

Add the fixed charge to the postage costs. Or add a portion of it to the postage
costs, based on how many people use paypal.

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:03

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

33 times

Topic:

In Buying, peregrinator writes:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

If we charged for queuing in the UK everything would be unafordable

Author:

peregrinator

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 11:00

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:57

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

28 times

Topic:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

In Buying, Rob_and_Shelagh writes:

In Buying, zorbanj writes:

I think postage and shipping/handling are two different things that are often
conflated. Postage = the amount paid to USPS, UPS, etc. Shipping = postage paid
*and* other costs incurred to ship the order (packaging, tape, labels, driving
to the post office, etc).

When placing an order this is shown as "Shipping and Handling" but on
the invoice it is shown as just "Shipping". This is confusing and should
be changed to "Shipping and handling" in both places.

Nobody really needs to know the breakdown of the price, we don't breakdown the Lego into cost price, sorting and listing cost, storage cost, heat light and power, profit...

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

LOL, I can think of a few more! Really the loser in this is BL as they only earn
fees on the sale of the Lego. The customer pays the invoice price however that
is broken down but as you say it just makes it harder for the buyer to arrive
at the buying decision so we (you and us alike) try and make it easy for him
and cut out all the complicated nonsense

Robert

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:51

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Your massively over thinking it.... I don't think many sellers are necessarily
sitting there with a calculator and adding 5% to each part to cover paypal fees,
3% to cover Bricklink fees and whatever % to cover picking and processing time.
At the end of the day A seller doesn't need any particular reason to justify
how much they charge on any given part from one week to another and so to assume
paypal fees are having a big influence over a sellers pricing strategy is rarely
the case. For instance if a seller increased their parts by 20% overnight would
there need to be a justified explanation as to their reasoning for doing so?
All sellers set their prices differently anyway?

The simple argument being made is that if a seller isn't happy with the profits
being made after fees then simply increase your prices to compensate rather than
trying to add fees after purchase as there is no justified reason for doing so
and the only reason sellers continue with this poor practice is because they
know it gives buyers the false perception that they are cheaper than they in
fact are!

Exactly that.

Also, another way we look at Paypal fees is: "does offering Paypal make us
more extra profit after paying the costs that if we did not offer Paypal?

For us the answer is yes so the Paypal fees are self-funding.

Same as "does selling on BL and paying BL fees generate more profit than
not selling on BL?".

Obviously yes otherwise we would not still be here after all these years.

Robert

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:41

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

35 times

Topic:

In Buying, Rob_and_Shelagh writes:

In Buying, zorbanj writes:

Nobody really needs to know the breakdown of the price, we don't breakdown the Lego into cost price, sorting and listing cost, storage cost, heat light and power, profit...

Shh its hard enough buying here as it is and you'll end up giving sellers
even more ideas/reasons for adding fees!!

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:34

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Buying, LeeGo73 writes:

In Buying, Rob_and_Shelagh writes:

In Buying, popsicle writes:

For all my time here, this has been the biggest issue raised by buyers on the
forum.

Majority of orders now go through auto checkout so for those orders, if sellers
put on additional costs at least the buyer can see the final price before committing
to the order (or not). Given this exists maybe it is time for BL to call time
on charges added to orders after the buyer has placed the order. This could easily
be done by forcing all non automated checkout orders to quote.

That said I agree with many others who say just put the charges into your prices,
we have always done that in our store. Total price = parts as priced + shipping
as stated.

Robert

'just put the charges into the prices' would include the fees for paypal
I assume.

This would be unfair to a large portion of the buyers within the EU who have
the option to pay with IBAN (if the seller has this activated). With IBAN there
are no fees. Why would a buyer paying with IBAN be confronted with higher part
prices that include the paypal fees?

Sellers who are not charging additional fees, but rather hide these in inflated
shipping costs or increased part prices are actually overcharging buyers who
pay with payment methods without cost (like IBAN).

Automatic checkout makes all costs clear before you place the order. But unfortunately
it's not possible in BL to add fees based on a payment method that combines
a fixed value and % of total order. It is possible for the % of total order part,
it's the fixed value that cannot be added for any given payment method.

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:14

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Buying, zorbanj writes:

Terminology varies. Shipping is commonly referred to here as P&P (postage and
packing). But yes, the important number for the customer is the "total shipping
price". Postage is just one of the costs to the seller. Nobody really needs
to know the breakdown of the price, we don't breakdown the Lego into cost
price, sorting and listing cost, storage cost, heat light and power, profit...
we just quote the price. What the customer needs to know is the price of his
order including shipping so he can compare it to the price offered elsewhere
(as well as considering other non-price factors in his sourcing decision).

Robert

Author:

zorbanj

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 10:05

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

35 times

Topic:

My pet peeve is sellers who claim 'No fees!' and then inflate the postage
costs. If you are adding your 'handling' charges into the shipping charge,
then you are charging a fee just like the rest of us.

Jen

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 09:55

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

36 times

Topic:

In Buying, infinibrix writes:

Implementing the cost of packing materials and/or a small handling fee into your
shipping cost is standard business practice! We all know that it costs the seller
more than just the actual shipping cost to process the buyers order and so it
stands to reason not to expect to only pay the exact shipping cost? The buyer
only needs to know and wants to know a flat rate shipping/handling fee, they
don’t need to know or care to know an in depth breakdown of Shipping cost, packing
materials, processing time etc etc..

A single combined shipping/handling fee makes it simple to understand and so
what’s to be peeved about? Almost anywhere you buy from online operates there
shipping charge in this way and as long as it’s not extortionately above actual
shipping cost then I see no problem!

Agreed and as long as it is clearly stated. Usually the price of the Lego is
more than the shipping but nobody seems interested in the seller breaking down
the price charged for the Lego

Robert

Author:

infinibrix

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 09:45

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

43 times

Topic:

In Buying, jennnifer writes:

In Buying, popsicle writes:

Author:

Rob_and_Shelagh

Posted:

Jan 13, 2023 09:43

Subject:

Re: Still prevalent today...

Viewed:

32 times

Topic: