Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | Lauren_Luke  | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 18:06 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 22 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| StormChaser:
| | Anyone can submit minibuilds to the page and members can then vote on them.
Once a minibuild reaches a set number of votes it gets reviewed for addition
to the catalog. That method should eliminate a number of potential problems.
|
I don't see the need for this extra level of work. TLG spend a lot of time
and money developing their sets going through all aspects (aesthetics, durability
of builds; play-ability; build-ability, etc.) of design. Let's leverage
that time and money already spent by TLG, by submitting a minibuild to BL for
approval from TLG instructions. It would be easy to validate (from the instructions)
and easy for the seller to know what to pack and easy for the buyer to know what
parts he is buying (and how to build it).
|
 |
| Author: | WoutR | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 18:03 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| In Suggestions, Lauren_Luke writes:
| | OK, I’m running a minibuild test on a set. I have chosen set ‘#60141-1 Police
Station’:
Using the instructions, I guess the logical minibuilds would be:
Police Motorcycle
Cherry Picker
Police Station
Police Car
Police Helicopter
Issues:
The ‘stickers issue’ is the major issue, as all the above minibuilds use stickers
from the single sticker sheet (#60141stk01).
Most of the minibuilds come with their own bag but also a minifig/animal. For
example, ‘The Police Car’ comes in its own bag (bag #2) but also includes a police
minifig, the same with the ‘Police Helicopter’ which comes in bag #3 and includes
another police minifig.
All the minibuilds have their own instruction booklet except for the ‘Cherry
Picker’ and the ‘Police Motorcycle’ which share booklet #1.
Following the instructions and the separate bags The ‘Police Station’ is divided
into four sections: The Canine Department (bag #4); The Head Office with Helipad
(bag #5); The Garage (bag #6); The Barrier and Lookout Post (bag #7); and the
Prison Cells (bags #8, #9, and, #10). So should this be one minibuild (The Police
Station); or four minibuilds; or both?
We can go further into detail and part out the sub-assemblies into more minibuilds.
For instance, from the ‘Police Station’ there are at least 15 small minibuilds:
Computer Desk (four different designs); a welcome mat (which is silly without
the sticker); Exterior and Interior Lighting (four different designs); a cell
toilet; a cell bed; a coffee machine; a water cooler; a kitchenette; and, a barrier
(see photo). If a seller parted these out he would have many spare parts to
then sell as new. It is more work for the seller, but he can choose whether
he would want to do it. The big question is ‘Is this what buyers want?’. These
little builds add the ‘cuteness’ that TLG seems to be great at marketing. To
use the phrase of Bernie Loomis, these little minbuilds are ‘toyetic’, and ‘toyeticness’
sells!
|
I can understand the 5 minibuilds you mentioned above. Those sub-subassemblies
are what I called the mayhem.
|
|
| Author: | tEoS | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 17:59 | | Subject: | Re: New buyer LOE to tie up inventory for 14 days | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| What piece is it that you still need?
| | Likewise as a buyer I think its ridiculous to not be allowed to cancel an order
for 2 weeks if the vendor wont even communicate whether or not they will even
send it! I paid for my items 2/27/18. Altho I have sent several emails. UT I
HAVE STILL YET TO HEAR FROM 1 of my vendors if they are even going to ship my
merchandise. I have received my merchandise from a vendor who was moving his
warehouse and 1 that was form the Netherlands. It's a tiny order & very little
money. But if they didn't want to mess with such a tiny order, they should
have told me! Bricklink chose the vendors, NOT ME! Now I can't build, because
I need a piece I was expecting to get from them. I submitted a problem response
through this system. It's a common piece but I shouldn't have to order
it again or go to a Lego store.
|
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| Author: | Lauren_Luke | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 17:48 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| OK, I’m running a minibuild test on a set. I have chosen set ‘#60141-1 Police
Station’:
Using the instructions, I guess the logical minibuilds would be:
Police Motorcycle
Cherry Picker
Police Station
Police Car
Police Helicopter
Issues:
The ‘stickers issue’ is the major issue, as all the above minibuilds use stickers
from the single sticker sheet (#60141stk01).
Most of the minibuilds come with their own bag but also a minifig/animal. For
example, ‘The Police Car’ comes in its own bag (bag #2) but also includes a police
minifig, the same with the ‘Police Helicopter’ which comes in bag #3 and includes
another police minifig.
All the minibuilds have their own instruction booklet except for the ‘Cherry
Picker’ and the ‘Police Motorcycle’ which share booklet #1.
Following the instructions and the separate bags The ‘Police Station’ is divided
into four sections: The Canine Department (bag #4); The Head Office with Helipad
(bag #5); The Garage (bag #6); The Barrier and Lookout Post (bag #7); and the
Prison Cells (bags #8, #9, and, #10). So should this be one minibuild (The Police
Station); or four minibuilds; or both?
We can go further into detail and part out the sub-assemblies into more minibuilds.
For instance, from the ‘Police Station’ there are at least 15 small minibuilds:
Computer Desk (four different designs); a welcome mat (which is silly without
the sticker); Exterior and Interior Lighting (four different designs); a cell
toilet; a cell bed; a coffee machine; a water cooler; a kitchenette; and, a barrier
(see photo). If a seller parted these out he would have many spare parts to
then sell as new. It is more work for the seller, but he can choose whether
he would want to do it. The big question is ‘Is this what buyers want?’. These
little builds add the ‘cuteness’ that TLG seems to be great at marketing. To
use the phrase of Bernie Loomis, these little minbuilds are ‘toyetic’, and ‘toyeticness’
sells!
|
|
|
| Author: | leopard37 | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 17:07 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 36 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| In Suggestions, Pretty_Pieces writes:
| | I have commonly sold minibuilds on the "other" auction site. I never bothered
listing them here.
Specifically, the Tardis and control room (separately) of , and the
police car from (no stickers included).
Dawn
Pretty_Pieces
|
I think all the cars with/out drivers from speed champions would sell really
well. Especially from the large sets that have a lot of other "stuff" (eg. racestands).
If you were just collecting the cars you might want to get the minibuild. I've
also thought the duck from the batman cave would sell well.
Tyson.
|
|
| Author: | Lauren_Luke | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 16:17 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| axaday:
| | If I were the king, I think I would put them on a new tree and not go by themes.
Use categories like "Vehicle - Land", "Vehicle - Space", "Animal", "Furniture".
It would be a whole new way for customers to shop Bricklink and a whole new
area for sellers to specialize.
|
I totally agree.
|
| Author: | Lauren_Luke | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 16:14 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 24 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| Pretty_Pieces:
| | I have commonly sold minibuilds on the "other" auction site. I never bothered
listing them here.
|
Fantastic. So this may be an untapped market for BL and BL Sellers!
|
|
| Author: | Lauren_Luke | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 16:13 | | Subject: | Re: Minibuilds | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| Miro78:
| | There are some obvious builds like the characters from Cars, brickbuilt figures like Groot, the giant Antman and such, train cars, but then it it's not so clear on the smaller builds that are not attached to the main set build.
|
I agree. However, I think an organic evolution of this would be the best approach,
such as axaday suggests:
| | | | ...I don't think we would have to make a complicated set of rules about what was and wasn't acceptable either. Just leave it up to what people want to submit. [axaday]
|
|
This would mean a whole new additional request-approval procedure for admins.
Miro78:
| | There are lots of little minibuilds across various themes/subthemes and I am not sure how they will be easily cataloged in what would require a whole new branch of the catalog.
|
Yes, I agree there would have to be a whole new branch of the catalog, i.e. ‘minibuilds’.
Admin_Russell also agrees with this:
| | | | ...another type of item would ultimately need to be created... [Admin_Russell]
|
|
Miro78:
| | Would they be classified under their themes and subthemes. How will they be easily found. If I just want a brickbuilt trashcan, how will one know what theme and subtheme to find it under. The character ones would be fairly simple to find by name, but some accessory minibuilds would seem to lurk in the shadows of the catalog, to be never found or browsed. There needs to be an early decision to differentiate between an ambiguous figure being a minifig or a minibuild.
|
Yes, a major classification structure would have to be agreed upon before the
minibuilds are loaded. This would require discussion and research. On the face
of it I think it would be beneficial to classify (i.e. structure) minibuilds
by what they are / setting.
Miro78:
| | Additionally it would take a huge undertaking to re-catalog many of these.
|
WoutR:
| | ...a lot more inventory work, and that also means a lot more verification work for our inv.admin
|
I agree, however, we are not adding any new parts only new inventories. I know
that sounds glib, I have worked in database/programming for over twenty years
so I do know how something that sounds easy to the user is in fact a huge operation
for the programmer. I suppose we must look at the return on investment (of time
and money). Sellers and BL are not bringing anything physical ‘to the table’,
only providing an extra way to part-out a set. The time and money for BL to
set it up (new minibuild branch) and the extra work involved by Sellers and BL
(I presume the collaborative community spirit is still here at BL) to manage
it (request-approve) needs to be balanced against a gain in sales (good for sellers
and BL) and an extra avenue for buyers. Sellers are already adding minibuilds
as incomplete sets in the current ‘set’ branch of the catalog, so I presume there
is a demand.
Miro78:
| | The sticker sheets is one of the biggest issues that I can't figure out the best way to handle the issue without making the minibuild seem incomplete if omitted, but if the stickers are applied, then it would classify them as used.
|
I agree, and yorbrick gave an example of this:
| | | | ...this type is even worse:
|
|
Sellers will not want to cut a sticker sheet, because that would invalidate the
‘new’ status of the minibuild, and if they add the sticker sheet to one minibuild,
then that would prevent stickers for other minibuilds and/or the main build (since
there is only one sticker sheet per set)! I suppose we will have to live with
examples of dp029 Cogsworth.
Another approach taken by AaronHeng in his minibuild of Ironman suit from set
‘#76105-1 The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition’, is that he has changed the minibuild
to omit the stickered parts (see attached image).
https://store.bricklink.com/AaronHeng?itemID=139793517#/shop?o={"invID":"139793517"}
Miro78:
| | Ultimately, people will probably still list sets as incomplete to gain better visibility and to dump off the rest of the unwanted minibuilds in 1 sale as opposed to various minibuilds.
|
I guess most of the minibuilds (actually incomplete sets) are where the seller
has taken out the parts they want (usually minifigs) and dumped the rest as set-incomplete
in one sale, but they have to sometimes go to great lengths in their description
to explain what they have on sale and what has been taken out (again usually
minifigs). They have to do this specifically for the novice buyer. If there
were a proper structure (i.e. what we are discussing here) then then seller would
not have to go into an elaborate ‘liability clause’ and the buyer (novice or
not) would know exactly what they are buying. In fact, with minibuilds available
as a new catalog branch, could we eliminate the ‘incomplete’ status (new and
used)? Is the ‘new-incomplete’ set supposed to be for minibuilds; a rampaged
set; or, a set in a box that was damaged and a sealed bag fell out (or a mixture
of the three)? What is the definition of a 'used-incomplete' set?
Miro78:
| | As far as the catalog price averages issue, I think incomplete sets need to be marked as incomplete and sale of those should not be listed or used for calculations of averages. Perhaps that is already what is happening, I just wouldn't know.
|
Doing a quick investigation (and only one sample set - sorry) of the price guide
for set ‘#76105-1 The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition’, it appears that the one minibuild
(new-incomplete set) is not included in the average price calculations. See:
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?S=76105-1&ColorID=0
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| Author: | WoutR | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 16:02 | | Subject: | Re: Stop counting neutral feedback as negative | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| In Suggestions, Dino1 writes:
| | Where is the percentage for buyers?
|
I don't know.
For buyers, we still use the old system.
|
| Author: | Dino | | Posted: | Mar 16, 2018 15:52 | | Subject: | Re: Stop counting neutral feedback as negative | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
| | Where is the percentage for buyers? |
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