BrickLink Discussion Forum

Yorbrick,

I think there are some brick-and-mortar retailers who would love to have you
and Teup on staff!

Yep, now that they’ve spent the money they need to take advantage of the membership.
But we can’t let them just use that $1000 like store credit, they only get to
pay for a portion of each order from that $1000, say maybe 10% per order? That
way we encourage new members to order $10,000 of product a year, they pay an
additional $9000 out of pocket and get to use that $1000 to make up the difference.
While BrickLink is waiting for members to use their $1000 membership fee they
have the money parked in a high interest account, a portion of the interest would
be distributed to sellers, of course!

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 12, 2019 08:42

Subject:

Re: Have all members pay BL $1 to buy and/or sell

Viewed:

38 times

Topic:

Calebfishn,

You’ve got a really good point about how part of running a business is providing
quotes and such which may not lead to a sale, like when I’ve met with prospective
clients who decided not to hire me.

I do agree that keeping BrickLink accessible and welcoming to new members should
be a priority. Your Walmart example is good. There are examples of businesses
charging fees for entry, such as bars with cover charges and even Costco’s membership
fee, but again, better for BrickLink not to give someone reason to walk away.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 12, 2019 08:40

Subject:

Re: Have all members pay BL $1 to buy and/or sell

Viewed:

36 times

Topic:

Matthew,

Yeah, I didn’t mean to stir up the hornets’ nest!

I can relate with having to put building on the back burner to take care of work.
A big distraction for me is my home office renovation which will be the room
where I build and display all things LEGO. I’m not very fast when it comes to
renovation work but I’ve made matters worse by expanding the scope of the project
to include new UV-blocking glass in the windows, also decided to cut out the
wood panels in the interior door and install frosted glass which is something
I’ve always thought looked nice.

Boy, dust is my sworn enemy, especially with the renovation work. Every LEGO
set I’ve bought this year is in boxes which are then sealed in trash bags in
the storage room (formerly known as the living room!) To help keep dust down
the office renovation will include a HEPA filter and vinyl plank flooring instead
of carpet, might even splurge and get one of those vacuum robots.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 12, 2019 08:38

Subject:

Re: Have all members pay BL $1 to buy and/or sell

Viewed:

47 times

Topic:

Teup,

I guess it’s easy for me to now say I’d pay a fee because I value what BrickLink
has to offer.

I didn’t realize there was an issue with people not wanting to sign up for BrickLink.
I know in general that I do resist signing up for yet another online account
when I don’t expect to regularly purchase at that online store, but at the end
of the day if I want what they have and there’s no other way to get it I’ll sign
up for that account.

Regarding setting up a BrickLink account, when I signed up in February of this
year I was impressed by how easy the account set up seemed to be - just email,
username, password, then to click Confirm in the email from BrickLink - it was
fast and easy in my opinion.

I also thought BrickLink did well enough to provide information on how the site
works, but then again, I took a few minutes to patiently search for and actually
read the information. I would agree that the typical person probably expects
something like Amazon where you just select the items and as you proceed through
the check-out process everything is calculated.

But in general, I think everyone can agree with the concept of keeping BrickLink
simple and accessible, a sign-up fee would work against that goal.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 11, 2019 15:29

Subject:

Re: Have all members pay BL $1 to buy and/or sell

Viewed:

57 times

Topic:

Nectara,

Brickwilbo also suggested Instant Checkout. Just thought I’d share my thoughts
after reading Chezler’s comment above that Instant Checkout doesn’t always prevent
Non-Paying Buyers and that maybe the initial membership fee could be refunded.

Bricklnk offers a great service and has a great community, even if that membership
fee wasn’t refunded a new member would get a lot of value for the minimal sign-up
fee.

Ted

In Suggestions, nectara writes:

The solution is already here called Instant Checkout

Regards
Nectara

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 11, 2019 10:12

Subject:

Re: Have all members pay BL $1 to buy and/or sell

Viewed:

89 times

Topic:

Matejo,

I’m not saying that I think any little fee should be part of the solution, but
if a fee were implemented maybe it should be considered an “order processing
fee” and be paid to the seller to be credited towards the order assuming it wasn’t
a fake order, otherwise seller keeps it. But even if the buyer turns out to
be fake then that $1.00 hardly seems like adequate compensation for wasting the
seller’s time.

As a recent new member, would I have paid $5.00 (or whatever) for a lifetime
BrickLink membership? The concept would have bothered me a little at first,
but yeah, I would have paid because I wanted buyer privileges. If that fee were
refunded back after so many orders, great, if not, not a big deal really.

Hmm, as I think more about it, such a payment would at least confirm that a buyer
is a real person and has a means by which to pay for orders online.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Jun 11, 2019 09:54

Subject:

Re: Seller checkout approval for <X new buyers

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

Matejo,

Out of curiosity, if some sort of seller approval system were in place, what
is it that would give you confidence to sell to a new BrickLinker with zero feedback?
So for example, new member wants to place their first order, they send you the
message that says, "Would you please sell this item to me even though I don't
have enough feedback?" then you have to decide to say yes or no - what would
you be looking for that would make you approve the order request?

You made the comment, "…to minimize time-wasting fake orders…" - are there really
people who have nothing better to do then to set up an order for which they never
intend to pay? That is so weird to me.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Apr 10, 2019 15:32

Subject:

Typo on part-out Alternatives message

Viewed:

68 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Vote:

[Yes|No]

Hello,

This isn’t a suggestion but wanted to let you know there is a typographical error
in the message regarding alternates that appears when getting the parts list
for a wish list set, “production” is misspelled as “prouction" on the first line.

Wasn’t sure the best way to bring this to your attention, sorry if this is the
wrong place.

Ted

Author:

skybound13

Posted:

Feb 24, 2019 21:47

Subject:

Count for Likes and Comments posted on MOCs

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

Status:

Open

Vote:

[Yes|No]