Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | Teup  | | Posted: | Feb 22, 2022 04:19 | | Subject: | Re: Enabling of B2B transactions for EU orders | | Viewed: | 77 times | | Topic: | Administrative | |
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| In Administrative, 1001bricks writes:
| | | | In order to make use of this new feature, simply click on the 'Verify your
VAT ID' link under the Order Summary section to enter your valid VAT registration
number during checkout
|
Quick tests:
I tried in 3 different shops including Brick24, and couldn't see no "Verify
your VAT ID" link or whatever even close to this, up to the very last step of
the check out (4th).
It's late, tired - please have a good evening!
|
Looks like it only works on stores outside the EU, I wonder why? I like how it
works, I think the same could be applied to EU stores, no? Or should stores be
able to refuse accepting them? According to the tax agency helpdesk here, it's
not something stores are allowed to refuse, but I've also seen on the forum
that intra-community transactions are problematic for sellers in certain member
states.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 18:45 | | Subject: | Re: Why most orders on Mondays? | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Off Topic | |
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| In Off Topic, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Off Topic, Teup writes:
| | […]
Useful tip: When it's really busy (holiday season), it could be smart to
send out orders on Tuesday. Mondays are sometimes so busy for PostNL that they
leave some of the Monday bags untouched until a week later to avoid a domino
effect. So shipping out on Tuesday in busy times can actually make things arrive
faster.
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And now everybody will post on Tuesday, so Monday will be okay again… or maybe
better post on Wednesday 
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Actually yes that's right, what they told me is that it's Monday "and
sometimes Tuesday"... so Wednesday is safest  But for me so far, almost all
of my delayed orders can be traced back to Monday batches 
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 18:32 | | Subject: | Re: Why most orders on Mondays? | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Off Topic | |
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| In Off Topic, tonnic writes:
| | In Off Topic, Leftoverbricks writes:
| | Hi all,
I am puzzled by the fact that I receive most orders on Monday and not on Saturday
or Sunday.
I understand that you use the weekend to spend on your hobby, but why do you
place the order on Monday, the day you should be at work? And not on Sunday evening?
Do you use Sunday night to 'sleep on it?' And if so, why?
Of course I understand that orders from the USA that are placed on Sunday evening
will only arrive on Monday evening. But I'm not talking about that.
It is the orders from Europe that always arrive on Mondays. And the rest of the
week you can just forget about: no orders. This, of course, only pertains to
my small shop.
Anyway, I have packed my weekly 3 orders placed on Monday (all from The Netherlands)
and ship them tomorrow.
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For me it is not getting the orders on monday but most of the time monday is
‘shippingday’.
I receive the orders during the weekend, pack them and ship them on monday.
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Same here, and it's actually the usual pattern for webshops. People tend
to do their shopping in the weekend. (But Lego parts orders are complicated so
maybe in the OP's case people just finalize them a little later)
Useful tip: When it's really busy (holiday season), it could be smart to
send out orders on Tuesday. Mondays are sometimes so busy for PostNL that they
leave some of the Monday bags untouched until a week later to avoid a domino
effect. So shipping out on Tuesday in busy times can actually make things arrive
faster.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 12:23 | | Subject: | Re: Why most orders on Mondays? | | Viewed: | 58 times | | Topic: | Off Topic | |
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| In Off Topic, Leftoverbricks writes:
| | Hi all,
I am puzzled by the fact that I receive most orders on Monday and not on Saturday
or Sunday.
I understand that you use the weekend to spend on your hobby, but why do you
place the order on Monday, the day you should be at work? And not on Sunday evening?
Do you use Sunday night to 'sleep on it?' And if so, why?
Of course I understand that orders from the USA that are placed on Sunday evening
will only arrive on Monday evening. But I'm not talking about that.
It is the orders from Europe that always arrive on Mondays. And the rest of the
week you can just forget about: no orders. This, of course, only pertains to
my small shop.
Anyway, I have packed my weekly 3 orders placed on Monday (all from The Netherlands)
and ship them tomorrow.
|
I agree that's odd, and most of mine actually are on Sunday evening. Monday
and Tuesday are sort of the cooldown days for my shop where I have a change to
catch up with everything. It can't be a timezone thing either, because BL's
timestamps are earlier rather than later.
As for this particular Monday: A lot of people are staying indoors these days
because of the storm and it caused a huge surge in orders for me, like a lockdown
kind of effect.
Maybe some business buyers who were missing parts for their weekend orders?
I can't really think of a better possible reason...
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 11:44 | | Subject: | Re: List of renamed/recategorized items. | | Viewed: | 26 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, 1001bricks writes:
| | | | That's just your personal method and opinion. I have soooo many benefits
to category based sorting that remark based sorting seems really stupid to me
|
Sorting is way faster when you're searching something different.
Imagine you're searching for a Black small part in a stack of Black parts
on your table.
It'll be long, tedious and subject to errors.
Now if you're searching for the same part in between many different colors,
it'll be different and way faster.
And if it's the only Black part, then there couldn't be any possible
error.
Of course - but in both cases - assuming your inventory is correct.
In short, searching 1 Torso in between a drawer of 50 different bags of torsos
is like the above solution.
At the contrary, if it's the only bag of Torsos in a drawer with bags of
different parts, you don't have to think at search; your visual search is
optimal, and you read the sticker just to be sure, you don't have to search
using the stickers (reading is long and subject to errors).
Conclusion: I don't sort by Color neither by Category; it's way better.
And it may be an error to think this is stupid
Sylvain
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Not sure if I see the analogy with colour, but on the topic of colour: I've
noticed that most of my many-lot orders have the same part in multiple colours,
so I get them all out of the same bag. (And there's no need to waste time
searching, either, because the bags are transparent and none are so big that
you can't see the part you need) - just one out of many advantages of category
based sorting.
Well, I'm exaggerating saying it's 'stupid', I know it's
not As clearly many sellers are doing it, so clearly it works for many people.
It's just something I don't understand well, because I haven't learned
how to do it, because I don't have any problems that it could solve. I don't
understand how the remarks get there in the first place (in a way that doesn't
require lots of extra manual labour), or how it works when a lot grows bigger
so you need a different location for it, or what the chronology of the workflow
is when you add parts while some already have locations and some don't. Probably
interesting to watch a video on how it works sometime, but as I said I don't
have any problems - I can stock parts immediately and pick the immediately -
so there isn't really much I could gain from that method even if it was perfect
and remarks were all automatic.
One exception though is minifig parts, your torso example is a good one. I've
got those sorted on minifigure series number, or year, as it would be too
much in one category otherwise. So I am kind of using remarks there. But it's
extra work that's only really worth it for problematic categories like those.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 06:09 | | Subject: | Re: List of renamed/recategorized items. | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, Joshua.Burrier writes:
| | As you clean up the sight, things get renamed or re-categorized on the site,
but I'm not notified and can move the parts in my physical inventory boxes
accordingly.
"Wait, that part was Minifigures, Weapon, Spacegun. Now it's in Minifigures,
weapon, gun. And now I have to refund the customer because I can't find
it. Or what is currently a 1x1 Technic, Liftarm used to be in Technic and Technic,
Connectors."
Please, when you move something, tell us. Make a list.
Thanks,
Joshua
|
Besides the existence of such lists, there are also topics about it in the forum.
As with all important things, the forum is far from an ideal place for communication,
but at least it's something. Oh, there's actually also the catalog newsletter,
which I hope will continue to be a thing.
I agree this is tricky, and that's why the catmins have been doing the more
drastic changes in batches with a notification about it in the forum at least
1 month ahead of the move. Especially if you have to move not just parts but
entire bins/furniture that's very useful.
(However, last time the admin team came in and decided to use that month to think
about whether or not to approve the proposed changes, which of course ruins the
preparation month completely. Hopefully they won't do that again!)
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 21, 2022 06:00 | | Subject: | Re: List of renamed/recategorized items. | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, 1001bricks writes:
| | In Suggestions, Joshua.Burrier writes:
| | As you clean up the sight, things get renamed or re-categorized on the site,
but I'm not notified and can move the parts in my physical inventory boxes
accordingly.
|
Oh Gosh
While that still could be a problem, the idea is DO NOT use Categories to organize
your Shop Inventory.
At least use the Remarks field - and BrickStore
(some may start to think I've Stock Options there...)
You can put drawer 12 : "#DR12" in Remark for example.
It won't change (unless you change it).
|
That's just your personal method and opinion. I have soooo many benefits
to category based sorting that remark based sorting seems really stupid to me
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 20, 2022 06:33 | | Subject: | Re: Snack Bar 1x8 brick 3008pb013 | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Catalog Requests | |
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| In Catalog Requests, Wingman_bricks writes:
| | Under "Items Appears In" should this decorated brick appear as part of set 675-1.
|
Hey, what kind of hairpiece is that? Unreleased? Never seen it before.
https://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/ON/0/675-1.png
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 20, 2022 04:57 | | Subject: | Re: can't ship to Italy?! | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Shipping | |
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| In Shipping, woodelf writes:
| | I just had a buyer from Italy, and since it's a large and valuable set, I
was double checking things like insurance options. In the process, I discovered
that according to USPS, it is forbidden to mail "toys not made wholly of wood"
to Italy. Some further research shows that this is an Italian law that has been
on the books for quite a while—it frequently shows up in lists of "wacky laws"
and such.
Should I be concerned? Anybody know if this applies to small personal sales,
as opposed to large commercial businesses? Is it pretty strictly/reliably enforced?
(I'm shipping from the US, if that makes a difference.)
(I've sent the buyer a message to confirm that they're aware of this
law and either know it's not really enforced or are ok with channcing it.
But no response yet.)
-Nat
|
I never understand this thing with EU countries having weird import rules and
how they can be real. If they were real, then surely businesses would have popped
up that simply let you send it to another EU country and then send it to Italy
from there? There's free traffic within the EU after all.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 19, 2022 08:51 | | Subject: | Re: Dual Molded Parts | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| In Catalog, hpoort writes:
| | In Catalog, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog, randyf writes:
| | Please make absolutely sure that the part is molded in more than
one color of plastic and not just painted. This is very important!
|
That begs the question how well the users of the catalog will be able to tell
the difference. Just saying.. if it's going to be just encyclopedic info
then that's fine, but if it's going to inform categorization and affect
findability.... tricky. Are we sure we'd really gain something by distinguishing
printing from dual moulding?
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So far I've found only the friend legs with tan shoes as the only example
where both variants appear, but yes: I would say it matters to distinguish and
make this a consistent attribute of part listings.
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What does that mean precisely though, in your opinion? That the names include
the term "dual molded"?
And parts with print and dual mold would be classified as "decorated" and the
ones with dual mold without print would be considered not decorated?
It could get tricky with things like shorts. If someone is making a summer city
and wants minifigs in shorts, it's not really intuitive having to search
two separate categories that are based on how a part was manufactured. However,
if the "decorated" term get replaced by "multi color", that could hold both dual
molded and printed parts.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 19, 2022 05:44 | | Subject: | Re: Dual Molded Parts | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| In Catalog, randyf writes:
| | Please make absolutely sure that the part is molded in more than
one color of plastic and not just painted. This is very important!
|
That begs the question how well the users of the catalog will be able to tell
the difference. Just saying.. if it's going to be just encyclopedic info
then that's fine, but if it's going to inform categorization and affect
findability.... tricky. Are we sure we'd really gain something by distinguishing
printing from dual moulding?
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 17, 2022 16:13 | | Subject: | Re: Define Neutral Feedback | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, yorbrick writes:
| | | | We don't really have the numbers of course, but I do think that does depend
on what's written. If someone posts that the seller behaved super weird or
that the parts were extremely dirty, I do think that can put off buyers. You're
right though that in general a neutral probably doesn't have much effect,
but the fact is, the way the interface is designed makes it very easy to read
the neutral and negative feedback messages. And since it's 'forever',
it really gives what's written there a lot of weight.
Much more than their numerical effect, at least. The fact that a negative feedback
substracts 1 from the score is just plain silly, and IMO is a good illustration
that not too much thought went into the system. You are probably right that neutrals/negatives
are not the end of the world as much as sellers often feel it to be, but I do
think in reality, a negative may be worth -100 or even more. In fact I'm
unsure if I'm rather set back -1000 or get 1 negative
|
If a buyer reads one neutral (or even negative) out of 100s or 1000s of positives
and believes that one over all the rest and decides not to purchase because of
it, the store is probably better off without that buyer. There are plenty of
sensible buyers out there too.
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Well, consider there are a few stores selling a part at a good price. You check
the first one and it has a zillion positive but only one neutral or negative,
and that is exactly about your situation. For example, the store is mostly about
new parts, but you're after one particular used part they have and someone
wrote the used parts smelled horrible and had grime on them. Or shipping to your
particular country took months. All things equal, that might just be the push
you need to check out if the next store could be any better.
So yes, score-wise a neutral is irrelevant - everything over 90% is probably
all good. Nobody in their right mind would think "oh no, 2000 positive and 5
neutral, run!!". But the message that's written there sticks around forever,
it's just 1 click away when checking feedback. You're right it won't
have any dramatic effects, but whatever warning you as a buyer leave there can
have *some* effect. At least more than 100 positives that end up pretty much
invisible and hardly visually change the feedback score if it's already in
the thousands.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 17, 2022 15:42 | | Subject: | Re: Define Neutral Feedback | | Viewed: | 25 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, yorbrick writes:
| | | | (The fact that negatives substract the score by one and that neutrals don't
change the score is just silly and has no meaning. Even if they would add +10
to the score, the fact they stick around in the feedback profile is much more
significant, so their 'punishing' effect remains the same.)
|
Punishing implies that the seller is somehow punished for having a neutral. When
clearly this is not the case as buyers still buy from stores that had a single
neutral last week, or one three years ago and loads of positives since. In fact,
buyers still buy from stores that have many negatives. I know in the past I have
bought from one big store that was running at about 97% at the time I ordered.
It was good to get the warning, but I used common sense to decide that even if
the worst of the feedback left by others had come true I would not be out of
pocket and would have only wasted my time (and not got some decent parts I was
after at such a low price).
If buyers still buy from stores after being made aware of warnings, it is not
exactly a punishment for the store. The only punishment is to the seller's
ego, no longer being 100% perfect. And I think that more than any real damage
to a store is the root cause of the complaints. The feeling of not being seen
to be absolutely perfect, rather than buyers being put off from buying from a
store. Obviously that is easy for me to say, as I am still 100% perfect (at least
according to my feedback) but I have a plan to deal with it when I get a non-positive.
I will simply reply to it, then ignore it, and I will stoplist the buyer leaving
it so they can no longer buy from me. Not being able to buy from a seller (especially
if they have items that the buyer wants at a decent price) is probably a worse
punishment than a single neutral for a store that will not put off buyers.
|
We don't really have the numbers of course, but I do think that does depend
on what's written. If someone posts that the seller behaved super weird or
that the parts were extremely dirty, I do think that can put off buyers. You're
right though that in general a neutral probably doesn't have much effect,
but the fact is, the way the interface is designed makes it very easy to read
the neutral and negative feedback messages. And since it's 'forever',
it really gives what's written there a lot of weight.
Much more than their numerical effect, at least. The fact that a negative feedback
substracts 1 from the score is just plain silly, and IMO is a good illustration
that not too much thought went into the system. You are probably right that neutrals/negatives
are not the end of the world as much as sellers often feel it to be, but I do
think in reality, a negative may be worth -100 or even more. In fact I'm
unsure if I'm rather set back -1000 or get 1 negative
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 17, 2022 15:34 | | Subject: | Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees | | Viewed: | 27 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| In Help, rankster writes:
| | In Help, Teup writes:
| | So, Bricklink is a little bit more strict
|
I’m wondering how is it possible that some (if not most) of the biggest EU stores
haven’t turned on OSS yet? They might calculate the VAT of each country manually
using their own invoicing system?
|
That's what I would do, yes, but even so, Bricklink simply won't let
you sell past 10K without turning it on. So if big stores didn't turn on
the OSS setting then that's very strange, yes.
I suspect that soon I will reach Bricklink's threshold although I'm planning
to use OSS not before July. Hopefully BL will allow me to keep selling until
then if I show them paperwork that proves my fiscal years starts on 1 Jan.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 17, 2022 04:35 | | Subject: | Re: Define Neutral Feedback | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, gogogovro writes:
| | Bricklink doesn't define what neutral feedback means on the feedback help
page (https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=248). What do you as a buyer
or seller define neutral feedback as? What are some reasons you would leave neutral
feedback?
I don't currently have a use case for using neutral, so I'm hoping on
learning from your replies.
|
If I focus not necessarily on my opinion but purely on the way the website interface
is designed, I would say that neutral or negative is any message that you want
future users to read before ordering (in other words, warnings).
A positive feedback will immediately disappear in the long list of positives
that nobody will ever read (its only effect is a contribution to the score),
while negatives and neutrals stick around, because their lists are much shorter
and their scores draw attention and curiosity because they are low numbers.
(The fact that negatives substract the score by one and that neutrals don't
change the score is just silly and has no meaning. Even if they would add +10
to the score, the fact they stick around in the feedback profile is much more
significant, so their 'punishing' effect remains the same.)
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 14, 2022 19:29 | | Subject: | Re: Label Transparent Elements as PC or MABS | | Viewed: | 22 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| Actually this is the only difference that you can tell with your eyes closed
Because the new PC parts make quite a different (less sharp) sound when you
handle them. Of course, it becomes tricky if they're mixed
In Suggestions, peregrinator writes:
| | Speaking as a seller, I don't think telling the difference is easy.
In Suggestions, slick_bricks writes:
| | I think it would behoove the online marketplaces to add labeling for PC versus
MABS Transparent LEGO elements. This would help builders and set restorers match
the color of the plastic since it is becoming apparent that the new MABS formula
is affecting the coloration significantly and consistently.
Just putting it out there, it would be a good idea to initiate this sooner than
later, as the color differences between the old Trans-Clear and new Trans-Clear
elements are quite stark. Should labeling options get into place early, it could
save a lot of work later on down the line as it becomes a growing discrepancy.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 14, 2022 19:27 | | Subject: | Re: Label Transparent Elements as PC or MABS | | Viewed: | 27 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, slick_bricks writes:
| | I think it would behoove the online marketplaces to add labeling for PC versus
MABS Transparent LEGO elements. This would help builders and set restorers match
the color of the plastic since it is becoming apparent that the new MABS formula
is affecting the coloration significantly and consistently.
Just putting it out there, it would be a good idea to initiate this sooner than
later, as the color differences between the old Trans-Clear and new Trans-Clear
elements are quite stark. Should labeling options get into place early, it could
save a lot of work later on down the line as it becomes a growing discrepancy.
Play Well!
Blair
|
I think this idea stands or falls with whether LEGO really made a clean transition
to the new colour, the way that the transition from old gray to bluish gray was
(fairly) clear cut. If there's a significant period of random variation,
it's going to be a difficult story because set inventories are going to get
messy.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 14, 2022 19:10 | | Subject: | Re: What would you do? | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| Sometimes I get orders from the city nearby, it's like 20-30 minutes cycling.
I need exercise anyway, so I usually just drop off those orders myself. Refunding
shipping is a nice gesture but not strictly needed IMO, it's actually an
improved bit of service already, since it's 1 day faster and safer than regular
shipping. (In my own webshop I do have free shipping within my area though, but
on Bricklink there's no option to do that.)
In Selling, popsicle writes:
| | I received an order earlier today from an address less than 2 miles from our
home. (It was a simple order totaling $50, containing a single minifig) Packaged
and invoiced within 10 mins. The newish-to-BL/new-to-us buyer, paid immediately
followed by “thanks, I just paid” comms. So the order was labeled and ready for
USPS drop-off within 20 mins of it being placed. I normally wait for other outgoing
packages at the end of the day to post. But as my daughter had a package awaiting
pick up, I figured I'd take the single package to the PO to grab her package.
I jumped into our truck with the package, started the truck only to pause staring
forward down the driveway, contemplating: The man only lives 6 minutes away,
shouldn’t I just drive to his home and place the package on his front doorstep?
How silly is it to drive the same distance to mail the package? He’ll likely
receive his order within 24 hours anyway, but still? I could file for a refund
for the $3.27 label, later?
It’s not the first time this scenario has play out though, as I’m certain
it has for some of you too.
Tell me what you’d do and I’ll tell you what I did...
-popsicle
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 14, 2022 10:30 | | Subject: | Re: Buyer is req. to pay VAT again!-REFUND?POST IT | | Viewed: | 73 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| In Help, StarBrick writes:
| | IF and WHEN Dutch buyers object/claim at the Dutch tax office and get there double
paid taxes refunded, PLEASE post this in the forum to HELP other buyers and sellers.
|
This is a good point. Also, there may be other places/resources out there on
the web as this must be happening to many Dutch/European consumers in general
right now. I can imagine that if many consumers have to deal with this problem
when buying online, it could at least reach the media.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 14, 2022 07:46 | | Subject: | Re: Retiring CEP admin | | Viewed: | 71 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
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| In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:
| | Hello everyone,
One of our administrators from the Community Expert Program is officially retiring
today - Paul (username paulvdb) is stepping down from his position as Catalog
Associate.
We thank Paul for his great contribution as a CEP and wish him all the best for
future endeavors.
Please scroll to the end of this page and click the Expand triangle to view the
BrickLink CEP Hall of Fame. Paul first joined our team in April of 2019 as an
Inventories Admin:
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/member/community_experts.page
|
Bedankt voor al het werk dat je verzet hebt Paul!
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 11, 2022 11:52 | | Subject: | Re: Who should leave feedback first? | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, peregrinator writes:
| | In Feedback, TheBrickGuys writes:
| | Actually your feedback ratio is better then 70%, it is 81%. For a store with
5000+ orders that is a really good percentage. Makes we wonder if Euro countries
take leaving feedback more seriously or are you just a really nice guy?
|
It's 77% (5111/6659) - maybe you factored his buyer feedback in? In any case
that's pretty exceptional.
|
Hm yes, you guys are right, I checked after I posted that and noticed it was
over 70%. Half of my orders are from Dutch customers. My idea, purely a theory,
is that it could be a Dutch cultural thing. I think Dutch people like to give
(blunt) feedback to other people, tend to be community/cooperation-minded because
it's a small country, and they have always been kind of internet nerds -
they like to spend a lot of time online and are really overrepresented on the
web (I believe that, at least in the past, .nl was the most registered domain
after .com and .co.uk). I don't know... Something like an online community
where you leave feedback about other people just strikes me as something Dutch
people are into. Could be wrong, but just one theory - the second one is of course
that I am just an amazing seller
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 11, 2022 08:15 | | Subject: | Re: Who should leave feedback first? | | Viewed: | 52 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, peregrinator writes:
| | All -
I'm interested in doing a bit of a study. For myself, as a seller and
as a buyer, I'm firmly of the belief that the seller should leave feedback
first. I myself leave feedback when I've shipped the order, even in some
circumstances once the order is packed - at any rate, definitely before the buyer
would leave it. Some have the opposite opinion - that the buyer should leave
feedback first.
Limited evidence (I have a small store, not many orders, maybe my store attracts
a certain kind of buyer?) suggests that leaving feedback when I do has a positive
effect on whether or not I receive feedback in kind. The reason I say this
is that my feedback-to-orders ratio has consistently been between 65-70%, and
yet I've heard that the average feedback-to-orders ratio across BL is more
like 50%. Now I try to be professional and communicative, and because my store
is small I can ship quickly, but many other stores on BL that are larger than
mine offer exemplary service, and I don't think my service is so good as
to account for the higher feedback ratio.
So, if you're willing to answer, would you mind answering with:
- when you leave feedback (before or after the buyer: I don't know if it
has to be specific)
- what your store's current feedback-to-orders ratio is
Thanks!
|
I too leave feedback when my buyer pays. I don't really care whether or not
they leave feedback about me (as long as it's not non-positive ). Feedback
isn't a trade - to me it's a service to the community to flag whether
or not a user is OK for doing business with. It's not a gift or a service
to the person I post the feedback about, and not something to negotiate with.
You could be right about leaving feedback immediately increasing the odds of
getting feedback back, I had the same impression. Leaving it upon payment, I
think my feedback ratio is around 70% as you say.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 11, 2022 08:07 | | Subject: | Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color | | Viewed: | 38 times | | Topic: | Catalog Identification | |
|
| In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:
| | Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?
|
Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.
|
If thats true thats interesting to know. I'm aware of unreleased colours
but never really gave it much thought as to why that might be (apart from red
prototypes etc..) but since I have Breastplates in Tan and also Viking helmets
in Tan it would certainly make sense as these you would expect to find in colours
like gold or silver and maybe a few other colours but certainly not Tan
Could it be that these Reddish Bown Dwarf helemts were intended to be Copper?
|
Yes, I was also thinking about the Dwarf and Viking helmets I had some helmets
in Light Bluish Gray (for metallic silver) and Tan (for metallic gold). I never
had any Reddish Brown, but yes, Copper would make sense as (at least this type
of) Copper seems to be the same kind of metallic coating as the other two. And
maybe there are also some black parts out there that should be Speckle Black
Silver?
|
In fact the more I think about it the more this seems to ring true as you have
this Troll King only found in one set but some came with Reddish Brown Crown
and some with a Copper Crown. My inital thought was that Lego made a mistake
and manufactured in the wrong colour or simply had a change of mind mid production
when it actually sounds likely they just had a quality control issue where they
forget the coating
|
Ha, that crown came to my mind, I didn't know it came out in Copper as well
- so yes that makes sense. Reminds of this variation;
Which also came out in the same year. Maybe because of costs or some production
reasons there can be variation in whether the print/coating is applied.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 11, 2022 06:11 | | Subject: | Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Catalog Identification | |
|
| In Catalog Identification, infinibrix writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:
| | Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?
|
Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.
|
If thats true thats interesting to know. I'm aware of unreleased colours
but never really gave it much thought as to why that might be (apart from red
prototypes etc..) but since I have Breastplates in Tan and also Viking helmets
in Tan it would certainly make sense as these you would expect to find in colours
like gold or silver and maybe a few other colours but certainly not Tan
Could it be that these Reddish Bown Dwarf helemts were intended to be Copper?
|
Yes, I was also thinking about the Dwarf and Viking helmets I had some helmets
in Light Bluish Gray (for metallic silver) and Tan (for metallic gold). I never
had any Reddish Brown, but yes, Copper would make sense as (at least this type
of) Copper seems to be the same kind of metallic coating as the other two. And
maybe there are also some black parts out there that should be Speckle Black
Silver?
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 11, 2022 04:20 | | Subject: | Re: Conquistador Helmet TAN color | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Catalog Identification | |
|
| In Catalog Identification, myixjetjet24 writes:
| | Hello, I bought Conquistador Helmet TAN color and I can't find the set where
it came from. Not in the sets/minifigures listed on the set. Is this legit?
|
Tan is the color that LEGO uses to produce metallic gold parts. The part exists
in metallic gold in the collectible minifigs series. It just left the factory
before it got its coating.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 10, 2022 12:48 | | Subject: | Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, 1001bricks writes:
| | | | I've set my account to not charge VAT on shipping, when of course
I do. This helps me keep the shipping table simple. All my international customers
pay the same shipping rates but for EU this includes VAT, which nicely aligns
with the fact that postage costs within the EU are cheaper as well.
|
Oh you're smart, you know?
|
The combination of experience and laziness will do that
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 10, 2022 12:48 | | Subject: | Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, rankster writes:
| | In Help, 1001bricks writes:
| | | | Not if you've exported to EU outside your Country for less than a total of
10000€
|
... within the last 12 months - sorry, forgot to type this.
|
Are you 100% sure? My accountant told me that it resets on January 1st so let's
say you earned €9999 until December 31st, 2021 then you earned €1 more on January
1st, 2022 you didn't need to activate OSS yet since it was reset on January
1st.
So I guess it's not calculated for the past 12 months, it is calculated like
this:
01/07/2021 - 31/12/2021
01/01/2022 - 31/12/2022
|
Yes, for your tax agency, it is counted from the start of your fiscal year. But
Bricklink counts it as "one year rolling" - meaning the moment that you hit €10000
in any 365 day time window, you need to apply the local VAT rate.
So, Bricklink is a little bit more strict - If your pattern per half year would
be like this:
€0, €6000, €6000, €0
Then for the tax agency it's twice €6000 a year so no need to register, but
for Bricklink you crossed the threshold within a year timeframe so you need to
register. This is probably because Bricklink cannot know when your fiscal year
starts and ends, so a year rolling is the best they can do.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 10, 2022 11:17 | | Subject: | Re: Activating OSS - VAT on shipping and fees | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, rankster writes:
| | I’ll need to activate the OSS sooner or later. Is it mandatory to charge VAT
on shipping costs and/or handling fees as well?
I heard once that if you charge the buyer exactly the same amount for the shipping
what you will pay at the Post Office then no VAT needs to be charged on that.
Is that an EU-wide general rule or varies country by country?
Plus anyone knows specific rules for Austria please?
|
If it is a rule, it's certainly not EU wide - in the NL, the rule is that
you charge on shipping the same VAT rate as you do on the thing that you ship.
However, whether or not you enable the option on Bricklink is of course a separate
topic. I've set my account to not charge VAT on shipping, when of course
I do. This helps me keep the shipping table simple. All my international customers
pay the same shipping rates but for EU this includes VAT, which nicely aligns
with the fact that postage costs within the EU are cheaper as well.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 9, 2022 11:11 | | Subject: | Re: Fraudulent chargeback claim | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, cosmicray writes:
| | In Help, Teup writes:
| | In my case the buyer simply didn't realise it was for his order payment,
so after I contacted him he sent me the money again. Hope you will get your money
back somehow, definitely contact the buyer..
|
Which suggests that the information on the customer's statement did not click
enough buttons for them to make the connection. That information is supplied
from settings on your PayPal account. Might be a good idea to o look at what
is entered there.
Nita Rae
|
Hm, I am not sure but I don't think there is any name or other transaction
info associated with this. In my case, the buyer just had given PayPal permission
to draw funds from his bank account whenever needed. AFAIK it's separate
from the payment to the seller, and it can also be just a part of the full sum
if there is some but not enough money on the balance when the payment is made.
And I my buyer just saw a notification that he had an upcoming collection by
PayPal, maybe just like that without additional info. And not remembering what
it was for, he decided to block it.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 9, 2022 08:08 | | Subject: | Re: Fraudulent chargeback claim | | Viewed: | 46 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, calebfishn writes:
| | I had a situation with a chargeback. The order went through beautifully, positive
feedback, etc. But then the chargeback. It seemed that an underage member used
Mommy's credit card without permission, and that is why the charge back stated
"unauthorized".
I sent Paypal all the documentation I had, messages about the order, and pointed
out that the buyer now had the lego, and I didn't have the money.
It took a long time, but eventually Paypal sided with me, and covered the cost
to the Credit card company. I still lost money due to Paypal's fees, but
at least it felt like a moral victory.
|
Wow, very surprising that you got the money. PayPal decided to pay up for someone's
Lego - it's very unusual. Definitely fair, but totally against PayPal's
own policy. They told me that when people pull their money back, they always
get it back from the person it was sent to, and there is nothing that could be
done against it. I told them I had nothing to do with that situation and the
money was now mine, but that was irrelevant for them. PayPal simply has a kind
of a no-risk-for-themselves policy.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 9, 2022 08:04 | | Subject: | Re: Fraudulent chargeback claim | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, sputnikcharlie writes:
| | I am a new seller on Bricklink, just a few sales yet, and would like some help
with a possible fraudulent claim against me.
I have just received a chargeback claim from PayPal, which was filed through
the buyer's bank, claiming an "unauthorized transaction" took place, and
requesting all the money back. Because this was done through the bank and not
PayPal, PayPal's seller protections does not apply, and all they can do is
to act as mediator between myself and the buyer's bank. I have provided PayPal
with all the necessary proof that the sale was legit, which they will forward
to the claimant's bank.
I don't want to go into too much detail as the case is still open, but I
can confirm that the buyer's Bricklink and PayPal addresses match, that I
have proof of delivery from the shipping company, and that the buyer left a positive
review on my Bricklink account. Despite all this, the buyer's bank could
still side with the claimant and I would find myself swindled out of almost $400.
Has anyone had to deal with something similar? If so how did you handle it? What
was the outcome?
Does anyone have any input on how to safeguard against this?
I find myself crying about this situation, and I feel like a fool.
Any help if very much appreciated.
|
This happened to me too. I've mentioned it several times: IMO all talk about
seller protection is silly as long as buyers can simply pull their money back
like that. Don't bother taking pictures to avoid scamming or sending orders
with tracking, buyers don't need any decision from PayPal to get their money
back, they can simply pull it back through the bank. Defeats the PayPal system.
In my case the buyer simply didn't realise it was for his order payment,
so after I contacted him he sent me the money again. Hope you will get your money
back somehow, definitely contact the buyer..
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 9, 2022 04:30 | | Subject: | Re: Mega Core vs Multi Core Magnetizer M:Tron 689 | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
|
| In Catalog, randyf writes:
| | In Catalog, Turez writes:
| | In Catalog, randyf writes:
| | In Catalog, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog, mnoel2 writes:
| | I acquired this beautiful set today and am seeing "MULTI" Core Magnetizer for
the very first time. I've always known this only as MEGA Core Magnetizer.
Should the BL catalog reflect the alternate name / name change at all? Even if
just listed in the set notes?
-Mark
|
Awesome!
I see it now reflects both US variations, but I wonder why it only has the US
names and not the international one: Mobile Rescue Center? That's the UK
name and AFAIK it is also the English translation of its name in all other countries.
M:Tron was a fire brigade / rescue faction in all countries except the US. To
me it's a bit strange it has the US names only, especially if it elaborates
on variations of the US name.
|
Oops, it's Mobile Recovery Center in English (Mobile Rescue Center in German,
Mobiel Reddingscentrum in Dutch).
randyf what's your opinion on adding the UK names for M:Tron sets? If I had
to pick one name per set, I'd even pick those, since it's probably only
2 countries - the US and Canada - that had the names that Bricklink shows.
I'd really like to see AFOLs make some cool M:Tron rescue MOCs but it seems
the adapted American names have kind of obscured the old backstory
|
Find evidence that the set was called something else in the UK (preferably a
LEGO catalog), and we will consider it.
|
https://brickset.com/library/catalogues
However, almost all sets at the time had different names in UK catalogs than
in US catalogs. So if we add the UK name for 6989, we could easily add alternate
names for hundreds of other sets as well. I don't know if that makes sense
right now.
|
I knew that was the case, hence my "we will consider it". It wasn't a guarantee
that anything would be done.
I also know where to find catalogs, but I don't have the time to do all of
the searching for all of this stuff. That's why I put the onus on them.
|
Good point about multiple names across the board, I knew that many space sets
have wildly different names in different languages (even when they include actual
names, that need no translation), but I didn't know US and UK names tended
to be different as well.
I'm not sure what to do with it, if they should be added or not, that's
why I said "what's your opinion" In any case, I do believe with M:Tron
there is a bit more going on than the usual randomness, and the American version
really is kind of the outlier here. Some other pages do make special note of
the difference, e.g. about the Stellar Recon Voyager / Rescue Star Cruiser:
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2017/11/07/stellar-recreation-stellar-recon-voyager/
https://www.brickeconomy.com/set/6956-1/lego-m-tron-stellar-recon-voyager
And the French Wikipedia article on Space/M:Tron makes special note of the name
difference between US and UK too, besides mentioning the French names. You could
argue that if they include that info, then the best most complete catalog on
the web which is Bricklink kinda should too.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Espace#M:Tron_(1990-1993)
Well, I know the best solution: Stick with all of the UK names for every set
in the catalog It would be a more accurate international standard, but too
much hassle
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 8, 2022 05:03 | | Subject: | Re: Mega Core vs Multi Core Magnetizer M:Tron 689 | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
|
| In Catalog, Teup writes:
| | In Catalog, mnoel2 writes:
| | I acquired this beautiful set today and am seeing "MULTI" Core Magnetizer for
the very first time. I've always known this only as MEGA Core Magnetizer.
Should the BL catalog reflect the alternate name / name change at all? Even if
just listed in the set notes?
-Mark
|
Awesome!
I see it now reflects both US variations, but I wonder why it only has the US
names and not the international one: Mobile Rescue Center? That's the UK
name and AFAIK it is also the English translation of its name in all other countries.
M:Tron was a fire brigade / rescue faction in all countries except the US. To
me it's a bit strange it has the US names only, especially if it elaborates
on variations of the US name.
|
Oops, it's Mobile Recovery Center in English (Mobile Rescue Center in German,
Mobiel Reddingscentrum in Dutch).
randyf what's your opinion on adding the UK names for M:Tron sets? If I had
to pick one name per set, I'd even pick those, since it's probably only
2 countries - the US and Canada - that had the names that Bricklink shows.
I'd really like to see AFOLs make some cool M:Tron rescue MOCs but it seems
the adapted American names have kind of obscured the old backstory
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 7, 2022 06:29 | | Subject: | Re: Mega Core vs Multi Core Magnetizer M:Tron 689 | | Viewed: | 55 times | | Topic: | Catalog | |
|
| In Catalog, mnoel2 writes:
| | I acquired this beautiful set today and am seeing "MULTI" Core Magnetizer for
the very first time. I've always known this only as MEGA Core Magnetizer.
Should the BL catalog reflect the alternate name / name change at all? Even if
just listed in the set notes?
-Mark
|
Awesome!
I see it now reflects both US variations, but I wonder why it only has the US
names and not the international one: Mobile Rescue Center? That's the UK
name and AFAIK it is also the English translation of its name in all other countries.
M:Tron was a fire brigade / rescue faction in all countries except the US. To
me it's a bit strange it has the US names only, especially if it elaborates
on variations of the US name.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 4, 2022 05:34 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, BasKrie writes:
| | In Help, Teup writes:
| | Wait, do you mean the new tax part or the new international postal system where
you have to register things digitally? Both are a pain (when done manually),
but as for the tax part, as far as I know it's only shipping to the UK that
requires that paperwork? That's why I ship worldwide except UK - I don't
have a printer, transparent sleeves, and don't want the hassle if something
goes wrong.
|
Every shipment going outside the EU requires the paperwork.
Filled CN22 or CN23 and there has to be a paper invoice on the outside in a plastic
sleeve (or envelope). And the invoice maybe not the greatest issue and the CN
you can fill out at the postal office, but that is not the easiest way to do
it.
|
I didn't know that invoices are now required, I haven't done that so
far and at least didn't have problems yet. Hopefully it doesn't lead
to people paying sales tax twice, or I might also stop shipping outside the EU.
The CN22 is part of the online registration, I agree that is a pain if you'd
have to do it manually. But it's not exactly because of the tax topic, that
part was always there.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 3, 2022 14:11 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 82 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, Leftoverbricks writes:
| | Today I decided to no longer ship to countries outside the EU. For the very reasons
that have been mentioned in this thread.
It's very time consuming and actually a PITA to fill out all forms needed
to ship a small order (I only receive small orders from outside the EU) and not
worth the effort.
|
Wait, do you mean the new tax part or the new international postal system where
you have to register things digitally? Both are a pain (when done manually),
but as for the tax part, as far as I know it's only shipping to the UK that
requires that paperwork? That's why I ship worldwide except UK - I don't
have a printer, transparent sleeves, and don't want the hassle if something
goes wrong.
| | (And you may add this to my general view of the future where we are currently
heading to: using up all resources, destroying nature, the pandemic, entering
a new global war..., Jeff Bezos ordering a 430 million pleasure yacht at a shipyard
in my country because he don't know what to do better with his extreme wealth...
// OK I was never the most positive kid in my class.)
|
Yep.. Bezos is like an AFOL, except he doesn't need to buy Lego buildings,
boats and spaceships to create his own world, he can just literally create his
own world..
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 3, 2022 10:16 | | Subject: | Re: Instant checkout issue large letter | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Transformer27 writes:
| | Like a few other sellers on these boards I've noticed that the option to
select Royal mail large letter is not available for buyers on my store. It began
less than a week ago but I have noticed a substantial drop in orders. I usually
get 1 Hermes order a week but the last 12 orders I had have all been Hermes with
a few customers contacting me to let me know the options aren't available.
The orders are also very small and should fit easily in a large letter. I also
haven't changed any settings or added any custom weights or sizes. Since
starting trading last year.
My question is, is there anything being done about it and is there anything temporary
I could do to drive orders to my store? Maybe unchecking instant checkout for
example.
|
Would it be possible to set up the shipping method by yourself rather than using
the template? That way you're in control. I made a deliberate choice not
to use any BL defined templates (my "never leave it to Bricklink" philosophy
) and I have noticed no changes with letter shipments.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 3, 2022 04:18 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, randyf writes:
| | In Help, Teup writes:
| | In Help, randyf writes:
| | In Help, 1001bricks writes:
| | In Help, randyf writes:
| | This is exactly what the EU wanted. The EU passes protectionist laws, and you
the people in the EU get the "benefits". I think you need to take up the issue
with your governments instead of here in the BrickLink forums.
|
Mmmmh correct me if I'm wrong, but the first taxes BL implemented were Sales
Tax in USA.
|
And? What does that have to do with the EU? I don't care about paying my
Sales Tax that BrickLink collects, and I have never complained about it.
|
But you're not paying it twice. If you would, I think you would complain
too.
|
But not to BrickLink. That's the point.
|
True... I don't know why it happens. But if it's because of sellers not
producing the right paperwork on the package, it kind of is Bricklink that's
doing it wrong, too. Because it needs to instruct its sellers properly or think
of some way to make sure they don't forget/skip that step. Or it could be
even Bricklink that's making incorrect paperwork (or at least in the opinion
of the officials that receive it). But maybe the paperwork was there and something
else caused it, no idea. And I wonder how often these problems happen. On the
forum, I see topics about it often, but they could also be the only cases and
the problem wildly exaggerated.. all in all, it would be good if Bricklink at
least investigated to make sure there are no problems on their side.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 3, 2022 04:03 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, 1001bricks writes:
| | In Help, Teup writes:
| | In Help, randyf writes:
| | This is exactly what the EU wanted. The EU passes protectionist laws, and you
the people in the EU get the "benefits".
|
They didn't do anything like that. Nothing changed, they simply updated the
system to the modern e-commerce age by removing the threshold and shifting responsibility.
The fact that taxes were often evaded in the past is not because of a change
in ideology, but because it was a loophole that was never nearly exploited as
much as it is now in the e-commerce age.
And it's not really protectionist either, all goods and services - import
or local - are taxed the same. These are not import tariffs. In fact, this actually
cuts the cost of import administration fees for the consumer by shifting the
responsibility from the customs to the platforms.
|
Wow - In practice that's just... untrue.
Before, there was a threshold - 20€, 150€, whatever.
And some luck, sometimes, yes.
Zillions of people baught things for less than 10€, and paid no taxes, no duty.
Right now, they pay VAT on the very first cent, even if you order for 2€.
In short, for the majority of those in the lower economic class, it's probably
a 300% tax increase.
"Nothing changed" may be your vision, but it's not the case for a majority.
"The fact that taxes were often evaded in the past" may be your vision. But for
15€ there was NO tax. Now there is 20% or such.
Sylvain
|
Well ok, I understand that, but actually I mean nothing changed compared to the
times the policy was made: People paid VAT over everything they bought. Private
consumers had very limited contact with other countries and import was done by
companies rather than consumers.
Would be interesting to see a statistic on much VAT governments were missing
out on then because of that threshold, versus how much they did by the end of
it. It just only makes sense that the Wild West of ecommerce eventually would
become integrated into policy. Next up will be crypto currencies, which still
offers a lot of ways to cheat the system. Governments are also wrestling with
social media. All these things those technologies introduced just can't exist
in some legal vacuum forever, eventually policy catches up, for better or for
worse (and a lot of it is actually better, too). It's not a change in ideology,
it's just updating the rules to fit the new reality.
I think the world wide trend is not protectionism but just (slowly) updating
policies. As I understand it the US government is watching the US sellers more
closely, and for example large EU sellers need to charge the VAT rate of the
country of the buyer - not necessarily making it more expensive, just more precise
and removing unfair advantages. I think the main drive here is to make things
more fair and precise. Whether it actually/always has that effect, you can debate.
But I don't think the drive behind it is anything else than to simply make
old policy more precise and fair. Remember the old rules are from a time when
everyone just got their money from a boss.
When I was a teenager I made a trojan that randomly opened and closed the CD
drive. Wouldn't dare to pull off such pranks now: I'd be afraid to be
arrested Legal vacuums can be fun while they last
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 2, 2022 18:53 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, randyf writes:
| | In Help, 1001bricks writes:
| | In Help, randyf writes:
| | This is exactly what the EU wanted. The EU passes protectionist laws, and you
the people in the EU get the "benefits". I think you need to take up the issue
with your governments instead of here in the BrickLink forums.
|
Mmmmh correct me if I'm wrong, but the first taxes BL implemented were Sales
Tax in USA.
|
And? What does that have to do with the EU? I don't care about paying my
Sales Tax that BrickLink collects, and I have never complained about it.
|
But you're not paying it twice. If you would, I think you would complain
too.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 2, 2022 18:50 | | Subject: | Re: People will start buying outside bricklink... | | Viewed: | 61 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, randyf writes:
| | This is exactly what the EU wanted. The EU passes protectionist laws, and you
the people in the EU get the "benefits".
|
They didn't do anything like that. Nothing changed, they simply updated the
system to the modern e-commerce age by removing the threshold and shifting responsibility.
The fact that taxes were often evaded in the past is not because of a change
in ideology, but because it was a loophole that was never nearly exploited as
much as it is now in the e-commerce age.
And it's not really protectionist either, all goods and services - import
or local - are taxed the same. These are not import tariffs. In fact, this actually
cuts the cost of import administration fees for the consumer by shifting the
responsibility from the customs to the platforms.
| | I think you need to take up the issue
with your governments instead of here in the BrickLink forums.
|
I think the issue of being double taxed is mostly about either the way Bricklink
implements it, or how the customs are functioning. Either way it's certainly
not government policy to pay tax twice (although maybe government policy can
help avoid the problem)
| |
In Help, Shintaku writes:
| | Hello, my friend.
No IOSS was electronically inserted here.
I had this problem buying from Russia, England and now Thaialnd too.
In Help, SezaR writes:
| | Buongiorno,
Allora!
Cerco di trovare una soluzione pratica.
What I don't know is if this is an issue of the Italian post office who do
not recognize the IOSS number that is electronically provided, or if this is
because seller did not (or could not) insert electronically IOSS number (so not
the fault of Poste Italiano)
For now I have stopped shipping to Europe for orders below 150 Euro. Depending
on the country, I have two shipping options for shipping to Europe: CanadaPost
and ChitChats(a private courier)
Could you please clarify from what country have you ordered and if you know,
what
From what country did you buy from? If you know, what courier did the seller(s)
use to ship your order?
In Help, Shintaku writes:
| | Hello,
AGAIN I received the customs for an order from EU to extra-EU for which I already
paid taxes in advance.
AGAIN I will have to start a fight with the seller who will try any way to avoid
refunding me, as it happened before.
AGAIN the seller attached the BL invoice that seems to be USELESS right now.
Now, let's face it, it was easier back then. You don't pay taxes in advance,
you pay them when you receive your goods and it's all.
What will happen? Either of:
1) People from outside EU will stop selling to EU sellers, losing a lot of money.
2) If the order is small, people will contact the seller, ask if they can buy
those 3 4 items and do it OUTSIDE bricklink. So they don't pay taxes, they
don't pay 3% of BL fees, and everyone is happy.
Has BL to collect taxes due to some laws? That is fine. I can cope with that.
But this doesn't mean any way that a buyer must pay two times taxes. This
is a theft. I'm not
exaggerating. It's purely a theft. I am asked to pay something that I already
paid for!
And... btw if BL is forced to do this, why isn't that happening with eBay
purchases? With eBay, everything is going well as usual. Shouldn't eBay be
forced to follow the same rules?
Sorry... but something is wrong here.
I see no solutions, and this is going to be very very bad for Bricklink.
It's somewhat downfall... and I was really afraid to witness it sooner or
later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 1, 2022 09:04 | | Subject: | Re: Order direct invoice/laten betalen | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, BlockBox writes:
| | Veel stores berekenen
deels de kosten door aan de klant (mag officieel niet..) met percentages en/of
een x vast bedrag die je kan instellen in Bricklink (add. charges 1 & 2).
|
Mag wel, je mag alleen niet méér in rekening brengen dan het werkelijk kost.
Aangezien Bricklink geen automatische berekening heeft, komt het erop neer dat
je dan minder (bijv. altijd 3%) moet rekenen, of dat je bijvoorbeeld een korting
van 5% geeft aan klanten die niet met PayPal betalen.
Maar omdat het in veel landen niet mag en consumenten het dus ook niet gewend
zijn, kom je internationaal vaak niet zo goed over als je het wel berekent. Dus
je kunt je afvragen of je het moet willen.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 1, 2022 08:21 | | Subject: | Re: Seller not refunding me | | Viewed: | 62 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Well yes, it was agreed to, but as long as an order isn't refunded,
it begs the question whether you can officially consider it "cancelled".
|
I don't think it matters what others think. BL can see that both the buyer
and seller have agreed to it being cancelled, therefore it is cancelled.
| | You could consider it still a paid order until the money is returned. There shouldn't
be some loophole where sellers just tag the "cancelled" status on orders to dodge
NSS procedures, whether agreed to or not.
|
If the buyer agreed to cancel it, there is no order any more. How can an NSS
apply to a non-order?
What is even worse is that the buyer paid using an offsite method that BL cannot
see. They can say they paid, but definitive proof is difficult.
|
Well, the order is in the Bricklink system, its status is just that it's
cancelled. But if the official order status is the defining aspect, then a scammer
would always simply cancel every order they don't want an NSS for. If asked,
they could just say they didn't have the items. That way a non-shipping seller
could exist on Bricklink indefinitely.
But true, the fact the payment is offsite makes proof difficult. Screenshots
are not ideal, but are sometimes used for this, and Bricklink uses them too:
"If the order has been fully or partially refunded, please send a screenshot
of the refund receipt." ( https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2461 ). So
they could do the same in this situation.
An NSS is a seller who has both the product and the money, and Bricklink considers
it solved when the seller either ships or refunds. So IMO it's logical to
make the NSS procedure available for requesting either shipping or (as in this
case) the refund.
| |
| | | | This just shows the danger of paying a complete stranger by bank transfer, especially
in a distant country where the buyer will find it very difficult to invoke their
consumer rights. Sure, they can contact their local police but I cannot see them
doing anything. They can also contact the seller's local police but again
are they really going to do anything in a word-against-word internet transaction,
especially if this is the first and only complaint against the seller lodged
with them.
|
If a store has a good reputation it should be fine. People pay by transfer to
strangers here all the time and just rely on reputation. And the police always
warns people saying "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is". So if
the feedback profile looks good and the product wasn't underpriced, I too
would pay by IBAN.
|
Sure, what you are doing there is minimizing the risk of it going wrong - same
(smallish) country so easier to get money back (if necessary in court), decent
reputation, etc - but not guaranteeing it. I think we all realise it is easier
to scam someone a long distance away than someone in the same country.
|
I'm not saying which attitude is better, just that I understand the buyer's
decision for IBAN and I'd have done the same in that situation (also abroad).
It's not necessarily a bad decision. Everyone has a different idea about
safety and risk, and insuring everything - especially by private companies -
has its own drawbacks. It's a personal preference.
| |
| | It's true the police is very inefficient and behind in dealing with online
fraud, but I wouldn't be so pessimistic as to say that it's certain they
won't do anything. I did get most of my money back through a police report
once, and that was from a guy in Bulgaria who they managed to identify and track
down. However, that was because several people were affected by the same guy.
Anyway, it's always good to say that you're going to file a report
- even if the actual report would not result in money back, the case would still
at least be officially registered. Who knows, the police may act in the future
if more people report problems. Maybe the seller will pay up to avoid being a
known offender. (If they are indeed a scammer.. true, they may just be a little
slow for whatever reason)
|
Yes, if they are doing this repeatedly. But that doesn't seem to be the case,
given the buyer initiated the order, then paid, then wanted it cancelled.
It wouldn't surprise me if the seller thinks the buyer is trying to scam
him - new user, barely any feedback, they order and pay, then want cancellation
and money returned by a new bank transfer.
|
Once all is said and done and the seller just doesn't refund, a police report
just should be filed in any case. If nothing more, to have the fact registered.
Police tends to be slow catching up with the modern world, and if we don't
report, it seems like there's no problem.
I also think there's a good chance the seller is just slow.. if all else
fails there is of course still feedback. Most sellers (including me) are so allergic
to negative feedback that having a bit of money on the short term doesn't
compensate for having a "bad" reputation for eternity I don't see why
a long term seller with good reputation (assuming they are) would suddenly scam
someone.
It can take a week for an IBAN payment to arrive in some cases, maybe longer.
The order was cancelled after 2 days. It's likely that the seller either
thought the order wasn't paid for, or, as you said, thinks it's a scam
because they saw there was no payment yet the last time they looked, and then
decided to forget about it.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 1, 2022 04:55 | | Subject: | Re: Seller not refunding me | | Viewed: | 50 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, yorbrick writes:
| | In General, Teup writes:
| | In General, 1001bricks writes:
| | Second, it seems you both cancelled the order. In short you sent money and cancel
a deal. Now you can't send an NRS or NSS or make BrickLink do something.
You can, but as it's a cancelled order it's going to be very difficult.
|
Actually it's super weird Bricklink has no procedure for this like an NSS.
Even if a seller could fail to send a refund 3x before being banned it would
be very generous, now they can do it endlessly and it's somehow fine? Definitely
one of those weird things about Bricklink logic.
However, you could still argue that this is an NSS, if you consider an order
not cancelled until the refund is done. A paid order is not a cancelled order.
I mean yes, the order status "cancelled" may be barring the buyer from starting
an NSS, but sellers shouldn't be able to use this order status illegitimately
to dodge NSS procedures and Bricklink admins should agree. Just another way to
look at it.
|
The buyer has already agreed to the cancellation. This surely means that they
agree the order is cancelled and therefore over. If they don't agree that
it is finished and over, then they shouldn't agree to cancellation.
|
| |
BL have to look at both sides. If both sides have already agreed to cancel it,
then the order is cancelled. Other stuff may have gone on, but both parties have
already agreed to cancel it. What else is BL meant to do if both buyer and seller
have agreed to a cancellation?
|
Well yes, it was agreed to, but as long as an order isn't refunded,
it begs the question whether you can officially consider it "cancelled". You
could consider it still a paid order until the money is returned. There shouldn't
be some loophole where sellers just tag the "cancelled" status on orders to dodge
NSS procedures, whether agreed to or not.
| |
This just shows the danger of paying a complete stranger by bank transfer, especially
in a distant country where the buyer will find it very difficult to invoke their
consumer rights. Sure, they can contact their local police but I cannot see them
doing anything. They can also contact the seller's local police but again
are they really going to do anything in a word-against-word internet transaction,
especially if this is the first and only complaint against the seller lodged
with them.
|
If a store has a good reputation it should be fine. People pay by transfer to
strangers here all the time and just rely on reputation. And the police always
warns people saying "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is". So if
the feedback profile looks good and the product wasn't underpriced, I too
would pay by IBAN.
It's true the police is very inefficient and behind in dealing with online
fraud, but I wouldn't be so pessimistic as to say that it's certain they
won't do anything. I did get most of my money back through a police report
once, and that was from a guy in Bulgaria who they managed to identify and track
down. However, that was because several people were affected by the same guy.
Anyway, it's always good to say that you're going to file a report
- even if the actual report would not result in money back, the case would still
at least be officially registered. Who knows, the police may act in the future
if more people report problems. Maybe the seller will pay up to avoid being a
known offender. (If they are indeed a scammer.. true, they may just be a little
slow for whatever reason)
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 1, 2022 03:51 | | Subject: | Re: Downloaden adresgegevens vanuit orders | | Viewed: | 44 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, NelisSolis writes:
| | In LANG Nederlands, ErwinNL writes:
| | Volgens de adres template heb je nodig:
Referentie Bedrijfsnaam Voornaam Achternaam Straatnaam Huisnummer Huisnummer
toevoeging Postcode Plaatsnaam Landcode Email Telefoon Mobiel nummer Gebouw Verdieping Afdeling Deurcode Aflever
referentie
Ik ben adressen tegengekomen op BL waar dit zeker niet gaat werken, misschien
is er zelfs een tussenstap nodig met een andere API om de gegevens compleet te
krijgen of te splitsen.
Ik vul vaak voor buitenlandse adressen de vakjes voor huisnr and toevoeging niet
in, deze plak ik gewoon bij de straat naam zoals de buyer deze heeft opgegeven.
Misschien werkt dit ook bij de CSV import.
|
|
Precies, heb ik gister nog gedaan, bij adressen met een hoop getallen is het
"huisnummer" veld heel erg onhandig, vooral omdat in veel landen het adres met
het nummer begint en PostNL het nummer achteraan plaatst. Vooral leuk als de
straatnaam zelf ook een nummer is/heeft..
| |
bij de CSV import werkt dit ook; al moet je er dan wel voor zorgen dat eventuele
komma's weg zijn uit de adresregels om het CSV bestand niet te verpesten.
Met name bij Zuid-Europese adressen kom ik vaak komma's tegen als straat+huisnummer
direct gevolgd wordt door appartement- of kamernummer.
|
Het is toch puntkomma delimited? Bij mij in elk geval wel. Ik voeg juist wel
eens een extra komma achter de straatnaam toe, om duidelijk te maken dat het
nummer wat er achteraan komt het huisnummer is en niet onderdeel van de straatnaam.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Feb 1, 2022 03:47 | | Subject: | Re: Seller not refunding me | | Viewed: | 56 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, 1001bricks writes:
| | Second, it seems you both cancelled the order. In short you sent money and cancel
a deal. Now you can't send an NRS or NSS or make BrickLink do something.
You can, but as it's a cancelled order it's going to be very difficult.
|
Actually it's super weird Bricklink has no procedure for this like an NSS.
Even if a seller could fail to send a refund 3x before being banned it would
be very generous, now they can do it endlessly and it's somehow fine? Definitely
one of those weird things about Bricklink logic.
However, you could still argue that this is an NSS, if you consider an order
not cancelled until the refund is done. A paid order is not a cancelled order.
I mean yes, the order status "cancelled" may be barring the buyer from starting
an NSS, but sellers shouldn't be able to use this order status illegitimately
to dodge NSS procedures and Bricklink admins should agree. Just another way to
look at it.
If really everything else fails, you could always consider buying the item again,
payment is already made, then start an NSS.
But either way, yes, if the seller doesn't refund, report it to the police.
But tell the seller that this is what you are going to do before you will do
it - maybe it'll be some new inspiration not to be a thief.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 31, 2022 18:33 | | Subject: | Re: Downloaden adresgegevens vanuit orders | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, ErwinNL writes:
| | In LANG Nederlands, wpbremer writes:
| | Ik loop al een tijdje tegen het probleem aan dat het aanmaken van verzendlabels
voor brievenbuspakjes op de website van PostNL zakelijk een heel werkje is.
Mijn idee was om daarvoor de csv import mogelijkheid van PostNL te gaan gebruiken.
Hiervoor wil ik dus vanaf BrickLink de te verzenden orders exporteren/downloaden,
maar nu kom ik er achter dat bij een download van de orders de adresgegevens
niet meekomen.
Is er een mogelijkheid om dat wel te downloaden of is dit alleen via de API mogelijk?
Alvast bedankt voor jullie hulp.
|
Hoi hoi,
Je kunt dit met BLS Manager doen, je kunt 1 of meerdere adressen exporteren naar
CSV.
Mochten er voor PostNL speciale aanpassingen nodig zijn dan maak ik deze graag
https://inspacesoftware.com/blsmanager
|
Ik geloof niet dat het mogelijk is om "zomaar" een Bricklink adres om te zetten
in een PostNL label, aangezien PostNL specifiek naar velden zoals straat, regio
etc. vraagt. De beste automatisering die ik kon maken is een scherm dat telkens
links het door de klant opgegeven adresveld weergeeft en rechts op basis van
voorspelling de PostNL velden invult, die ik dan moet herzien. Zo ga ik alle
bestellingen door en aan het einde exporteer ik de CSV en wordt de importpagina
geopend in m'n browser. (Zou gaaf zijn om het met de PostNL API te doen,
vooral omdat je de barcodes dan terug kan koppelen en via de BL API weer automatisch
in het tracking veld kan zetten)
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 31, 2022 08:16 | | Subject: | Re: Lego in Cold Temps | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Shipping | |
|
| Hmm, I wonder if that's airtight enough. I have my bubble envelopes stored
in my shed (not insulated, dry, ventilation slits) and the surface gets rippled
from the humidity. I wouldn't store valuable paper-based items in it unless
they really were perfectly sealed..
In Shipping, C0lsanders_ writes:
| | I currently have all the sets (minus 75192) in large plastic bins, latching lids,
with foam seals. Loose bulk is of course currently sitting in open top bins,
but that can easily change.
I appreciate all the input, I am a little less worried about a storage unit now!
Thanks,
Miles
In Shipping, firestar246 writes:
| | In Shipping, Yo_Yo_Flamingo writes:
| | In Shipping, C0lsanders_ writes:
| | What are your thoughts on long-term storage? I have a hundred or more sets
that I have bought for long-term investment, as well as hundreds of pounds of
unsorted bulk. I need to get them out of the house, and am thinking about a storage
unit. I'm in southeastern Ohio, and it can easily get to 0° F in the winter
and near to 100° in the summer. Would you yourself have any issues with sets
and bulk sitting for years in an environment fluctuating between sub-freezing
and high heat? I am thinking about a climate controlled unit, but of course they
are like twice the cost, so if there's no issues with the regular, I may
opt for that.
Thanks,
Miles (C0lsanders_)
In Shipping, firestar246 writes:
| | In Shipping, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | Greetings Bricklink,
Does anyone know if Legos are damaged by leaving them in cold temps? It's
about 12 degrees F here and I don't know if that's too cold to leave
an order in the mailbox for pickup tomorrow. I especially worry about the translucent
pieces.
Thanks for any input,
Upstate_Brickz
|
They'll be fine. We have a storage building with horrible temp control so
we only turn the heat on when workers are in. During the winter it'll get
in negatives F and it's never been an issue.
In fact, I remember watching a video where someone at a university but some legos
in absolute zero temp (which is about -400 F I believe) and nothing happened
to them.
|
|
I'd be vastly more worried about what the lack of climate control (and possible
leaks and critters) would do to the boxes than the bricks themselves.
|
This. The lego pieces themselves would be fine in such temps, it's just that
storage units aren't always critter/water proof and you may go in one day
to find destroyed boxes. Now if you put the sets inside plastic bins or something
with latchable covers, that would be better.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 29, 2022 10:39 | | Subject: | Re: Check box for received orders | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
|
| In Suggestions, Maquis writes:
| | Hi
Can I request that you include a checkbox on the order sheets please.
When I receive an order I always check it off and it would be very helpful if
I can just tick a box for my records as I go along as when its delivered, it
doesnt come out in the same order as the list.
It only needs to be for the use of the recipient, but it would be a very useful
tool.
Thanks
Marc
|
What would be really neat is if you could display the list of items in
the same order as the seller had packed them. I have this in my own webshop (as
my invoices list all items alphabetically and buyers can't change it), so
I can number all of the bags and make it very easy for the buyer to verify the
contents that way. On Bricklink that's not possible, because everyone has
their own sorting preferences. If there would be some ability to see in what
order the seller packed (or at least saw) them, think about how much time verifying
orders this could save on Bricklink on a daily basis.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 29, 2022 07:18 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 53 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Adjour writes:
| | Credit cards will very often be declined it the card is being used in a strange
way.
For example if I travel, I have to notify my card company that I'm traveling,
or I risk declined transactions.
Usually in the USA I'm fine, especially if I'm driving. I did however
fly to Chicago once with no purchases inbetween, and my card did not work at
the airport.
Also, too many purchases in a day will flag the account. When I ran my brick
and mortar store this would happen on large purchases sometimes.
|
Thanks for the info, maybe part of all of this is simply inherent to creditcard
payment then...
But I still want a reply from Bricklink. Come on Bricklink, I know you like to
ignore helpdesk tickets, but please don't ignore one that is about your own
income.
I just had a customer tell me the items in their cart went "out of stock" after
an unsuccessful attempt to buy them. I keep seeing these "in progress" orders
where items get reserved, and eventually no order comes in... I told the customer
that the orders will show up again soon. It's not an ideal system, because
whenever the payment fails (and that happens a lot), customers are only able
to try it again if the stock has at least twice the amount that they order.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 28, 2022 08:04 | | Subject: | Re: How to upload 71741-1 for partout? | | Viewed: | 18 times | | Topic: | LEGO products | |
|
| In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:
| | | |
I was trying out BrickStore today not for this part-out problem specifically
(although I will in a few months, still have 20 Ninago City Gardens sitting around
) but to use it for some offline inventory management for a stock of parts
that is not connected to any Bricklink shop. As far as I can see, doing part-outs
into that stock bsx file entails nothing more than just Ctrl+C Ctrl+V (unless
I'm missing something).
|
Yes correct You can't part-out directly into an existing file, but simply
copy and paste between the 2 files. Just remember to remove counterparts/alternates
from the part-out if required. Also, be aware of creating duplicates this way,
although I think BrickStore automatically asks you how you want to consolidate
lots as you perform the paste. Failing that there is a 'Consolidate Items'
(Ctrl+L) option on the Edit menu.
|
Thanks!
| | | |
Only thing is the price guide keeps showing up in USD even though I set the default
currency to EUR.. and I can't see whether or not it includes VAT.. (I know
this issue was addressed because I raised it, and resolved, I just haven't
looked at the result of that discussion until now)
|
Under Extras - Settings - General Tab - check what your Default Currency is set
to.
Also, near the top right corner of the BrickStore screen there is a currency
drop-down menu (see pic), that allows you to view prices in other currencies.
Check that is set to EUR.
|
Aah yes, that drop-down menu is what I missed. Thanks for pointing it out!
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 28, 2022 06:43 | | Subject: | Re: Need some help with instant checkout | | Viewed: | 31 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| Ah, no margins on mine, just to keep it simple and eliminate the maths (I'm
assuming that it just takes the numbers entered and modifies them with the entered
margins)
In Help, Bricks_And_More writes:
| | Thanks! And weight and dimension marges? It is set to 20% now.
In Help, Teup writes:
| | In Help, Bricks_And_More writes:
| | Finally set my mind to do the instant checkout thingy
Since Bricklink has no test function for this(as far if I know), could someone
place a bogus order, without checking out, to see if it works and if it's
correct?
Would appreciate it!
Regards,
Henk
|
- At first glance, lettermail and boxed parcels NL seem to be calculated correctly!
- You're allowed to make a separate account for the specific purpose of testing
your store
- Be aware that Bricklink centimeters are not real centimeters That is, Bricklink's
volume calculation is extremely optimistic. I have set letter shipment method
to 20 x 21 x 2.8cm, which is less than half the real max volume, but from trial
and error, it seems to amount to the same thing.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 28, 2022 06:20 | | Subject: | Re: Need some help with instant checkout | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, Bricks_And_More writes:
| | Finally set my mind to do the instant checkout thingy
Since Bricklink has no test function for this(as far if I know), could someone
place a bogus order, without checking out, to see if it works and if it's
correct?
Would appreciate it!
Regards,
Henk
|
- At first glance, lettermail and boxed parcels NL seem to be calculated correctly!
- You're allowed to make a separate account for the specific purpose of testing
your store
- Be aware that Bricklink centimeters are not real centimeters That is, Bricklink's
volume calculation is extremely optimistic. I have set letter shipment method
to 20 x 21 x 2.8cm, which is less than half the real max volume, but from trial
and error, it seems to amount to the same thing.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 28, 2022 04:23 | | Subject: | Re: Just a thoought | | Viewed: | 59 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, calsbricks writes:
| | On the other hand eliminating a large part of the market based purely on payment
method does not make good business sense. You can collect the sales tax in a
more conventional method - like bill us for it., or is that too difficult .
|
I am unsure whether or not the modern system should be compatible with offsite
payment methods, but on the topic of eliminating parts of the market because
of payment methods: We already know Bricklink is extremely comfortable with doing
that. They don't even do the most obvious and straightforward thing they
have to do: Simply add more onsite payment methods - iDEAL, Klarna, Giropay,
Bancontact... They are losing a whole lot of business because consumers don't
see the payment methods they're familiar with and trust (I know, because
they come to my webshop ) .
It took the BrickOwl admin a day, maybe a couple of days to implement them. It
took me 15 minutes to add them to my webshop. Bricklink has been wanting to add
them for several years now and has still not succeeded..... clearly, with Bricklink
not even doing the most obvious, no-loss, first thing they can do, I don't
see a point in discussing the more complicated stuff...
Yes, I'm going to be a broken record on onsite payment methods until the
day Bricklink has finally succeeded (= pressed "ok" in Stripe)
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 27, 2022 10:40 | | Subject: | Re: How to upload 71741-1 for partout? | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | LEGO products | |
|
| In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:
| | | | Today I decided to try and figure out BrickStore. Not precisely to solve the
(still unsolved!! Bricklink come on!) problem of parting out large sets but for
a slightly different purpose. I'm looking to see if I can do a part-out of
a set into an existing bsx file. I'm having a hard time with the last step
above - what exactly do I copy from my inventory and how? My inventory list doesn't
match the much shorter set inventory list of course.. and why is comments relevant
for consolidating? Isn't that just about the lot ID? I would expect I have
to add the lot IDs from my inventory to the set inventory list somehow, and add
my existing quantities to the quantity in the set, then export that new amount
with correct lot ID? Is that wrong or right and if right how exactly do I do
that? BrickStore is pretty tough to understand if you've never worked with
it or any of its previous iterations before 
|
| | and why is comments relevant for consolidating?
|
Comments is relevant for consolidating as that is one of the fields that BrickLink
uses in order to consolidate e.g. if you had 2 lots that were identical except
for different comments, you would end up with 2 separate lots in your inventory.
| | I would expect I have to add the lot IDs from my inventory to the set inventory list somehow, and add my existing
quantities to the quantity in the set, then export that new amount with correct lot ID?
|
BrickLink takes care of all that for you during the upload process.
| | what exactly do I copy from my inventory and how?
|
In BrickStore;
If you have't already, import your store inventory.
You need to have your store inventory file open.
Then from your parted-out file, on the Edit menu select 'Copy Values from
Document'.
A pop-up will appear showing a list of all the open files. Select your inventory
file from the list and hit Next.
You will then see a list of all the fields that you can copy.
Set the Comments field to Copy.
Make sure you set the other fields to Ignore.
Hit Finish.
This will copy all the comments from your store inventory to the parted-out file
(where parts match of course), allowing BrickLink to consolidate correctly.
Hope this helps
|
Aha I see, thanks! So it's creating a lot-id-less XML update and Bricklink
handles consolidating same as with an on-site part-out, so no need to gather
the lot ids from the inventory. I just noticed those options on the upload screen.
Haven't paid attention to them before as I've only been using these XML
updates to target specific lots.
And thanks for pointing out that copy feature, there's zero chance I would
have found that on my own
I was trying out BrickStore today not for this part-out problem specifically
(although I will in a few months, still have 20 Ninago City Gardens sitting around
) but to use it for some offline inventory management for a stock of parts
that is not connected to any Bricklink shop. As far as I can see, doing part-outs
into that stock bsx file entails nothing more than just Ctrl+C Ctrl+V (unless
I'm missing something).
Only thing is the price guide keeps showing up in USD even though I set the default
currency to EUR.. and I can't see whether or not it includes VAT.. (I know
this issue was addressed because I raised it, and resolved, I just haven't
looked at the result of that discussion until now)
| |
| | 8. Final check that you're happy with the data (everything has a price etc.)
9. Select item 1, scroll down to e.g. item 500, shift-click to select all items
from 1 to 500.
10. Export to BrickLink Mass-Upload XML to Clipboard.
11. Open BrickLink - Inventory - Upload.
12. Paste the XML into the upload box.
13. Set your consolidate options (old or new pricing etc.)
14. Verify File.
15. BrickLink will check the data and show you what it will upload (or any errors).
16. Once that batch has uploaded, go back through steps 9 to 15, selecting items
501 to 1000, 1001 to 1500 etc.
|
|
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 27, 2022 06:16 | | Subject: | Re: How to upload 71741-1 for partout? | | Viewed: | 51 times | | Topic: | LEGO products | |
|
| In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:
| | In LEGO, Teup writes:
| | In LEGO, beaverbrick writes:
| | In LEGO, MXbricks writes:
| | I have a problem with parting out 71741 NINJAGO City Gardens. When I try to verify
the items in the partout screen, it takes so long that server gateway times out.
I get error #504 gateway time-out. I was wondering if somebody has a solution
for this or a workaround.
Greetings Max
|
This issue comes up a lot in the forums... there's an additional note added
to the set (see pic).
Basically, you need to upload in smaller chunks.
If you use software like BrickStore, I'd recommend using that. If you do
it through the BrickLink part out screen you have to select/deselect an awful
lot of checkboxes.
|
|
| | IMO that note is an embarrassment to Bricklink. No person is going to spend over
30 minutes clicking checkboxes. It would look better if the message would simply
say it's a known issue, they're working on it, and that you should use
third party software.
|
Yeah, having to click hundreds of checkboxes individually is beyond silly.
| | I'm also interested in this set and a few days ago I actually sent a message
to the helpdesk asking for an ETA on the fix. This has been an issue for years
now, I really do hope a fix is around the corner, especially as LEGO sets are
gradually getting bigger and this many lots will become increasingly common.
Adding stock is really core functionality of a Lego selling platform, so they
better get their act together.
I have no experience using BrickStore, in case Bricklink will keep on not giving
a damn, could anyone tell me what the easiest route will be to parting it out
through BrickStock? Can I get it to generate an upload XML for the updated lots?
I suppose I would have to read an export of my existing inventory into it so
it can consolidate?
|
A very basic guide...
1. Import your store inventory (for use later).
2. Import the set inventory into a different tab; setting import options as desired.
3. Sort the set inventory by Status.
4. Scroll to the bottom and delete any counterparts, extras and/or alternate
items you don't want.
5. Select all and consolidate lots (so you don't have duplicate lots).
6. Select all and set prices to e.g. BL's 6 month average.
7. Copy Values from Document... copy comments, remarks etc. from your inventory
that was imported earlier. Make sure to copy comments as BL uses this field
for consolidating lots.
|
Today I decided to try and figure out BrickStore. Not precisely to solve the
(still unsolved!! Bricklink come on!) problem of parting out large sets but for
a slightly different purpose. I'm looking to see if I can do a part-out of
a set into an existing bsx file. I'm having a hard time with the last step
above - what exactly do I copy from my inventory and how? My inventory list doesn't
match the much shorter set inventory list of course.. and why is comments relevant
for consolidating? Isn't that just about the lot ID? I would expect I have
to add the lot IDs from my inventory to the set inventory list somehow, and add
my existing quantities to the quantity in the set, then export that new amount
with correct lot ID? Is that wrong or right and if right how exactly do I do
that? BrickStore is pretty tough to understand if you've never worked with
it or any of its previous iterations before
| | 8. Final check that you're happy with the data (everything has a price etc.)
9. Select item 1, scroll down to e.g. item 500, shift-click to select all items
from 1 to 500.
10. Export to BrickLink Mass-Upload XML to Clipboard.
11. Open BrickLink - Inventory - Upload.
12. Paste the XML into the upload box.
13. Set your consolidate options (old or new pricing etc.)
14. Verify File.
15. BrickLink will check the data and show you what it will upload (or any errors).
16. Once that batch has uploaded, go back through steps 9 to 15, selecting items
501 to 1000, 1001 to 1500 etc.
Sounds like a lot of steps, but it's pretty easy and pretty quick, especially
if you like your keyboard shortcuts
|
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 26, 2022 16:22 | | Subject: | Re: Is this a scam attempt or an Extorsion? | | Viewed: | 115 times | | Topic: | Problem Order | |
|
| In Problem Order, SezaR writes:
| | Just saw this.
I already received a negative feedback from this buyer and there is nothing to
be done for this order but I thought other sellers wanted to know what headache
I had and decide to stoplist him (or not) based on what happened.
| | I spend thousands of dollars a year on eBay and other collector sites buying
and selling on eBay and when someone orders an expensive item like this one and
when someone spends $540 (includes customs tax)you don't ship their item
in a flimsy beat up amazon box that it barely fits in with no cushioning to protect
it. This was a gift for my son who had to wait weeks for it to arrive and was
upset that it was broken so I ordered the same wheel from eBay when a seller
is careless in sending something the right way the 1st time I'm not going
to wait weeks in hopes that they might actually send a replacement part.
|
He ordered on 26th dec.
He paid on 29th dec.
I shipped on 5th January.
Based on the tracking, the package was received on 13th January. So he received
the package 15 days after he paid. See attached.
Based on my terms, it takes between 2-3 weeks for the package to be delivered
after it is paid.
So the buyer felt 15 days waiting for package sent from Canada to Germany as
like "weeks" and decided to order it from Germany!
I am not sure what "might" and "hopes" can mean here:
I'm not going to wait weeks in hopes that they might actually send
a replacement part.
but when the order was shipped, I sent a notification that if there is a problem,
please let us know. This is the most natural thing to do.
|
I believe (if I recall right) that consumers usually have an obligation to at
least let a business correct a mistake in a reasonable time frame. You were given
exactly no time frame at all. As for feedback, of course, everyone can leave
whatever feedback they wish at any time, but when it comes to customer service
and refunds, buyers do have obligations in the process too.
But it was a good move to link to the forum post in your feedback, so everyone
can see magical writer has magically disappeared when asked about pictures
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 13:39 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 68 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, MidwestBrick writes:
| | 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!
|
It's about EU VAT so it won't be relevant to you, but maybe it's
interesting to see some of it anyway. As a result of that session, the idea was
to have such sessions more often, about various topics. Even though the session
didn't lead to any improvements, Bricklink's new attitude of honesty
- acknowledging things are not ideal and that it simply doesn't have the
ability to do better in the short term was very refreshing and to me. One of
the best things that happened on Bricklink in a while!
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 25, 2022 09:45 | | Subject: | Re: Been away a full year, what's new? | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| 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.
|
Business as usual, except that Bricklink now has a CEO from LEGO and LEGO wants
to have video sessions with the users with 'some' frequency, on hot topics
that arise or otherwise. The first session was at least refreshing. So hopefully
some long overdue things will finally start moving in the coming months/years..
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 24, 2022 09:49 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 52 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I'm still having lots of cancelled payments on Stripe. Mostly from American
users, but also some European. There is one user who made 3 attempts in one day,
and did not end up placing an order. Every unsuccessful payment seems to say
"a check-out session has expired".
I receive payments for my own webshop through the same channel, and while I have
more orders, I have maybe one unsuccesful payment per month there.
I've tried to reach out to the buyers but most have not responded. Two told
me it was indeed intentional, but I still worry about the ones that didn't
respond, as there are quite many of these attempts. This could be a real problem,
right..?! Is it because of that last page that Bricklink has where you have to
(redundantly) confirm your payment? Often when I pay onsite I forget this step
exists and find it an hour later somewhere in my browser tabs.. but as it is
mostly American users, it could be because of sales tax changing the buyer's
mind, too.. I really have no idea. And even in the best case that all were somehow
intentional, it was still a lot of time wasted for the buyers.
|
I am surprised this thread is not getting more replies than it does. I think
that must mean that this affects only certain stores? Why mine, what could be
different about mine? I have these failed payments daily now..
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 23, 2022 14:49 | | Subject: | Re: I spent 5+ hours on an $11 order 😐 | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:
| | In Selling, peregrinator writes:
| | In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:
| | I usually empty the big bag and all the little ones come out. Then find the category,
and empty that specific bag out (20-50 parts per bag). I find the piece and spend
20 seconds looking at the conditions (I keep all the parts together no matter
the condition).
|
Do you mean Used vs. New here, or various grades of Used (e.g. light playwear
vs. heavy playwear)?
In either case you should really keep them separated - that would save you at
least 20 seconds per lot. And with Used vs. New, I don't think it's possible
to reliably tell the difference between them without keeping them separate.
|
I separate everything New and Used in two separate bins. In the new is separated
by color then by piece.
|
Ohhh always separate by piece, then color.. not the other way around! Eyes can
easily spot colors (well, unless you sell mixed old and new grays) but spotting
1x1 bricks, 1x1 with stud, 1x1 headlight in all the same color is a nightmare.
Seriously, don't do it, and totally explains why it takes so long.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 23, 2022 11:27 | | Subject: | Re: Order direct invoice/laten betalen | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, smink45 writes:
| | Hoi Allemaal,
Ik ben nu al een tijdje bezig met mijn store maar krijg steeds vaker orders die
worden gecanceld nadat ik de invoice heb verstuurd.
nu zat ik te denken als ik het direct laat betalen ziet heb ik dat natuurlijk
niet meer. hoe zou ik dat het beste kunnen instellen.
ik maak gebruik van paypal en iban betalingen, en als verzend opties bied ik
PostNL en DHL aan.
ik heb al het eea geprobeerd in te stellen maar wil mezelf niet in de vingers
snijden zodat ik de kosten van verzenden en paypal voor mijn rekening krijg.
het is voor mij nog een hobby shopje.
Graag wil ik dit instellen met behulp van iemand. misschien is het makkelijk
om dit via whatsapp of messenger te contacten
gr
Jeroen
|
Bricklink is al jaren bezig om iDEAL te implementeren en ze vinden het kennelijk
allemaal erg moeilijk om voor elkaar te krijgen. Als dat er eenmaal is kunnen
de Nederlandse klanten gewoon direct onsite betalen en heb je het probleem dus
niet meer. Tot die tijd moeten ze het zelf overmaken, maar een automatische betaalinstructie
(wat Bricklink een invoice noemt) te laten versturen kan dus wel.
Naar mijn mening is het het handigste om gewoon een paar vaste schijven te bedenken
voor de klant. Als je als uitgangspunt niet neemt "wat kost het allemaal precies?"
maar "wat zou ik er ongeveer voor willen hebben om mijn kosten te dekken?" maak
je je leven een stuk makkelijker. Er zijn zelfs verkopers die maar één vast verzendtarief
hanteren voor alle bestellingen. Dat is het uiterste, maar als je voor jezelf
bedacht hebt dat je zo onder de streep aan het einde van het jaar je kosten gedekt
hebt, waarom niet. Mooie van instant checkout is dat de klant direct ziet hoe
veel het kost en er akkoord mee gaat, dus het hoeft niet overeen te komen met
frankeerkosten, zoals op Marktplaats.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 23, 2022 05:58 | | Subject: | Re: I spent 5+ hours on an $11 order 😐 | | Viewed: | 75 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| In Selling, Phantom_Buyer writes:
| | Now that I think about it, this order took so long as the buyer bought something
of EVERY single color. I had to keep moving lots and colors, etc. My list became
a rainbow if I scrolled really fast 😂
I attached an image of all the parts. You will see how long it must have been
to pick a different part of every color.
|
Well, those are actually my favourite orders. When buyers buy the same part in
multiple colours I can all pick them at once from the same bag. If an order is
50 lots but it's 5 colours of every part, it's essentially picking 10
lots for me. Plus, I can toss them all into the same bag without having to worry
if the buyer will be able to identify everything (I wouldn't do that if someone
buys only black things with minimal variations)
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 22, 2022 12:28 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 31 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I received a reply from a user that had multiple failed payment entries in my
list:
" I attempted to check out and purchase an item from your Bricklink store using
Stripe. However, it declined my card multiple times - I would guess due to it
being an international purchase. I ended up purchasing the item from another
Bricklink seller, so I don’t know whether Stripe would have allowed me to complete
the purchase if I had tried again after notifying my bank that it was an authorized
purchase."
|
Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.
|
I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...
|
There is a setting on Stripe to decline the payment if the address doesn't
match excatly, I have that one disabled and I experience far less declined payment
and had no errors with those orders.
|
Interesting, could you tell me where? While I was trying to find it, another
failed payment came in...
|
The one of the postal code: https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/radar/rules
|
Thanks! If I understand correctly, I have only the first two mandatory ones enabled.
But besides that, it shows that it only blocked one payment since last summer,
so seems this isn't what is causing the failed payments.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 22, 2022 09:21 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 31 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Stellar writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I received a reply from a user that had multiple failed payment entries in my
list:
" I attempted to check out and purchase an item from your Bricklink store using
Stripe. However, it declined my card multiple times - I would guess due to it
being an international purchase. I ended up purchasing the item from another
Bricklink seller, so I don’t know whether Stripe would have allowed me to complete
the purchase if I had tried again after notifying my bank that it was an authorized
purchase."
|
Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.
|
I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...
|
There is a setting on Stripe to decline the payment if the address doesn't
match excatly, I have that one disabled and I experience far less declined payment
and had no errors with those orders.
|
Interesting, could you tell me where? While I was trying to find it, another
failed payment came in...
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 22, 2022 07:37 | | Subject: | Re: Coupon bug | | Viewed: | 24 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I reported this before, but oh well. The "exclude items on sale" option in coupons
is bugged. It doesn't only exclude items with a reduced sale price, but also
the ones that have an increased price by using a negative sale amount. Negative
sales are not visible to the buyer, so buyers don't understand what is going
on. They think they will get e.g. 10% discount because the coupon says so, but
if 90% of the items in their basket actually have a negative sale amount, their
discount is only 1%. This is really misleading.
Please fix this by making the "exclude items on sale" option still include the
items with a negative sale amount. Thanks!
|
This is still not fixed, why doesn't Bricklink ever solve any of the bugs
that I report, even though I post them on the forum and send them to tech support?
(Bricklink's empty cockpit is one thing, but where's the cabin crew?
 )
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 22, 2022 04:37 | | Subject: | Re: Is this a scam attempt or an Extorsion? | | Viewed: | 128 times | | Topic: | Problem Order | |
|
| In Problem Order, magical_writer writes:
| | In Problem Order, SezaR writes:
| | I have a situation with a buyer and I think other sellers may want to know this
and stoplist him.
I also guess the buyer could already be in my stoplist and this is his second
account. I have many buyers on my stoplist and cannot check this easily.
He has zero feedback and ordered the set
for price $469.99 USD. This is the lowest price for this set on BL.
Shipping costs (from Canada to USA): $19.74 USD
From the get-go, I had a feeling something was not right for this order so I
took many photos (I don't take photos in general). I only upload one photo
here (the bag in which the wheels were included).
After he received the order, he wrote me that one wheel was broken
* | | 4180c05 (Inv) Brick, Modified 2 x 4 with Red Wheels, Train Spoked Large (29mm D.) and Red Pins (4180 / wheel4 / 2344)
Parts: Wheel |
and that he bought the part from Ebay (from a seller in Germany) and requested
me to refund $35.53 USD (shipping and tax included)!! He attached two photos
(see the second and third photo attached here)
Note that I sell this part for $19.89 and based on his photo, only the pin and
wheel-holder was broken and their value is $1-2 USD.
As I sell big sets, about 100 times customers claimed something was missing or
broken and I always believed them and fixed the issue but in this case, I certainly
don't believe the wheel in his photo was the one I sold him. This wheel does
not break so easily, specially if it is inside a bag together with many other
parts and the Lego was wrapped with bubble mailers too and was packaged inside
a small box. (I pack sets in small boxes because larger boxes tend to get crushed
specially if they are not full)
If you have had these train wheels, you know that they are not likely to break.
How come the pin of the wheel is broken inside the package but the wheel
* | | wheel4 Train Wheel Spoked Large (29mm D.) with FreeStyle Pin Hole
Parts: Wheel |
is intact?!
So the buyer decided that since something was missing, he could just go ahead
and buy the part from elsewhere for whatever price and the seller did not need
to know and agrees this but had to refund the buyer for all the costs of his
purchase!(what?) What company agrees to refund this way?! Amazon, Lego.com, playmobile,
Samsung, BMV,...?
Based on his logic, what if 4 parts where missing or broken? Then would he
assume the seller is supposed to refund like $100 USD?!
I certainly don't believe he actually bought or or maybe he simply wanted
to buy and have an extra wheel.
I had checked the parts twice before shipping and the wheels were ok. I wrote
him back that the parts were ok when I shipped them and I have photos but I can
sent him replacement for the broken pin and wheel-holder.
This time, he replied me that the box was delivered damaged because there
were not enough packaging material and he does not want the replacement parts
and he will leave an appropriate feedback.
The money is not that important but I did not refund him because this is not
correct and I do not believe any of his words. I just consider this as an attempt
for scam and will never comply to this.
I replied that my packages were never arrived so damaged in a way that one part
was broken but in any case, the package was fully insured and if he sends
me photo of damaged package, I can file a claim for partial refund from the shipping
company (UPS mail innovation) and that they always check with their own photos
and notes of postmen to make sure the claim is legitimate and would eventually
issue a refund.
No more message from him, so he does not want the replacement parts, he does
not want to send me photo of the damaged package (guess why) and now, he left
me my first negative.
"Paid $540 USD for train shipped in a flimsy box w/no cushioni. Had broken
part."
By the way, the price of set was $469.99 USD and the total with shipping and
tax was $521.56 USD and not $540 USD.
I reply to this thread and add our correspondences.
|
I spend thousands of dollars a year on eBay and other collector sites buying
and selling on eBay and when someone orders an expensive item like this one and
when someone spends $540 (includes customs tax)you don't ship their item
in a flimsy beat up amazon box that it barely fits in with no cushioning to protect
it. This was a gift for my son who had to wait weeks for it to arrive and was
upset that it was broken so I ordered the same wheel from eBay when a seller
is careless in sending something the right way the 1st time I'm not going
to wait weeks in hopes that they might actually send a replacement part. The
bottom line is if you took a bit of care in wrapping up the item and didn't
have an attitude about it and make threats to me about getting sellers to blacklist
me here on Bricklink you wouldn't have gotten negative feedback. You have
a bad attitude and a fusing me of trying to extort or scam for m you for 30 something
dollars is an absolute joke and an insult. Just because I am new to Bricklink
doesn't make me a bad person. I do not tolerate ignorance for m anyone, especially
from rude people like you. This was my 1st purchase here and will be my last
thanks to you and your ignorance.
|
So why didn't you simply send pictures? Every single time a buyer of mine
had a problem with something in the order, they attached pictures. Surely everyone
has a smartphone nowadays? Everyone knows a picture says more than a 1000 words.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 22, 2022 04:31 | | Subject: | Re: We have a new Inventories Administrator! | | Viewed: | 51 times | | Topic: | Inventories | |
|
| In Administrative, Admin_Russell writes:
Gefeliciteerd Diana!
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 21, 2022 15:45 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 39 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I received a reply from a user that had multiple failed payment entries in my
list:
" I attempted to check out and purchase an item from your Bricklink store using
Stripe. However, it declined my card multiple times - I would guess due to it
being an international purchase. I ended up purchasing the item from another
Bricklink seller, so I don’t know whether Stripe would have allowed me to complete
the purchase if I had tried again after notifying my bank that it was an authorized
purchase."
|
Interesting - could well be the case that the card was declined due to its being
an international purchase, if that kind of purchase was out of the ordinary for
the buyer using that card.
|
I don't know the first thing about creditcards, but at least it would explain
why most of these cases I am seeing are non-EU buyers...
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 21, 2022 11:48 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | I'm still having lots of cancelled payments on Stripe. Mostly from American
users, but also some European. There is one user who made 3 attempts in one day,
and did not end up placing an order. Every unsuccessful payment seems to say
"a check-out session has expired".
I receive payments for my own webshop through the same channel, and while I have
more orders, I have maybe one unsuccesful payment per month there.
I've tried to reach out to the buyers but most have not responded. Two told
me it was indeed intentional, but I still worry about the ones that didn't
respond, as there are quite many of these attempts. This could be a real problem,
right..?! Is it because of that last page that Bricklink has where you have to
(redundantly) confirm your payment? Often when I pay onsite I forget this step
exists and find it an hour later somewhere in my browser tabs.. but as it is
mostly American users, it could be because of sales tax changing the buyer's
mind, too.. I really have no idea. And even in the best case that all were somehow
intentional, it was still a lot of time wasted for the buyers.
|
I received a reply from a user that had multiple failed payment entries in my
list:
" I attempted to check out and purchase an item from your Bricklink store using
Stripe. However, it declined my card multiple times - I would guess due to it
being an international purchase. I ended up purchasing the item from another
Bricklink seller, so I don’t know whether Stripe would have allowed me to complete
the purchase if I had tried again after notifying my bank that it was an authorized
purchase."
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 21, 2022 06:55 | | Subject: | Re: Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 75 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, peregrinator writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Mesken writes:
| | Same here, only just two customers. Stripe tells me, that there is a new customer
created, while no payment has made.
I think too, that the additional step, which conforms the payment, is not necessary.
|
It's pretty much how PayPal works on many other sides. Maybe the problem
is applying the PayPal paradigm to Stripe payments?
|
I should add though: I don't have a credit card, I've only paid onsite
here using PayPal, so I don't actually know if Stripe creditcard payments
on Bricklink also work with that extra step or not. Just the fact that it keeps
saying the sessions expired reminded me of how I forget to confirm PayPal payments.
I've never seen that extra step on other websites, so I tend to forget to
complete it. (Actually, Bricklink also doesn't have that extra step when
paying the monthly fees)
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 21, 2022 04:48 | | Subject: | Still a lot of cancelled payments...... | | Viewed: | 207 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| I'm still having lots of cancelled payments on Stripe. Mostly from American
users, but also some European. There is one user who made 3 attempts in one day,
and did not end up placing an order. Every unsuccessful payment seems to say
"a check-out session has expired".
I receive payments for my own webshop through the same channel, and while I have
more orders, I have maybe one unsuccesful payment per month there.
I've tried to reach out to the buyers but most have not responded. Two told
me it was indeed intentional, but I still worry about the ones that didn't
respond, as there are quite many of these attempts. This could be a real problem,
right..?! Is it because of that last page that Bricklink has where you have to
(redundantly) confirm your payment? Often when I pay onsite I forget this step
exists and find it an hour later somewhere in my browser tabs.. but as it is
mostly American users, it could be because of sales tax changing the buyer's
mind, too.. I really have no idea. And even in the best case that all were somehow
intentional, it was still a lot of time wasted for the buyers.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 20, 2022 08:01 | | Subject: | Re: Bypass Password non-shipping country doesn't | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:
| | In Technical Issues, Teup writes:
| | In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:
| | The Bypass Password for a non-shipping country doesn't work.
Buyer can add items, but when he opens the cart, there's no box to enter
the bypass password. Only the button [proceed to checkout]. After pressing this
button he gets stuck and the following message appears:
store.bricklink.com diz
DOES_NOT_SHIP: You will be redirected to the cart page
I checked all settings, but can't find anything what I am supposed to do,
then give in a bypass pasword.
Anyone any ideas?
Diana
|
The whole bypass system confuses me.. what is the intended/expected behaviour
exactly? There isn't such a thing as a ship-to countries list, which a bypass
password could then bypass. The ship-to countries are a result of what you have
specified in your shipping methods. Should the bypass password add the country
to one or more shipping methods but if so, how does the system know which ones?
|
There is a ship-to-country list. It shows up on your Terms page and it shows
all countries that occur in 1 or more of your shippingmethods.
|
That's exactly what I mean: The list was not specified, it is a result of
the shipping methods. If the list was specified, a bypass password could simply
ignore that list. But as there is none specified, what should the bypass password
do? How does it know which shipping method to pick?
IMO the system seriously needs an overhaul. We should be able to just specify
anything we want in the shipping methods and then restrict that with a master-setting
on top of that. The bypass procedure would then lifts that restriction, and automatically
find the appropriate shipping method. Right now I find it very confusing.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 20, 2022 07:39 | | Subject: | Re: Bypass Password non-shipping country doesn't | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, TakeAbricK writes:
| | The Bypass Password for a non-shipping country doesn't work.
Buyer can add items, but when he opens the cart, there's no box to enter
the bypass password. Only the button [proceed to checkout]. After pressing this
button he gets stuck and the following message appears:
store.bricklink.com diz
DOES_NOT_SHIP: You will be redirected to the cart page
I checked all settings, but can't find anything what I am supposed to do,
then give in a bypass pasword.
Anyone any ideas?
Diana
|
The whole bypass system confuses me.. what is the intended/expected behaviour
exactly? There isn't such a thing as a ship-to countries list, which a bypass
password could then bypass. The ship-to countries are a result of what you have
specified in your shipping methods. Should the bypass password add the country
to one or more shipping methods but if so, how does the system know which ones?
I also struggle with the minimum buy bypass, since shipping methods obligatorily
(vacuously) need to have that same minimum buy baked into them - so I guess it
would result in a manual invoice if I give a bypass password, even though I just
want one of my shipping methods to qualify.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 19, 2022 16:28 | | Subject: | Re: Newbie confusion! | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, ccroxton writes:
| | I have over 1000 pounds of Lego to list. I am confused by some terminology in
BL store setup. Is each color of each part number a LOT? In other words, black
2x4 is a different lot than red 2x4?
|
A lot is just an article that you have listed for sale. When you create a new
lot, it gets a unique lot ID number. Different kinds of parts will be listed
in your store as different lots by necessity, but theoretically (don't do
it) you could make a separate lot for every single part that you own. You'd
just get an extremely long list of the same kind of part, but they're different
"lots".
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 19, 2022 11:00 | | Subject: | Re: New IRS Reporting Req's for 2022 | | Viewed: | 66 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| In Selling, Bitay15 writes:
| | In Selling, ZSchoonover writes:
It is incredibly unfair. If you buy something at a cost of $1500 and sell it
for $2000, your gain in income is $500. That should be what is reported and taxed.
But that is not how this works. You will show $2000 gain in income and have to
pay taxes on all above the $600 threshold. Only businesses can write off expenses,
we cannot. It may be time to go back to craigslist and sell for cash.
|
If it really works like that, that would be very strange indeed. I know that
the Dutch tax agency only counts profit as income in that situation. I know there
are vastly different rules in different countries but you would think that it's
universal maths that private possessions (all taxes paid) being turned back into
money doesn't count as "income"...
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 19, 2022 08:08 | | Subject: | Re: Typical profit margins | | Viewed: | 68 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
|
| In Announce, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Announce, Teup writes:
| | […]
as I think that roughly gets
you an hourly pay of something in between €15-€25 which is an acceptable "career"
for people.
|
For the business or for the employee/worker? (Employer costs?)
With or without social security / unemployement / retirement?
Before or after taxes?
Just to say that what Teup says is about Nederlands and in some neighbouring
EU countries (but not all EU countries) and it’s difficultly comparable to other
countries, like the USA (different systems).
|
Yeah, true... it's a very rough estimate But let's just say at least
it's unlikely to find 'gold mines' in your own area that give you
new sets at such great prices that you can sit down and relax, because probably
your fellow countrymen will have brought down the prices of those parts until
their value is just enough to make it worthwhile.
I did actually find some great 4x-5x part out value set that I bought 25 of...
that was like 5 years ago... and the parts are all still around in my shop, to
remind me what a "great" deal I had It seems to have been a worldwide overproduced/underdemanded
set. So even when you get a great profit rate, economics will pull you back towards
the 2x region
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 19, 2022 06:08 | | Subject: | Re: Typical profit margins | | Viewed: | 99 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
|
| In Announce, runner.caller writes:
| | | | In Announce, Teup writes:
Money = time = space. If you want to earn more money, you need either more time
or more space. You can work long hours at a low profit rate, or you can crank
up your profit rate by growing your store which enables higher prices. My strategy
has always been to go nuts on space and save time
|
You bring up a good point about time.
I'd say the best % return on paper would be from cheap used bulk with figs
and listing every possible piece.
I recently acquired 60lbs for $330 that included approx. 125 figures.
Now, if I were to take the time to list EVERYTHING I could, the unrealized gains
would be huge. A couple thousand dollars maybe, but it would take me a super
long time to list and even longer to realize those gains + I don't have the
space to do all the parts.
I already flipped one architecture set to ebay out of that lot weighing around
2 lbs for approx $80 after fees and shipping. I'll do this with all the bulk
from this lot eventually and probably 2X to 3X on just that as an immediate realized
gain and this will leave the 125 figures as "free" that I will then add to my
BL store.
The % gains are not there, but I can process way more lots if I sell off the
bulk in 2 or 3 listings and then add 100 or so figures to my store vs taking
the time so sort, store, list, pick, pack, and ship 24,000 pieces over the long
run.
Just different strategy, I also know a lot of sellers that do very well with
parts and having a huge variety.
|
Ah, that makes sense, I was talking strictly about parting out new sets. Those
will usually be 2x or 3x almost by definition, as I think that roughly gets
you an hourly pay of something in between €15-€25 which is an acceptable "career"
for people. If we'd have sources all over the place that give us 5x, pretty
soon the prices will just drop until we settle at the 2x-3x level again.
But as for used, yes, a whole lot more work is involved there, so it makes sense
that you can have 5x there - and probably still end up with that same hourly
pay as you would for parting out a new set at 2x (with the benefit of course
that you have much more cool and unique things to draw customers with).
I think it depends on where you live whether you can source used stock at an
acceptable price, though. Here it's pretty hard. I get the impression that
in America it's common for people to not really be aware of what they have
and just dump it for cheap, while in the Netherlands everyone thinks they're
suddenly an expert or somehow have hidden gems in their attic that the world
was waiting for, even though they don't know anything about Lego. The same
way all Americans know "don't eat yellow snow", all Dutch people know "don't
sell your Lego cheap"
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 18, 2022 08:14 | | Subject: | Re: PayPal Micropayments: welke cutoff? | | Viewed: | 27 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, BasKrie writes:
| | In LANG Nederlands, Gaston.La.Brick writes:
| | Gebruikt iemand PayPal met micropayments (als tweede PayPal account)?
Tot welk bedrag gebruik je dan best die micropayments ("cutoff" bedrag)?
Grtjs,
Gaston
|
Ik heb zelf geen micro account, maar ben er al wel een keer mee aan het rekenen
geweest.
Daar komt uit dat er niet 1 magisch getal is te noemen.
Voor het gemak neem ik even alleen de betalingen in Euro, betalingen in USD liggen
weer anders.
Binnenlandse betalingen: 18,74
Europa (excl Engeland): 11,53
Engeland: 22,90
Rest van de wereld: 49,18
Onder de genoemde bedragen is een micropayment voordeliger.
Maar daarmee kom ik nergens op de door PayPal genoemde 5,00
"Tarieven voor microbetalingen kunnen ideaal zijn als alternatief voor standaard
tarieven voor commerciële transacties voor een bedrijf dat betalingen van minder
dan 5,00 EUR verwerkt."
Nu weet ik niet of dat een grens is die PP alsnog zal hanteren, maar gezien de
rest van de tekst kan dat haast niet.
Ergens zal je zelf moeten gaan kijken wat de meest voorkomende betalingen zijn
voor jou en daarvandaan bepalen wat je grens wordt. Je kunt op BL helaas gen
grens per land en munt instellen.
Een ideale instelling lijkt er dan ook niet te zijn. Het blijft schipperen en
zal voor iedereen net iets anders zijn vooral afhankelijk van hoeveel je orders
uit welk deel van de wereld je krijgt die met PP betaald worden.
|
Ik snap niet waarom PayPal niet gewoon zelf de correcte (=goedkoopste) versie
berekent en dat hele onderscheid tussen die 2 accounts opheft, of denk ik nu
te makkelijk
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 18, 2022 05:19 | | Subject: | Re: Typical profit margins | | Viewed: | 158 times | | Topic: | Announce | |
|
| In Announce, StickyBrickit writes:
| | Just wondering what sort of % profit margins people generally make, if they know?
I don't know the exact number but I usually try to buy parts at a price that
allows me to sell them for at least double what I paid. This allows me to make
about 30% on the parts, once fees, shipping etc is taking into account. I sell
on eBay as well so the fees there are a much bigger % of the sale than they are
on Bricklink.
I've heard of people regularly making x3, x4, x5 their money back but I have
no idea where they are sourcing parts if they are making this level of profit.
Other than the occasional "unicorn" find (rare figures in a cheap bulk lot for
instance) I struggle to make double my money. Just wondering what the general
rate of return is for other sellers?
|
I think the unwritten rule many sellers have in their heads is that x2 = OK.
x3 is great, x4 is exceptional and x5 is fishermen's talk. Well, I heard
that in America there can be some crazy discounts of 50% or even more, but
I doubt there are sellers who manage to make a robust steady x5 on the majority
of their inventory. If I had that, I would need to work only a few hours a week
And it would mean everyone would dive into the business, and bring down the
price. I think eventually things always gravitate towards something between x2
and x3, since that's the level that generates an acceptable pay per hour.
By the way what you describe is not x2 but less, since you have included postage/fees/taxes.
Sometimes smaller stores need to settle for 1.5x in order to beat the competition.
Bigger stores will draw customers anyway and can afford to be more expensive.
I started out with x2, now I'm near x3.
Money = time = space. If you want to earn more money, you need either more time
or more space. You can work long hours at a low profit rate, or you can crank
up your profit rate by growing your store which enables higher prices. My strategy
has always been to go nuts on space and save time
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 17, 2022 08:31 | | Subject: | Re: Massive increase in # of pieces for sale | | Viewed: | 63 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, Stellar writes:
| | In General, AlohaBrickRoad writes:
| | Hi all. I’m in my first year of selling and have been doing well so far. I
notice over the past few days my sales have essentially dropped to zero, and
there’s a MASSIVE corresponding increase in pieces for sale in the marketplace.
Is this common every year after Christmas with all the gifted and clearance
sets out in the world? Is this an experience others have been having as well?
It’s definitely disheartening, after putting hundreds of hours of work in for
it to all suddenly fall flat. I focus on used parts, but what’s the point in
that when there are suddenly 150,000 new pieces of a lot available for the same
price.
Should we expect things to increase after some of this excess inventory from
new sellers clears out and they realize how much work it is to run a successful
BL store? Or is this in some way related to further mainstreaming of the BL
platform.
Any veteran opinions?
|
Some stores close for Christmas/New Year Holidays, so a lot probably reopened
in the last week.
|
Good point! That must be the explanation. I was wondering what the explanation
could be. Here there are no good deals around at all this month. Usually the
best deals are in autumn. And with winter usually being the busiest time of year,
I doubt many sellers have had time to prepare large uploads.
And to the OP: Don't worry too much, my rule of thumb is to never look at
periods shorter than 4 weeks, due to the large random factor. You will have dry
spells and busy days with no explanation, even if it had seemed steady for a
while. That's all part of the game.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 05:09 | | Subject: | Re: N00b Questions- How Often Should I Notify? | | Viewed: | 37 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, yorbrick writes:
| | In General, Upstate_Brickz writes:
| | Hello All,
Should I be notifying members every time I add items to my inventory or does
that just create spam for people? Maybe I should just wait until I add a large
amount? 
Thanks,
AJ
|
If you load infrequently in batches, it is often best to wait maybe a week. That
way, people actively searching can find the parts they want (plus other parts).
Then you get a second hit when you notify.
Plus, save up any small batches, it is not worth notifying a few parts.
|
Yes, that's what I do. To spread the orders, but also to be able to catch
it if I underpriced something. When you have a fairly big store and you notify
the world, and an item is too cheap, they will pretty much all be gone the next
day. If you don't notify, you can still adjust them as orders trickle in
slowly Sometimes I even wait months.
But for small stores that just want orders, I'd say just go and spam the
notify button as often as you can
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 05:03 | | Subject: | Re: 0-50 gram buspakje ook Covid toeslag | | Viewed: | 44 times | | Topic: | LANG Nederlands | |
|
| In LANG Nederlands, BasKrie writes:
| | De eerste factuur bevatte alleen 2 pakjes, zojuist de 2e factuur van het jaar
bekeken.
Wat blijkt, ook de buspakjes (product 6440) naar buiten de EU onder de 50 gram
worden belast met een COVID toeslag (1 euro per zending).
Ik dacht eerder gezien te hebben dat 0-30 en 30-50 gram daarvan uitgezonderd
waren.
Dat waren de eerste verloren euro's van het jaar 
Nu meteen maar aangepast, komende factuur zal ook wel wat verlies nog geven.
|
Goed gespot. Waar stond uberhaupt dat buspakjes toeslag zouden kunnen krijgen?
Ik kan er nergens wat over vinden. PostNL linkt naar de tarieven van 2021 op
hun site.... lekker handig..
https://www.postnl.nl/klantenservice/coronavirus/tijdelijke-toeslag-bestemmingen-buiten-europa/
Inderdaad gewoon niet acceptabel. Ze moeten rekenen wat ze zelf aangeven.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 13, 2022 09:30 | | Subject: | Re: Bricks and Pieces merging into Pick a Brick | | Viewed: | 71 times | | Topic: | General | |
|
| In General, par016 writes:
| | To me it depends on how much Lego tries to make this a part of their main business.
If they are pushing to have this service more front and center on their website
and better promoted, it could easily diminish sales on BrickLink.
|
Except that they are expensive, very slow, bad at counting and disasterous at
packaging Besides the fact that it's an annoying website to use and it's
annoying to pay (here, we have to wait for an invoice which can take days).
It's too labour-intensive I think, in order to achieve something that LEGO
has mixed feelings about in the first place - taking away the magic from the
sets by selling all parts individually. They are already struggling with the
order volume they are getting right now, while meanwhile sets are sorted and
boxed by machines at high speed. It's definitely Lego out of their element
It could be just a matter of optimising the current situation (maybe even saving
money on the whole thing) rather than expanding in that direction. But let's
see.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 12, 2022 15:00 | | Subject: | Re: What does this mean? | | Viewed: | 26 times | | Topic: | Technical Issues | |
|
| In Technical Issues, Cosyrow writes:
| | What does this mean and how can I correct it?
"The seller can't ship your order with any of the shipping methods available
- Please contact seller."
|
It means that the seller made a mistake in their shipping method setup. They
have included Israel as a country they ship to, but your particular order weight,
size or value combination does not match with any of the shipping methods that
the seller had specified.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 12, 2022 08:18 | | Subject: | Re: Accidentally order bricks | | Viewed: | 64 times | | Topic: | Problem Order | |
|
| In Problem Order, bricksinbins writes:
| | In Problem Order, Teup writes:
| |
It's easy to accidentally place an order.
|
I have to disagree with you there. At the very least, when it comes to the paying
step, I find it hard to believe you log in to PayPal and accept to pay "by accident".
And that from two different stores.
|
Well, this has actually happened to me, so I don't find it hard to believe,
it's an actual memory I've also sent duplicate payments because I
was too busy with many different things. A new member may not always be aware
of which cart they are in or which items are in their cart. Note the OP didn't
even say they placed an entire order by mistake - it could be just some items
in the order that they bought twice (which I did many times). They also didn't
say that both orders were mistakes - so it's probably just about some duplicate
items.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 12, 2022 06:26 | | Subject: | Re: Accidentally order bricks | | Viewed: | 75 times | | Topic: | Problem Order | |
|
| In Problem Order, Yellow.Brick writes:
| | | | | | 1 - You went to their store.
2 - Manually adjusted how many parts you wanted to add to your cart.
3 - Proceeded to checkout.
4 - Agreed to continue.
...
I'm kind of new on the site as a seller so I'm trying to figure out what
- if anything - I can do to avoid accidental orders.
|
You missed out
5 - logged into paypal.
6 - paid by paypal.
7 - received order confirmation email.
8 - received paypal payment confirmation email.
|
LOL, That's what the ellipse was for.
Like I said in another comment; maybe they ordered the wrong color or the
wrong stormtrooper (one where there are open eyeholes on the helmet versus ones
with painted out eyeholes) - but unless the store has a return policy for stuff
like that, that's on the OP.
|
If you accidentally bought the wrong thing in a store, that's not "on you"
- you will return it of course. Or if you buy something on Amazon and afterwards
you realise you don't need it, of course you will return it and not keep
it. AFAIK in the US you actually have the right to return things you bought online,
and consumer rights do apply on Bricklink - it says so explicitly in the seller
terms which the seller has agreed to.
It's easy to accidentally place an order. Bricklink is a complicated website
and much to take in for a new user. When I placed my first order I had no clear
idea at which store I actually placed it. With Bricklink remembering multiple
carts, it's definitely possible someone checked out the wrong one by mistake.
But in the OP's case it seems even more logical: They were shopping in a
second store and forgot they already bought some of the items in the first store,
so they accidentally bought them again. This happened to me many times when I
was a buyer here.
|
|
| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 12, 2022 06:03 | | Subject: | Re: Price Guide - Part Out Value. | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| In Suggestions, yorbrick writes:
| | In Suggestions, Hugi501 writes:
| | Hello There,
I'm sure this has been suggested.
1: But when doing a part out, why do we have to select NEW or USED each time.
Can I suggested you just need to enter the set one know. From there the part
out screen lists both on the same screen.
|
Because what you are parting out is either new or used. Doing both at the
same time is likely to lead to errors.
Also you can set the default for what you do most often.
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I think the OP may be referring to the part out value screen. In that case: I'd
say logically it should be either all or nothing - if it's going to display
New and Used on one page, it should also display whole minifigures vs minifigure
parts, break sets in set yes vs no.
Besides, there's a little bug in the page where if you choose minifigure
parts, it considers the whole minifigures as "missing" items. I've reported
this and it was going to be fixed, but that must have been 5 years ago or so
by now.. but that's business as usual on Bricklink.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 10, 2022 14:24 | | Subject: | Re: Seller gives negative feedback as a revenge | | Viewed: | 100 times | | Topic: | Help | |
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| In Help, VonMartz writes:
| | Hello all,
one month ago I placed an order and paid for it right away. Ten days after I
asked the seller if he shipped the items where he rudly answered that he is not
fast-processing seller and it is not his main job and so on. Long story short
he didnt. Now it is month from the payment and still nothing. (The seller is
by the way from Czechia, same as me so the delivery process takes 2 days maximum.
Also I checked carefully his "terms" site and no mention about long delivery
times). I sent another emails but without response. When I checked his reviews
I noticed there were some negative feedbacks describing exactly the same problem.
The issue is that the seller never gives his feedback first. All the buyers that
gave him well deserved negative feedback all of them got negative feedback from
him too for giving him negative feedback. It seems to me like some kind of indirect
extortion. Same with me, one month and no feedback from him eventhough I paid
on the same day. I believe this kind of behavior is not ok. Is there a way to
report him? Or is there at least a way to give him negative feedback without
getting one? Im new to the bricklink and have only few feedbacks so Im very cautious.
Im planning on waiting for the order because it is hard to find those items anywhere
else but even after I hopefully recieve those Im convinced that the seller deserves
negative feedback.
Thank you for your time reading such a long story I will be glad for any reply.
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Sounds like the seller was sick and tired of getting orders and realised that
posting revenge feedback is the most effective way to destroy your own reputation.
As others have said do start an NSS, because when it completes it will remove
that negative feedback you received. And if it's the seller's third case
- which may well be the case - it removes the seller along with it.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 9, 2022 11:20 | | Subject: | Re: VAT threshold | | Viewed: | 54 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, LeeGo73 writes:
| | In Selling, Teup writes:
| | In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Wel hebben BTW plichtige verkopers te maken met wat nieuwe wetgeving waarbij
je boven de €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen extra administratie krijgt (unieregeling).
Dan grijpt Bricklink wel in. Maar ik geloof dat niet-BTW plichtige verkopers
daar niet het mikpunt van zijn (en zo ja kun je het admin team je KOR toepassing
tonen)
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Sorry, het zit anders: Als je de grens van €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen
overschrijdt, moet je die nieuwe regels toepassen voor al je bestellingen naar
andere EU landen (dat wil zeggen: je moet een BTW nummer hebben, en BTW heffen
over die bestellingen). Die regel gaat dus vóór de KOR.
(Je mag voor je Nederlandse omzet wel gewoon de KOR blijven toepassen, maar dat
lijkt me een slechte deal aangezien je dan ook geen BTW kan aftrekken van je
inkopen)
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Bedankt voor de uitleg, het ging mij over het BTW gedeelte. De 20k/10k kom ik
niet eens in de buurt. Ziet de overheid verzendkosten als omzet?
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Ja, verzendkosten, transactiekosten e.d. zijn ook omzet. Als je alleen maar je
eigen privéverzameling aan het verkopen bent hoef je niet KvK geregistreerd te
staan, maar in alle andere gevallen moet je dit allemaal opgeven als omzet (en
als je zakelijke kosten).
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 9, 2022 08:55 | | Subject: | Re: VAT threshold | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Wel hebben BTW plichtige verkopers te maken met wat nieuwe wetgeving waarbij
je boven de €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen extra administratie krijgt (unieregeling).
Dan grijpt Bricklink wel in. Maar ik geloof dat niet-BTW plichtige verkopers
daar niet het mikpunt van zijn (en zo ja kun je het admin team je KOR toepassing
tonen)
|
Sorry, het zit anders: Als je de grens van €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen
overschrijdt, moet je die nieuwe regels toepassen voor al je bestellingen naar
andere EU landen (dat wil zeggen: je moet een BTW nummer hebben, en BTW heffen
over die bestellingen). Die regel gaat dus vóór de KOR.
(Je mag voor je Nederlandse omzet wel gewoon de KOR blijven toepassen, maar dat
lijkt me een slechte deal aangezien je dan ook geen BTW kan aftrekken van je
inkopen)
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 9, 2022 08:49 | | Subject: | Re: VAT threshold | | Viewed: | 72 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, LeeGo73 writes:
| | I have some questions regarding VAT limits for a shop located in the Netherlands;
As I'm a small private seller, I do not have the 21% vat collecting enabled.
When I started I remembered seeing the limit was eur 6k, above that you needed
to enable VAT collection.
When I looked today there is no fixed limit mentioned, just the remark that VAT
collection needs to be enabled when you reach the country threshold, which would
eur 20k for the Netherlands.
I don't have the ambition (or time) to grow into a 'real' shop with
all added administration attached.
Any Dutch sellers now more details?
- is the limit 20k
- is shipping national, eu, non-eu included in the limit
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Ik neem aan dat je de kleine ondernemerregeling toepast. De bovengrens om die
te mogen toepassen is inderdaad €20.000 omzet.
Voor Bricklink maakt het verder niets uit, voor zover ik weet. Ik geloof niet
dat daar specifieke regels over zijn. De Belastingdienst bepaalt of je BTW moet
heffen en een BTW nummer krijgt.
Wel hebben BTW plichtige verkopers te maken met wat nieuwe wetgeving waarbij
je boven de €10.000 omzet uit andere EU landen extra administratie krijgt (unieregeling).
Dan grijpt Bricklink wel in. Maar ik geloof dat niet-BTW plichtige verkopers
daar niet het mikpunt van zijn (en zo ja kun je het admin team je KOR toepassing
tonen)
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 11:37 | | Subject: | Re: 100% Priase ruined by a new member | | Viewed: | 73 times | | Topic: | Feedback | |
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| In Feedback, ck.brick.lego writes:
| | My store used to have a track record of 100% praise.
But recently a new member ordered and requested to cancel after that, for which
he left a neutral feedback. The comment itself is neutral, just a word "thank
you". But it ruins the 100% record, unfortunately.
Any suggestions for preventing things like this?
My thought is to deny any cancellation request--and include that in the store
terms.
But if buyers feel they are forced to buy--sellers are putting himself to
a dangerous situation as well. Buyers may look for defects and a negative feedback
may still result.
P.S. Suggestions regarding store is also welcomed. I am looking for that to improve
as well. Thank you in advance.
|
Sorry to hear about this. I had the same thing happen to me today. Not allowing
cancellations is not the way, the best thing you can do is explain to the buyer:
- what neutral feedback means on Bricklink
- what it means to you and the future of your business
- how they can change or remove their feedback (provide this link: https://www.bricklink.com/feedbackDel.asp)
- that you provided good service, in accordance with everything they wanted
In my experience, this is usually enough to change their mind. I just saw my
buyer changed their feedback. Hope yours will do the same!
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 11:03 | | Subject: | Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
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| In Selling, patpendlego writes:
| | In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Inspired by an incorrect comment yesterday in the EU distance selling call that
shipping costs don't include VAT, I went to check a VAT invoice of my orders
to the UK and yep, I noticed that VAT was only calculated over the item total
and not the shipping costs. This is not right, VAT needs to be calculated over
the grand total. I wonder, could this be the reason for some situations where
people need to pay VAT twice? I don't know what invoices (if any) get attached
when importing into the EU, but if the ex.VAT price of the grand total does not
match with the VAT percentage charged, it is logical that authorities will not
accept it.
I don't know precisely for which countries shipping costs have VAT (I checked
UK, seems yes), but even if there would be a country that doesn't, it would
still be incorrect because S&H charges include handling which is always subject
to VAT. (And sometimes the postage costs are visible on the label, and if that
doesn't match the shipping cost in the invoice, for which no VAT was charged,
that's going to raise some eyebrows)
Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)
|
In The NL the VAT % charged on shipping, handling, etc. must be the same as the
VAT % charged on the goods shipped. So, if seller must charge 21% VAT on the
goods, s/he also must charge 21% on the shipping. If the seller sells margin
goods (which cannot be charged VAT) there is also no VAT on the shipping.
If there is a mix of VAT % on the goods, then the highest % must be charged on
the shipping.
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Yikes, I read on a British site that they calculate VAT on shipping proportionally
to the rates of the products, rather than assuming the highest percentage. Good
luck implementing that too.. this VAT stuff is a neverending head ache for Bricklink
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 09:52 | | Subject: | Re: EU distance selling - Online session | | Viewed: | 58 times | | Topic: | Administrative | |
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| In Administrative, TBS writes:
| | | | Is this because when one reaches the 10K (?) treshold, one is regarded a 'business'
with different tax regulations?
|
Not really, becasue you are a business to begin with.
Thing here is: If your company gone over the 10K treshold on sales from EU to
EU,
you are obliged to register for OSS and redo all your invoices and tax-reports,
because you must pay the specific country VAT-Rate then to that specific country.
As far as i know, that OSS-System is doing this combined, so you don´t have to
register and file your reports anymore and payments in each 1 of 29 EU States
yourself like before.
But you have to redo it anyway. And then are obliged for it the next years.
|
Germany has more strict rules maybe? I read in a Dutch explanation that you need
to apply the local VAT rate from the first invoice in which you exceed 10K for
that fiscal year. So nothing needs to be revised.
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 09:43 | | Subject: | Re: EU distance selling - Online session | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Administrative | |
|
| In Administrative, TBS writes:
| | In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:
| | Dear all,
The webinar reg. EU Distance selling took place today. First of all thank you
to every one who participated and shared very valuable input, questions, etc.
Please find the link to the meeting recording here:
https://bricklink.s3.amazonaws.com/EU+Distance+selling-20220107.mp4
Have a great weekend!
| | The BrickLink Marketplace team
|
|
Hi Tanya and Team,
thank you. It was a most important meeting.
Please continue to adress such upcoming changes in future, and maybe even ahead
of its time.
So as a conclusion, it just confirmed my opinion of not joining the IOSS-Crew.
The fact that the VAT is calculated "Crude or incorrectly" was a big letdown
for me.
However i can understand you went for this route because the bricklink system
itself is unable to handle NET prices on such a level.
So if you could have added the countryspecific VAT-Rate on top of our Netprices,
it could have been handled, but i won´t let me deduct some 5% to 27% from my
German Total/Gross pricing, and that even on handling and shipping.
I am sorry. Thanks, but no thanks.
Which leaves us in an even tighter spot.
Dear buyer from the European Union reading this.
Don´t hesitate on getting your parts needed, there is just a narrow timeframe.
Some time in spring to summer i (we as other sellers) might not be allowed to
deliver your items within the European Union anymore then, because the threshold
is reached.
That means for you, further orders are only possible from January 2023 then,
or as a registered business with an confirmed VAT-ID (B2B-Sale).
Sorry for this, but my friends from the EU - if you need something, Hurry up.
For all other buyers - Exports outside the EU are not affected by this, and maybe
the only business left alongside domestic sales after spring/summer.
Have a nice weekend
Tom
|
Hi Tom, while I agree with you the implementation is fundamentally incorrect
(violates price discrimination law plus is annoying for bookkeeping), to take
a pragmatic angle: Is it really that big a problem that it is worth giving up
a portion of your sales?
As for the price discrimination part, I don't expect we can get into trouble
as individual sellers since we don't have an option to change it. And in
case you happen to be a seller who calculates the cost of good sold based on
the turnover: You could always take the inc.VAT price of the annual sales, deduct
VAT as if they were all German customers, and from that hypothetic 'ex.VAT'
amount calculate cost of goods sold.
And if it's because you apply margin VAT, contact the helpdesk: They're
still figuring this out and maybe they can help you.
The call gave me confidence that the reason Bricklink is not improving this is
completely because of the limited resources, and that Bricklink understands full
well that this is is a poor patch that needs to be revised eventually. So there's
no real reason to stop selling out of protest, either.
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 09:17 | | Subject: | Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| You have completely misunderstood my post. There is a problem with people having
to pay double VAT. I have identified a mistake in the way Bricklink makes invoices.
The numbers are incorrect, in plain sight for the customs or other authorities
when they look at the package.
The only illogical thing here is arguing to keep the mistake in the invoice,
because you would like there to be no VAT in the shipping costs. VAT is paid
on shipping whether you want to or not, it has always been that way, nothing
changed. And most sellers have made the setting to enable VAT on shipping costs
already, so for their invoices nothing changes if Bricklink corrects the mistake.
Btw, it's your goverment in this case But your government's policy
makes sense, otherwise there's a loophole where you can evade tax easily
by branding it 'shipping costs'.
In Selling, tjb01527 writes:
| | I did read it that way. Perhaps an email to his government rep would be more
helpful rather than moaning about BL. It is totally illogical to me as to why
postage should be taxed with VAT. All it does is hurt the small seller. Let’s
face it, whilst taxes are the law and needed, there is only so much you can afford
before it breaks the camels back. It just seems that governments are getting
too greedy. When I buy on BL, I ask the seller to put the VAT invoice on the
package. Maybe I have been lucky, but I have never had any problem. I do the
same for my buyers. On EBay, I use their IOSS and again have had no problems
In Selling, yorbrick writes:
| | In Selling, tjb01527 writes:
| | Perhaps it's just me, but this is this a begging letter to pay more taxes.
I do not agree that you should pay VAT on shipping. Since the UK has left the
EU, it has become very expensive to buy from the EU due to the addition of VAT.
I know from sales that buyers from the EU feel the same judging from a drop in
sales. Now we have someone complaining that we are not paying enough VAT. One
way to help kill sales. Thanks!!
|
I didn't read it that way. VAT should be collected on shipping when importing.
It's the law, not a choice. If BL store settings are allowing orders to go
through without properly collecting the full VAT it is right for him to point
this out, as otherwise the buyer is caught with the problem of thinking they
have paid the correct VAT when in reality they haven't. And then they get
the issue of the extra VAT to pay and the Royal Mail processing costs, which
are likely to be way above the VAT difference that is still due.
| |
In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Inspired by an incorrect comment yesterday in the EU distance selling call that
shipping costs don't include VAT, I went to check a VAT invoice of my orders
to the UK and yep, I noticed that VAT was only calculated over the item total
and not the shipping costs. This is not right, VAT needs to be calculated over
the grand total. I wonder, could this be the reason for some situations where
people need to pay VAT twice? I don't know what invoices (if any) get attached
when importing into the EU, but if the ex.VAT price of the grand total does not
match with the VAT percentage charged, it is logical that authorities will not
accept it.
I don't know precisely for which countries shipping costs have VAT (I checked
UK, seems yes), but even if there would be a country that doesn't, it would
still be incorrect because S&H charges include handling which is always subject
to VAT. (And sometimes the postage costs are visible on the label, and if that
doesn't match the shipping cost in the invoice, for which no VAT was charged,
that's going to raise some eyebrows)
Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 06:29 | | Subject: | Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| This is besides the point.. I am not a politician There is VAT on shipping,
it's a reality whether you agree to it or not. This is just about whether
or not Bricklink accurately reflects reality. It's just a shot at figuring
out what causes some buyers to have to pay VAT twice on import - so it's
actually precisely about not paying too much.
In Selling, tjb01527 writes:
| | Perhaps it's just me, but this is this a begging letter to pay more taxes.
I do not agree that you should pay VAT on shipping. Since the UK has left the
EU, it has become very expensive to buy from the EU due to the addition of VAT.
I know from sales that buyers from the EU feel the same judging from a drop in
sales. Now we have someone complaining that we are not paying enough VAT. One
way to help kill sales. Thanks!!
In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Inspired by an incorrect comment yesterday in the EU distance selling call that
shipping costs don't include VAT, I went to check a VAT invoice of my orders
to the UK and yep, I noticed that VAT was only calculated over the item total
and not the shipping costs. This is not right, VAT needs to be calculated over
the grand total. I wonder, could this be the reason for some situations where
people need to pay VAT twice? I don't know what invoices (if any) get attached
when importing into the EU, but if the ex.VAT price of the grand total does not
match with the VAT percentage charged, it is logical that authorities will not
accept it.
I don't know precisely for which countries shipping costs have VAT (I checked
UK, seems yes), but even if there would be a country that doesn't, it would
still be incorrect because S&H charges include handling which is always subject
to VAT. (And sometimes the postage costs are visible on the label, and if that
doesn't match the shipping cost in the invoice, for which no VAT was charged,
that's going to raise some eyebrows)
Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)
|
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 05:57 | | Subject: | Re: EU distance selling - Online session | | Viewed: | 64 times | | Topic: | Administrative | |
|
| Thank you for yesterday! I really appreciate this initiative. Nice to see transparency
and honesty and feel like our input is taken seriously. Will definitely attend
again if there will be more sessions in the future!
In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:
| | Dear all,
The webinar reg. EU Distance selling took place today. First of all thank you
to every one who participated and shared very valuable input, questions, etc.
As promised below is a link to the recording of the meeting, what you are not
able to see in the recording are all the comments and questions, and there were
a lot! we will be taking some time to group the input and the questions and share
our responses to these with all of you.
Please find the link to the meeting recording here:
https://bricklink.s3.amazonaws.com/EU+Distance+selling-20220107.mp4
Have a great weekend!
In Administrative, CE_Tanja writes:
| | Dear BrickLink member,
We have recently launched a new feature enabling EU distance selling on the BrickLink
site. Because we have had a number of questions and concerns expressed from some
of you, we are setting up an online sessions to take you through the new guidelines
in more detail as well as addressing your concerns. The online session will take
place this Friday at 9-10 am PST
During the meeting you will have the option to write additional questions in
the session chat and have them answered directly in the session to the best of
our ability.
In order to participate in the session you will need to sign up, in order to
sign up, please write to CE_Tanja and share the email you would like to participate
with and we will invite you to the session. The deadline for signing up is Thursday
1/6 at 9 am PST.
There is a limit of 350 participants. Participation will be on a first come first
serve basis. We will be recording the session for those of you that are unable
to participate, this way you will be able to watch the recording afterwards.
Kind regards,
The BrickLink Marketplace team
|
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| Author: | Teup | | Posted: | Jan 8, 2022 05:40 | | Subject: | Re: Bricklink calculates VAT incorrectly | | Viewed: | 48 times | | Topic: | Selling | |
|
| In Selling, gvbricks writes:
| | On our UK VAT invoices provided by BrickLink UK VAT is always calculated on the
total net price (items + shipping + additional costs). Unlike you we have VAT
enabled on everything in the store settings.
In Selling, Teup writes:
| | Or is this just in my store, because I haven't switched on VAT on shipping
costs? (I don't use Bricklink to calculate my VAT, I just entered the correct
shipping prices the way they should be, so I didn't need this feature)
|
|
Ok, then yes, it's this feature that is causing it. It was a useful practical
option for me because it automatically increases outside EU shipping rates without
me having to enter a separate table, but if it results in incorrect VAT invoices
it should be ignored or removed. The seller shouldn't be choosing whether
or not to include VAT on shipping, the importing country should (and then still
there is always VAT on the handling component).
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