over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
Besides the question about who keeps the funds, Bricklink isn't 1 store but
contains thousands of stores which all would need to accept the card.
You can send money to anyone as gift by PayPal to spend in Bricklink.
A fundamentally good idea, contingent to the obvious questions surrounding funding.
Otherwise, you make a good case for what seems to be a win-win suggestion.
With the added proviso that it be noncompulsory for the individual seller. Something
a vendor might elect to join (perhaps in an effort to booster sales) and not
require initial proactive disengage from. In other words, not launched as default
member-participation, as can occur here
-popsicle
In Suggestions, tdajos writes:
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
A fundamentally good idea, contingent to the obvious questions surrounding funding.
Otherwise, you make a good case for what seems to be a win-win suggestion.
With the added proviso that it be noncompulsory for the individual seller. Something
a vendor might elect to join (perhaps in an effort to booster sales) and not
require initial proactive disengage from. In other words, not launched as default
member-participation, as can occur here
If BL took over managing payments - or introduced it as an option - that would
be one way of enabling this.
A fundamentally good idea, contingent to the obvious questions surrounding funding.
Otherwise, you make a good case for what seems to be a win-win suggestion.
With the added proviso that it be noncompulsory for the individual seller. Something
a vendor might elect to join (perhaps in an effort to booster sales) and not
require initial proactive disengage from. In other words, not launched as default
member-participation, as can occur here
If BL took over managing payments - or introduced it as an option - that would
be one way of enabling this.
Yes, that's one way. Though that route would come with it's own set of
concerns, as it did with eBay's implementation. Less so if, as you say, it's
implemented as an option, or is offered.
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
Give cash. It can then be spent on LEGO here, there, and anywhere or something
else they want.
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
I think there are plenty of prepaid credit/ debit gift card options all ready
out there.
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
I think there are plenty of prepaid credit/ debit gift card options all ready
out there.
I think some are missing the point here. Gift Cards are foremost a marketing
tool. A method to increase exposure (advertise) while increasing locked in revenue
flow to a marketplace and by extension, it's vendors. Among other larger
motivations. It’s primary purpose is not convenience of payment to the consumer.
I think some are missing the point here. Gift Cards are foremost a marketing
tool. A method to increase exposure (advertise) while increasing locked in revenue
flow to a marketplace and by extension, it's vendors. Among other larger
motivations. It’s primary purpose is not convenience of payment to the consumer.
Exactly! There's a lot about this that could be useful to Bricklink and sellers,
while having a side effect of convenience for some consumers. It's easy to
see how it might generate a small but worthwhile increase in buyer traffic here.
As dcarmine has just pointed out a significant proportion of gift cards are never
redeemed, making card schemes profitable for the operators. Potentially this
could fund the costs of the scheme itself, allowing BL to offer fee-free payments
(BL transaction fees would presumably still apply) - this alone could provide
enough incentive for a lot of sellers to accept payment through them.
We regularly see posts (perhaps more on Reddit?) from potential customers who
don't have PayPal accounts and want to use other payment methods, which works
for some sellers but not others. A Bricklink/TLG-backed "gift card" payment scheme
could circumvent a lot of these issues without the trust problems of bank transfers
or Stripe's current fraud trend.
Of course there's also a lot to consider around eg refunds, the lack of PayPal
buyer/seller protection) and probably a hundred other things. It's by no
means an obvious trouble-free win.
Who knows though, in a more integrated future, TLG could always potentially extend
Lego gift cards to be valid payment for Bricklink sales...
I think some are missing the point here. Gift Cards are foremost a marketing
tool. A method to increase exposure (advertise) while increasing locked in revenue
flow to a marketplace and by extension, it's vendors. Among other larger
motivations. It’s primary purpose is not convenience of payment to the consumer.
Exactly! There's a lot about this that could be useful to Bricklink and sellers,
while having a side effect of convenience for some consumers. It's easy to
see how it might generate a small but worthwhile increase in buyer traffic here.
As dcarmine has just pointed out a significant proportion of gift cards are never
redeemed, making card schemes profitable for the operators. Potentially this
could fund the costs of the scheme itself, allowing BL to offer fee-free payments
(BL transaction fees would presumably still apply) - this alone could provide
enough incentive for a lot of sellers to accept payment through them.
We regularly see posts (perhaps more on Reddit?) from potential customers who
don't have PayPal accounts and want to use other payment methods, which works
for some sellers but not others. A Bricklink/TLG-backed "gift card" payment scheme
could circumvent a lot of these issues without the trust problems of bank transfers
or Stripe's current fraud trend.
Of course there's also a lot to consider around eg refunds, the lack of PayPal
buyer/seller protection) and probably a hundred other things. It's by no
means an obvious trouble-free win.
Who knows though, in a more integrated future, TLG could always potentially extend
Lego gift cards to be valid payment for Bricklink sales...
+1
All good thinking.
A partnership of LEGO/BrickLink and Paypal could make this work. If Lego/BrickLink
was the merchant who accepted the funds on behalf of Paypal and the funds resided
with Paypal, then Paypal could simply issue the money to the appropriate seller
at the time of purchase. Thus, it would be a Paypal transaction eligible for
Paypal's Seller Protection.
It would likely have to be restricted to those sellers who use Instant Checkout,
but perhaps not (I would hope NOT as a non-IC seller).
Imagine the increased exposure of BrickLink to the whole Lego buying public if
a BrickLink branded Gift Card were available at all Lego brand retail stores
and maybe even the Legoland Parks. And online at Lego Shop At Home. And someday,
available everywhere that gift cards are sold. This could be a huge increase
in BL sales and revenue, both for Lego/BrickLink and individual BL shops.
I think some are missing the point here. Gift Cards are foremost a marketing
tool. A method to increase exposure (advertise) while increasing locked in revenue
flow to a marketplace and by extension, it's vendors. Among other larger
motivations. It’s primary purpose is not convenience of payment to the consumer.
Exactly! There's a lot about this that could be useful to Bricklink and sellers,
while having a side effect of convenience for some consumers. It's easy to
see how it might generate a small but worthwhile increase in buyer traffic here.
As dcarmine has just pointed out a significant proportion of gift cards are never
redeemed, making card schemes profitable for the operators. Potentially this
could fund the costs of the scheme itself, allowing BL to offer fee-free payments
(BL transaction fees would presumably still apply) - this alone could provide
enough incentive for a lot of sellers to accept payment through them.
We regularly see posts (perhaps more on Reddit?) from potential customers who
don't have PayPal accounts and want to use other payment methods, which works
for some sellers but not others. A Bricklink/TLG-backed "gift card" payment scheme
could circumvent a lot of these issues without the trust problems of bank transfers
or Stripe's current fraud trend.
Of course there's also a lot to consider around eg refunds, the lack of PayPal
buyer/seller protection) and probably a hundred other things. It's by no
means an obvious trouble-free win.
Who knows though, in a more integrated future, TLG could always potentially extend
Lego gift cards to be valid payment for Bricklink sales...
+1
All good thinking.
A partnership of LEGO/BrickLink and Paypal could make this work. If Lego/BrickLink
was the merchant who accepted the funds on behalf of Paypal and the funds resided
with Paypal, then Paypal could simply issue the money to the appropriate seller
at the time of purchase. Thus, it would be a Paypal transaction eligible for
Paypal's Seller Protection.
It would likely have to be restricted to those sellers who use Instant Checkout,
but perhaps not (I would hope NOT as a non-IC seller).
Imagine the increased exposure of BrickLink to the whole Lego buying public if
a BrickLink branded Gift Card were available at all Lego brand retail stores
and maybe even the Legoland Parks. And online at Lego Shop At Home. And someday,
available everywhere that gift cards are sold. This could be a huge increase
in BL sales and revenue, both for Lego/BrickLink and individual BL shops.
[…]
Who knows though, in a more integrated future, TLG could always potentially extend
Lego gift cards to be valid payment for Bricklink sales...
AFAICT¹, LEGO gift cards only work in:
1. USA and Canada,
2. Denmark,
3. UK,
4. Germany.
And each limited to their country (or region for US+CA).
If TLG can’t make them work in all of their own shops, how can they make them
work on BL?
———
¹ On the shop’s main page, in the dark violet footpage, on the left, there’s,
top to bottom:
0. the LEGO logo,
1. the Change region button,
2. the Gift Cards link,
3. the link to catalogues.
If you check all the regions/languages, all have 1., most have 3., just the four
listed above have 2.
If TLG can’t make them work in all of their own shops, how can they make them
work on BL?
I don't know why TLG don't make them work in all of their own
shops, but I don't necessarily conclude that they can't. There
are quite a number of potential reasons, all of which could be wrong! If I had
to guess I would suspect it's most likely to be either internal accounting
or cross-border taxation, the latter being a somewhat solved problem for Bricklink
as a marketplace.
In any event, that was a throwaway hypothetical aside to my overall comment.
If TLG can’t make them work in all of their own shops, how can they make them
work on BL?
I don't know why TLG don't make them work in all of their own
shops, but I don't necessarily conclude that they can't.
Indeed, I said “TLG can’t” and I might as well have said “TLG doesn’t want to,” but,
as you say, what I should have said and what is important here is that “TLG doesn’t.”
But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t see how or why TLG would extend
to thousands of tiny BL sellers what it doesn’t do for its own few dozen big
shops.
There
are quite a number of potential reasons, all of which could be wrong! If I had
to guess I would suspect it's most likely to be either internal accounting
or cross-border taxation, the latter being a somewhat solved problem for Bricklink
as a marketplace.
That only could explain why LEGO’s gift cards can only be used in the country
where they were bought (except for US+CA where they can be used in both US and
CA).
That does not explain why there’s no gift cards programs in France, Italy, Japan….
I also don’t see how this cross-border thing is “somewhat solved” for BL. What
is “solved” for BL is the taxing buyers for buying (sales tax) or importing (UK
& EU VAT) goods. That has nothing to do with international financiary
transactions and services (which is what international gift cards would be).
If there’s something there (with international financiary transactions and services),
then:
1. that could indeed be what is limiting TLG from offering international gift
cards,
2. but that still does not explain the EU thing because money and people are
supposed to flow freely inside EU’s borders,
3. more importantly, that would also apply to BL, or, more exactly, to BL sellers.
Whatever the reason, LEGO gift cards are only available in a few countries and
can only be used in one country. That would be the same if they were redeemable
on BL: they would only work in BL stores in the country where they were bought.
Or they could even be only redeemable in US+CA as BL is in California.
In any event, that was a throwaway hypothetical aside to my overall comment.
Sure. I answered your message because it was the latest to mention using LEGO
gift cards on BL. An idea / wish that I thought would be worth digging into
a bit in this thread, especially as it also had been made a few times already
on this forum and that’s often answered with a terse “BL is many sellers.”
I think some are missing the point here. Gift Cards are foremost a marketing
tool. A method to increase exposure (advertise) while increasing locked in revenue
flow to a marketplace and by extension, it's vendors. Among other larger
motivations. It’s primary purpose is not convenience of payment to the consumer.
Exactly! There's a lot about this that could be useful to Bricklink and sellers,
while having a side effect of convenience for some consumers. It's easy to
see how it might generate a small but worthwhile increase in buyer traffic here.
As dcarmine has just pointed out a significant proportion of gift cards are never
redeemed, making card schemes profitable for the operators. Potentially this
could fund the costs of the scheme itself, allowing BL to offer fee-free payments
(BL transaction fees would presumably still apply) - this alone could provide
enough incentive for a lot of sellers to accept payment through them.
We regularly see posts (perhaps more on Reddit?) from potential customers who
don't have PayPal accounts and want to use other payment methods, which works
for some sellers but not others. A Bricklink/TLG-backed "gift card" payment scheme
could circumvent a lot of these issues without the trust problems of bank transfers
or Stripe's current fraud trend.
Of course there's also a lot to consider around eg refunds, the lack of PayPal
buyer/seller protection) and probably a hundred other things. It's by no
means an obvious trouble-free win.
Who knows though, in a more integrated future, TLG could always potentially extend
Lego gift cards to be valid payment for Bricklink sales...
over the last several years, my wife would ask me something like "what do you
want?" my response more than often would be, "let me show you my wanted list..."
which would end up getting to be too complicated to answer the question
recently i found that my nephews are really into LEGO as i was/am
what i would like to give them is a bricklink gift card that would be valid over
all the stores, not just the individual store offering it. the reason for this
over a LEGO gift card is that there would be a part, minifig, set ect that is
discontinued but still available in bricklink (do you know how many unitron,
clasic castle of blacktron 1 minifigs i gave away? thats not counting the projectile
parts)
it could work just like amazon giftcards being assigned to an email and login
to recieve
i would like to give the gift that keeps on building
I think there are plenty of prepaid credit/ debit gift card options all ready
out there.
Which is absolutely a true statement, and a +1. The real subject here, without
trying to drag this off-topic, is how to reward buyers for shopping on BL, and
to encourage them to spend more on BL. It is referred to in the industry as building
a moat, to keep your competitors away. TLG is using VIP points to make that
work. Not everyone who bought a Titanic or AT-AT paid full price. Some of them
cashed in VIP points.
Would that work here ? I don't know, but it's food for thought.
A bit off topic, but maybe informative for someone. About 20% of all gift cards
are never redeemed.
That number is skewed somewhat with intentionally restrictive redemption clauses
using among other deplorable methods, unreasonably short expiration dates.
But yeah, good point. What I tried to publicly sidestep with "larger motivations"
and going to "questions surrounding funding" where the funds might be held
Though I do wonder if issued, what BrickLink's numbers might be? Analogous
to LEGO's? Higher, lower?
A bit off topic, but maybe informative for someone. About 20% of all gift cards
are never redeemed.
That number is skewed somewhat with intentionally restrictive redemption clauses
using among other deplorable methods, unreasonably short expiration dates.
Short expiration dates are no longer legal. In fact, "a gift card cannot expire
until at least five years from the date it was activated" is what the law says.
But yeah, good point. What I tried to publicly sidestep with "larger motivations"
and going to "questions surrounding funding" where the funds might be held
Though I do wonder if issued, what BrickLink's numbers might be? Analogous
to LEGO's? Higher, lower?
A bit off topic, but maybe informative for someone. About 20% of all gift cards
are never redeemed.
That number is skewed somewhat with intentionally restrictive redemption clauses
using among other deplorable methods, unreasonably short expiration dates.
Short expiration dates are no longer legal. In fact, "a gift card cannot expire
until at least five years from the date it was activated" is what the law says.
I assume it's the 2010 FTC rules that you are quoting? To be clear, you’re
referring to Federal Trade Commission rules, not laws. There are more impediments,
or games played by some, beyond expiration dates that skew the numbers.
In any case and staying with your line of thinking, the OP's subject is "bricklink
global gift cards" which rules would a global BrickLink need to adhere to then,
not FTC?
An earnest question, not challenging your input, Donna.
But yeah, good point. What I tried to publicly sidestep with "larger motivations"
and going to "questions surrounding funding" where the funds might be held
Though I do wonder if issued, what BrickLink's numbers might be? Analogous
to LEGO's? Higher, lower?
USA, Michigan
Netherlands, Gelderland
United Kingdom, England
France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
