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| | | Author: | Hal8472  | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 10:37 | | Subject: | How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 208 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| What is the process you use when deciding to place an order? I have been talking
to a few people and I am learning that people do quite different things.
For example, my process.
The last few purchases of mine were in relation to a Rebrickable MOC I was interested
in.
1. From the MOC I created a specific Bricklink wanted list.
2. Before I left the MOC I took note of the pieces which were going to cost
me a significant amount. Specifically using the Rebrickable sort inventory by
value and by quantity. This gave me about 5 key pieces I needed to get a good
price on.
3. Now in Bricklink I checked out the Easybuy. An absolutely great feature.
Do you use it? I didn't, but took note of the sellers identified, as my
understanding of the algorithm is that the first seller can fulfil most of my
needs.
4. Individual research on the key items identified in step 2. Specifically looking
for sellers who have a low price on that key item. Also check the first and
second hit on easybuy.
4b. In evaluating each seller in #4 then comparing how much of the specific
MOC wanted list they could fill. Also looked at if they have items on my default
wanted list as there is always general stuff I am looking for. Shipping cost
taken into account. Throw this into a basket.
4c. I compare several sellers over the order as a whole. Place the first order.
5. Return to Bricklink MOC wanted list. Remove the items ordered from the overall
total.
6. Loop back into step 3, with a now reduced wanted list. Usually able to get
everything needed in 5 orders for a large set.
A couple of interesting things I noticed come from this.
- First, while I am very price sensitive on a few key items, I wasn't on
the bulk of the items. As it's on a wanted list, I can display average price.
But I am willing to pay above average for a small quantity of an item I can
tie into an existing order.
- Second. I wish I understood the easybuy more. Separate question.
- Third. In doing this process I noticed a significant price difference, and
changed the MOC secondary color for a large savings.
So, I am curious if you do things similarly or different, and whether it works
for you.
Thanks
Andrew
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| | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 10:47 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 43 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, Hal8472 writes:
| | […] A couple of interesting things I noticed come from this.
- First, while I am very price sensitive on a few key items, I wasn't on
the bulk of the items. As it's on a wanted list, I can display average price.
But I am willing to pay above average for a small quantity of an item I can
tie into an existing order.
- Second. I wish I understood the easybuy more. Separate question.
- Third. In doing this process I noticed a significant price difference, and
changed the MOC secondary color for a large savings.
So, I am curious if you do things similarly or different, and whether it works
for you.
Thanks
Andrew
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That's pretty much how it's done. Shop for deals for the most expensive
items, let Easy Buy/Auto-Select take care of the rest… No point in trying to
save a few cents on common parts if it's going to cost you an extra few dollars
in shipping. No one really understands how the algorithm works, as long as it
does work. And yes, color can make a huge difference. It depends on the part,
but in my experience, black and light bluish gray tend to be the cheapest colors.
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| | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:03 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 47 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, wildchicken13 writes:
| | In Buying, Hal8472 writes:
| | […] A couple of interesting things I noticed come from this.
- First, while I am very price sensitive on a few key items, I wasn't on
the bulk of the items. As it's on a wanted list, I can display average price.
But I am willing to pay above average for a small quantity of an item I can
tie into an existing order.
- Second. I wish I understood the easybuy more. Separate question.
- Third. In doing this process I noticed a significant price difference, and
changed the MOC secondary color for a large savings.
So, I am curious if you do things similarly or different, and whether it works
for you.
Thanks
Andrew
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That's pretty much how it's done. Shop for deals for the most expensive
items, let Easy Buy/Auto-Select take care of the rest… No point in trying to
save a few cents on common parts if it's going to cost you an extra few dollars
in shipping. No one really understands how the algorithm works, as long as it
does work. And yes, color can make a huge difference. It depends on the part,
but in my experience, black and light bluish gray tend to be the cheapest colors.
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Use Studio to check for the high prices (for instance use menu Model | Model
info, click on the header of the price column to sort them).
You can test-change the colours directly without having to export/import elsewhere.
You can also check the prices in the viewport (select parts, the price
is shown in the status bar after a few seconds (if all the parts have a price))
or in the colour palette (one part only, check the box at the bottom of the colour
dropdown).
Also check the different variants, some are more expensive than others.
Then, once in BL, use Auto-select and the Buy page, not EasyBuy: there’s more
filters and more options and you can select stores manually (without having to
go back and forth).
(Yes, I know I don’t have hundreds of transactions (49) but maybe that’s because
I manage to reduce the number of stores I buy from 
Well, that and I can wait a long time before having a big enough WL to buy 
)
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| | | | | Author: | jennnifer | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 10:50 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, Hal8472 writes:
| |
A couple of interesting things I noticed come from this.
- First, while I am very price sensitive on a few key items, I wasn't on
the bulk of the items. As it's on a wanted list, I can display average price.
But I am willing to pay above average for a small quantity of an item I can
tie into an existing order.
- Second. I wish I understood the easybuy more. Separate question.
- Third. In doing this process I noticed a significant price difference, and
changed the MOC secondary color for a large savings.
So, I am curious if you do things similarly or different, and whether it works
for you.
Thanks
Andrew
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Wow! That's a very detailed and accurate description of how to shop for a
large list of parts from BL.
A couple things: no one understands Easy Buy because they never published the
algorithm they built into it.
I had better success on a recent project using the Classic Wanted List By Shop
feature. It's not as pretty, but I found better overall prices there.
Jen
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| | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:09 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 44 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, jennnifer writes:
| | […]
I had better success on a recent project using the Classic Wanted List By Shop
feature. It's not as pretty, but I found better overall prices there.
Jen
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Use the Buy page https://www.bricklink.com/v2/wanted/buy.page , you’ll have the
same results as with the old By Shop plus the prettiness and lots of options
(like searching for multiple WLs together, picking items in different WLs, visual
aids…).
Use the Wanted Items tab ((2) on the first pic here: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2445
). Your parts will be shown on the left and you’ll easily see which parts a
store has by clicking on the store’s line (but not on its name!).
Try and explore. There’s lots of goodies on that page that are not in the help
pages.
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | Hal8472 | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:14 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 31 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| Thanks. That's quite neat and I hadn't found it before.
Andrew
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| | | | | | | | | Author: | jennnifer | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:16 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Buying, jennnifer writes:
| | […]
I had better success on a recent project using the Classic Wanted List By Shop
feature. It's not as pretty, but I found better overall prices there.
Jen
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Use the Buy page https://www.bricklink.com/v2/wanted/buy.page , you’ll have the
same results as with the old By Shop plus the prettiness and lots of options
(like searching for multiple WLs together, picking items in different WLs, visual
aids…).
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I did test both and didn't get the same results. Maybe I missed a setting
somewhere. Also, the newer version let me fill a cart from a shop I was banned
from, so, I didn't like that very much either.
Jen
| | Use the Wanted Items tab ((2) on the first pic here: https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2445
). Your parts will be shown on the left and you’ll easily see which parts a
store has by clicking on the store’s line (but not on its name!).
Try and explore. There’s lots of goodies on that page that are not in the help
pages.
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| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:32 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, jennnifer writes:
| | […]
I did test both and didn't get the same results. Maybe I missed a setting
somewhere.
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Or maybe it’s me who didn’t catch a difference
Though, they both just list the stores that have some of the parts you want.
If the filters are the same, the results should be the same. (“Should,” the
most used word in software engineering )
| | Also, the newer version let me fill a cart from a shop I was banned
from, so, I didn't like that very much either.
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Yeah, that’s indeed a problem. (Though, fortunately for me, the stores that
banned me are stores that have near 0% chances appearing in my selections.)
The only solution is to stoplist them too… but that’s no fun as, with a seller
account, you only know it when you try to checkout 
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | jennnifer | | Posted: | Mar 14, 2022 11:42 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 65 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, SylvainLS writes:
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Though, they both just list the stores that have some of the parts you want.
If the filters are the same, the results should be the same. (“Should,” the
most used word in software engineering )
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It would be SO great if we had an open-source look at the three different shopping
tools. I don't see why that info shouldn't be shared with us!
Jen
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | qwertyboy | | Posted: | Mar 15, 2022 12:21 | | Subject: | Re: How do you buy? | | Viewed: | 63 times | | Topic: | Buying | |
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| In Buying, jennnifer writes:
| | It would be SO great if we had an open-source look at the three different shopping
tools. I don't see why that info shouldn't be shared with us!
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Aside from the obvious reason "we don't divulge any inner workings" -
Finding the optimal solution to satisfying a wanted list for the lowest price
is a "hard" problem (where "hard" is a mathematical term). It might be an NP-complete
class of problem, which would mean there is currently no known way to reach a
solution for every wanted-list / set-of-shop-inventories in a reasonable time.
Users won't like it if they have to wait a minute for a possible buying suggestion
(let alone an hour for an optimal solution) so shortcuts are needed to present
_any_ suggestion quickly. The exact details of these shortcuts make up the elusive
algorithm. Publishing them would give shops tools to maximize chances of showing
up in a result, so it would tilt the playing field in favor of those with the
right math/programming skills, pushing out the mom-and-pop shops even more.
Logically, it would make sense for an algorithm to first check stores with a
bajillion lots (as chances to order multiple lots would be higher), or shops
with a massive amount of parts (to try and match large-lot-requests). From an
easy-programming-perspective however, it might be simpler to just start at the
top of the list, find a shop that has it, see if that shop has more lots matching
the wanted list, and continue to the next wanted list item. This will very likely
not result in a cheap solution, but it will guarantee a quick-and-easy suggestion
to the buyer. A mix of both strategies (maybe check for high-part-count-lots
first etc) might yield a better solution in a slightly longer time. The more
"intelligent" you want the algorithm to be, the more time it will take to cough
up a result (let alone possible new bugs that will prevent _any_ sensible result).
TL/DR - a near-perfect and quick solution is unlikely to exist, details of the
current implementation are unlikely to ever be divulged.
Niek.
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USA, Illinois
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