|
 |
| | | Author: | musen2100  | | Posted: | Jun 6, 2023 16:37 | | Subject: | Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 149 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
|
| | | | | |
| | | | | Author: | macebobo | | Posted: | Jun 6, 2023 17:02 | | Subject: | (Cancelled) | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | (Cancelled) |
|
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Author: | musen2100 | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 02:36 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 41 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, macebobo writes:
| | In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
Logically, why would there be? Bricklink makes up to 3% on sales, therefore,
they have no incentive to make it more efficient at finding lower prices. So,
what is more important to you time or money, either way you have options.
|
Unfortunately that makes sense...
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 03:47 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 40 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | In Wanted, macebobo writes:
| | In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
Logically, why would there be? Bricklink makes up to 3% on sales, therefore,
they have no incentive to make it more efficient at finding lower prices. So,
what is more important to you time or money, either way you have options.
|
Unfortunately that makes sense...
|
It doesn't really, as they want bricklink to be a thriving site and trying
to push higher prices on buyers will not do that. 3% on many transactions is
better than 3% on fewer transactions that are worth just a tiny bit more.
It is also why they have worked on it if only you look at the other options available.
Easy buy is just that. It is optimised to make it as easy as possible in that
it selects as few sellers as possible to make it easy (but not necessarily the
cheapest) for the buyer. Whereas "buy all" gives the buyer more control
over variables that are important to them but is less "easy" because
you have to control those variables.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 04:41 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | […]
It doesn't really, as they want bricklink to be a thriving site and trying
to push higher prices on buyers will not do that. 3% on many transactions is
better than 3% on fewer transactions that are worth just a tiny bit more.
|
Indeed. BrickLink wants more buyers making more purchases and being satisfied
by their purchases and coming back to make other purchases.
Maximizing the fees on one EasyBuy session would be the short-sighted and inefficient
solution.
| | It is also why they have worked on it if only you look at the other options available.
Easy buy is just that. It is optimised to make it as easy as possible in that
it selects as few sellers as possible to make it easy (but not necessarily the
cheapest) for the buyer. Whereas "buy all" gives the buyer more control
over variables that are important to them but is less "easy" because
you have to control those variables.
|
AFAICT, they are looking into the buying process.
I hope they’ll look at the algorithm and that it will get better and more stable.
You really need to be careful with the proposed solution.
I tried Auto-select with about 200 lots. I had around 20 lots that I wanted
less (only 1 or 2 parts each, somewhat rare or expensive parts). Using Auto-select
on the first 180 lots gave me a €500 solution. Adding the 20 lots to the search
made the total €430.
Yes, cheaper with more parts to buy! Because the 20 rare/expensive lots steered
Auto-select toward other, better stores.
And if I unchecked the “(Exclude) Lots below Wanted qty” filter, it raised to
€600. Because it had more stores available and got lost in a “mountain lake¹.”
And sometimes it’s the opposite: it’s better to search with fewer lots (rare/more
expensive first, or not) and/or more stores.
You can spend weeks looking for a better solution (don’t even try to find the
best)… and the parts will have been sold, re-stocked, and re-priced multiple
times while you’re looking 
———
¹ One classical analogy for these algorithms is to find the lowest spot in a
landscape, often with a marble.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | musen2100 | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 05:13 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 28 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
...
|
I asked because I managed to save over €250 by selecting some stores manually.
Auto-select, proposed about €800 before shipping prices for filling all parts,
however I got it for €550 EUR after shipping by manually selecting some stores.
I know it is an NP-complete problem to find the optimal prices, but I feel like
the algorithm can be improved a lot if I can save that much money.
I could be interested in developing my own algorithm for this. Do you know if
the Bricklink API has a method for requesting all stores that have a specific
part and ship to my country?
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | WoutR | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 13:06 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 32 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | In Wanted, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
...
|
I asked because I managed to save over €250 by selecting some stores manually.
Auto-select, proposed about €800 before shipping prices for filling all parts,
however I got it for €550 EUR after shipping by manually selecting some stores.
I know it is an NP-complete problem to find the optimal prices, but I feel like
the algorithm can be improved a lot if I can save that much money.
I could be interested in developing my own algorithm for this. Do you know if
the Bricklink API has a method for requesting all stores that have a specific
part and ship to my country?
|
We do not know what the sytem is optimised for exactly, but it is NOT looking
for the cheapest option. It makes the buying process easy, not cheap. Other factors,
like estimated time for order completion, are also included.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 05:41 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | | ¹ One classical analogy for these algorithms is to find the lowest spot in a
landscape, often with a marble.
|
Which works great so long as there are no local minima to get stuck in.
I remember about a decade or so ago someone shared a mathcad script for optimising
price. It took hours to optimise a relatively small order, when there were not
as many stores as there are today. I dread to think what would happen these days
for a larger order.
I think most buyers are happy with getting the parts they want at a reasonable
price in a relatively short time, rather than getting the absolute best deal
no matter how much time and risk they need to put into it. Even more so if it
means dealing with sellers you have used before or have a good reputation. The
best seller for an order is not necessarily the cheapest, if it takes them ages
to pick and pack or they send the wrong parts or have missing parts, and so on.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | musen2100 | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 05:49 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 31 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | I think most buyers are happy with getting the parts they want at a reasonable
price in a relatively short time, rather than getting the absolute best deal
no matter how much time and risk they need to put into it. Even more so if it
means dealing with sellers you have used before or have a good reputation. The
best seller for an order is not necessarily the cheapest, if it takes them ages
to pick and pack or they send the wrong parts or have missing parts, and so on.
|
I am not sure about that, I honestly think many buyers would prefer to save €250,
if we use my example. I just think most buyers are not aware that they would
be able to save money.
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 06:19 | | Subject: | (Cancelled) | | Viewed: | 21 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | (Cancelled) |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 06:20 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | I think most buyers are happy with getting the parts they want at a reasonable
price in a relatively short time, rather than getting the absolute best deal
no matter how much time and risk they need to put into it. Even more so if it
means dealing with sellers you have used before or have a good reputation. The
best seller for an order is not necessarily the cheapest, if it takes them ages
to pick and pack or they send the wrong parts or have missing parts, and so on.
|
I am not sure about that, I honestly think many buyers would prefer to save €250,
if we use my example. I just think most buyers are not aware that they would
be able to save money.
|
That's a lot of saving though indicating how the easy buy can be swayed by
sellers that have huge stocks but at high prices and, as you have seen, a large
saving (even if not the optimum) can already be achieved with relatively little
work (either identify the most expensive parts and find the cheapest/cheaper
seller(s) for those, or start splitting the order using the "buy all"
instead of "easy buy" ).
In your case, if you saved €250 but I doubt that was the optimum you could have
saved. Given an extra few hours work you might have saved another €5 (or €10
or €1). I imagine most buyers would go with the quick and easy big saving using
the tools that already exist to input a few extra details compared to the "easy
buy" route but not spend hours extracting the absolute best price that is
possible.
If you are already close to the lowest price by doing a relatively small amount
of work would you be willing to do a lot more work to save an extra €10 or €1?
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 06:35 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 35 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | | | ¹ One classical analogy for these algorithms is to find the lowest spot in a
landscape, often with a marble.
|
Which works great so long as there are no local minima to get stuck in.
|
AKA “mountain lakes.”
But it’s not because you’re not using the analogy that the problem is different
| | I remember about a decade or so ago someone shared a mathcad script for optimising
price. It took hours to optimise a relatively small order, when there were not
as many stores as there are today. I dread to think what would happen these days
for a larger order.
|
Yeah, that’s awfully slow.
So the trick is to reduce the search space (“landscape”).
Which is what BL does.
And then you risk missing the optimals.
Which is what BL does.
| | I think most buyers are happy with getting the parts they want at a reasonable
price in a relatively short time, rather than getting the absolute best deal
no matter how much time and risk they need to put into it. Even more so if it
means dealing with sellers you have used before or have a good reputation. The
best seller for an order is not necessarily the cheapest, if it takes them ages
to pick and pack or they send the wrong parts or have missing parts, and so on.
|
Yes.
Maybe what’s missing is clear caveats:
— It’s “easy,” not “cheapest.”
— It’s “good,” not “cheapest.”
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 06:51 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 30 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | | Yes.
Maybe what’s missing is clear caveats:
— It’s “easy,” not “cheapest.”
— It’s “good,” not “cheapest.”
|
I think a lot of it is down to the presentation of the existing options. "Easy
buy" is on the list of wants lists but "buy all" is not. Putting
both on there, or removing "easy buy" and having one option "buy"
which takes you to a page where you select either "easy buy" or "buy
all" (and where the caveats of each are explained) might highlight the "buy
all" method more clearly.
The ability to combine individual wants lists in a "buy all" search (while
keeping them separate) would be useful too.
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 07:09 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 57 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Yes.
Maybe what’s missing is clear caveats:
— It’s “easy,” not “cheapest.”
— It’s “good,” not “cheapest.”
|
I think a lot of it is down to the presentation of the existing options. "Easy
buy" is on the list of wants lists but "buy all" is not. Putting
both on there, or removing "easy buy" and having one option "buy"
which takes you to a page where you select either "easy buy" or "buy
all" (and where the caveats of each are explained) might highlight the "buy
all" method more clearly.
|
The problem is that EasyBuy will be less easy if it leads to the Buy page and
is next to Auto-select. It’s also not only next to the WLs, it’s on the Gallery,
on each MOC page (well, those that are not Display Only).
It would need an intermediary page / dialog to choose between the processes.
| | The ability to combine individual wants lists in a "buy all" search (while
keeping them separate) would be useful too.
|
 What do you mean? You can already “Buy All” multiple WLs together (without
combining them in a WL). You can even pick lots individually in your WLs.
It seems the problem is, as often, that there’s too many options/ways to arrive
at the same place and not enough information.
But if you add info and choices, it becomes too complicated and intimidating.
Too much information and people stop taking attention.
It’s like roadsigns: there’s fewer accidents if you remove some roadsigns and
the center line on small roads. I think it was tested first in UK  )
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 09:29 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 24 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | | What do you mean? You can already “Buy All” multiple WLs together (without
combining them in a WL). You can even pick lots individually in your WLs.
|
Yes you are right. Strangely, that box containing all the wants lists is not
present when viewing a wants list in my brave browser (but is there in firefox),
so I assumed you had to do them one by one! I thought I had seen it before but
couldn't remember.
Although I tend to pick from my own collection these days rather than needing
to buy. When I need to buy parts, I am still old school (for reasonably short
lists), in that I tend to find the highest priced part and search for the best
deal on that and manually go from there in that store.
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 12:09 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 22 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | | | What do you mean? You can already “Buy All” multiple WLs together (without
combining them in a WL). You can even pick lots individually in your WLs.
|
Yes you are right. Strangely, that box containing all the wants lists is not
present when viewing a wants list in my brave browser (but is there in firefox),
so I assumed you had to do them one by one! I thought I had seen it before but
couldn't remember.
|
And when you come from the “Buy All / Buy X selected” button in a WL, you don’t
see it / don’t know it’s useful.
And the Wanted Items (where you can pick items one by one and see many useful
information) is hidden. (There’s no need for two tabs!)
And let’s not talk about people with 100+ items in their WL who don’t know how
to buy more than 100 items.
| | Although I tend to pick from my own collection these days rather than needing
to buy. When I need to buy parts, I am still old school (for reasonably short
lists), in that I tend to find the highest priced part and search for the best
deal on that and manually go from there in that store.
|
If you use Wanted Items tab, you check the “lock” icon on items and the list
is reduced to stores that have these items. But you still have the info about
the other wanted items.
And you can see what a store has by clicking the store line (not the name, just
next to it): the Wanted Items tab will put a coloured frame and show the quantity.
You can also click Select to see what they have but it’s a list and you don’t
see what they don’t have (= it’s just not in the list, while it’s framed in red
in Wanted Items).
(So, to help your current process: you select the list you want, you lock the
rare parts in the Wanted Items tab, and they you can look into the stores with
the more lots on your entire WL, without having to open them one by one.)
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 12:21 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 25 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | | | What do you mean? You can already “Buy All” multiple WLs together (without
combining them in a WL). You can even pick lots individually in your WLs.
|
Yes you are right. Strangely, that box containing all the wants lists is not
present when viewing a wants list in my brave browser (but is there in firefox),
so I assumed you had to do them one by one! I thought I had seen it before but
couldn't remember.
|
And when you come from the “Buy All / Buy X selected” button in a WL, you don’t
see it / don’t know it’s useful.
And the Wanted Items (where you can pick items one by one and see many useful
information) is hidden. (There’s no need for two tabs!)
And let’s not talk about people with 100+ items in their WL who don’t know how
to buy more than 100 items.
| | Although I tend to pick from my own collection these days rather than needing
to buy. When I need to buy parts, I am still old school (for reasonably short
lists), in that I tend to find the highest priced part and search for the best
deal on that and manually go from there in that store.
|
If you use Wanted Items tab, you check the “lock” icon on items and the list
is reduced to stores that have these items. But you still have the info about
the other wanted items.
And you can see what a store has by clicking the store line (not the name, just
next to it): the Wanted Items tab will put a coloured frame and show the quantity.
You can also click Select to see what they have but it’s a list and you don’t
see what they don’t have (= it’s just not in the list, while it’s framed in red
in Wanted Items).
(So, to help your current process: you select the list you want, you lock the
rare parts in the Wanted Items tab, and they you can look into the stores with
the more lots on your entire WL, without having to open them one by one.)
|
I've learnt a lot today. Especially changing browser when using wants lists!
I rarely use wants lists these days. Luckily I find I know my own building inventory
quite well and the less frequently used parts I keep a spreadsheet to find them.
I also tend to keep what I build with and build with what I keep, which really
helps cut down on having to purchase more bricks, meaning I rarely have to use
large wants lists any more. Although for newer minifigs and minifigure parts
they still have their use, as that is what I tend to buy now to supplement the
bricks I already have.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | constructibles | | Posted: | Jun 12, 2023 19:18 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 26 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, yorbrick writes:
| | | | ¹ One classical analogy for these algorithms is to find the lowest spot in a
landscape, often with a marble.
|
Which works great so long as there are no local minima to get stuck in.
I remember about a decade or so ago someone shared a mathcad script for optimising
price. It took hours to optimise a relatively small order, when there were not
as many stores as there are today. I dread to think what would happen these days
for a larger order.
I think most buyers are happy with getting the parts they want at a reasonable
price in a relatively short time, rather than getting the absolute best deal
no matter how much time and risk they need to put into it. Even more so if it
means dealing with sellers you have used before or have a good reputation. The
best seller for an order is not necessarily the cheapest, if it takes them ages
to pick and pack or they send the wrong parts or have missing parts, and so on.
|
LOL, I remember this. I had MatLab installed and everything to run the script
and sometimes it would take 24 hours! So the "easy buy" working in
seconds was always pretty impressive to me.
We do large scale buying so I've actually done a side-by side test on how
close it gets to the optimal solution. My observations:
- I could get about 10% cheaper by manually selecting stores and filling carts
- It took a couple hours of my time
- You have to be very careful about screening out stores (for example, great
prices but 85% positive feedback)
So it really depends on how you value your time. if you want to put potentially
hours into it, you can get better solutions.
A couple tricks I learned to get the most out of Easy Buy that I will share:
1. Deselect the option to prioritize 'favorite' and 'coupon'
stores. You may like those sellers, but the algorithm might miss a better solution
by not looking at the broader field.
2. As you look through the proposed solution, if you see a store that you don't
like (new seller, unreasonable terms, etc.) you can 'least favorite'
that store then clear the results and re-run Easy Buy. Sometimes this actually
gets a better solution.
3. Enable the minimum buy not met option. Usually stores have this threshold
at $1 or $5. So if the solution includes one of these stores, just manually
add a few extra parts to get over the threshold (you can never have too much
Lego!). This is particularly important if your wanted list includes rare-ish
parts. That seller might have that part for $.75 vs $2 or $3 in a store without
limits or that the limits are met.
tl;dr; Spend 10-15 minutes tinkering with the Easy Buy results vs. trying to
do it all manually.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 03:13 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 76 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, constructibles writes:
| | […]
tl;dr; Spend 10-15 minutes tinkering with the Easy Buy results vs. trying to
do it all manually.
|
Small corection: all that is about Auto-select / the Buy Page. You can’t control
anything with EasyBuy 
|
|
| | | | | |
| | | | | Author: | yorbrick | | Posted: | Jun 6, 2023 17:54 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 45 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
I doubt it, as it attempts to make the purchase as easy as possible by buying
from the fewest sellers. If you want to optimise the price then you can already
skip easy buy and use buy all instead.
|
|
| | | | | |
| | | | | Author: | wildchicken13 | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 09:35 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
The BrickLink developers will work on improving the "Easy Buy" algorithm
after they finish writing the "Easy Sell" algorithm…
|
|
| | | | | |
| | | | | Author: | 1001bricks | | Posted: | Jun 7, 2023 13:01 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 34 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
There's almost no way.
It should account:
* store minimum buy,
* weight and size of each order, and know the exact shipping price (which isn't
standard in between sellers),
* seller extra fee (like avg lots fees, or fixed handling fee),
* PayPal or payment mode fees,
* PayPal or other mode conversion fees (ex: HUF to USD)...
All this depends each shop, isn't a specific field of the shop, so BL simply
cannot calculate this better.
|
|
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Author: | Tracyd | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 08:56 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 33 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, 1001bricks writes:
| | In Wanted, musen2100 writes:
| | I have noticed, the easy buy is very bad at finding good prices. Manually selecting
stores can save a lot of money, so will there ever be an improvement to the easy
buy?
|
There's almost no way.
It should account:
* store minimum buy,
* weight and size of each order, and know the exact shipping price (which isn't
standard in between sellers),
* seller extra fee (like avg lots fees, or fixed handling fee),
* PayPal or payment mode fees,
* PayPal or other mode conversion fees (ex: HUF to USD)...
All this depends each shop, isn't a specific field of the shop, so BL simply
cannot calculate this better.
|
It should be fixed to include all those, plus.:
IF A STORE DOESN"T SHIP TO YOU IT SHOULD BE EXCLUDED.
Yes I shouted because that is more than annoying to get that error message.
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Author: | 1001bricks | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 09:55 | | Subject: | (Cancelled) | | Viewed: | 23 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| | (Cancelled) |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 11:19 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 18 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, Tracyd writes:
| | […]
IF A STORE DOESN"T SHIP TO YOU IT SHOULD BE EXCLUDED.
Yes I shouted because that is more than annoying to get that error message.
|
To be clear: Does it select stores that don’t ship to you at all (red box) or
does it select stores that can’t sell to you because they don’t have any
onsite payment method?
The former is a bug. The latter, well, it’s half a bug: some tax obligations
have a threshold (UK £135, EU €150, AU AUD1000), so it’s hard to say you can’t
pay/buy in the store before knowing the final amount of the order.
(And is it EasyBuy or Auto-select?)
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | Author: | Tracyd | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 11:55 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 22 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, SylvainLS writes:
| | In Wanted, Tracyd writes:
| | […]
IF A STORE DOESN"T SHIP TO YOU IT SHOULD BE EXCLUDED.
Yes I shouted because that is more than annoying to get that error message.
|
To be clear: Does it select stores that don’t ship to you at all (red box) or
does it select stores that can’t sell to you because they don’t have any
onsite payment method?
The former is a bug. The latter, well, it’s half a bug: some tax obligations
have a threshold (UK £135, EU €150, AU AUD1000), so it’s hard to say you can’t
pay/buy in the store before knowing the final amount of the order.
(And is it EasyBuy or Auto-select?)
|
Easy Buy, and it was won't/don't ship, red box that was selected. USA
doesn't have a tax minimum obligation, and it should be assumed to be complete
based only on the Easy Buy total. There is a totally different error for not
meeting the store minimum buy. Auto select has always found the most expensive
stores to have the most inventory in my experience. I have yet to find a large
selection store with average prices. And I understand that having more inventory
you have to sell at a higher markup to make up for slow moving product sitting
to be able to replenish your stock. But to constantly find stores with prices
3x higher than average and more to be in the top is annoying. I could least
fav these stores I know but they might be needed one day so I have to wade thru
a lot of stores to find what I need. Should be a better way. Maybe a choice
based on 6 month ave price/above/below. But right now it is steering towards
the high priced stores. Not intentionally but it is. And don't get me on
unconsolidated lots. It shows those as multiple lots when 1 store might have
10 of the same item listed separately and it ranks higher than a store with 9
unique items. I love Bricklink, but this old system that doesn't support
tags and makes managing things harder than is should. It needs to be changed.
If it means a whole new system than so be it. At some point every system becomes
obsolete and has to be changed. Remember at one point BASIC was cutting edge.
where is it now?
|
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Author: | SylvainLS | | Posted: | Jun 13, 2023 12:40 | | Subject: | Re: Will the easy buy method ever be improved? | | Viewed: | 29 times | | Topic: | Wanted | |
|
| In Wanted, Tracyd writes:
| | […]
[…]
Easy Buy, and it was won't/don't ship, red box that was selected.
|
Okay. Pretty stupid, but then excluding stores that don’t ship to you is a filter
on the Buy Page, and as EasyBuy has no filters, it seems this one is treated
like the others.
| | USA doesn't have a tax minimum obligation,
|
Yes, but if it had been because the store doesn’t have onsite, then there’d be
situations where those stores should be considered and even proposed.
| | and it should be assumed to be complete
based only on the Easy Buy total. There is a totally different error for not
meeting the store minimum buy.
|
With EasyBuy, yes. With Auto-select, I’d say it should go with the Min buy option
(“select stores when price lower than min buy”).
(That makes a big Min Buy )
| | Auto select has always found the most expensive
stores to have the most inventory in my experience.[…] I could least
fav these stores I know but they might be needed one day
|
Well, it’s an option. You can include “disliked stores” (not exclude).
At least, they would be on a list and you’d see quickly they are on that list.
| | so I have to wade thru
a lot of stores to find what I need. Should be a better way. Maybe a choice
based on 6 month ave price/above/below. But right now it is steering towards
the high priced stores. Not intentionally but it is. And don't get me on
unconsolidated lots. It shows those as multiple lots when 1 store might have
10 of the same item listed separately and it ranks higher than a store with 9
unique items.
|
If by “ranks higher,” you mean they are chosen first by the algorithm, then maybe.
That’s not my experience but maybe. (Stores with unconsolidated lots are generally
missed in my experience, even when one lot is big enough.)
If you mean on the list of stores, then no, not when it’s sorted by “unique lots.”
| | I love Bricklink, but this old system that doesn't support
tags and makes managing things harder than is should. It needs to be changed.
If it means a whole new system than so be it. At some point every system becomes
obsolete and has to be changed.
|
That’s what BrickLink says they are doing, slowly.
AFAICT, EasyBuy / Auto-select are looked into, even though they are new (relatively,
June 2016).
| | Remember at one point BASIC was cutting edge.
where is it now?
|
We have a different definition of “cutting edge.”
BASIC was everywhere near the users (not deeper). Now it’s JavaScript. None
was ever an advanced technology / “cutting edge.”
Though, when you have to use them, they do draw blood: in the tears you shed
for your poor self
|
|
|
|
|
|
Denmark
USA, Oregon
United Kingdom, England
France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Netherlands, Zuid-Holland
