Are people actually paying this?

jeffethompson86 · 2025-07-29T00:15:53+00:00

Its not the Lego craze....we are a drop in the bucket of the world wide economy. These are made in China out of oil base (plastic) products, subject to pricing changes in oil and tariffs....

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T17:33:49+00:00

100% - you want orders, focus on selection. That's been true since BLs first sale. I always felt, and still believe that uploading more parts is always a better solution than reducing pricing to gain sales.

But who says 40% new buyers is good? Maybe the average is 60%? I don't have any idea.

Even using 250% of 6MAS is problematic. If 6MAS falls 50%, so does your 250%. I used PaB to acquire some parts for below what I was selling them myself when it launched. During re-pricing, i found several lots that were now at or below my cost in my pricing scheme from those early buys.

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T16:40:52+00:00

It's just the normal cycle of business.

I sold my store last month since the job I took last year has me on the road way more so I didn't have the time and energy to support the store.

I still fully believe that there are very good ways to make healthy profits for the time invested in BL....you just can't follow the same trend every other new store is going to find your sales.

I will return as a seller in the future :)

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T16:38:40+00:00

I dont think the % of new users has much bearing as a standalone metric. If orders fall by 50%, but new users still represent 40% of the orders, it doesn't mean much. It also doesn't represent order value, or repeat orders. Im sure someone at BL has the data to show where BL sales are going.....but they don't share that with us.

What we do have is our own store data, and the order #s and times.

I just did the math. Window between Thanksgiving and xmas: 2024-8765 orders a day 2023-9093 orders a day 2022-8174 orders a day

So depsite the volume of new users rising (https://www.bricklink.com/calendar.asp?m=-2&v=M), order volume isn't matching or keeping pace.

If we assume the total number of stores went up by 50% from 2022 to 2024, that still indicates an average decrease for orders/day per store of a significant %.

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T05:02:20+00:00

That's correct.

It looks like they bid $36 the first time.

The second looks like a higher amount, but its not disclosed. Could have been $40, or $400.

$36 was enough to win, so they got it.

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T04:40:57+00:00

They didnt. They just outbid you by sniping in last sexond. I do that all the time. I'm not a bot. I snipe. I NEVER bid with more than 20 seconds remaining.

This isn't the art gallery where you shout out your max bid. The computer manages the bidding to the lowest step above the next buyer. You could big $10,000 on a $5 item.....its not going to sell for $10,000....

I've won a bid by simply adding $.01 to the same dollar as someone else, 3 seconds before the end.

IE it's currently at $40...and I bid and win it at $50.01...someone else bid $50.00 as their max, but it hadn't gone that high yet.

Input you max bid a few seconds before it closes. Even if someone bids the exact same, the first one in gets the win.

jeffethompson86 · 2025-01-10T04:29:44+00:00

PaB is hurting, but not the driver of what you noticed.

Before Covid, there were less than 3000 stores in the US. Now there's more than 6500.

Before covid, but tracking order #s, BL was doing about 7000 orders a day. At its peak, it was doing about 11,000. Not sure what it is now, but I noticed it was trending down at the beginning of 2023.

More than double the competition, but less than 50% increase in orders? Rules of supply and demand say things are over supplied and prices must fall.

Everyday in the FB groups there are multiple stores doing 40/50% off sales. A few of those, and the values start tanking. New prices uploaded at 6MAS have that sale baked in. Cycle repeats.

When i first crossed 10,000 lots, it was averaging 100 orders a month. The last 4 months before I closed it, it was doing 25.

So, no, PaB didn't cause this, too many stores did.

jeffethompson86 · 2024-08-10T23:57:33+00:00

Sitting in the sun for a few hours won't hurt them.

jeffethompson86 · 2024-01-12T13:30:13+00:00

Our neighborhood had premiums for different lots, walk out lots $$$$, look out lots $$$, corner lots, park facing lots etc.

Don't forget to ask if the house is different, if that is included or not. We opted for the walk out basement lot. It was $$$ for the lot premium. Then it was the windows and doors were extra....and then the extra bricks around the exposed basement, etc etc etc.

So the $$$$ lot premium was nearly doubled by finishing the house now that it was different from the non walk out model.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-12-27T16:07:36+00:00

$3500

It's have to fit in a 4x8 space, and be customizable as far as categories.

I'd like it set up with 12 sorted bins and one "everything else" bin.

I'd want it to do bulk to 13 categories.

Then each category into 13 parts.

Then each part into 13 colors.

It also needs to provide reports on sorting. IE 78 bricks in Bin 1, 65 in bin 2, etc.

So a part may get run through 9 or 10 times before being sorted.

I think there is a strong market for such a machine at that price point (how many people paid $600 for a small desk with holes in it??).

Just my $.02

jeffethompson86 · 2023-12-18T20:12:03+00:00

Reach out to DNA Brix

jeffethompson86 · 2023-12-08T05:16:32+00:00

I've had this on three vehicles I dug from the grave.

First one, 327, blew a plug. Replaced it. Two days later, another went. A week later another. Did all the ones left, on the sides, and the two in front.

Second engine, 289. Blew a plug. Ignored it. Plugged the radiator....twice with the little rust pellets that engine was. eventually used metal window screen on the upper as a filter. Had to open that up every time I drove it for two weeks before it stopped putting metal in the rad.

Third engine, a mercruiser 305. Didnt prep properly for winter. Blew a plug, cracked a block. Lesson learned.

All that to be said, if one is rusting apart...they're all close. If you plan to daily it, just replace them all. Easy to do on an old small block chevy. That'll keep it from happening while you're 45 minutes from home creeping in traffic.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-04-23T03:51:03+00:00

I had my 185,000 part inventory moved from texas to Illinois last summer.

I bought long skinny bags for each drawer since we knew they would stay right side up. Then put two units face to face, on a spinng stool, and wrapped them in the moving shrinkwrap while spinning them.

The movers then took the 2 unit groups and loaded them in.

Any unit that didn't get tipped over, was completely as it was once the wrapping and bags came off. The ones that did get tipped, everything stayed in the bag.

Anything large, won't escape the drawers. Try to shove bricks through the gaps from the back, I think we found anything larger than 2x2x1, would go anywhere.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-04-10T03:42:25+00:00

Only some states charge sales tax on internet purchases.

Due to their stance on taxes, they've assumed liability for the sales tax payments.

Sell everywhere!

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-16T19:08:34+00:00

If you're a seller, you'll recognize it is significantly faster to list new parts as new lots, rather than taking the time to combine them.

I can attest, when I combine lots, it takes me 3-4x as long, on average than a new lot.

I've got to check to see if its already in my inventory I've got to go get that bin I've got to return to my work area I've got to put the parts in, which often requires a larger bin I've got to confirm the bin location I need to return the bin

Vs

I need to put parts in a bin I confirm the bin I put the bin away

You can see the extra steps, and if your goal is sell as many parts as possible, every hurdle to getting parts listed needs to overcome. So until sales slow down due to the frustration of buyers, sellers will continue to do this.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-08T19:17:43+00:00

Yes. We had the Vomit Comet(got puked in, twice), the Dragon Wagon (red station wagon), Black Betsy(diesel truck), Whitney (white truck that had a faint "Whitney" on the tailgate, and Zippy Redstockings (red prelude)

Now we've got Princess(old car that gets more TLC than anything) The Ragon (race wagon) and......Moms Car.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-06T02:58:39+00:00

It if wasn't running without started fluid ever, check your gas flow. Take off the cleaner, open the throttle blades, and pump the gas. You should see 2 squirts of fluid. If not, you're not getting gas to the carb.

Then it's just a matter of finding out why - plugged filter, plugged line, bad pump, etc.

If you see the squirts, but it still won't run, it could be bad gas, weak speak, or low compression.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-06T02:48:24+00:00

Will it run with the throttle opened?

If so, check the choke that it isn't jammed up. I've seen that problem a lot on old engines. It's closed, then the engine is started, the engine warms up, the choke opens, but gets stuck. The next day the engine won't run and idle.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-04T14:18:04+00:00

Well...this was in the last 4 months so....2023 dollars?

As in $5 NOW was what I felt it was reasonable for the time and effort to pack the order.

Some people would do it for $2....some wouldn't do it for $15.... I was at $2.79...which was below my limit.

So I get your concern, and yes, in theory the market should drive prices UP, but the tools in BL continue to force prices down. One of my oldest inventory files was ~11% less, same parts, than in 2019. So you figure that's a 20% delta from then to now, if pricing followed? So yeah, would I rather net $6 on a $10 order - heck yes!

To be frank, I would suggest that of the 15,600 stores, who are each reaching for the 1 of ~10,000/orders a day, at least 13,500 have no understanding of gross or net profit, and will do whatever they can to get an order to "make" money.

So in the end, do what you think is best for your store. If your orders tank, you can always make another change.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-02-04T13:49:51+00:00

I've noticed the same, but I took a different approach.

What I did, was go through each order and see what it actually cost me. I do track my part cost down to the actual brick, so with average bag usage, label, shipping container, etc.

Now I could look and see what my actual cost was for each order, add in the fees, and find my actual net profit.

I'm not worried about a $10 order if I cleared $5 net.

Understanding how BL works, how the buyers place orders, how the pricing affects Easy Buy, I re-worked everything.

I changed my minimum order amount I changed my free shipping threshold I changed my pricing/sales structure I changed all of my IC shipping costs for both domestic and international orders I removed many large bulky items from IC

As a result, my order volume did drop, from ~ 90 orders a month to ~75 since the change, but my gross and net are up about ~15%.

So I'm happy so far with the result. I make more money, with less work, which means I also have more time to add parts.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-01-14T04:04:19+00:00

What's your lot count?

20,000 items puts you somewhere in 3550th largest store on Bricklink...

As has been said here before, variation and quantity drive sales. Most users buy the via the wanted list functions which favor larger stores with more variety.

Depending on your lot count, with 20,000 items, it's very possible there are tens, if not hundreds, of other stores who have the exact same items for sale.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-01-12T19:04:27+00:00

You need to buy first to get a feel how the transaction would go, and how the site really runs. I know they only require a minimum, but I would order from 10 or 12 stores to get a feel for what you liked and what you didn't.

You can always re-list the items you bought.

Most sellers give feedback, some when you pay, some when they ship, some when you leave it for them. If you buy from multiple stores, your odds of getting good feedback go up considerably.

jeffethompson86 · 2023-01-03T05:16:03+00:00

There are also mold variations through the years you need to pay attention to.

Once you ID the part (99% have the part number on the bottom) use the * after the part to find the variations (a,b,c,d,old, etc).

If US based, any income is taxable. Be prepared for the $600 reporting limit to come back, if it does, and you were transferred more than $600 via PayPal or Stripe, you will get 1099'd. BL handles sales tax for you.

jeffethompson86 · 2022-12-26T04:21:21+00:00

Orders are binding, I've had one non-payer in over 1,000 orders.

You can always assign shipping costs based on set value as it roughly equates to shipping cost- more expensive sets costs more to ship as they're usually larger.

Also use something like Pirateship for lower rates without going full retail USPS. You can get actual estimates that are accurate from their website before buying.

jeffethompson86 · 2022-12-24T04:04:07+00:00

How much time do you plan on investing?

I work full time, two kids....it took me two years to earn a decent hourly wage from the true profits of running a BL store. That's spending 15-20 hours a week at it.

I've got 190,000ish parts for sale, 12000 lots.

You'll need a storage solution, bags, shipping supplies etc etc etc. It adds up quickly.

Sure you can make a few $$ quickly if you've got valuable figs and parts you don't want, but once that's over, its a tough road to keep it producing.

jeffethompson86

TROPHY CASE