How to piece together sets through Bricklink?

[icarusbird]

Good morning everybody! For the last several days I've been working on re-creating Larry Lars's amazing T-47 Snowspeeder MOC in LDD (something I'm brand new to), so that when I'm done, I'll know that what I have before me is every piece in every quantity and color so that I can just hop on bricklink and custom order those pieces to make my own T-47.

But as I get closer to finishing the digital version, I'm starting to wonder: does LDD even feature some sort of tool to export the part inventory, or will I need to disassemble it and try to match every part against the descriptions in bricklink? Even then, do you guys typically find a favorite store and order everything in one place, or is there significant enough variation in price that you end up shopping around and placing orders with multiple stores?

Well either way, it's been fun just putting the thing together in LDD. Thanks!

[Bob De Quatre]

First you should take a look at LDD manager here.

You'll get a wanted list with all the needed parts.

Considering the order(s)... I bricklinked my SSD, so nearly 4000 bricks to buy. I first searched for good sellers, with what seems good prices, and with the maximum of bricks I need. Then I created a spreedsheet and wrote the price for each brick and each shop to get something like this(warning long to load). It helped me find the best prices for each brick and lower the total cost.

What you should also consider is the shipping cost, as for each order, you'll get shipping cost, which could destroy all that "find the cheaper shop for that brick" effort.

Hope I helped you, and good luck for that amazing MOC.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Bob De Quatre

[icarusbird]

Wow, great information, thank you Bob De Quatre! I'm looking forward to checking out LDD manager, it looks like exactly what I need. Entering everything into a spreadsheet does seem fairly labor intensive, but I don't expect this to come in anywhere over 400 pieces. And holy cow I can't believe you pieced together a 4,000-piece SSD entirely through bricklink! I'd like to see that if it's in the MOC index.

Anyways, thank you again for the help!

[Bob De Quatre]

It's not in the MOC index as it's not finished, but the thread is here

[Lobot]

Hi, I was stupid enough to Bricklink a UCS Death Star II (10143) from scratch, which was 3,500 pieces (link here!) and agree with Bob's suggestions.

I copied the inventory into Excel & managed my orders from there, although there are other methods that can be used. However, by doing this I only ordered 2-3 too many!! To be honest it did get rather stressful & I became quitely obsessed (especially trying to track down the last few parts ). However, it was great to see it finally come together & kept me occupied for countless hours!

I strongly recommend finding a few local sellers that have a large stock and order everything you can from them, even if the part price may be marginally more expensive than elsewhere.....I found that shipping from outside the EU was prohibitive; try to minimise the total number of orders as the postage really adds up. If you need 200 parts of one type don't only look for sellers with 200+ available; I often ended up ordering 50 from one seller & 150 from another and these were parts of much larger orders (i.e. it's the total cost + postage that matters not necessary the individual part cost)

Good luck!

[icarusbird]

Hah, what a weird coincidence Lobot! As soon as I clicked your link to your UCS Death Star I instantly recognized it as the thread that taught me it was even possible to piece together whole sets through bricklink! I remember thinking, "Holy cow, 7 cents a part!" That's a pretty good average I think; you must be quite a shrewd shopper.

Well thanks for all the tips! I think I may actually luck out with the shipping costs, since even though I live in Germany I technically have a U.S. address, so I can order through stateside stores and so far their shipping prices seem extremely reasonable.

Oh last thing, is anybody interested in a parts list of Larry Lars's T-47 MOC? Because I'll have one for you shortly!

[Lobot]

Hah, what a weird coincidence Lobot! As soon as I clicked your link to your UCS Death Star I instantly recognized it as the thread that taught me it was even possible to piece together whole sets through bricklink! I remember thinking, "Holy cow, 7 cents a part!" That's a pretty good average I think; you must be quite a shrewd shopper.

Well thanks for all the tips! I think I may actually luck out with the shipping costs, since even though I live in Germany I technically have a U.S. address, so I can order through stateside stores and so far their shipping prices seem extremely reasonable.

Oh last thing, is anybody interested in a parts list of Larry Lars's T-47 MOC? Because I'll have one for you shortly!

You're welcome, I hope that it helps

The US Bricklink stores seem to be very reasonable but if you import into the UK you're liable to lots of additional charges if the total is above approx £15 (VAT @ 20% which is added to the item & postage cost + a 'handling fee' from the Post Office of about £9) so it can get really expensive!

I wanted to build a Star Destroyer (10030) after my Death Star II and did get about 1,500 parts for it, but recently gave up.....some of the parts were impossible to get or really expensive. Perhaps one day Lego will make another UCS version of it

[icarusbird]

Well I officially fail at Bricklink. Lars's T-47 MOC is comprised of around 550 pieces according to LDD Manager (which is flipping fantastic btw), but six orders and around 700 pieces later I find myself paying a grand total of $91.50 for this thing. I'm not great at math, but that's well over the 7 cents-per-part goal I had in mind. "75535 Technic Pin Connector Round (Pin Joiner Round)" alone set me back nine bucks for SIX of the little guys!

I guess I can chalk it up to a fun (but expensive) learning experience. Anyways, thanks for the help everybody. And I also have a complete LDD version of Lars's Snowspeeder if anybody wants it. (What's the accepted etiquette on that, by the way? I feel like I should contact him before I distribute a digital version of his work)

[DFOL]

Bricklink is a great and fun way to find parts, but it isn't cheap. Personally, when i bricklink i try to buy all the parts that i need with as few sellers as i can, to save on postage costs. Also, when it's not too much of a price difference i usually buy from sellers from my own country, it saves on postage costs as well and it may avoid unexpected charges like import taxes. And i carefully compare the price for each type of part between different shops, to find the shops that offer the best overall deal.

As for your question, my advice would be to send Lars a PM to ask if it's ok to share the LDD file of his creation.

[icarusbird]

Thank you for the tips! I tried to keep those maxims in mind, but I think it was a combination of being new to Bricklink and not being totally familiar with the tools the site offers that resulted in such an inefficient buying experience. I kept a spreadsheet, I only bought from the sellers with the most unique lots from my wanted list, and I comparison-shopped like crazy...but still blew it.

And I will definitely let Lars know that I have his design sitting around on my computer :D

[Lobot]

Thank you for the tips! I tried to keep those maxims in mind, but I think it was a combination of being new to Bricklink and not being totally familiar with the tools the site offers that resulted in such an inefficient buying experience. I kept a spreadsheet, I only bought from the sellers with the most unique lots from my wanted list, and I comparison-shopped like crazy...but still blew it.

*snip*

I used Lego's 'Pick a Brick' as a guide for prices and, on several occasions, found that they were cheaper than Bricklink. Also, Lego only charge £3.95 for postage regardless of the size of the order (link here) - enter the part number in 'Design ID'

If you use Excel I found that using a combination of conditional formatting and '=MIN(cell range)' was a very useful as a way of comparing a range of sellers!

Edited November 20, 2012 by Lobot

[gorgetiger]

I love the MOC Larry Lars did of the Snowspeeder. I was wondering if he gave you permission to post the LDD and the parts list? I would love to build it, but I don't want to take the time to try and create it on LDD from the great pics he took. I was wondering if you could send me a copy of your file? Thank you.

[HanShotFirst]

Good morning everybody! For the last several days I've been working on re-creating Larry Lars's amazing T-47 Snowspeeder MOC in LDD (something I'm brand new to), so that when I'm done, I'll know that what I have before me is every piece in every quantity and color so that I can just hop on bricklink and custom order those pieces to make my own T-47.

But as I get closer to finishing the digital version, I'm starting to wonder: does LDD even feature some sort of tool to export the part inventory, or will I need to disassemble it and try to match every part against the descriptions in bricklink? Even then, do you guys typically find a favorite store and order everything in one place, or is there significant enough variation in price that you end up shopping around and placing orders with multiple stores?

Well either way, it's been fun just putting the thing together in LDD. Thanks!

I'm currently brick liking a UCS falcon (900 parts to go) and what I do is find the part I'll need the most of and order from the store that has the quantity I need at the cheapest price. I generally buy everything the store has that I need unless there's an expensive part that I can get for a significantly cheaper price elsewhere.

[TheBear]

I've built the Larry Lars snowspeeder from the photos and it is honestly not that difficult to figure out the parts and create a wanted list as there aren't many parts to it. What I did was to build it using any colours with the parts I had available and use that to figure out what parts I needed to order.

When it comes to ordering from Bricklink, the Wanted > By Shop tab is very helpful to figure out who has the most of what you need. The only problem is that the people with the highest quantities are often more expensive, but it has to be balanced against packing and delivery costs. I usually end up ordering based on the rarest parts first and then pick up a lot of other parts from the same vendors.

[gorgetiger]

I'm glad that this topic is still going. The pictures are great that Larry posts, but my biggest roadblock is figuring out the piece list. I know this is a little off topic, but I just got done recreating max f1's macross/robotech veritech fighter on ldd, and that took me forever and so I'm a little burned out on trying to recreate another one. The T-47 Snowspeeder is my favorite ship and I would love to make this one to go with my others. The Bear, do you have a parts list available, because the instructions Larry has seem to be very detailed. Thank you.

[TheBear]

I didn't make a list but try this one http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/chrispedersen22/Snowspeeder/partlist.txt

[gorgetiger]

Wow, that is great. Thank you so much.

[addemlit]

I just bricklinked a Battle of Endor and it costed me almost $100. The less sellers you can buy from, the better.

[Something_Awesome]

Don't neglect the lego pick a brick site. While generally more expensive, for common pieces they have an unlimited inventory. What this means for you use if you can get certain order from pick a brick that may otherwise require say four sellers, then you will often save money due to shipping. Though you will pay tax at the pick-a-brick site (if applicable).

Edited March 25, 2014 by Something_Awesome

[grymg]

What I've found using BL for several months now, I end up paying almost 20 cents a piece when I figure in multiple sellers shipping and the higher cost of some bricks, minifigs, and stickers (sometimes really expensive)

So, if you can still buy the set for 20cents/piece, then skip BL and just buy the whole set. Plus, you get the original instructions and box and only have to wait for one package.

And it really sucks when one BL seller is delayed and you're just waiting on that package to complete the set.