Strategies For Buying Thousands of Bricks !

[fasterthanlight]

Hey so,

I've got this huge excel file that LDD has spit out, and I've now just reorganized everything by colour - not by part - which will actually aid in building the first steps in one of my MOCs - the chassis is all LBG

Do any of you have any suggestions for buying large amounts of different pieces? For example, I've got ~120 parts in Light Bluish Grey, each with their own quantity (total of about 1200 pieces) that I'd like to buy in as few orders as possible. Ideally one or two big stores.

Can anyone recommend some good stores they've had a lot of success with?

I'd hate to have to get my 1x1 bricks from store A, my 1x2 bricks from store B, and 1x4 bricks from Store C

Does that make sense ??

[rollermonkey]

There is a software/website that can help, if you have everything set up just right... Let me see if I can find it again.

Pretty sure you can import your LDD file into you BL wanted list, then shop by wanted list and sort by (Unique) lots...

But there is another way, if I can just find it.

Here it is. the program is Brickstore, from BrickForge.

Edited October 13, 2014 by rollermonkey

[rm8]

There is a software/website that can help, if you have everything set up just right... Let me see if I can find it again.

Pretty sure you can import your LDD file into you BL wanted list, then shop by wanted list and sort by (Unique) lots...

But there is another way, if I can just find it.

Here it is. the program is Brickstore, from BrickForge.

Brickstore is not supproted anymore. Use Brickstock - it is the same, but supported;)

[Jim]

Brickstore is not supproted anymore. Use Brickstock - it is the same, but supported;)

Didn't know Brickstock. I will try it.

Although Brickstore still works fine!

(and I really like it)

Pretty sure you can import your LDD file into you BL wanted list, then shop by wanted list and sort by (Unique) lots...

That's indeed what I do.

[legolijntje]

Didn't know Brickstock. I will try it.

Although Brickstore still works fine!

BrickStock = BrickStore, but updated. It's the same source code (BrickStore was open source), but someone took the code and updated some things here and there. For me, it fixes some of the annoying little things.

Anyway, on topic. You can also use Brickficieny or BrickWizard, although you need to have some patience

These tools can help (and they're amazing for the casual buyer! ), but sometimes, when there are too many parts, they aren't really useful anymore, because they need to calculate so much that it will take a loooong time.

[Jim]

BrickStock = BrickStore, but updated. It's the same source code (BrickStore was open source), but someone took the code and updated some things here and there. For me, it fixes some of the annoying little things.

Ahhh thanks. So it is literally the same

[Theo van Vroenhoven]

I would suggest to upload your MOC first to Rebrickable: http://rebrickable.com/mymocs and work from there.

Rebrickable offers various export options you can use to your advantage.

[TheItalianBrick]

Pretty sure you can import your LDD file into you BL wanted list, then shop by wanted list and sort by (Unique) lots...

A question: by importing the LDD file in BL there is a possibility that other people can see it and download it? Cos obviously some people wants to keep the file and not share it..

[fasterthanlight]

Where on Bricklink can I upload the LDD file directly? Some of you have mentioned this, but I can't find it.

I was able to upload my inventory to BL through some serious grunt work (Excel -> Tab-separated -> XML -> upload XML to BL) - very interesting (also annoying) having to swap out old discontinued parts that exist in LDD with current versions on BL.

There's gotta be a better way to do this. I'll check out re-brickable next!

[garethjellis]

I use LDD manager to create the brick link file and substituent wanted list then I use brickficiency to find the cheapest stores for the parts list, it has a few bugs but works a treat.

[dr_spock]

You may also check with LEGO PAB in store and/or online and compare against BrickLink.