LEGO in stock alerts

[YetiZombie]

I created a Discord server for LEGO in stock alerts, where you get notified when a set you're looking for comes back in stock. It works for Shop@Home US right now, but I'm planning on adding support for more regions and retailers in the coming weeks. It has over 250 members and people love it so far. If you'd be interested in that, check it out! https://discord.gg/fejMUKqxq5

[Grover]

I'd be very interested if you can make it have alerts for pieces on B&P!

[YetiZombie]

21 minutes ago, Grover said:

I'd be very interested if you can make it have alerts for pieces on B&P!

This is on my list because several people have requested it - not sure when I'll get to it because I'm prioritizing new regions/retailers first, but I'm open to the idea!

[Flak Maniak]

In-stock alerts for B&P are IMO much more useful than in-stock alerts for sets; I would certainly use your server for B&P-tracking purposes, given how many different parts I'd be looking at, and how capricious the stock/for-sale-at-all values on them are.

[YetiZombie]

20 hours ago, Flak Maniak said:

In-stock alerts for B&P are IMO much more useful than in-stock alerts for sets; I would certainly use your server for B&P-tracking purposes, given how many different parts I'd be looking at, and how capricious the stock/for-sale-at-all values on them are.

Just to get more info on this - how many different parts are you typically interested in at once? And how often do parts go out/come in stock? I don't use B&P myself so I'd love some insight on how people would want these alerts to work.

[Flak Maniak]

15 minutes ago, YetiZombie said:

Just to get more info on this - how many different parts are you typically interested in at once? And how often do parts go out/come in stock? I don't use B&P myself so I'd love some insight on how people would want these alerts to work.

So, typically what will happen is I'm browsing new parts, or the part lists of new sets, and I find something that looks cool, so I look for it on B&P. Sometimes it's not listed at all, in which case, well, not much to be done, but maybe check back later. Sometimes it's listed and in stock, in which case I'll put some in my cart. But sometimes it's listed as out of stock (sometimes with a price assigned, usually meaning as far as I can tell that it's been sold on B&P and stock has run out at least for now, sometimes without a price assigned, which as far as I can tell mean it hasn't been sold on there yet). If something is listed but doesn't have a price, well, I'm going to check every so often, because it looks like it will be sold in the future. No guarantees, but, sometimes things like that are available for sale eventually. And, well, things that are out-of-stock the regular way (often due to BrickLink scalpers)... I mean, it happens, and it happens fairly often. And it's unpredictable when they'll be back in stock. (And they might be out of stock again very quickly, within hours!)

It wouldn't be uncommon for me to have a dozen or so parts, or maybe several dozen, where I think to myself "if this is available for sale when I check, I'll probably buy some". Currently I just keep the Brickset tabs for those elements open near the tab for B&P. So I guess a more convenient pattern would be, whenever I see a part that I'd like to buy but isn't available yet for whatever reason (or is even unlisted on B&P?), I'd enter it somewhere and forget about it, and then if it ever is available on B&P I'd get some type of notification for it. Just, any shift from "cannot buy on the website" to "can buy on the website".

I don't know how hard it is to implement; presumably it's significantly more difficult than just tracking sets. But, if it's convenient to do it, then, it would be significantly useful.