Bricklink questions

[JesseNight]

[Edit] Mold variants question is solved, next questions are here.

I've finished up some wanted lists and have been wanting to place an order for a few hundred bricks over multiple shops on Bricklink for some time already.

I struggle with some worries, most of all how many shops state in their terms that they don't differentiate mold variants of the same parts. I've tried to contact a few but I get stuck getting vague answers that don't give me a whole lot of clarity.
The main issue I'm having is... Where do they draw the line on what's considered a mold variant?

For example: a round 1x1 plate exists as 4073 with a closed stud, or 85861 with an open stud. Bricklink calls them mold variants of each other, but I wouldn't order open studs if I didn't need those for very specific uses.
Same problem with Technic pins. They come as 3673 without friction ridges, 2780 with short friction ridges, and 4459 with long friction ridges (older ones) and are all considered mold variants, but each have very specific uses.

Obviously I wouldn't ask this if I didn't indeed need to be sure to get the exact variants I need in these cases (and a few more). I'm still somewhat new on Bricklink and while the Wanted lists system is great, I've been spending insane amounts of time already managing lists, finding decent deals, and asking questions. Time I'd rather spend building stuff, that is 

Edited January 31 by JesseNight

[CastleRail]

Pretty much no seller will ever consider that 4073 and 85861 are interchangeable. They're different parts. Same for 3673 and 2780, no-one would consider them variants because they are different parts. 4459 if someone has listed it then generally they know it's an old tight pin, probably because they had to pry it out of an old technic brick in the first place with copious swearing.

BL is perhaps being a little over keen on what it considers a variant here (although for 4073 it comes under "This Item is similar in shape to the following Item(s):" so it isn't saying they're variants at all.) Now parts like 4085 for instance you're more likely to run into issues with because they are the same part but with moderately different moulds; a b c etc and not everyone has experience enough to pick the correct variant.

[MAB]

5 hours ago, JesseNight said:

For example: a round 1x1 plate exists as 4073 with a closed stud, or 85861 with an open stud. Bricklink calls them mold variants of each other, but I wouldn't order open studs if I didn't need those for very specific uses.

Bricklink do not call these mold variants. They are linked because they are similar in shape, not mold variants.

[Mylenium]

Anything that has its own number is a separate element, not a mold variant. Deprecated element variants that are superseded by newer ones are listed as alternatives in the little box under the image of a part. BL may be confusing at times, but that part is actually pretty straightforward.

Mylenium

[MAB]

They are planning to merge some non-functional variants together (sprue marks, stud types, inner ribs...), which would be good for both stores and buyers not caring about them. Although of course, it would make it harder if you wanted specific variants.

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1447090

The torso with ribs - especially the Classic Space torso - might cause an issue for some though.

[JesseNight]

Thanks for clearing that up.
Seems I did read too fast on the round plate, and while the Technic pins are called mold variants, as long as I know that sellers take entirely different part numbers with different functions seriously, I should be okay.

Funny thing about 4085... I hated the thick ones as a kid, that wouldn't allow certain common used tools (like the minifigure portable radio) to be rotated while in the clip 
But yeah I see the point, those are all minor variants considered the same number with a/b/c/d suffix.

[JesseNight]

While my initial question was solved, I am still struggling a lot with Bricklink preventing me to place any orders. At this point, my inexperience and not having a good idea about LEGO parts values play a role, so I would like some input from people who have some more experience buying bricks lots via Bricklink.

I've made my wanted lists. For the sake of this example, I will NOT include rare or very valuable parts and stick to lots of common parts (bricks, plates, tiles, some liftarms and axles, lots of pins).
So I pick "Buy All", select my wanted lists containing about 300 lots in total (there may be a few overlapping ones), hit "Auto-select" and uncheck stores with price being lower than minimum buy, and let it calculate.

At this point, the first issue arises.
In the stores list, the unique lots and item numbers seem to no longer be correct. First store it lists shows having 37 unique lots, 94 total items. If I hit the Edit button, this suddenly turns into 36 lots. In this case it's only 1 less, but in some it's as much as 25% less. That being said, each Edited store shows less lots than it shows in the list. I'm not even sure which of the numbers is correct anymore.
Above the stores list, it says "<number A> / <number B> assigned (100%)" with number A being higher than number B as well!
Is there something wrong with Bricklink's calculations? Should I be worried about my orders being incorrect?

My second point is more related to prices (feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you prefer the short version). Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask whether a price is fair or not, since Bricklink already offers good enough average prices information. But the totals just kinda blew me away.
So I have been approaching it like this:
Considering I pay between 100-150 Euro to buy official LEGO models with 1000+ bricks, and seen better deals on entire models, I would calculate buying new LEGO sets I pay about 6 to 12 cents per brick depending on whether it's an awesome deal or an official high LEGO price.
With my Bricklink stores search, I keep ending up with 6-7 different stores and a total price between 150 and 200+, excluding shipping and whatever other fees. Editing the details, I see each store clearly giving good deals on 1 part and ripping us off on another. So far the only way to get out of that was manually pick shops, but then I ended up with 12 stores and would lose the gains on more shipping fees and extra hassle.
When I create carts, things add up fast with between 7 and 15 Eur shipping per store, and some seemingly affordable stores adding as much as 60+ Euros "picking fees".
So if I look at the grand total, all this would add up to a total of about 0,70 Eur or more per brick. I've repeatedly done the store selection over the past weeks but my deals barely got any better than this.

Okay to keep a long story short... I am not questioning prices being fair or not, but I'd like to know if my experiences are just a matter of an unlucky combination of parts I'm after, or if it is completely normal to pay an average of 60-70 cents per brick on Bricklink orders while a new LEGO set costs 6-12 cents per brick?
(Note: I checked price info on Bricklink and majority of bricks I picked have average prices between 3 and 25 cents and plenty of offers, with only a few exceptions)

[MAB]

Don't use the easy buy, instead go to the next page and look at the stores it is selecting. It will try to minimise the number of stores, but that tends to favour larger stores that charge higher prices. Least favourite any stores you think are over charging, then run the wants list search again.

As for the pricing, remember these are hand picked orders, and the seller is not working for free. And if you are wanting more in-demand pieces, these will cost more than low demand pieces. The price you pay for parts on bricklink really depends on supply and demand. Many parts cost a few cents but some will be much higher. It really depends what you are buying.

I cannot say I have ever seen picking fees of 60 Euro. But least favourite that store and select again.

[JesseNight]

Thanks for the tips, the "least favoriting" helps a lot to blacklist stores for myself.
Maybe I should look if there's any LEGO sets that I may be cheaper off buying to cover a fair amount of missing pieces. Though I don't fully trust Rebrickable on suggested LEGO sets, bc first it says buying a certain set would cover 70+% of my missing pieces, and when I set that exact set as being owned, I suddenly have only less than 30% of pieces covered.

Honestly I'm not sure what to do with all this. I'm not willing to spend 200+ Eur just to "fix" (offcolor replacements) and only slightly update a 150 Eur new set. And right now I've spent so much time on Rebrickable and Bricklink... time I would rather be spending building stuff 

[JesseNight]

After a long struggle, my first orders for a fair amount of bricks are out. Fingers crossed that all is going well, already got a mail about 1 part being out of stock which can happen, but sucks if I can't add it to the other orders anymore and have to pay another €10 shipping for a missing €0,30 part.

Now I'm looking ahead into new projects and I'm stuck with another question.
Rebrickable has this very neat feat where you can hit "Build this MOC" and compare its inventory with parts lists or sets you already own and filter out just the missing pieces. However I am looking at a MOC that doesn't come from Rebrickable and only have a XML parts list that I uploaded to Bricklink as a Wanted List.
Does Bricklink have a feat to compare with owned sets hidden somewhere too? Or does Rebrickable perhaps have an option to upload a parts list for comparison? Obviously I cannot upload the MOC because it is not mine to publish. Nor do I have contact info of the owner. And it's a couple thousand pieces so manual comparison is definitely not an option.

[Edit] Think I found my answer. Uploading the parts as a custom list on Rebrickable gave me the option to "Build this" and compare parts just like public MOCs.

Edited January 31 by JesseNight