MAB

They are also being branded as 'Queen'.

Yeah, I sold probably 75+ yellow, white and pink astronauts in the first couple of months after release (on BL). The Benny's took a bit longer to shift but still went.

That polar bear would look great with the Atlantis Hammerhead head inside instead, maybe with a fish (or the bunny above).

I cannot see pirates fans being happy with constraction sets, "wasting" pirates sets on large buildable dolls. I cannot see any minfiigure based theme fans being happy with constraction sets. If they want to do constraction again, then better that they do some abstract / new theme, rather than trying to combine it with an existing one. They have done it with licensed themes such as SH and SW. They have done it with unlicensed such as Chima. Presumably they know if fans want the buildable dolls that recreate a particular character by now. I think they make sense for themes like Bionicle and Hero Factory, but for themes where a specific character is made then a regular non-LEGO doll (or action figure if you prefer) looks better and is often more playable than a buildable one.

I usually try to get a lot of the same at the time they are cheap, then skip a few variations. Then build another squadron when ready. If apart the differences are not so noticeable. Also, you can try partnering with another person(s). If they want newer versions and you want older, then trade your new versions for their older ones.

Yeah, although the same is true for (current) movie based sets, once the movie goes from being in theaters and out of the consciousness of the buying public. In terms of LEGENDS, I think he is correct and that LEGO employees have said as much in the past, more than just fan speculation. Personally, I don't think the modern colours are any worse than the old colours and changing, for example, old dark grey for modern DBG would really make much difference to the sales. However, the problem comes in the molds. If they replace old hinges for new ones, or change the arch designs and so on, then to me that is bigger than a slight colour change. Of course if you need old greys to restore an old set (where BL comes in very useful) then colour changes are important. But for a newly released version of a set, less so. However, if the design needs to be changed to work around the difference of modern and old parts, then in my view they are better off forgetting the old designs, and just designing a decent new set from scratch. While it is unlikely that they will re-do old sets, LEGO has been providing things like the Classic Space printed slopes, the Benny squad for army building Classic Space people. They clearly already know there is demand to do things like this and hopefully them mining data at BL will mean they continue to provide us with modern "vintage" parts if not sets.

Yes, now the movie is gone from cinemas, most TLM2 sets are discounted. Does clearly the remaining stock mean it sold poorly? If it does, the HP advent calendars also sold badly - I just picked some up at 60% off.

I got the impression that this sold very well, but being the smallest of the sets there were loads made. I think just about every AFOL and most LEGO-loving families I know has at least one copy of the set.

No, I am using mainly feedback at BL and years of experience at BL as both a buyer and a seller. Bad / scam sellers do not last long at BL.

Yes, it would be good to add other languages but even that can add problems too. BL is essentially a venue for individual sellers and buyers. While some orders are possible without any communication, I find often some communication is necessary for many, even if that is in a description of condition or similar. The problem then is which language should be used? If the buyer was presented the items in their own language at the time of purchase, should the seller have to communicate in the buyer's language? Or should the seller be allowed to state which language(s) they can communicate in and then it is up to the buyer to decide whether this is important or not before buying?

So if one person does something bad and swaps out genuine LEGO for fake, does that mean everyone selling LEGO, everywhere, is also fraudulent? You seem to think so. Even though many BL sellers have years of experience and 100s or 1000s of feedback from customers that have also purchased 100s or 1000s of times, they must be fraudulent as it is possible to open boxes and replace parts almost invisibly. Due to your paranoia, I do not think you should use BL, ebay, amazon, etc. Even LEGO.com sell returns. Just stick to the LEGO store and make sure that you inspect the boxes carefully before paying. They also accept returns, so you might want to keep receipts and open boxes as soon as possible and inspect them.

They did try to add some form of Chinese, and some of the help pages got translated. I don't read it, so I cannot say if it is any good.

They could have done all that without buying BL. I imagine they bought it to expand the AFOL-designed sets program, which they collaborated with BL on. It was that program that got them working with BL closer than they had ever done in the past.

Decent sets and a not-so-well performing movie are a great combination. It means the sets go cheap for parts!

So how many bricklink orders have you placed? And how many of those were fraudulent? You are incredibly negative about other people. There are many sellers on bricklink with many years, in some cases more than a decade, of experience selling both new and used LEGO. Each seller has a feedback record where it would show if a seller was selling fakes, or was selling boxes that had been opened and the contents removed, or the bags had been opened and the minifigures stolen. And yet you think most sellers on BL are out to rip people off. Why don't you just stick to buying from LEGO only. You will miss out on the opportunity of buying what you want if you want things that LEGO does not sell, you will miss out on better deals from amazon and other companies, but at least you will know you have dealt only with LEGO. LEGO also accept returns by the way. None of this is a problem if you open the sets then inform the seller if there is a problem.

The lack of stock of the promotional set put me off buying the Batmobile set. The set isn't going anywhere, so I'll wait and buy it when there is another offer.

I don't think it is anything to do with warfare. I think LEGO will ban brickarms custom items from bricklink because they are not LEGO. Why have non-LEGO on an official LEGO site? And in that sense they should ban all custom made items, whether they are guns, cloaks or train track. I guess we'll have to wait and see what this really means. Are they just removing the brickarms section from the catalogue, or are they going to stop all customs from being listed as using the "custom item" . After all, you can still have custom items made from genuine LEGO (so for example, a monochrome figure, or a job lot of cheap figures or a 1kg bag of unsorted parts). Something like that has been here for years ... https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/forum/16-buy-sell-trade-and-finds/

At what point did you decide they were not going to pay? Presumably if they were doing this to wreck your shop, then they were doing it anonymously so using a new account. If I have a (0) feedback buyer and they haven't paid, I typically start the NPB on day 7 and return the parts to my stock then. Sure, the buyer might pay and I run that risk, but then I could still cancel their order anyway if the parts had sold to someone else. Granted if it was 1000s of parts then re-adding them is a pain, especially if I had sold other items since as I could not go back to a back-up inventory. Instant checkout is great when it works, but there are problems with it. For example, it fails if the dimension or weight of just one of the parts is missing and the shipping method is volume or weight bound, respectively. If I placed an order at a store and it did not go through IC because of that, and the order reverted to a quote instead of an order, and then a single part was sold out in the meantime, then the quote is cancelled. The whole cart is lost. If that happened to me as a buyer, then I think I would least favourite the store as they have wasted my time. Imagine that 4000 piece order that a buyer has taken hours putting together. If one part doesn't have the dimensions (and the shipping rate is volume bound) then they cannot use instant checkout. They place their order late at night thinking it is done. Then another of the parts goes to of stock due to another order and before you even know about the order/quote, it is automatically cancelled as you can no longer fulfill it. The buyer will rightly be annoyed, and it is down to you for not checking all your parts had dimensions when you listed them for sale. I've had IC fail on me like that many times and I end up having to wait for an invoice. But my order was safe as it was an order and not a quote. Similarly if they did not have a shipping method set up that matched my order exactly (be it my location, volume, order value, etc), it would default to quote and there is the possibility that the parts are bought by someone else while I wait for the seller to quote. Again, I'd least favourite the store if they wasted my time if the quote got cancelled while I waited for them to process it. There are many reasons IC fails for specific orders. Especially if it is a busy store, using quotes instead of orders runs the risk of orders being automatically cancelled and that is bad for buyers. And if it is the sellers fault for not having shipping methods for every location, for every order weight and volume, for every order value, and I lost an order because of it, then as I say, I'd least favourite them as they are time wasters. Personally, I don't think I have enemies on BL that have purposely placed malicious orders with the intention of not paying. I have had buyers that have changed their mind and some that have not communicated at all, but I don't think I have been targeted and especially not multiple times. I imagine the amount of times an order leads to an NPB is smaller than the amount of times IC doesn't work for a particular order because it has not been set up for all occurences. Personally, I think there are better ways of addressing it. So shorter times for NPB, and allowing a seller to cancel quicker.

(1) Easily (LEGO heat seals the bags in the first place) and (2) it isn't impossible, it is easy. If you don't know the exact dimensions a bag should be, then you would not notice one that had been opened and resealed.

Yes, presumably as both themes were still quite generic in that if you remove the fleshie minifigures and replace them with yellow ones, then it still had the vibes of being decent non-licensed pirates and western sets, respectively.

I don't have to wait. I simply ignore your order, and upload my backup again. Then after 7 days I NPB you, then I complete that NPB in a further 14 days if you have replied to it. Although if you purchase the entire store, BL admins will cancel the order and block the ID once you are reported for wrecking a store so it will be quicker. If this is such a big issue, how many times has this happened to you? I don't think they can shut down the secondary market. So they might as well have access to as much information as possible about the secondary market as they can (to increase their own sales) and by buying the biggest secondary market site, that is exactly what they have.

It would be great if all sellers had instant checkout. But alongside that, it would be great if all sellers also supplied all parts that were paid for or informed buyers if parts that had been paid for were not in stock. As both a buyer and seller, I find that issue is far bigger than receiving bogus orders that do not get paid. Making instant checkout compulsory also forces all sellers to use paypal for all orders (or whatever other payment systems BL might want to implement) which many sellers (especially in the Eurozone) would not like. IBAN is not instant, it can take a few minutes to hours, longer for international. What happens in your system if a seller says a buyer can pay with IBAN? Do the parts get removed when the seller approves the order? Or only when the seller confirms payment has been received? If the latter, then there is a chance that the seller agrees to accept IBAN, the buyer pays, then the parts sell to someone else before the seller marks the order as paid. If the former, then sellers will discriminate against new users, refusing orders if they have no feedback. But again, I don't really find it is an issue. If a seller gives decent shipping tables and so the buyer has a good idea of the costs before placing the order, I find that probably less than 1 in 50 non-instant checkout orders go unpaid.

I have had it happen. If you believe it is a bogus order, then you can report the ID to the admins. If the ID has made a few large purchases (that is, targetting others as well) and none have been paid then it will be banned and the orders cancelled and any feedback from the bogus account removed. Alternatively, if you believe it is a bogus order then start the NPB after 7 days. But in the meantime, if you are sure it is a bogus order then you can just upload the parts/sets in the order again to make them available. And how do you expect this to change under LEGO? Do you expect them to remove customer rights? So for example, they could allow a seller to instantly cancel any order if they like, and stop the buyer leaving any feedback. That would not be good for customers.

That is looking good. This hair is probably better for Hyde. And maybe add some popsicles. The table needs to look more like a cable drum, adding another disk at the base would do this. You could also do with a yellow helmet for the "stupid helmet" for on the speaker. Plus you need a shower curtain (maybe a couple of cloaks) near the door.

BRICKLINK DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY, IT'S FULL OF BUGS, IT'S NEARLY INACESSIBLE FROM MOBILE I agree it is poor on a mobile phone, but from a PC it works fine. There are outages (and too many of them) but when it is up it is perfectly fine from a computer. LEGO's website is rather poor on a phone too. But then many websites are poor on a small display. Especially any website where you typically have many items on screen at once, like a parts list. BRICKLINK HAS NO CURRENT WORKING HELP DESK Yes, the help desk is very slow, and that seems to be down to lack of resources / staff. BRICLINK HAS NEVER REFORMED THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM Which isn't working. People can virtually ransom your shop out of a negative feedback. (1 - make a bogus profile and place a very big order that you won't pay making all those pieces unbuyable for being sold to other people 2 - once upon order cancellation, you can still leave a negative feedback. 3 - repeat) That is not how it works. If you file a NPB then any negative feedback left by a buyer is automatically removed once the NPB is completed. BRICKLINK'S DATA ON AVERAGE PRICES CAN BE EASILY SPOILERED Within a policy that "everybody can make his own price", I can put a part in two lots, one at a low price, one at an incredibly high price (that I don't care to sell at) that will influence the future sales of people using the automated funcion "average price for sale" for part-outs making it sometimes pretty futile. This has been discussed so many times on the forum, but nothing has ever been made to fix that (like using a different average function, or a customizable one). This is only a problem if sellers insist on using the average currently listed price when parting out, that is base prices on items that have not actually sold. Personally, I prefer to base my prices on items that have sold, where the problem of high unrealistic prices is not such an issue. However, even then it is worth using common sense when parting out and not just automatically accepting averages. If it is a relatively new part, chances are the six month average price will have come down. If it is a currently in demand part, prices might have come up. If it is a minifigure or expensive part, it is worth checking prices individually. BRICKLINK RARELY (if never) HANDLES INCORRECT ITEM LISTING I disagree here. I have reported 100s like this over the years and they are removed. I reported some a couple of weeks ago and they are gone. INTERNET HISTORY IS FULL OF EXAMPLES IN WHICH PEOPLE ABANDONS A TECHNOLOGY IN FAVOUR OF ANOTHER BECAUSE PEOPLE MOVE I agree, if something better comes along, people move. However, BO although almost a copycat has not really dented BL's market dominance. Similarly there are examples where people stick with a technology because it kills competitors. Google, amazon, ebay, etc over the years there have been predictions that all will disappear to be taken over by something else. TLG SEEMS PERCEIVED AS EVIL Isn't TLG the one producing the stuff we love to play with? There is a difference between LEGO bricks and LEGO the company. I love the product, I don't love the company. They are poor when it comes to internet technology, predicting demand (new Batmobile set today ...?). I think their pricing has become a bit of a joke recently, in so much as I rarely buy at RRP. It seems they price items so they can be reduced. They have decent customer service, but it is not perfect. I think the big thing here though is that they think they can somehow own the fan (AFOL) community. They may say they are doing things for the fans, but in reality they are doing it to make more money. Of course, they are a business and that is their primary goal. I wait to see what they plan to do in changes to the terms of usage of BL. If they start to add in clauses such as using data for other purposes than processing bricklink sales, then I will opt out of my data being used in this way. If BL remains a separate company, then they should not be sharing personal data with LEGO, for example.