MAB

This is where experience / knowledge helps. Although the language used in part titles sometimes varies, knowing what search terms are likely to appear can make it easy to identify prints relatively quickly. If I get anything like that and I don't know what it is, I usually identify the parent part type, then first go to colour, then part type, then see how many parts there are of that part type. If I can identify the shape of the part, I use that. If lots of parts are still possible, then I search for keywords, if not (so a page or less) then I go by eye. I can usually find most unidentified printed parts in under a minute.

If you want multiples of the same characters, then you are welcome to them, especially at that price! I'll buy some for parts when reduced to 50% off.

It shouldn't be too time consuming, if you know how to use bricklink searches efficiently. You don't really even need to find rarer parts or prints to do this, common parts work if you have some that are stuck together. For example, if you find two or three parts connected together, then the multiple search will help with this: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogIn.asp?viewMulti=Y Choose two or three parts that you can identify easily and enter both the part and colour for each, and you will get a list of the sets that those three parts appear in. Even for three relatively common bricks, the lists are surprisingly short. However, if you can identify one less common part, often the list is very short. For example, if you find two of these on top of one of these then they appear to be relatively common parts. The lime green 1x1 slopes are in 82 sets and the white 2x2 slope is in 366 sets. 82 is a large number of sets to start looking through. Yet together, those two quite common and easy to identify parts occur in only 8 sets and you can quickly and easily check the set pictures to spot that combination, or start to look for other common parts that they are connected to that will restrict the search. If you have five or six reasonably common parts connected together (and it is a real set) then chances are you can identify the set unambiguously using a couple of multiple parts searches. Of course, this will only help if there are remnants of sets with some parts still connected.

It is probably easier to not give him any alcohol references. After all, Homer drinks beer, thinks about beer, makes beer and advertises beer, yet they still made him.

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.