Being a Bricklink Shop Owner

[Dragon Master]

Hello,

My question goes out to large bricklink sellers (no not buyers JP ) I think the only one here is Troy. Is it possible to survive off selling LEGO as a full time job? I'm not seriously considering dropping out of school and trying (plus I don't have nearly enough capital to start), but still it would be nice to know.

I think UBL (Used Brick Liquidators {famously known for chewed and cloned bricks} on Bricklink & Ebay) actually has a large staff, and a huge warehouse.

Thanks,

DM

[Jojo]

Hello!

I think UBL (Used Brick Liquidators {famously known for chewed and cloned bricks} on Bricklink & Ebay)

What are you speaking about......?




Bye
Jojo

[medib]

I would say that there still is too many big bricklink sellers to do overly
well. The amount of sellers has relatively grown in the last couple years,
but the amount of bricks sold on Bricklink by the big sellers has increased
10 fold.

I was surprised at the amount of sellers selling in excess of 1 million bricks.
There was a time when Troy was in the top 3 of sellers, (his current inventory
is at 550,000 bricks).

So we have a basic market saturation of bricks. I don't even want to think
about the amount of brick available on Ebay.

However, on the buyers side, I think there hasn't been to much decrease
in noticable sales. Despite the fire and brimstone attitude of the users
on Lugnet that they haven't bought too much, sales, at least at my
small, meager Brickshop have been, at worst, steady.

A plus or negativilty, depending on how you look at it, is the decrease
in the amount of retail space for Lego in stores. This leads to an
increase demand for brick on-line, and it allows for discount bricks
sooner, if you can find them first.

If you are serious about selling fulltime, you need to get your bricks
at wholesale, if you can. Also, like any other business venture,
make sure you have a solid business plan and the financial backing
to follow through.

Sorry if this was a bit long, but I hope it helped.
Ben Medinets

[Asterios]

Hello!

I think UBL (Used Brick Liquidators {famously known for chewed and cloned bricks} on Bricklink & Ebay)

What are you speaking about......?




Bye
Jojo

jojo i have spent well over $5K in the past 3 months at UBL's shop and i have gotten nothing but quality "Used" goods and have nothing to complain about,what you got was evidently one of the few flukes and if you were so disatisfied why didn't you leave a neg.? from what i have discovered is alot of European buyers don't like UBL because he will not commit a felony and lie on a customs form.

[SavaTheAggie]

jojo i have spent well over $5K in the past 3 months at UBL's shop and i have gotten nothing but quality "Used" goods and have nothing to complain about,what you got was evidently one of the few flukes and if you were so disatisfied why didn't you leave a neg.? from what i have discovered is alot of European buyers don't like UBL because he will not commit a felony and lie on a customs form.

I don't think Jojo is alone in his displeasure with UBL.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=100424

--Anthony

[Asterios]

jojo i have spent well over $5K in the past 3 months at UBL's shop and i have gotten nothing but quality "Used" goods and have nothing to complain about,what you got was evidently one of the few flukes and if you were so disatisfied why didn't you leave a neg.? from what i have discovered is alot of European buyers don't like UBL because he will not commit a felony and lie on a customs form.

I don't think Jojo is alone in his displeasure with UBL.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=100424

--Anthony

while i agree your parts do look shabby i'm willing to bet you got em last year when he had some disreputable individuals working for him.

but as it goes i've seen worse from other BL sellers and one really has me peeved i paid some high prices for some LT. Grey and half the order was Bley :evil: :evil: ,but anyway most of my orders have been from this year and the quality is alot better then what i got last year and another thing i like about them is their willingness to fix any problem with order. and if you wonder why they never seem to have many brown log walls if any its cause i always buy them

[mcrankinchuk]

Hello!

I think UBL (Used Brick Liquidators {famously known for chewed and cloned bricks} on Bricklink & Ebay)

What are you speaking about......?




Bye
Jojo

jojo i have spent well over $5K in the past 3 months at UBL's shop and i have gotten nothing but quality "Used" goods and have nothing to complain about,what you got was evidently one of the few flukes and if you were so disatisfied why didn't you leave a neg.? from what i have discovered is alot of European buyers don't like UBL because he will not commit a felony and lie on a customs form.

He's not sour about customs stuff. He's sour about the bricks. I received a $10 coupon a couple of weeks ago and I promptly used it. I checked the feedback before I ordered just to see what type of service I could expect. No negatives and just a few neutrals. The neutrals consisted of people mentioning clone bricks and badly damaged bricks.

Obviously, I didn't care because it was free. I placed my order and waited. Got my bricks just a few days later. The speed was amazing and I am thankful to get the coupon. However, the reputation lived on. A third of the parts I received were discolored, bitten or cloned. I posted positive feedback because it was free. Of course I mentioned the clones.

UBL is great for people who don't really care about the condition of the bricks. I respect them for being so generous to BL members with the coupons...but I doubt I'll be buying from them with my money. Just because of the clones.

[erikut]

so the Used Brick Liquidators are pretty knowne eh? anyone else got this mail

Used Brick Liquidators would like to welcome you to Bricklink. We would like to
give you $10 of free Lego and Free shipping no strings attached. We ask that
you place your order by Wed. We have over 1000 customers and would like to have
you as one as well in the future. We have over 9000 lbs of Lego in our
warehouse and will be uploading about 2 million parts a week from Monday. We
wish you the best here on Bricklink. If you have any questions about the
validity of this offer you only have to email us or visit us in chat. Note:
When placing order it doesn't matter what payment method you pick for we will
not charge you. In the notes box before submitting your order you need only
type "new to BL" and we will make sure you are not charged for anything. Just
click on the link below and it will take you to our store. We promise you will
be happy.
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=UBL

I thaugth at the beginning when i saw it i was going to order something but i was too lat when i read it, i taugth it was some cind of joke or spam but i replyed and was wondering if i could get the chase again but now as ive seen what you hav gotten i may not.

erik

[Asterios]

yes out of his order i did get a couple of clones and some really chewed ones but when you order 5K of one type and get a dozen screwed up ones,i consider myself ahead of the game considering they are a used brick store believe me i've gotten worse off of other sellers on BL and much worse off of eBay.

[Dragonlord Esq.]

I got the $10 free LEGO bricks email, too. I went to UBL and ordered ten dollars worth of LEGOs, and what do you know- they sent the order free! I've got no complaints.

[Troy]

Rick,

As I have told you before, you really should inform people that you work for UBL when you are making these types of statements.

Troy

[Asterios]

Rick,

As I have told you before, you really should inform people that you work for UBL when you are making these types of statements.

Troy

actually Troy i no longer work for him and haven't for the past few weeks and all i ever did for him was computer related not customer relations so

[Dragonlord Esq.]

actually Troy i no longer work for him and haven't for the past few weeks and all i ever did for him was computer related not customer relations so

I help people with their computers too, but I still can't talk crap about their companies.

[Asterios]

not talking Crap,anyway one of my favorite sellers is Morten
at http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=torquay i've spent a few thousand with him on Castle related items like helmets and shields and weapons,but i don't work for him and never have anybody i speak well of are people i've done business with and have been very pleased with,my work with tim at UBL was for 2 weeks and was strictly limited to computer work nothing more or less,my work with him is done,if i start getting garbage from him then i will say so but overall i have been happy with what i got from him and any problems he has corrected.