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Most BL stores are run by people who love Lego and don't care if they barely make enough to stay afloat.
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Jan 16, 2012 16:18
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smackfu posted:I'm surprised it makes financial sense for someone to sell an order of 150+ separate parts from an inventory of thousands, for a quarter or so each. You'd think inventory management and the picking times would make it an under minimum wage job. It depends on volume and organization. I think it's probably less the order fulfillment time and more the tiny profit per brick that would make it almost worthless. I'm guess the ridiculously overpriced things (minifigs, etc) probably help balance that out, though. It's definitely not a business I'd want to get into, though.
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Jan 16, 2012 16:26
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Arggg, now I'm spending too much time on this. Someone write a program that uses my parts wish list and queries all of the stores and says "buy these parts from these stores and save the most". Luckily it's a slow day at work. (no seriously this is awesome and I'd be a lot poorer had I found this a few years ago) E: Ok, so another question. I'm trying to build a wanted list with 2+ sets on Bricklink. I used the option "Add to Existing Wanted List", and then go through the rest of the steps. When I'm finished, I have multiple wanted lists with the same name. One contains all the parts from the first set with quantities adjusted for both sets. The second list has only parts/quantities that are unique to the second set that I added. This continues for multiple sets. Is this a quirk of the site or am I missing an option somewhere?  , I thought I found the setting that does what I want but no. I just want to merge 2-3 sets into one wanted list. I don't want to see "2x of piece A in set 1" and "4x of piece A in set 2", I want to see "you need 6x of piece A to complete your list".E: Ok, calmer now. At least when I go to shops I see the total quantity that I need. Shin-chan fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jan 16, 2012 |
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Jan 16, 2012 16:51
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Gots me a sweet grey alien, the roman Soldier, and the greaser mechanic all picking by random...did get a crappy flamenco lady tho 
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Jan 16, 2012 19:12
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I'm thinking of picking up those S6 minifigs. Do you just basically buy them blind and hope you get something cool?
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Jan 16, 2012 20:00
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Quantum of Phallus posted:I'm thinking of picking up those S6 minifigs. Do you just basically buy them blind and hope you get something cool? Or you can fondle the bags and try to identify specific stuff that you want. It's pretty easy in some cases. Like the tool box for the greaser or the roman shield are pretty easy to pick out.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:02
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How do you people find out when stuff is on sale at Target or wherever? I tend to wander by the lego departments whenever I am in a store that has one, and nothing is EVER on sale.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:11
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AlternateAccount posted:How do you people find out when stuff is on sale at Target or wherever? I tend to wander by the lego departments whenever I am in a store that has one, and nothing is EVER on sale. Subscribe to their mailing lists. It's less obvious with target but when something is on sale at TRU it's almost always right there in the email, you don't even have to open up the digital flier.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:22
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AlternateAccount posted:How do you people find out when stuff is on sale at Target or wherever? I tend to wander by the lego departments whenever I am in a store that has one, and nothing is EVER on sale. http://toysnbricks.com/ I use this site and registered to see the forums for my country, it works pretty well for keeping me up to date on whats on sale and where.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:27
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Shin-chan posted:Arggg, now I'm spending too much time on this. Someone write a program that uses my parts wish list and queries all of the stores and says "buy these parts from these stores and save the most". Sometimes I make a spreadsheet with the stores with the highest quantities on the left, and a dozen parts along the top, then fill it in with prices. Then colour the cells with the highest and lowest prices (red/green), and whichever store has the most green squares WINS! You can then grey out parts as you order them. I'm trying to price out the Cafe Corner right now, and there is no way this is going to work for that many pieces. I'd need to do a sampling of well over a dozen pieces.
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Jan 16, 2012 20:47
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AlternateAccount posted:How do you people find out when stuff is on sale at Target or wherever? I tend to wander by the lego departments whenever I am in a store that has one, and nothing is EVER on sale. Target/Walmart tend to have separate clearance sections
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Jan 16, 2012 20:50
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 I love that people are still picking on the friends line, my only 'problem' with them after handling them is the minidolls
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Jan 16, 2012 20:53
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PeePot posted:Sometimes I make a spreadsheet with the stores with the highest quantities on the left, and a dozen parts along the top, then fill it in with prices. Then colour the cells with the highest and lowest prices (red/green), and whichever store has the most green squares WINS! You can then grey out parts as you order them. This is a good idea, and I'm going to have to do something with my own spreadsheet at this point. I need to go through my spare parts as well and inventory what I have. I feel like bricklink, peeron, etc, are all "good" tools, they just aren't great tools. I really could use an export to csv option on each of those sites, I don't really want to type out a spreadsheet with "a million parts". The computer programmer in me knows that I could whip up a good database/web tool to do what I want, but I just want to build Lego sets! I think everyone is trying to price out Cafe Corner (  ) right now.I'm also finding that some parts are cheaper pick-a-brick from Lego, although I'm waiting on some color confirmations to make sure that, for example, what Bricklink calls "Dark Blue" is what Lego calls "Earth Blue". I went off this guide: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Color_Palette I just need to breathe, I'm all excited about this and I need to take it one step at a time. The original modular building idea didn't sink with me right away, nor did I have money at the time to get them. My interest was piqued when I saw the Fire Brigade in the Lego store, but only recently being able to afford it, I'd like to go back and get the other sets.Shin-chan fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jan 16, 2012 |
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Jan 16, 2012 21:29
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I've given up on the idea of getting Green Grocer or Cafe Corner. I nearly punted for a Green Grocer a few hours ago, having been made a really good offer (still under the 10p / brick rule, with instructions and box) but then I realised that for the same price, I could get a couple of new big sets instead. Realistically, I'm not going to be able to afford Cafe Corner any time soon (and then where does it stop? Do you get Market Street just for completion, even though I don't like it as much?), so I realised it didn't make much sense to get Green Grocer at double its original price either. I really like the look of Green Grocer, but then I really like the look of Joust, the new modulars, and a bunch of the Creator Houses too. I hope this is a 'mature' decision and not one that I'll come to rue...
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Jan 16, 2012 21:36
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smackfu posted:I'm surprised it makes financial sense for someone to sell an order of 150+ separate parts from an inventory of thousands, for a quarter or so each. You'd think inventory management and the picking times would make it an under minimum wage job. I was actually thinking about this last night as I ordered the last few pieces I needed to complete the 4x4 Off Roader. I've got a stupid amount of parts now. Some of them, like the Cafe Corner doors and the Joker minifig are worth real money. It's definitely worth it to me to eBay those things separately. But then I think of all the other parts that are worth $1.00 or $2.50 or I don't know because I don't know the part's actual value. I could probably make a mint selling it out piecemeal. But I don't want to. The sheer amount of time it would take just to enter these pieces on Bricklink, much less create a store, price the items competitively, and actually physically move those pieces from the bin to the mailbox is an undertaking of time that isn't worth it.
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Jan 16, 2012 22:00
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Shin-chan posted:This is a good idea, and I'm going to have to do something with my own spreadsheet at this point. I need to go through my spare parts as well and inventory what I have. I installed this a while ago, but didn't really play with it. I'm surprised it's only been mentioned once in this thread. http://www.brickforge.de/software/brickstore/ I've only bought the Grand Emporium, and the others don't really scream out to me, but it would be kind of fun to see if I could gradually amass the pieces for the Cafe Corner. I have no problems just settling for the Mini-Modulars.
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Jan 16, 2012 22:02
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PeePot posted:I've only bought the Grand Emporium, and the others don't really scream out to me, but it would be kind of fun to see if I could gradually amass the pieces for the Cafe Corner. I have no problems just settling for the Mini-Modulars. Until petshop was released the roof was the largest piece number/hardest to get for cafe corner and even with the pet shop released it won't lower the cost that much but at least lego is making it so you can call in and order it from lego directly for a lot less then the lego direct price. http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=100702&colorID=59 seriously, $1 for a roof tile and you need 36 for cafe corner
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Jan 16, 2012 22:25
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Lately I've been thinking of getting out of Lego again. I have a good sized collection and never have any time to do anything with it plus I'm running out of room to store it all. I might sell off the majority of it and just keep the minifig collections and a few smaller sets.
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Jan 16, 2012 22:33
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Again implies you've been out before, the fact that you're talking about selling means you got more once you came back. That you'll come back again is the obvious assumption, which means the logical course of action is to simply pack it up well, store what you do have, and stop buying any more. 
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Jan 16, 2012 23:00
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Head's up if you got nothing better to do on a Saturday night than watch TV and play with Lego: National Geographic Channel will be showing Ultimate Factories: LEGO Saturday, Jan 21st @ 8quote:08:00 PM to 09:00 PM The series usually focuses on a single product in a line (BMW M5, Porche Panamera, Coca-Cola, etc.), so I'm guessing it will focus on the design and manufacture of the 7498 Police Station, based on that blurb. "I gotta Build & Watch! It's an immersive mixed-media interactive experience!" Is a good excuse for dumping money on Lego, right?
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Jan 16, 2012 23:13
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Torael_7 posted:Again implies you've been out before, the fact that you're talking about selling means you got more once you came back. That you'll come back again is the obvious assumption, which means the logical course of action is to simply pack it up well, store what you do have, and stop buying any more. No, shut up, don't listen to him, guy. You should sell that poo poo. To us.
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Jan 16, 2012 23:20
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is there some website or tool that lets you enter which sets you have and then spits out which other sets you can make with the parts? i need inspiration. sort of like the pictures of alternative build on the back of old lego boxes, i guess. i know that peeron lets you check if you can build specific sets from the parts you have, but i don't really want to check a bunch of random sets.
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Jan 16, 2012 23:22
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Merchant of Death posted:Until petshop was released the roof was the largest piece number/hardest to get for cafe corner and even with the pet shop released it won't lower the cost that much but at least lego is making it so you can call in and order it from lego directly for a lot less then the lego direct price. Might as well go for just "Red" instead of "Dark Red" and it will cost you like half the price?
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Jan 16, 2012 23:30
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ruebennase posted:is there some website or tool that lets you enter which sets you have and then spits out which other sets you can make with the parts? http://www.rebrickable.com It also lets you search some MOCs as well.
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Jan 16, 2012 23:38
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MinionOfCthulhu posted:No, shut up, don't listen to him, guy. You should sell that poo poo. To us. I'm just trying to save a fellow AFOL from himself, ok? I've been there...well, with "parents sold my poo poo" instead of "I quit and sold it" Same thing though, sort of!
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Jan 16, 2012 23:39
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This thread just got so poopsocky. Its just lego and y'alls treating it like its a job.
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Jan 16, 2012 23:48
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CADPAT posted:Might as well go for just "Red" instead of "Dark Red" and it will cost you like half the price? you can also go for dark red 2x4 slopes instead and they cost next to nothing. It is just the sillyness that is supply and demade and the modulars got popular due to the inflated prices that the cost for a few parts is silly. its like the door, light blueish gray is $25 but light gray is .50
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Jan 16, 2012 23:53
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Shroud posted:http://www.rebrickable.com awesome, thanks.
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Jan 17, 2012 00:07
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Merchant of Death posted:
The community's working on it... Personally I think they clean up pretty well. (not mine)  From here. The stock hands were cut off, and the peg removed from a normal minifig hand. Then the minidoll arm and the wrist of the hand were drilled out to accept a piece of paper clip for the connection between them. Looks good if you ask me. And now I need to brush up on my miniature painting skills.
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Jan 17, 2012 00:33
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Thanks space channel for playing stargate so much that I recognize who that was without any effort. I still like the general effort put into the friends set and the brick selection and colours so the minidolls don't bother me when everything else is done well.
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Jan 17, 2012 00:40
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Shuppiluliumas posted:The community's working on it... Personally I think they clean up pretty well. (not mine) Can't wait for Teal'c
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Jan 17, 2012 00:46
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beato posted:The next logical step from the bag build... Hate to say it but that idea is so going to be stolen for a neat little Valentines day present for my wife, time to hit up the ole Lego bin to nab all the pieces. Edit: Well since my bin is a huge mess I think ordering these might be easier, unfortunately I have not use Bricklink before and I have no idea how to even search for the basic 2x2, 2x4 and the slanted brick, can anybody give me a hand with this. Point me in the right direction so I do not feel so dumb. Rythe fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jan 17, 2012 |
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Jan 17, 2012 02:45
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All my issues with the Friends line evaporated as soon as I saw a little hedgehog manning a ball turret.
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Jan 17, 2012 02:52
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^^^ Glad I could contribute something! beato posted:The next logical step from the bag build... Meant to comment on these before. The woman who does them is pretty cool. She's come to a couple of our LUG meetings. The display she had at BrickFair was really well-done. She brought her models, and the tools needed to make them, as well as a monitor playing time lapse footage of her building the ship. She even had a set-up where you could try to make the heart yourself.
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Jan 17, 2012 02:56
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Went out this afternoon in hopes of grabbing S6 and/or some Batman sets. No luck on either account but I did grab the City garbage truck. It's a groovy little set with quite a few cool new parts. Y'all should definitely pick it up if you haven't already.
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Jan 17, 2012 03:27
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SynthOrange posted:All my issues with the Friends line evaporated as soon as I saw a little hedgehog manning a ball turret. My remaining problems with them stem more from problems with Target (and I noticed the other day Wal-Mart too) putting them in the pink stuff aisle far away from the regular Lego aisle, unlike Toys R Us who has the sense to put Friends sets in the Lego aisle because they are goddamn Lego sets. I'm still not sure if I'll buy any, but if I do it won't be from Target or Wal-Mart.
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Jan 17, 2012 04:30
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I debated buying some Friends sets today, but I couldn't pull the trigger. I would buy all the Friends sets I could if those were regular minifigs with new hair pieces and clothing patterns.
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Jan 17, 2012 04:39
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GidgetNomates posted:My remaining problems with them stem more from problems with Target (and I noticed the other day Wal-Mart too) putting them in the pink stuff aisle far away from the regular Lego aisle, unlike Toys R Us who has the sense to put Friends sets in the Lego aisle because they are goddamn Lego sets. I'm still not sure if I'll buy any, but if I do it won't be from Target or Wal-Mart. I wouldn't be so quick to write off Target and Walmart, Toys R Us is just as bad.
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Jan 17, 2012 04:51
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Cthulu Carl posted:Head's up if you got nothing better to do on a Saturday night than watch TV and play with Lego: National Geographic Channel will be showing Ultimate Factories: LEGO Saturday, Jan 21st @ 8 Already up on YouTube (possibly a rebroadcast of old episod based on YouTube post date? Either way, watching it now, looks cool.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wKt4WkAMgM Kabong fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Jan 17, 2012 |
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Jan 17, 2012 05:57
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Kabong posted:Already up on YouTube (possibly a rebroadcast of old episod based on YouTube post date? Either way, watching it now, looks cool.): It's VERY cool, and a handy propaganda tool to get people to take this poo poo seriously. It's very surprising to see middle-aged businessmen get so drat uptight about toys.
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Jan 17, 2012 06:05
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