If you have been a long-time reader here, you may remember that a few years back we talked about a really helpful LEGO website and community called BrickPicker.com. You can read the article here: LEGO Investment Guide for Sellers & Collectors. BrickPicker is all about watching the price trends of LEGO sets on eBay with charts and other helpful details. There is a nice community of LEGO collectors and investors that use BrickPicker on a regular basis, so to facilitate their trading, BrickPicker launched a new service called Brick Classifieds. 🙂
While Brick Classifieds was naturally born out of the BrickPicker community wanting to trade with each other, it is not limited to BrickPicker members only. It is an alternative for all LEGO sellers who are tired of paying high commissions on LEGO set sold on eBay. And it is also great for buyers who are tired of inexperienced sellers offering poor service and shipping valuable LEGO sets wrapped in flimsy packaging. Right now the site is still small, but with time it can become a great addition to the online LEGO marketplace and a great option for both buyers and sellers.
Think of Brick Classifieds as the classifieds section of your local newspaper, but instead of “Help Wanted” or “Cars for Sale” ads, the ads are all based on LEGO sets for sale. Call it “target” advertising. Sellers can take advantage of a captive and interested audience, and buyers can benefit from purchasing from experienced LEGO resellers. In addition to the thousands of BrickPicker members, the Brick Classifieds site and listings will be advertised on major LEGO websites, Facebook, Twitter and numerous other internet search engines in order to promote them. This will be done to attract the casual LEGO fan looking for a deal on LEGO sets or who are looking to start their own LEGO reselling business.
Transactions at Brick Classifieds are done in a similar manner to other major LEGO secondary market sites. A seller lists an item. The buyer commits to buy that item. A PayPal transaction takes place. A small commission fee is paid to Brick Classifieds. Items are shipped quickly and properly. Buyer is happy. Feedback is left. Simple. As with anything, there are no guarantees that every transaction will be a positive one and Brick Picker defers to PayPal’s customer service in case of disputes on sales. As for possible issues with transactions from personal LEGO listings, there will be a Brick Classifieds simple feedback and rebuttal feature that will let members (buyers, sellers) rate transactions.
Brick Classifieds is still very new, so while every precaution has been taken to make sure the site works properly, there may be some occasional errors and issues. You can report any problems and also submit your ideas and suggestions on ways to improve Brick Classifieds and its features. To introduce the LEGO fan community to the Brick Classifieds marketplace, and to allow new sellers to test out the site, currently there are no fees to list your LEGO sets on Brick Classifieds. So if you have some LEGO for sale, you may want to give it a try. Below is the full press-release of Brick Classifieds with more information, and you can also check out BrickClassifieds.com.
Launch of New LEGO Marketplace to Buy and Sell LEGO Items
New Online LEGO marketplace offers community of professionals and limited time commission free sales
Few collector communities are growing more quickly than the exciting world of LEGO buying and reselling. However, for the true collector and seller, online marketplaces with knowledgeable members and premier LEGO sets are few. Now, there’s a new, cost-effective alternative that promises to be a conduit for some of the best LEGO items available – BrickClassifieds.com.
Brick Classifieds was created by the same team that developed Brickpicker.com, one of the Internet’s premier LEGO communities. Considered a definitive source of information on LEGO pricing, investing, deal finding and general information, BrickPicker has a membership approaching 40,000 that relies on the site for the best up to date information. Hearing their members’ lament for the need for an alternative marketplace that would cater to the most discerning collectors, investors, and resellers, brothers Jeff and Eddie Mack set to work. The result is Brick Classifieds.
While, as collectors, we will naturally use all available resources to find a great deal, general marketplaces such as Craigslist, Kijiji, Amazon and eBay are rife with inexperienced sellers and drop shippers – the unscrupulous examples of which will take your money and leave you to deal with unaffiliated wholesalers. The first advantage Brick Classifieds users will experience is the site’s connection to BrickPicker. Its thousands of users are highly experienced collectors and resellers that whose business depends on keeping impeccable reputations.
These types of sellers will ensure the very best in complete LEGO sets, parts, and minifigures are available. Collectible boxes, books and even manuals are also showcased for the hardcore collector. Meticulously categorized and featuring intuitive sorting tools, Brick Classifieds makes it easy to find whatever you may be looking for – be it a simple polybag minifigure or harder to find, highly collectible sets like those belonging to the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series. With every item, what you see will be what you get as all photos are of the actual item – no stock photos allowed. The site also boasts innovative features to make listing items easier than ever. With the eBay import feature, for example, you can instantly import a listing directly from eBay rather than having to make a new one. It’s the type of marketplace where a seller will be able to sell a #10179 LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon set without hassle or back-and-forth haggling – because the buyer knows the asking price will be fair and appropriate for what’s being offered.
Not satisfied to be ‘just another’ secondary LEGO marketplace, Brick Classifieds is bringing a new level of visibility to its users. Both the site and its listings will be posted on major LEGO websites, social media platforms, and search engines. This exposure will result in everyone from the casual hobbyist looking for a deal to the most savvy investors that are scouring the web heading directly to BrickClassifieds.com.
One of the largest complaints from sellers in the community is the ever increasing commission fees being levied. In other marketplaces, fees often increase with the price of the item, and at times there are even combination fees that sharply decrease the amount the seller receives in the end. In contrast, Brick Classifieds has a set, very low commission fee. This doesn’t only benefit the seller – due to not having revenue lost through high commission fees, sellers will offer lower prices to the buyer. And now, for a very limited time, Brick Classifieds is offering zero commission sales. While this exciting new marketplace is being perfected, sellers will be charged no commission fees at all.
With its knowledgeable community and structure designed to save buyers money and provide sellers with more revenue than ever, BrickClassifieds.com is poised to become the ultimate online LEGO marketplace.
If you are interested to check out what’s listed on Brick Classifieds, visit their website, and if you have something for sale, it is a good time to list those items now as there are no fees during the BETA stage of the site. I have also added a link in the right-hand side bar that appears on every page, so you can check on new listings without having to search for this post again. Also, I’m directly in touch with Jeff, so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can share them in the comment section below, and I will make sure he sees them. 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
- LEGO Investment Guide for Sellers & Collectors
- Brickvesting: How to Make Money Selling LEGO
- LEGO Shopping: The Myth of Toys’R’Us Deals
- Where to Buy LEGO Locally?
- Where to Buy LEGO Online?
- LEGO is an Investment!
- Considering Which LEGO Sets to Buy?
- LEGO Shopping for Children and You!
- LEGO Budgeting: Spreading Out LEGO Buying
It might be an interesting alternative. I’m currently having a nightmare with ebay right now because this seller highly misrepresented a rare set that he was selling and although he has a return policy for misrepresentations, he’s not allowing me to return it and I’m having to take it to ebay after the not figuring it out between us grace period ends. I’m so upset about it. I paid a lot of money and I did not get the condition of the rare set that that money was worth and that was being represented. Very deceitful listing. Didn’t fully disclose missing crucial elements.
Kim, yeah, this has been an increasing problem on eBay. Make sure you follow through with the eBay/PayPal dispute to get your money back. You may have to return the set to the seller though at your own expense. JANGBRiCKS just posted a video a few days ago where he talks about this problem.
Unfortunately this is the side-effect of LEGO’s popularity. As more and more people become aware that there is money to be made with LEGO, a lot of people start selling who simply don’t care about anything more than making a quick buck. Gone are the days when shopping for LEGO online meant meeting fellow LEGO fans and collectors. For expensive and rare sets it’s best to stay away from eBay.
Update, after pleading with this guy for several days, he finally approved my return request. Now I need to put in protections to make sure he doesn’t claim that I didn’t return everything. Any ideas?
Make sure you get a tracking number. That should be enough in most cases. You could also get signature confirmation if you feel like he may want to scam you.
It was such a nostalgic and previously wanted set too. Now I might just hate the sight of it and won’t be trying to buy another one.
Hm… that’s sad… 🙁
Seconded to that experience. I’ve been buying and selling on ebay for 15 years and I’ve noticed a real deterioration in both honesty and transparency in the last 2 years. As a seller its now almost impossible to calculate fees in advance so I will only sell what will turn me at least 100% profit as usually I lose 30ish% after fees and paypal charges etc.
As a buyer I’ve had some fab deals MMV shipped near perfectly, diagon alley shipped for less than retail perfectly.
But I’ve also had old/rare classic space sets listed as in v. Good condition turn up with random bricks swapped out (mainly old grey for new gray) but also all the trans yellow parts replaced with new! Also huge problems with classic castle sets and other “older” sets.
I dont mind scratches/marks etc as long as it’s clear. I do mind paying over £100 for a set listed as new complete with manual but no box to have half the bricks swapped for megablocks and a link to the online manual (for the wrong set no less!). seller was less than graceful and ebay were useless!
This is surprising to me. I expect underhandedness in the late 90s and early 00s when ebay first started up but it’s crazy that it’s actually getting worse.
Strangely it seems to be the opposite.
I think in the early days no one was fully sure how it all worked so generally everyone was a bit more honest. Also as the fees were very clear and simple as a seller and it was much easier and straightforward. Also feedback was more meaningful (ie sellers could leave feedback if a buyer was a nightmare/claimed the item hadnt arrived etc).
Now its so heavily in favour of the buyer (which I do understand) its hard as a seller as if they claim stuff is lost in the post (which does happen) you are stuffed and have to refund. Only way round it is recorded shipping but when posting 20-30 minifigs a week its a complete nightmare and bumps up costs for the buyer of course.
I’m close to selling on bricklink only as at least that is mainly to the lego community and way more straightforward.
In the early days of eBay it was a community. Everyone was friendly and helpful. It was like a big, friendly neighborhood garage-sale or flea-market. 🙂
UPDATE: It appears that BrickClassifieds.com is no longer running, so I removed the links, but kept the information for future reference. In case someone else wants to try a similar very useful service. 🙂