Store closure message

alltrightbricks

I would find it really nice if we could display an automatic message when we close shop. I know this has been asked before, and I know I can post a message on the top of my store terms page that is easily visible. But to have a standard message that automatically appears when you close your store would be much more convenient.

I recently started closing up shop whenever I upload new inventory. My standard method is to part out through Brickstock into BL. Then I adjust prices etc on BL, save the file to Brickstock again and upload to BO. I've started closing shop here from the time I upload to BL until I have carried the inventory over to BO. This keeps me from getting orders that will affect lots that are in the process of changing quantity.

So right now it is a matter of closing shop for 20/30 minutes and reopening. It is hardly worth the time to go into my terms page to add a note, and go back in to take the note off. It would be much nicer if a note automatically popped up when I closed shop and disappeared when I opened again.

Thanks for considering this.
Katie

robernat

@alltrightbricks

Hi Katie,

Why go through all that trouble?
Use Bricksync and all is automated, you never need to close shop, quantities update automaticly, newly listed items are generated automaticly on BO and if you make manual adjustments, either you force an update by using a specific command or it updates after you shut down Bricksync and start it up again.
And the biggest advantage: if you get an order, either on BL either on BO, the other site just updates automatcily (if your PC is on and Bricksync is running).
And you can tag items (on either site) so that they aren't part of the sync.
The setup is quite easy, just a number of setups to go trough, however you most likely would need to clear your full BO inventory to start with (I didn't and sometimes it causes a shortage in stock).

If you need help setting it up, just ask for it ;-)

Eric

Stragus

Just restarting BrickSync won't apply any change... unless you meant shutting it down to edit the file data/bricksync.inventory.bsx in BrickStore before typing sync, that would work. Or you can use the blmaster command, or even add, loadprices, etc.

It's your call Katie, but I think that 20-30 minutes would become 2-3 minutes. And without closing the store, obviously.

alltrightbricks

I am seriously considering giving this a go. Maybe if I get some time later this week.
A couple of questions I do have right off. What does BrickSync do with all of my lots that don't carry over--ie the big long list I get with no matches found whenever I do an update.

Also, in regard to this discussion. I upload through Brickstock to BL. Since it is important for me to have my cost associated with each lot. I edit the file so that the tag changes to . All new lots go to stockroom with a generic price of $10 until I go through and adjust the prices on all of these lots (hence the 20/30 mn). If I am using BrickSync, is it going to automatically bring those lots over to BO, remove them from stockroom and have them available at $10 each until I get the prices adjusted--because that is not what I want to happen.

Or when/how does this data get fetched from BL.

Thanks,
Katie

Stragus

What does BrickSync do with all of my lots that don't carry over--ie the big long list I get with no matches found whenever I do an update

Assuming I understand the question properly... do you mean the BLIDs that are unknown to BrickOwl? If there are no matches for the BLIDs, then the lots won't be created. You can type owlresolve to get the list of all parts from your inventory that aren't sync'ed to BrickOwl. If you edit the BrickOwl catalog to add the BLIDs, then later typing owlresolve will be able to find these matching lots (once Lawrence has approved the catalog submissions).

Also, in regard to this discussion. I upload through Brickstock to BL. Since it is important for me to have my cost associated with each lot. I edit the file so that the "price" tag changes to "my cost". All new lots go to stockroom with a generic price of $10 until I go through and adjust the prices on all of these lots (hence the 20/30 mn). If I am using BrickSync, is it going to automatically bring those lots over to BO, remove them from stockroom and have them available at $10 each until I get the prices adjusted--because that is not what I want to happen.

BrickSync only sees and synchronizes the items that are available for sale. It won't see anything you put in a stockroom.

If you want to edit your inventory on BrickLink, the process is:
Step #1 : Type blmaster on
Step #2 : Edit your BL inventory as much as you like (order processing is suspended)
Step #3 : Type blmaster off

figbits

What you describe, Katie, is pretty close to how I do it. I create the file in BrickStock, with the Price field as my cost (because BrickStock doesn't directly support My Cost), then I edit the XML to change the Price tags to MyCost tags. When I'm ready to upload into BrickLink (to a stockroom), I use the "blmaster on" command in BrickSync, and then put through the upload. I edit all my prices in the stockroom and move it all to live inventory, and then I go back to BrickSync and type "blmaster off" all the universe is at peace.

alltrightbricks

@Stragus
Thank you. All good stuff to know.
I'm definitely going to be giving this a try soon.

Katie

alltrightbricks

What you describe, Katie, is pretty close to how I do it.

I learned from the best, Marc

Katie

Stragus

@monochrome @allrightbricks Ouch, that sounds tedious... I just uploaded BrickSync 1.3.5 with new functions, you'll have to tell me if it's helpful. The important one is:
invmycost Stuff.bsx 78.55
That command updates the MyCost fields in the BSX file, with the amount (78.55) divided between the lots proportionally to the value of each lot.

But BrickStore/BrickStock doesn't know and will ignore that MyCost field, so you'll have to use BrickSync to push these new MyCost values.

To just update the MyCost of all lots from your inventory that match lots from Stuff.bsx, you could do:
Step #1: invmycost Stuff.bsx 357.48
Step #2: loadmycost Stuff.bsx

Or, if you have new inventory in SomeNewStuff.bsx to merge, the steps could be:
Step #1: sort SomeNewStuff.bsx (copy prices, comments, remarks, etc. from tracked inventory to the BSX file)
Step #2: Open file in BrickStore: update prices, remarks and such
Step #3: invmycost SomeNewStuff.bsx 132.97 (update MyCost fields in BSX file)
Step #4: merge SomeNewStuff.bsx (merge with existing lots otherwise create new lots, it updates all fields... so don't forget the first step)

figbits

Cool.

BrickLink's xml upload page has a lot of options that I think would be hard to duplicate conveniently with a command line. I like the idea of the invmycost to proportionally assign costs. But, from there, can you have it output uploadable xml?


--
Marc.

Stragus

It can output XML, but it's supposed to only do that when your pool of daily API calls is getting too low (max 5000 calls/day).

Can I ask why you would prefer manual XML, rather than let BrickSync update MyCost values as read from a BSX file?

figbits

It's just because of the number of different possible options. If it worked exactly the way I preferred, that would be great for me of course, but it would lack flexibility and would be of less use to others. If it had enough flexibility, I think it would be too complex to use on a command line interface.

The first point of flexibility is what the cost allocation is based on. From what you describe above, it is simply proportional to what we put in the Price field in BrickStock. That's great, but sometimes I don't want to have the cost proportional to my selling price, so I would need to edit the price before I make the lot available for purchase.

There are two main cost structures that I use:

If I buy a set that I part-out, having the cost proportional to the selling price of each part is indeed my default method, but I will sometimes tweak it so that I assign a higher cost allocation to the items that I know I will sell faster (minifigs and minifig parts), and less to the parts I will sell slower (modified plates and bricks, and Technic parts), independently of what I actually plan to charge for those items. It gives me future flexibility on price adjustments for slow-movers.

If I buy items where I am already paying a per-piece price, then the cost allocation is simply based on that, and not at all on my intended selling price. So, if I place an other with another seller here on BrickOwl or on BL, I know exactly what I paid for each part (I just need to allocate the shipping cost). If my order was for two items, each of which I paid $1 for, but which I intend to sell at different prices, there isn't a clear way to do that with BrickSync. Best case, in BrickStock I would put each of them to $1, I'd use "invmycost file.bsx 2.00" (even though the 2.00 doesn't contribute any new information) and then I'd go edit my selling price for those two lots. So, I'd want to upload to a stockroom instead of live inventory so I can edit before it's visible to buyers.


(Meanwhile, for the future, there are other cost allocations that other sellers might want to use. Some may want to allocate based on what they are already selling a part for. Right now I can't think of an easy way to do this with any of the existing software. In BrickStock, it would be useful to have additional columns for the 6-month average, and for a seller's own average historical sale price. Allocating cost could be done proportionally to either, with the option to set up default choices.)


Beyond the allocating method, there are other reasons to want to upload the xml.

I want to be able to control how items are merged with existing inventory.

Right now, I retain empty lots. This gives me the ability to go back and look at a lot's details even after it has sold out (on BL, the most useful datapoint for me when doing this is the date that I added the lot to my inventory). When I upload xml data, I scan through the verification screen to see if I am adding anything to Stockroom A, to a lot with zero quantity. This is a retained lot that I don't actually want to add to. First, because even after adding it, the lot will stay in Stockroom A and I will have inventory that buyers can't see and I might not notice this, and second because even if I do notice and move it out of the stockroom after the upload, then I won't be sending any notification emails for it. So I go to each of those retained lots, delete them, then go back to the xml upload page. On the verification page this time, they will show as new lots.

For merging with active existing lots, I usually go in to a few of them to see if I want to adjust my selling price. This is most easily done on the verification screen as well, as there is a link to each of the lots that I am merging. I don't do this every time, but often enough that I want an easy way to do it.

(As a side note, the MyCost field for your updates hopefully calculates based on the size of the existing lot and the amount being added, so that the new calculated cost is proportionally weighed. BL has that option for uploads ("By Qty avg cost") which should be the default.)


Finally (there may be other reasons, but it's all I can think of right now), I want to be able to hold back some lots and leave them in my Stockroom C for later "upload". I most often do this with mold variants. When I upload a set that I have parted out, I often set aside all the part variants in the inventory to review later. Though, this would easily be solved-for just by adding the option to upload to a stockroom from BrickSync.


--
Marc.

Stragus

All right.

Just adjusting MyCost values could be done by editing the BSX file (it's XML too), but the second part is more complex... It looks like you actually need the manual XML upload for a variety of reasons, and that it shouldn't be automated.

So, you could run invmycost on a BSX file, followed by some new command to output BL XML for the specified BSX file, which you would then edit by hand.

Thanks for the explanations, I'll add that command in the next version, probably this evening.

Stragus

@monochrome All right, update to 1.3.8 and give this a try:
invmycost Stuff.bsx 456.78
invblxml Stuff.bsx

figbits

Thanks! This saves me a lot of time.