Proposal for Variation Changes

Lawrence

We are working up a plan to make changes to how part variations are displayed on Brick Owl and would be interested to hear any comments on the proposal.

The idea would be to essentially have a "switch" for users to choose between displaying Variations, or No Variations. This would be a sitewide switch and would likely be "No Variations" by default. "Variation" mode would be almost the same as the site is now, but possibly with more variations implemented, including linking up historical variations.

In "No Variation" mode, there would be several changes

In inventories, only the "most popular" item would show, and any less popular variations would not be shown. So in a minifigure, you would only see one head, with the most popular picture, and potentially an icon to indicate there are variations available.

Search would be similar, with only the most popular out of a variation showing. So "Tile 1 x 2 with Groove" would show as "Tile 1 x 2", and the without groove wouldn't appear in the results. Potentially there would be an icon to indicate variations are available.

On an item, you would see the most popular picture/title, and all of the listings for both variations displayed in the buy section. Potentially there would be some buttons to switch between the non-variant/variant1/variant2, similar to how there is currently. You can list for sale/add to wishlist as you would now. The edit tab would advise visting one or other variants to make changes.

There would be no change to the actual catalogue structure, underneath all of these items would still be one or other variation, but just the display will change.

The main aim of this change is to make it easier for customers that are not interested in variations. Particularly when attempting to purchase items that may be split across multiple variations.

leopard37

"The main aim of this change is to make it easier for customers that are not interested in variations."

To clarify does this mean recreate an old set that has parts that have new molds now that are easier to obtain?

Tyson.

Hoddie

Thumbs up.

carlptaylor

thumbs up from me also

leopard37

I see only two downsides:

1) A mold change from LEGO means less of that part being available for the first period of time until it replaces the old pieces from LEGO's stock. So recommending an old piece instead of a new might not be the correct way to go.

2) Customers who are purists vs. those who just want to replace missing parts and don't care. Perhaps this would be clear from your toggle on how to view the inventory listing, but I think a detailed choice in the settings of the view of the user would be necessary explaining with an example. Ie. blocked open stud for heads, no difference in function but not the same, both are equivalent.

Overall totally for the change. Will make for easier buying. I myself would have liked this in the past.

Do you think a side affect will be that old used parts will reduce in price as more users would discover the new piece that's more readily available and new will take over the sales?

Tyson.

Lawrence

This wasn't really targeted at old sets but I suppose it would help with that. With regards to a preference to the "bestselling" item, this is only in relation to the title/picture, the sale listings would be a merge of all of the appropriate variations, so there wouldn't be an issue with stock/pricing.

We would indeed need to make the switch very clear

White Horse Bricks

Just to clarify, would this mean if someone searched for '4085' for example, it would show all the '4085a' through '4085d' I have listed?

Lawrence

Potentially something like that, yes

XS Bricks

I am constantly surprised at the number of buyers that want specific variations, I assume to complete sets, but I don't know. It is a major pain to sort and store all the possible variations which to me personally are as good as all the same, but customer is king so if they want a specific part I list the variations. There are some parts where the variation is more important than others, for example 1x2 tiles are quite different on a model with and without grove, others the difference is immaterial. I would prefer not to upset the current system.

Calibrick

I do tend to sell very specific variations to customers that presumably are parting out and assembling older sets and want to stay very precise (maybe so they can sell it later with all original parts if money gets tight)... that is why I go out of my way carefully list all my variations.

I think (just my personal opinion) this is a great idea as an option, but that it is an ALTERNATIVE view vs. the default view.

In other words, what @"XS Bricks" said.

Just my respectful two cents for consideration! :-)

pmitch

I like your proposed change, Lawrence.

When using your Part-Out function, would the default be to use automatically load into the most popular variant? Our store doesn't differentiate variants, so I try to guess which is the most popular to choose during the part-out, but sometimes I miss it. This will make using the part-out function much easier and more consistent.

Bricks-Shop

In general the idea is good to make the life easier if you do not care about variations.
In my opinion to switch of the variation should be an option in the settings and showing the variation should be the default setting (like Calibrick said already).

And then you should take care about some functionality like parting out a set - this shouldn't be possible in the "switch of variaton mode". If a new mold was released all the sets which are parted out will have the wrong items.

Oldfan

I'm primarily a set collector, and for my older sets I'd rather have the variation that was in production at the time. As long as there is a way to indicate for each classic/legacy set which variation was (likely) the primary version for that set/year/etc. when updating inventories, and there is an option to select those variations when the toggle is switched on, this is OK with me. But losing my ability to select the exact parts I need will be a major problem with my continued use of this site; I recognize that not all buyers care about this, but some of us do...