BL or Brickowl?

Vernern

Hello, i've been selling/buying on Bricklink for about 2 years now.
Frequently i have used Brick Owl because their database is a lot better to navigate in, than BrickLink.
Then i realized that maybe i should move my shop entirely to Brick Owl. I've sadly encountered a lot of sad sad people on Bricklink recently. I am familiar with how to download my store in XML and reupload it - but what is your experience, is Brick Owl a better choice, and why?

Best regards
Søren

Calibrick

I can only speak for myself: I bought on BL for many years, and had intended to open my store there, but decisions made by BL's ownership made me rethink that. I checked out alternatives and ran into BO, and fell in love with the look/feel of the site.

I chose to open my store here 1 1/2 years ago and haven't regretted it for a millisecond - the admin and communication over here is PHENOMENAL, everyone is super polite, and sellers really go out of their way to help each other! Exactly the kind of place I'm proud of selling at. :-) And my customers have been extraordinarily nice, to boot! :-)

I'm sure there are folks here that sell on both and can give you a more quantitative perspective, e.g., do they make more on one site than the other, etc.

I would say the big diff observed here is the focus on instant checkout (while not required, of course, that is really key to success here IMHO) and the limited attn paid to lot limits, etc. Some do it, but it doesn't appear to be as common over here as over there.

Vernern

This would seem like a rather newcomers question. Mainly the only reason i havent transfered to Brick Owl, is that i simply dont know a way to register and upload new parts in a similar way to how BrickStock synchronizes with BL. Can you help me out @Calibrick ? Also thank you for your reply. It is indeed nice to get some perspective on things, but i can relate to a lot you are saying! :-)

Hoddie

You can upload to BO using Brickstock's .bsx file format. The issue is that Brickstock uses BL's database and price info. This means if you're setting prices based on previous sales history, you'll be using BL's data and not BO's. Also, BO might not recognise some of the parts you're trying to introduce via .bsx but there's an easy fix for those - you can add them manually and/or update the BO database with the BL ID so you don't have the same issue next time.

tons_of_bricks

It depends on what you are interested in. A nice experience? Sales?

Bricklink is obviously the larger site so you will get more sales there. While I agree the BO database is a lot nicer and cleaner, the pictures aren't nearly as good as bricklinks, which will make it harder to put orders together, especially with dec. pieces.

About half of my customers leave feedback on bricklink while less than a 5th do on brickowl.

The customers do seem to be a lot nicer here also.

There's pros and cons to both. You just gotta figure out what best suits you.

Calibrick

@vernern, oh I misunderstood your question, sorry! :-)
Honestly, once I uploaded my XML I just started maintaining it manually and dumped Brickstock - I found it to be waaaaay easier to maintain it live (and to manually create the occasionally backup file once in awhile for my own peace of mind, though they auto-create backups here, too).
I think some people use Bricksync to continue working from Brickstock, but I am unfamiliar with that. You need stores on BO and BL to use Bricksync, I believe (but you can keep your BL store closed, if you prefer, and still use the tool). BO does not directly integrate with Brickstock.

WESTIEKaTH

Brick Owl for me. People on here are so friendly and helpful. Even though we are in competition everyone always willing to help. Admin is great - nothing too much trouble for Lawrence - we are lucky to have him. Inventory is easy to negotiate. Adding items to catalogue is simple and if something is wrong admin will tell you what it is.
As firestar mentioned not everyone leaves feedback but then that's the customers choice so if fb doesn't bother you that's fine.
Personally Brick Owl for me.

leopard37

One point on what Calibrick said, you cannot close your store on BL if you use Bricksync, otherwise it will not carry over the stock. Both stores must be active for it to work.

But it handles syncing quite well and then you get the best and the worst of both worlds!

Tyson.

Hoddie

But you could set a ludicrously high minimum order over on BL

Graham

I would sell on both venues. Customers are different (typically)

Just need bricksync ?

alexwilcox

Sell on both! took me a while to make the jump to brickowl but I have no regrets as I get very different orders from both sites.

Pretty_Pieces

We sell on both. I agree that the "flavour" of orders is different. BL tends to have big orders from major MOC builders, though that seems to be creeping up on BO lately, too. Minifigs are selling mostly on BO. Without running the numbers, I'd say we have about a 60/40 split BL to BO on number of orders. Because of minifig buys, dollar value likely similar.