Subject:
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RE: The Complexity of Buying Technic Parts (Gears, and Offbeat Parts)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 22 Aug 2002 19:41:08 GMT
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Original-From:
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Rob Limbaugh <{RLimbaugh@greenfieldgroup.}spamcake{com}>
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Viewed:
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695 times
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In the last few weeks I've been frustrated by this same problem.
Additionally, some items are readily available in one place, but not the other.
For example, additional pins, pegs, and the specific gears can be ordered from
Pitsco, but not Lego. If I want all set with all the current pneumatic parts, I
have to get that from Lego because Pitsco doesn't sell a set (that I've found)
that includes the small cylinder.
This dilemma has forced me to look at Brinklink. One nice thing about Bricklink
is being able to purchase virtually any piece "individually". However, my
frustration with Bricklink comes from it's poor sorting/searching functions and
"features" of the site that don't appear to work.
For example... in the past few weeks, I've been mulling over a project where I
need the following parts:
2 pneumatic air tanks
2 pneumatic switches
12 small pneumatic cylinders
2 large pneumatic cylinders
2 small pneumatic pumps
pneumatic hoses
T-connectors
After researching where I can get what parts, I started doing the price
comparisons to find the proverbial "best deal". It didn't take long to find out
that expansion sets #5218 and #5109 would fit the bill with an additional
purchase of 10 small pneumatic cylinders. Lego sells #5218 for $27.99 and #5109
for $2.99.
The Lego experience:
--------------------
Lego, as usual, can only partially satisfy my needs. If I buy two of the #5218
sets, then I only need 10 more small pneumatic cylinders. I can throw in a
couple #5109 tubing packs, just to have the extra tubing and T-connectors. The
shipping on all that would be reasonable. A point of interest today is that the
light sensor is on sale for $14.00, but I don't need another one.
The Pitsco-Lego Dacta experience:
---------------------------------
Pitsco is excellent if you need packages of chain links, specific gears, and
other mechanical goodies. Would you believe that the only part they don't sell
in packs are the small pneumatic cylinders? However, it's worth noting that
they sell a pack of 2 air tanks for $10, which is a good value and I'll keep
that in mind when I need more pegs, pins, gears, conveyor belts, and chain
links.
Major drawback here is that their "online shopping" experience has much to be
desired in terms of what's actually included in a particular item for sale. For
example, they have a pneumatics set for $35.00. Nothing tells you what's in it.
So I can't really tell if it would suit my needs at all or judge the overall
value of it.
The Bricklink experience:
-------------------------
People are selling the pneumatic set (#5218) for over $40.00 and the pneumatic
tubing pack (#5109) for over $6.00. I decided to price out the key components
from #5218 figuring "per part" had to be somewhat of a better value.
Airtank - $ 6.99
Switch - 1.50
Hose - 1.00
Large Cyl - 4.00
Small Cyl - 7.00
Small Pump - 4.50
Large Pump - 1.50
-------------------------
Total 26.49
Prices are "lowest seen" regardless of country and do not include S&H or account
for "minimum order" policies.
No value or convenience for me. I'd have to order from two, three, maybe even 6
people to get those parts... it gets worse if I want 8 of a part and the only
way to get it is to order 2 from one person, 3 from another, etc. Then, add the
inconvenience of country! Don't get me wrong, Bricklink is great for what it
was intended to be, which is a place to find parts.
Unfortunately, I'll need to suffer through those pains if I want my 10 other
small cylinders, or I could buy 10 more #5218's and hope Lego gives me a
quantity discount.
For now, I'll buy the bulk of the parts I need from S@H, just because it makes
sense. The price happens to be fair and I'll minimize shipping costs and number
of shipments to wait for. I'll find 10 small cylinders (hopefully from as few
people as possible) on Bricklink.
Going forward:
--------------
Bricklink was meant to be a single catalog of sources, not a single point of
distribution.
On that note, how feasible/reasonable would it be to organize regional
consignment distribution points for Bricklink (or a whole new service)? It's
proven that the hub-and-spoke distribution methodology works.
Consider this:
Four regions for continental US (or wherever). East, West, Central, South.
People living within those regions as sellers could send their parts to a
central storage area (everything inventoried, of course) on a consignment
principle (similar to how antiques dealers work--a small monthly fee is paid for
warehouse space and insurance, plus portion of sale).
Someone logs onto the website, chooses their search radius (world, hemisphere,
continent, or region) and enters their search parameters. The site spits back
"253 red Lego widgets in central USA". The person needs 4, so they place the
order. One catalog. One distribution point. One payment. One shipping charge
for the total order.
Yes, I know there's more to a system than that (I've spent a great deal of time
contemplating it), but we have a lot of smart people here. I'd be more than
happy to help with such an undertaking in any way that I can.
- Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Watson [mailto:mtnviews@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 12:10 PM
To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
Subject: The Complexity of Buying Technic Parts (Gears, and Offbeat
Parts)
I recently started looking at some of the offbeat parts (not in the Mindstorm
big kits) mentioned in
Dave Baum's book and the Ferrari brother's book. Here's a preliminary list:
Flex (wire) system--pg. 159 of Ferrari
Tile plates with no studs--pg 158 Ferrari
Shock absorber--pg 158 Ferrari
Gear boxes--pg 156 Ferrari
Misc gears--pg 155 Ferrari
Differential gears
Pneumatics (service pack #5218)
2 Steering Gear Bearing (Rack/Pinion), #5295
2-16 tooth gear, #5229
Basically, the # items are Lego numbers (service packs) from Baum's book. Items
from the Ferrari
book are marked as such.
In the interest of purchasing some of them, it looks to me like there are 3
basic sources for
Technic parts:
Shop at Home
Bricklink
Pitsco (Dacta)
It looks to me like there is no central place to get all the items. For example,
individual items
are purchasable from Bricklink but not service packs, and, although I don't list
any #9000 series
items (for example, a rotation sensor, #9756), these items cannot be purchased
from Shop at Home. Is
that about the way the game is played? Further, Dacta is the educational arm of
Lego, and it seems
as though one might not be able to purchase from their catalog unless they are
associated with an
educational institution. Is that correct? This stuff is pricey enough without
having to buy small
quanties from several different sources and incurring heavy shipping prices for
small quantities.
Any comments?
--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet), Nevada City,
CA
"He allus said, "Don't take life too serious, it ain't nohow permanent."
- Walt Kelly, Pogo
Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
Imaginarium Museum: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html>
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