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In a discussion of the Top Ordered parts on bricklink:
http://www.bricklink.com/orderTop.asp
DaveE says:
> - What percentage gets sold vs. unsold? (IE basic brick may be the #1 • seller,
> but it's also got the most representation. Wouldn't suprise me to find out • that
> there's LOTS of basic brick that goes *unsold* as well as sold.)
>
> - How quickly does an item get purchased? (How much is the average • lifespan of a
> particular piece on BL before it's sold?)
Well, traditionally, stock turnover is one of the great metrics for
retailers. However (and hence my cc-ing to lugnet.market.theory), I am not
convinced that bricklink can be meaningfully judged on traditional metrics.
Firstly, because bricklink itself is not a retailer but a e-mall, and
secondly because even if you regard bricklink as an aggregate of retailers,
many of the stores within bricklink are not truly commercial operations.
By "truly commercial", I mean their primary purpose is profit-making and
that they therefore set prices and make decisions on purchasing and holding
inventory on purely profit-making assessments, including the cost of labour
(what rate do you pay yourself for the time?, how much do you charge
yourself for renting the space your inventory occupies ?). For example, my
bricklink shop is not commercial in that sense, as my primary purpose in
buying Lego is for my own hobby, and I am selling leftover/unwanted parts to
simply offset part of the cost of my addiction; I do not buy Lego on the
basis of what profit I can generate on bricklink. Since I assume many
bricklink shops operate on largely or partially on a hobby basis, their
decisions on what to sell and at what prices are therefore not based on the
traditional retail metrics of stock turnover etc.
Against this, it could be argued that the volume of sales and size of
inventory of the many hobbyist stores will be dwarfed statistically by the
volume/size of the more commercial ventures, and that therefore traditional
metrics can be meaningfully applied. Personally I find it hard to believe
that any bricklink store can be truly profitable as a pure retail venture. I
am a reasonably organised person, but even so, I still find the amount of
time taken to process an individual order (2 of this, and 4 of that, and 5
of the other, now for the bubblewrap) is considerable. Now I can see a few
aspects of what I do that might be done more efficiently if I had more
orders coming in each day, but still the process is relatively
labour-intensive, which is why I find it difficult to believe that people
can truly make a living out of it, yet apparently they do.
Anyhow, it brings me back to the original point. What would be appropriate
metrics for bricklink?
Kerry
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Flower power to the people!
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| (...) The number of people who make a living at it, or at least a significant income, seems to be a very small proportion of sellers but they have a significant proportion of the volume. (...) If you want to use sales data to drive what is a highly (...) (20 years ago, 1-Jul-04, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Flower power to the people!
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| (...) Almost :) The Pick-A-Brick selection in the US was extended a couple weeks ago to include flower stems (and flowers), and that's something I know I personally have been yearning for for ages: mass quantities of flower stems. I'll bet in the (...) (20 years ago, 1-Jul-04, to lugnet.loc.au)
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