Subject:
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Proposal for website to sell individual Lego parts in quantity
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade
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Date:
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Mon, 26 Jul 1999 03:38:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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557 times
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I have a proposal for a new website for everyone here, and am hoping to get
feedback on wether there would be a demand for such a service among Lego
builders.
What I am proposing is a web site that would sell individual Logo pieces in
quantity and for a set price to whover wanted them. The following are just
some thoughts that I had on the subject, and am looking from feedback from
you, the people who would hopefully use such a site.
* Would start out carrying "basic" bricks (probably from the big tubs) and
would expand from there to other parts (Plates, flats, sloped bricks, etc)
and eventually into the very theme-specific parts.
* Site would be fully e-commerce capable, with the ability to take secure
credit card orders and possibly online checks (depending on the cost of
implementing this). This would include calculating shipping costs, atleast
to the US.
* Bricks would be sold individually (not is packages or lots), so that if
you needed say 300 blue 1x6 bricks, you would be able to get them without
having to also take (and pay for) any other bricks that you may not need.
* In all likelyhood, there would probably need to be a minimum order
ammount, to prevent someone from ordering just one 4 cent part, as this
would cost alot in transaction processing fees.
* Pricing would be set based on the cost of the parts, demand and
availability of the parts, and the going rate in other places, such as other
parts sales or auctions.
* All parts would be brand new and taken from sealed sets.
* Parts would idealy be obtained directly through Lego, as we would
probably have a large enough volume to do this.
* A secondary source of parts would be "close-outs" and sales from local
stores.
* There would, of course, be a section for requests so that interest could
be gauge and the right products purchased.
* There is the possibility of expanding into telephone orders for those
that do not have an internet connection. (Depending on demand for this.)
* Products would ship within 1 day of ordering. This would of course
depend on the number of orders and the ability to count out the pieces quick
enough. This problem could be countered by having pre-counted bundles of
bricks and/or using a counting scale to speed up the process (expensive, but
VERY accurate. I've used them to count very tiny electronic components in
the past).
* Would like to be able to keep all products in stock at all times, so that
you can always get what you need when you need it. This likely would not
happen immediately though, but would be something that could be smoothed out
as demand and popularity of certain pieces was gauged and purchasing
adjusted acoordingly. It would also depend on availability of specific
parts from Lego. If they don't put it in any sets, then it won't be
possible to obtain it.
Well, I think that is about it for now. I am sorry that the post is so
long, but these things have been floating around in my head for a while now
and i needed to write them down. I hope to hear from you all with comments
on what I have proposed above and with any ideas that you come up with that
you think would make this site more attractive to prospective users.
If something like this already exists, someone please point me to it. I
have seen Auxilla (which is great, but is an auction and is cyclical) and
numerous other auction sites. I have also seen some sites that directly
sell bricks, but unfortunately none of them ever seemed to have anything in
stock at the time.
Also, i know that i am new to the newsgroups, and that many of you may not
have seen me here before, but I have been an avid Lego builder since I was a
kid (I'm 27 now). I feel that, having run an ISP in the past, I have the
skills to pull this off should there be a demand for it. Further, pending
the sale of my current company (A weekly newspaper) I may actually even have
the funding to get something like this started (Costs associated with site
design and software, as well as the innitial purchase of product from Lego.)
Well, i guess that is enough for now, let me know what you think.
Troy Cefaratti
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