BrickLink Aussie stores

I'm a little baffled as to why Aussie stores are so expensive compaired to other countries.
I realise that TLG doesn't mind stinging us in the hip pocket but I can't see why this flows through to BL.
Au prices can be up to 20 x USA prices and there is only so much you can blame on postage (it's pretty cheap from the states).
We don't have pick-a-brick walls here or LEGO brand stores to stock local BL'ers, so I guess they stock up from other BL stores, parting out sets in Aus just seems like bad economics to me but this may be the reason for high prices.
I would love to support local seller more and would happily pay the extra couple of cents per brick to cover the sellers overheads plus a little profit.
I guess it's just capitalism at work, a little sad maybe I need to open shop and flood the market with affordable bricks

Ah that feels better just needed a good ol rant!!

Bingo, you got it in one.
BL's part out sets in bulk of course when on sale or otherwise import from other BL's and alike.
Keep on shopping !

[quote="TazManiac"]I'm a little baffled as to why Aussie stores are so expensive compaired to other countries.
I realise that TLG doesn't mind stinging us in the hip pocket but I can't see why this flows through to BL.
Au prices can be up to 20 x USA prices and there is only so much you can blame on postage (it's pretty cheap from the states).
We don't have pick-a-brick walls here or LEGO brand stores to stock local BL'ers, so I guess they stock up from other BL stores, parting out sets in Aus just seems like bad economics to me but this may be the reason for high prices.
I would love to support local seller more and would happily pay the extra couple of cents per brick to cover the sellers overheads plus a little profit.
I guess it's just capitalism at work, a little sad maybe I need to open shop and flood the market with affordable bricks [img]https://2img.net/u/1711/22/39/48/smiles/47119.gif[/img]

Ah that feels better just needed a good ol rant!![/quote]

Do it, I'd love cheaper shipping! The other problem is that very few of the Aus sellers are registered Lego sellers meaning their only source of below RRP sets is sales. This comes on top of our RRP usually being above most of the world's when it comes to almost all sets. Finally, if you're sourcing stock from the US to take advantage of the strong dollar, I think you get lumped with import/customs tax if goods are valued at $500+.

Like you I'd love to support local sellers too. There was one for a while in SA earlier this year that was planning on doing this full time, but his other small business picked up so he stopped selling lego. The thing is you need a seller with the time to shop around for the great bargains, or someone on the road a bit for work who can go into a lot of shops to check out the latest deals, like a certain person that is always spotting bargains (right LT?).
I think the $80 (at k-mart and maybe toys r us) PoP Alamut sets are going to be something that a lot of people are going to regret not picking up, as a set it's beautiful and has some brilliant pieces if you MOC or want to sell parts. Even though the movie wasn't a success I can see the value of this set climbing in years to come. Even some of those sticker filled Speed Racer sets are starting to climb in value, and they were heavily discounted almost everywhere.

I've just opened a store (Peter's Parts) and as others have mentioned it's just not economical to compete in Australia. To be a registered Lego seller there is a minimum purchase, and it's pretty large, so unless you are going to be the next BTTW it's hard to make any money at it. You can make a profit on parting out sets bought on sale, but it will not pay for the time you spend doing it.

BTW I think customs (GST) only kicks in if over $1000.00.

In the US on the other hand they have access to pick a brick walls which allow you to buy only easily resellable parts by weight, and they generally have the lowest retail prices in the world for Lego.

I would not be in it for the money just the bricks and if I could pass on the savings to locals all the better.

and Peter is right about the tax over $1,000.00.

I would only stock common pieces like tiles, plates and bricks as these are the pieces we use in all creations, rare parts are for special needs and not the sort of thing that I could resell at a competitive rate.

for example I just bought (for my ship/port) 200 "new" rbown 4x1 tiles at $0.03 each
to do this in Aus i would have to clean out every shop and pay between 10c and 20c each, I could resell at 4cents and come out on top ( I've done the math).
my only problem is I'd want to keep it all.....you can never have too much LEGO!

Wanna recommend some good US sellers?

It really depends on what your after some stores are better for some elements than others and vise versa.
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Tesar

but that one's pretty good eg.

New	Black Antenna 1 x 4		20	US $0.02	US $0.40
*	New	Green Plant Flower Stem		50	US $0.03	US $1.50
*	New	Red Plant Flower Small, Sprue of Four		50	US $0.03	US $1.50
*	New	Reddish Brown Tile 1 x 4		200	US $0.03	US $6.00

TazManiac wrote:
for example I just bought (for my ship/port) 200 "new" rbown 4x1 tiles at $0.03 each
to do this in Aus i would have to clean out every shop and pay between 10c and 20c each, I could resell at 4cents and come out on top ( I've done the math).

OK at 4cents you will cover your purchase cost, but once you have an open store you need to check it at least daily, then there will most likely be 20 plus orders to pack and take to the post office because you will probably not get a order for your whole inventory. You will want to charge extra for packing materials because 200 tiles bought at 3c in the US sold at 4c is probably just covering the postage here. Most customers prefer no hidden costs so you will probably want to up your price a bit to cover that, and any paypal fees (theres a flat fee that bites hard on small orders), and also your bricklink fees. I assume you will be doing all this for fun because you won't be being paid for your time. Obviously all this changes if you scale up, but so does the amount of time it takes to break even again. The more time you have to spend the less attractive it looks.

There are a few largish BL sellers that are Mugs members, a couple price stuff high to cover the cost of parting out sets, one buys large lots of unsorted used parts from eBay, sorts and resells it at around the six monthly average price, one resells bulk bricks he has used for his large brickvention Mocs, to finance his next one. None of them can hope to pay for their time spent, let alone make a living at it. One of them has stated he raises his prices and adds lots of extra fees to discourage small orders because they are a pain, but they still predominate. Most of them do it to subsidise their own brick purchases, and get rid of pieces they wont use, since they are already looking at/buying Lego on sale anyway.

I guess the best way to tackle small orders is to have a min purchase or sell bricks in lots, this does mean you need the more stock but also helps keep prices down,
As far as beeing a full time thing that's really up to the seller, there are plenty of sellers that only post once or twice a week (check store conditions) It is just lego and if you can't wait a week then you can pay the higher prices, re-using zip lock bags saves on cost as does using recycled material for packing ( plus I live next door to a post office).
like I said earlier I have no intention of making money, simply importing it so others don't have to, with out stinging them for it.
For me time is not an issue I need stuff to do or I go crazy (well crazier).
This is not something I've planned to do overnight but hope to get started in early 2011, I may even make this ANZFOL exclusive I'd have to talk with you Admins about that though. But if that was to happen people could make requests on stock that is not available in Aus at a reasonable price, but let's not get ahead of our selves.

If I need to make a large order then going direct to the overseas sellers becomes economical, and really Tasmania isn't much better for me for a small order.

I certainly wouldn't restrict yourself to ANZFOL only since that's cutting down your potential market hugely.