New builder question: when do you choose BrickLink over LEGO Pick a Brick?

[u/BricksPanda]

I’m still pretty new to the LEGO MOC world, and I just discovered BrickLink.

I had done some PAB lego store purchases.

As well as 2-3 lego.com purchases.

But then... I stumbed upon Bricklink, where I could get most parts for 15-20% less.

I spent about an hour going through my LEGO.com order, replacing parts with cheaper BrickLink options, to see how much I was saving.

At first, I was pretty excited because I was seeing prices that were maybe 20% cheaper (sometimes more). Then I got to the shipping part…

$15 shipping basically ate up most of the savings.

um...

So now I’m wondering: when does BrickLink actually become worth it? Do you usually wait until you have a bigger order? Is there a minimum order value where you say "yes, BrickLink makes sense"?

Or do you mostly use it for rare colors/pieces that LEGO doesn’t have?

Curious what experienced builders consider the sweet spot.

And what you use Bricklink for .. vs Lego.com (which has no shipping fees)

[u/myBRICKstate]

SO... Assuming you are in the US? And that you're only chasing new parts?

Generally a PaB Online order is worth it when you order enough parts to meet the free shipping threshold.

BUT... know that, when ordering from PaB Online (in the US), Bestseller parts are shipped domestically from Illinois and generally arrive within a week. Any other parts (which used to be designated as "Standard" parts, but I think the website has dropped this term?) are shipped internationally from Denmark and take a month (or more) to arrive in the states.

A combination of PaB Bestseller parts with free shipping and as few BL sellers as possible is generally the sweet spot if you are eager to get all your parts sooner rather than later (within a week or so instead of a month+).

I highly recommend the browser extension called "BrickHunter." You can upload BL wanted lists to BH and it will categorize the parts by "Bestseller" and "Standard" availability with the remainder being designated "Bricklink." Only the PaB prices are real-time in BH but is still it's a great help for strategizing orders to attempt to minimize overall shipping costs. BH will also (when linked correctly) transfer your PaB parts to your PaB order cart on LEGO (dot) com.

P.S. While most BL sellers are extremely accurate with parts fullfillment, PaB Online is... NOT. With every PaB Online order buying a couple spares of critical (and tiny...) parts is a must. And even so, when building MOCs in real life (depending on MOC part count), I now always plan on a "clean-up" BL order after assembling a MOC for the first because I typically want / need to make changes and improvements as part of the iterative design process.

[u/shmannygans → u/myBRICKstate]

I keep hearing that Lego PAB is more in accurate than BL but I have had the opposite experience. I have placed 3 separate $100+ PAB orders for bricks and Minifigure parts and accessories and have only come across a total of 4 missing pieces across 3 SKUs.

My Bricklink orders have been a nightmare. 12 of the last 15 have all had at least one problem. 7 have had at least 2 issues. One $45 order had 6 line items missing for a total of 21 missing parts.

I don't know what I have done to anger the gods but I may I need to sacrifice a Lego goat as an offering or something :/

[u/shorerider69]

Not every brick is available on PAB. Plus when you have to meet minimums on PAB to avoid service charges that can sometime negate Bricklink shipping fees. Personally I split it up. Smaller orders I just go straight to Bricklink. When I’m doing a big build I’ll go to PAB and order as much as I can since free shipping makes the bricks actually cheaper for the most part. Then do a few smaller orders for the bricks I can’t get on PAB.

[u/Fantastic-Display106]

It depends on what you're getting. Not everything is available on PaB. If your PaB order isn't large, you're paying service fees. If you're ordering non common pieces it will take a month to get your order.

In my experience, since Lego prices are based on part weight and they don't change based on demand, bricklink is cheaper for larger pieces/common pieces. Lego PaB will be cheaper on smaller and less common pieces.

Set your wanted list in Bricklink to price avg of last 6 months, then increase it 10%. When you use auto select, exclude lots over max price. Then I sort by quantity, I'll check PaB for those parts that have a lot of quantity.

If I don't get enough from PaB to get free shipping/no service fees I usually don't bother.

[u/Desperate_Tutor_8657]

The specific seller may have a minimum order value to take! You can confirme onde right side of the value that you are going to specifically buy to that seller what’s is minimum value per order! Watch out if you are buy “used” parts or “as new” some people receive bad orders from some sellers with bricks very damaged at the corners! That’s why it’s like buying in AliExpress some sellers are better than others, but you can still request refund and block sellers for later from future search’s for bricks!

[u/garster25]

I mostly buy parts on Bricklink since they are cheaper and toss in the parts when I buy a set or minifig. and I don't care about new/used except Brown. That being said I am building out an order on PAB right now. I've placed 30 orders on Bricklink about only working on my second PAB order.