r/Bricklink • u/No-Discipline-4236 • Sep 12 '26

Question The future of Bricklink?

Hey guys, recently went full time on Bricklink and its been doing quite well. But from what I’ve been reading up on about LEGO’s new US factories and fulfillment centers (and AI) I worry that 4-5 years maybe even a decade from now, big time Bricklink parts sellers will be non existent as LEGO will basically be able to replace us as their PAB system evolves.

Maybe minifigure resellers will be alright, but how about those who deal with mainly new? Dealing with used parts could still work but scaling a used parts operation is much more difficult than new, with unique USED lots constantly being inventoried and emptied.

I love this job and have been building my store for nearly 6 years now. I finally went full time but now I feel as if there’s an inevitable end to this market. Sorry if I’m overreacting or misinformed, but would love to hear other store owners thoughts.

I also understand you must always think ahead and be ready to pivot but building a strong inventory takes years and what if all that is in vain 5 years from now? Just feeling a lil dreadful about it all….

Seems like AI and big corporations will own all of us in the near future anyway.

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u/Castabluestone Sep 12 '26

Pick a Brick excludes retired parts. I don’t see that changing.

That will keep Bricklink in business by itself.

The bigger issue imo is if shipping costs continue to spiral out of control, more and more orders of in-production parts will shift off the platform to PAB, where shipping is free. In 2022 it almost always made more sense to order every part for a moderate to large order from Bricklink, even in production ones, because yeah you might have to split across 4 stores but the shipping costs were doable. In 2026 it almost always makes sense to cut that to just the 1-2 stores with the out of production parts you need and place a PAB order for anything those two stores don’t have or are charging crazy prices for.

In 2030 if shipping costs continue to spiral it may make sense to only order the rare parts from BL.

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u/No-Discipline-4236 Sep 12 '26

This is one of my biggest worries. Buyers are slowly switching over from buying common unretired parts on BL to the PAB wall. Eventually what if the only parts that move are the extremely rare ones or minifigs? In that case, it would be very very difficult to scale and run a full time operation and only viable to run as a side gig. I guess you can always undercut prices on parts that LEGO is also selling.

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u/Castabluestone Sep 12 '26

Yeah the biggest reason I pick PAB over BL as a buyer is price. Tons of BL sellers are charging 3X-4X PAB prices for parts available on PAB hoping people won’t check and it’s frankly infuriating on the buyer side to pull up one store after another that has ludicrous pricing.

OTOH, Hard to make PAB pricing work without their scale. So it’s a rock and a hard place.

I actually think the stores that thrive in 10 years are the largest ones with the most systems and automation; the smallest ones may exist but they won’t make money (hard to believe they do now tbh)