I want to start buying some pieces in Bricklink but there aren’t many stores in my country (Chile only have 4) and none have any piece that I’m interest on. I’m not looking some extrange pieces, but BIONICLE pieces like liftarms, ball sockets, etc. If I find Kanohi even better, but it’s not my priority.
The closest stores that have a good amount of pieces are in Brazil, so I want to ask, do you buy pieces abroad? How much do you buy so the shipping cost worth it?
I’ve bought pieces from many places. I’m based in the US and I’ve bought pieces from Russia, Finland, Denmark, Germany, England, Brazil (where you’re looking), and several others. I typically buy them based on cost or bulk ordering, since plenty of stores State side didn’t have all the parts I needed and buying a bunch of mini-carts was not cost effective. Shipping will be more expensive from out of country places, so if you have a small order imagine the shipping will likely be double that.
However, do be very careful of where you’re ordering parts from currently. Because of the pandemic, shipping costs from European and Asian regions have increased significantly. They’ve got shipping limits that now require them to mail using more expensive rates. So definitely look into the shipping policy of the stores. Since you’re looking at same continent, I don’t think it should be that bad, but I also haven’t looked at any of the stores down there recently.
Edit: Oh right, how many so it’s worth it. That depends more on budget than the value of pieces. If you don’t have the budget to afford extra pieces plus the shipping, then it doesn’t matter. But otherwise, better to play by how you feel. Everyone has difference tolerance levels on spending and I’ve never quite had a consistency on it.
Thanks for the answer. I guess that the shipping cost is almost the same if you buy 1 or 50 pieces from a store.
How much usually is the shipping cost when you buy abroad? I understand that depend of how far it is, but does it also depend from the store?
It should give you each store’s shipping charges for all areas on their splash page or terms page.
Usually that is shown in the “Shipping Terms” section of each Bricklink store page. You should probably look there.
But what is a normal shipping price? In one store I find they charge like $8 for less than 100 g (0,22 lb) and in others the shipping starts from $30.
There is no “normal” shipping price. Each seller charges a different price, depending on a lot of factors. The best thing you can do is look at a bunch of different stores that have what you need, and then compare the shipping prices. After that, just choose the store that you think is most suitable for you.
I have never bought from Bricklink before, but this is the reason why, if I want to buy something from bricklink, I avoid international stores.
I haven’t buyed from Bricklink yet, but using the auto-select in Bricklink wanted list helps find stores with lower shipping cost. It won’t be as cheap as buying from a national store, but maybe you could find some with not that high shipping costs.
I’m gonna share my experience until now:
I made two purchases in Bricklink, one in Netherlands and the other in Czech Republic. The first one, I made a great order, around 700 pieces, since shipping was quite expensive (€35), since they only sent with tracking and insuranse. The package weight 800 g and it took less than one month to arrive. In customs I had to pay the tax for the package. I ended up paying around 25% in taxes, 20% in shipping and 55% in Lego pieces. The store had many pieces that I needed and allowed me to finish several buildings, that why I chose it.
The second, shipping was much more cheaper, around $12, only including the tracking. I bought 400 pieces with a total weight of 350 g. The package took almost two months to arrive (I guess covid was a factor in this). I don’t know why, in this case I didn’t had to pay taxes for the import (lucky me). The overall cost was 15% in shiping and 85% in Lego pieces. In this case the store allowed me to finish only one build.
I’ve searched pieces in my country, but most of the time they only sell it as a batch from wich only a bunch of pieces actually serve me, so buying abroad is the only option. This will implicate a major cost, specially in shipping, so the best option is to reduce the number of store to buy, and search for the one with low shiping prices.
TL;DR: It’s more expensive but sometimes you don’t have other choice. There are many store with cheap worldwide shipping (less than $20).
Note: I hope this doesn’t count as double posting
The problem is, Bricks and Pieces only ships to a select number of countries (mine isn’t among them) and you can only buy parts that are currently available in the most recent sets. Even parts that came out two years ago might already be out of stock if you don’t buy them as soon as they are listed.
Not to mention how all LEGO’s direct services are super flawed and unreliable. They might get your order accidently cancelled, or send you more or less items than what you ordered, and the time it takes for those to ship to you is pretty ridiculously long.
So, for my recommendation would be not to buy directly from LEGO, unless you want to specifically buy some new pieces that just came out without having to buy the full set they came in.