Discussion Forum: Catalog: Message 1447136
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 Author: TakeAbricK View Messages Posted By TakeAbricK
 Posted: Jan 9, 2024 06:37
 Subject: Re: Important proposal regarding catalog variants
 Viewed: 244 times
 Topic: Catalog
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TakeAbricK (13492)

Location:  Netherlands, Gelderland
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 12, 2007 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Seller Ships to My Country Store: TakeAbricK
BrickLink Catalog Administrator (?)
In Catalog, Admin_Russell writes:
  Hello everyone,

As a platform, we have decided to take a hard look at some of the mold variants
that we are currently asking you to recognize. For sellers, more variants means
extra sorting and extra work while pulling orders, plus the issues that arise
from variant misunderstandings.

For buyers, excess variants mean that it's harder to assemble a wanted list,
find stores, and ultimately obtain the parts you are looking for.

I have put together a quick Help page to outline these proposed changes:

https://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2625

Notice the date on this is coming up quickly (Feb 1), so I'm not giving a
lot of time for discussion. I'm aiming for about 1 week of discussion and
then we'll give sellers 2 weeks to adjust the descriptions on affected items
if they wish to retain the distinctions.

I plan to construct a full FAQ page with answers to all your questions. This
will serve to inform users about what was done here in February 2024, and also
help point the catalog in the right direction in the future.

To get started, I'll list a few here:

1. This sounds like you're dumbing down the BrickLink catalog to make
it easier for new users. Is that what is going on?


Not really. There are many, many other variants we expect people to sort and
care about. These ones don't really seem to matter much, and some of them
(e.g., the minifigure heads) actually cause problems for the catalog that cannot
be corrected otherwise.

2. What if I really care about a certain variant that is going away? Can I
still buy and sell that variant?


Absolutely! You can add notes to your listings to make them as "determined"
as you wish. Buyers can still search within notes for extra details, or they
can simply observe them as they browse listings.

3. How do I know which exact variants will be merged? I only see one example
in each category.


Please ask in this thread and I can be very specific. Usually we are talking
about a handful of parts and the printed versions.

4. Has a merge like this ever been done before?

Yes, there was a precedent - the Headlight Brick with Slot:

https://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1016584

It was marked for deletion a few years ago and was finally merged last August.

5. Are these the only parts up for consideration, or are there other variants
that will be merged as well?


This is all for now. Based on how well this goes, we may elect to remove other
entries later. However, we will keep all functional variants and important cosmetic
variants.

As a seller I'm absolutely not happy with removing variants that have been
in the catalog for quite some time.

A Minifigure head 3626b that shows in inventories, does sell.
An undetermined Minifigure head with a sellers note: "Blocked Open Stud /
Hollow Stud / Vented Stud" doesn't sell, for members don't know which
variant should be in a specific set anymore.

I would like to see a list of all items that are going to be merged.

And what about the alternate items in inventories that are going to be merged.
Removing all these items February 1th will result in a lot of inventory change
requests in an already very busy time.

Message is in Reply To:

View Thread Important proposal regarding catalog variants - Admin_Russell
Hello everyone, As a platform, we have decided to take a hard look at some of the mold variants that we are currently asking you to recognize. For sellers, more variants means [...]
(5 months ago, Jan 9, 2024, to Catalog)

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