BrickLink is the largest marketplace for LEGO parts, minifigures and sets. Here is a practical overview of how to open a store and run it well, written by a Canadian seller.
What is BrickLink?
Founded in 2000 by Dan Jezek, BrickLink is a marketplace where LEGO fans buy and sell individual parts, minifigures and sets. The LEGO Group acquired BrickLink in November 2019.
At the time of the acquisition, LEGO reported more than one million members and over 10,000 stores across 70 countries — a snapshot of its global reach in 2019, not current totals.
LEGO ownership makes BrickLink an established part of the LEGO ecosystem, but purchases are made from individual sellers, not directly from LEGO. Check each store’s feedback, shipping terms and payment options before ordering.
Sets vs parting out: you can sell complete sets as they are, or “part out” a set — take it apart and list each piece separately. Parting out takes more work but often brings more money in total, and it is what most BrickLink buyers are looking for.
Why buyers shop on BrickLink: they need specific pieces — for their own creations (MOCs), to repair or complete an old set, to replace a missing part, or to find a minifigure. Few other places let them buy exactly the part, colour and quantity they need.
Source: The LEGO Group’s acquisition announcement (November 26, 2019)What you need & what to expect
Opening a BrickLink store is relatively easy, but running a successful one requires time, organization, patience and dedication. Here is what to consider before getting started.
At least one positive review
BrickLink requires at least one positive review before you can open a store. The simple way to earn one is to make a purchase on BrickLink first — as a buyer — and receive a positive review from that seller. Once you have it, you're ready to open your own store.
Seller upgrade and verification
Beyond the review, BrickLink asks new sellers to complete a seller upgrade: set up shipping and payment, add some inventory and submit verification documents. Approval can take a couple of weeks or longer, so start early. Rules change from time to time — check BrickLink's current seller requirements.
Time and commitment
Running a BrickLink store takes more time than you might expect. Sorting LEGO, identifying parts, creating listings, picking orders, packing, shipping and managing inventory can quickly become time-consuming. The more your store grows, the more time you'll need to dedicate to it.
A good inventory
You need LEGO parts, sets or minifigures to sell. While there's no magic number to guarantee sales, having a good variety and sufficient quantities makes your store more attractive to buyers. A store with thousands of different parts may attract more customers than one with only a handful of items.
Organization and storage space
An organized inventory is essential. You need a reliable system to store and locate every item you sell. Storage drawers, containers, labels and a clear location system will save you countless hours.
Startup costs
Starting a store involves more than purchasing LEGO: storage bins and drawers, sorting trays, labels, bags, bubble mailers and boxes, and possibly a label printer or scale. Every sale also carries BrickLink fees and payment processing fees. Your biggest cost will usually be buying inventory — start small and reinvest your profits.
Taxes and recordkeeping
Tax registration and reporting rules depend on where you live (country, province or state) and how much you sell — check your local rules. Whatever they are, keep receipts for every LEGO purchase, shipping label and supply from day one. Bricktra's expenses and profit pages help you keep that record.
Knowledge of LEGO
You don't need to be a LEGO expert, but understanding how to identify parts, colors, conditions and variations is extremely helpful. Accuracy matters: listing the wrong color or part variation can lead to unhappy customers.
Patience and realistic expectations
Don't expect orders to pour in immediately. Building a successful store takes time, and sales depend on inventory selection, pricing, competition, shipping costs and customer service. Some days you'll receive multiple orders; other days, nothing.
Attention to detail
Buyers expect to receive exactly what they ordered. Describe used parts accurately, identify damage or discoloration, count quantities and double-check orders before shipping.
How to proceed
A checklist from your first purchase to your first shipment.
1. Create an account and make a first purchase
Create a BrickLink account, then make a purchase from an established store. BrickLink requires at least one positive review before you can open a store, and buying first is the simple way to earn one.
While you wait for that first order, read BrickLink's current seller rules and fees, so you know what you'll pay on each sale.
2. Complete the seller upgrade and verification
Once you have your positive review, start BrickLink's seller upgrade: set up your shipping methods and payment options, add your first inventory and submit the verification documents BrickLink asks for. Verification can take a couple of weeks or longer — use that time to organize and list your parts.
3. Open your store
Once you're approved, open your store from your account settings. Choose a store name, write short store terms (shipping, payment, returns) and set your currency.
Set your terms the way you want them. A good approach is to read other stores' terms to see what's usually there, then pick and choose what you want to add.
4. Organize your inventory
This is the most underestimated part of selling LEGO. Give every lot a storage location (for example drawer A-12), label your bins, and keep similar colours apart — dark bluish gray and black, or tan and dark tan, are easy to mix up.
Know the difference between lots and items: a lot is one part in one colour and condition (new or used); items are the pieces inside it. Twenty 2x4 red bricks, new, is one lot of 20 items.
Keep quantities accurate: when you take parts out for yourself or find a count is wrong, update BrickLink right away. Bricktra's Part Locations helps you find and track where everything is.
5. List your inventory
Start with what you already have: sort parts by part number and colour, and list them as lots.
For many items at once, tools like BrickStore or a parted-out set inventory save hours. Add a remark (bin or drawer) to each lot so you can find it fast when it sells.
Note that the remark is private — only you see it — while the comment is public and visible to the buyer. Use the remark for your storage locations and the comment for anything the buyer should know.
6. Price your lots
Check the price guide for each item. It shows two things: the average of sales over the last 6 months (what buyers actually paid) and current listings (what other sellers are asking now). Sold prices usually tell you more.
Condition, quantity and colour all move the price: new usually sells higher than used, rare colours higher than common ones, and large quantities of one part often sell per piece for less. The 6-month average is a reference, not a guaranteed selling price. Price slightly under it to sell faster, or above it for rare items.
Review prices regularly — markets move, and lots that never sell are often just overpriced. Bricktra can help do that.
7. Wait for your first order
It can take some time before orders start arriving. In the meantime, keep growing your inventory — variety and stock are what make a store attractive to buyers.
8. Process your first order
When an order arrives, check it and wait for payment. Then pick each lot from its location, count every quantity twice and check colour and condition.
Pack the parts safely, buy the shipping label, then update the order status in BrickLink (packed, shipped) and add the tracking number. Once the buyer has received it, leave them feedback.
Bricktra helps with each step: printable pack lists with storage locations, shipping and tracking follow-up, and automatic feedback.
Growing your store: variety, stock and profitability
Once your store is open, inventory variety can matter more than the total number of pieces. A store with 50,000 pieces across 5,000 different lots may meet more buyers’ needs than one with 100,000 pieces across only 500 lots. Depth still matters: buyers often want several of the same part and prefer to complete a project in fewer orders.
What size inventory should you aim for?
These are illustrative planning estimates from the draft notes, not measured sales benchmarks or promises. Order frequency varies with demand, prices, shipping costs, feedback and ongoing inventory additions. A lot is a unique item, colour and condition combination.
| Pieces in stock | Unique lots | Possible stage |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000–5,000 | 200–500 | Occasional orders |
| 5,000–15,000 | 500–1,500 | Early traction |
| 15,000–30,000 | 1,500–3,000 | More regular orders possible |
| 30,000–75,000 | 3,000–6,000 | Weekly or near-daily orders possible |
| 75,000–150,000 | 5,000–10,000 | Daily orders possible |
| 150,000+ | 10,000+ | Potential for a substantial part-time operation |
Build variety before chasing a piece-count milestone
An example medium-term target is 50,000–75,000 pieces with at least 4,000 unique lots, rather than rushing to 100,000 pieces. Treat this as a planning idea, not a requirement: grow at a pace your budget, storage and order-picking time can support.
Choose useful parts for builders
For MOC builders (fans making their own creations), consider basic bricks, plates, tiles, slopes and modified bricks in black, white, light bluish gray, dark bluish gray and tan. Starting stock ideas are 20–100 pieces per common lot and 5–20 for less common colours.
Brackets, clips, bars, hinges, jumpers and other SNOT elements (studs not on top) help buyers build detailed models. Consider 10–40 per lot to start.
For Technic, consider pins, axles, gears, connectors and liftarms: 20–100 for common elements and 5–20 for specialty parts. For landscaping and architecture, consider plants, foliage, flowers, rocks, windows and doors: 5–30 per lot, with more depth in popular foliage.
These quantities are suggested starting targets, not measured demand. Twenty pieces each of thirty useful parts may be a better investment than six hundred identical pieces with little demand. Use your own sales to decide what to replenish. Bricktra can help by tracking trends in your purchased parts, so you can see what's currently popular.
Include minifigures when the buying price makes sense
Minifigures can give buyers another reason to visit a smaller store. As an example for a store growing toward 50,000 pieces, consider 100–200 figures initially and 200–400 over time, favouring variety rather than many copies of one figure. Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, LEGO City and collectible minifigures are possible categories to explore.
An optional starting budget is 20%–30% of inventory acquisition spending for minifigures, but only when you can buy below a realistic selling price after fees. This is a planning suggestion, not a proven ideal mix. Check condition, completeness and authenticity before listing.
Grow over time
Reinvest part of your profits into new inventory, aiming first for more unique lots rather than more of what you already have.
Watch for slow-moving stock: lots that haven't sold in months may be overpriced, in low demand or hard to find in your store. Lower the price, bundle them or stop buying more of them.
Take care of repeat customers — they often become a large share of your sales.
Pack orders carefully
When an order comes in, print a pick list, gather each lot, and count twice. Bag small parts by color, and protect minifigures and printed parts.
Choose a box size that fits snugly; it lowers shipping costs and damage.
Shipping
Look for the best option for the buyer in terms of cost and speed. A regular bubble mailer through USPS, Canada Post or another standard carrier is usually pretty cheap, but it comes with limits in weight and size.
Smaller carriers, like Chit Chats in Canada, can help you offer a better deal. FedEx, UPS and DHL are often on the expensive side.
Always add tracking on larger orders, and enter the tracking number in BrickLink so the buyer can follow it.
Track your real profit
Your profit is not the order total: subtract what the parts cost you, BrickLink fees, payment fees, shipping labels and packing supplies.
Keep a simple record of every order and expense from day one — it tells you which items are worth selling. Bricktra can help track that.
Grow with good service
Ship fast, answer messages quickly, and leave feedback for buyers. Good feedback and repeat customers are what grow a BrickLink store.
Bricktra can help by leaving reviews automatically, and you can set up an automatic coupon for buyers who leave feedback — an extra reason for them to come back.
Example order profitability
Change the numbers to see what a single order can really earn.
Illustrative only. Fees are a rough example — BrickLink and payment fees vary and BrickLink uses tiers for larger orders; check the current rates. Excludes shipping revenue and cost, income taxes and other overhead.
Track your real profit with BricktraUseful tools
A few tools that make running a BrickLink store easier.
Bricktra
Store management and automationBricktra is a tool I've developed to help BrickLink sellers simplify their daily store operations. It provides features for monitoring store activity, managing customer reviews, tracking packaging costs and organizing store-related information. The goal is simple: spend less time on repetitive administrative tasks and more time growing your store.
Use it when you want to manage daily store work: orders, pack lists, pricing, reviews, shipping and profit.
BrickStore
Inventory managementBrickStore is a free, open-source application that helps LEGO sellers create, edit, price and manage their inventory. It's particularly useful for preparing large inventories before uploading them to BrickLink, updating prices in bulk and organizing parts efficiently.
Use it when you're preparing or editing many lots at once, offline, before uploading them to BrickLink.
Brickognize
LEGO part identificationBrickognize is a free image-recognition tool that helps identify LEGO parts, minifigures and sets using photos. Instead of manually searching through thousands of parts, simply take a picture and let Brickognize suggest possible matches. It's especially helpful when sorting bulk LEGO purchases or identifying unfamiliar pieces.
Use it when you have a part, minifigure or set you can't identify — just take a photo.
Common beginner mistakes
Mistakes almost every new seller makes at least once — and how to avoid them.
Mixing up new and used
Keep new and used parts in separate bins and list them as separate lots. A used part sent as new is a quick way to get negative feedback.
Misidentifying similar colours
Black vs dark bluish gray, tan vs dark tan, the old and new grays… Check in good light and compare with a known part when in doubt.
Inaccurate storage locations
If a lot's location is wrong, you'll waste time searching or cancel an order. Update the remark every time you move parts.
Underestimating shipping costs
Weigh real packages and check carrier prices before setting your shipping rates, including packaging costs.
Listing stock you don't have
Remove parts from BrickLink as soon as you use them, lose them or find a wrong count. Cancelled items frustrate buyers.
Unrealistic shipping timelines
Promise a handling time you can keep on your busiest week, not your best day.
Counterfeit or modified parts
Don't sell counterfeit, non-LEGO or modified (painted, cut, glued) parts as genuine LEGO. BrickLink's listing policy restricts them and buyers can report them.
Let Bricktra handle the busywork
Bricktra syncs your BrickLink orders, prints pack lists, tracks shipments and shows your real profit. 30-day free trial, then $4 CAD/month.
Start your free trial