General Stuff

I should think most of our readers would be familiar with the BrickLink Forum, but just in case you've not looked at it, I encourage you to do so:

http://www.bricklink.com/messageList.asp

Check it out with the option of not looking at the replies so you just see all the main messages - there's quite a plethora of good information there.

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In other news. Chris is working on order processing and I'm at work dealing with month-end and railcar issues. The market is insane for sulphuric acid right now, and that's really interesting considering we're in a "non" recession.

I'm wondering how many folks out there are curbing their buying of the brick due to this "non" recession we're in, and if you get back your huge tax refund (in addition to anything you might normally get, the $300-$600 - in the US only) will you spend it on Lego?

I'm waiting for the new Green Grocer set...I haven't built the other two sets in that series yet, but I really want it!

I'll see if I can't find a pic and link it in.

Let us give you a hand! (or maybe 11,000+?)

For any of you who've been to one of the Lego stores across the nation (or in another country) and have experienced the "Pick-A-Brick wall" and the "Build a Minifig station", I'm sure you were amazed. I know I was the first time I went to the Orlando store, my very first store of Lego I'd ever experienced. I remember vividly how exciting it was, and this wasn't that long ago. I re-found the love of plastic building bricks at the young age of 33.

Now, after almost 5 years of absorbing myself in the plastic goodness that is Lego, and successfully building a large store on BrickLink, I'm branching out and trying to find more people to enjoy the love of building bricks that I have.

One of my all time favorite things has been minifigures (and Star Wars, and Fabuland...but, if we're looking at the toy itself, it's minifigures and parts of minifigs). The Lego store in Orlando has a wall of minifigures that you see behind the main register bay at the front of the store (you can see above). The first time I saw that my mind went wild with all the amazing creations I could make!

If you look at our BrickLink photo (http://www.bricklink.com/feedback.asp?u=BrickAThon), you'll see one of my first creations - an undead army, made from Luke Skywalker torso assemblies (removed the yellow hands and replaced with black or white - some have one, some have another), used both the glow in the dark and regular "evil" skeleton heads, black police hats and black legs. I love this army. There's something amazing about having over 1,000 little army men that all look alike defending your Lego collection!

When I go to the Orlando store I always see with great interest the children busily creating new figures to play with. You get 3 for $10 plus a little carrying case. They come with a torso assembly, a leg assembly, a head and one accessory (hat/hair or a weapon/utensil) per figure. So, for about $3.34 each you get to make your own figure based on the parts they have in stock. That is pretty darn nifty!

The Pick-A-Brick wall is set up a bit differently in that you can pick as many parts as you want off the wall and put them into pre-priced cups or tubs, anything you can fit and get the lid closed on you can have for that price. Nice idea, but not always the best selection. Same problem with the figure parts.

This is where we come in, folks. Do you want to create your own figures but get frustrated with not having enough parts? Never fear, Brick-A-Thon is here!

At last count (about 15 minutes ago), here's what I show our store as having in stock, just for some examples (*these could be new or used, too!):

11,493 hands in 20 different types.

56,589 heads in 156 different types plus another 40 "alternative" heads (i.e. SpongeBob heads, you might find a Dobby head, Martian heads, etc.).

22,964 pieces of headgear in 159 different types - this includes hats, hair, helmets, etc.

27,749 leg assemblies in 74 different types.

12,287 torso's with no arms/hands (just the torso) for you to customize - in 65 different types.

40,631 torso assemblies in over 218 different types - these include the hands and arms.

We also have plenty of arms, minifig utensils and even some footgear for you to choose from. It's quite amazing! We have over 170,000 items in those sections listed above, alone! Just think of all the possibilites for creations!

One of my personal store goals was to create a sort of "minifig pick-a-brick" aspect to our shop. I want you to be able to come in and buy all different types of figure parts to create what YOU want. I try to keep in a good stock and am constantly listing new and used figure items and parts. I also try to keep in a good selection of brand new figures from the new sets and get parts for those as I'm able.

Chris is an integral part of my deciding what we should put into the shop for many reasons, one of which is she does most of the order pulling and sees what people are buying and can tip me off when it appears we're running low on something or are having a "run" on the product. Another thing is that Chris is what I like to call an "ultimate consumer" - she loves a lot of the basics of Lego that the "non-collector" can relate to, being that she's new to Lego, so I get a new viewpoint on the parts that I've lost over the years. It's great to see her reaction to some of the parts that come out, and she just recently ordered a bunch of Indiana Jones parts to build with and to make her own figures out of.

We have a unique store with over 5,000 different lots available and over 550,000 total items (and I'm trying to keep it at this count). There are other well stocked shops out there that I appreciate a great deal, but one of my goals is to be your "one stop shop" for at least 50% of what you need. Not many shops out there can say that for the large collector or builder who needs a lot of different items in all types of different genres.

***Sorry if this post today sounds like an advertisement, but honestly I'm just very excited about where we've gotten this store and I want everyone to know what we're doing and WHY we're doing it! We love our customers, we love our store, we love our LEGO!

Please don't hesitate to stop in and say HI and if you order some figure parts and are making something new out of them please do send us pictures as we'd love to see them and would be happy to post them in future blogs. This goes for your own MOC's made with our parts - we'd love to see it all!

Tracy

It's Friday, the root canal is done!

Just a short note to all my friends out there (and all of those who ghost read us)...

I went in at 8:30AM today to have the root canal done - and I found out that I've got a couple cracks in my tooth as well. So, almost $400 later and my tooth has a temp filling in it. I have to get the crown done still. Lovely.

That being said - if anyone out there wants a coupon just leave us a note (via BrickLink - the messaging system works best) and we'll issue a 8% off ALL items coupon for you just because you took the time to read and WE LIKE YOU - but, you have to put in "give me your blog coupon" or something to that effect so I know why you're asking for said coupon. That would be LOVELY!

My dentist told me a little trick - since I can't take codeine (nasty headaches) he said to take 3 Advil liquicaps and 2 fast acting Tylenol at the same time and that it should work the same as codeine for the pain numbing - How hot is that? Okay everyone out there in pain-land, let's all try it! Then go buy Lego since you're not in pain anymore! YES!

Oh, and by the way - I'm at WORK! I managed to make it in and surprisingly, at 1:15PM, I'm doing alright so far (let me knock on fake wood here on my desk). Let's hope it continues...and maybe I'll tell Chris we're going out for BEER tonight! WooHoo!

BrickTracy

Wooooooooot!

Over the past weekend I discovered the joys of using the "chat" feature on BL. I met some people and hope to meet some more. It's great to be able to chat with people in real time that you've been dealing with in only "order" form (did that make sense???). Anyway...yeah!

It's always amazing to me when you see the fruits of your labor. Repeat customers, more business, more orders, and building relationships and friendships with folks you meet and deal with is a great thing! Brick-A-Thon has come a looooong way in the past year and that's all thanks to the teamwork between Tracy and myself and our friends who come over to help sort and count and who contribute their time and skills to better our store. I'd like to take the chance to thank all our friends (you know who you are) for helping us make Brick-A-Thon a success!

On the order front, orders are on schedule and caught up for the most part. Hopefully that'll change and I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off soon. I'm almost positive there'll be sorting and posting in the very near future.

I hope everyone is having a good week!

Root canal.

Hey everyone!

Well, it's Monday. Time for me to catch up on outstanding orders from late Saturday (I pretty much got things caught up through 6 pm Saturday night) and into Sunday and today.

Tracy went to the dentist this morning because 2 of her back molars have been painfully bothering her for the past few weeks. They suggested a root canal on one of her teeth (at least) but couldn't numb her up properly. So they referred her to another specialty dentist and she has an appointment tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. Now she's in bed trying to sleep off the effects of the gas and other stuff they gave her at the dentist today and then she'll head out to her "real life" job in the early afternoon. She's hurting, I can definitely tell, and I feel badly for her. :-( Poor Tracy.

That's all the new news from Brick-A-Thon for now.

Have a great day, everyone!

-Chris

Orrrrrder up!

Just thought I'd stop in and type up an update since it's been a few days. :-)

Today I'm working on finishing off the 15th and starting on orders placed today. Tracy is busy doing taxes, so I figured I may as well keep busy myself. She can't be the ONLY one pulling a 6 day week this week. :-) I'm thinking we'll take some time to ourselves tonight and go out for a nice dinner someplace. Even Lego needs to take a backseat once in awhile. *ducks while Lego addicts world wide start throwing plastic bits at me*. :-P

Back to the grind! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

-Chris

Happy ValenLEGO Day!

I'd like to wish a Happy Valentines Day, Anti-V-Day, Black Thursday, or as my friend Paige says, "Happy 'Guy who got his head cut off' Day" to everyone out there in Lego-Ville.

Today I'm working on completing a 7,000+ part order that we received a day or so back. I have 2 other bigger orders to complete and a handful of smaller ones, so I'll be on the move today. :-)

What're you doing today for this wonderful "Hallmark" holiday? We'd love to know! Not sure what we're up to yet, but you never know what the day will bring. ;-)

Have a good one, all!

-Chris

Mid-Week!

Tracy here:

I'm busy at work (but stealing the last few minutes for myself, ha-ha!) with my co-hort who handles trucks being out for the rest of the week so I'm handling all truck shipments, rail stuff I handle, plus all phones (incoming) - it's INSANITY! (Susan Powter anyone?)

Just a quick note to say that I plan on posting more parts here in the near future. I have tubs of figures to post and figure parts to go through, as well as more sets to sort, etc., etc. It's been busy, and a lot of fun to boot. I love the progress we're making and appreciate all the comments we're getting (okay, not a ton, but I appreciate everyone who does comment!).

As Chris posted yesterday, invoices are getting stuck in spam boxes or getting incinerated as a LOT of customers are not getting them, so do let us know if you see your order marked "Ready" and you haven't seen your invoice and we'll re-send it immediately.

Dani, a friend of Chris's (and mine) came over yesterday and said to Chris, "wow, there's actually floor in here!" in regards to the living room being cleared out of product (most of which is in the store now after our last huge addition over Christmas break). Yes, there is a floor! It's amazing what storage options and simple sorting/posting can do for a home. If you have a home full of Lego you know what I'm talking about.

It's 5:00PM - time to skiddaddle.

Bye all!

Easy like Tuesday Morning.

Well, it's Tuesday and because all hands at Brick-A-Thon have been working non-stop the past few days all orders are caught up and all is calm.

Good thing because I'm feeling a bit...under the weather. I noticed my throat was slightly scratchy earlier this morning and now I feel achy and tired. Tracy and I have been taking turns getting colds and such all winter and I guess it's my turn. :-( I'm going to be taking it easy today, needless to say.

Thanks to Jennifer for posting the longest comment to date here on the Brick-A-Thon blog! I'm always interested to see and hear about how other people deal with tons of bricks in their homes and how they run things in their store. Everyone does it differently, and everyone probably feels that they have the best and most efficient way of doing things. :-) Brick-A-Thon has come a long way since Tracy began it many moons ago, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

On a final, frustrating note we've been getting contacted quite a few times as of late from customers not receiving their invoices. Of course all invoices go out within a day or so of the order being received by us, but they're getting eaten alive by spam blockers...or some strange anti-Lego force in cyber land. ;-) Like it says on our splash page, if you notice your order is marked "ready" it means that it's been pulled and it's awaiting a payment. If you haven't gotten an invoice feel free to contact us and we'll send out a new one right away. Hopefully whatever is going on with the missing invoices will be resolved sooner than later. *blah*

This little buckaroo is going to go rack out on the couch. Zzzzzzzzzzz...

-Chris

Monday, Monday.

Tracy and I pretty much spent the day yesterday working on the store. She was adding parts and I was pulling orders. We're still getting in "size-y" orders with a lot of lots!

We also went to one of our local Wal-Marts and bought 7 more Sterilite stackable bin/drawars. We've been slowly converting our main room that holds a bulk of our inventory. When I first moved down here and started helping with the store there were file boxes full of sorted sets stacked on top of one another. So if someone ordered a part from a set that was on the very bottom of a stack you had to move every box to get to it. While it built up my arm muscles, it was a pain in the rear. Tracy got a tip from a fellow Bricklinker who suggested that these bins were the way to go. Now when we go to Wal-Mart we hit the bin aisle and pick up as many as we can. Then when we get home I transfer everything over. We probably only need to make a few more trips and it'll be complete. Needless to say it makes the whole order pulling process easier so I can get things done and out the door faster, which makes both me and the customer happy. :-)

Tracy and I (mainly Tracy) sorted some new sets that we got in, and there's still another stack of different sets that need to be done, so those will be added into the inventory this week I would imagine. Keep your eyes open!

Today I'll be working on some leftover orders from the weekend (9th and 10th). If you're expecting an invoice, it'll be coming sooner than later!

Happy Monday everyone!

-Chris

Parts and more parts

I have thousands of parts to list, folks...thousands...thousands and thousands more! New, used, all different kinds. Keep checking back for new items. You can see what's new in our store by clicking the "newest" link near the Search bar in the store (left hand side). Come see what I've been up to in the way of posting parts and sets and such!

Chris has been inundated with some huge orders as of late and she's being quite the trooper. I wonder if that cheesecake I got her for her birthday had a positive effect on her? ::scratches head::

Just wanted to pop in and say hello to anyone out there reading. Please, if you read us leave us a note to let us know you were here!

Tracy

It's FRIDAY!

After a much needed afternoon off and building a SW set that we had here in the house, I'm back to pulling orders.

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. It was faaaaabulous!

Have a good weekend everyone!

-Chris

Birthday!

Hey all!

Since it's my birthday today I'll be processing orders that have come in/come in before noon Eastern time. After that I'm going to sit on my rump and build something while watching "Judge" shows (People's Court, Judge Judy, etc). They're my guilty pleasure!

I'll be back to full order-pulling swing tomorrow.

-Chris

Antarctica anyone?

I was taking a breather in between pulling orders yesterday and was poking around on the internet for a bit and I saw something on the Yahoo home page about the coldest place on earth. Now, I'm from Wisconsin - born and raised, and while growing up with Winters like you can have up in the midwest, you think there's nothing colder than -25 with a windchill of -35. Brrrrr! I read that in Antarctica the temps. can get down to -85. Not that that should be surprising, but it IS surprising to know that there's actually people that LIVE down there - mostly scientists to be exact - in the McMurdo base.

I was intrigued and "Googled" McMurdo because I love to Google EVERYTHING and there were pictures that people posted that lived down there. There is a bowling alley, coffeehouse, restaurants, bars, you name it. I just wonder if there's any LEGO down there?

Being able to look out and just see nothing but white and mountains and seals - sounds great!

How 'bout it, Tracy? Should Brick-A-Thon make the move to the great, white south and send out our packages via pigeon? :-)

Swimmingly!

That's how orders have been going this week thus far. I think the "craziness" is finally over, but Tracy is posting new parts, and I'm going to be sorting and counting for a period of time today, so there's more items to come.

Maybe the craziness will just...continue...for eternity. :-)

Regardless, I'm happy to be getting a slight break from pulling orders for 10 hours a day.

Keep the orders coming though! Tracy and I are happy to help people get the parts they need.

-Chris

Happy Monday!

Hello all!

Tracy and I had a great weekend! We watched the Super Bowl yesterday and saw the Giants WIN! I'm a Green Bay fan being from Wisconsin and all, and for some reason even though the Giants beat the Packers 2 weeks back I was still rooting for them. It was a great victory for them, and I'm thrilled to bits that Tracy enjoys football as much as I do! She was even nice enough to take me to my very first NFL game this past September. We saw the Bucs vs. Rams, and it was very exciting indeed. I figure there would be no chance I'd ever be able to see a Packers game because tickets are near impossible to get, so it was great to be able to go see a game, regardless of who was playing. I suppose, however, that I should root for the Bucs since they're closest to me now, LOL! ....I'll always love my packers, however!

Orders...they're managable thus far! Today I'm doing a final order from the 2nd (I worked on them for a few hours yesterday to avoid yet another crazy week this week), and then doing the 3rd and whatever came in from the 4th. So, if you placed an order with us, you should expect an invoice soon!

Have a good day everyone!

-Chris

Caught up...again!

Hello all!

We're caught up, re-open, and Tracy's been adding parts!

Look, look, look!