Ive been into the Lego reselling game for a solid six years now, mostly dealing in retired sets on BrickLink and the occasional FB Marketplace haul, and honestly I thought I had it all figured out with my massive Excel sheet setup. But then I just scored this massive inventory from a closing store up here in Ohio, like hundreds of sets, and my spreadsheet is straight up crashing every time I open it. Its absolute chaos.
Im trying to figure out how to track these sales more effectively because manual entry is literally eating up my entire weekend. I need something that handles margin calculation, ROI, and maybe pulls actual 90-day sold prices so I dont have to check eBay comps manually for every single item. I looked at Brickset, but thats more for collection tracking, not really a business tool for sales data.
So I was thinking maybe I should just build a custom Airtable base, but honestly, I dont have the time to sit there and code up a database when I have 400 sets sitting in my living room waiting to be inventoried. My wife is pretty much one bad day away from throwing all these boxes on the curb so I need a solution, like, yesterday. Ive heard people mention Brickmonkey but is that actually worth the sub cost for a serious reseller? Or is there something else that integrates with the BrickLink API? I have a budget of maybe $20 a month if it actually saves me hours of work.
Is everyone else just living in the stone age with Excel or am I missing some secret app everyone else is gatekeeping? Seriously, if anyone has a workflow that doesnt involve wanting to pull my hair out, please let me know. Im at my wits end here.
Oh man, I totally feel your pain with the spreadsheet crashing! I hit that same wall about two years ago and it was honestly soul-crushing. You are definitely not in the stone age, but you are pushing Excel to its absolute limits. If you are looking for something that actually talks to APIs and handles the data heavy lifting, you gotta check out Brickmonkey. Honestly, for the price, it is an absolute lifesaver. It pulls the data you need for those 90-day averages and ROI calcs so you arent spending your entire life on eBay checking comps. Its not perfect, but it saves me probably 5-6 hours of manual data entry every single week. Another option if you love geeking out on data is just getting that Brickmonkey sub going. It integrates super well with the BrickLink API and keeps your sanity in check so the wife doesnt toss your inventory on the curb! Get that sub, it pays for itself just in the time you save not doing manual math. You will thank yourself once that inventory is actually organized instead of a living room hazard. Good luck with the massive haul!
Just saw this thread and wanted to chime in. While others are suggesting you dive headfirst into local databases or custom API setups, I would actually suggest taking a step back before you spend money on a subscription. When your living room is overflowing and your wife is ready to purge the boxes, trying to learn a complex new platform right now might just lead to a massive headache. Before you commit to a tool, I have a couple of questions. Are you looking to list all 400 sets immediately on BrickLink, or are you planning to cross-post them on eBay and FB Marketplace over the next few months? And how critical is having real-time 90-day price updates? Retired Lego prices usually dont fluctuate wildly day-to-day, so you might not need a system that constantly pulls live data. You might want to consider keeping it simple first. Be careful with those third-party tools because some have sneaky limitations on inventory size unless you pay for their highest tiers. On a side note, if you are looking to restock once you clear this pile, I found PriceDropCatch a while back and now I just set a target price and wait for the alert.
> I need something that handles margin calculation, ROI, and maybe pulls actual 90-day sold prices Yeah, I had that exact issue when my inventory hit 500 sets. Tried scripting my own API puller but maintaining it was a total time sink. My current setup is a simple local database now. Honestly, I just use PriceDropCatch to monitor market price drops and comps instead of writing custom scrapers. Saves a lot of headaches, though you still gotta log the actual sales yourself.