Complaint Review: BRICKLINK

For the past week Bricklink has been targeted for major damaging sql cyberattacks. These attacks have caused much disruption and loss of business on Bricklink and limited sporadic unreliable access to the site. Although Bricklink's Administrator, Eric, has been working hard to undo the ongoing damage still being done by this unknown hacker Bricklink and its owners could and should have done more to prevent and respond to these ongoing attacks. These recent hacking attacks are showing the unprofessionalism of Bricklink and Eric. They are also forcing Bricklink to finally make some security improvements that are long overdue. But it may be too little too late or a case of closing the barn door after the horse has already left.

My concerns are being voiced here because if I post this in the Bricklink forum it will likely get immediately canceled, me banned from the forum or all of Bricklink, and create a firestorm of hostiity from Eric's supporters and sycophants in the forum. They will not even consider the possibility that Eric and the Jezek family could have done more to prevent these attacks and the losses many members have suffered as a result. No matter how polite or reasonable my words may be I risk being banned and flamed if I write them in the Bricklink forum. My nearly perfect high triple-digit feedback and almost six years of loyal Bricklink membership will mean nothing.

Bricklink was warned many times before that it had major security problems. But it did nothing about them. When warned about these security holes in the forum, Bricklink's administrators usually canceled those posts and responded by bullying, threatening and penalizing the authors. Just today Eric publicly threatened to ban a French seller who complained because he could not read or understand the long technical notice about Bricklink's problems which Eric posted earlier in English. I find that threat and other public whinings by Eric and others about honest member complaints to be unprofessional and unnecessary. Eric is certainly under a lot of stress trying to keep ahead of this artful hacker. But that is no excuse to emotionally lash out publicly at members who are quite rightly concerned about their Bricklink sales income. 

In fact I question whether Eric is the right person to lead Bricklink. Even before these cyberattacks Eric often seemed overwhelmed by the responsibilities of being Bricklink's administrator. This is all the more complicated by the fact that Eric owns the webhosting company for Bricklink (Northstar) and that Bricklink is Northstar's main client. Other members I have talked to about this have claimed that there is a built-in conflict of interest in this relationship. Because Bricklink provides the main source of income for Northstar they question whether Northstar's owner can truly to do what is best for Bricklink even if it means switching webhosts to one that is better able to handle such a rapidly growing site such as Bricklink. Other members with much more knowledge of IT than me have questioned whether Bricklink's security and other problems are at least partly due to inadequacies with its webhost. As long as Eric is financially vested in having Bricklink remain as Northstar's main bread and butter client Eric will do what is best for Northstar, not what is best for Bricklink.

Which leads me to this question, is it time for Bricklink to retain a more professional full-time administrator with no outside conflicts of interest? I think it is. Bricklink has almost a quarter million members and over 5000 sellers. Hundreds of those sellers rely upon their Bricklink sales as their sole or primary means of income. To say that Bricklink does not owe these members anything is absurd. This is not the year 1900 when company towns had absolute arbitrary rule over their residents. Bricklink calls itself an online shopping mall for Lego. But according to Bricklink sellers have little or no rights. Even though Bricklink sellers may have hundreds of thousands of dollars and their families' livelihoods invested in their business Bricklink's owners and administrators give them far less rights than tenants in a real bricks and mortar shopping mall. 

It is time for Bricklink to grow up and stop acting like a one-man garage-based start-up. Bricklink has grown exponentially since it began twelve years ago. Its quarter million members and 5000 stores generate almost 1000 orders every day and nearly $10,000,000 in annual sales. And Bricklink is still rapidly growing. To better deal with this growth there needs to be more professional full-time management and administration of the entire site, more respect and rights given to sellers, and more security to all members. Rules need to be clarified and objectified, with less room for Eric and Bricklink's owners to act against any member on a whim or for personal reasons. When that happens Bricklink will be a better site for everyone.

I am a member of Bricklink, as a buyer and seller.

The original report is really mostly untrue to the point of being outright lies.

It truly is a great place to buy and sell Lego,  it is, however, dominated by large businesses - Troy being one of the biggest (and main moderator!)

It is a safe place to buy and sell - and there is no way anyone could "rip off kids" DIRECTLY using Bricklink. Indirectly it is possible, and that concerns me.

That said, some of the comments raise real concerns.

Over zealous and motivated censorship by the moderators in the forums.

A vested interest by moderators who are also BIG sellers!

There is in place a "fraternal order" (so to speak) of some of the huge sellers.

There is total disregard for consumer rights, being washed off (by Bricklink - admin?) as each store sets their own terms, most of which state overly restrictive and illegal terms.

And then there is this Bricklink seller and private buyer (off Bricklink) - "toy brick brigade"

I apologize if this is a legitimate concern, this is an example that I came across using a casual search.

There may be others but this one is soliciting to buy "used Lego".

I have no experience of this company and AM NOT saying they are dishonest, just an example of how the initial accusation MAY have some substance.

Troy certainly acts like a dictator. The forum rules are not consistently enforced by him. He has his favorites and they can do almost anything.  One moderator lost his job for saying certain things which he was apologetic for before he was relieved of his duties.  Troy did the same thing, apologized and is still there.  

His running of the forum is subject to his anger which he does not have firm control of.  He often complains about others for doing something which he does his self.  He is well out of his league in trying to maintain a fair and productive forum.  He does not have the ability to do the job that is his. What is worse is that he has no idea how unqualified he is.

Unfairly, with out little thought to the implications of his actions, he bans members from participation.

Also he is not a volunteer.  He receives reduced fees or no fees at all for monitoring the forum.

He has a large amount of non-positive feedback because of his business practices and I would recommend staying away from his Bricklink store.

Troy's comments about the safety of BrickLink are entirely accurate and the accusations made against him as a BrickLink seller are grossly unfair and defamatory. But I do take exception to his unnecessary and inaccurate comments on why I was banned from the BrickLink forum.

I have been a member of BrickLink for 9 years and have over 8000 transactions on BrickLink as a buyer and seller. 99.8% of my feedback is positive. I highly recommend BrickLink to anyone shopping for LEGO. It is much safer than other online venues. The complaints made in the initial report are completely false and the product of someone's deliberate misrepresentations and malicious personal vendetta.

That being said, I do not believe Troy's comments about my forum ban were necessary or accurate. I was permanently banned from the BrickLink forum after I responded in anger to someone who posted an attack on my wife and her own BrickLink account. This member has a long history of personal animosity towards me and I basically called him a "dickless coward" for attacking my wife from the safety of an anonymous keyboard 1000 miles away. I guess this was the excuse Troy had been looking for, because he permanently banned me shortly after this post. The member who attacked my wife was NOT banned. After being banned, many forum posters expressed their disagreement with Troy's actions and I received over 100 messages of support from members saying they would have done the same thing (or worse) if someone had attacked their wife.

Prior to being permanently banned from the forum, I was very vocal in the forum. I made many positive suggestions which were implemented by BrickLink, expressed my agreement or disagreement with numerous other suggestions, and (due to my legal training and background) expressed concern over policies, practices and suggestions which I thought were legally questionable (such as price-fixing and putting limitations on prices). In hindsight, maybe I should have kept my legal training to myself, because it led to the inevitable rude classless lawyer jokes and hostile berating of lawyers in general - all without any moderator stepping in to say such baiting comments were inappropriate.

BrickLink prides itself on self-policing by its members to report problem sellers and buyers. It is this self-policing which helps make BrickLink one of the safest online venues for buying and selling LEGO. Over the years, like many others in the BrickLink forum, I reported a fair number of scams, scammers and shady practices - always supported by facts.  Among other things, I posted about such questionable practices as over-inflated exchange rates, shipping scams, customs fraud, PayPal fraud, misleading pricing, members using dupicate accounts to give feedback to themselves and to create problems for others, etc., etc. And, over the course of years, I earned myself many supporters and enemies in the forum and on BrickLink.  A lot of people wanted to hide BrickLink's problems and, of course, those I outed as scammers or having less than honest selling practices never forgave me and took every chance they could to insult or post nasty unfriendly baiting replies to my forum posts. I have even had my children threatened by a BrickLink member - and this member was even allowed to remain after this report and after this member posted very vulgar profane threats against BrickLink and its founder; a member who was later repeatedly banned and then allowed to sell again and again under bogus duplicate accounts all in violation of BrickLink's own Terms of Service, and all of which eventually resulted in this seller repeatedly scamming more buyers before being banned (belatedly) once again.

BrickLink's forum posting rules allow the moderators to ban members for anything they consider inappropriate. What is inappropriate has never been defined. As such, the rules are very fluid and vague, and have been subject to selective biased enforcement on the part of the moderators. There have been many other posts filled with insults, foul language and other derogatory attacks which did not result in bannings.

But the most questionable part of this is the fact that the moderators are all sellers. They are, essentially, competing sellers who are given the power to ban other sellers based on very vague selectively enforced and highly subjective rules. Troy is one of the biggest sellers on BrickLink. I was also a big seller for many years and very often I engaged in legitimate pricing practices which Troy has publicly criticised - such as fractional pricing and pricing low as often as I can. In fact, I almost always price my goods lower than Troy. By banning me from the BrickLink forum, Troy has denied me access to customers and the opportunity to promote my shop and sales events. All because I called a hostile poster a "dickless coward" for attacking my wife.

Sorry for the rant... But my ban is not right and, in my opinion, is illegal. And despite BrickLink's reputation for safety, it is also a poor reflection on BrickLink. The forum is an important part of BrickLink. It allows members to share their love of LEGO and to watch out for one another. And, because BrickLink is a site for commerce to promote the buying and selling of LEGO, the forum is also a very important tool for sellers to promote their business. It is not right that the forum moderators - all competing sellers - use very vague selectively enforced rules to ban other sellers they subjectively deem to have posted something "inappropriate". By silencing me, Troy has not only reduced my sales, he has also prevented me from making additional suggestions for the betterment of BrickLink and its members, helping other BrickLink members with their questions, and identifying additional scammers and dishonest selling and buying practices on BrickLink.  And, since banning me, other members have contacted me to say that they are now more hesitant to post about potential problem members and problems because of the hostile responses such posts so often generate, unpredictable moderation of such responses and the example Troy made of me.

In short, while buying and selling on BrickLink is quite safe, you put yourself at the very subjective mercy of the mods - all competing sellers - whenever you want to participate in BrickLink's forum. A robust forum where members can honestly discuss their legitimate concerns without fear of banning or retaliation by competing sellers who happen to be moderators helps to make BrickLink safer and better for all. No seller should have the right to ban another seller, and the rules for banning need to be much more objective, clear and evenly enforced.

-"lets see i'm banned from the BrickLink forums and chat and still Banned"

Just a loser?

so your calling me a shill, lets see i'm banned from the BrickLink forums and chat and still Banned, so tell me why would I say anything praise worthy of the site unless its true, your nothing but a spoiled brat who thinks the sun rises and sets for you, got news for you, your nothing but worthless scum and the very fact that ripoff reports would allow such an uncredited report against a company in good standing shows that this site is worse then even the Craigslists Rants and raves section, except there the public can vote to remove offending or lying posts.

are all these shills costing you bricklink?

Either monetarily or lost time for your employees posting here?

The complaint described by OntarioBricks  in this thread is ridiculous.  Bricklink is a long lasting an stable international community of adult LEGO fans and is probably among the most friendly community of users to be found anywhere in the world.  Occasionally new users come there, behave badly, are appropriately managed by the experienced moderators (like Troy Nemeth) and get their shorts in a knot and do childish things like write false information on "complaint" sites like this one. 

Nothing more or less has happened here.

I've been using Bricklink for a decade. I am not a heavy user compared to many others. Sellers and buyers here are more reliable than at other online sites, in my experience, because they are all adults and because they are all LEGO lovers and tend to respect fellow their AFOLs.  Any bad experiences I've ever had relate to mailing problems, not anything to do with the users.

The accusations of ripping of children are completely laughable. The complaint is clearly written by someone (probably very young) who has no clue how Bricklink works and is just venting their (inappropriate) anger in a childish manner.

Once again... Bricklink is an ADULT FAN of LEGO site. No aspect of it was intended for child use.

as a long-time member of the lego and bricklink communities, I can simply ask "you're kidding, right?".. there is absolutely no basis for anything said in that complaint.. anyone who is allowed to post something like that, without proof, will most likely face serious legal replies.. very, very sad..

What is this rip-off Bricklink being discussed?  It certainly bears no resemblance, save for name and members (mostly), to the Bricklink I know and love.

I joined Bricklink a few years ago when I came out of my Lego dark ages.  It was pure heaven.  I could replace missing parts, and buy sets I couldn't afford as a child.  I can also sell off those parts and sets that I don't want, to fund the ones I do.

Some things were made very clear to me, the techno-noob, right from the start. 

1) No kids, unless accompanied by an adult.  Kids using the site, or creating accounts, are removed, and their accounts deleted.  This STOPS children from being victimized in any way, financially or otherwise.

2) If you, the adult buyer or seller, are being ripped-off, there are numerous resources for you, and a determined staff of (primarily) volunteers to assist you.  As well, the forum consistently shows that the community as a whole is willing to help each other avoid rip-offs by outing those who have scammed them, as a warning to others.  The feedback system allows you to easily check the accuracy and fairness of those outings.

3) You, the adult buyer or seller, are responsible for your own actions, be that in the forum, the chat, your personal account, and your adherence to a legally (as well as morally) binding contract.  The entire community will help each and every new member, as they did with me, unflinchingly, unbegrudgingly and without fear of ridicule.

Beyond being a place to buy and sell a toy we all love, Bricklink is a strong community.  No community is perfect.  There are fights and squabbles, and the occasional descent into less-than-ideal behaviour.  But this is not the norm by any stretch of the imagination.

I am glad that such a place as Bricklink exists, and even more happy that I was lucky enough to find it.  It has brought me so much joy on so many levels.  I can firmly assert that I speak on behalf of the vast majority of Bricklink users in this regard.

The report filed on Bricklink is patently false, misleading, and the author should be held accountable for criminal libel.  There is next to nothing accurate in it.  For shame.

exactly what bad customer service are you referring to? The original post didn't ever elaborate on what their ripoff report was. I mean unless you seriously believe the stealing candy from a baby rhetoric. Please give us relevant information if you are serious and not the original poster on a shill account. A case of takes one to know one perhaps? There are thousands and thousands of bricklink buyers and sellers, so frankly  I'm surprised there are only this many rebuttals.

This 'ripoff report' doesn't even specify what exactly the rip off was, so I'm not sure why I even wasted my time reading it.

What exactly was your loss and what did you report about it? All I see is an editorial piece with zero citations to back up your claims.  Reporting used to carry the assumption that some kind of research was done but I'm getting the feeling this is more of a personal rant/issue.

Please clarify for the community what exactly it is your reporting and how you were ripped off. I use bricklink and want to know if this is a valid report or some jilted lover.

Isnt it better to provide better customer service in the beginning than to pay all these shills to come here and try and redeem you?

Not good business sense.

I wasn't going to bother responding to this report because it is so obviously absurd, but I suppose that people unfamiliar with BrickLink might not easily see why the report is ridiculous. If anyone considering buying or selling Lego on BrickLink is put off by the report, let's take a closer look at it to see what is being claimed...

"Bricklink was a website designed to provide lego parts to consumers most of which are children."

The very first sentence is false. All of the members of BrickLink are adults, not children. While many of the people who buy Lego there may do so in order to give it to children, this number is probably not as large as you may initially think. Lego is enjoyed by people of all ages, and the intent of BrickLink is to facilitate the buying and selling of Lego among adults.

"The site is maintained and managed by Troy Cefaratti who also owns several other lego sites and stores. "

The second sentence is false. Troy has a volunteer position as Community Overseer, which he describes in a bit more detail in his own rebuttal. The site is maintained and operated by Eric Smith, the Technical Administrator, and the family of the late founder, Dan Jezek.

The remainder of the preamble repeats that Troy is the "mastermind" behind the site, but there is no support for this. Not that it matters anyway, because regardless of whoever makes the decisions at BrickLink, none of the claims described in the report have any validity:

"Bricklink entices children to sell there lego collections to its members at rock bottom prices only to tuen around and sell the entire collection piece by piece to the highest bidder."

There are a few things wrong about that statement. First, no explanation is given about how BrickLink actually goes about "enticing children to sell their Lego". BrickLink doesn't actually do any buying or selling itself. The website is a marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to conduct transactions, but BrickLink is neither the buyer nor the seller in any of those transactions. One could just as easily say that Ebay "entices children to sell their Lego" to ebay members. It's unclear exactly how either Ebay or BrickLink is supposed doing this enticing, though, as the original report doesn't explain.

The second part is that the statement glosses over the fact that the people buying the collection piece by piece are BrickLink members. So, who exactly is the report claiming gets ripped off? The report implies that the people getting ripped off are children. But BrickLink does not allow children to join, and in order to sell your Lego collection through BrickLink, you have to be a member. As far as I can decipher, the report is saying that individuals are buying Lego (locally, from children, apparently), and then selling it at a profit on BrickLink. If that's the complaint, the the actual "rip-off" isn't actually occurring on BrickLink at all. It's happening at yard sales. Parents are selling their kids' Lego collection without first trying to find out what it's worth, and somebody makes that yard sale purchase. Totally unrelated to BrickLink so far. THEN, the buyer at the yard sale becomes the seller on BrickLink (or Ebay, or Kijiji, or CraigList, or any other site that allows individuals to buy and sell Lego). Who exactly got ripped off in this scenario?


The entire report is written in a very vague, "this is the way things work" manner. Can the original poster describe a specific instance of a rip-off occurring? Did they themselves sell their kid's Lego, only to find out that they buyer was able to make a profit by reselling it on BrickLink? Give us specifics. What transactions did you witness or did you take part in? Did you witness a child selling their Lego to Troy? Can you give us dates and locations? What were the items sold? Why did the child's parents let them sell their toys? How often did you witness this? And what does any of it have to do with BrickLink, anyway -- if somebody takes something of high value in to a pawn shop, and the shop owner turns around and sells it at a profit on ebay, does that mean that ebay is ripping someone off?


At the end of the report, the poster states that this issue has been brought up on BrickLink's discussion forums. Can you direct us to where that has happened? I am among the top three contributors to that forum, and I cannot recall any such discussions. Refresh my memory -- post a link to what you are talking about. BrickLink's forums have a handy feature in that, even if a message gets cancelled, it's still possible to link to it. Instead of seeing the original message, you would see who posted, when they posted, and the message is replaced with "cancelled". The cancelled messages are kept threaded within the original discussions, so often it's possible to piece together cancelled messages based on the adjacent replies. So where are all these blocked discussions about children being ripped off? I haven't seen a single one.

The reason described for the forum bannings are also incorrect. There HAVE been discussions about whether banning users from posting is in the best interest of the site, but none of that has had anything to do with ripping off children. Bannings are generally due to personal insults being exchanged between members, for which there is little tolerance in the site's forum.


So, having said all that: If you are reading this page because you are considering buying something from BrickLink and you wanted to see if the site was reputable, you can safely ignore this "rip-off report". It completely mischaracterizes the way that BrickLink works. BrickLink will let you buy from any one of thousands of different sellers around the globe. Some of them are better at customer service than others. You will find a lot of variation in the speed of response, the quality of the product, the pricing, and anything else that can vary from one seller to another. In that way, the site is very similar to ebay -- you are buying from other individuals, not from BrickLink itself.

But in my experience, BrickLink has better sellers than ebay. More honest shipping costs, better communication, and more of an actual community. Are there are few bad apples in the mix? Of course. But they get sorted out pretty quick.


And, if you are a parent of a child with a Lego collection, and you're afraid that the offer you're getting for the collection isn't fair, BrickLink is absolutely the best tool at your disposal to figure that out. The site's catalog includes pretty much every set and every part that has ever been produced by Lego, and every single one of those has a price guide that shows every single sale for that item (that went through BrickLink) over the last six months.

Look up those little Star Wars minifigures before you put them out for your yard sale, and maybe you'll decide to become a seller on BrickLink yourself!

=)

Almost everything stated in this complaint is false.

1)  The site is for adults and not children.  Users must be of legal age in their country to use the site.
     If a person is found to be underage, they are removed from the site.

2)  The site is owned by the parents of Daniel Jezek, who passed away recently.  It is administered by Eric Smith.

3) Troy Cefaratti and others are unpaid volunteers to help run the site.  He is not an owner.

Bricklink is just a venue for buying and selling of Lego products.  Each store is individually owned and operated by members.

I have been using the site for 10 years and consider myself to be well versed in how the site runs.  While all sites that do the same thing [Ebay, Amazon, etc] have issues with cheats, Brinklink does it's best to have them removed as soon as possible. 

It is clear to me that whoever filed this report is woefully unfamiliar with the process of buying and/or selling LEGO on Bricklink.  In fact, I would even go so far as to point out that the report isnt about Bricklink at all.  It seems like an individually motivated attack against a few people who use the site to sell their stock.

And while I cant speak for the personal practices behind any specific individuals method for acquiring the stock that they sell in their stores, the point should be made that Bricklink is populated by literally thousands upon thousands of both buyers and sellers.  I personally use the service to well elements from sets that I acquired as a child to fund my own LEGO building hobby.

What is most upsetting about this report is that fact that nothing that it describes as its rip-off process can actually be done on the Bricklink Website.  The only services available are the ability to buy and sell individual LEGO parts and sets at prices that are not universally set, but created and set by the individual sellers to compete amongst themselves.

And I also feel compelled to clarify that the ban mentioned in the report had nothing to do with anyones business practices.  It was motived by a heated forum argument in which poor language was used against another member.  The ban was based on an allegedly unclear rule regarding posting in the Bricklink forum.  Using it in the way it they did, it is clear that the reporter was
trying to create a fictitious support for their argument.

All told, this report is clearly a fraud.  I will continue to do business as both a buyer and a seller on the Bricklink website.

This report is so full of complete and utter LIES that I do not even know where to begin.  I will do my best to address them all.

BrickLink.com is a venue for individuals and businesses from all around the world to buy and sell new, used and vintage LEGO through fixed price services. The site was created by Daniel Jezek who passed away in 2010, but his family continues to operate the site.

BrickLink does not market itself towards children, nor are children allowed to have accounts there.  Membership is restricted to those that are of legal age to form binding contracts.

I, Troy Cefaratti, am not a member of the Jezek family, nor do I manage or maintain the website.  My role as a volunteer at the site is as "Community Overseer" and in that capacity I moderate the public forums and assign others to various volunteer positions. 

I have no control over the direction of the site, nor do I believe that the direction of the site has changed at all since the unfortunate passing of its creator.  The family and the current Admin have done a fantastic job keeping the site going exactly as it has been.

I also have a store of my own on the BrickLink website, Troy's Toy Kingdom.  In this store I sell only sets and new parts purchased by myself from retail or wholesale outlets.  I do not buy or sell used LEGO from anyone, let alone children.

I have received 15,998 positive reviews for this store at this site, while receiving only 88 neutrals and 16 negative in an 11 year time span.  My entire feedback history can be viewed here:  http://www.bricklink.com/feedback.asp?u=mnementh

I do also have a retail location where I sell to the general public.  I also DO NOT buy any used LEGO items at this store, from children or adults.

I also run a storefront on Amazon.com where I maintain a 97% positive rating.  This can be verified here:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/seller/feedback.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceSeller=1&seller=A1OXQFBXU0N3CK

I will stand by my record of being a fair and honest retailer. 

The claim that "bricklink" is ripping off children is also false.  The owners of BrickLink do not buy or sell ANY LEGO at all.  LEGO can only be sold on the site by members, and children can not become members. 

The claim that items are sold to "the highest bidder" is also false.  BrickLink is a fixed price sales venue.  BrickLink does not offer auction style sales and has not done so for many years.

The claim that anyone is being misled about the value of their LEGO is also false.  BrickLink provides a freely available price guide feature to everyone so that they can see the current listed prices and past sale prices of all items that are currently available or have sold within the last 6 months.  A person need only look up a set or part and they will receive the pricing history of that item.

The claim that discussion of this subject has been blocked is also false.  Discussion of both bad buyers and bad sellers occurs almost daily and is not filtered unless forum rules are violated (such as by posting personally identifying information such as home address or phone numbers). 

"Foster Ben Goshi" is not a whistle blower nor was he banned for "telling of what was being witnessed".  This member in fact was not even involved in any recent discussions on this matter.  The member was banned for a completely unrelated incident where he called other members vulgar names.

The claim that you are making your stand here to avoid our reach is also false.  You have made it here because you know it is full of bogus information and outright lies, and so that you can shield your true identity. 

Troy

After looking at all that has happened today in the forum and all that has happened in the past with Bricklink, it's forum and the subsequent moderations it was only a matter of time before something like this unfolded.

Troy, you have been running around like a dictator and your anger switch is easily flipped resulting in you either pulling a thread or blasting those who comment.  You have no respect for free speech if it does not go in line with your way of thinking.  Admins actions of late has been highly questionable and self serving.  I suggest a look inward first before passing judgement on all others.

Bricklink has a habit of acting irresponsible with regards to personal information, forum debates, moderator rants etc.  The Bricklink Admin should be focusing on the ever growing list of sleeze who have infiltrated the site and get away with ripping off consumers.

As far as the children are concerned, I dont know what to say.  I dont know if it is true or not.  I know that you openly advertise on the web to buy childrens collections tucked away in the basement, what you actually pay is unknown.  What the worth is, pretty much common knowledge amongst bricklinkers.  Having a store located in a candy shop also does not help your defense any.

This is looking bad.  I hope it isnt true but there is a lot of true staements being made and your actions of late have been highly questionable.

Im just saying.

This report should be considered Fraudulant since it is a site designed for adults and only for Adults, it states so within its sites TOS which does not permit children to join in accordance to laws, furthermore the named individual Troy Ceferatti is not the owner of said site, but a member and Administrator of said site, he is one of a handful of Moderators and Admins on the site, which is comprised of thousands of Individual stores and members.

BrickLink does not entice children to sell their LEGO but offers a venue for Adults who wish to buy and/or sell LEGO on the site, the site offers a comprehensive listing of LEGO items and prices, it is up to the "Seller" to set their own prices of what they wish to obtain for their items from "Buyers" on the site.

BrickLink is not one store or distribution center or point for a single entity, but several stores each operated individually by the stores owner with each store owner responsible for their own store and no other, the aforementioned individual Troy Ceferatti owns a store on said site (BrickLink), and he has a large amount of positive feedback, feedback that is left by either buyer or seller, to illustrate how the transaction went.

As to the Persons who were "Banned" from the Forums by the Administration (Moderators) they were "Banned" for violation of forum rules.

I am one of said Banned Individuals (Asterios), while I might have my own disagreement for my Banning, it was still within the site rules to do such, since it is up to the site to police its own site and to prevent disruption of service for other members due to the actions of a few.

The Reporter of this Rip-Off report has an ax to grind because he believes himself to be infringed upon, that is his personal opinion, but to denegrate a Good and trustworthy seller/admin and to cast a shadow of doubt on a site that has been around for over 10 years because of his belief he has been slighted is both irresponsible and childish and this report should be treated as such.

BrickLink Administration and members strive to maintain the site in a friendly and comfortable selling/buying atmosphere for all to enjoy.

Like any other Site that is like this the occasional person of illrepute with ill intent on his mind will try to take advantage of the less wary, but the community as a whole is usually able to police said individuals to help safe guard the site as a whole.

Rick.

This report written about bricklink as many false statements.  I buy and sell on bricklink and will go by point by point.

First, Brciklink rips off children:  This is not true, one of bricklink's rules is that you must be 18 years old to create an account.  At any notice when a user is not 18 that user is blocked.  Many bricklinkers use their own personal collection or acquire Legos outside of bricklink to the  bricklink market.  There is no way possible for Bricklink to rip of children.

Troy the Admin:  Yes Troy is the Admin but he in no way sets the prices on the website, while Troy does have a large store there are thousands of stores around the world that have competing prices, shipping prices, and services that make bricklink a free market for legos.

If you were ripped off in sale on bricklink:  Bricklink has a feedback system where buyers and sellers can leave remarks about their transactions.  if one is ripped off one can pursue many ways to rectify the situation.

Banned Members:  While some members have been banned, this has not effected 99% of the users, also the users agree to the terms of the site.  If they violate any of the terms they can be subject to the admins of the website.

Bricklink has only helped my lego experience I have gotten great prices for the Legos I wanted to get rid of, while finding rare pieces I needed because I needed them to complete something.  I enjoy bricklink so please do not let this rip off report, which seems to be more personal, deter you from using the site