This is all true. But: bricklink stores are captive so bricklink store owners are just creating brand recognition for bricklink, they can't legally sell their stores and bricklink.com has been sold to some Hong Kong entity after the original founder died. Slowly bricklink sellers are being squeezed for more of their profits because the site has critical mass.

And then there is the 'incrowd' which does everything they can to get rid of newcomers. All in all not too impressed with Bricklink in its current incarnation, the Lego group, which used to quietly promote bricklink has gone completely silent on them.

A final item about bricklink that I don't like is that they tend to sue or send C&D letters to other Lego related sites for the use of 'their' content whereas that content is all user generated, it's just that Bricklink overnight went from having all that content owned by the contributors to claiming copyright on images and terminology. They really pulled a Gracenote/Freedb stunt here.

Yikes. I haven't done any meaningful business on Bricklink since before Dan died, and it's always been a somewhat prickly place, as often happens with niche hobbies - but I had no idea how it's gone downhill since. Sad to see, but it does make me feel like I dodged more of a bullet than I might've realized when I decided to give away my own collection instead of trying to sell out of it.

It's a real pity, Dan was a super nice guy with his heart in the right place, the present owners are not in any way approaching this in a nice way.

Wait, how can Bricklink send C&D letters, unless it's actually owned by Lego? It's like Ebay sending C&D letters to Craigslist because someone happens to list something that's also solde there.

That's part of the craziness. Most small Lego trading sites are not wealthy enough to defend against this so they fold.

http://www.thebrickfan.com/brick-owl-hit-cease-desist-letter...

Imo they don't have a leg to stand on with 'their' numbering system because it is based on Lego mold numbers to begin with.