BrickLink Down Since Thursday: Sellers Report Lost Sales

BrickLink, the LEGO secondary marketplace, has been offline since late Thursday evening, according to Brick Fanatics. The site is not scheduled to return before 9 a.m. PST (5 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and the outlet reports that the LEGO Group has already pushed that time back twice.

Store owners who depend on BrickLink for their income say the downtime is costing them sales during what several describe as their busiest month for parts.

What has been confirmed about the BrickLink outage

The LEGO Group, which acquired BrickLink in 2019, gave no concrete reason for the outage beyond an initial message about “necessary work” on the platform, Brick Fanatics reported. The cause has not been disclosed. The outlet said the company had not responded to its request for comment, sent at the end of last week.

The return time is listed as “at least” 9 a.m. PST on Nov. 11, so service may come back later than that. The sources do not describe which features or regions are affected, and the site appears to be unavailable as a whole.

Sellers describe lost revenue and a move to other platforms

Simon Webster, who runs DSLS Bricks on both BrickLink and Brick Owl, told Brick Fanatics that for the same four-day period last November his sales revenue is 52% down overall, while Brick Owl is up 79%. Another store owner, who asked not to be named, said the outage “made me lose a lot of money” and that November is the month they move the most inventory.

Nick Smith, who runs a UK-based BrickLink store, said he saw more Brick Owl orders during and after the last outage and that signs of the same shift are already visible. A seller named James said he is considering closing his recently opened BrickLink store to focus on eBay, which he called “much easier to use”. Webster said he may reopen on eBay as well, and mentioned a new platform in beta testing that has no launch date.

Complaints about communication

Several sellers said they received no email from BrickLink or the LEGO Group. James said a notice would have let sellers manage customers if the work was planned. Webster said sellers are “left in the dark.”

Webster also pointed to earlier changes on the site, saying that every time something is “improved” it breaks. The most recent previous BrickLink outage was in early November 2023, when the site went offline because of a data breach, according to Brick Fanatics.

Why it matters for resellers

For sellers who rely on the site full time, each day offline means orders that cannot be placed. James said an outage can affect resellers’ livelihoods and reputations. Sellers quoted by the outlet expect little compensation: one said they do not expect the LEGO Group to waive November fees, and Smith said his minimum expectation is an explanation once the site is back.

What happens next

The next stated milestone is 9 a.m. PST on Wednesday, Nov. 11. No official workaround or status page update was cited in the reporting.

Source: Brick Fanatics