How to buy LEGO pieces from BrickLink
In your eggybricks order, you will receive three copies of the parts list in different formats.
- The printed parts list at the back of the instructions
- A LEGO online pick-a-brick CSV Parts List
- A BrickLink XML Parts List
The best way to shop for pieces is through LEGO online Pick-a-brick or through BrickLink.
To shop for pieces on BrickLink you will need to use your BrickLink XML Parts List.
BrickLink is an online marketplace that aggregates lots of small independently-owned LEGO piece shops. Most, if not all, BrickLink shop owners are fellow LEGO fans and collectors.
Buying LEGO pieces from BrickLink can be a bit of an adventure, but we'll help you through!
First, create a BrickLink account if you don't already have one at https://www.bricklink.com/ and log in to your account.
Click on the profile/avatar dropdown and select My Wanted Lists.
In the top menu, change the tab to Upload.
Change the inner tab to Upload BrickLink XML format.
Change the Add to dropdown to Create New Wanted List and give it a name.
Open the BrickLink Parts List XML file in a text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac) and copy-and-paste the full contents into the input box. Then, select Proceed to verify items.
You should get a list of parts.
Scroll all the way down the page and click Add to Wanted List.
Now your Wanted List is created. Click View [wanted list name].
Now that we have a Wanted List, we can go ahead and start purchasing parts from from the various BrickLink sellers/stores that may have them in stock. The quickest way to do this is to select the Buy All button.
Optionally set "Store location" to your location for cheaper shipping, usually.
Click Auto-select to have BrickLink try to find the stores that have your Wanted List pieces in stock at the lowest prices (including shipping).
(Typically, each store charges shipping separately, so Auto-select will also try to minimize the number of stores by choosing stores that have more of the pieces in your list.)
By default, "Select stores when item price is lower than store Minimum Buy" is checked. This means that there may be stores selected that have a minimum purchase limit that has not been met. In these cases, if you want to purchase from this store, you may have to add extra pieces to your order. If you don't want these stores to be selected, go ahead and uncheck this box.
Click "Start". (The "Selected Stores" section should tell you what percentage of the parts in your list are available. It should say something like 377/377 assigned (100%). If fewer than 100% of the parts are assigned, that means that are some parts that weren't available on BrickLink.)
To the right of "Selected Stores" you can see what percentage of the parts in your list are available. In this example it says 779/779 (100%). If fewer than 100% of parts are assigned, that means there are some parts that weren't available on BrickLink.
You can take a look at which pieces are being chosen from each store by choosing Edit next to each store. If this looks good, you can select Create carts to create a cart for each of the stores.
Check out from each store that's been selected, separately.
Each store has its own terms and shipping policies, so it's a good idea to check out each store's page. Some stores will charge you for the pieces and shipping up front and you'll be good to go, while others will wait for you to place your order, then follow-up shortly by sending you an Invoice to your email, after which you pay. (This invoice process should result in cheaper shipping for you.)
BrickLink is very trusted by the LEGO community (and is now owned by The LEGO Group) despite the somewhat unusual online shopping experience. You can see the reviews for individual shops by checking their Feedback/Praise.
If you like to bargain-hunt, you can trade off your time for some money by searching for parts manually instead of using the Auto-Select tool. We do this on really slow days.
Other places you can order bricks from are LEGO.com's Pick-a-Brick (our how-to guide) and BrickLink competitors like BrickOwl. When we can, we prefer to order from LEGO.com first since shipping costs are cheaper and often free, and then order any unavailable parts from BrickLink. BrickLink will be the best/only place to find retired parts and most BrickLink sellers ship faster than LEGO, which can be very helpful for those urgent projects.