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20th Anniversary of BrickLink

A Message from Eliska Jezkova, mother of Dan Jezek, founder of BrickLink

 

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This June we mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of BrickLink. Larry and I want to join all of you in virtually celebrating this wonderful milestone. As it were, we find ourselves in Honolulu, Hawaii, where we have remained since the COVID-19 pandemic expanded, in early March. How appropriate it is that we are here in the same location where Dan launched BrickLink (then BrickBay) June 19, 2000. I have posted a brief video message inviting you to share with me some personal remembrances of the time Dan spent putting BrickLink together, building it from scratch.

I can only stress that if Dan were alive today I know he would be so proud and grateful to you for making his dream, BrickLink, come true. Without you none of this would be possible. Please think of Dan on the 20th anniversary of BrickLink, June 19, and on what would have been his 43rd birthday, June 25. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for an absolutely awesome 20 years of BrickLink!

Eliska and Larry

Link to video of Eliska message on Youtube

Click here or above for a message on the 20th Anniversary of BrickLink

 

A Quick BrickLink History

BrickLink went live, online June 19, 2000. Its modest beginnings were the work of Daniel Jezek, a computer programmer and an Adult Fan of Lego, then working and living in Honolulu, Hawaii. BL’s debut year 2000 was not simply by coincidence. The “Y2K scare” caused businesses around the world to hire augmented computer programming help out of fear that come the first day of the new millennium, computers everywhere would suddenly crash trying to handle a double zero modification to the date stamp. The threat was overblown and Jan. 1, 2000 came and went with hardly a whimper. Although his full-time position at First Hawaiian Bank (and later after an acquisition Alltel) remained open to him – he rose to become their “go-to” programmer for their proprietary software – change of company ownership and cost-cutting measures sent him out the door in the spring of that year. He began a job search for alternative employment.

Dan had earlier attended the University of Hawaii and was pursuing computer science studies. He felt well qualified to work for another computer company in Honolulu, but opportunities were limited. For several months while he sought new employment, he researched additional ways to make money. While his resumé circulated among potential employers throughout the island of Oahu, Dan fell back on a tried and true means to earn an income: He sold LEGO.

A few years earlier, as a teen growing up on Oahu’s Windward side, Dan had come across a cache of bulk, unsorted LEGO at a neighborhood rummage sale. He went up to a relatively new website called eBay and discovered a ready market for his bricks. That relatively recent memory of successful online selling stayed with Dan as he continued to comb the island looking for a job. The search also turned up more cast-off LEGO and he even began selling some of his own collection, dating back to when he was a child. Again, the bricks moved on eBay and Dan felt he’d always have a fall-back alternative in case he needed to generate income to augment a steady job.

dan at computer

The search for a new job led to a series of interviews with a Honolulu IT startup that appeared promising. His potential new boss was impressed by Dan’s knowledge and recent experience. He was especially struck by Dan’s ability to learn new programming languages – like Visual Basic and JavaScript -- in order to compete for available positions. After personal interviews, Dan was sent home with a stack of books and the challenge to learn new programming languages in time to return for a test in the next several days. Dan learned the new languages and aced the tests. But there were still hurdles ahead and others vying for the same job. Dan came away somewhat disappointed as someone else got the position. Had he not suffered this temporary setback, however, the major success that would become BrickLink might never have happened at all. This was the spring of 2000.

Dan was still left with plenty of ambition, a love of LEGO, and new and sudden expertise in web development programming languages. It proved a fortunate residue of his unsuccessful job search. His new knowledge was especially helpful in selling LEGO again. That led to the Internet where he set to work building and launching his own store, which he originally named BrickBay. (Interestingly and contrary to popular myth, Dan did not steal the name “bay” from eBay. Rather, it signified where he lived, Kailua Bay, along with the colors of Hawaii, green and blue.)
Dan's "office" while working for Alltel

Dan's "office" while
working for First Hawaiian
Bank and later Alltel.

 

Other online AFOLs soon took
notice of Dan’s store. Dan was
busy expanding its functionality
daily and listening to “like to have” suggestions from fellow LEGO marketers as he modified BrickBay. A few began asking Dan if they could join as “hosted” stores, using his online model as a base. Dan quickly realized that BrickBay could potentially be to LEGO what eBay is to online marketing in general. Although BrickBay’s focus would be narrow, he was convinced it could still be a viable marketplace.

Around this time, he was offered his old job back with a promotion. He was asked by Alltel to run the entire IT department and he agreed. But the strain of working a day job and continuing to expand his website at night eventually became too much for Dan. Something had to give. Impossible to keep both jobs he gave up the security of sponsored employment and a very good job to pursue his love for BrickLink. His vision, still only an idea at that point, was to create something truly great and lasting, something that would transition to become a worlwide marketplace for LEGO. As he continued to absorb stores he also began hosting buyers as well. By necessity, he restricted the membership to individuals able to enter legal contracts, those at least 18 years of age. Thus, an online AFOL community was born.

buyer and seller
Constant volunteer work from BrickBay members and other AFOLs led to accelerating growth. Dan soon developed a multi-featured search function that made it easy to find LEGO parts and sets and identify store availability, along with prices. He established a tiered fee assessment of around 3% of sales from hosted stores, a modest amount that remains to this day. The advent of PayPal and the ability to execute monetary transactions off-site was also a major development that gave BrickBay – and many other online sales sites – tremendous life and a window to further growth.

That first (half) year for BrickBay was a start. The website hosted $171,417.77 in business. The next full year, 2001, saw nearly $900,000 worth of LEGO change hands on BrickBay. Business has been climbing ever since.

Dan at his computer working on BrickLinkIn 2002, BrickBay had finally grown large enough to attract the uninvited attention of eBay. It was not long before a not so subtle request “to cease and desist” with any reference to “Bay” in the name of the website was forthcoming from their legal department. Dan, who up until the day he died ran the website essentially by himself, wasn’t of a mind to fight eBay over this, not in 2002 while there were still plenty of alternative names available across the URL universe. We – myself, Dan’s mother Eliska and Dan – sat around the kitchen table in Honolulu bouncing around possible new names for BrickBay. There were plenty to choose from: Brick this, brick that, and various permutations thereof. Eliska looked at the list and said she liked “BrickLink”, because it had a “nice sound to it, and, hey, the website is a link to buying and selling bricks”. Dan agreed and that was that. BrickLink it was and BrickLink it is.

Whatever the name, BrickLink began growing in earnest. Dan worked hard day and night for 10 years to “administer” the website, make functional improvements, adding features like a chat room and a forum, and all the while expanding the catalog with help from the online community. His philosophy was quite simple: The business aspects would keep BrickLink running and the AFOL community would profit the most. And, in the end, it was all about LEGO and the love of the brick. Dan was open minded, self-effacing and not one to seek a lot of attention. A few disagreements on the forum led to distractions and he became much more reserved, preferring the anonymous title of “Admin” with little more.


Christmas Card from PayPal from the BrickLink team

Early in the history of BrickBay/BrickLink a symbiotic relationship grew and began to flourish between a fledgling marketplace website and a relatively new financial management site called PayPal. They were mutually supportive and together made shopping and paying for LEGO a viable online undertaking. BrickLink had its own dedicated account management team at PayPal and Dan was on their Christmas Card list.


Had he had more time to reflect on what he had built, Dan would have realized that he had created something unique to the entire LEGO world: a place where someone could actually find that one piece, or those parts needed to accomplish that MOC that was just a thought and not yet even a design. It was a place to find the long discontinued set that now lay at the bottom of a landfill that was just a distant memory from childhood. It was a catalyst to re-ignite the fire of respect and legitimacy needed to bring folks out of their “dark ages” and back to an enjoyment of LEGO, for themselves and to share with their kids, once again. Dan revolutionized the AFOL movement, probably without even knowing it. He was literally able to unite a worldwide community with just a click.


Dan wearing leis He really was the right person, at the right time. His international background – born in then Czechoslovakia in the heart of Europe and raised to adulthood in the West in Hawaii – gave him a world-wide perspective from the start. BrickLink, AKA BrickBay, was always designed to have a global appeal and Dan was alert to try and translate information in multiple languages, although English easily became the common denominator. Not long before he died he developed an international monetary exchange engine on BrickLink that allowed sellers – almost anywhere in the world – to sell in their own currency and their customers to buy in theirs as well. Every two hours the website is updated with the latest exchange rates for dozens of currencies. Both sides of the deal know exactly how much they are paying in a currency they can easily understand. Fielded in April 2010, the currency exchange module was an innovative addition that significantly expanded the international nature of BrickLink and led to more stores being opened outside of the USA than within.

Few knew, but Dan was a very generous and compassionate person. He gave freely of his time and the money he had to support his local church and promote aid for the homeless in Hawaii. He gave to relief efforts for Haiti earthquake and Katrina hurricane victims and provided support to children’s charities around the world.

On September 24, 2010, Dan died suddenly and unexpectedly in a tragic accident. At the time, he already had plans and tickets to travel as part of the first vacation he would take in more than a decade. After it happened, we arrived in Honolulu two days later. Eliska, in heavy grief and trauma, felt an urgent need to carry on Dan’s beloved BrickLink in his memory and in response to so many who counted on the website, some for their very livelihoods. From Sept. 24 to around Sept. 29, BrickLink ran on autopilot. Having limited understanding of how BrickLink worked, we still knew full well that if billing did not occur on the first of October concern could lead to panic. We contacted Eric Smith, who owned the company that hosted the website. We asked him to join us, if possible, and perform admin duties that Dan had done alone. Luckily, Dan had been contemplating taking some time off and had left some instructions for a “backup admin” to perform daily and periodic duties to maintain BrickLink. With us and Eric as Admin, BrickLink continued. We felt a need to maintain silence regarding Dan’s passing until we could manage affairs for several weeks, until Dan’s funeral Oct. 22, 2010.
Eliska and Dan with a big smile Eliska and I will always remember the way the BrickLink community pulled together upon learning of Dan’s passing. Volunteer moderators and administrators took it upon themselves to handle things after we made the public announcement on the website. The chat and forum moderators kept the discussions within bounds and did their best to limit speculation. Eric Smith and I handled day-to-day operations to keep BrickLink running smoothly during this troubling time.

Eliska, Dan’s mother, assumed the position of CEO of BrickLink and I assumed a position as general manager with responsibilities for daily operations. It was a 24-hour, 7 day a week job. Together with Eric we managed the website for nearly three years. Meanwhile, early on, BrickLink began physically slowing down – lots of time outs – due to the tremendous growth in membership and business activity. A major development we implemented was the addition of expanded hardware to better handle the web application and the database on separate servers. That done, BrickLink operated efficiently for the next year and a half, during a period of unparalleled growth.

We weathered a few security breaches and hacking incidents, the most serious being June 1, 2012,magnifying glass with lego news but most on BrickLink were too busy buying and selling toeven notice. It would be easy to blame the hacking incidents for business drop off on BrickLink . . . if there were any. But, other than June 2012, which saw a noticeable monthly decrease, business was and is brisk and rapidly growing. So, the hacking incidents were more just a blip in the continuing increase of the accelerating level of business being conducted on BL.

What the hacking did do, however, is delay our plans for BrickLink 2.0. Instead we refocused our attention to securing BrickLink 1.0, which we did without notice or fanfare. We enlisted and contracted a number of outside security experts to assist in this project, which was undertaken in three major phases. Eventually, the entire website was secured once and for all. That “world class security team” was actually just that, world class. Among their long list of clients were on-line gambling sites so it is not hard to understand that they had to be tops in their class to be able to secure sites like that. They built and fielded – not without some adjustment pains – a complete customized security shield for BrickLink 1.0. BrickLink is safe and business is good. BrickLink 2.0 is about to become reality and will soon go live..

A final word about our sojourn running BrickLink after the unfortunate and untimely death of Dan. Eliska was devoted to keeping Dan’s dream alive and – with the tremendous, selfless support of the BrickLink Community – she succeeded. The skyrocketing growth of the website and a need for subsequent updating and modernization pointed to a real need for additional resources. We eventually settled on Jung-Ju "Jay" Kim and his team to lead BrickLink into the future. They ran BrickLink for seven years and The LEGO Group acquired the business in late 2019. Today BrickLink is being led by Casper Thingholm and his staff operating out of Irvine, California.

During the period that the Jezek family managed the site in the name of Dan Jezek, the business more than doubled in size. Outside consultants were employed to improve website operations and new hardware was fielded to improve the smooth operation of the online marketplace. The counter at the bottom of the home page of BrickLink read 50 million the day Dan died and was up to over 175 million during the Jezek Family's tenure running BrickLink. Today, it is approaching 1 billion. That is a testament to the work Dan accomplished and the legacy he left behind.

The rest of the story of BrickLink is still being written.

Larry Hawthorne and Eliska Jezkova

Dan's dream continues . . .

BrickBay is Ready!

June 19, 2000, Message from Dan Jezek

Read actual message from Dan Jezek launching BrickBay

Read Dan, in his own words, talk about plans to launch the website that would become BrickLink (May 17, 2000)

Dan Jezek message launching BrickBay

BrickBay to BrickLink

Dan programmed BrickLink's mission to provide high quality services to LEGO fans and businesses all over the world. It did not have a corporate atmosphere but instead one of a friendly, personal online marketplace.

Click Photos to Enlarge
bl first launch

Before even BrickBay, there was Dan's store. "Dan's Parts Fodder," was a java-script-driven website, launched May 10, 2000. It was very basic and all inventory had to be dealt with manually, including decreasing available parts when one was sold. As limited though it was, Dan was soon contacted by other online sellers impressed by it all. They were eager to come on board, and the idea of a central site with many stores was born.

brickbay page

BrickBay was the answer, launched June 19 (the site had a June 18 "live" announcement on it but it was actually a day later it became activated), 2000 and it took shape in a hurry, from a very meager beginning. Here is what it looked like early after launch. with only 99 lots and 1,714 total items.There were 15 stores on board, but only 2 had inventory, the others still empty.

brickbay

BrickBay grew quickly, and within two years of its launch, eBay complained the name conflicted with their own brand and demanded it be changed. it was just easier to switch (to BrickLink) than fight. We sat around the kitchen table sometime in the year 2002 going over a list of still-available URLs. Eventually, Eliska lobbied for "BrickLink" and won.

bricklink page

The classic BrickLink.com page was a product of Dan's own evolution. He borrowed heavily from his time in both Prague and Honolulu in his color selection and icons he employed to represent BrickLink features and services, including the parrots that had first caught his attention as a young boy in Hawaii. The website was designed with the colors of nature, the public side featuring green and blue. The administrative, private side of BrickLink incorporates black, brown, grey and yellow colors that are also colors representing the mountains and the earth. Even the parrots were brown and yellow, instead of green and blue.

private side Above is an example of Dan's use of a different color scheme for inside, private pages.

BrickLink Homepage MOC Eliska's MOC is a replica of Dan's Original BrickLink Home Page, rendered in actual LEGO.

Inside BrickLink scenes in a MOC Her "Inside" MOC displays vignettes of images on interior pages of the website.

Colors and Themes.

Dan put a lot of meaning in his use of color and icon images throughout the website and he collaborated his choices closely with BrickLink users.

BrickLink Logos (in his own words):

The two birds on the left and right represent the buyer and seller. They are linked together by the Brick which brings us all together. This is where the site name comes from - BrickLink. The 1 X 12 brick shows that this is a LEGO site and it is generic. It welcomes all people from all over the world, regardless where they come from.

BL logos

Colors throughout the website (in his own words):

The blue and green colors are colors of nature. The blue on top represents the skies in that BrickLink has no limits on where it can go. The different shades of green represent peace and that this is a friendly site with a lot of friendly people (which it is) and is a place to come to relax.

 


Click photos below to enlarge on new page.

dan sorting brick and building

Dan was a builder until the end. He began as a child and never stopped. When he could not get his hands on LEGO -- quite often a problem behind the Iron Curtain -- he resorted to whatever was at hand. His love for castles is seen below, with walls and turrets fashioned from paper and awaiting the arrival of bricks to complete his dream MOC.

Dan makes castles from paper when he was a kid

 


link to a larger page presentation of this section

LEGO of Daniel and his mother.

Postscript

In July 2013 Jungu "Jay" Kim and his team took over BrickLink. They rewrote, modernized and greatly expanded the website. BrickLink Ltd. developed a proprietary but freely distributed MOC-building software called Studio, currently in its second software release, Studio 2.0. During the seven years the Kim group ran BrickLink, led by Marvin Park and his team located in Irvine, California, BrickLink continued to grow, attracting more than a million registered members. In 2018-19, BrickLink collaborated with the LEGO group to produce 60th anniversary sets as part of the AFOL Designers Program. The program was a huge success and closely involved the entire AFOL community under the BL-LEGO banner. The LEGO Group acquired BrickLink in late December 2019 and Casper Thingholm and his team are now running the site under their auspices.

Dan's dream continues . . .

Eliska and Larry contiue as goodwill ambassadors . . .

Dan admin minifig looking back from Kailu Bay

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