BrickLink Is Back Online: What the Week-Long Outage Means for LEGO Sellers

BrickLink is back online after a week-long outage that saw member data accessed. What happened, what sellers lost, and the two fee-free months that follow.

BrickLink, the LEGO Group's marketplace for sets, parts and minifigures, is back online after roughly a week offline. In a statement published as the site returned, BrickLink confirmed that its investigation found some members' usernames and IP addresses were accessed, along with a very small number of email addresses. Passwords and payment information were not accessed, and BrickLink says there is no evidence that orders, wanted lists, messages or store inventories were lost or changed.

For anyone who buys or sells LEGO on the secondary market, this was the story of the week — not mainly because of what was accessed, but because the marketplace much of the hobby prices against went dark, with little explanation, during the busiest selling month of the year. Here is what happened, what BrickLink has and has not said, and what it means if you sell LEGO.

What happened

BrickLink went offline late on Thursday, November 5. The first notice described the closure as “necessary work” and pointed to a return the following evening. That estimate then slipped — first to Monday, November 9, then to the evening of Wednesday, November 11. When that deadline passed too, the message changed: the site had been taken offline “after identifying unusual activity on the platform”, and BrickLink needed to contain the issue and investigate before it could return. No new date was given.

The site came back on Thursday, November 12, and this time BrickLink published a full explanation, linked in the sources below. One point of wording is worth being precise about: much of the coverage has called this a cyberattack or a hack. BrickLink and the LEGO Group have not used those words. Their language is “unusual activity” and unauthorised access — and BrickReport, which tracked the outage day by day, notes that the email sent to affected members goes a step further and calls it a “cyber incident”. What is confirmed is that member data was accessed without authorisation. How it happened has not been disclosed.

What was accessed — and what was not

From BrickLink's own statement:

Accessed: some members' usernames and IP addresses, and a very small number of email addresses. BrickLink says it has already emailed the members whose usernames or emails were accessed.
Not accessed: passwords and payment information. In BrickLink's words, “passwords and payment information were NOT accessed.”
Intact: BrickLink found no evidence that orders, wanted lists, messages or store inventories were lost or changed.
Still offline: the Studio Forum, which will stay down for now, with more information promised over the coming days.

BrickLink says members do not need to take any action, and that it has addressed the issue its investigation identified and will keep monitoring the platform closely.

A rough week for sellers

The outage landed at the worst point in the calendar. Brick Fanatics spoke to BrickLink store owners mid-outage, and several said November is the month they move the most inventory. Simon Webster, who runs DSLS Bricks, compared the same four days with last November: his overall sales revenue was down 52%, while his sales on Brick Owl, the main alternative marketplace, were up 79%. Another store owner, James, told Brick Fanatics he was considering closing his recently opened BrickLink store and concentrating on eBay. A third, Nick Smith, said he was glad he also sold on Brick Owl.

Notably, the sellers' sharpest complaint was not the downtime itself — it was the silence around it, and return dates that kept slipping. Those figures are individual sellers' accounts reported by Brick Fanatics, not market-wide data, but the pattern they describe is consistent.

What the community made of it

Fan reaction is opinion, not fact — but on Reddit and fan forums the theme matched the sellers': communication. The Register quoted one fan asking how much better this would have been received “if they were transparent from day one”, and another arguing that a site down for days warranted more than a splash page — “just an email acknowledging the issue would be appropriate”. For a marketplace that runs on the trust of thousands of small sellers, that reaction is the part of this story LEGO will most want to fix.

What it means if you sell LEGO

Three practical points fall out of this week:

Two fee-free months, at the best possible time. BrickLink is waiving seller fees for November and December, and sellers will not be invoiced for either month. BrickLink has not announced compensation for lost sales — but two months without fees, across the peak selling season, is a real offset.
Single-platform risk is real. The sellers who kept trading were the ones also listed elsewhere. Webster's Brick Owl sales rising 79% while BrickLink was dark is one store's experience, not a market statistic — but it is exactly what a backup channel is for.
Be careful with your inbox. BrickLink's official position is that no action is needed. Even so, a small number of member email addresses were accessed, which makes convincing phishing emails impersonating BrickLink a realistic risk over the next few weeks. If a message claims to be from BrickLink and asks you to log in or verify details, go to the site directly rather than clicking through.

And the quieter point for the whole secondary market: BrickLink's catalogue and price guide are the reference much of LEGO reselling prices against. A week without them, in November, did not stop trading — it pushed it elsewhere and made it blinder. That is worth remembering the next time the platform wobbles.

Sources

BrickLink's official statement on the outage, via The Brick Fan
Seller reaction and sales figures: Brick Fanatics
Timeline and fan reaction: The Register
Statement coverage: Jay's Brick Blog

What happens next: the Studio Forum is still to return, and BrickLink has promised more information over the coming days. If LEGO or BrickLink disclose more about how the access happened, we will update this article. If you sell on BrickLink, your November and December fee invoices will not arrive — and the week's lesson about keeping a second sales channel warm is worth keeping long after the outage is forgotten.

Frequently asked questions

Why was BrickLink down in November 2026?

BrickLink took the site offline after identifying unusual activity on the platform. Its investigation confirmed that some members' usernames and IP addresses were accessed without authorisation, along with a very small number of email addresses. The site was offline for roughly a week, returning on November 12, 2026.

Were BrickLink passwords or payment details accessed?

No. BrickLink's investigation found that passwords and payment information were not accessed. Members whose usernames or email addresses were accessed have been contacted by email.

Do I need to do anything if I have a BrickLink account?

BrickLink says no action is needed. It has addressed the issue found in its investigation and says it will keep monitoring the platform. If something looks wrong with your account, inventory or orders, BrickLink asks you to contact its support team.

Are BrickLink sellers being compensated for the outage?

BrickLink is waiving seller fees for November and December 2026, and sellers will not be invoiced for those months. It has not announced compensation for sales lost while the site was offline.

Is everything on BrickLink back to normal?

The marketplace is back online, and BrickLink found no evidence that orders, wanted lists, messages or store inventories were lost or changed. The Studio Forum remains offline for now, with more information promised over the coming days.