Author Spotlight
Christopher Long
When then-sophomore Anna Ravis walked into social studies teacher Robert Bickers’ room for her first AP Microeconomics class, her attention was immediately drawn to his expansive lego collection.
Ravis was captivated by the classroom walls neatly lined with LEGO battleships, colosseums and cathedrals — all fitting for a history and economics teacher.
Only they weren’t real LEGOs.
Bickers acquired each piece by reviewing LEGO imitations on the product-reviewing subdivision of Amazon, Amazon Vine.
“I feel like he would like to help other people decide what to buy and just help other people in general,” Ravis said. “He’s very interested in the economy, and I could see that [reviewing] definitely helps someone know what they should spend their money on.”
Bickers began reviewing over seven years ago. He was extremely dissatisfied after reading Aloha Betrayed by Noe Noe K Silva, a short book on Hawaiian history and ethnography that he bought on Amazon.
Wanting to ensure that no one purchased the book, Bickers visited Amazon’s website and wrote multiple agitated paragraphs followed by a 2-star review.
Later that day, Bickers received an email from Amazon asking if he was interested in their review program, Amazon Vine.
Certain the email was a scam, Bickers searched for a reason why Amazon would reach out to him. He noticed that because 49 people found his review helpful, he was offered a reviewing position.
Bickers knew this was a unique opportunity, so he clicked the link in the email, answered several questions and digitally signed his name to confirm his contract with Vine — in exchange for a free product, he must leave a review in order to continue getting products.
“I’ve relied on reviews of things to make decisions,” Bickers said. “And so I figure, if I can help other people with that, why not?”
Although Bickers gets to keep the products he reviews, it doesn’t come without a catch.
Since each item is considered “payment” in exchange for a review, at the end of each year, Bickers has to pay income taxes on those products.
After his first reviewing year, Bickers’ wife, Elisa Bickers, asked him to review fewer items and be more selective about picking products that will be useful long term.
Along with the taxes, Bickers must meet his quota of reviewing 60% of all items received from Vine per six months.
Currently, he logs on to Vine’s website whenever he has spare time and skims through over 76,000 different products with the ability to review up to eight per day.
“Sometimes you get something, it just doesn’t work or it has little actual usefulness or just doesn’t match up with the description at all,” Bickers said. “I do try to be polite in the wording but saying basically ‘this is junk and no one should pay for this.’”
For Bickers, Vine has offered an opportunity to get hold of LEGOs for his hobby without their steep retail price.
Through Vine, he’s discovered off-brand alternatives to LEGO such as Jie-Star, a Chinese brand that specializes in specific sets that are popular amongst LEGO collectors or gobrick, a Korean company that makes high-quality bricks but doesn’t sell sets.
“Once the initial luster of ‘Oh, look at all the stuff I’m getting’ wore off, I started looking for stuff that is actually useful,” Bickers said. “But, I did not expect [reviewing] to lead me to over 100 fake LEGO sets.”
Even though Vine’s convenient way to receive LEGO-like products has only been available to Bickers in the last seven years, he’s been collecting LEGOs since he was in college.
Bickers’ newfound interest surrounding LEGO alternatives has become a talking point with fellow LEGO enthusiast and business teacher Jessica Krievins.
“He’s always like, ‘Hey, come see this, I just put something new up in my room,’” Krievins said. “We’ve kind of talked about how he could use LEGOs in class for econ lessons, so sometimes it’s educational.”
Even before Bickers shared he was moonlighting as a reviewer in his free time, Krievins always knew his personality was aligned with wanting to aid others with their purchases.
She explained that Bickers is always up on the current and best LEGO alternatives and enjoys sharing them with fellow LEGO collectors such as herself.
“When we talk, he’s like a walking review,” Krievins said. “He knows the brands that make the good bricks and the ones that have the good instructions.”
Although Krievins prefers real LEGOs, she appreciates Bickers’ many alternatives to LEGOS that he has discovered since taking up reviewing.
Bickers, however, refuses to purchase something from LEGO if he can find an alternative on Vine.
“It does take care of some of my need for retail therapy,” Bickers said. “Instead of spending $150 on something, I can find something on Vine to kind of scratch that itch that will cost me $20 instead.”
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