International move

[Yatkuu]

Hello everyone,

I’m about to move from Belgium to the US for a permanent relocation (and the answer is no, it's not because LEGO is cheaper there ;-) ...although I'm not complaining!)

All our stuff will travel by sea in a container (5 weeks without LEGO ) and I have two questions for the community regarding the move of my LEGO collection.

First - the packing.

A specialized company will come and pack our belongings, it’s an insurance policy thing. Right now all my bricks are sorted in various drawers – see the picture hereafter. I have a few unopened sets and storage boxes too.

The expert came to inspect our house and make an evaluation of the volume of things to be moved. He claims there is no problem, the idea is that anything that does not fit into a standard moving box will be wrapped in paper. For my drawer towers, they intend to wrap them with packaging paper and seal it all with tape. The method seems ok with me – do you guys agree?

Second – the value

There are no particularly “rare” sets in my collection and except for a couple of sets everything is parted out. I’m into LEGO for the MOCs and nothing else and when I buy a set it’s usually for the parts.

I must declare a value for all the goods being moved. How can I estimate the value of my collection, with a price per kg? If so, would anyone have a guidance?

Thank you!

[Darkdragon]

My Tip for the drawers: each drawer contents should be put into a plastic zip bag and that should then be placed into the drawer. Otherwise you will have a huge mess. No matter what you do to secure it, wont' matter it will be a mess. Trust me on this.

For insurance, that's a tough one. Highball it because you'll still probably be low. Look at replacement cost, I'd say random parts at $10/pound which i'm not sure what that would be in kg. Sets of course look at the highest Bricklink price and remember at the end to add what it would cost to get this stuff shipped to you if you had to replace it.

[Darth Dino]

Hi

Packing: Get cardbord boxes that are dedicated for moving. Tape your drawers, tape them together and then put into a cardbord box.

Value: That is simple: Take the value that will not make you cry if everything is lost. Lets say the worth is 5k€ then take 4k€. For that you could rebuy most of it excluding the things you do not really need.

On the other hand: The more you do not cry kn case of lost, the more will you cry for the insurance cost ;)

Dino

[xboxtravis7992]

I am sorry I cannot help you to much here, my only moves have been from one end of town to another. However even those across town moves took a toll on my collection, and years latter I still have not rebuilt all the sets which fell apart then. I can hardly imagine shipping Lego across the Atlantic.

But I can say this, Welcome to America!

[eurotrash]

I moved (with my Lego) from the UK to Canada and then a couple of years later from Canada to the US. The assembled sets were packed up well in boxes with packing materials, then those were wrapped in paper then put in larger cardboard boxes. The loose bricks were zip-locked bagged I had not problem whatsoever.

I would suggest doing a complete inventory....

Good luck and welcome to the US!

[Curtis]

Assume everything will be turned upside down and shaken...then tossed across the room with no one to catch it. With that image in mind, pack accordingly.

As far as value, I agree with DarkDragon, highball it because even when I think I know what I've spent, my VIP tally always makes me cringe.

Good luck!

Curtis

[Phoxtane]

I like the idea of putting every drawer in its own bag. We had to move across the country a couple years ago; I sealed up my plastic drawers in three layers of plastic wrap and taped off the ends with packing tape - I'd do that as well, all around the drawers to keep them from coming apart in transit.

[Balrog]

I'd also wrap the drawers and the boxes in plastic foil. They can still package it additionaly, but the plastic foil should ensure, that nothing gets lost.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

Bag the contents of each drawer and shrinkwrap the whole bin shut. This will prevent anything from falling out.

[Yatkuu]

Thank you everyone from the good feedbacks! Placing the sorted pieces in bags first then in the drawers sounds like a very reasonable idea, I'll do that.

As for wrapping the towers in plastic, I'll first see how they intend to do it themselves and try to assess the material they use. If I'm not convinced, I'll add a layer!

I will try to take pictures and share them here.

For the values, using BL for the sealed sets is a great idea. As for the loose parts.. I'm not really sure yet.

For insurance, that's a tough one. Highball it because you'll still probably be low. Look at replacement cost, I'd say random parts at $10/pound which i'm not sure what that would be in kg.

I'm terrible with maths but if I'm not mistaken 10$/pound would make a price of 16€/kg, and that seems very low.

I tried to estimate the cost of 1KG of new LEGO... according to Amazon data a modular set weighs between 2.5 & 3kg for a piece count comprised between 2k to2.2k.

The retail price of these sets being 150€ (on average) it gives me a price per kg that ranges from 50 to 60€.

I have no idea how many kg of LEGO I have but maybe I can consider a middle ground around 30€/kg?

But I can say this, Welcome to America!

Thank you!

I would suggest doing a complete inventory....

Good luck and welcome to the US!

Thank you!

That's certainly a wise suggestion but I'm afraid I'm running out of time to do a full inventory.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

I'd even tape the bag ends just so they don't come apart somehow. You could also tape the front of the drawers shut and jam some bubble wrap from the backside of the drawers to keep movement down. Also, do you have a BrickPicker Brickfolio or, at least, have a list of what sets are in your collection? That is a good place to see what the original sets are going for (with 1 month lag) for full sets via ebay sales averages. I'm sure insurance wouldn't know the difference between a set with all pieces assembled vs. a a parted out set. The pieces are still all there. Best of luck, safe travels

[Sid Sidious]

I'm terrible with maths but if I'm not mistaken 10$/pound would make a price of 16€/kg, and that seems very low.

I tried to estimate the cost of 1KG of new LEGO... according to Amazon data a modular set weighs between 2.5 & 3kg for a piece count comprised between 2k to2.2k.

The retail price of these sets being 150€ (on average) it gives me a price per kg that ranges from 50 to 60€.

I have no idea how many kg of LEGO I have but maybe I can consider a middle ground around 30€/kg?

A modular isn't just random bricks. It has added value for being a modular set, so is worth more per kilo than 2.5 kg of loose bricks. I'd say about €17/kg is a fair price for loose bricks. Since you are doing this for insurance, going €20-25/kg should work. As others have said, make sure you pack the bricks so you don't need to make any claims.

[Faefrost]

Hello everyone,

Second – the value

There are no particularly “rare” sets in my collection and except for a couple of sets everything is parted out. I’m into LEGO for the MOCs and nothing else and when I buy a set it’s usually for the parts.

I must declare a value for all the goods being moved. How can I estimate the value of my collection, with a price per kg? If so, would anyone have a guidance?

Thank you!

If you know what sets you have, go to www.brickset.com. You can create a personal profile and easily create a list of your collection. One of the features (often unwanted, never ever let the wife see this) is it will give you a total estimated retail cost/value of your sets based on the original MSRP. That should be sufficient for what you are looking for.

[Kai NRG]

A long time ago we moved most of our stuff via container over the (an) ocean: as far as I know not much was damaged. After all, it's in the container, and that's not going to be slung around like a sack of potatoes. The main packing problems will be how the stuff is being got into & out of the container; so all in all it's not much worse than a short(er) move. I didn't have a sorted collection back then though, but putting it in bags and taping the drawers shut should do it!

[Redhead1982]

When I moved my (small) collection from one appartment to the other (about 130 km apart), I had bricks mostly in zip bags and some small boxes. And I simply put them in suitcase. However, I made several drives from one side to the other, so there were no extra problems. For drawers, I'd suggest you put bricks in bags first, to make sure they don't mix in case a drawer opens accidentally, and then wrap the drawers in a foil - something similar to what is used at the airports to wrap suitcases. We had a move at work to another building 300 m away, and we used that wrap for most furniture. This way, there was no work with putting things back in the drawers, as they were moved simultaneously. Good luck with your move.

[Mr Meleca]

Hello

I did last year, so I have to tell You to do not worry about The transport itself.

I just recommend that You do not declare the insurance in a low value for Your belongins.

I lost few hundreds with this

[Chills]

Hi Yatkuu. My wife is from Spain and we recently had all over her belongings shipped from Sevilla to Chicago, and while there weren't any LEGOs in with her stuff there was a lot of glass, porcelin, and breakable stuff. She packed it herself and wrapped everything in bubble wrap, then cardboard over the wrap, then packing tape holding everything together. Of the 9.96 cubic meters of stuff only one glass item broke.

My advice to you with your plactic bins is to wrap them in bubble wrap and then put cardboard outside of that. She had numerous plactic bins and many of them ended up being slightly damaged in one form or another, usually just the corners got cracks. For us that isn't a big deal since we use them for storage in the basement, but since you have such a nice LEGO set up I would recomment the bubble wrap/cardboard setup. If you aren't able to wrap all of your bins I suggest at least protecting the corners as they seemed to get the brunt of the impacts while moving.

Welcome to the US. Where about this fine land are you moving?

Good luck!

[B34TBOXX5]

My Tip for the drawers: each drawer contents should be put into a plastic zip bag and that should then be placed into the drawer.

^ This is solid advice. Taping the drawers closed will do nothing to stop little pieces from flying around, I would get large freezer bags and secure everything within plastic before taping the drawers shut.

Welcome to North America, from your northern neighbour!

[Yatkuu]

If you know what sets you have, go to www.brickset.com. You can create a personal profile and easily create a list of your collection. One of the features (often unwanted, never ever let the wife see this) is it will give you a total estimated retail cost/value of your sets based on the original MSRP. That should be sufficient for what you are looking for.

Also, do you have a BrickPicker Brickfolio or, at least, have a list of what sets are in your collection? That is a good place to see what the original sets are going for (with 1 month lag) for full sets via ebay sales averages. I'm sure insurance wouldn't know the difference between a set with all pieces assembled vs. a a parted out set. The pieces are still all there. Best of luck, safe travels

Thank you Faefrost and LEGO Guy Bri!!

I spent the evening adding all the sets I own in my Brickset profile - lucky for me I keep all my instructions so it was very easy to encode all the set numbers.

Anyway, I end-up with a collection of 188 sets, 47628 pieces.

After exporting the list into excel I was able to compare the US and UK RRP (recommended retail price) and pick the highest value for most of my sets (the oldest sets don't have that info available) and it gives me a total of 4224 euro.

Then, following LEGO Guy Bri's advice I tried the Brickpicker method. I knew about the site but I did not know it was possible to get an estimate of a collection. You just enter your Brickset credentials and your collection is transferred automatically... Impressive tool.

The Brickfolio tool gives me a total of 6500 euro.

Given that most of my sets are parted out I guess I'm going to go for something in between the two, 5000 euro.

Welcome to the US. Where about this fine land are you moving?

Thank you Chills for the welcome and good packing advices !

We're moving to Raleigh, North Carolina.

[TheLegoDr]

My problem with Brickset total value is it gives the MSRP of the sets. That isn't always real life numbers. Cafe Corner would come up with $140, but the actual market value is significantly higher. Just a thought.

But it's good you did both and found an average value. I tried brickpicker a few times and it never worked for me. It always made me enter in my sets instead of transferring them over for me. I have about 3x as many sets as you do, so I'm not about to enter all of my sets on there again since I already have them entered on brickset.

Safe travels. I couldn't imagine moving my entire LEGO collection anywhere, let alone across seas.

[Sid Sidious]

I've had a few sets on BrickPicker where the value is extremely far off from the correct price. For example, some of my CMFs are $0.00 while a $17 polybag I own is valued at $390. If you do use BrickPicker, take the value with a grain of salt.

[Yatkuu]

Hello, quick update - my collection is now all packed and ready to go!

Ready to go! by Yatkuu, on Flickr

Everything in the drawers is now in zip locks and the towers wrapped in plastic sheet.

Thanks again for everyone's advices and recommendations... I'll post an update once I'm settled in my new place, hopefully somewhere around mid-July.

[Big Cam]

Good luck with the move.

[Rook]

So where in the US are you going? IE Are going to be able to go to some conventions this summer?

Edited May 23, 2013 by Rook

[Yatkuu]

So where in the US are you going? IE Are going to be able to go to some conventions this summer?

I'm going to Raleigh, North Carolina. I'll make sure to join a local LUG once I get there - I believe there's the NCLUG? - does anyone here knows about it? Or another group perhaps?

As for going to a convention, I'd love to check Brick Fiesta "as tourist" but I'm not sure I'll be able to make it as it's only 5 weeks away.