Tips for buying Lego

[Piranha]

Right about now as you read this post you are probably thinking"I don't need tips on how to buy Lego"

Well you don't but this is just to share tips and other such stuff

Since I hear a lot of members say "How can I buy all these new lego's",Well you get the picture now

Tip 1:Never await New upcoming sets too much

Tip 2:If you do then you are more likely to spend more money

Tip 3:Only buy $20.00 sets and under,these are cheap and you won't spend too much money buying them

They also satisifiy your Lego Cravings for a while

Tip 4:Never buy the big sets when they first come out!!They will eventually go on sale then you can get that and save some money to spend on the New $20.00 and under sets

Tip 5:When large set goes on sale,BUY IT,don't get greedy and wiat for it to go lower if you do there will be none left

Tip 6:Calm down, Its a Toy so there is more important things like eating :-P

Tip 7: Same as 1

Hope you enjoyed :-)

Feel free to post you Tips or commet no mine

Piranha

Edited June 29, 2007 by Piranha

[SWMAN]

The Most Important thing to do...

Tip: Take a few minutes to think about what you are buying, how much it is, and how much you are going to use it.

I have made the mistake of impulse a 100 dollar set before. Not smart.

[zouave]

Here are my tips: (Cannot insure they help. :-/ )

1st-Think of all the stuff you really want. Not just a set so you can match your friends.

2nd-List them all down.

3rd-Organize them in the order of what you want the most to what you want the least.

4th-Look atthe prices and see what you can afford.

[dillthepill]

Cool topic

1): Don't buy all the sets in a theme if you don't like all the sets.

2): Find which theme(s) would appeal you, with little stuff such as pieces or play value.

3): Ask yourself if you would even want the set, sort of fits in with #2

That's all I got, LOL.

[Grand Moff Viceroy]

My tips:

List them all down, calculate tax, yadeeya

Get the one(s) you only want most, and buy lots of it

Buy expensive sets and don't wait till they go on sale.

[5150 Lego]

my advice/tips...

Buy what you want, when you want, when you can. If you want that 100 dollar set, then go for it. I very rarley see sets go on sale. And if they do, its ussually not enough to warrant the extra wait.

[lostcarpark]

My tips are...

1. Get rich so you can afford to buy everything you want (still working on that one).

2. Make friends with someone in a toy shop so you can abuse their staff discount (I did that in reverse - I have a friend who got a job in a toy store, but unfortunately he only gets a measley 10%).

3. Keep an eye on the "Sales and Deals" page on http://shop.lego.com - every so often they will have a bunch of sets 50% off.

[Siegfried]

Tip 1:Never await New upcoming sets too much

Tip 4:Never buy the big sets when they first come out!!They will eventually go on sale then you can get that and save some money to spend on the New $20.00 and under sets

You're trying to make me feel guilty for buying the MTT even though I knew that store was having a sale next week but I wasn't prepared to risk it selling out, aren't you? Your advice is good though.

[Piranha]

You're trying to make me feel guilty for buying the MTT even though I knew that store was having a sale next week but I wasn't prepared to risk it selling out, aren't you? Your advice is good though.

Hehe maybe >:-)

That is one of my worst fears

The Lego you want goes on sale and when you get there,they have none left :-(

Second worst fear is buying a Lego and then next month it goes on sale

Umm Ya the MTT is going to be the hardest thing for me to resist buying until next year

I'll grab two @$75.00 "when" they go on sale

Over here $100.00 Sets go down to 75.00

50.00 to 35.00

and so on

In the mean time I'll buy the NS and SI,that will keep me happy :-D

Piranha

[john cleese]

tips for buying off of Bricklink

1. Do not buy from toy brick brigade. Even though they have a good rating, purple brick, the pieces will be messy and i can almost garuntee some chewed and missing elements.

2. when buying in bulk try to make the order for a specific model. I learned that a varried order of random parts and "cool" elements can put you in a position where you end up with a lot of pieces you can't use due to a lack of key elements, only to order them elsewhere when your budget allows for it.

also zellers has great sales sometimes slashing prices by 25% or more. Atleast in my experience.

Edited June 30, 2007 by john cleese

[Piranha]

tips for buying off of Bricklink

1. Do not buy from toy brick brigade. Even though they have a good rating, purple brick, the pieces will be

You too!!I just bought over 700 pieces from them and all of them were with heavy heavy playwear! >:-(

I thought since they had so many parts that there would be little or no damage. |-/

So thats why since then I only buy New parts or used in excellent condition

Piranha

[john cleese]

thats nothing i bought 1600! Atleast the boat hulls i bought were in genrally good shape. :-/

[Hinckley]

1. Do not buy from toy brick brigade. Even though they have a good rating, purple brick, the pieces will be messy and i can almost garuntee some chewed and missing elements.

I've had great luck with Toy Brick Brigade and have bought several items from their bricklink and eBay stores. I trust them enough that I check them first when I want something to see if they have it.

My advice:

Don't drink and buy. If you've had a few, don't get on eBay, shop.lego.com, bricklink or anywhere else where you will be tempted to buy LEGO. On my thirtieth birthday this year I went to Miami with my partner and had too much Irish Whiskey and stayed up playing on the computer to sober up and avoid a hangover (I don't drink very much any more so too much whiskey was like three shots...)

Anyway, two weeks later every possible accessories pack comes to my house, over $200 worth. It was when they were phasing out the bulk bricks and getting ready for PAB.

There should be a breathalizer for my computer for sites that sell LEGO, like they do with repear drunk drivers. Can't logon unless you're under the legal limit for buying LEGO. This use to cause me a lot of trouble in the old days (7 years ago) when I worked for $8.25 an hour at a bar and drank every night...

[natelite]

i have bad experience with tbb too. claimed 15 torsos and sent me 14. never reply, or reply and never ship. rip off. then i bought like 20-30 or so police officers and most of them came with the prints half gone. one was especially bad, all prints missing and not even the badge was present. so i asked for replacement and if i need to ship the old one back. said i can keep it and replacement was shipped. never receive. once, twice, i can understand but every single instance it's the same case. boo.

there are a few shops that sell good used items. i generally go with the fewer rated shops. those can't afford bad ratings and usually describe the condition of their bricks on the store front. slight use means slight use. i bought used chrome gold and chrome silver pieces that look like new.

for buying new lego, if you expect a sale soon buy them a week earlier. you can get price matching if they have a sale later plus you wont have to risk them selling out during the sale. if no sale happen, you can always return the unopened boxes. but that only works for adults with good self control. if you end up opening every box you buy then... :-P

[captaintau]

Don't drink and buy. If you've had a few, don't get on eBay, shop.lego.com, bricklink or anywhere else where you will be tempted to buy LEGO.

This is very good advice. Although nowhere near as bad as Hickley, I have many times doen such things, thankfully just with smaller, cheaper sets. Even then, when you're budgetting, small purchases can become a problem.

Also don't buy when you're depressed. I have a friend who resolves depression with "retail therapy". Then he gets into trouble with the bank and just gets more depressed.

Not worth it.

[Hinckley]

boo.

What's this? Have I started a booing trend?

I'm surprised to hear about tbb. I actually haven't used them in a while, but used to have very good luck with them. You know a BL store that is consistently awesome is Precious Princess Palace in the US.

[Grand Moff Viceroy]

I forgot to add that you should buy everything all at once near Christmas to get free shipping, although in my area, I have to pay 7% tax. Also, save your money till you have at least double the amount of what you need, I collected 1300 USD so far.

[john cleese]

What's this? Have I started a booing trend?

I'm surprised to hear about tbb. I actually haven't used them in a while, but used to have very good luck with them. You know a BL store that is consistently awesome is Precious Princess Palace in the US.

yeah i bought some elements from there. When they arrived it was like opening a brand new set. Although they dont have some of the rare items TBB does, they are all good quality. From now on this is where i'm buying all my normal plates, bricks and tiles.

[natelite]

precious princess is quite good quality but rather expensive. i like colene's haven but she is moving to mn and her shop will be closed for a while.

[Brainbox]

Here's a good one:

Buy the sets you want in an order that wil be beneficial to your wallet. In other words, which would suit your curent monetary situation better, buying a large set or buying a few smaller sets? Because you may be able to buy the other option later with, for example, birthday money.

To do this properly, of course you'd have to guess how much money you'll have in however x amount of time, taking into account wage/pocket money, necessary buys (phone credit, food, clothes, magazines, cinema tickets, etc) and any other sources of money (family, birthday, Christmas, etc).

Another good one is saying "if I buy this, how much money will I have left?" I've always found that helped me.

And if there's somthing on sale with a really big discount: buy it!

[Mofo Jones]

If you see a set on clearance and have even a slight thought that you want to buy it, do not wait for the price to drop. If you do, the set will be gone.

[Brick Miner]

My advice: Don't drink and buy.

this is hilarious :-D im sure i have done it.

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1. Do not buy from toy brick brigade. Even though they have a good rating, purple brick, the pieces will be messy and i can almost garuntee some chewed and missing elements.

but this is even more hilarious :-D :-D :-D

yes, if you're concerned about quality, they're not the ones to purchase from. if you want a great selection of rare and abused pieces then they are fine.

the problem with feedback on BL is that you don't want to limit your buying options in the future by giving negative feedback. for example, i have received many orders where pieces where in a condition i thought were not worthy of resell, and/or were not appropriately listed, and i felt deserved negative or at least neutral feedback. i have had a few 40-60 dollar orders where all pieces were unusable (with sellers other than TBB). however, i knew that if i gave negative feedback, then that would ultimately result in me being banned from that store. and while that seems fine at the time, there is always that lingering fear that i may have to use them again, if the pieces im looking for aren't available anywhere else. because im a sucker for really rare pieces, i sometimes have to buy from whoever lists the piece, and in whatever condition i can get it. for example, im always looking for 1x16 old brown bricks... its a piece i will take in nearly any condition. if TBB lists this piece i may buy it.

though, if this is read by TBB i could get banned anyway, oops :-D

you know, this brings up a good point, i've been banned from giving positive feedback before. imagine that. and since im already banned, im gonna go ahead and say the name of the store, "CHARLEY CHOPPERS" in the UK. i left positive feedback, and wrote "bricks were in good enough condition, thanks !!!" and they felt that was enough to ban me from their store, what the hell ???

my advice, be super careful on how you word things to sellers. and especially how you word your feedback, afterall its there forever. it cannot be undone.

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in any case, i keep a separate list of "excellent sellers" "good sellers" "neutral sellers" and "bad sellers." that way, when i go to find the pieces im looking for i can always check to see if i have had good experience with the seller or not. and in most cases, i will pay a little more if it means the seller is in the "excellent" bracket over the "good bracket." generally, if i put a store in the "bad sellers" list, i never buy from them again.

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you know, in contrast to TBB, E-Bricks (formely, TradeExpress) offers some decent used pieces (and E-Bricks, if you are reading this... i mean decent in a good way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!) when i am looking for some good used pieces i usually turn to them first.

- BM

[Hinckley]

Odd that I haven't had bad experiences with TBB, but I trust BrickMiner and Alex so they've certainly dropped on my list.

That's excellent advice on having separate lists for sellers, excellent, good, neutral, bad. I only recently started leaving notes at all just because I was starting to get free pieces and coupons from people I had bought from multiple times.

Bad quality is a problem on BL a lot of times. I don't like when sellers don't bother to tell the difference between bley and grey or brown and frown. Especially the frown! I love the old brown, I think it's such a beautiful color.

I had an incident recently where I bought a pair of castle doors used:

and it came in with marker on it! *wacko* ??!! Some people use a very specific rating system with their used bricks and with others it a total crapshoot. I ordered this figure once:

It was labeled as used and it came to me with no face. I ordered it from someone else and it came in and had clearly had a run-in with a vacuum cleaner, deep cuts in it's face and the odd LEGO dryrot thing, which I've learned to cure with olive oil.

Anyway, he'll make an interesting character on Fabuland Housewives next season, the scarred monkey.

And finally, thanks BrickMiner for the rec of E-Bricks. I have to make a purchase today and will check them out. Thanks! *wub*

[Norrington]

It was labeled as used and it came to me with no face. I ordered it from someone else and it came in and had clearly had a run-in with a vacuum cleaner, deep cuts in it's face and the odd LEGO dryrot thing, which I've learned to cure with olive oil.

Well, for the one without the face: Using another monkey figure as a reference, you can draw a face on with a fine-point sharpie.

[Siegfried]

the problem with feedback on BL is that you don't want to limit your buying options in the future by giving negative feedback.

I agree. For example, I ordered a Doc Ock figure and it had a different head to what I wanted. In short, I wanted one with a smirk not a grimace. (I don't like most of the open mouth heads.) The seller blamed the BrickLink catalog for the error, and assured me if he finds one he will send it on. (I am still waiting.) However, I put positive comments anyway as there are not many good Australian stores. I don't lie in my comments, I just don't mention the bad. For example, if I was not 100% happy about the parts I say "well packed". I have been banned by one store in the past for cancelling an order when he gave me approval to do so. I complained and he un-banned, but it showed me how quick some stores can be to ban.

I try to avoid BrickLink as it is not the best way to buy Lego, but some times, for example my recent purchase of small pneumatic pumps, it is the only way.