LEGO eBAY Sellers (Where do they get this stuff?)

[Badsneaker]

Most of us probably buy and/or sell LEGO on eBAY. I'm wondering where the heck these big LEGO sellers get there stuff.

Some of these sellers probably couldn't put together an 80 piece set to save their life but seem to have a line on huge quantities of LEGO. Are they getting this stuff overseas? How do you have 6 or 7 sets of a discontinued set or 268 classic 2x2 white windows brand new?

[Zorro]

Most of us probably buy and/or sell LEGO on eBAY. I'm wondering where the heck these big LEGO sellers get there stuff.

Some of these sellers probably couldn't put together an 80 piece set to save their life but seem to have a line on huge quantities of LEGO. Are they getting this stuff overseas? How do you have 6 or 7 sets of a discontinued set or 268 classic 2x2 white windows brand new?

Hong Kong...

I am afraid they all must have very good connections with TLC (or rather said: with one of the line chiefs, who must be on their payrolls, when they produce some "reserve" items for replacements and so...)

That is my theory at least...

I don't believe in fairytales or people saving 100ds of these sets to release them later at normal prices to the crowd...

[MAH4546]

Most of us probably buy and/or sell LEGO on eBAY. I'm wondering where the heck these big LEGO sellers get there stuff.

Some of these sellers probably couldn't put together an 80 piece set to save their life but seem to have a line on huge quantities of LEGO. Are they getting this stuff overseas? How do you have 6 or 7 sets of a discontinued set or 268 classic 2x2 white windows brand new?

You'd be shocked at the old sets you can find at toy stores in Europe, Asia, and South America.

In May 2006, I walked into a small toy store in Thessaloniki, Greece and walked out with, among other things, a 6396 International Jetport (from 1993), a TECHNIC Rebel Wrecker (from 1994), the old lights brick set, a few old grey roadplates, and some other small town sets. And that was just one toy store. Small toy stores in Europe are filled with old LEGO, Playmobil, and other toys that have been sitting on shelves for years. It's even better in Argentina, where the toys are so expensive that they just sit on shelves forever. You can got a toy store in Buenos Aires and find sets from the ten-year old LEGO sets without much difficulty. Italy, though, is the best place to find old toys. Hence, you'll notice that a lot of eBay sellers selling so many mint, old sets are from Italy.

Edited October 9, 2008 by MAH4546

[SWMAN]

I think that there are some people that have connections, but a lot of others who simply have collected these sets over time and do a lot of good shopping.

[CP5670]

You'd be shocked at the old sets you can find at toy stores in Europe, Asia, and South America.

In May 2006, I walked into a small toy store in Thessaloniki, Greece and walked out with, among other things, a 6396 International Jetport (from 1993), a TECHNIC Rebel Wrecker (from 1994), the old lights brick set, a few old grey roadplates, and some other small town sets. And that was just one toy store. Small toy stores in Europe are filled with old LEGO, Playmobil, and other toys that have been sitting on shelves for years. It's even better in Argentina, where the toys are so expensive that they just sit on shelves forever. You can got a toy store in Buenos Aires and find sets from the ten-year old LEGO sets without much difficulty. Italy, though, is the best place to find old toys. Hence, you'll notice that a lot of eBay sellers selling so many mint, old sets are from Italy.

Yes, I've heard that there are a lot of small, obscure toy stores in Europe that may hold on to some of their inventory for decades. I bought a lot of sets from two guys in Italy a few years ago, which they probably found in this way. TLG has since changed their whole supply and distribution process though, so this situation probably won't occur quite as often with current sets in the future.

[Dennimator]

Yea, I know one small toy store in sweden that even has lego from the 80-s, they have all the Fabuland sets, first town sets with smile-face minifig, first Technic etc, but they are incredibly expensive...

[Sandy]

Some of these sellers probably couldn't put together an 80 piece set to save their life but seem to have a line on huge quantities of LEGO. Are they getting this stuff overseas? How do you have 6 or 7 sets of a discontinued set or 268 classic 2x2 white windows brand new?

Did it ever occur to you guys that these sellers might actually be parents selling their grown-up kids' old LEGO sets? At least I have purchased some sets from that type of sellers through Ebay - usually the sets they sell have several missing or wrongly replaced pieces, unfortunately.

So there, mystery solved.

[legotrainfan]

Did it ever occur to you guys that these sellers might actually be parents selling their grown-up kids' old LEGO sets? At least I have purchased some sets from that type of sellers through Ebay - usually the sets they sell have several missing or wrongly replaced pieces, unfortunately.

So there, mystery solved.

I think this discussion is mainly about old sets that are brand new and not used LEGO.

I only knew one little shop where you could still find older and discontinued sets, but it closed many years ago. I think its owner retired. I'd love to set my foot into one of the shops in those countries you guys have mentioned with old LEGO sets that are still MISB.

[Sandy]

I think this discussion is mainly about old sets that are brand new and not used LEGO.

*is embarrased*

Now that I read all the posts in the topic I realize that you're right. It just wasn't obvious from the first post that the talk was about unopened lego sets...

[CP5670]

Yea, I know one small toy store in sweden that even has lego from the 80-s, they have all the Fabuland sets, first town sets with smile-face minifig, first Technic etc, but they are incredibly expensive...

They must be much cheaper than the ebay/BL prices though, for people who know their value. I would go on a huge spending spree if I ever ran into a store like that.

This situation doesn't seem to be common around here. The closest thing I ever found was a Technic 8456 set for half price in 2000.

[Badsneaker]

Yes you really get "porked" here in the U.S. on LEGO pricing, especially on discontinued sets. You can't buy 4954 Model Town House for under $90 in the U.S.

I found a toy store in Buenos Aires that has them in stock for $42 USD. There are tons of old LEGO sets on Ebay Italy for dirt cheap too, but they don't usually ship to U.S., plus by the time you paid shipping it wouldn't be worth it anyways.

[CP5670]

Well, the prices on current sets here are better than the rest of the world. That also means that things sell quickly though, and discontinued items go out of stock much faster.

I used to buy a lot of stuff from Italy five or six years ago. The overseas shipping rates have gotten up dramatically since then though, more than the exchange rate differences would suggest, and it's rarely worth it these days.

[Zorro]

I've been to Italy, and I've been to their Lego stores, and I admit, just like here in good Ol' belgium you can find some of the older sets, and yes, sometimes they are dirt cheap. BUT I thought we were (primarely) talking about the sellers that sell those old sets by the hundreds !

They almost MUST have some kind of relations with TLC or the TLC employees that have a certain level of "access".

Like TLC finds an old pallet with yellow castles that was hidden somewhere, TLC is not going to sell this small quantity themselves...

OR: you are or know a TLC Lego line manager very well...and he likes you...if they still have the molds or pieces available then he produce some sets.

And don't even start to tell me that is impossible...such things happen in EVERY large international company/factory .

But those are just my thoughts you know...

[CP5670]

I haven't seen anyone who sells hundreds of copies of a single old set. Some guys do have many different sets, but there are only two or three copies of each one. Chances are that they just bought up the whole stock from one of those small toy stores. The store managers wouldn't know about the value of the sets and are probably very happy that someone is buying them at all, given how long the sets have been sitting there.

OR: you are or know a TLC Lego line manager very well...and he likes you...if they still have the molds or pieces available then he produce some sets.

And don't even start to tell me that is impossible...such things happen in EVERY large international company/factory default_blink.gif .

The molds for many old parts are no longer in service, so it would cost them a lot of money to produce even a few sets. Not to mention all the old catalogs, boxes/packaging and slight changes made to many basic pieces over the years. I would immediately notice if I bought an old MISB set and the style of the pieces was not consistent with things from that era, and many other Lego enthusiasts would too.

Granted, I have seen some people with individual parts in rare colors (see Magicbricks on Bricklink, who sells some pieces that never appeared in any set) who probably do have TLG connections. However, such things would be much harder to do at the set level.

[Rayman]

Small toys shops in Australia (at least in Melbourne) are all but gone, so there's pretty much no chance of picking up discontinued sets down here. The main supply of toys in Australia comes from big retailers like Toys R' Us.

[5150 Lego]

Hong Kong...

I am afraid they all must have very good connections with TLC (or rather said: with one of the line chiefs, who must be on their payrolls, when they produce some "reserve" items for replacements and so...)

That is my theory at least...

I don't believe in fairytales or people saving 100ds of these sets to release them later at normal prices to the crowd...

Start believing. While it wasn't 100+ copies, i have seen people completely clean out certina sets. One time in paticular i personally saw someone competely clean out every starwars set in the store. He literaly came in with a hand truck to take away all his merchandise. The clerk said he spent over $2,000 USD. Maybe his plan was to sell a few years down the road..Maybe it was his personal collection... Never know..

They almost MUST have some kind of relations with TLC or the TLC employees that have a certain level of "access".

Like TLC finds an old pallet with yellow castles that was hidden somewhere, TLC is not going to sell this small quantity themselves...

OR: you are or know a TLC Lego line manager very well...and he likes you...if they still have the molds or pieces available then he produce some sets.

And don't even start to tell me that is impossible...such things happen in EVERY large international company/factory .

But those are just my thoughts you know...

Possible?.. Yes. But very unlikely. Think about what your saying. Your claiming that somebody in the assembly line so to speak, is going to produce an extra 100 or so sets for someone without paying for them, or without TLC knowing about it?

Its not like that one person is going to be able to come in and make an extra 100 sets or so by themselfs. Thats alot of man power as well as electricity that would have to be acounted for .

And yes, there have been times when TLC has found older sets hiden behind crates so to speak, and they have sold them thourgh Lego.com. If they found a crate of old CAstle sets, i seriously doubt that they would either just give them away to a good friend to make profit, or just ship them to a store were a Lego store employee just hands them over to a buddy.

Same would go with lego pieces.

[Cameron_Talley]

I have a friend that works for PFS Web in Dallas, TX, who handles shop.lego.com (or at least some aspect of it).

She tells me that in the LEGO Warehouse they have, if an item is damaged (like the box got torn up or something), it goes into a "take-home" bin that employees are allowed to pick and choose over and take home stuff for free. That's right, rather than sending back to the factory, they can just take it home. I would imagine some of them end up selling on Ebay...

(Unfortunately my friend doesn't work for the LEGO division....yet.. :) ).