Scorpion Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Hey guys! I've got this huge chest filled with my childhood Legos. Kilos of the stuff, all from the Golden Age. Mostly city and space (SPII, Futuron, Blacktron II, Spyrius, M:Tron), a few castle sets for good measure. Since I've returned from my Dark Ages, I've been building up another collection from scratch, so I was wondering, what is the best way to sell off the contents of my chest? I really don't have the time or the patience to catalogue every single brick in that chest to sell it off piece by piece. So how should I get on with it? Should I just post an add saying "10Kgs of lego to go" and sell it to the highest bidder? Thank you for your time. Scorpion
Follows Closely Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 (edited) Sell it all to me! Your best bet is to assemble the sets and sell them on ebay or bricklink. You could try craigslist as well. P.S. Why sell your old blocks? Edited July 6, 2010 by Follows Closely
RoryoCox Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 I have to tell you that I would not get rid of any of those old sets. They are very collectible and have good pieces for MOCs. Also, like you said they are Childhood memories and I would want to keep those. Just my advice.
legotrainfan Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 I wouldn't sell such precious bricks and childhood memories either.
davee123 Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 (edited) "Best way" is of course a tradeoff. Way #1: One Big Lot If you sell it on eBay as a lot of "10 kg of LEGO" with no pictures, you'll make about $5-$6 per pound (I think the going rate was around $5, but it seemed higher the last time I looked). If you include pictures, you'll get more-- especially pictures that make it VERY CLEAR that you've got vintage 1980's and 1990's stuff. The more detail you show in your pictures, the better price you'll probably get. Also be sure to mention ALL the set numbers and names you can find in the listing. Again, the more detail, the better. This way is the easiest, the fastest, and will earn you the least money. Way #2: Individual Sets Try to assemble the sets as best as possible. Be EXTRAORDINARILY CLEAR about which pieces you're missing, and what the condition of the sets are, and then sell them set-by-set on BrickLink or eBay. Include instructions and boxes if you've got them, and be prepared to take lots of pictures, because many prospective buyers don't trust sellers, and will want to see the sets themselves before buying. Again, include as many pictures and as much information as you can. Note: if a set isn't more than 95% complete or so, you might not want to bother with it. If you've got King's Castle (664 pieces normally), but are missing 30-40 pieces, that's quite a lot, and may be quite frustrating for a buyer to receive (beware negative feedback!). Certainly be up front about it! Saying "95% complete" SOUNDS like it's mostly complete, but it sure doesn't FEEL like it when you're building the set, and every 20th piece is missing! This method is moderately involved, and will earn you a nice chunk of money. If you sell them set-by-set on eBay, you'll probably make a little less than set-by-set on BrickLink, but it'll be over and done with when the auctions are over. If you go the BrickLink route, it'll take months for everything to sell, and you may need to drop your prices a few times on remaining items. Way #3: Piece by Piece This has the POTENTIAL to earn you the most money, takes the most effort, and the most time. Keep in mind, NOBODY cares about basic brick. You've got 1x4 black plates? So what? Nobody's going to buy them from you. But they WILL buy those rare classic BlackTron I minifigures! If you opt for this method, I'd suggest listing all the elements at once on BrickLink, and anything that hasn't sold in 2 months, drop the price, and repeat. After 6 months, take all the remaining "boring" brick, and auction it off by the pound on eBay. Otherwise, if you keep them on BrickLink, you'll be waiting years to sell off those common elements, and probably won't ever actually make the sale. DaveE Edited July 6, 2010 by davee123
MrTools Posted July 6, 2010 Posted July 6, 2010 Depending on the condition of them and wheather they are complete, i would display them on a shelf. Old sets like those are hard to come by and even if you dont want to display them, older sets have elements that are hard to find.
Scorpion Posted July 8, 2010 Author Posted July 8, 2010 P.S. Why sell your old blocks? I have to tell you that I would not get rid of any of those old sets. They are very collectible and have good pieces for MOCs. Also, like you said they are Childhood memories and I would want to keep those. Just my advice. I wouldn't sell such precious bricks and childhood memories either. Well, they've spent most of their lives hidden away in a bucket. None of these sets have been built for the last 15 years. I haven't played with them in 15 years. They're just taking up space, so I'll sell them. The memories, that I'll keep. ;)
tiggerkiddo Posted July 8, 2010 Posted July 8, 2010 Well, they've spent most of their lives hidden away in a bucket. None of these sets have been built for the last 15 years. I haven't played with them in 15 years. They're just taking up space, so I'll sell them. The memories, that I'll keep. ;) Since you seem adamant on selling them...AND if you're willing and patient, I'd also suggest trying to reconstructing the sets and selling them separately. You could even browse ebay's completed auctions and see how much they are generally going for.
drdavewatford Posted July 8, 2010 Posted July 8, 2010 If you just want a quick sale then go ahead and sell as one big lot. I fully agree with others on here who've said that to maximise the sale price you should reconstruct the sets and sell them set by set, however. This will net you much, much more cash for a modest investment of your time. If you have instructions or even boxes for any of the sets then dig them out as they will substantially bump up the price (particularly the box). You can look on Peeron or Bricklink for a parts inventory for each set to see what you're missing, and if you really want top dollar for the sets then buy the missing parts on Bricklink and sell as 100% compete sets. I've found that for many parts the replacement cost on Bricklink is very small. You may find, however, that once you've collected all the pieces together for your old sets, you can't resist building them, and then you may want to keep them after all.....! Good luck, Dr. D.
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