Blakbird

Blakbird Collection Liquidation

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12 minutes ago, Didumos69 said:

@Blakbird, I suppose it's a good thing to act upon the reduced interest you're experiencing. Better than to keep you're house stocked with a valuable collection you don't do anything with. I feel tempted to buy my own MOC :wink:.

True mate :thumbup: 

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@Blakbird before you sell, split it, perhaps make an event. I mean something like invite photographers, youtubers. Make a proper documentation. Throw a farewell party, show, exhibition. Maybe...

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Someone should arrange an exhibition of the collection. I think you could keep the collection for another 2-3 months and that's enough to arrange one :tongue:

 

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I don't think it's reduced interest, but an inability by most to buy large quantities. I'm sure blakbird would get a fortune for his stuff if he set up a BL shop, I know I'd certainly buy a couple things off him. But 100k parts in one go, no.

So unless he lowballs so much of his work, the stuff is unlikely to fly out of the house. But that might be good, it makes me sad to see such a collection broken up. It should be (in) a museum.

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Will you be continuing with the Technicopedia? 

Your site is responsible for my getting back into Technic Lego after a long dark age, and I'm very grateful for it :)

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Sad to hear that...agree with the comment that this collection should be placed in a LEGO Technic historical museum.

And hope you will continue your great work with Technicopedia. In my case it was also partly responsible for getting back to LEGO after 10 years of dark age.

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14 hours ago, Blakbird said:

 

Both of these are about right.  The collection is totally out of control.  It fills many rooms in my house and also my garage and attic.  I need to make some space and recover some money from my large investment.  I am not totally getting out of LEGO, just getting out of the "historical collector" market and into something more reasonable, just keeping a few of my favorites.  I spent about 15 years putting this collection together, and I'm a bit burned out.

My hobbies have ebbed and flowed over the years.  About 15 years ago I had a business making custom telescope kits.  I was also heavily into high power rocketry for a while.  I did the RC airplane thing, and then helicopters.  Then I was building Pocher models.  At the moment I'm into scale RC trucks.  Way back I even used to rebuild my own car engines.  I did woodworking for a while too.  It is too expensive and takes too much space to do them all at once, so I am backing down on LEGO for a while.  I'm sure the pendulum will swing back in time.  You can see a common thread here, and it is building things.  One way or another, I need to be making mechanical things work.

Not feeling sorry for you as you honestly have too many toys (unless you're actually Elon Musk, then iI'll happily shut up), but having so many hobbies is not really possible for a normal human being. It's not the money, it's the time baby :wink:

Anyway, I hope you'll make a killing on those sets. You deserve it Eric - and MANY THANKS for Technicopedia :thumbup:

Also have a Tamiya Konghead waiting for this weekend. I love Tamiya, but I (and the wifey) says only ten cars, buy one, sell one ... such is (my) life ..

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19 hours ago, allanp said:

Have you kept the boxes for your sets? On eBay I see many sets being sold already built btw.

I have the boxes for more than half of them, and certainly for anything newer than 2005.  For the older sets I collected them whether they had a box or not, so I kept the boxes when I had them.  Probably 50 or so have no box.  In most cases people do not want to pay to ship the boxes so they will end up getting thrown out.

19 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I hope this is not out of line but what part of the country do you reside?

I am in the Seattle, Washington area.

11 hours ago, Aleh said:

May I ask you to to make a couple of actual photos of your incredible MOC's and Technic set's collection?

10 hours ago, J_C said:

@Blakbird before you sell, split it, perhaps make an event. I mean something like invite photographers, youtubers. Make a proper documentation. Throw a farewell party, show, exhibition. Maybe...

10 hours ago, Lipko said:

Someone should arrange an exhibition of the collection. I think you could keep the collection for another 2-3 months and that's enough to arrange one

There are a couple of problems with an exhibition idea.  First, at least half of the sets are boxed and not available for display anyway.  That also means I can't take photos of everything, but if you go to my Bricksafe you can see pictures of everything I have.  Second, hardly anyone in the USA cares about Technic so no one would come.

9 hours ago, neepheid said:

Will you be continuing with the Technicopedia?

I'm not sure.  Without the sets I can't take pictures.  I could go 100% digital, but a lot of the commentary can only come from building the model first.  I will at least leave the web site up in its current state.

11 hours ago, schraubedrin said:

I always hoped to come to America one day to visit "Blakbirds Technic Museum" :blush:

On a related note @Blakbird: Have you considered asking a museum to buy it from you?

10 hours ago, anatem said:

 It should be (in) a museum.

6 hours ago, Interceptor said:

Sad to hear that...agree with the comment that this collection should be placed in a LEGO Technic historical museum.

That's actually a very interesting idea.  I have found a museum and I am discussing the matter with the curator.  However, I'm not sure I would get much of any money for them this way, but it would be a pleasant way to preserve everything.

6 hours ago, 1974 said:

Anyway, I hope you'll make a killing on those sets. You deserve it Eric - and MANY THANKS for Technicopedia

10 hours ago, anatem said:

 I'm sure blakbird would get a fortune for his stuff if he set up a BL shop,..... the stuff is unlikely to fly out of the house.

Sadly, it is looking like it will be difficult to sell these sets at all, much less make a killing.  I had to import almost everything from Europe and there is very low interest here.  I already have a Bricklink shop but the sets are not getting any interest.

6 hours ago, 1974 said:

Also have a Tamiya Konghead waiting for this weekend. I love Tamiya, but I (and the wifey) says only ten cars, buy one, sell one ... such is (my) life ..

The Konghead is awesome!  Have fun with it.  Check out my RC site to see the upgrades I made to it which really helped the handling.

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Sad to see this happen. End of an era IMO. Would love to buy a MOC or two from you but prices for them are much easier to be swallow when split up into Bricklink orders rather than upfront :blush:. Best of luck with the sale 

Edited by Rishab N

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Hi

i cant send PM, im intrested in MOC's, willing to pay...

could you send me a list of moc's you've got to moranfr1@gmail.com and we will continue from there...

Moran

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29 minutes ago, Moran said:

Hi

i cant send PM, im intrested in MOC's, willing to pay...

I have boosted your post count to 10+, you should be able to send PM to Blakbird now.

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1 hour ago, Milan said:

I have boosted your post count to 10+, you should be able to send PM to Blakbird now.

Wow, didn't know that was possible.

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1 hour ago, dannydos said:

@Blakbird can you post a link to your Bricklink store? Thx!

I don't think he's posting a store, just going to make a list here.

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Looks like I've opened Pandora's box here.  You should see my PM inbox.  Some of the confusion is my own fault for not putting more information in the original post.  To clarify, I am NOT looking to sell individual sets one by one here on Eurobricks.  That would be a lot more work than selling them on Bricklink and I'm trying to save effort here, not add more.  What I was looking for was a buyer for some considerable chunk of sets (at least $500), or for the MOCs which can't really be sold on Bricklink.  With that in mind, I'll put a list below of all the MOCs that I have currently available for sale along with the designer of each to help you understand which is which.  The "Value" column is just a straight export from a Brickstore parts list of the average Bricklink price of the parts alone.  This serves as a good starting point for negotiation.  Please feel free to make an offer on any of these MOCs.  If you are interested in sets, please choose a group of sets worth at least $500.  I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a single person actually interested in that number of sets, but it can't hurt to try.

Model               Designer        Parts   Value
US Truck            2Legoornot2Lego 1,783    $507
Train Module        Akiyuki         6,480    $720
Ball Factory        Akiyuki         4,428    $475
Invisible Lift      Akiyuki         3,197    $320
Pegasus             Amida            480     $50
Avatar Scorpion     Barman          1,823    $194
Ferrari 458         BrunoJJ         2,046    $760
BMW M4 DTM          BrunoJJ         2,027    $441
Mercedes C63 DTM    BrunoJJ         2,210    $424
Phantasm GT         Crowkillers     2,003    $283
Vampire             Crowkillers     1,925    $378
Muscle Car          Crowkillers     1,887    $279
Deluxe supercar     Crowkillers     1,850    $382
Porsche             Crowkillers     1,841    $335
Assassin            Crowkillers     1,827    $291
Swingloader         D3K             1,483    $471
Feller buncher      desert752       4,510   $1,346
Prinoth Leitwolf    Designer Han    2,912    $577
Dump Truck          Designer Han    2,439    $467
Dragline Excavator  Designer Han    2,167    $650
6x6 hauler          Designer Han    2,140    $512
Low Loader Truck    Designer Han    2,054    $386
Lowboy Trailer      Designer Han    1,656    $220
Snow Speeder        Drakmin         2,191    $180
Zonda               Erik Leppen     1,615    $258
Audi R8             Fanylover       1,839    $367
GMK6400 Crane       Gerger          3,504    $919
Tow Truck 5571      Grazi           3,969   $1,173
Wheel Excavator     GuiliuG         1,997    $501
GG001               GuiliuG         1,294    $403
LS160               Jennifer Clark   471     $106
Aston Martin DB11   Jeroen Ottens   2,929    $443
Alfa Romeo 4C       Jeroen Ottens   2,134    $509
Black Dragon        Jovel           1,641    $328
Telehandler         Jurgen Krooshoo 3,383    $700
Kenworth            Jurgen Krooshoo 2,594    $506
Sunbeam             Jurgen Krooshoo 2,177    $419
Backhoe Loader      Jurgen Krooshoo 1,972    $711
Koeniggsegg CCX     Jurgen Krooshoo 1,967    $303
Link Belt Excavator Jurgen Krooshoo 1,849    $487
Forklift            Kevin Moo       1,768    $408
Cement Truck        LasseD          1,520    $245
Simple Supercar     Lipko           2,336    $300
Telehandler         Lipko           2,250    $339
V12 Coupe           Lipko           2,113    $277
MAN TGS             M_longer        2,415    $366
Liebherr L580       M_longer        1,604    $397
Wing Body Truck     Madoca          4,126    $959
Tatra 813           Madoca          2,527    $759
Icarus              Madoca          1,906    $493
Shaman              Madoca          2,574    $676
Predator            Nathanael Kuipe 1,797    $325
Jeep Hurricane      Nathanael Kuipe 1,724    $373
Concept Car         Nathanael Kuipe 1,458    $340
Pony Car            Nathanael Kuipe 1,299    $156
Braiding Machine    Nico71          1,929    $227
CVT Truck           Nico71          1,121    $267
Spirograph          PG52             764     $109
Koeniggsegg One:1   Pvdb            3,021    $388
Defender 110        Sheepo          3,437    $566
Jeep Wrangler       Sheepo          2,461    $400
Kamov KA-32         Sheepo          2,059    $334
Terex Shovel        Sheo            4,325   $1,100
Aventador AnniversarStefan Pendula  2,575    $436


 

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Don't sell your collection.

Reading "PM me for this and that", "how much for this and that" is just - horrible. Do you actually need the money possibly coming out of this? If so, then do it.

If not ... when you are thinking about storage space, about putting some activities on hold (I never ever could believe what you were doing - but you were simply doing it!) ... don't sell your collection.

I have no idea what to say, but people are launching kick-starter projects - and repeatedly get support - for ... most volatile things.

Crowd funding is possibly a way of just conserving what you have assembled - monetary wise, but >much much more so<, intellectually wise. I am not that concerned about your collection thinning. I am much more concerned about your saying that when your collection is dissolving, you may also have to cut back on your activities and may not be able to conserve and improve your LEGO "knowledge". And this is not - never - "payable". It is not.

Don't sell your collection.

All the best
Thorsten

P.S.: I have never supported any "project" with money. I would do it in this case. 

Edited by Toastie

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16 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Don't sell your collection.

Crowd funding is possibly a way of just conserving what you have assembled - monetary wise, but >much much more so<, intellectually wise.

Thanks for your thoughts.  Given that in all the years I've had a "donate" button on Technicopedia I've collected less than $50, it is hard to imagine anyone contributing anything toward maintaining my collection in return for ..... nothing.  The main payback I've gotten from Technicopedia is all the comments from people who enjoyed it.  Those mean a lot to me, but they don't pay the bills.  I've amassed a lot of knowledge from having built all those sets, but it had to end somewhere.  I can't keep buying every new set year after year and just pack them into my garage forever.  It would be cool to keep adding to Technicopedia as new sets come out, but it just doesn't seem feasible.  Of course, it wasn't feasible for me to do what I've already done, but reality had to catch up with me sooner or later.

In the back of my mind I always imagined someday renting a large retail space and just setting up every set and MOC and calling it a museum.  Realistically, I would never have time for such a thing unless I quit my job, and even then it would never make enough to even pay the rent in the USA.  It was a good dream though.

I'm glad that I was able to share my passion for this hobby to the extent that I have and I won't forget all the like minded people around the world with which I was able to share.

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You are smart, you should know that most of the fun of your collection is the collecting and building itself. So selling of build models will be very hard, even in groups of models with discount.
I'm afraid your best option to see some of the investments back is to add all separate parts to your/a Bricklink store. That's a huge amount of work but so is all communication with people that want your models at bottom price, most probably because they have knowledge about the parts that went into it and do the math. That's sad enough but that's how people tick.

Edited by Berthil

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Thank you for clarifying your intent, and sorry for cluttering up the thread with a PM request.  I'm not sure which USA-based copy of 8480 on Bricklink is yours, but they're all well out of my budget. Best of luck selling things off.

Edited by icm
Clarified which BL stores I looked at.

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22 minutes ago, Berthil said:


I'm afraid your best option to see some of the investments back is to add all separate parts to your/a Bricklink store. That's a huge amount of work...

Adding parts to bricklink is actually pretty easy if he has or can get the XML file from rebrickable.

The massive time consuming part is taking them apart when orders start rolling in.  Then having everything organized so you can find parts quickly.  IMO having a bricklink store with 500k parts is ALOT of work.

If it were me, I would sell the models assembled (assuming it's assembled) as that's the least amount of work.

 

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21 minutes ago, technic_addict said:

If it were me, I would sell the models assembled (assuming it's assembled) as that's the least amount of work.

That's what Eric is trying to do.

With adding to bricklink I of course also meant breaking apart the models and store all parts categorized for selling. Otherwise no sense in adding to bricklink if you don't have the parts readily available for shipping.
The financial value of a model lies in it's parts, the emotional value is in collecting parts and building and that cannot be monetized.
I also see from Erics list he has sold off most of the Akiyuki GBC's (or keeps the rest) and he doesn't sell the RoscoPC F1 models.
Nevertheless @Blakbird, I hope you succeed in 'liquidating' the assets you want to get rid off in an easy way.

Edited by Berthil

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33 minutes ago, Berthil said:

I also see from Erics list he has sold off most of the Akiyuki GBC's (or keeps the rest) and he doesn't sell the RoscoPC F1 models.

Yes, most of the GBCs are already gone.  Luckily I found good homes for most of them.  The RoscoPC models actually don't belong to me.  I built and stored them for another AFOL in a somewhat unconventional gentleman's agreement.

It's fascinating to see how much other people know about my collection, surmising what is missing from my list!

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15 minutes ago, Blakbird said:

It's fascinating to see how much other people know about my collection, surmising what is missing from my list!

Big (AFOL) brother is watching you :)

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I have no idea how the economics work out, but perhaps you could attend Brickcon as a vendor, and then display and sell significant parts of your MOC collection? You'd probably need to figure out a way to take credit cards ...

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