Blakbird Collection Liquidation

[Blakbird]

4 hours ago, ukbloke said:

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 ...

Technic models would never sell at BrickCon.  There is too little interest in Technic in the USA.

[Raf H]

 

I have seen photos of your collection and have found some sets that I am interested in such as 8880 and the Formula 1 technic models. Could you PM or email me the approximate price of these sets and are there any sets that you aren't willing to sell?

[Aleh]

If I live in the USA and have enough thousands of dollars I should buy all collection together with the whole house .

[zweihander]

Hi Blakbird, I'm sorry to hear about this, but you have your reasons :)

17 hours ago, Blakbird said:

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.

I just read through all years on technicopedia and it was a lot of fun.
I have a suggestion about technicopedia, how about outsourcing the content creation to the members here? Kinda like what you did for the digital building of models a couple of years ago. 

[nychase]

I saw this last night....I felt we all deserved to see it.  

1. First you frantically collect everything, amassing a collection the size of a small sun.
2. Then one fine day you can't sleep at night thinking, "great Scott, what have I done?"
3. Then you frantically sell everything, parting with a collection the size of a large planet. Maybe even doing a little dance, and thinking how for once, "Step 3: Profit!" actually applies.
4. Then one fine day you can't sleep at night thinking, "great Scott, what have I done?!"

The only difference between 4 and 2 is that you have enough room for a bed to weep in. A negligible and fleeting consolation at best, since the very next step is, invariably, "goto 1".

[Milan]

So basically, we have two options here:
1. Convince Eric that he needs to keep his sets/mocs.
2. Help him sell it.

Since he is Blakbird, i think (sadly) that the choice is already made.
That leaves us with second option to help him sell it. Maybe we all can do something small, that could help him. First thing that comes to my mind is to help spread the word. For a start, we can share the news on our (lego related) social sites, with a link to his site/page/mail etc. Eric would have to make us some nice photo we can use...

Again, i would be very happy if he reconsider, but as already stated before, he has his reasons.

[HeresJohnnny]

Hi All

Been a memner for a while but never post, so hello all. I remember first reading about Blackbird and his collection and thinking "wow" wouldnt that be awsome (I had just got my first small(ish) technic set. Now, 18 months down the line and having amassed 20,000 plus pieces (I know nothing compared to you guys) its starting to take over the study and the Mrs is saying this is getting too much and me thinkng "I've only just begun! I can now see where Blackbird is coming from, but it must be a heart wrenching decision to make! I think its a male thing, we start collecting and before you know it, its got out of hand!

[JimDude]

I wonder if Eric is the only person in the world to have all Technic sets from 1977->2016. I mean other than LEGO themselves, but then again, they're not a person :).

It would be sad to see that collection being broken up. So, maybe he could be persuaded to 'only' sell the MOCs (which should be easier to sell to begin with), giving him the literal and figurative breathing room to hold on to the 'official' collection for a bit longer.

[ctx1769]

The shipping to the UK would cripple me alone , really sorry to see you need to do this to your collection. 

Edited February 1, 2018 by ctx1769

[lcvisser]

Would it make sense to do a bulk shipping to this side of the ocean? I can imagine it would reduce shipping costs if a large enough number of people would be interested in purchasing one or more items. On the other hand, the logistics and funding of such an operations would perhaps be equally difficult...

[Aleh]

@Blakbird Are you going to continue making respective MOCS in digital versions?

2 hours ago, Milan said:

So basically, we have two options here:
1. Convince Eric that he needs to keep his sets/mocs.
2. Help him sell it.

Since he is Blakbird, i think (sadly) that the choice is already made.
That leaves us with second option to help him sell it. Maybe we all can do something small, that could help him. First thing that comes to my mind is to help spread the word. For a start, we can share the news on our (lego related) social sites, with a link to his site/page/mail etc. Eric would have to make us some nice photo we can use...

Again, i would be very happy if he reconsider, but as already stated before, he has his reasons.

I have already spread this through local forums. 

Edited February 1, 2018 by Aleh

[aminnich]

I mean just debating on which set(s) I want to buy from you. 

I do not think you should sell, but if that's what I want, then I want to help you. 

[schraubedrin]

@Blakbird, what's your timeframe?

Do you want to give it some time for the word to spread? Maybe there's a rich AFOL in Dubai wanting to get your whole collection?
I think you could push the museum-idea further. Maybe there is one in Europe willing to buy all your MOCs, including shipping. Or maybe even LEGO themselves.

But those certainly aren't fast-selling options.

I'll post this thread in the subreddit, there are some interesting personalities on this website

[Erik Leppen]

Decisions like these are always tough, so I think it's good to see you make such a decision @Blakbird. I think what many AFOLs realize once in their life is that money isn't the only limiting factor, two other big ones are space and time. And, having sets you don't do anything with, feels like a waste of LEGO to me. Lego is meant to be built with, in my view.

Anyhow, given you want to downsize your collection, have you considered finding someone with a BrickLink store willing to take over everything you want to part with? You'd get much less money than if you were to sell everything yourself, but what you get back for that is more time. I did a similar thing a few years ago, albeit to much smaller extent; I sorted all my old parts and decided to want to get rid of somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 parts (mostly old used stuff). So I asked on my local LUG what to do, and someone asked whether she could buy the whole bulk, and I tried to divide it into lots and estimated each lot's approximate value, and soon enough we agreed on a price that both of us were satisfied with. Yes, I may have gotten much less money from i than I could have had if I took the time to sell all of it myself, but now I got rid of everything in one go, plus my fellow AFOL had a lot of additional parts to add to her BrickLink inventory. Now, in my situation (I live in the Netherlands, which is much smaller than the US), this was easier to make happen because the buyer could simply drive to my place by car, check the whole thing, pay me, do a bit of sorting with my help, put everything in the car and drive home, all on the same day. In your case it's a much bigger quantity and it might have to go by plane, so I'm not sure how much that will cost.

Anyhow. Maybe, after the great sell, I think you should see if you can come up with a new plan that won't get you in the same problems another 10 or 15 years down the road. Would it for example be feasible for you to buy all sets from one year, review them, write your Technicopedia for that year, and sell the lot the year after. (I don't know how much money you have available for LEGO in a year and how much you're willing to spend, since the current problem seems space-related, not money-related per se.) That way your collection will always consist of at most 2 years worth of sets. Of course, it would be ideal if you could find Bricklink "teammate" who would accept you being their supplier of used Technic sets. Maybe you buy a $100 set, sell it to them for $50, they sell it used for $70 on their store and three people are happy (you, the BL storeowner and his buyer who got a cheap set that's only used once)

Of course, the most important condition for all of this to happen is that you personally feel happy doing it that way. I'm not trying to tell you what to do of course, so if you don't really want to continue collecting sets or updating Technicopedia, you shouldn't do it of course. Technicopedia is an awesome resource (for many of us I think), but personally I wouldn't want you to continue it against your own will.

Another possible option would be that you get someone else to do the writeups and photos for you and you only do the site hosting, design and organisation. (Of course, again, provided that suits your own preferences.)

Also, I believe you can sell MOCs on Bricklink as "Custom Items".

[Blakbird]

12 hours ago, Raf H said:

 

I have seen photos of your collection and have found some sets that I am interested in such as 8880 and the Formula 1 technic models. Could you PM or email me the approximate price of these sets and are there any sets that you aren't willing to sell?

I am not selling individual sets one by one.  Please see my clarification earlier in this topic.

 

7 hours ago, zweihander said:

I just read through all years on technicopedia and it was a lot of fun.
I have a suggestion about technicopedia, how about outsourcing the content creation to the members here? Kinda like what you did for the digital building of models a couple of years ago. 

That has been brought up before and discussed at some length.  If you check out the primary Technicopedia topic on this forum you can read about it.

 

5 hours ago, JimDude said:

I wonder if Eric is the only person in the world to have all Technic sets from 1977->2016. I mean other than LEGO themselves, but then again, they're not a person :).

I pretty sure Maico Arts in Europe also has them.  Never talked to him directly though.

 

5 hours ago, JimDude said:

It would be sad to see that collection being broken up. So, maybe he could be persuaded to 'only' sell the MOCs (which should be easier to sell to begin with), giving him the literal and figurative breathing room to hold on to the 'official' collection for a bit longer.

I've thought about that.  If no one buys the sets then that's what will end up happening!

 

1 hour ago, Erik Leppen said:

Anyhow, given you want to downsize your collection, have you considered finding someone with a BrickLink store willing to take over everything you want to part with? You'd get much less money than if you were to sell everything yourself, but what you get back for that is more time.

Yes, I've thought about that.  In fact, I just did exactly that with my Star Wars UCS sets.  If I get desperate enough, I may go that route.

 

1 hour ago, Erik Leppen said:

Anyhow. Maybe, after the great sell, I think you should see if you can come up with a new plan that won't get you in the same problems another 10 or 15 years down the road. Would it for example be feasible for you to buy all sets from one year, review them, write your Technicopedia for that year, and sell the lot the year after. (I don't know how much money you have available for LEGO in a year and how much you're willing to spend, since the current problem seems space-related, not money-related per se.) That way your collection will always consist of at most 2 years worth of sets. Of course, it would be ideal if you could find Bricklink "teammate" who would accept you being their supplier of used Technic sets. Maybe you buy a $100 set, sell it to them for $50, they sell it used for $70 on their store and three people are happy (you, the BL storeowner and his buyer who got a cheap set that's only used once)

That's not a bad idea either.  Of course, that only works if Technicopedia is up to date, which it isn't.  I've only documented up through 2000, so if I want to continue the site I'd have to keep all sets newer than that for now.

Update:

I've updated the first post in this topic with the MOC list so it will be easy to find.  I also added Sheepo's VW Bus which I thought I had torn down but I didn't so it is available too.  I will scratch things off the list when they sell.

[Raf H]

Sorry, for posting here. I am unable to use PM. I have read that you are only going to the sell a bundle of sets worth at least $500. So would 8674, 8653, 8145, 42056 be over $500 and if they are what is the approximate price?

[Blakbird]

3 hours ago, Raf H said:

Sorry, for posting here. I am unable to use PM. I have read that you are only going to the sell a bundle of sets worth at least $500. So would 8674, 8653, 8145, 42056 be over $500 and if they are what is the approximate price?

Way over.  Average price would be well over $500 even without 42056 (which I don't think I'm going to sell yet).  You can PM once you reach 10 posts.

By the way, anything is over $500 if you offer over $500.  

[tmspecial]

 

On 1/30/2018 at 3:18 PM, 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.

 

I am sorry to hear that. However, I totally understand. My collection is also out of control and I sink way too much money into it.

Edited February 2, 2018 by tmspecial

[tmspecial]

13 hours ago, JimDude said:

I wonder if Eric is the only person in the world to have all Technic sets from 1977->2016. I mean other than LEGO themselves, but then again, they're not a person :).

It would be sad to see that collection being broken up. So, maybe he could be persuaded to 'only' sell the MOCs (which should be easier to sell to begin with), giving him the literal and figurative breathing room to hold on to the 'official' collection for a bit longer.

Eric definitely has one of the largest Technic collections. He is also one of the few people who had the vast majority of his sets assembled and displayed nicely.

Several other AFOLs including myself have comparable collections. I own at least 95% of all Technic sets and am constantly adding more. 

Unfortunately only the sets from 2000 forward are assembled. My earlier sets are still disassembled since I moved my collection from Europe to the US a wile back.

 

[Cumulonimbus]

Just a heads-up for anyone in Europe considering to buy sets in the USA and shipping them to a country in the European Union: In theory is it compulsory to pay import taxes on anything imported from outside the EU, even if the items are second hand. You can choose to ignore this and hope your shipment will not picked out for a check. But in my experience, the chances that customs will check you shipment and tax it are high. Additionally, this check will lead to extra fees. I have experienced this firsthand and had to pay these taxes and fees cash when the shipment was delivered at my door. The total amount of extra costs can make you sweet deal taste sour.

[J_C]

5 hours ago, Cumulonimbus said:

Just a heads-up for anyone in Europe considering to buy sets in the USA and shipping them to a country in the European Union: In theory is it compulsory to pay import taxes on anything imported from outside the EU, even if the items are second hand. You can choose to ignore this and hope your shipment will not picked out for a check. But in my experience, the chances that customs will check you shipment and tax it are high. Additionally, this check will lead to extra fees. I have experienced this firsthand and had to pay these taxes and fees cash when the shipment was delivered at my door. The total amount of extra costs can make you sweet deal taste sour.

import tax is one thing, but there is also VAT that custom officers will collect (if you are in EU)

___________________________

Anyway, this is also interesting experiment for lego "investors", because there is value (lego tend to grow over the years). but there is also other thing "investors" often forget about,and that is liquidity (and that is very poor for Lego, IMO)

I hope this case will prove me wrong about liquidity of lego.

[AFOLegofan66]

After reading your info about the moc’s you have for sale I realized that we have a common thread from the past! I have a Tamiya Bruiser sitting on the shelf and a couple of RC10’s. RC helicopters was very expensive and woodworking...you know the drill!! After I retired I got into LEGO and been doing so for about 14 years. I have built 90% of the moc’s you have for sale. I still have quite a few that I just can’t take apart because they are the best!! Anyway I see exactly what you need to do because I will be there myself one day. @Lox Lego is keeping me busy for now with super cars...but after that...who knows!! Good luck with your endeavour. 

[Ox1337]

[z3_2drive]

   When I was younger and had just built my first Technic set, the 8048 buggy, I remember finding your Technicopedia site and scrolling in awe at the sheer amount of sets you had, reading through all the notes and watching all the renderings for the older models. It was a big influence for my hobby and I appreciate all the effort you have put into your collection. Even though your collection dwarfed mine when I decided to sell it off, I understand the feeling. I don't have much space or time for so many parts, and my thirst for performance sent me to the RC hobby. As far as selling, I also agree, local deals are near impossible here, overseas is a hassle unless the buyer is willing to accept the huge extra shipping costs, and selling even half a collection can take months. However your reputation and careful storage of sets might speed it up.

   While I will always have a sweet spot for Lego, I really enjoy building RC cars from the ground up, putting the best electronics and upgrades into them, painting and modifying bodywork, and jamming that throttle till I break something  It's refreshing to put your mind towards something new, and I hope you get back most of your investment. This summer I plan on building a competition 1/8 e-buggy kit and racing it. I've never raced against other people so I'm hoping it'll be a fun learning experience! 

Edited February 7, 2018 by z3_2drive

[KevinMD]

Any chance you could identify the MOCs listed via picture too for us technic noobs? Or at least can someone tell me what MOC is the blue tow truck next to the grazi 5571 one?