Toughts on Selling my Technic Collection

[captainmib]

Don't know if this is the right place, but a pub is a place for conversation right?

I got out of my dark ages around 2011, 2012, and had a lot of fun collecting lego technic again. Sets like 8258, 8070, 42025, 8110. etc.

The past years, I haven't bought any lego at all. 42110 was my last set. I was looking at 42113, but that was cancelled. 42128 looks interesting, but I don't know.

The direction lego is going, lots of expensive sets, control plus and a lot of sets with zero interesting functionality, is putting me off. It's all empty shells that look good and do nothing.(not even that good sometimes).

Having moved, and not building a lot, got me thinking about selling my collection. Maybe start over with new sets.

So right now, I'm building my sets again, which is fun, but that's it.

 

So how are you guys looking at the following:

- Selling my collection: should I look for one buyer who buys the whole lot? Or should I split it up?

- Having less fun or interest in buying sets because reasons...

[Jim]

Well, the common consensus is:

• Splitting up will earn more cash, but takes longer
• Sellings at a lot will earn less money, but takes less hassle/time

The choice is yours 

I have periods where I don't touch my LEGO for months, but then I regain interest and start building stuff again. But I have been thinking about selling parts of my collection as well. Simply enjoy building a set, displaying it for a couple of months and selling it. This doesn't go for my Technic collection, mostly other fun stuff to build without the room to permanently display.

[GerritvdG]

I try a different approach where I buy sets for the parts and I buy loose parts using bricklink to build a set/MOC if that’s less expensive.
 

That way I want to build a parts collection for building sets and MOCs I like. I don’t display sets so parts come available after a month or so for the next build.

For this to work I use Rebrickable and Bricklink a lot for managing my sets and parts. Also I focus on yellow and red construction vehicles for now to limit the different number of parts needed…

[Permo]

A couple of years ago I bought two second hand crawler sets (V2 receivers and 2L motors) at 70 / 80 euro's a set... great parts pack.

Got the Porsche and the Landrover, also for the parts... and that's about all the Lego I need to build a (vehicle) MOC.

I don't care for collecting / displaying, (I don't have the room nor money for that) for me it's all about the creative process of building something.

I just stick to the old PF stuff, pared with my DIY 3S batterybox I got all the power I could wish for (two V2 receivers will provide 70 Watts with a powerfull battery, that's a lot !)

I buy the occasional new bits from a brickstore, like the new differentials or the orange change over ring... just a couple of euros a year will keep me up to date.

Whenever I get parts, I get them in black (most available color ?) kinda boring, but at least consistant...

Oh, and just found this....

I don't have the motorcycle wheels,... but someone should build this

[TeamThrifty]

Your decision seems to be based around 'what new sets will tlg release' and the direction...  If lego went bust tomorrow i wouldn't sell my collection because its something play with and build mocs from. Official sets are something i buy if they interest me. But if there was never another official set it wouldn't reduce my pleasure from lego one little bit..

..keep it all and moc like the fury for the rest of your days. Believe me, there's a thousand times more pleasure in that than just building official sets to sit on a shelf..

I believe Lego is Mocs. Official sets are just a minor side distraction.

[Gray Gear]

@TeamThrifty Well said. If you are no longer interested by the LEGO Set models, find yourself some cool MOCs to build, and you will be challenged once more.

[howitzer]

Adding to what previous posters said: Whatever the quality of other recent sets, 42128 won't disappoint you. No expensive electronics and packed with interesting functions accompanied by a great building experience.

[captainmib]

Thanks for responding so far.

I do try to MOC sometimes, and I like the alternatives some people build from a set.

To bad that TLG doesn't provide any B-models anymore.

I'm not in a hurry, so let's see where this ends.

[TeamThrifty]

Don't worry about B models.... Or other people's MOC's... Just find something cool, get your big pile of lego and try and build it! It will take 5, 10 probably a 1000 attempts, but thats the fun.... When i got  851 for my 8th birthday in 1980(!), i built it then immediately took it to bits and tried to make it better (my first mod was a pendula axle).

I see lego as 99.9% a toy for me to build mocs. Instructions are an inconvenience!! Just another mans opinion. Take all your sets to bits, get a huge pile and then start building. Its designed to come to pieces for a reason, its not airfix to sit on a shelf, it for your imagination. I love tractors and lego are crap at releasing tractors... so i build tractors. No instructions, just pics from the internet and days/weeks/months of changes.. iteration after iteration.. but every one is total pleasure. If you're not moc-ing, you're not lego-ing... its just airfix otherwise!!

Throw off the set-obsession shackles and live the true lego dream! 

[Leonardo da Bricki]

If you are looking for another build with the same sets, go check out ReBrickAble and simply search for the set you have, like "9398 B-model". Otherwise, just build something. Anything. Google "machinery" and see what interests you, then try to make it.

Don't sell the Lego you have unless you are giving up on Lego forever, because once gone, those parts will cost way more time effort and money to get back.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Leonardo da Bricki

[Stuartn]

12 hours ago, howitzer said:

Adding to what previous posters said: Whatever the quality of other recent sets, 42128 won't disappoint you. No expensive electronics and packed with interesting functions accompanied by a great building experience.

Seconded, good value and it is just fun to build, great for display and amazing functionality, in my opinion one of, if not the, best LEGO set in some time.

[Lipko]

1 hour ago, Leonardo da Bricki said:

Don't sell the Lego you have unless you are giving up on Lego forever, because once gone, those parts will cost way more time effort and money to get back.

I'm not so sure about this. Apart from the most common parts (which means cheaper too), a collection can become obsolete pretty fast. And also many parts degrade over time (cracks on bush-like surfaces, pins getting stuck, half beam cross-hole cracks, etc.).

I haven't built serious stuff since 3 years (and before that for a year), and there were so many changes since then that I would need serious investment to catch up with the latest state to be able to do MOCing. And quite some time to go through my inventory to sort out degraded parts.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Lipko

[Leonardo da Bricki]

@Lipko I have been building for a number of years (5+) without any additions to my collection, and I don't feel like there is much I have missed out on, except maybe the new clutch gears. Everything is very much viable and useful. As for degraded parts, despite my abuse through trial trucks, I haven't broken many parts, and with some encouragement from pliers, most "broken" pins can be fixed. But I digress.

[howitzer]

2 hours ago, Lipko said:

I'm not so sure about this. Apart from the most common parts (which means cheaper too), a collection can become obsolete pretty fast. And also many parts degrade over time (cracks on bush-like surfaces, pins getting stuck, half beam cross-hole cracks, etc.).

I haven't built serious stuff since 3 years (and before that for a year), and there were so many changes since then that I would need serious investment to catch up with the latest state to be able to do MOCing. And quite some time to go through my inventory to sort out degraded parts.

Unless your collection is from the studful era of Technic, I don't think there's much that's really obsolete. Of course new parts get introduced every year and those expand the building options but you can buy most of them with affordable prices from B&P or Bricklink, and of course the same problem of keeping up applies to every MOC maker, there's just more catching up to be done if you stay out longer.

As for the degradation over time, wires and rubber bands along with stickers are notorious for their degradation even in storage, but beyond that if you store the Lego right, there should be no noticeable degradation in a very long time. Discoloration of parts, especially old white, blue and light gray parts is known to happen a lot though. I have a lot of parts from the 80's and 90's and while they have varying amounts of play wear and discoloration, vast majority is still perfectly usable - except that a lot of them are also obsolete.