Horror Stories - Lego you bought off flea-bay and BL

[ep3_lol]

The two opened sets I ordered arrived yesterday and are in a shape I'd expect them to be in had I bought them off a store shelf. The seller even included the plastic bags the bricks had originally been packaged in. Instructions are mint, I inspected every brick and they are in no worse shape than bricks in sealed kits are in today, and the boxes only showed minor shelf wear that was clearly visible in the seller's listings. The only problem was that the Hydro Reef Wrecker was missing 3 knives. The seller did not describe the item as for-sure 100% complete and those parts aren't really necessary to complete the model, so I'm letting it slide. But it has led to my first BrickLink order, so we'll see how that goes next!

Edited November 8, 2013 by ep3_lol

[Hrw-Amen]

I never use e-bay for LEGO.

But I have had no problems with Bricklink, the longest I have ever had to wait for an order is a week and the chap did e-mail me to let me know what was going on so that was OK. I tend to have four or five sellers I use all the time and at first if I am using a new seller (Assuming my usual ones don't have a part I want.) I only place a small order say under £10 to begin with. If they come up to scratch which so far they all have then they may get used again.

There are two sellers I tend to use more often for large orders and they usually e-mail me when they have a lot of stock in just incase I am waiting for them to get stuff in. I find sticking to a few known sellers gets a really good service and you can build up a good rapport with them. Last year I even got Christmas cards!

[romdam]

I have been Bricklinking for many years and never had any major issues. Ebay, Ebay is fun! I don't know how anyone can say they'd never use ebay for Lego. I love it! I love playing the "mystery game", when a seller posts a picture of just a box of pieces. What can I spot in the picture? I have had massive hauls from this. Café Corner, Market Street, and Green Grocer all for $550? Heck yea! The guy posts one picture of this huge lot. One side of Café Corners box could been seen. The was another set that had the flaps opened, so you had no Idea what it was. Surprise, Market Street. The tub was just a picture of the tub full of pieces. Surprise, Green Grocer inside. Stock photo's used as pictures? Sure I've bid on one of those. Guy posts "Lego Castle Lot". Buy it price of $79. Stock photos of a few Kingdoms sets and the his own pictures of two bags of pieces and minifigs and animals. What shows up? This HUGE box. Inside, the FULL Kingdoms line! Even had the Advent Calendar and Battle Packs. Not just that but 80's sets with Kings Castle, Knights Castle, and all the mid to big Forestmen sets. Over 150 castle minifigs as well in 2 big bags. Insane! Ebay is an addiction and this is why.

Edited November 9, 2013 by romdam

[Heppeng]

Not had any horror stories with lego - used e-bay for ages before coming out of the dark ages, and if you know all the tricks you can buy low and sell high, although for real bargains you do need a bit of luck as above. After using bricklink for a short while I have had no major problems, even with old used parts from cheap sellers - In fact often the parts are better than advertised! One annoying trend I am noticing which could apply to brand new parts as much as used, is sellers not paying attention to detail and accidentally sending similar, but not quite the same parts, e.g. sending black 1 x 8 plates instead of modified 1 x 8 plates with door rails. I have had this with several orders now, and so far they let me keep the wrong parts and send the right ones, or have refunded without issue, but I would have preferred they got it right in the first place!

Edited November 9, 2013 by Heppeng

[Boxerlego]

I bought some technic parts from someone off ebay. They were listed as clean and in good shape. Well when I got them there was DIRT all over them and guess what, the parts that I got were white. I was like did this guy just took apart the model after he got done done driving it around in the dirt and decided to sell the dirty parts on ebay instead of washing them.

Another ebay horror story I have involves the package that was shipped to me. I had just bought/won several auction brick lots where the bid starts at a mere .99 cents and I manage to rake in a good amount of lego bricks ranging from all sizes and shapes for a cheap price. Well when the bricks were package up an sent off the sender decided to hand write my address instead of printing out that shipping label and this caused a good delay. The mail carrier had no idea where this package went and this package went on a little journey that lasted for about 2-3 weeks. I went to the post office several times trying to see if the package is behind the counter waiting for you to pick it up but usually they give you a notice for that. Ultimately the address that was hand wrote on the package never existed so it bounced from post office to post office. I guess the seller misread my address and thought it said something else.

[Amset-Rah]

I never used Bricklink, though I have an account there just in case, so my experience with them is limited.

Ebay, however, has been fairly good to me, and I bought both new sets, used sets, as well as figures and bulk lots and I haven't had a bad egg yet.

[Robianco]

I like both BL and eBay. I also sell on eBay when I'm able to pick up really cheap sets that are in sales or end of lines and split the figures etc.

Any money I make just goes on MY Lego addiction.

I've never had any horror stories that spring to mind. eBay has buyer protection so if the item you bought is that bad you can send it back and as Romdam said above... if you're canny and a bit lucky you can have some great scores on eBay.

BrickLink is what it is... you order your parts and they're either new or used. If they're used I normally expect anything noticeable to be mentioned in the listing.

[parksroad]

Yeah, eBay shopping is a skill but not a difficult one. Read people's feedback (skim the comments) and filter your results to your home country only. Also never bid on a listing that only has stock photos. I've had great luck getting discontinued Lego sets, clothing, candlesticks, shoes, briefcases . . .

[Heppeng]

Perhaps I use a little bit of reverse psychology - I often seek out items with poor, stock or even no photo because I know that it puts other people off resulting in a much lower price. Got a near mint Pet shop that way for the lowest price of any sold on Ebay UK for the last three months. I have never had any problem doing this and have had some spectacular deals/finds as a result.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Heppeng

[Off the wall]

I just started with Lego a couple of years ago. So, for Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Corner Cafe and Market Street I had to go to ebay and buy them used/previously assembled. All we advertised as 100% complete. Well, they weren't all complete. Fortunately, two of them were complete. CC and MS had a few prices missing but they were very common pieces and I replaced them for less than $1 total.

Caveat emptor, but fortunately ebay affords very good protection to buyers.

I've got some good deals on ebay, but I always have my doubts until the package arrives and I can examine the contents.

[Legoman of War]

I have only bought a couple sets on EBay and they were fine. I have bought numerous lego lots on EBay and had some good and some so-so. My BL buying experience has always been good. Any issues with missing pieces have always been addressed. Now in my early days of selling on BL, I screwed up with some parts (colors mostly) but have always refunded the buyer.

LMW

[WaysofSorting]

My greatest Lego Horror was an ebay purchase. Totally my mistake all around but it went a little like this:

o Got a whole bunch of friends totally excited about LEGO and revisiting their childhoods. They all wanted to buy some LEGO and do what I was doing. I told them I could set them up for 20 bucks:

o Made a huge bulk order off Ebay. One of those searches that went "LEGO LOT LBS" and saw what came up.

o I think it was like in the magnitude of $400 for 80 lbs or something and came in a large appliance size box (like for a dishwasher or something).

o Spent a bajillion years (okay, about two weeks out of a summer) sorting on the living-room floor by piece type.

o About three or four pounds was fake lego. Not too much, but a real annoyance to sort out. Plus some instructions counted as the weight and maybe the box, too.

o Suffered - but once everything was sorted by piece-type, I divided each lot of parts evenly amongst 20 bags...so that each bag had a similar variety of parts and would be $20 dollars. A good deal - lots of minifigs, cockpits, tires, trans pieces, baseplates - ended out a little more than 3lbs per bag....that's a lot, I thought!

Nobody bought them. They were all like "LEGO? Meh." or "This is all you get for 20 bucks?!" I sold like 5 bags, more because I forced them or they felt pity on me. I think one person was really happy with it.

Needless to say, my collection expanded considerably.

Moral of the story - Drunken graduate students do not a new LUG make.

[TheLegoDr]

^Well good for you for trying. I don't think I could bring myself to spend that much on pieces in general, let alone pieces that I may not want a good portion of. I have the chance to do LUGbulk soon and that will be a lot more than I've ever spent on pieces before, so I'm torn there. I think the most I've ever spent on pieces was about $20-30

[parksroad]

Perhaps I use a little bit of reverse psychology - I often seek out items with poor, stock or even no photo because I know that it puts other people off resulting in a much lower price. Got a near mint Pet shop that way for the lowest price of any sold on Ebay UK for the last three months. I have never had any problem doing this and have had some spectacular deals/finds as a result.

That's a good point--little bit of a risk, but, the buyer protections are always there to catch you. Hmm. Maybe you shouldn't have told us about this ;-)

[Cap't black brick]

I find that with ebay, you are more likely to encounter sellers that have no idea of the value of what they are selling, like how I managed to acquire a mostly complete 5956-1: Expedition Balloon for only $40. (being that the blimp part alone is $45 on bricklink, I think it was a steal!)

[cyng99]

Perhaps I use a little bit of reverse psychology - I often seek out items with poor, stock or even no photo because I know that it puts other people off resulting in a much lower price. Got a near mint Pet shop that way for the lowest price of any sold on Ebay UK for the last three months. I have never had any problem doing this and have had some spectacular deals/finds as a result.

I thought I was the only one to do this...got some incredible deals using this method, particularly with bulk lots. It's more fun when there's an element of uncertainty.

[BimmerBoy]

I'm newer to using BL. I've made about 10 purchases now, and all have gone well. Only once was the wrong piece sent, seller apologized. Piece was not that critical, so I just added another one to a later order. I have found that a lot pieces described as "used" are close to being new rather than used. Great shape, excellent shine.

Ebay, you just have to be smart shopper. I have had pretty good luck overall, but I'm careful with my searching and bidding. I had one dud, bought a used 6207 A-wing described as complete and like new. Pictures looked ok. The set was complete, but not like new. The white pieces were very faded, yellowish tint to them. Other than that, my purchases on ebay have been satisfactory. I've made some good scores in medium and large lots (found lots of minifigs that were not mentioned in the listing).

One area I had an adventure was a large tub of Lego I bought at a garage sale. I paid a high price, but there were Star Wars sets in there. Unfortunately, there were also tons of regular old brick, and a good portion of those were old and well used. There was a lot of non-Lego bricks and minifigs (Cobi and mega-blocks). But, in the bottom, I discovered several nearly complete Indiana Jones sets! I'm not sure I got my money's worth on that tub, but finding Indiana Jones stuff was exciting.

[BrickBuilder3213]

Never been able to use Bricklink due to a lack of a credit card. ;o;

Ebay on the other hand is something I'm going to use soon. I want to buy a pre-owned Witch Doctor for $40 just to have him in my collection, but now I'm kinda worried about how it will look when I actually get it in December.

[Drachmyre]

My horror story revolves around shipping mostly. I bought off eBay a HUGE set of castle theme, mostly fantasy era. Anyway, they were all put together, with no instructions. The person then sent them too me. 4th CLASS, after I paid for priority. T make a long annoying story short they mailed it to the wrong address. So the post office marked at undeliverable and returned it to the sort facility in Denver, who then decided to try to deliver it and send it back to Salt Lake City again. They returned it to Denver, who returned it to Salt Lake City. EIGHT times they did this. After 3 months I finally managed to get ahold of this large box which you can imagine the condition it was in. LEGO actually trickled out of the box as they handed it too me. Needless to say, the "assembled" sets were not in a good state, so most of it ended up in the bulk sort bin, with a bunch of fantasy army bolder minifigs.

All other eBay annoyances come back to the "pay for one shipping method and they send it way cheaper and slower and claim it was an accident." Even bricklink people do this too me on occasion.

[SweetiePie88]

Never been able to use Bricklink due to a lack of a credit card. ;o;

Ebay on the other hand is something I'm going to use soon. I want to buy a pre-owned Witch Doctor for $40 just to have him in my collection, but now I'm kinda worried about how it will look when I actually get it in December.

You don't need a CC. You can make a paypal account and it links into your checking accout. That's what I do.

You don't need a CC. You can make a paypal account and it links into your checking accout. That's what I did.

[meyerc13]

The closest that I have to a horror story was a Trolls Mountain Fortress that my wife picked up at a Garage Sale. The seller was 100% positive that it was complete, and was asking a hefty price for it (for a rummage sale at least). It was a set I always liked but never picked up, so we took a chance at the $65 price). By complete apparently they meant that only 1/3 of the pieces were missing and 1/2 the minifigs. There were some other random peices thrown in there, but not enough to make up for the missing pieces. I chalked it up as a lesson learned, but I wonder how many other 'complete' sets they sold that day that left some poor person frustrated due to missing parts.

[Takanuinuva]

The only bad experience I've had with Bricklink was sometimes I've accidentally ordered a part in the wrong color. Mainly ordering Light Grey parts when I wanted Light Bluish Grey. My own fault but still worth mentioning.

[synbiote]

I ordered a few times from BL. Never from Ebay..cause.. you can't really select.

once had some problems with a shop whom i contacted after 2 weeks of no contact..

He then said he didn't receive my payment..so i sent him the needed proof & then he set everything to completed..

waited another two weeks(came from slowakia ..to belgium.. belgium post is kinda slow). , contacted him again.. not much of a decent reply.. few days later he contacted me, teling me he forgot to send it..was still on his desk.

Sent it to me with a few extras (nothing noteworthy)..& a LOT of sorry mails... so everything was OK in the end.

I also ReALLY like it when i order stuff from a BL store.. they add candy to the package & a nice Thank u note XD

Kinda makes me feel al fuzzy on the insides.

[DrJB]

Usually, if a lot is too good to be true on eBay, I simply stay away from it. I do not think sellers are deceitful on purpose, but some of them simply do not know much about what they're selling. If I see something I like, I check other items by the same seller ... if he's selling old appliances and baseball cards and no other legos, then typically it's 'risky' ...

My recent unlucky purchase was a set of technic parts. Got the parts they were dirty so I 'cleaned' them then sorted them and added them to my collection ... Now few of my boxes have a bad smoke smell that somehow resurfaced ... Gotta re-wash a lot more than I bargained for ...

[kasmca]

I bought the baseplate from the following set because I lost it from my childhood set. (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=6980-1) I got it from bricklink. My postman bent the package to fit in my mailslot so it has a stressed crease in it. a few other base plates I ordered from bricklink has corners chipped or some cracks in them when they were described as like new. Other than that I have been pretty pleased with bricklink.

Edited December 4, 2013 by kasmca