Eilif

The Bargain Hunters Guide to LEGO: A true cheapskate reveals his "penny-per-piece" secrets. Everyone wants cheap LEGO right? Especially in these trying economic times, the search is on for LEGO bargains. Ebay, Craiglist, Shop-at-Home sales, everyone is trying to find LEGO that fits their budget, and unfortunately in most cases, it's not that cheap anymore. The purpose of this article is simple: To show you new venues and methods for acquiring LEGO brick for less than the price of one cent a piece! The article is divided up into 6 parts. 1) Do you have what it takes? 2) Resale Shops 3) Garage Sales. 4) Trading. 5) Quick cleaning of Dirty and Smokey bricks 6) Addenda: A brief mention of Craiglist, and Ebay. 1. Do you have what it takes? Getting cheap LEGO doesn't take much. It requires very little money (that's the point after all), few social skills, and only the most rudimentary intelligence. In short, anyone can do it, as long as you have two things: Time and Patience. Getting cheap LEGO is a process. Whether it's making the rounds of thrift stores, waiting for someone to come through on a trade, or sorting and cleaning used brick, the cheap LEGO game is all about patience. If you are one who is used to stopping by Bricklink or Ebay: -getting exactly what you need, and getting it quickly- you may find it tedious. However, if you are already a bargain hunter, or you like the hunt almost as much as the find, you're going to love it. I'll expound upon time and patience throughout this article, but I mention it here so that those for whom this sounds tedious, can stop reading now and go off to Toys 'R' Us to pick up the latest Clone Wars Set. One last thing, you have to like loose brick. The LEGO bargain hunter does find sets from time to time, but most of what is out there in the locales that this article explores is loose brick. 2) Resale Shops Resale Shops are the best place to find loose cheap LEGO. I visit Resale Shops often, and have found deals on LEGO that boggle the mind. As an added bonus, since you are visiting in person, there's no shipping costs involved. In fact, many times the items you purchase at a resale shop will cost less than the cost of shipping a similar item in an Ebay transaction. The key with resale shops is to look hard, look often, and keep your expectations reasonable. Looking hard means digging through that bin of random junky toys and feeling around for a bin of LEGO, or a box that rattles like LEGO. Don't look just for LEGO buckets/bins, or boxes. Most of the best deals I've gotten have been from unmarked boxes or storage tubs that simply had a price written on them. Charity shops and donors often put LEGO in whatever container they have handy. Sometimes the shop will dump whatever loose LEGO they receive in a box and put it out for sale when it is full. That pink hatbox in the toy section, might just be filled with LEGO. Take a look. Looking often. Unless you have a friend at the shop who will call you when they get LEGO (I know someone who does this, and she scores tons of LEGO that way), you will not find LEGO every time you visit a shop. At my favorite resale shop, I still find LEGO only about 1/3 of the time. I stop by that shop as often as I can, sometimes more than once a week. Making a stop at your favorite resale shops part of your routine is a solid strategy that will reap lots of LEGO rewards over the long haul. Keep your expectations reasonable. As was mentioned, you will not find LEGO every time. Sometimes I will go for weeks without finding any LEGO. Also, do not expect to find the latest sets or pieces. Alternatively, don't expect to necessarily find classic Castle minifigs every 4th time you visit the shop. Enjoy the hunt, expect some dry times, and expect to be pleasantly surprised at what you will find. 3) Garage Sales (Boot Sales, Yard Sales, Estate Sales, Junk Sales, Flea Markets) Venues where individuals sell their own possessions are great ways to find LEGO. The same suggestions as resale shops apply, with a few others. First, don't be afraid to bargain. Most (but not all) resale shops have firm prices, but Garage Sales are wide open for bargaining. Try it, the worst they can say is No. Secondly, because the people are selling their own stuff, you can usually determine if they have LEGO much quicker, simply by asking. Asking is a great tool also, because it gives them a chance to think if they have any LEGO in the house that they may have forgotten to bring out. A shrewd LEGO hunter can quickly make the rounds of a neighborhood group garage sale or Flea Market, just by passing each seller and asking if they have any LEGO. Third, when you arrive at a Garage sale is also key. For the large sales put on by churches and charities, arriving early is a necessity. For these large sales, it is worthwhile to arrive as much as an hour before it starts. I acquired a nearly complete 6991 Unitron Monorail Transport Base for 10 dollars this way. Conversely, arriving at the end of a sale, usually finds the sellers in a mood to bargain, and some great deals can be had this way, though much more rarely. Finally, if a garage sale has an advertisement up that mentions LEGO, you may be able to call and arrive early in the week and purchase the LEGO before the sale even occurs. 4) Trading Trading is a less common way of acquiring LEGO, but it has recently become my favorite. I am not speaking of trading LEGO with other AFOL's, though this can be a great way to acquire LEGO. Rather, I am speaking of trading something you already have for someone else's LEGO. . The keys to getting cheap LEGO's this way are: Venue, and Exchange rate. Venue: The most successful Venue I have found is to go through other niche hobbies and acquire LEGO from folks who are not AFOL's. The most successful niche hobby I've found is the online community of tabletop gamers, though any online community “especially one where you already have a presence- offers the opportunity for this kind of trading. For me, putting up ads in such places as Bartertown (a gaming trading site) has allowed me to trade gaming materiel to an audience that greatly values such items, in exchange for LEGO, which that particular group of people tends not to value. The gaming community is not the only venue where this works. Any group of people where you can offer something they are interested in, in exchange for their old LEGOs (which they are usually not interested in), can be a prime point of cheap LEGO acquisition. Though I use the online communities as an example, such trades can also be in person, with friends, family, clubs or acquaintances. Exchange Rate: When you are trading LEGO, it is in your best interest, NOT to put a direct monetary Value on the LEGO. It is far better simply to offer a specific item or lot of items in trade for a specific Volume of LEGO. A highly effective method that I've used here in the states is to put together a defined Lot of items in exchange for a Post Office Flat Rate Box of LEGO. Everyone has access to these type of boxes, the shipping is reasonable, and it ends up being quite a lot of LEGO. This type of Volume trading usually leads you to acquire an amount of LEGO that greatly exceeds the value of the items you are trading, and as a plus, you usually end up with a very happy trader on the other end who views the transaction as him/her receiving something they want in exchange for some old toys out of their basement. The picture below represents the contents of one standard sized post office flat rate box. You can fit a lot of brick in one of those. 5) Cleaning that used LEGO. Let's be honest. Sometimes there's a reason that that cheap LEGO is so cheap. Often, it's dirty or smells of smoke. The LEGO pictured in the below example was purchased for only $6.00. However, it smelled very heavily of smoke. Cleaning away smoke and dirt sounds daunting, but is actually quite easy, and can be done in an afternoon while doing other household chores, or relaxing at home. The lot shown was sorted, cleaned and dried in one afternoon. -Sort Dump out the LEGO and sort out stickered LEGO, printed LEGO, Translucent LEGO, other toys, and junk that often creep into these lots. Mini-sidetrack: I suggest bagging up the random toys and clone brick in a ziplock even if they are small- and donating them back to the resale shop. That bag of crap, can fetch a buck or two for a charity. In this world every cent counts, and every bit that goes back to the shop is a bit that doesn't end in a landfill. -Wash Anyway, put the non-translucent, unstickered, and unprinted LEGO in pillowcases, or mesh delicates bag, tie securely, and drop in the washing machine. Warm water, a generous amount of soap, the "delicate" setting and a higher water level than normal are the best for this process. -Dry Lay out a large, lint-free, towel, mat or sheet, and dump the LEGO out. Direct a fan or two over the LEGO. Every half hour or so run your hands through the LEGO to turn the pieces over. The LEGO will be completely clean and dry in a couple of hours. Printed and translucent pieces can be dumped into a basin or bowl of warm soapy water, and stirred about (sometimes I actually use a big spoon and agitate the water like soup), Unless the bricks are extremely filthy, I don't bother scrubbing them individually. After the wash, rinse them and dry as above, with a fan. Stickered pieces are another story. A little soap and water usually won't hurt them, but I usally choose not to wash them unless they are particularly dirty, or smelly.. Usually printed, trans, and stickered LEGO will only be a small portion of the LEGO you acquire, and cleaning them only takes a short time. 6) Addendum: a Brief Mention of Craigslist and Ebay. -Craigslist. I have found some good deals on Craislist, but it has become a known market, with lots of folks advertising that they will buy used LEGO, and likely for more than I want to pay. However, deals are there to be had, if one searches often, replies promptly, and is available to pick up the LEGO A.S.A.P. -Ebay. Honestly, I have little use for Ebay. However, searching often, using obscure search terms, and being patient has worked out well for some folks I know. Conclusion: Well, that's it, thanks for reading this long winded article, I hope you have found useful information, and I wish you all the best in your search for cheap LEGO. Remember, if you are patient and persistent, ANYONE can find cheap LEGO. This is my first article, and is not a fixed document, and I welcome suggestions for improvement of both the content and the form.

Here's the final post for a while. Some larger views of the Lille Landsby module.

So, I've been mostly out of LEGO since my son was born. Dabbling here and there and posting around here once or twice a week. Finally, though I've got a project that's got me interested. I'm going to build a small layout in Microfig scale. Also, I've got to get it done quick since I need to have a 40"x30" module ready for the NILTC show in two weeks! I'm really intrigued by Microfig Scale. It seems to result in simple, abstracted structures that sort of resemble architectural models. Depending on how you estimate it, It's somewhere between the common military model scale of 1/72 and the 1/64 often used by die cast cars collectors. It's also not too far from the scale used in classic 1960's LEGO sets such as Town Plan which leaned toward 1/87th scale. I'm kicking around the idea of combining this with similarly scaled toys such as PlaRail trains and Matchbox DieCast, but none of that sort of heresy for now... I've got several buildings done. Some of these are completely new and some are going to be buildings from my "Brickington" layout that have been torn down and rebuilt smaller. I'll put one up every day or so. Let's start out small. Here's one of the simple houses I first built as a proof of concept. Front. Classic trees look alot better in Microfig scale, and of course windows can become French doors. Side Rear. I have a small stock of vintage windows and doors, many of which look quite good in microfig scale such as this patio window.

Here's the industrial Structures! I like this one, but I think it either needs to be deeper or wider. I'm rather proud of the skylights. This chemical facility is a reworked building from my old layout. I really like the way it looks and it's something you rarely see on LEGO layouts. I've got some industrial supports coming in this year's LUGBULK and I'm considering massively expanding this one. Tomorrow I'll put up the overall layout shots and then Lille Landsby might be done for a while.

Thanks Junior! Here's today's pics. Updates for the Shark Bar and Boutique and a proper base for the office building. The Boutique got just a bit of window dressing (will probably add a few more colored microfigs later) a slightly updated parapet and some old-school Paradisia signage. The Shark Bar was expanded back to 16x16 and got tables inside and out and a small patio. Not sure why the bar is a bit askew here. On the layout it lays flush with the edge of the tiling and the fence. All together. The office building looks much better on a nice tiled base I think. You can see one of the first cars I built here also. I've kept it, but alongside the others it looks more like an SUV now. If you look closely in the foreground you'll see that the trees are mounted on pieces of baseplate, not plates. I have tons of small green baseplates so I cut some of the 16x8 stud plates in half to use them where I need grass. This saves my small stock of green plates for future landscaping. As most of you know a baseplate on top of studs is exactly the same height as a plate built on top of a studded surface so it works out well. It also makes it easier to pack the sections and add additional landscaping or models later. That's all for today. We're getting near the end. Just a couple of industrial structures left...

Here's the Bus and some cars I made for the layout. Truck sized vehicles are naturally suited for 4 wide in this scale. Cars are a bit trickier. The cars I've made are fine for now, but I don't think they're quite perfect yet. Perhaps I need to tweak the height and maybe try for 3 wide.

Here's the Train Station. This was very much a simple shortening of my earlier station with a bit of redetailing with brick profile bricks, but I think it looks quite good. Even better actually, in this scale than in it's original size. Coming up tomorrow a closer look at Minifig scale cars.

Today I've got a pair of garages to show. The little houses I first built for this project seemed a bit plain on their own. However I think adding some detached garages and just a touch of landscaping really brought a sense of realism to them. First a cinderblock or brick style garage. A And something more like a siding-clad structure on top of a cinderblock foundation. I was already well acquainted with the brick'd surface, but now I'm really liking the reverse side of the brick profile bricks. The scale isn't perfect of course, but It's a great option for representing garage doors and vinyl siding. The microfigs in the picture are standing on top of 1x1 plates which are paired with right angle tiles. I picked up a batch of the tiles in the last lugbulk on a whim, but almost every one of the figs on the layout are standing on a combination of 1x1 plate and right angle tiles. Coming up next. The Train station!

So I finished the layout in time for the show this weekend and it also gave me a chance to photograph everything else. Still, I'm going to drag this out and post a something from the town every day or two and the whole layout when That's done. Today I've got a water tower and a truck. The tower was on the top of one of my previous minifig scale urban buildings, but for microfig scale it stands alone with a modified railing and a new pipe going to the ground. I'm not totally satisfied with the panel truck. It probably needs some kind of logo or detail on the side, but it does have a pleasantly "vintage" LEGO look to it. I came up with a design for a microfig LEGO car (coming later this week) that looks pretty good, but the metrics of LEGO mean that trucks are MUCH easier to build in microfig scale than cars.

Thanks! No pics yet, but I've been working feverishly to be ready for the show setup this Friday. -Finished expanding the Shark Grill to 16x16 footprint and added a patio dining area. -I also added some flavor to the shop. -Based up the office building -Built an industrial building -Shrunk and re-detailed my train station -Built a pile of streetlights. I'll try and snap a few pics today and get another building posted today or tomorrow.

Sorry for the delay, I've been madly building in preparation for this weekend's show. Here's today's addition. A grain elevator. It's a bit more colorful than the all-grey units usually seen in the countryside, but I like bold contrasts. I had do disassemble the top of my lovely lighthouse, but such is the price of MOC'ing.... It breaks down nicely to fit into the small boxes (around 11x11x5.2 inches interior) that I have purchased for storage and transport of this layout.

I happened to have alot of 10x6 when I made my town, which was almost entirely built around 16x16 modular sections. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43402 When used at right angles to each other they make a nice 16x16 square with a 4x4 hole in the middle. The hole can accommodate a stairway, or be easily plugged with a 4x4 plate. I didn't do any planning and only rarely use any kind of reference pic beyond a bit of inspiration.

Excellent work. I love the variety of lifeboats and tenders you included.

Here's today's building, an office block. Honestly I'm not as happy with this one as the others. The detailing is just ok and it's awfully square. However, it will probably be in the last row at the rear of the module, so it' doesn't matter as much. A nice driveway and some landscaping should help.

Thanks! It can be a challenge in that many of the pieces regularly used in town-style buildings will have to be creatively substituted or brick-built. As for roads, I'm using rows of the basic road plates, set 16 studs apart (I have a couple of plates cut in half). This results in rather wide sidewalks that are 7 studs deep, but it looks pretty good and I'll be doing some landscaping on the sidewalks (greenery, benches, etc..). I've built all the road sections and basic sidewalks already. I'll post up another building later today. A place of cubicle employment...

Here's today's building. This is the "Double Shark Bar" from my "Brickington" layout taken apart and rebuilt in microfig scale. Maybe it should now be called the "Single-Shark Bar"? This one will definitely be expanded to at least 16 deep, but other than that it just needs a bit of patio detail.

Another small building today. This is another of the small houses that I did when I was first experimenting with microfig scale. I think it's rather cute. The front. Side. I like the idea of a roof that is symetrical even if it isn't centered over the building. Another nice patio/deck on the back.

Thanks! Not sure what you mean. I don't see anything. Definitely not a nuke town. I've got more than enough derelict buildings in my wargaming terrain. My LEGO stuff is almost always pleasantly idyllic. I'll have another one up later today.

For today's model, here's an in-progress store. It's basically finished, but It won't get an interior and signage until it is on it's final base. I may also slightly deepen it as the space to fill between sidewalks is now 16 studs deep.

Always intended to hang this up on my LEGO room wall but since my LEGO has been moved into an attic room with slanted walls it's never going to happen. It's the big blue thing on the right hand side of this picture. It's probably around 5x2 feet and seems to be made of plastic or similar material with a soft blue surface. I got it at IKEA around 10 years ago. Very lightweight. Free to the person who can pick it up first. I live in Chicago.

And it has been Taken!

I've given you a mission! Really great collection you have there. I'm not terribly knowledgable about vintage toy cars, but I see alot of vehicles in there that would look great on a vintage-inspired, town-plan-style layout. As you say, it takes far fewer bricks. I'm estimating less than 1/4 the bricks of a similar building in minifig scale.

Thanks! I was very inspired by the old sets and by LEGO Historian's work as well.

This is an incredible find! The gift that keeps on giving.

Fascinating. Without the title I probably wouldn't have gotten it, but just the word "slum" and you instantly see the ubiquitous sloped corrugated metal roofs as seen in slums the world over. It's like an impressionist's painting of a slum. My only possible gripe would be the bright yellow bits. A bit too bright, IMHO, but it's the author's prerogative to exaggerate colors for effect.