Surprisingly expensive pieces

[Alexandrina]

So over the years I've bought a lot of bulk lots from Facebook Marketplace and eBay and other second hand sources (according to my spreadsheet, about 1/3 of my entire collection is from these) and - in scouting for deals and then sorting through what I have - I've found some surprisingly 'expensive' parts that didn't strike me as being worth much. I think most of us, when presented with a bulk lot, make a quick judgement as to whether it's worth the money. For me it's a combination of "are there parts in here I will use?" and "are there parts here I can sell to recoup my money?" - and for the latter part, I'm immediately looking for likely indicators of a valuable lot. Old-style castle wall panels (especially printed ones, especially the yellow and red ones with the black detailing); printed sails and flags from vintage Pirate sets; raised baseplates; anything with the M:Tron logo on it. Even things like cypress trees sell for a decent chunk on the secondary market (though I'm a cypress tree fiend myself and will never part with any of mine; I've been known to buy an incomplete Pretty Playland just to get the cypress tree at cheaper than the Bricklink rate).

Anyway, I'm rambling. The point of this thread is to compile a list of those unexpected valuable parts. The sorts of things you wouldn't look twice at, but are actually worth a pretty penny (or are indicators of other things which are worth good money).

For example:

Technic Brick 1x2 with Holes in blue

We all have plenty of these kicking about in the more common colours, and as blue is a standard colour it seems odd that it would be worth anything. And yet the current going rate on Bricklink is £7.00 for a single used piece. Discounting re-releases and weird Legoland exclusives, this piece was only included in one set, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the price.

 

A lot of job lots I buy cost me about £40 or thereabouts; finding and selling one of those Technic bricks would make me nearly 20% of that straight away. Unlike printed panels and flags and things, though, it's not likely to spark a bidding frenzy because it's such an innocuous-looking piece.

I'm wondering if anybody's aware of other parts like this, where the apparent value is significantly higher than one would expect.

[Lira_Bricks]

Not exactly what you were going for I guess, but I just wanted to share this story :3

I once got a canister of Toa Lewa from a flea market as a kid when I was naive enough to believe that the entire set of Lewa would be inside of it and didn't check it. When I got home it was just some random bionicle lego pieces. One of which was the infected mask:

So of course I was sad there was no Lewa. A few years ago I decide to look up how much some of the masks I have cost, and I was surprised the infected mask is sold for around 15 euro on BL! 

[Jack Sassy]

I too shall contribute to this topic. Some time ago I was browsing BL for some pieces that I required for a MOC, one of those pieces was 1x2x2 2/3 window with rounded top in black:

Now, the piece itself isn't too expensive but certainly costs significantly more than in other colours (at the moment there are a lot of sellers selling these in enormous quantities, but that was not the case back when I bought them) as it costs around 1 euro or more, opposed to 20 - 30 cents per piece. I was not aware of its release history, only appearing in two sets, one of which was a legacy rerelease in the 2000s. I ended up buying five of them for certainly more than 1 euro per piece (cannot recall the price anymore ).

 

(After checking its release history, I found that it has recently been released in the new Jazz Club set, hooray! )

[MAB]

I once sold three of these

for a little more than I paid for about 95% of a Black Seas Barracuda and some castle parts. 

The boat parts, the rigging, the sails, the figures, all the unique parts from that set are worth a decent amount although they look like they are valuable. The shutters from the windows and the little wheels from the cannons also sold at about £1 each and appear in large numbers in the set, very surprising given the price of modern equivalents.

Even better, in the same lot there were some forestmen with the small black feathers. Just the feathers went for £25 each. New white ones are I think 6p on PAB. 

 

[Mylenium]

19 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I'm wondering if anybody's aware of other parts like this, where the apparent value is significantly higher than one would expect.

I could probably invoke bragging rights over some Technic pieces in rare colors and of course certain minifigure components. Similar to you I also think I have various modified bricks in very rare colors and another such item are hinge plates/ C-clamp plates. Since I don't catalog my stuff I'm usually surprised what treasures I have when randomly checking stuff on Bricklink. Just selling a handful of those pieces could finance a big set sometimes...

Mylenium