How to assess number of individuals bricks without counting them?

[Lego Mike]

I have a fairly large collection of sets, and many are still stored away with each set in a vinyl zipper bag, but I also have several dozen sets that I parted out.

I'm considering selling everything, and I know that people will want to know how many bricks there are, what kinds, &c. There are simply too many -- too many! -- to count them, especially since there are so many kinds of bricks, accessories, and so on.

If I'm not mistaken, there's a website or perhaps an app where I could enter the set numbers (I compiled a list including the stuff I parted out) and it would break down all the information into a useful catalog of contents. But I don't recall what it is or where to find it. Does anyone remember?

I think I mentioned this last year -- I vaguely recall trying to sell this stuff last December -- but I've reached the point where having too much Lego is just a burden. I never do anything with it, it takes up space, and I don't like the idea of having all these plasticky material possessions. I still think Lego is great, but I suspect I'm more of a spectator at this point! ^^

[MAB]

If you know the set numbers, then bricklink, rebrickable, brickset, etc have those numbers. Or weigh them and quote the weight.

[Lego Mike]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

If you know the set numbers, then bricklink, rebrickable, brickset, etc have those numbers. Or weigh them and quote the weight.

Thanks. Do any of those resources provide a breakdown vis-a-vis part color and such? It's one thing to say I have, for example, 236 2x4 plates but much more significant to further break that number down by color.

Edited October 6, 2024 by Lego Mike

[Black Falcon]

26 minutes ago, Lego Mike said:

Thanks. Do any of those resources provide a breakdown vis-a-vis part color and such? It's one thing to say I have, for example, 236 2x4 plates but much more significant to further break that number down by color.

Bricklink is the best for this task IMO. On a side note, people would probably want to know which sets you have, rather than which parts. Especially for Sets you still have assembled that would be the way to go I think, same as ones sorted back in bags - for outparted stuff however it would be harder to do since you would have to be sure that all bricks are still there - after all people usually want to have those sets complete. 

Eitherway it probably would make you more money to sell individual sets rather than everything in bulk - on the other side it is more work ofc, but especially for sets you still have assambled that would be the better way.

[Lego Mike]

1 minute ago, Black Falcon said:

Eitherway it probably would make you more money to sell individual sets rather than everything in bulk - on the other side it is more work ofc, but especially for sets you still have assambled that would be the better way.

Perhaps, and people keep saying this, but you also have to ask yourself if it's worth reassembling 100+ sets from thousands of parted-out bricks or if you'd rather just dump it all in the recycling bin, which I'd be more inclined to do. I'm sure that offering a collection as-is would be most economical in terms of time and effort.

[Black Falcon]

1 minute ago, Lego Mike said:

Perhaps, and people keep saying this, but you also have to ask yourself if it's worth reassembling 100+ sets from thousands of parted-out bricks or if you'd rather just dump it all in the recycling bin, which I'd be more inclined to do. I'm sure that offering a collection as-is would be most economical in terms of time and effort.

Yeah, that is why I said at least for the sets stored away that would be the better choice, for the parted out stuff I see that it would be to much work. At least in your first comment it sounded like you have several sets sorted in seperate bags, so selling them on their own and the parts in bulk would be the best option IMO. 

[MAB]

Depending on the theme, sometimes you can pull the minifigs and get a large part of the complete set price just for them.

 

If you know the sets, look the values up on bricklink. Then you can decide if it is worth sorting them or not before doing the work.

[1963maniac]

Rebrickable will give all kinds of info on your sets if you input their set numbers. It will answer the questions such as quantity of 2x4 bricks according to color, etc.

[Lego Mike]

11 hours ago, 1963maniac said:

Rebrickable will give all kinds of info on your sets if you input their set numbers. It will answer the questions such as quantity of 2x4 bricks according to color, etc.

Ah. That's probably was I was trying to remember. I knew something somewhere did that. Thanks!

[Erik Leppen]

I would use the Brickstore/Brickstock program (2 names for the same program). I believe it is used by Bricklink sellers to keep their inventory.

It's an offline tool so you don't have to do everything via a web interface. It takes its data, including pricing information, from Bricklink.

Edited October 8, 2024 by Erik Leppen

[1963maniac]

5 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

I would use the Brickstore/Brickstock program (2 names for the same program). I believe it is used by Bricklink sellers to keep their inventory.

It's an offline tool so you don't have to do everything via a web interface. It takes its data, including pricing information, from Bricklink.

Thanks, Erik!! I did not know this. I assumed it was for sellers only. Wow! 

[Alexandrina]

On 10/7/2024 at 1:00 PM, 1963maniac said:

Rebrickable will give all kinds of info on your sets if you input their set numbers. It will answer the questions such as quantity of 2x4 bricks according to color, etc.

The main issue with Rebrickable/Brickset is that afaik there's no way to specify which version of a set you have, if it was one that had minor inventory changes in its life (an example of such a set is Army Men on Patrol, just off the top of my head because I have both variants of it). It's still going to be broadly accurate as an estimate but not without its flaws. For OP's use-case I'll absolutely second your recommendation - for anyone reading the thread who is looking for a more heavy-duty, permanent solution (as in, they're expanding their collection not selling it) I'd advocate for taking the time to make a custom spreadsheet. Especially if you have lots of bricks not tied to specific sets; all the web-tools I've tried are lacking in that use-case imo

[Lego Mike]

Thanks again, everyone! Rebrickable has been very useful and fun for getting a clearer picture of my collection. I have about 94,000 parts -- and I hesitate to think about or repeat what it says that much has been worth (or at least has afforded me!), especially when I'm just as likely to put it all in the recycling. Ha ha.

I'm only half kidding.

I could never throw out my Detective's Office, Speed Champions Mini Cooper, Yellow Submarine, Dragon Dance, or...or...or...!

[Stereo]

20 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

The main issue with Rebrickable/Brickset is that afaik there's no way to specify which version of a set you have, if it was one that had minor inventory changes in its life (an example of such a set is Army Men on Patrol, just off the top of my head because I have both variants of it). It's still going to be broadly accurate as an estimate but not without its flaws. 

Rebrickable does track versions but I believe it's user-submitted, not anything comprehensive, so won't cover every set.  And of course when Lego's updating molds, they don't necessarily switch instantly so a set might have a mix of pieces.  As an example Flame Chaser has 4 versions, because there's the 1x3 slope and 1x2 panel variants, and for some reason in the mid-range they shipped them with pieces to build it both ways.

[Alexandrina]

1 hour ago, Stereo said:

Rebrickable does track versions but I believe it's user-submitted, not anything comprehensive, so won't cover every set.  And of course when Lego's updating molds, they don't necessarily switch instantly so a set might have a mix of pieces.  As an example Flame Chaser has 4 versions, because there's the 1x3 slope and 1x2 panel variants, and for some reason in the mid-range they shipped them with pieces to build it both ways.

I wonder if they added that feature recently then! My Rebrickable account is about four years out of date now because I moved to my own custom-built spreadsheet.

Of course when you're going really granular with your collection, sometimes you need a 'variant inventory' that might not actually exist. I can't remember offhand what the set was, but there is a set which I'm fairly sure must have come at some point with the 1x1 cones with the top groove, but all the web resources only listed the old variant without the top groove. I couldn't prove it as I was only piecing this information together from knowledge of what sets I had and what pieces I had, so I wouldn't submit an alternative inventory to Rebrickable, but it saved me a huge headache being able to just change the inventory in my own spreadsheet

(And then there's also random unadvertised freebies - I had a 2x6 brick in a sealed copy of the original Chamber of Secrets set that wasn't meant to be there, but needed adding to my spreadsheet)

For just getting a vague inventory ofc none of this matters and Rebrickable is perfect! (Though I also dislike the way they show your percentage of sets released in a theme but don't allow you to exclude certain sets. It irritates me that I have the only general-release Stranger Things set and yet I've only got 33% because of Comic-Con exclusives I will never have a chance at getting)