Selling My Lego

[madonlego]

Dear all,

Unfortunately, i am having to part with some of my beloved lego sets. I collected them as a child and up to about a year ago, would buy lego sets regularly. However i have know run out of room to store my collection, and time to play with or do anything with them, - so literally they are sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

Now i am trying to sell these sets and I am after some advice. All the sets i own were bought between 1993 and about 2005, and are mainly from the town and city lines. I also have some of the artic sets, a few boats and a few off the bigger technic sets. I also have loads of road plates, and big boxes of bulk bricks. I have also got about a hundred technic cogs, which were given to me that i have never used.

All of the sets will have most parts complete, very nearly complete, or with differnt parts substituted in. Some sets i plan to sell with aditional pieces as well. All the sets are in a "played with" condidtion and are in need of a bit of a clean. They all have the original instructions, which area all in preety good condition. I do have the boxes, but they have been cut up, and i just have the fronts and backs of them.

Ok, so questions....

Where do people recommnd selling these sets? here? some i know will have to go locally (adverts in the paper), and some i think i will sell on e-bay?

Should i sell them as a theme (e.g all the artic sets as 1 lot) or as lots of different lots?

With my bulk bricks ( currently sorted into colour) and roadplates what is the best way to sell them? all together or by piece?

Any other advice also welcome

( I think i have some other questions but can't remember them!)

Thanks in advance

Stephen

[snefroe]

Dear all,

Unfortunately, i am having to part with some of my beloved lego sets. I collected them as a child and up to about a year ago, would buy lego sets regularly. However i have know run out of room to store my collection, and time to play with or do anything with them, - so literally they are sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

Now i am trying to sell these sets and I am after some advice. All the sets i own were bought between 1993 and about 2005, and are mainly from the town and city lines. I also have some of the artic sets, a few boats and a few off the bigger technic sets. I also have loads of road plates, and big boxes of bulk bricks. I have also got about a hundred technic cogs, which were given to me that i have never used.

All of the sets will have most parts complete, very nearly complete, or with differnt parts substituted in. Some sets i plan to sell with aditional pieces as well. All the sets are in a "played with" condidtion and are in need of a bit of a clean. They all have the original instructions, which area all in preety good condition. I do have the boxes, but they have been cut up, and i just have the fronts and backs of them.

Ok, so questions....

Where do people recommnd selling these sets? here? some i know will have to go locally (adverts in the paper), and some i think i will sell on e-bay?

Should i sell them as a theme (e.g all the artic sets as 1 lot) or as lots of different lots?

With my bulk bricks ( currently sorted into colour) and roadplates what is the best way to sell them? all together or by piece?

Any other advice also welcome

( I think i have some other questions but can't remember them!)

Thanks in advance

Stephen

i guess the first question is: are you interested in getting the best price possible or are you happy with a fair price, based on current prices on bricklink, in order to just get rid of them? if you want to just get rid of them, you might want to try and post the set numbers and prices here. some of us have a Bricklink shop or may just be interested in negociating with you. then i guess everything is possible, you can try and get sets sold per theme, but if you want to get rid of as much as possible then selling in groups may not be such a bad thing. You're the seller, you make the suggestions and start negociations... You can also put everything in one huge lot on ebay and just hope a few people are willing to spend a lot of money on it. However, it's not the best moment of the year to sell lego. it's rather quiet and i think many are saving some money for upcoming sets and town sets of the 90's aren't the most popular around either...

Second, if you're going to sell sets seperately, you need to find out what sets are popular and how high/low you can set your price. Bricklink.com is a good source for that. usually, i go for the average price, after all, most people here are aware of lego prices, so you won't be able to sell very much if you're price is too high...

Ebay can also be a good place, especially for popular sets, but i do think they need to be complete if you want to get the most out of them...

[gylman]

I've been buying Lego online 5 years.

Lessons learned:

Talking about sets here.

1) eBay is the easiest and fastest. eBay is easy to use, and has the biggest target audience. If you build the item and make it look good, with the box, and instructions, and good angle, and everything shiny, you will get much more money.

2) bricklink prices are 25-50% higher than ebay for Lego sets.That seems to mean that you will get more for your Lego but there are caveats. First, bricklink buyers expect complete sets. They will be mighty pissed off about obvious substitutions. They are lego fans and care about the sets more than the average eBay buyer.

Second, your Lego sits in your store until someone wants it. It can sit there a LOOOOONG time.

3) Don't sell giant lots of multiple sets. Like your arctic sets. Often buyers have 2 or 3, and want 2 or 3 addition. They won't pay extra for the ones they already have. List all the sets individually at the same time, offer to combine shipping, and you will probably do better. If someone really wants them all, then they will buy them all or most of them. You can offer a very attractive combined shipping deal to promote this.

4) On the other hand.... shippping 6 different items to 6 different buyers, who paid at 6 different times, is a BFPITA. Maybe it's better to get 25% less for your goods and just ship them and be done.

On balance, I recommend eBay over Bricklink unless you are in it for the long haul.

[dunamis]

I agree with Gylman. I've probably bought 200+ sets from Ebay, Bricklink and people on various boards. You would be amazed at the range of prices found in all three places.

You can usually tell the Ebay listings right away that will get more money: They have more pictures, the sets are built and nicely displayed, the seller goes into detail about the sets, etc. The listings that don't do well have a stock photo of the set and don't have any information. You get the idea.

If you wanted to sell some of your Technic sets, I'm sure you would have some takers on this board (hint, hint) :-)

Anyway, good luck!

[snefroe]

2) bricklink prices are 25-50% higher than ebay for Lego sets.That seems to mean that you will get more for your Lego but there are caveats. First, bricklink buyers expect complete sets. They will be mighty pissed off about obvious substitutions. They are lego fans and care about the sets more than the average eBay buyer.

i don't know how you guys come to this conclusion. The not so popular sets may be lower in price but the sets i bid on normally end up at least as high as on BL. Just the other day i bid on the M-tron 6 wheeler. It started at 34 euro and went up all the way to 85. i stopped the bidding there or it would have gone to 100 no doubt, for a second hand set, btw! that's more than your average BL price for that set...

my second bid was a large spyrius robot. i stopped at 36 euro, because i knew i could easily find a brand new robot on BL for just a few dollars more...

Phes mentioned the 4 MISB pirate sets for a "Buy now" price of 190 euro. that was practically the same price as BL.

Sure, you can buy two "200 jets" for 28 euros or so on Ebay, sure a nice price, but without the instruction books and the box. You're better off buying the parts on BL and build it yourself.

[Jipay]

Ebay is the best when it comes to uncomplete sets. Usually the buyer takaes the risk, knowing some parts will be missing, and praying for the important ones to be there.

As an ebay seller, I can also witness to fair amount of megablocks on ebay : I have 1 negative feedback, left buy a guy I sent the set twice because he didn't receive it at first !

Bricklink is much more professional

[madonlego]

Thanks for all your help,

I've got to go through and clean up my lego, and then inventory all my sets, but i'll let you know have i get on.

MANY THANKS

[jof]

Lego City (& paradisa) buildings from the early 90's do quite well, as TLC havn't made any good ones since.

But Yes, if you list them, make sure you include the set numbers, else you just selling a job lot of bricks & it won't take you long to work out it

[gylman]

Agree with you Snefroe that an excellent condition (MISB) set on eBay often comes to the same as the bricklink cost. From what I read of madonlego's post though, it sounds like he is not selling that type of set.

No doubt, as Jipay says, that a significant minority of eBay user are unpleasant people. They are more likelyto bicker about little things, whine about shipping delay, shipping time, etc. On Bricklink we are all lego lovers. Sometimes that's worth the money difference.

The main issue with Bricklink to me is that you just put that stuff in the store and wait... and wait... and wait. Sure if you price it low enough it will sell quick, but not as quick on on ebay, and if you sell quick you definitely will not get the typical BL value. Sure there are auctions on BL, but they are insignificant.

If the goal is to sell a bunch of stuff and get a reasonable amount of money reasonably quickly..... eBay seems better. If you auction everything off in one week, and the buyers pay in a day or two as they usually do ifyou insist on PayPal only, then it's just one orgy of packing and one trip to the postal station. If you sell it off bit by bit on Bricklink...... expect to visit the postal outlet time and time again. For me, at least, that has been a big issue. Using the postal service here is a huge pain in the butt.

[5150 Lego]

I'd be interested in the techinc sets you have. Please let us know what you have before you list them on ebay!

[snefroe]

Agree with you Snefroe that an excellent condition (MISB) set on eBay often comes to the same as the bricklink cost.

nono gyl, i was refering to opened and used sets, anyway, not that important...

[natelite]

Hi guys - I have this nagging question. If I use the LDD and use it to buy parts I need from LSAH, would it be cheaper than buying the parts from BL? Can I also get MFs from LDD?

[gylman]

Hi guys - I have this nagging question. If I use the LDD and use it to buy parts I need from LSAH, would it be cheaper than buying the parts from BL? Can I also get MFs from LDD?

NO! and NO! :-)