eBay and Lego's

[Ben Blackman]

I don't use it too often; However, I did use it a day ago to get a hold of two legos I can't find any where in the shops, so it's quite useful.

Depends on the seller and the quality of how they give it to you...

[Trent]

The only time I've been disgruntled with buying lots off eBay was when I bought some treasure chests. They looked great in the picture, but when they arrived, the hinges were broken and the lids wouldn't attach at all. It seems that the seller craftily pictured them with the lids carefully balanced, so it looked like they were fine when they weren't.

I do agree that the rash of inflated buy it now sales for MISB sets that are still available on S@H is irritating.

The other thing that gripes is when someone sets the price for a ridiculous amount and it seems to mislead sellers (such as parents selling off their kid's Lego) into thinking that their set is worth more. I've lost count of how many sets one seller has up at over £100 for pretty basic stuff. Unsurprisingly, it's not shifted in over a year.

[fyrmedhatt]

I do agree that the rash of inflated buy it now sales for MISB sets that are still available on S@H is irritating.

The other thing that gripes is when someone sets the price for a ridiculous amount and it seems to mislead sellers (such as parents selling off their kid's Lego) into thinking that their set is worth more. I've lost count of how many sets one seller has up at over £100 for pretty basic stuff. Unsurprisingly, it's not shifted in over a year.

I see this when I'm looking on ebay as well, it seems to be very predatory, with people just trying to see how much profit they can eek out of unsuspecting customers who don't check the sets prices on shop at home and other retailers. I see the same thing from third party sellers on Amazon, for example I have never seen the Landspeeder below $36, $10 above retail. I know part of that is that it's an exclusive, but still it's rip off. Any time Amazon is out of stock, it appears the vultures come in to use the credibility of Amazon to sell their grossly overpriced, but still currently in production sets.

Some of the prices I see on ebay are just ridiculous as well, it seems a lot of people are trying to sell incomplete sets for the same high prices as the highest priced complete used ones. I see a lot of Star Wars vehicles without figures being sold for the same price as complete display only used ones on Bricklink. I guess their mindset is that there's only a few pieces missing, even if the pieces missing are by far the most valuable. In some of the worst cases the relevant information of figures missing is only mentioned within a huge chunk of text and they use a standard box image for the product.

Values on ebay seem in general to be overpriced, just because immaculate rare used sets go for a pretty penny does not mean your kids eclectic chewed up and dusty collection with lots of Megabloks is going to make you rich. I'm sure some lots are a treasure trove, but considering the work involved in sorting and cleaning the Lego bought, as well as the risk of the bricks being damaged/in poor condition make me extremely wary of being most of the lots on Ebay.