Posted February 16, 201411 yr My name is Herb, I live in the U.S., and my daughter is turning three in a month. I played with Legos into my mid teens, still have most of my Legos from then (two younger brothers probably made off with some of them). I started acquiring sets a couple of years ago with the hopes of buliding them with my kids once they were old enough. It's worked out great so far! Apart from playing with my kids, I also want to start doing some creative stuff, but don't really have enough Legos to do that yet. So I joined here hoping to get some advice about how to acquire more Legos (saw Bricklinks, that looks promising), both for my kids and for some creative stuff. Glad to be here!
February 17, 201411 yr Bricklink and even official Lego stores are very good alternative at getting some parts :)! Welcome and I hope you'll find everything you'll like around here ^^!
February 21, 201411 yr Welcome! Bricklink is a great starting place to bulk-up a collection, it's cheaper that the Pick-a-Brick from the Lego Shop@Home website and more predictable than buying odd lots on eBay (where, too often, the seller thinks "lego" is a generic term for plastic block and the quality may be all over the map). If you live near a Lego Store (or are traveling near to one) the Pick-a-Brick walls are another great resource. It's somewhat pot-luck in terms of what parts they're stocking at any given time (websites like BrickBuildr can help but data can be very stale) but if you invest the time to pack your PAB cup well you can get a lot of parts for relatively little money (for myself it's usually less than a penny per part on average) Also, if you have access to a Lego Store and chat up the manager during a lull, they can sell you parts by the K-Box (the case they use to fill the bins on the pick-a-brick wall). It might not be as glamorous as a wide variety of parts you get from filling a cup, but if you just want to bulk up on a particular part in a particular color (especially if it's a part that takes up too much space in a cup, like 2x8 bricks or 4x12 plates ) it's a really economical way to get a year's supply of parts relatively cheaply. Of course, this really only makes sense for really generic parts/colors that you know you'll use on many different projects. Another source for new, but diverse brick are, of course the Lego Sets themselves. As a general rule of thumb, the Creator line has some of the best price-per-brick ratios of any sets Lego makes, and the parts you're getting are good, generic shapes ready for reuse. I'm fond of the modular buildings in part because they're fun to build by and of themselves and they also make solid parts packs for extending a brick collection. The downside is that they can be pricey and TLG doesn't want to see them discounted. And speaking of discounted Lego, I like to keep an eye on Amazon sales (again websites like pricenbricks can help). When I see kits going for more than 25% off (even if its a kit I'm not particularly interested in as a subject matter) I'll go over to a site like Brickset.com to check out the parts inventory to see if the kit is worth buy just for the bricks alone. Good luck growing your collection and happy building!
March 20, 201410 yr Author Thanks Shayd! I have a Lego store about two hours away in the Phoenix area, and I go there often enough it's not trouble to swing by and fill a PAB cup. I did my first one there a few weeks ago, and just filled my second PAB cup at the store in Disneyland. That pricenbricks link is fantastic!
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