The Lego Thread

[Capital Power]

Yeah I'm not sure why we didn't get company-owned stores, they are opening new stores all over the world at a rapid rate. It's annoying from the perspective that you can't use (or accrue) Lego VIP points - they have an identical but separate system.

The Dreamland store is not part of the chain (and is bigger than the other stores) and the one at Chadstone is different again, operated by the Legoland Discovery Centre (which, confusingly, are now majority owned I believe by the Kristiansen family investment company ).

 

[PT Bar None]

I'm going to use this cold, locked down, bye week Saturday to update my Lego collection inventory.

I reorganised my collection's storage last year during lockdown, but clearly didn't touch the inventory despite having every container out at some point.
Probably because "that's boring".

Looks like I haven't updating my inventory in some years...

I fully expect that this will again become boring and I'll get a nostalgia trip from finding some set I haven't built in eons, and decide to build that instead.

This whole episode was triggered earlier in the week when wondering what my parts list and loose (bricklink) value is up to?

We shall see. (Maybe).

 

[Capital Power]

I'm going to use this cold, locked down, bye week Saturday to update my Lego collection inventory.

I reorganised my collection's storage last year during lockdown, but clearly didn't touch the inventory despite having every container out at some point.
Probably because "that's boring".

Looks like I haven't updating my inventory in some years...

I fully expect that this will again become boring and I'll get a nostalgia trip from finding some set I haven't built in eons, and decide to build that instead.

This whole episode was triggered earlier in the week when wondering what my parts list and loose (bricklink) value is up to?

We shall see. (Maybe).

Do you store by part or by set? I've catalogued mine by set, but haven't looked at the resale value probably because I can't see myself ever selling any. When encouraged to seek out "sets you might not want any more" I found a grand total of zero

 

[PT Bar None]

Do you store by part or by set? I've catalogued mine by set, but haven't looked at the resale value probably because I can't see myself ever selling any. When encouraged to seek out "sets you might not want any more" I found a grand total of zero

Storing by set is my starting point.
Freezer bags are my first level of storage
Small sets into sandwich bags, larger sets into the medium & large sized bags
As sets get even bigger, I spread them into multiple freeze bags grouped by construction section
ie, for the modular buildings each floor gets its own bag, smaller bag for the roof, sandwich bag for car/bike/minifigs/etc.
For sets that are crazy big like the 10179 UCE Falcon I break down further and store by part.
For technic sets, I picked up a heap of el-cheapo fishing tackle storage boxes, so I use those to store the fiddly technic pins, etc. by part for large sets like the 8275 Bulldozer
I've got some small off-brand Tupperware containers I've used as well, but only freezer bags moving forward.
Each container/bag is labelled (texta) with the item number, name & bag number for identification, eg 8041-3 Racing Truck (bag # 3)
Then I group all the sets freezer bags by genre / like sets and store those in "bookie" sized removalist boxes. The Falcon uses one of these just by itself!
I've got about 12 of these boxes in rotation - at varying levels of full.

I catalog by set, bag count and box bags are stored in.
I'm expecting my parts tally to come out at over 100,000, but not sure how far over.

Selling is an interesting one. I've got sets dating back to the 1970's up to current day. And I'm conscious of the space. I've got a couple like the 10179 Falcon and the 10188 Death Star that I've only ever assembled once each. They're the only Star Wars kits I have, and as time passes and the franchise is - let's just say evolved - I get less and less into it. Both those sets have a little bit of value - and tend to be the ones I look at to get moved on. Not sure if I'll ever assemble them again.

Dunno - thinking out loud. Guessing they won't lose value the longer I keep them

 

[PT Bar None]

So came in slightly unders - about 92k bits.
I'd guesstimated that my Modular collection (11 buildings) has about 30k bits and extrapolated from there. Turns out 26k was the correct number.

What I've taken from this, now that I know what 92k bits looks like is that a lot of the flash storage options you see online with a labeled drawer in a cabinet for every part just won't scale unless you have a huge area and wallet!
And I was pottering about some other Lego specific forums through the week - and folks who have collections of several 100k or even millions of bits! Wowee, I dunno how they cope?

 

[Capital Power]

I use stackable 10-litre tubs from officeworks ($20 for a 6-pack last time I bought them). These take all but the largest sets (for these I use compatible 25-litre tubs). These can be stacked from the floor so I don't need bookcases or shelves.

I've looked at proper storage furniture and every time I think I'll just use the money to buy more Lego instead.

 

[PT Bar None]

I use stackable 10-litre tubs from officeworks ($20 for a 6-pack last time I bought them). These take all but the largest sets (for these I use compatible 25-litre tubs). These can be stacked from the floor so I don't need bookcases or shelves.

I've looked at proper storage furniture and every time I think I'll just use the money to buy more Lego instead.

Yeah, they look like they'd work pretty well. About 10 years ago I used to keep my collection baggies inside 96 litre tubs, but they were just too heavy. The 10 and 25 would be much better. And you could just stack them up against a wall.

Roughly what size is your collection?

 

[Capital Power]

Yeah, they look like they'd work pretty well. About 10 years ago I used to keep my collection baggies inside 96 litre tubs, but they were just too heavy. The 10 and 25 would be much better. And you could just stack them up against a wall.

Roughly what size is your collection?

Yeah the smaller ones are easier to access (and loan), I normally keep only one or two sets in each one, perhaps more of the smaller sets

At last count I had around 200 sets. Not much vintage stuff, I'd like to get some of this but the prices on the second hand market for most sets I'd like (eg Emerald Night) are very hard to justify. The family says I should get into the buying and selling side to make money to expand the collection but I think then it would stop being a hobby.

 

[dumb]

Yeah the smaller ones are easier to access (and loan), I normally keep only one or two sets in each one, perhaps more of the smaller sets

At last count I had around 200 sets. Not much vintage stuff, I'd like to get some of this but the prices on the second hand market for most sets I'd like (eg Emerald Night) are very hard to justify. The family says I should get into the buying and selling side to make money to expand the collection but I think then it would stop being a hobby.

for some reason i've watched 1 or 2 videos on youtube of people with massive inventories selling on places like bricklink. maybe selling sets would easier, but maintaining an inventory of parts for selling seems to be life-consuming, and you'll need to give over a room of your house. this video almost serves as a warning. you'd be stepping into the game against established competition. on ebay though, i'd guess that you might be more likely to find the less serious collectors but also buyers willing to pay through the nose.

 

[Capital Power]

for some reason i've watched 1 or 2 videos on youtube of people with massive inventories selling on places like bricklink. maybe selling sets would easier, but maintaining an inventory of parts for selling seems to be life-consuming, and you'll need to give over a room of your house. this video almost serves as a warning. you'd be stepping into the game against established competition. on ebay though, i'd guess that you might be more likely to find the less serious collectors but also buyers willing to pay through the nose.

LOL, never thought I'd see a Bricktsar video on BF . He does a lot of parting out of clearance sets for his inventory, which would be a fair bit of work. I guess though it is a way of generating income for additional purchases. You'd also have to do the research on what's valuable or in demand to know which sets to buy.

If you're selling sets then it's just like any other investment - you have to keep them unopened in pristine condition, probably for several years. You may as well just buy shares. There are lucky breaks (like those that managed to buy the Osprey last year before it was canned, or those scoring multiple copies of limited edition GWPs) but again you'd really have to know what you're doing.

 

[PT Bar None]

LOL, never thought I'd see a Bricktsar video on BF . He does a lot of parting out of clearance sets for his inventory, which would be a fair bit of work. I guess though it is a way of generating income for additional purchases. You'd also have to do the research on what's valuable or in demand to know which sets to buy.

If you're selling sets then it's just like any other investment - you have to keep them unopened in pristine condition, probably for several years. You may as well just buy shares. There are lucky breaks (like those that managed to buy the Osprey last year before it was canned, or those scoring multiple copies of limited edition GWPs) but again you'd really have to know what you're doing.

Yeah - that was one of my takeaways from the weekend's "valuation" session.
(Valuation consisting of looking up the set on bricklink and noting down the average used price from the last 6 months)
Most of the sets that had a bit of value (big Star Wars, Emerald Express, early modulars, etc) I already knew about.
Some of the older stuff that I thought might have some value didn't. Basically just average parts value. These were old sets that I really liked so assumed others would too, hence demand.
There was the odd outlier like:

Which I can kinda understand looking at the condition of my set. The swords break, the shields break and those early multi colour minifigs don't seem to be as robust as their single coloured peers. 80% of my minifigs missing hands or legs are from this set.

So in summary - hoping that some set you got as a kid in the 70's is now secretly worth millions just isn't going to happen.

Oh well, back to the shares. Better long term prospects and far easier to store and sell. Just nowhere near as much fun!

 

[Capital Power]

The one time I was tempted was with the original Taj Mahal (10189 from 2008). It was the largest set released at the time, and was only available for a short time. It quickly became valuable on the after market and was commanding upwards of $2,000 even used. I hadn't particularly enjoyed the build and had nowhere to display it.

So while I'm prevaricating, what does Lego do but re-release it - not only that, the new one is identical (with one new piece, the brick separator). So overnight my set is just a big box of common parts and near worthless. So yeah, there's an element of luck/risk in all this.

To this day I wish I'd bought three copies of Emerald Night for the same money...

 

[Capital Power]

Yeah - that was one of my takeaways from the weekend's "valuation" session.
(Valuation consisting of looking up the set on bricklink and noting down the average used price from the last 6 months)
Most of the sets that had a bit of value (big Star Wars, Emerald Express, early modulars, etc) I already knew about.
Some of the older stuff that I thought might have some value didn't. Basically just average parts value. These were old sets that I really liked so assumed others would too, hence demand.
There was the odd outlier like:
View attachment 1149742
Which I can kinda understand looking at the condition of my set. The swords break, the shields break and those early multi colour minifigs don't seem to be as robust as their single coloured peers. 80% of my minifigs missing hands or legs are from this set.

So in summary - hoping that some set you got as a kid in the 70's is now secretly worth millions just isn't going to happen.

Oh well, back to the shares. Better long term prospects and far easier to store and sell. Just nowhere near as much fun!

Yep I think your last sentence is the clincher here. Buy what you like, sell what you don't like and/or can no longer use and treat every acquisition as a joy. Don't stress overly about what it's going to be worth in 5 years, just assume the answer is nothing and enjoy your build/display.

People new to the hobby ask me what they should start with, and I always suggest they just buy something they like and think they would enjoy building. There's so much in the current range (some 700 items currently listed on lego.com, even though only about 12 are in stock, but that's a whole nother rant..) that you're guaranteed to find one that leaps into your cart screaming "buy me".

 

[dumb]

If you're into vintage Technic and can find it, I recommend the 8880 Supercar. Very advanced for its day, I'm pleased I still have mine almost complete. Sadly it is the only model of that vintage I have, I love your plan to collect and rebuild all those sets.

managed to pick this one up recently. been telling myself i've collected enough only to browse ebay every other day.

sadly i'm so time poor that everything i've collected to this point sits in tubs in the shed. for the record, filled a couple of 55L tubs but that includes some of the original boxes.

 

[Capital Power]

managed to pick this one up recently. been telling myself i've collected enough only to browse ebay every other day.

sadly i'm so time poor that everything i've collected to this point sits in tubs in the shed. for the record, filled a couple of 55L tubs but that includes some of the original boxes.

It's fascinating to compare 8880 with the Technic Supercars of recent years. It looks remarkably basic and "spindly" yet it still manages to pack in some nifty functionality. As an aside too, we often remark about the cost of Lego these days, but IIRC 8880 was around $220 on release (1994) for around 1300 pieces. The Lambo packs 3700 pieces for $570, so comparable in absolute terms, but in relative terms these days you get far more for your money.

 

[Stemp Fester]

I haven't actually bought any Lego in any meaningful way for a while now but my collection is around 450 sets / 240k pieces.

Frankly it's more a burden than anything else at this point in time and I'd be glad to sell off most of it simply to stop tripping over it. I think I have about twelve 53 litre tubs of sets that have been de-constructed, sorted and bagged and then a whole bunch more unbuilt sets which I barely have room to store let alone build and display... 10179 I'm looking at you...

And then there's my unbuilt Gundam backlog - but that's another story...

 

[Capital Power]

I haven't actually bought any Lego in any meaningful way for a while now but my collection is around 450 sets / 240k pieces.

Frankly it's more a burden than anything else at this point in time and I'd be glad to sell off most of it simply to stop tripping over it. I think I have about twelve 53 litre tubs of sets that have been de-constructed, sorted and bagged and then a whole bunch more unbuilt sets which I barely have room to store let alone build and display... 10179 I'm looking at you...

And then there's my unbuilt Gundam backlog - but that's another story...

If the collection is already pre-sorted into sets then there is a ready market out there, and you should definitely consider selling it on a platform like eBay or bricklink by individual set. As others have suggested, use the average sale prices on bricklink to guide you with pricing, making allowances for completeness, condition and availability of stickers/box/instructions.

The one caveat that seems to affect saleability us whether the sets have been displayed/stored in an environment where there are smokers. It can be quite laborious to clean the bricks in this case.

You can also sell in bulk (a price per kilogram for example), but this of course yields a far lower return. If you have the time and inclination you could also sell rare parts individually but as this would break sets it might generate a lower overall return in your scenario.

You might be surprised at what some of your sets might fetch. If you do decide to sell please post your inventory and store address here .

PS a quick look at bricklink says the average sale price for a used 10179 is $1,400 - almost double that for a new one.

 

[PT Bar None]

Building 10179 is such a huge logistical undertaking. It's not just something you do on a whim over a weekend. I've only ever done my once - displayed it for a couple of years, then pulled it down and stored it when I was planning to move.

If memory serves - that set does not use the "numbered bag" construction approach.

ETA: Just wandered into my spare room and looked at my measly 90k collection - then visualized it tripled in size. Wowee, that's a lot!

I starting to feel a lot better about my collection - I had thought it was starting to edge onto "being a problem". But I'm a mere minnow in comparison!

 

[Capital Power]

I am occasionally told I "have too much Lego". The learned response is to immediately buy some more

 

[HirdyLannister]

I am occasionally told I "have too much Lego". The learned response is to immediately buy some more

Just reply, I could buy drugs instead

 

[Capital Power]

The Ideas Typewriter 21327 (designed originally by the guy who won UK Lego Masters) announced today, available from 16/6 for VIPs. Looks awesome.

 

[PT Bar None]

The Ideas Typewriter 21327 (designed originally by the guy who won UK Lego Masters) announced today, available from 16/6 for VIPs. Looks awesome.

That's brilliant!

Ok price too ~ $200 / 2000 parts

ETA: Ewww, wrong region. Not that good a price - Australia tax!

Typewriter 21327 | Ideas | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop AU

Build your own old-fashioned typewriter in LEGO® style

www.lego.com

$330

 

[Capital Power]

That's brilliant!

Ok price too ~ $200 / 2000 parts

ETA: Ewww, wrong region. Not that good a price - Australia tax!

Typewriter 21327 | Ideas | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop AU

Build your own old-fashioned typewriter in LEGO® style

www.lego.com

$330

Yeah, although this can vary set by set for some strange reason (for example, the Bowser Boss and Crocodile Loco sets were both released around the same time last year at $US100. Here Bowser is $A150 (fair) and the Crocodile is $A170 (not fair)).

$US200 is $A260 at the current exchange rate (0.77). Add the GST you get around $A290, so yeah, we're copping it again . It does look like a great set though, but it'll likely be a while before it's available in stores (amazon, for example, doesn't have the Piano yet).

 

[Quivorir]

Does it "ding"?

 

[Capital Power]

25% off at DJ's online until Monday, including the new June sets