Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

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bluedemon
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Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by bluedemon » Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:06 am

My kids have grown out of Legos and besides the EV3 robot they have little interest in playing with their sets anymore. Any suggestions on how I should sell?
Should I invest the time to sell them as sets?
Is it worth it to breakout by color?
Should I sell the minifigs separately?

Thanks in advance!

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hatcher
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by hatcher » Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:20 am

It depends if you want to get the best price or if you need to sell quickly. For selling quickly, just put it on craigslist or ebay as a bulk lot.

If you want more money and can wait for them to sell, sets would be the better route. If they are complete and come with instructions and/or box and the pieces are clean and the figures are in good condition you can get more for it. However, it all depends on the set and how hard it is to come by. If you want to take the time to set up a store on bricklink.com you can sell by set or by piece.

Hope that helps.
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SpaceNinjaDino
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by SpaceNinjaDino » Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:53 pm

I'm now 38 and glad I still have my LEGO sets from the 80's, but didn't play with LEGO through most of the 90's. Got back into it when Cafe Corner came out.

Still ready to sell?
(Maybe keep the EV3 if there is potential interest; robots/programming never get old IMHO.)

Have any known (near) complete sets?
* If yes, sell them individually or in bulk themes (or all) in an auction. It helps if you have instructions. (Highest return)

Do you have pop culture figures like Harry Potter?
* Try to sell all the same theme figure in a lot in an auction. Some figures are individually expensive like (Medium return)

Worse case scenario:
* Split all minifigures (try to keep accessories) and other pieces by the pound and sell them as separate lot auctions. (Lowest return, but should get more money selling to minifigures buyers/brick buyers separately)

Take good pictures so buyers can inspect.

The time separating by color probably won't yield more return. I bought 5 color lots from one seller for no more than the going rate of per lb.
Per lb at flea markets: $3. Per lb on eBay: higher than flea market, but out of the loop.

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Morgan19
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by Morgan19 » Wed Feb 17, 2016 2:29 pm

SpaceNinjaDino wrote:I'm now 38 and glad I still have my LEGO sets from the 80's, but didn't play with LEGO through most of the 90's. Got back into it when Cafe Corner came out.
I'd caution to listen to this, OP.There are many many many stories about people (or their parents) who got rid of a collection during their "Dark Ages" only to sincerely regret it later. Not meaning to assume anything about your position, but it may be worthwhile to hang onto the sets for a resurgence in interest, future grandkids, etc.

SpaceNinjaDino
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by SpaceNinjaDino » Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:28 pm

Morgan19 wrote:
SpaceNinjaDino wrote:I'm now 38 and glad I still have my LEGO sets from the 80's, but didn't play with LEGO through most of the 90's. Got back into it when Cafe Corner came out.
I'd caution to listen to this, OP.There are many many many stories about people (or their parents) who got rid of a collection during their "Dark Ages" only to sincerely regret it later. Not meaning to assume anything about your position, but it may be worthwhile to hang onto the sets for a resurgence in interest, future grandkids, etc.
I or my parents sold off my other toys: Star Wars and Transformers. Those were mixed moves because I re-collecting SW and TF as an adult. However, I started to favor modern Star Wars toys over vintage with post-POTF2 series. In this case, they were remaking the same figure or vehicle, but usually better. The original Transformers had metal parts and had a nice weight to them. Today there is the expensive Masterpiece line that makes the toys have a genuine cartoon look while still able to transform. I prefer these over the originals except, I think I'm going to resell most/all except Soundwave/Soundblaster + tapes as my connection to them is not intense besides these. What I actually like are the smaller Transformers that can transform real fast without memorization/instructions. My regret was not selling these at Y2K+ collector prices. They were sold for $2-$3 each with good joints and all accessories and decent stickers.

My favorite LEGO themes are Blacktron 1 and Futuron. I felt this was the peak before they fell into the neon color marketing trap. In many situations, you can point to past products and say 'they don't make them like they use to'.

If you are tight for money/space then sell off makes sense. If there are possible reasons to have it in the future, keep it. If you are planning for grandkids, then they will want the sets for sure. I plan for no kids of my own; I use to chase the opposite gender, but found all my hobbies produce more satisfaction year after year. I have one dog and that is the maximum responsibility I can handle which is a fraction of a kid.

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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by Nepenthe7 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 5:26 am

I also would consider keeping them if you don't need the money and have the storage space. When the kids go by the grandparents, they always play with my brother's old Lego collection. :D

bluedemon
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by bluedemon » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:26 am

Thank you all for the suggestions. Our main reason for selling is the space. There's close to 50lbs (possibly more) in random boxes all over our garage. My wife and I are sticklers for organization so seeing these scattered boxes drives us crazy. Maybe we will take this on as a spring project and organize it all, but I really like your suggestion SpaceNinjaDino.

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captainrex803
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Re: Tips for liquidating entire Lego collection

Post by captainrex803 » Sun Feb 21, 2016 7:59 am

You may want to try selling any minifigures that are in good shape, and then sell the rest off as an Ebay lot

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