Although purchasing bulk LEGO lots from garage sales, thrift stores, Craigslist or eBay can boost your inventory and your profits, they can just as easily waste your time and money, if you’re not careful. Here are five factors to consider before buying unsorted bulk lots of LEGO.
1. Bulk lots of LEGO can be mixed with non-LEGO items
Sometimes knowingly or unknowingly that “LEGO” lot you buy can be filled with LEGO knockoff items like Mega Bloks. Watch out! Mega Bloks looks very similar to LEGO, unless inspected up close. Some people just assume all bricks are LEGO because they don’t know any better. Other irrelevant items can turn up in unsorted LEGO lots as well. I’ve found action figures, Hotwheels, coins, used batteries and twigs.
2. Bulk lots of LEGO need cleaning and sorting
Get the wash pan ready! Most bulk lots are at least a little dusty – and sometimes sticky (eww!) – and need a good cleaning before you resell the pieces. You can clean most LEGO pieces in a tub of warm water with dish soap. Rinse the pieces thoroughly and then spread them out to dry on a towel overnight. After they’re clean you’ll need to decide how to sort the pieces. Will you group by color? Will you group together all of bricks, plates and tiles? Will you try to reconstruct a set? Pull out the minifigs? Whatever you choose, sorting, like cleaning, takes time.
3. Proceed with caution when buying eBay bulk LEGO lots by the pound
Do a quick eBay search for bulk LEGO and you will find many listings for LEGO by the pound featuring sample pictures. Generic stock photos are nearly useless because you have no idea which pieces you will actually receive. Some sellers pick out all of the “good” pieces (i.e. minifigs, accessories, rare pieces, etc.) before listing the leftovers on eBay. Also, without a picture of the actual pieces you can’t be sure that you will receive genuine LEGO pieces. Before buying bulk lots on eBay, read the seller’s recent feedback to see if other buyers were satisfied with the quality of the bulk lots. Even then, though, buying LEGO lots with sample pictures remains risky. Don’t get yours hopes up that the lot will contain any hidden gems like a 2002 Jango Fett minifig.
4. Don’t assume all bulk LEGO lots are automatically good deal
LEGO has exploded in popularity in the past decade and people are becoming wise to the potential value of the little plastic bricks. Sometimes sellers at garage sales or flea markets may even overestimate the value of a bulk LEGO lot. Just because you’re buying a bulk lot from a bargain hunting environment like a flea market or garage sale, that doesn’t magically make the vendor’s asking price a good deal. Besides, prices at garage sales and flea market are usually negotiable anyway, so talk down the price whenever possible.
5. Take bigger LEGO risks, reap bigger LEGO rewards
This article has mostly served as a cautionary tale. Bulk lots can reap nice profits, though, after factoring in all of the drawbacks. I once sold a General Grievous minifig pulled from a five pound bulk lot. The bulk lot cost $20 and my Grievous minifig sold for $13. So with the sale of one piece I was able to recoup over half of my initial investment and I still had roughly another five pounds of LEGO to sell. Not too shabby. Themed minifigs (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc) and minifig accessories can be worth their weight in gold when you pull them from bulk lots.
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Good luck in your bulk lot quest! You could find a General Grievous minifig or you could get stuck with a bag of Mega Bloks. Life is like an unsorted bulk LEGO lot–you never know what you’re going to get.