Made to be Played: Second Hand LEGO
Posted by CapnRex101,
BenBacardi perfectly addressed perhaps the simplest form of passing LEGO between generations in his article, as sets are handed down from parent to child. However, there are other ways of passing LEGO on, such as through donations to charity shops or thrift stores.
These shops always seem to appreciate LEGO because it is extremely popular and avoids issues that plague other second-hand toys, which are sometimes broken or not in saleable condition. Furthermore, making donations is quite easy, as even unsorted bricks are generally accepted.
With these factors in mind, the second article in our LEGO sustainability series discusses how LEGO passes between generations through sales and donations.
My first LEGO set was 3041 Basic Building Set, 5+, purchased at the suggestion of my parents with Christmas and birthday money in late 2000. 4500 sets later, that suggestion has probably been a mixed blessing! I always enjoy coming across bricks from that original set among my loose parts, such as the printed 2x3 slope shown below.
While I did receive several more brand new sets in the following year or two, much of my early LEGO actually came from my grandmother, then volunteering at a charity shop. Bags of LEGO were donated quite regularly and my grandmother purchased a few of them for me. In hindsight, there is every chance that these bags contained lots of complete or partially complete sets, but I simply added the pieces to my collection for free building, which I still have today.
I also received a modest collection of sets from the 1980s and 1990s, pictured below, which were given to me by a family friend. As an adult, it is fun to identify the sets included, but as a child, these bricks were as suitable for creative building as any others. In fact, they were even better in some ways, given the unusual nature of certain elements, such as trans-blue plates or a chrome silver 4x4 dome!
The potential for creativity is paramount, but value is also important and charity shop finds often excel in that regard. This tub of mixed LEGO was purchased for a few pounds and contains a number of complete or near-complete sets, not to mention lots of uncommon parts and some early Collectable Minifigures.
I do have a slight concern regarding the future of donating LEGO to charity shops and thrift stores, however. There is an increasing awareness of LEGO's potential value, which is a good thing in some ways because it prevents unwanted sets being thrown away. On the other hand, mainstream articles about the value of certain LEGO sets can give a misleading impression of general value, as most sets are not worth many times their original price. The expectation that all retired sets are very valuable could make people less inclined to donate their LEGO.
Regardless, whether sold or donated, it seems the vast majority of LEGO remains in a perpetual cycle of being played with, displayed and enjoyed.
#MadeToBePlayed
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90 comments on this article
Since we don't have charity shops here, all my second hand LEGO came via purchases on ebay, Bricklink, or sometimes from colleagues (like a great Star Wars bargain haul, containing several rare sets).
In recent years my LEGO purchasing habits have changed quite a bit, from mainly new sets to mainly older second hand ones.
On Bricklink I often specifically look for cheap parts that I have never seen before or in strange colours I didn't know existed. These pieces I buy just out of curiosity, not because I would need them for a specific project. Although they sometimes come in handy later.
For older sets, the building experiences of which I don't particularly care about, I tend to try and find cheap used options. I also try to find listings with incomplete/no minifigures if I don't particularly care about those either (for example, the peripheral figures in an X-wing set other than Pilot Luke) so that can bring down the price as well.
Second-hand LEGO is a great way to build a collection, you just need to know where to look. It also helps if you live next to a neighbour with a collection that they would be willing to hand down to you. My main source of second-hand LEGO is from schoolmates who are aware of my interests in LEGO, so they sell me some of theirs for a super good bargain (they just need money for lunch lol)
For sets that I actually want to enjoy the full experience of, such as 40334 Avengers Tower which I bought last week BNIB for $60 AUD, I wait until I can find a listing for a reasonable price, which to me is within 150% of its original RRP.
It also helps if a set you're after isn't super sought after. NEXO Knights/Chima sets with sealed boxes in my experience can be found with decent ease on eBay, where they sell for around RRP, or in some cases even less.
All of my dad's LEGO, that I mentioned in the previous article in this series, was very much used. A lot of the pieces, especially the white and old gray pieces (sorry/not sorry AFOLs, but the bluish grays are infinitely better-looking) were very, very yellowed, and a lot of the minifigure torsos were cracked. These are the two things that make me skeptical of buying used LEGO today.
...although, recently I won a coupon for my local Bricks & Minifigs to get a used LEGO set for 25% off. I chose 75300, and fortunately, the minifigures were in good condition and the TIE Fighter wasn't yellowed anywhere. So that kind of makes me a bit more open to buying used LEGO sets and minifigures. Especially since, obviously, you can usually find some rare minifigures cheaper used than new.
I voted "Yes, I have purchased second hand LEGO" as I originally purchased 4 second-hand sets for a very reasonable price (close to what the original owner paid for them, including box and instructions): 10224, 10211, 10197, and 10233.
However, I had to spend significant manual effort manually cleaning each element by hand, and I had to replace almost all of the external white elements on 10224 and 10197 due to yellowing since they were in a room with direct sunlight, at which time I decided never again.
Didn't stop me from buying a second copy of 10233 when Maersk Train was the RSoD on Brickset (this time it was "as-new", with box, manual and this time, including the green brick separator), again at a very reasonable price (about similar as a new CITY train would cost).
@AustinPowers said:
"Since we don't have charity shops here"
That's interesting. Is there a reason why?
For me a big part of the LEGO hobby is buying second hand sets and collections that might be missing a few pieces and restoring them. I've built a nice collection of bulk lego and it's always a great moment when I can use some of those loose pieces to complete a second hand set! I resell them complete after because I just don't have the space ;)
"I do have a slight concern regarding the future of donating LEGO to charity shops and thrift stores, however. There is an increasing awareness of LEGO's potential value, which is a good thing in some ways because it prevents unwanted sets being thrown away. On the other hand, mainstream articles about the value of certain LEGO sets can give a misleading impression of general value, as most sets are not worth many times their original price. The expectation that all retired sets are very valuable could make people less inclined to donate their LEGO."
My other hobby, gaming, has been hit by a similar issue as well - it's getting difficult to find anything good outside of dedicated sellers, if you're lucky you might find worthless shovelware in a thrift store. I think it might be a side effect the stigma around "kiddie" hobbies weakening. It's great that we're judged less for building with Lego now, but now everyone wants a slice of the pie!
I've been given a huge box of Lego from a work colleague with all of their two sons' collection. I spent a bit of time taking out some of the non-Lego and dirt, but it just took too much effort, and I realised I'd have to clean and sort it all afterwards.
My aunt also gave me my two cousins' Lego collection in a smaller box that was a lot cleaner but would still have to be cleaned and sorted.
I've given up on those since it was so much effort and only use the new stuff I buy that still has to be sorted anyway! Even the Lego I had as a child is in a container I don't use either.
I originally started buying second hand Lego from eBay, then Bricklink, to try to tip the scales a bit for my kid sisters. An influx of female heads and hairpieces did wonders.
Sometimes just a few pieces add a lot. My kids like Minecraft, they love Lego and enjoy the sets but there interest petered out and I noticed when they play the actual game what they mainly like to do is build houses. We didn't have any Lego villagers and there isn't a villager battle pack, so I bought four online. BOOM. Lots of new things to build, wild discussions, adventures to have - sometimes a bit too early in the morning, but apparently they were the missing inspiration.
One of my favourite things to do is sort through second hand bulk lots to find what treasures await in the depths of the boxes.
Decided to write my first reply here, as a new member of this fabulous community.
I wasn't fortunate enough to have older Lego-playing friends or relatives, so my first encounter with Lego was from a birtday gift from some relative. I was instantly hooked. Since Legos were relatively expensive and obscure in 1980s Greece, most toys were centered around plastic soldiers and tanks, with the occasional and very alluring Bburago die-cast models. Not to mention that charity and donation shops were (and still mostly are) non-existent.
I subsequently started asking for more sets, and I got my big break in 1990 at the tender age of 9, with the amazing 8064 . I assembled that race car so many times, that I could do it without the instruction manual. Dark ages ensued until I had my son 10 years ago. I started buying sets before he was even born, to infuse him the same wonder I had with these seemingly useless plastic bricks. I was happy to find out that my son has developed the same affinity with Legos as I had, also competing in Robotex competitions, with myself as his coach, building Legos and enjoying our time being creative. 100 sets and counting so far, and I'm hopeful that I will find my old sets in my parents' attic on my next visit to Athens.
So, yeah, they can and should trickle down to the next generations. I strongly believe that Lego is the best creative toy ever made.
Greetings from Nicosia, Cyprus!
I closed the gaps from my dark ages, of course, with used sets. Also, I replaced their and my originally owned sets' missing pieces with used ones - either from bricklink or from a local store that sells used pieces for a buk price.
This was the source of almost all of my childhood Lego. I used to scour car boot sales hoovering up as much as I could find - I have plenty of classic space, castle and pirates from these raids.
Sadly the older I got, the more it dried up. Any Lego on sale was immediately snatched up for resale on eBay (or sometimes just three stalls over for five times the price). Nowadays second hand Lego is offered for huge prices - a mixed box that might have been £10 when I was young is now being sold on Facebook for £200, with the seller enthusiastically explaining that it's worth much more!
I've mostly stopped buying second hand mixed lots now. Cleaning takes far too long if nothing else.
@Huw I'm pretty sure he meant the place where he lives. There are charity shops across Germany, but rather in larger towns and cities.
>I do have a slight concern regarding the future of donating LEGO to charity shops and thrift stores, however. There is an increasing awareness of LEGO's potential value, which is a good thing in some ways because it prevents unwanted sets being thrown away. On the other hand, mainstream articles about the value of certain LEGO sets can give a misleading impression of general value, as most sets are not worth many times their original price. The expectation that all retired sets are very valuable could make people less inclined to donate their LEGO.
That is a legit concern as everybody and their mom are currently hoarding Lego thinking their value will rise, and platforms like ebay and bricklink are facilitating a second hand Lego market. In reality Lego is really illiquid and you would have real trouble finding sellers without these platforms, just like in the past when people had to simply give them away to make space in their closets.
But eventually this Lego bubble will pop, just like it has happened with every other collectible bubble in the past. The only reason something rises in value is an increase in popularity post-release and limited supply. Nowadays lots of people are buying sets waiting for them to retire and resell at a higher price, but this is not going to happen.
@VKarikas, welcome to the site!
I've bought a lot of bins and boxes of used Lego over the past 6-8 years. I aim for 80s and 90s stuff, so it often requires a good washing before sorting and building. I am quite picky about the stuff I look for, and how much I'll pay, so my hours per dollar is quite massive. While cleaning and sorting aren't my favorite, it's pretty incredible how good a recently cleaned set can look. I have 6195 built on my desk right now, and it's beautiful. Not quite "new out of the box" but it is so much better than it was.
There are a lot of people with wishful thinking on prices. I see stuff over $10 US per pound often, and without instructions and sometimes with non-Lego mixed in! But sometimes you can snag really good deals, I've paid $50-100 for a fair number of bins, and sold off duplicates to help defray the overall costs. I try to sell maybe 20% under the relevant bricklink price in my local market, and for a lot of 90s stuff, it works out decently. 80s sets tend to go right quick if they're Pirates, Castle, and Space. Town, I think, tends to have lower resale value due to the repetitive nature of many sets.
At this point, I'm getting pretty close to done my vintage collecting and I have to say, it's been a fun ride. There are still a few white whales out there, but monorails are so few and far between, as are some of the other big sets from 30ish years ago. Next up will be to combine my various sortings (across craft bins, parts drawers, bags, etc) and just free-build a city.
I will give a shout out to the Star Wars fans, who will take almost any SW sets or figs off my hands right quick!
Second hand Lego is fun if you have low expectations and a lot of time. Fortunately, retail Lego (usually at discount) still offers pretty fair value, but that seems to be on the verge of changing.
For me, the most exciting is trying to find your childhood white whales at reasonable prices. Just this past weekend, Facebook Marketplace led me to 6274 Caribbean Clipper, 6062 Battering Ram, and a handful of other 80s and 90s sets all 99% complete and all for $50 total. Felt just like a kid again. Those experiences are few and far between but can’t be beaten!
@VKarikas said:
"Decided to write my first reply here, as a new member of this fabulous community.
I wasn't fortunate enough to have older Lego-playing friends or relatives, so my first encounter with Lego was from a birtday gift from some relative. I was instantly hooked. Since Legos were relatively expensive and obscure in 1980s Greece, most toys were centered around plastic soldiers and tanks, with the occasional and very alluring Bburago die-cast models. Not to mention that charity and donation shops were (and still mostly are) non-existent.
I subsequently started asking for more sets, and I got my big break in 1990 at the tender age of 9, with the amazing 8064 . I assembled that race car so many times, that I could do it without the instruction manual. Dark ages ensued until I had my son 10 years ago. I started buying sets before he was even born, to infuse him the same wonder I had with these seemingly useless plastic bricks. I was happy to find out that my son has developed the same affinity with Legos as I had, also competing in Robotex competitions, with myself as his coach, building Legos and enjoying our time being creative. 100 sets and counting so far, and I'm hopeful that I will find my old sets in my parents' attic on my next visit to Athens.
So, yeah, they can and should trickle down to the next generations. I strongly believe that Lego is the best creative toy ever made.
Greetings from Nicosia, Cyprus! "
Good first reply; mine wasn't nearly as good- I used maths to prove the ornithopter set was well proportioned and didn't even think to mention it was my first comment!
While I'm always on the lookout for Lego in charity shops, actually finding any is unlikely. And when I do find some, half of it is Mega or Wilco or some other brand.
My old man volunteers at a popular charity shop in Devon, but has never had any LEGO donated there in the 2-3 years he's been doing it.
The only place I can remember seeing LEGO in a charity shop was in Chester a few months ago where some valuable sets were in the window. There was an early modular, and Star Wars 75512 too iirc. I got very excited at the prospect of a bargain, but on enquiring, they were priced appropriately and, it appeared – I assume – as if a bona fide collector had lent the sets to the shop for potential sale on some kind of commission/donation basis.
I sent some random old bricks to the LEGO Replay scheme and got a nice email. I'd have preferred some VIP points however...(!)
Only used sets i've ever had are 7195, 70816, and 21106. 7195 and 70816 were both caked in dirt and required a deep clean. Surprisingly, despite already being assembled, 21106 was spotless, had no broken pieces (unless the brown manufacturing issue had been fixed by then and I'm just confused) and, strangest of all, contained all the spare parts, somehow.
EDIT: Forgot the original star wars cloud car and a few smaller sets/battle packs that I got in minifig lots
@HJB2810 said:
" @VKarikas said:
"Decided to write my first reply here, as a new member of this fabulous community.
I wasn't fortunate enough to have older Lego-playing friends or relatives, so my first encounter with Lego was from a birtday gift from some relative. I was instantly hooked. Since Legos were relatively expensive and obscure in 1980s Greece, most toys were centered around plastic soldiers and tanks, with the occasional and very alluring Bburago die-cast models. Not to mention that charity and donation shops were (and still mostly are) non-existent.
I subsequently started asking for more sets, and I got my big break in 1990 at the tender age of 9, with the amazing 8064 . I assembled that race car so many times, that I could do it without the instruction manual. Dark ages ensued until I had my son 10 years ago. I started buying sets before he was even born, to infuse him the same wonder I had with these seemingly useless plastic bricks. I was happy to find out that my son has developed the same affinity with Legos as I had, also competing in Robotex competitions, with myself as his coach, building Legos and enjoying our time being creative. 100 sets and counting so far, and I'm hopeful that I will find my old sets in my parents' attic on my next visit to Athens.
So, yeah, they can and should trickle down to the next generations. I strongly believe that Lego is the best creative toy ever made.
Greetings from Nicosia, Cyprus! "
Good first reply; mine wasn't nearly as good- I used maths to prove the ornithopter set was well proportioned and didn't even think to mention it was my first comment!"
My first reply was yesterday and was debatably much worse. It was under the 30253 rsotd and was "Yep. This is definitely a set of all time."
On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean.
This is why I don't mind that Lego has been so obsessed with smooth tile-covered display sets as of late. They're so much easier to keep clean! LOL
@Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean."
I disassembled 70816, put the pieces into a tub (seperating the stickered elements to avoid removing the stickers), filled said tub with warm water (unsure on exact temp, probably around 30°C), added 2 squirts of washing up liquid and then agitated the washing up liquid by wiping as many pieces as possible with a microfiber cloth. I then filtered the water out and left the pieces out to dry on some kitchen roll for a few days.
While this did work for me, do not use this as a definitive guide. I think the official LEGO website has more detailed instructions for cleaning bricks.
bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker
@DenDeze said:
"bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker"
Really? Only 70816 is missing pieces for me, and they were all common elements. Got it for a really good price aswell.
@VKarikas said:
"Decided to write my first reply here, as a new member of this fabulous community.
I wasn't fortunate enough to have older Lego-playing friends or relatives, so my first encounter with Lego was from a birtday gift from some relative. I was instantly hooked. Since Legos were relatively expensive and obscure in 1980s Greece, most toys were centered around plastic soldiers and tanks, with the occasional and very alluring Bburago die-cast models. Not to mention that charity and donation shops were (and still mostly are) non-existent.
I subsequently started asking for more sets, and I got my big break in 1990 at the tender age of 9, with the amazing 8064 . I assembled that race car so many times, that I could do it without the instruction manual. Dark ages ensued until I had my son 10 years ago. I started buying sets before he was even born, to infuse him the same wonder I had with these seemingly useless plastic bricks. I was happy to find out that my son has developed the same affinity with Legos as I had, also competing in Robotex competitions, with myself as his coach, building Legos and enjoying our time being creative. 100 sets and counting so far, and I'm hopeful that I will find my old sets in my parents' attic on my next visit to Athens.
So, yeah, they can and should trickle down to the next generations. I strongly believe that Lego is the best creative toy ever made.
Greetings from Nicosia, Cyprus! "
Welcome to Brickset! I don't even remember what my first comment was... it was 14+ years ago, after all.
Great couple of articles, and I have to say like a lot of Lego based articles it entirely depends on the Person. Adults tend to be more organised and have completeness in mind, was there a box or instructions? (even though we dont need either). Recently someone gave me a large box of "Lego" As a child this would have been brilliant, as an AFOL and a bit OCD it was a mixed blessing im still not convinced was better than 50% positive. Of course I had to root out the Megablocks, before finding 3-4 90-95% complete sets and lots of spares. But a 95% free set means I really need to source 5% of a set i didnt know i needed from 10 years ago.
@b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
"bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker"
Really? Only 70816 is missing pieces for me, and they were all common elements. Got it for a really good price aswell."
yes, i buy a lot of lego, and after building it, i 'display' it for a few days and take it apart again to store in plastic bags (away from light and dust) so i can keep it clean and build it again some time later
but my experience is that lego degrades with time, the bricks become brittle and sound/feel different (not mentioning dirty etc), i want pristine bricks, so no more secondhand for me
@DenDeze said:
" @b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
"bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker"
Really? Only 70816 is missing pieces for me, and they were all common elements. Got it for a really good price aswell."
yes, i buy a lot of lego, and after building it, i 'display' it for a few days and take it apart again to store in plastic bags (away from light and dust) so i can keep it clean and build it again some time later
but my experience is that lego degrades with time, the bricks become brittle and sound/feel different (not mentioning dirty etc), i want pristine bricks, so no more secondhand for me"
Fair enough. I build my sets once and then leave them on display, only putting them away if I run out of room for other stuff. Most older sets (excluding classic space and some of the earlier star wars stuff) don't interest me all that much. I also occasionally buy secondhand minifigs, which are 9 times out of 10 already in acceptable condition.
@b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
" @b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
"bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker"
Really? Only 70816 is missing pieces for me, and they were all common elements. Got it for a really good price aswell."
yes, i buy a lot of lego, and after building it, i 'display' it for a few days and take it apart again to store in plastic bags (away from light and dust) so i can keep it clean and build it again some time later
but my experience is that lego degrades with time, the bricks become brittle and sound/feel different (not mentioning dirty etc), i want pristine bricks, so no more secondhand for me"
Fair enough. I build my sets once and then leave them on display, only putting them away if I run out of room for other stuff. Most older sets (excluding classic space and some of the earlier star wars stuff) don't interest me all that much."
thats not an option for me (apart for the dust problem) as I have hundreds of (big) sets and can only display like 5 at my 'home office'
@DenDeze said:
" @b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
" @b2_O said:
" @DenDeze said:
"bought secondhand few times before thinking i got a great deal, quickly realizing sets werent complete/bricks very dirty/off brand bricks/broken bricks/dust and hair on them, so i washed them etc but its always a disappointment (unless you pay a premium) so i end up throwing them away or selling them to another sucker"
Really? Only 70816 is missing pieces for me, and they were all common elements. Got it for a really good price aswell."
yes, i buy a lot of lego, and after building it, i 'display' it for a few days and take it apart again to store in plastic bags (away from light and dust) so i can keep it clean and build it again some time later
but my experience is that lego degrades with time, the bricks become brittle and sound/feel different (not mentioning dirty etc), i want pristine bricks, so no more secondhand for me"
Fair enough. I build my sets once and then leave them on display, only putting them away if I run out of room for other stuff. Most older sets (excluding classic space and some of the earlier star wars stuff) don't interest me all that much."
thats not an option for me (apart for the dust problem) as I have hundreds of (big) sets and can only display like 5 at my 'home office'"
Nice.
I bought a lot of second hand Lego from yard sales and thrift stores. I have also helped people with moving and been given their childhood Lego as payment mostly when I was a teenager. Now I just buy it from yard sales or wherever I can find a good deal.
Just exiting my own "Dark Ages" - lots of my collection was bought by my grandparents, all passed now, one very recently, it's been really special delving back into my old collection, a real connection to a lot of happy memories (once I saw the record store in 31141 that sealed the deal about getting back into the hobby after so much time!).
Charity Shops was for many years my only source of used parts and sets, even then the word "Lego" (even if it was broken Bionicle pieces or Galidor!) added £10 to the price, it would evaporate at extreme speed and I expect that happens even more so now!
But I got to know staff, and some would put stuff aside for me knowing my family and I - while there were many "grail" finds of things later, the most special was I think the very first time I found something bigger than a polybag - it was a large red brick building box (fairly sure it was even 3041!) filled to the top with lots of tiny Town, Castle, Pirate and Space sets from around 1989-1999 - I could only see what was on the top layer, some interesting stuff - definitely worth £10! It wasn't until I was sat in the back of my parents car on the way home I could properly route around and found a black bicycle (from 6314), an Islander canoe piece (from 6256), a classic town waiter and an Ice Planet minifig, all new to me - I'll never forget the feeling of excitement pouring it out and figuring out what I had (and the utter bemusement of my nan at me being so excited over a tiny black bike!). It became a proper thrill to not only find stuff in charity shops, but to piece the sets back together and then find uses for them within my collection.
Something really sweet to me knowing my collection will be going to my kids hopefully one day, a gift to them from my grandparents again!
@b2_O said:
" @Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean."
I disassembled 70816, put the pieces into a tub (seperating the stickered elements to avoid removing the stickers), filled said tub with warm water (unsure on exact temp, probably around 30°C), added 2 squirts of washing up liquid and then agitated the washing up liquid by wiping as many pieces as possible with a microfiber cloth. I then filtered the water out and left the pieces out to dry on some kitchen roll for a few days.
While this did work for me, do not use this as a definitive guide. I think the official LEGO website has more detailed instructions for cleaning bricks."
This is a solid guide. It's similar to what I do, except I use a soft bristle toothbrush to get around studs and into other areas.
Cleaning is fairly time-consuming, but the end result feels great. I can definitely tell the sets I cleaned and those that I didn't, and it mostly holds up for a while.
I would personally love to have a Lego room where I can clean, dry (this is a slower process), and sort before I work on building. I've found a fan oscillating over bricks on a towel works decently, though my dream is wooden frames with fine mesh and a fan blowing over them. Wouldn't be too hard to have a number of them stacked and the fan blowing up into them.
@johnnytifosi before internet you allready had flea markets, yard sales, car boot sale and others like those.
And most lego collections had 3 main endings:
Get sold when a kid became 12
Get sold when a kid became 18/20
Stored away for grandkids
At all those markets most lego is sold out fast unless it's overpriced same will hapen online.
At one of the online trading platform I use I see people trying to sell overpriced crap for months and others with more realism just do their bussiness and sometimes nee to lower their price
I need to choose two options! I've been given Lego and I've purchased second hand Lego.
I do my washing in a rubber colander (it's also collapsible, but that's not really important for the task). Warm, soapy water, as mentioned, old toothbrush for especialy bad stuff. I do large transparent parts separately so they don't get scratched up. The colander makes it easy to cycle through soaks and rinses and not lose parts. Drying them is the hard part.
@Huw said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Since we don't have charity shops here"
That's interesting. Is there a reason why?"
I don't really know.
There are stores who sell second hand goods to poor people (toys like LEGO too), but not everyone can shop there. You have to show the special ID card you get that proves that you are living on income support / welfare. Everyone can donate though.
@Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean.
This is why I don't mind that Lego has been so obsessed with smooth tile-covered display sets as of late. They're so much easier to keep clean! LOL"
My 71741 's studded walkways are embarrasingly dusty. I much prefer a combination of studs for minifigs and tiles for un-dustiness, like on 10316 .
Sideways built floors with SNOT bricks sticking are also a really good way of building, but can be more unsturdy if there's no SNOT bricks sideways with tiles on them or if it's not double or triple one brick's width (or quadruple like 10276 ).
The hardest sets to dust are ones like 21318 or 10281 with lots of leaves
In 2003 I owned every single Technic sets available on the surface of the planet (including Japanese Kabaya promotionals). Since then I sold a very large part of them (selling some of them was a terrible mistake - but I can always buy back the missing gems). Most of the sets were new but some of them were used. I 'restored' a 8868 with peroxide on a hot summer day for the white and grey parts (works wonder but it is a lot of work - you have to keep the parts under the surface, rotate them and they have to be there for quite a while - but eventually they emerge good as new). I was able to get a very good price for this set - which I should not have sold at all. I recently received used Lego parts and I am dredging the amount of work it will require to clean/sanitize/disinfect all this. Considering the work required and the high prices of late, it is simply not worth it unless you are after a specific very old set (I would still consider some old classic space sets provided the box is in good shape).
@Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean.
This is why I don't mind that Lego has been so obsessed with smooth tile-covered display sets as of late. They're so much easier to keep clean! LOL"
Drop your disassembled Lego in a laundry bag along with the rest of your laundry in the washing machine. Literally zero effort and it comes out perfectly clean and dry.
As far as dusting go, I have two brushes, one is a regular soft bristle paint brush of 1 inch and the other is an old brush for electric shaver - shorter and stronger bristle. When I dismantle a set, I proceed in reverse from the instructions so each parts are in their respective numbered bags (yeah I know, terrible OCD and a long process but when I rebuild it later , it is worth it). Before removing each layer, the model is thoroughly brushed to remove as much dust as possible. I also use them for the few 'permanent' displays in my office.
I am always thrilled to find LEGO at thrift stores or yard/garage sales. Like others I love to sift through a bin of mixed up parts and sets and try to figure out the puzzle of what sets are there and trying to reassemble them.
Regarding the concerns and comments of the popularity of LEGO in secondary markets and the impact of this on thrift stores, I find it is a bit of a double edged sword. Many shops now realize that there is a high demand for used LEGO bricks and sets. Since many are charities, they are making more money in support of their respective causes, however I have found that some are becoming absurd in their pricing and asking way too much for what is there. Either that or they sell items through auctions rather than just putting it out on the shelf for sale.
90% of my collection is from second hand deals, love that market, I don't buy new lego since about a decade back because there is no fun in getting ripped off. There are so many sets on the second hand market here that what you want almost always comes around.
New sets are nice, but there's nothing like the thrill of restoring an old Lego lot from Facebook marketplace. It's like a detective work to figure out which sets are there, and try to maximize as much sets as possible out of it, adding missing bricks from BL if needed. I'll take that over a new set any day. During Covid many cleared their basements etc, so it was the golden era for 80s/90s Lego lots for cheap.
Buying used lots is the highlight of this hobby for me. I documented my latest find on reddit, and the old bricklink forum that is no more.
I paid $1,500 for the lot, ended up pulling out over $10,000 is sets. I sold $6,000 or so and kept more than I probbly should. It was so much fun to discover what was hidden in the tubs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/14xqmwd/facebook_marketplace_find_final_update/
@followsclosely said:
"Buying used lots is the highlight of this hobby for me. I documented my latest find on reddit, and the old bricklink forum that is no more.
I paid $1,500 for the lot, ended up pulling out over $10,000 is sets. I sold $6,000 or so and kept more than I probbly should. It was so much fun to discover what was hidden in the tubs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/14xqmwd/facebook_marketplace_find_final_update/"
4x goats! That's your $6k right there!
I'm jealous of your sorting space, but I'm not jealous of how much work that was! I do smaller lots and try to make my way through most of it before buying another. I can't dedicate that much space to this.
Finding 10188 complete with the box for $56 at a thrift store in 2014 brought me out of a nearly 30 year "Dark Age", and the vast majority of my collection has come from that thrift store. Since then I accumulated more LEGO parts than I will ever get sorted. Fortunately for my wallet they have had a lot less LEGO this year, and I've been working on restoring sets so I can start selling.
Writing from France here, we don't have many charity stores (especially selling any kinds of toys) but what we do have, mostly in northern France, are annual neighbourhood-wide yard sales (we call those "braderie" or "réderie"). It's hard to estimate but I'd say a good third of my collection came from these, and allowed me to get some great deals while getting the sets directly from their past owner, which is always nice!
I often purchase second hand Lego, because finding a sealed retired set in New Zealand is very difficult and expensive if you manage to find one. And I do not want to go internationally due to the price of shipping, so I stick to used sets, which I get from the likes of Trademe (Which basically ebay but for NZ only)
@followsclosely said:
"Buying used lots is the highlight of this hobby for me. I documented my latest find on reddit, and the old bricklink forum that is no more.
I paid $1,500 for the lot, ended up pulling out over $10,000 is sets. I sold $6,000 or so and kept more than I probbly should. It was so much fun to discover what was hidden in the tubs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/14xqmwd/facebook_marketplace_find_final_update/ "
Where's the best place to sell old sets?
I found 8674 in a charity shop for £8 and have since fixed it up, and it's worth about £200 (£130 of which is the tyres- what on earth are those doing at £33 each!!!???) but haven't got round to putting it up yet as I'm not sure where the most popular place for 'serious' lego collectors to look for semi-obscure sets.
@Huw: additional - like @jkb thought, I live in the country. I guess these shops are more prevalent in the cities.
@Banners said:
"My old man volunteers at a popular charity shop in Devon, but has never had any LEGO donated there in the 2-3 years he's been doing it.
The only place I can remember seeing LEGO in a charity shop was in Chester a few months ago where some valuable sets were in the window. There was an early modular, and Star Wars 75512 too iirc. I got very excited at the prospect of a bargain, but on enquiring, they were priced appropriately and, it appeared – I assume – as if a bona fide collector had lent the sets to the shop for potential sale on some kind of commission/donation basis.
I sent some random old bricks to the LEGO Replay scheme and got a nice email. I'd have preferred some VIP points however...(!)"
My first posting too.
I'm the collector responsible for the Lego in that charity shop (Claire House). When I retired I realised that I had too much Lego stored (If that's really possible) and decided to donate any excess.
They are selling things both in the store and on eBay.
If anyone is in the area and want's to check out the store then please be lucky.
@HJB2810 said:
" @followsclosely said:
"Buying used lots is the highlight of this hobby for me. I documented my latest find on reddit, and the old bricklink forum that is no more.
I paid $1,500 for the lot, ended up pulling out over $10,000 is sets. I sold $6,000 or so and kept more than I probbly should. It was so much fun to discover what was hidden in the tubs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/14xqmwd/facebook_marketplace_find_final_update/ "
Where's the best place to sell old sets?
I found 8674 in a charity shop for £8 and have since fixed it up, and it's worth about £200 (£130 of which is the tyres- what on earth are those doing at £33 each!!!???) but haven't got round to putting it up yet as I'm not sure where the most popular place for 'serious' lego collectors to look for semi-obscure sets."
IMHO the best place to sell is ebay. Why? because you may be able to get non-knowledgeable buyers and charge them more. Knowledgeable buyers will know of all the places where to buy Lego and will select the one fitting their needs and budget. For example on Bricklink, a given set can go from 1/5 the original price to 5x the original price - you pick what you like. On ebay you charge what you want and hope that the prospective buyer does not know any better and consider it a good deal. On ebay you also get the rich people that don't care about prices - they finally found what they are looking for and they just want it ASAP - they pay, you ship, everybody happy! YMMV
@HJB2810 said:
" @followsclosely said:
"Buying used lots is the highlight of this hobby for me. I documented my latest find on reddit, and the old bricklink forum that is no more.
I paid $1,500 for the lot, ended up pulling out over $10,000 is sets. I sold $6,000 or so and kept more than I probbly should. It was so much fun to discover what was hidden in the tubs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/14xqmwd/facebook_marketplace_find_final_update/ "
Where's the best place to sell old sets?
I found 8674 in a charity shop for £8 and have since fixed it up, and it's worth about £200 (£130 of which is the tyres- what on earth are those doing at £33 each!!!???) but haven't got round to putting it up yet as I'm not sure where the most popular place for 'serious' lego collectors to look for semi-obscure sets."
Bricklink is your best bet for reaching Lego collectors.
My first was 535. It's very nostalgic to me. It's my childhood.
I purchased 3 second-hand sets in my resurgence period. One robot, one shark, and one house. The robot, bescause I needed pieces; the house, because it was a bargain; and the shark, because one shark at home was not enough, and I wanted the 2nd.
Many years ago, when PayPal was still an option, I've been planing to buy pieces I miss from my beloved 6897 (and I miss a lot), but always hesitated.
I've been lucky to find used Lego at yard sales and have bought it about half the time I do -- I don't buy lots/sets I'm not interested in or when the yard sale is selling for near-MSRP. It's obviously hit or miss. I often look to see what people are offering on Facebook Marketplace and it's 95% of the time some scalper that is jacking up the prices, so I've never purchased any of those.
If you're going to donate used Lego, my first suggestion would be to children who can't afford it. My second suggestion is to donate it to your local elementary school or library.
@HOBBES said:
"In 2003 I owned every single Technic sets available on the surface of the planet (including Japanese Kabaya promotionals). Since then I sold a very large part of them (selling some of them was a terrible mistake - but I can always buy back the missing gems). Most of the sets were new but some of them were used. I 'restored' a 8868 with peroxide on a hot summer day for the white and grey parts (works wonder but it is a lot of work - you have to keep the parts under the surface, rotate them and they have to be there for quite a while - but eventually they emerge good as new). I was able to get a very good price for this set - which I should not have sold at all. I recently received used Lego parts and I am dredging the amount of work it will require to clean/sanitize/disinfect all this. Considering the work required and the high prices of late, it is simply not worth it unless you are after a specific very old set (I would still consider some old classic space sets provided the box is in good shape)."
My mistake: I meant 'dreading' (the amount of work...) instead of 'dredging'. Not quite the same thing!
We often didn't have a disposable income growing up, so my main source of bricks was my Uncle's tub (he wasn't that much older than me, probably 8-12 years older). He had many Johnny Thunder sets (kickstarting my fondness for Adventurers), including the 5958 and 5987, but his collection ended with the first wave of Harry Potter sets.
The pieces ended up being split between two smaller tubs (my older brother's and mine)... my brother ended up getting all the cool pieces (classic Dinos and Dino Attack 2005, Pharaoh Hotep and his sarcophagus, many of the cool Harry Potter elements) and later his tub went missing at some point. I'm definitely not still upset about never seeing my Stegosaurus, Hotep, or Peeves again.
I used to buy LEGO at charity shops until about two years ago. It was often well priced, sometimes under priced. But these days, all the charity shops near me seem to think LEGO is gold and price it incredibly high. It will sit for 2-3 months then get halved in price to shift, at which point it is probably about right and will sell. Whereas I find you can still get some decent LEGO at reasonable prices at boot sales. I reckon 90% of my recently purchased used LEGO now comes that way.
For me second hand Lego is the best! I love bargain hunting. Recently I had one of my best finds ever: al nearly complete Cafe Corner in a 90 euro lot (which came with some other goodies as well)
I've been hunting Lego on the second hand market for almost as long as the good Cap'n has been building Lego. I used to make Lego auction purchases on my flip phone when I was away from a computer.
It's a lot of fun, and addictive. Of course, things have changed quite a bit. Prices and competition are more intense than ever. Nevertheless, there's a lot of skill in spotting a few tell-tale signs that hidden gems abound in a lot. That means there will always be opportunity if you develop your eye.
There's nothing like buying a $50 box of Lego to uncover rare batch of minifigs worth $1,000. Probably a third of my collection originated from donated sets. It was an indispensable tool to collecting the old HP and Star Wars sets.
I don't think that the perception of value has diminished Lego donations. If anything, it has increased the supply because people are less likely to throw it away. Moreover, stores are more likely to put old collections on the internet for sale because of the perceived potential value.
I haven't bought anything for a while. I have been traveling and writing. Like a lot of people, my collection really expanded during the pandemic. It's time for me to slow down on Lego purchases.
More for all of you!
Honestly, older LEGO is helping me out of the dark ages. I've been very impressed by the quality of vintage bricks.
Incomplete sets (as is the case with most of my '80s Technic--which predate me) and bulk bricks are especially affordable for Town and Technic--the two themes I really pay attention to. Model Team has been sorely tempting me.
One of my fondest LEGO memories as a kid was coming home from church one Sunday and one of my dad's colleagues dropping by a few minutes later with a tub full of LEGO that her son had 'grown out of'. She knew I was a LEGO nerd, and donated it to us... for free! She wouldn't accept any payment from us.
One of those sets was the 7662 Trade Federation MTT, in almost perfect condition (the only issue beng some loose hinges on the Battle Droids). I'd say that was well worth it.
Since we are on the subject of it, I decided to go through one of the bags I received recently. There are so many other brands and crap in there that it seems dishonest to call this a bag of Lego block. I would say nearly a third of it was not Lego. I touched so many other stuff, i almost felt promiscuous. At least now, the Lego brand pieces have been separated for the chaff and I now need to find an incinerator/disintegrator/transmogrifier(Calvin & Hobbes!) to get rid of the left over scum!
To me, the most interesting parts in my bag were suspension parts from 6660 and canon holder from 6280 and a horse. I got it for free, can't really complain...
The worst, as always, the hairs.
I'm a collector and Bricklink seller. I often buy bulk lots from facebook marketplace or craigslist. I spend a lot of time rebuilding sets and replacing missing, damaged or yellowed pieces. Once Lego sets are all mixed together into one big bin, they often stay that way. Most people would not know how to identify what sets are even there or have the will to rebuild them. While Lego doesn't get thrown out, I do feel like what I do is "saving" the Lego. Bulk Lego does not have a lot of value to most people.
One time a parent told me that the grandparents gave the grandkids a Lego encyclopedia book. As the years went by, the kids still wanted the Lego they saw in the book, but the sets have long been retired. They were so grateful that I had an inventory of old sets that they could buy. It feels great that I could save those sets and help get them to another Lego fan.
If it wasn't for second hand Lego I would never have ended my Lego dark age. Just noticing the 347-1 Fire Station by accident on e-Bay reminded how much I loved that set as a child. So I bought that, then all the other Legoland miniwheel scale vehicles and buildings I had. Then all the ones I didn't!
I find it very satisfying cleaning old sets.
I use warm water and washing-up liquid with a 1" paint brush, which I find very effective at getting into all the smallest nooks and crannies. Then I follow up with very thorough rinsing, as the slightest trace of detergent can leave streaks on the bricks
I must admit, the thought of battering Lego together in a washing machine does rather give me the heebie-jeebies!
Ultimately there's nothing better than the sound that pushing together 60s & 70s Lego bricks makes. A sound totally absent in modern Lego!
As I said in the previous article, my brother gave me his Lego collection, but I haven't been given any other secondhand Lego that I can remember. While the only set I've ever found in a thrift shop was a mostly complete 70144, I have found a Basic bucket or two with an assortment of Lego pieces, and some not-Lego. One also had a Jack Stone figure in it, which most us wish wasn't Lego. One thrift shop once had bags (quart-size Ziplocs, if I'm remembering correctly) with assorted small toys in them, and since Lego pieces were among the small toys, I bought a couple, especially since one or two of the printed corner panels from either 6067 or 10000 were in one of them. I also found a 3551 at a yard sale that hadn't been opened. I also bought a small wicker trash can at that yard sale, appropriately enough.
wow that 80s stuff is astoundingly not yellow
These day finding a good second hand lot is a life saver. Heck, it doesn't even need to be good to be honest, it just has to be there and resonably priced :))...
@Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean."
The best method is the dishwasher and food dehydrator. Disassemble and put the parts in a mesh laundry bag. Spread it out on the top rack of the dishwasher and run it. Transfer to the food dehydrator, taking care to spread the pieces out on the trays. Run on low temperature (=100°F) overnight. When you awake, every nook and cranny will be completely dry.
@CCC said:
"I used to buy LEGO at charity shops until about two years ago. It was often well priced, sometimes under priced. But these days, all the charity shops near me seem to think LEGO is gold and price it incredibly high. It will sit for 2-3 months then get halved in price to shift, at which point it is probably about right and will sell. Whereas I find you can still get some decent LEGO at reasonable prices at boot sales. I reckon 90% of my recently purchased used LEGO now comes that way."
Second only post and on the same thread.
I agree that most charity shops seem to over price Lego, blame the tabloids for that.
At the charity shop that I support in Chester (Claire House) I try to find a match for the condition of sets that I donate and give them low end guide prices for eBay and Bricklink. They will check those prices and sell below them (aiming for about ~90%) with the result that sets usually move quickly (hours to days). Result of this is happy customers (they can see the exact condition of the sets they are buying) who come back for more.
@AllenSmith said:
" @Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean."
The best method is the dishwasher and food dehydrator. Disassemble and put the parts in a mesh laundry bag. Spread it out on the top rack of the dishwasher and run it. Transfer to the food dehydrator, taking care to spread the pieces out on the trays. Run on low temperature (=100°F) overnight. When you awake, every nook and cranny will be completely dry."
I don't prefer this to the washing machine method I proposed. The washing machine offers lower temperatures, mechanical motion that gets the detergent everywhere and spinning that dries the bricks by means of centrifugal force. The dishwasher doesn't actually tumble the pieces when cleaning, gets way hotter when drying (thus potentially damaging some bricks or prints), and the lack of motion is less effective at both cleaning and drying the Lego bricks that have so many cavities. The dishwasher works for dishes because they are smooth and cannot be tumbled, but you should treat your Lego bricks more like clothes.
I have completed my dad's old Space sets. 6940, 6927, 6820. In the 80s in Poland they were very hard to get and very expensive. After years I myself am looking for bargain offers of used sets from this series, because the prices of new ones are crazy (I try to avoid discoloration and damage as much as possible). Of course I also have all the sets from my childhood and I have a huge sentiment for them. Ps. If you have old discoloured pads, hydrogen peroxide is good.
I've been buying used LEGO ever since I liked it, which is now 45 years - except for in my dark age (some years). I've also found LEGO on the street, in the trash. Just a week ago I got a moving box of LEGO from the two teenage kids from a friend, which means hours of sorting, and discovering all kinds of nice elements, minifigs, etc, that spark joy. I found a skunk!
But here's an anecdote I'd like to share that happened three weeks ago. I was at a large thrift shop. Thrift shops here in NL don't often have LEGO in my experience (and I go twice a month in different cities). But here's some bags of Eighties LEGO, sorted by color (ouch!) so I pick up some blue that isn't tanned and has lots of classic space pieces.. there's also lots of instructions, so I pick like 15 that are classic space themed..
And then there's huge box filled with 12V train tracks, the yellow-red train and a nice long black steam engine.. at €80 I'm tempted, I still have my old modest 12V train layout with the little blue shunter, but has been boxed up for a while and I'm thinking about selling it, I really lack the space (and reason/need) to keep everything.
So wise as I am, I leave it.
At the counter, a young nerdy student-type kid and his gf lean over looking at the booklets. "Can I take some pictures? I picked up a box with a lot of little sets yesterday". I tell him "lucky you, and so do you have that trans-yellow window that goes with this blue 1x6x5 frame?" but he doesn't understand. New to the hobby I assume. I tell him I'm not sure if I'll take all the instructions, as I don't know the price. At €1 a piece I decide to only take the big ones, that and leave for another adjacent thrift, just before closing time. When I head back to my car I see the young couple leave the previous one.
In the car I realize that box of 12V train stuff might be very flippable thinking I should've known and was stupid to leave it, and so I look up the prices on eBay and such of the trains I've seen.. oh my. I decide to return next morning.
So I jump in the car, park it, walk into the thriftshop at 10 am... to see the young couple at the counter paying for the giant box with 12V train stuff... Should I congratulate him? I felt like such an idiot I turner around unseen and went straight home.
What are the odds?!
Oh well, great minds think alike, and my fantasy is that the young guy is actually new into the hobby, will lay out the huge track from an era before he was born, figure out he needs to clean the iron rails and motors and be as mesmerized as I was when I was little kid with my 12V LEGO train in the Eighties.
I'm surprised that a lot of people here haven't bought more secondhand. To be fair, much of my collection were from new sets, but used is how I got many, many sets! Granted, I'm primarily a 2000's child (born in late 90s), so much of the "classic" LEGO has to be second hand for me. Lots are a lot more fun nowadays, primarily for the reasons others have stated. It's fun to piece together what sets they had, fill in some gaps, and bring it to completion. I've done this extensively for BIONICLE - it's why I have 3-4 sets of the original Toa.
Nowadays too, I never really buy sets and use them just for parts. So, I have a very dated collection of elements. Used stuff helps fill that out. My local Half-Price books sells little baggies of parts for $5 a pop, and occasionally you find some really nice parts. A lot of Friends, City, and Minecraft parts - but a lot of new elements I really enjoy. I even once found one of those older Chrome Gold sun disks from Adventurers.
Cleaning is always a task - but it depends on the bricks. I've only gotten one lot of genuinely gross bricks - it required three washes to get those parts clean. Easily worth it though, as the BIONICLE masks in it were worth more than I paid for the lots themselves. Plus, they bolster my collection of parts to mess around and build with. Not too bad!
I confess, I'd like to do more lots of regular system bricks. I occasionally see ones online and consider them. I do dislike the now-increased perception of value on LEGO - it does make the secondary market annoying to get parts from. And if you thought system prices were bad, people are trying to charge upwards of $40 a pound for BIONICLE parts. Not even rare ones! It's a crime, honestly.
Hey, at least the Galidor lots remain cheap. My NIB collection was one of the cheapest sets I've gotten, though actually people are trying to charge quite a lot for Galidor sets now. You'll see a NIB set for $40 when it was $2 when I bought them. Funny, considering we all got them in those 2002 fire-sales when the axe was brought down. Pandemic-era pricing, though, and now with a bigger influx of people actually meeting Galidor where it's at instead of blindly hating something they've never interacted with - trying to see how much they can offload them for. Just those two semi-released sets have actual value, and they're genuinely rare. My white whales of my LEGO collection, now that I have every BIONICLE set.
@johnnytifosi said:
" @AllenSmith said:
" @Robot99 said:
"On the topic of dirty sets, does anyone have some basic Lego cleaning tips? Any set I leave out on display immediately gets caked in dust, and all these years later I still haven't developed a good strategy to clean these out, let alone keeping them clean."
The best method is the dishwasher and food dehydrator. Disassemble and put the parts in a mesh laundry bag. Spread it out on the top rack of the dishwasher and run it. Transfer to the food dehydrator, taking care to spread the pieces out on the trays. Run on low temperature (=100°F) overnight. When you awake, every nook and cranny will be completely dry."
I don't prefer this to the washing machine method I proposed. The washing machine offers lower temperatures, mechanical motion that gets the detergent everywhere and spinning that dries the bricks by means of centrifugal force. The dishwasher doesn't actually tumble the pieces when cleaning, gets way hotter when drying (thus potentially damaging some bricks or prints), and the lack of motion is less effective at both cleaning and drying the Lego bricks that have so many cavities. The dishwasher works for dishes because they are smooth and cannot be tumbled, but you should treat your Lego bricks more like clothes."
My dishwasher has options to turn off the high-temperature wash and the heat dry. I always leave them off even for regular dishes, for economy reasons. I've never had any trouble with damaging Lego, and I've run enough through that I would have noticed by now.
I don't want to use the washing machine because Lego scratches (especially tiles and transparent elements), and the more you agitate it, the worse it gets. And both hot-air dryers and condensing dryers are going to do a tremendous amount of tumbling in the drying process, so I really encourage the zero-tumbling low-temperature food dehydrator for drying. But if you are happy with your results, great!
Great article!!
During my peak of Lego "collecting" I had a friend who used to go to garage sales. She alerted me to a garage sale where they had a bin full of classic space sets. It included almost complete sets of 306, 377, 384, 385, 612, 918, 920, 926, 928, 948 and 6901 . All for $45CAD. My "collecting" has slowed down since then. I do occasionally look at what is available at our local Value Village. I obtained two bags for around $40CAD which included almost complete sets of 357, 492, 614, 653, 657, 659, 694 and 565 which I have been wanting since I was a child. I love second hand Lego.
@HOBBES said:
"Since we are on the subject of it, I decided to go through one of the bags I received recently. There are so many other brands and crap in there that it seems dishonest to call this a bag of Lego block. I would say nearly a third of it was not Lego. I touched so many other stuff, i almost felt promiscuous. At least now, the Lego brand pieces have been separated for the chaff and I now need to find an incinerator/disintegrator/transmogrifier(Calvin & Hobbes!) to get rid of the left over scum!
To me, the most interesting parts in my bag were suspension parts from 6660 and canon holder from 6280 and a horse. I got it for free, can't really complain...
The worst, as always, the hairs."
The other stuff that turns up in mixed/used thrift store lots is always interesting and sometimes disgusting. Going from memory the things I've found over the years are:
- Other building toys like Mega Bloks or K-Nex
- Barbie shoes
- Money! Usually pennies but the occasional larger coin
- Popsicle sticks and other candy wrappers
- Pieces from other games ie. Monopoly houses and marbles
- Bandaids
- And as mentioned above hair, both long and short!!
It occurs to me that both the oldest set in my collection and the oldest individual pieces are ones I bought secondhand. I bought 8858-2 on eBay after it was RSotD and I bought a door assembly on Bricklink that's older than I am after seeing it used in some MOCs that used it on Brickshelf. Specifically, the combination of https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3579&idColor=1T=C&C=1 and https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=7930&idColor=1T=C&C=1
I should 'qualify' my vote a bit: I don't recall being 'given' second-hand Lego...but I must have at some point ('law of averages'). I DO know I've bought second hand Lego, in at least parts: Bricklink, Brick Bin (Calgary B+M reselller), and thrift stores (Value Village and the like)...The 'downside' the bulk-buy at the last spot: separating what is not Lego (Mega Blocks SUUUCK...built a wall with some, left the room, came back...GAP-CITY...)...
I think the worst I have heard for things found in bulk Lego is a dead frog. That being said I remember helping fence a friends Lego to another friend a while back. When she sorted it, she found the usual second-hand inclusions, but a couple of teeth were the standouts. It was worth it though. She had parts of 4184 and 4195. I forget the exact weight of the haul maybe, 15 or 20 pounds? I do remember it was far larger than anticipated. I had priced it at around $60 I believe using two poor quality pictures. When I saw it in person, I pitched in an extra $20 because I felt bad for miscalculating. They were both happy about the transaction though.
I tend to buy second-hand Lego sets (complete or incomplete) not from Bricklink, rather using platforms where photos showing the actual condition of the sets are available and the value (and price) of LEGO in the eyes of the seller might be lower, e. g. ebay, Kleinanzeigen ( a German Craigslist equivalent). Of course, the divides between categories of complete, almost complete and incomplete are much more blurry as people often don't care enough or simply have a different mindset, e. g. when it comes to part or color replacements. Then again, I think photos can provide a good reference of the condition of a particular set and I'm glad I was able to land a few really bargain deals in great condition (an excellent 6198 for 37 EUR, a very large chunk of the 2009 Atlantis lineup for 60 EUR, and 2 fully complete copies of 71316 for less than 10 EUR each). For used parts, Bricklink is by far the most wallet-friendly option imo (apart from bulk lots) and I also try to save on shipping by placing orders in cities I'm visiting.
So far, my experience has been positive on the whole, with only a few instances of damaged, miscolored, or bootleg parts over the years.
@GeRo3139 said:
"I'm the collector responsible for the Lego in that charity shop (Claire House). When I retired I realised that I had too much Lego stored (If that's really possible) and decided to donate any excess.
They are selling things both in the store and on eBay.
If anyone is in the area and want's to check out the store then please be lucky.
"
Oh wow, great to meet you(!) Good on you for doing that. Amazing. What a good cause. I will have to go back to the shop again at the weekend and have a proper look around. Amazing stuff :-)
You forget garage/carboot/rummage sales and flea markets. Those can be great places to find random LEGO too. My mother-in-law is a garage saler and has bought me a lot of LEGO over the years. I'm not a MOC builder, so I try to identify unique-ish parts in the sets I get and then track down the instructions and parts lists to see how much of the set I have. If it's missing the minifigures, I usually don't bother unless it's something big or pretty unique, but if the minifigures are there, I'm on the hunt. I've bought a lot of parts from Bricklink over the years to complete sets I got through this method. I've also used Craigslist in the US to find people selling sets cheap to add them to my collection or complete and resell. During the big Castle theme around 2008, I bought a whole bunch of almost complete sets from someone who wants to buy new sets but had to get rid of their old ones first. Lastly, I got two large bins for $200 on Craigs list, and they had eight (!) nearly complete Viking ships that were only missing the minifigures, dragons, and sails (they even had instructions). Despite those key missing parts, I was able to sell each of them for about a third the original price and recoup the cost of the two bins and then some. Plus I got to keep the tons of LEGO that were still left, including many late 1990s and early 2000s sets that I didn't have.
@Banners said:
" @GeRo3139 said:
"I'm the collector responsible for the Lego in that charity shop (Claire House). When I retired I realised that I had too much Lego stored (If that's really possible) and decided to donate any excess.
They are selling things both in the store and on eBay.
If anyone is in the area and want's to check out the store then please be lucky.
"
Oh wow, great to meet you(!) Good on you for doing that. Amazing. What a good cause. I will have to go back to the shop again at the weekend and have a proper look around. Amazing stuff :-)"
There are only two sets in the shop at the moment. I tend to drop set(s) off on a Tuesday morning, a new in sealed box 4184 will be going in next week.
It's a gradual clearing out of unused and refurbished used sets which will continue for some time. There will be some Star Wars minifigure sets going later this year; I'm getting rid of my complete collection of SW minifigs after I realised that I'd seen far less than half of the content on which they are based ;-)
I visit a weekly fleamarket near by - it gets me out of bed every Sunday morning. There are a couple of traders who regularly sell used minifigures, as well as elements from mixed lots by the bag. But the real bargains come from the one off traders who are cleaning out the garage to attic. Today, I found a box full of pre 1978 parts - wheels, grey tyres; white prototechnic axles, as well as 10x20 raised baseplates in grey and yellow.
I was strongly tempted, but I have another project currently underway, and felt it might be better to save space in the LEGO Room this week. There are typically a couple of batches of DUPLO, just ready to be passed on to the next kid.
Couple this with a commercial operation a little further out, who run a brick market every 6 weeks or so, and I feel we are quite fortunate in our neck of the woods to be able to keep the elements circulating.
Nice article. I was always on the hunt for second hand lego, not so much these day though. I'd a habit of ducking in and out of charity shops. It's kind of like treasure hunting, you never know what you'll find.
However, most charities have some sort of awareness as to the value of lego these days. Unfortunately the hype around some sets has inflated the price of second hand lego and often beyond reason. Prior to this I used to buy job lots off eBay too.
I don't do that anymore, it's become too expensive. I tend to just buy the specific parts I need for various MOCs from Brick Owl and BrickLink.