Legos! How to sort and sell?

[Retro Treasures WV]

I have now amassed a large collection of Legos. I originally bought for my kids, but I got 3 more large tubs for cheap this week and I need to sort them all just to know what I have to decide what to keep.

Currently I am sorting the 3 ways- common classic pieces, anything special ( odd shapes, smooth top, special function), and technic/mind storms.

So my question is how does everyone else do it? I know there are a few people here that deal in Legos.

[probablyDeric]

I’ve done some lego sales in the past. It depends on how you want to sell them. If it’s a random mish-mosh of stuff, I’d just post it to a 7 day auction, and sell it by weight. What I do for the bulk bricks, is take pictures as I add stuff to a flat rate box. That way the people buying can get a general feel for what’s in the box.

I’d separate out the minifigures, and sell those separately. Everything else, I do in large or medium flat-rate boxes, filling them, with pictures of it on a scale to show the proper weight.

You’ll get the most money out of it if you can complete sets and sell them that way, but that is also by far the most time-consuming way if you don’t already know what you have there.

If you want to go full-tilt on Lego, look into Bricklink.com, as that’s basically eBay for individual pieces of Lego. I used to have a store there, but found for the amount of time it took to sort out these collections, I could get probably 50 different things posted on eBay… then when the Bricklink sales start trickling in at $0.50 plus shipping… suddenly I didn’t feel like running the store anymore 🙂

Hope this helps a bit… if you have any other focused questions, I can answer those.

Specifically, when I sorted in the past, for Bricklink: all the Bionicles went into one bin, the regular bricks went into another, the flats (so, like a 1X2 brick, but the flat ones, not the taller ones) went into another bin, all minifigs into another bin, all the odd shaped pieces into another bin. Then, because Bricklink is by the individual piece, I would sort the regular bricks into smaller lots, and repeat until they were sorted out. Then, I’d sort by color, and record it as part # (found on the bottom of the pieces usually), and the color.

It was a process. I still have probably 100 lbs of bulk bricks in my basement, and I just don’t want to do the initial sort of taking out the megablocks (which needs to happen. If someone gets 5% megablocks, you’ll probably have an INAD case)

[Retro Treasures WV]

Thanks for the response! Your podcast interview gave me the “shove” to do this kind of experiment. I’m about 90% done sorting. This was my sorting method:
– common bricks & slopes.
– Technics & mindstorms
– all smooth top pieces
-all plates larger than the common sizes (1×1, 1×2, 2×2, 2×6 etc I consider common bricks)
– anything special or angular, hinges, odd shapes, specialty pieces,doors wheels, etc)
-minifigures & associated parts and accessories.

I have close to 3lb of minifigures & parts in this haul! I think I will take some time to pick through this and piece together some complete figures to sell individually. I have two hagrids, and a rare crash test dummy I’ve pieced together so far. I should be able to piece together plenty of Star Wars, Harry potter, & LOTR characters. They seem to be the most sought after. Then I’ll just create 2-3 bulk lots to sell.

Is there a good way to identify minifigs? I’m not seeing part #s on the main printed body parts.

I plan to sell the common bricks, technics/mindstorms, plates, and flat pieces as 1 lb lots. List them by the pound but with quantity. I’ll randomly fill up lb lots.

I may spend some time sorting the specialty pieces. For sure I’ll gather all the star wars style space ship gray wing plates to sell as a lot. I may do a few hinge lots. everything else will be bulk.

One last question: Am I doing the right thing separating common bricks from specialty bricks/parts when doing bulk lots?

[Retro Treasures WV]

Oh and I have tried to get rid of all the megablocks. Some have slipped through but eventually I could tell them apart just by feel. They have a much cheaper feel to them and the color isn’t as crisp. Definitely way under 5%.

[probablyDeric]

The best way I found to do the minifigures, is if you’re identifying any that are already put together, http://brickset.com/browse/minifigs is a great resource. If it’s parts… I never really found a good way to handle that. I generally was able to figure out some of the sets I had in the bulk, and identify figures from what should have been included in those sets. Generally speaking, figures that aren’t part of the blind-bag minifigs, or aren’t part of a tie-in (think Star wars or super heroes), are ones that I would just bulk up and sell that way.

I haven’t checked the prices for single lbs before, I did just check prices, for say brick 3001 (the standard 2X4), and see that people are selling 100 of them for around $10-$15 with free shipping… I guess it’s time to dig out all the bricks I already have sorted and count them up 🙂

[Retro Treasures WV]

Wow, I never saw the lots of 100. That is insane! I thought everyone sold by the pound. I’ll have pull 100 bricks and see what that weighs. It definitely is not a pound though. It would be easy to create 100 brick lots. I could get the kids to do that.

[Indiana Picker]

When my son was around 9-12, he would want and buy Star Wars Lego sets with specific figures in them. He was well aware of the “rare” mini-figs, and could really care less about the sets otherwise. After awhile, he said that Lego was basically flooding the market by making more of the “rare” ones. If you have a young Lego lover in your world, they might be a great resource.

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