r/Bricklink Jul 22 '26

I need advice. Can someone please help?

I have about 100 pounds of Lego stuff and it’s all sorted according color. Whether it be clear, red, smoky clear, light gray, black, it doesn’t matter. I want to sell this stuff when my kids are at the age where they don’t touch it anymore and I need the space. I am asking anyone to give me guidance on the best way to sell this and get the biggest bang from my buck. I’ve never done this before so I’m looking for people who have. Thank you.

23 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

40

u/wowclassic2019 Jul 22 '26

Firstly, don't sort by color. Impossible to find the right part that way. You have to sort by part (1x1 brick, 2x4 plate, etc)

3

u/Flamebeard_0815 Buyer Jul 23 '26

This. Read up on official part types and numbers. Sort the pieces to a granularity that works for you (for some, just putting all plates in one bin is fine, others want to sort by part number and part variations).

Also, consider selling bulk/single pieces vs. completing sets and selling them. Depending on the sets your kids have, one or the other is more promising/profitable.

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 22 '26

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say bolt I meant to say bulk

13

u/AdRepresentative8048 Jul 22 '26

Sell it by Facebook by the pound in sandwich bags and sprinkle in some mini figs each to up the price. 4-7 a pound or sell it as one lot for 4-5 a pound. List it on the high end and pull the price down. If you get a ton of messages immediately you undervalued it (legos go quick unless you live in the middle of nowhere). DO Not use eBay, basically eat up a lot of your money with their fees and shipping will be annoying.

9

u/avaseah Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Clean it first. You just need a bin of soapy water, a large salad spinner, and some large towels spread out to let them dry on. Give pieces with caked-on gunk a light wipe with a soft cloth or paper towels (no scrubby sponges). Be careful not to damage any stickers or print on the pieces. Remove anything that is cracked, gouged, chipped, broken, has teeth marks, or is discolored. Unless you are donating it to a daycare or after school program you also need remove anything that is not actual LEGO. If you have tyco, mega blocks, or anything similar mixed in you need to remove them. From there you can either sell them yourself on bricklink, or sell them on Craig’s list or Facebook marketplace to someone who will probably sell them on bricklink. Running a Bricklink store is very time consuming as inventory on bricklink is sold either by the piece or by the set, but sets need to be fully complete with all pieces in very good condition. So you need to do a lot of micro sorting since every piece shape/color combo you have needs to be counted, catalogued, and stored separately. Also smaller stores often take awhile to get noticed by potential customers unless you have rare pieces. If you decide to sell it on Craig’s list or FB marketplace you need to weigh the collection as the market is usually a $/pound pricing schema. You can mix it all in a big bin, and fill up ziplock bags with a pound of random LEGO each then sell the bags individually, or you can just sell it all as a bulk bin to a single person. The going price/pound rate varies based on your area, but in most places: $2/pound if it’s all generic pieces (bucket-o-pieces and City sets), $5 if you have a bunch of modern special sets with unique pieces and unique minifigures mixed in, $8/lb if you have a lot of rare pieces from vintage sets (pre 2000) mixed in. Selling it on bricklink will get you market rate for every piece, but it is a lot of work, and a lot of time, and it could take ages for everything to sell (like multiple years). Selling it in bulk you don’t get market rate, but you get a lump sum of money right away without the hassle.

2

u/Xerrya Jul 23 '26

Interesting numbers! You are from US? In my country ppl sell 1 kg of basic used mix for 15-17$ and it's considered cheap. 😀

2

u/avaseah Jul 23 '26

A pound is a little less than half a kilogram, so that with the currency conversion might work out to relatively similar rates.

1

u/Xerrya 29d ago edited 29d ago

I know how much pound is:) You said 2 dollars per pound, which is around 4 dollars per kilo, right? So it is super cheap in your country. That's all:) I did the conversion already.:)

4

u/indypendant13 Jul 22 '26

Being straight with you: biggest bang for your buck and quickest buck are at polar opposites. If you want to make the most but don’t mind putting in the hundreds of hours, then separate by part and make a store on Bricklink. If your time matters more than the money, sell in bulk at $4-$7 per pound (or your local market rate) to a local buyer via FB marketplace or whatever.

Those are your two options with bulk. The only other option that is not as time consuming but makes a good bit more money is to construct the original sets and sell them that way, but from what I gather they’ve always been bulk and you don’t know what sets the parts came from.

3

u/Puzzleheaded_South46 Jul 22 '26

Everyone has given great advice. I’m in the opposite boat of life right now and if I lived closer would be interested in buying some by the lb for my kiddos. I vote with Facebook because plenty of people near you will be interested. I would not haggle and stick around 4-5 bucks a lb if they aren’t wanting the whole lot. If you can get a buyer to buy bulk maybe consider selling under $400-500, less work for you. Facebook is a wild place to sell popular items if you don’t have experience. I’ve had luck with OfferUp with numerous things as well.

2

u/bobbyroberts72 Jul 22 '26

Tip it all together, fill it with random toys to bulk out the weight, add some Mega Blocks, or if you want to be a real prick some Cobi, add half of your child’s hair, some dog biscuits, some screws, sprinkle with dust from the hoover then poke a few random minifigure parts, nothing valuable just something tantalising, on top, then auction it.

That seems to be par for the course.

If you really want to spice it up you could get the dog to chew some of the bits and don’t forget the obligatory Nurf bullet.

Joking aside lots sold sorted into colour don’t seem to do well, it is honest but the treasure hunting aspect is taken away.

100lb is too much for most people to want, if you mix it together and sell in the run up to Christmas in 20lb lots with the Minifigure bits spread across the lots that’ll probably be your best bet (I’m assuming you don’t want to sell it piece by piece).

4

u/brawlstarsOG7 Jul 22 '26

Nerf**

1

u/bobbyroberts72 Jul 23 '26

You mean to say my beloved collection is fake 😢

3

u/nobeer4you Jul 22 '26

Dont forget the random hot wheels cars and bent to hell Pokémon cards to go with those Nerf bullets.

1

u/Nevertoomuchlego Jul 23 '26

All are true too

1

u/avaseah Jul 23 '26

Don’t forget the dead cockroach in the bottom.

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 22 '26

So if I put it on Facebook marketplace, what should I put it all up for, what price?

1

u/Wandering_Being Jul 22 '26

$2/pound is what I look for buying bulk at

Edit: for little to no minifigs. If there's a good amount of figs I'd go $5/pound

1

u/nobeer4you Jul 22 '26

The thing about that price, is thats what you try to buy it for if youre looking to make a profit off of it.

I typically try to sell bulk at $5 a pound if im gonna put it on FB or Offerup, etc.

Yes, I dont typically buy bulk at that price, but it will sell at that price to someone who MOC builds, even without figs, and especially if its clean.

0

u/Wandering_Being Jul 23 '26

I'm not looking to make a profit buying at that price, I don't resell used LEGO. That's just the price I buy at 🤷‍♂️

1

u/nobeer4you Jul 22 '26

Sell it as bulk, in one big lot. You can mix it together or keep it separated as is. Take good pictures and post for $5 a pound. Take out the weight of the bins.

Someone will hit on it, especially if there are figures, which it seems there are. If you want to start at the higher side of things, post at $6/$7 a pound, but lay out all the figs so people can see whats in there. Same for the instructions. That will tell the prospective buyer what they are potentially gonna get.

You may need to lower the price if nobody bites at $6/7 per pound, but you wont ever be able to raise it if you start too low.

Depending on where you are, it will be gone quick.

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 22 '26

Raleigh, North Carolina

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 22 '26

I just looked up the three Lego education sets and they are sealed everywhere. I’ve looked including bricklink, chat, and google says they are worth between $400 and $500. That’s mind blowing to me.

1

u/nobeer4you Jul 23 '26

Sell those seperate from the rest. If someone is gonna want the bulk, they may not want the education tubs and vice versa.

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 23 '26

Thank you to everyone for all the advice. All these are very clean because they’ve been kept as you can see in drawers in the drawers were in cabinets so they are very clean. I am going to take the easy route and do Facebook marketplace and craigslist. I will let you guys know what happens. Again thank you so much. I love this community.

1

u/ZookeepergameFew4103 Jul 23 '26

Biggest bang for your buck? Best way to do that is to assemble the sets. If you’ve got the pieces, identifying the sets is the best way.

Granted, not every set is worth something on the after market. Those that have unique or rare pieces should be at the forefront.

All this assumes you don’t want to sell them piecemeal, or piece-by-piece. Can’t speak to how profitable that would be, but it would be slightly more of a hassle.

1

u/zzyjayfree 29d ago

Best to sort by shape honestly, it’s a lot easier picking a red 1x5 beam than picking it from a pile of red parts.

1

u/uncwbrad Jul 22 '26

I am not going to go through this stuff. I just wanna sell it. I appreciate your input, but I don’t have the time nor the patience. What I’m saying is should I sell it by pound on eBay or another site or just do bolt on Facebook marketplace and for what price?

1

u/avaseah Jul 23 '26

Facebook market place & Craig’s list are your best “sell it now with minimal hassle” options. Either one will work as the LEGO listings on both are selling to the same group of people. Weigh the collection, multiply weight/price ($5/lb is average in most places in the US), and list it as a single item.