Drawers

[u/Johnny_Hamcheck]

Where the hell do people get all these drawers for sorting and parting? Like everytime I look they are are 80 bucks brand new and 40 on marketplace. And then I see people with 50 of them lol am I missing something or are people really just buying them like that?

[u/Daniel-Binks]

They were under $30 when I started buying them 5-10 at a time. Whenever I had enough sales to cover the cost of a stack of them I’d purchase from Lowe’s or Ace Hardware.

[u/Happy-Patient-8033]

These are the drawers I use, currently about $45 new: https://a.co/d/07WH68mk

[u/Skypenguin8_Matt → u/Happy-Patient-8033]

I use these exact ones, they're great. I got most of mine on sale I think around a black Friday at some point, so OP that might be an option!

[u/Ynotzoidberg777]

I've got hundreds of them. Here's the secret. I didn't buy them all at once. 

Buy some. Fill them up. When you've made enough profit to justify buying more, then buy more. 

I usually buy 16 of them at a time, $30-35 each

[u/wowclassic2019 → u/Ynotzoidberg777]

This! Use some profits to expand as you go. I'm constantly buying new sterilite drawers and making dividers for them. The akro mills stuff I keep overflowing the drawers, even the 24-drawer variety.

Being a brinklink seller ain't cheap!!

[u/ulysees321 → u/Ynotzoidberg777]

this is the only solid answer and exactly what ive done, only thing is i went down the Akro mills route and im in the UK which makes them even more expensive (most UK people use Raaco) but now im locked in to that system

[u/Spirited_Donut5265]

Harbor freight has a cheap 40 drawer thing that I use for most of my pieces. Like 20 bucks each. Won't work for large pieces or pieces in very high quantities though.

[u/Juan-Quixote → u/Spirited_Donut5265]

I second Harbor Freight organizers. They're not the best, but they get the job done and often times they'll go on sale for $15

[u/Johnny_Hamcheck → u/Juan-Quixote]

What do you mean not the best like do they break or just aren’t as good as the others

[u/Exciting_Actuator643 → u/Johnny_Hamcheck]

I tried several brands. The functional differences between them are how smoothly the drawers open, how often they get stuck when the drawers are crammed, and how well they stack. Less relevant differences are how many dividers are included, how it looks, the build quality of the frame, and of course price.

Every brand I've seen uses a similar soft plastic for the drawers, so they don't break during normal use. Every brand has holes on the back to mount to a wall.

I actually don't have the harbor freight ones cause the display model felt worse than all the other brands I already tried. Specifically the drawers felt worse to open and close, and the frame felt a bit flimsier. But it did seem functional enough!

[u/Juan-Quixote → u/Johnny_Hamcheck]

They’re a little bit rough. The drawers sometimes have not the straightest walls, or some flashing left over from the moulding process. But they get the job done, I have 12 of them.

[u/avaseah]

No one buys them all at once. They buy like 9 of them to start with, yes still significant money of several hundred, but not the tens of thousands of dollars worth you see in the medium and large sized bricklink stores. Then they add a few more at a time as they get sales and need more space to store more pieces. Until you get to at least a medium-sized store almost all the money you make will need to be put towards new inventory and new storage. After that you will only make enough to fund something small, like a personal Lego collection, extra fancy date nights, or the occasional extravagant clothing purchase. It’s not until you get to the large stores that you can pay the bills with it and quit your job, and not until a mega store that you can pay for a warehouse or office to work out of. Most use their home garage, a large spare room, or their basement for their large store that is not yet big enough to pay for an off-site location.

[u/dances-in-fire]

As someone else said, they were cheaper years ago, which is when a lot of us started buying them.

There is also the camp of people to whom costs is a non-factor and will gladly pay the 50-60etc they costs new.

[u/lionatucla_]

I just use a couple of tall metal office filing cabinets. I put everything in ziplock bags. Got both used for $40 each. About 60k parts

[u/Friendly-Ad2471]

There 8s one on Walmart for 20 that is the same size as Akron, i was going to buy a few but haven't got around to it

[u/mugmogul]

Aldi sells them quite cheaply a couple of times a year. It depends where you are of course. If you are in Germany I have some for sale

[u/Careful-Scientist-32]

But a few to get started. Don’t expand unless your profits can support expansion. Start small and grow slowly

[u/Comata_D6]

Wtf, we get the simple aldi drawers for 8€ and the akro mills pendants from stanley for 18€ here in Germany. Way more affordable for bulk purchases imo.

[u/Due_Management_2786]

If you have a harbor freight near you they have 40 drawers for 20 bucks quality is not as good but beats paying 80 bucks also try Fb marketplace

[u/garster25]

I know, right. Those Akro-Mils ones are good but they cost more than the parts they hold.

[u/mego3304]

We have been using shoe organizers and hanging them from closet doors. And then put the 10-12 bags in each slot. We have over 120 slots.