Looking to pick up a large lot, whats a fair value?

meteorainc

Looking to pick up a large lot from a guy who lives in the same town, his kid no longer plays with it. Based on the picture, all the set looks pretty complete and in good condition. What would be a fair offer on a large lot like this? I don't want to lowball as some older sets are hard to find at a decent price.

Lego 7997 Train station
Lego 7896 (10 of them) 
Lego 4512 City Cargo Train 9 Volt Motor
Lego 7897 City Passenger Train
Lego 7894 Airport +Airplane
Lego 6392 Airport+ Airplane
Lego 7893 Airplane
Lego 7734-1 Cargo Airplane
Lego7733 Truck and Forklift
Lego 7639 Camper Van
Lego 7744 Police headquarter
Lego 7743 Police truck
Lego 5612 Police+dog (3 of them)
Lego 7245 Police truck
Lego 7236 Police car
Lego 7498 Police car
Lego 7285 Police car
Lego 7235 Police bike (4 of them)
Lego 7741 police helicopter
Lego 7945 Fire Station
Lego 7942 Off road fire rescue
Lego 7239 Fire fighter rescue
Lego 7793 Service Station
Lego 7731 Mail Van
Lego 7732 Mail Airplane
Lego 7991 Garbage Truck
Lego 5610
Lego 5611
Lego 5612
Lego 5613
Lego 7990 Cement Mixer Truck
Lego 7242 Street Sweeper
Lego 10184 1-2-3 Movie theater , church, gas station
Lego 7641 City corner+Bus
Lego 4956 house 2 versions (2 of them)
Lego 4996 house(2 of them one made an hotel)
Lego 6754 house
Lego 7637 Farm
Lego 7636 Harvester
Lego 7634 Tractor
Lego 7635 4WD + Horse Trailer
Lego 6419 Horse Farm
Lego 6350 Pizzeria
Lego 7994 City Line Cargo Ship
Lego 7739 Coast Guard boat and towr
Lego 7738 Coast Guard helicopter
Lego 7737 Coast Guard 4WD
Lego 7736 Coast Guard Bike
Lego 7632 Crawler Crane
Lego 7905 Building Crane
Lego 7633 Construction Site
Lego 7638 Tow Truck
Lego 7998 Tipper Truck
Lego 7631 Dump Truck
Lego 7630 Front Loader
Lego 7685 Buldozzer
Lego 7746 Road roller
Lego 7892 Hospital
Lego 7890 Ambulance
Lego 7891 Airport fire truck
Lego ambulance helicopter (can not find the number)

Lego RACER 8169
Lego RACER 8654

LEGO CHIMA
70010
70005
70141
70011
70228

Phonebooth

Welcome to brickset.  Want to know what a set is worth or price a collection?

www.brickpicker.com is your friend. 

meteorainc

Phonebooth said:

Welcome to brickset.  Want to know what a set is worth or price a collection?

www.brickpicker.com is your friend. 

thanks for the tip, that was very helpful! How would people price something that has been in used condition? would that be subjective?

AllBrick

Have a peep on bricklink. The prices are listed with a description so you can choose the one that matches the quality of the stuff you're looking at.

Ask the seller what sort of price they're looking for and work from there.

ecmo47

I use Bricklink to get an idea of what each set is worth.  For example, here is a link to #7997, train station:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?S=7997-1&ColorID=0

The average "used" price it's been sold at for the last 6 month is $68.10 so use that as a starting point. Now factor in whether it has instructions, the box, the minifigs and how compete it is. Is it a separate model right now or a possible set you can pull out of an 63# pile of loose bricks? 

Research each set, add up the total, round down to the next hundred and you have a decent and fair ballpark number.

One you you have that number in mind, ask the seller what he wants for it and negotiate from there.

The only really valuable set I see in the list is 10184 "Town plan" which runs about $275 used.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?S=10184-1&ColorID=0

Good luck!

meteorainc

The owner can't verify how complete it is, but based on the picture it looks like his kids took great care as all sets are built and displayed in one big room. I think there are bound to be some missing parts.

There are no manuals or boxes, how would you round the price down based on this? To be honest, I am not really trying to collect or make a profit for buying this lot, its mainly for personal use for my kids. Thanks

ecmo47

Generally speaking, I assume that the used set price average does not include the boxes but does include instructions. For #7997, the instructions are valued at about $3.50.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?I=7997-1&ColorID=0

So your final value of the the #7997 would be $60.00-$65.00.

I'd guess that most of those City set instructions would only run about $1.00-$2.00. Overall, it's not a big decrease in the overall value but it is a good negotiating point to lower the price.

monstblitz

When someone is offering their whole collection in one shot, I just come up with what I personally am willing to pay for it and negotiate from there.  If someone isn't willing to do the work of cataloging each set and putting an individual price on it, why should a buyer take on that burden?  Too often sellers want the Ebay prices for their collections without doing the work or paying the listing fees to get Ebay prices.  If they want to sell it locally all in one shot, I think they have to be willing to sell at a sizable discount.  

If you're worried about low balling, then make him start the price point by asking him what his rock bottom price is. 

SprinkleOtter

monstblitz said:

Too often sellers want the Ebay prices for their collections without doing the work or paying the listing fees to get Ebay prices.

Not only ebay prices, but prices people are asking for the sets (not sold value). And LEGO value for Mega Junk.

wagnerml2

And, when you are buying an entire collection in bulk, you are taking a risk that the more valuable pieces aren't there.  There is value in that as well.