Bricklink stores with massive quantities of rare parts

stevesnas

Probably been asked before but some stores especially german ones have huge numbers of rare parts think brown plant stems.

Are these legit or ???

sidersdd

^ The explanation I've heard before is that some rare parts are used by the model builders at Legoland Deutschland, and the parts then are "obtained" by sellers one way or another (perhaps even finding them on the PaB wall). Dunno if this is still true or not.

BrickDancer

^That might explain common parts, but 2 Germany sellers have a few hundred Riddler heads each from Wave 1. How would anyone in the world own that many legit?

CCC

Buying up unused stock at the end of a run?

georgebjones

^^There are many ways to obtain the parts. For example, at the California State Fair this past summer, there was a free build area with a ton of loose bricks. All the elements were brand new. There were hundreds of original 2-face minifigure heads and Katara minifigure heads, as well as many parts that were in rare colors. It is anyone's guess as to where they came from, but I can guarantee you, someone didn't open their stockpile of 2006 batman sets to grab one minifigure head from each to dump in a public unmanned free build area.

Remember, it is not about what you know, but who you know.

One night many weeks ago, I took my daughters to McDonalds and there was this biker-looking fellow sitting in a chair outside. My 4 year old daughter smiled at him, and he hopped up out of his chair and opened the door for us. He asked us if we were eating dinner there tonight. I said we were and he went behind the counter, hollered to the manager and said we could order whatever we wanted and it was on him. It turns out he was the owner of that franchise and we happened upon some good luck.

The point is, those people could easily have been in a lucky situation and now are making some money from it.

LegoFanTexas

^ Nice story, you never can tell a book by its cover...

BrickDancer

^Thanks, that reference of Two-Face and Katara heads makes me feel better that it may be possible to obtain volume amounts of special parts. Still, I chose to avoid those sellers yesterday as I purchased a new Riddler. But will be a little less paranoid for 'next time'.

seonadancing

When the sole distributor of Lego in our country ended it's license maybe 10 years back, they opened all the sets they have in their inventory and sold everything in 1 pound bags. I got a lot of classic space minifigures but it only had the torso and the head. I haven't met anyone in the country who was able to buy the legs, helmet, and air tank, so who know where those went.