Home› Buying & Selling Topics
Shopping at LEGO or Amazon?
Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Are Lego Resellers getting rid of their stock?

cynthilinacynthilina Member Posts: 188
edited August 2012 in Buying & Selling Topics
So I do regular searches for massive lots usually 100 lbs or more on eBay to see if there are any that I can snatch up. Noticed this last week a large shift in people selling Massive parts collections that are obviously from Parts resellers. I listed a few below. I wanted to see if the Lego bubble has burst and to see if the craze is over. The prices are still really high and its almost like the sellers want to get out before what they have is worthless to them. This can be good news for the collectors out there and the model builders that dont find a resale value to them. What do you think?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Lot-Over-1000-Minifigures-Over-300-lbs-Pounds-Star-Wars-Harry-Potter-India-/110923623644?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d3902cdc

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-75-POUNDS-PLUS-SUPER-LOT-PARTS-MINIFIGURES-TRAIN-PARTS-TRACK-MORE-/230828086215?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35be6d13c7

http://www.ebay.com/itm/105-pounds-of-Legos-65-manuals-Star-Wars-Vintage-City-Pirates-Technic-Legoland-/261060526094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc86b800e
«1

Comments

  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    ^ That first one, is just nuts in my personal opinion...

    He wants retail price, plus some, for all of that.

    The 300lbs should be about $5/lb, so that is $1,500. The minifigs are worth something, lets say $1 each in bulk. So that is $1,000.

    So for $2,500, it might be interesting. He is asking, as of right now, over $5,000.

    What I suspect is that he/she has sold all the really good stuff and is trying to dump what is left. Large sellers always have such lots left over and no easy way to move it. What you don't see is the much smaller pile of good stuff not in the lot.

    I was recently offered a large lot of inventory from a local reseller, "getting out of the business". I talked to him, and figured out pretty quickly that his sales were not what they once were and he needed to restock to keep it up and didn't want to. But he wanted a crazy amount for what he had, so I passed.
  • RedbullgivesuwindRedbullgivesuwind Member Posts: 2,115
    Or its just people that have fallen out of the hobby. Happens quiet a bit.
  • UKtsumiUKtsumi Member Posts: 630
    how about this one too
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEGO-MASSIVE-HUGE-COLLECTION-JOB-LOT-100-KG-/180936767758?pt=UK_Construction_Toys_Kits&hash=item2a20abf90e

    anyone have a few months free to sort it??
  • SirKevbagsSirKevbags Member Posts: 4,027
    ^ My idea of hell
  • cynthilinacynthilina Member Posts: 188
    I guess that's entirely possible that they are getting out of the hobby. But I look at the other things in the pictures and it looks more like a factory production line with the cheap table and chairs. Most collectors, and I'm sure you guys will agree. Take much better care of our collections than that. I myself have estimated about 200 Lbs of Lego in my collection but I have not officially weighed it. In fact I have so much to sort right now the wife has put me on a Lego buying hiatus until I get it all sorted. I expect several months, just in time for the Christmas sales!! I figure the mad rush to the Lego scene will stop soon and then the prices for used Lego will plummet again. This would create a selling frenzy and a loos in collectors making the sets that we wanted in the past more available, at least for a time.
  • richoricho Member Posts: 3,830
    secondary market prices have tightened/fallen with the quality of new sets recently. What you might see is people who are re-selling, or who thought re-selling was easy, get out of the market, which might send prices back up slightly in the medium term.
  • caperberrycaperberry Member Posts: 2,226
    I wonder if the BL nightmares of late have put a few people off?
  • CoolsplashCoolsplash Member Posts: 935
    Either people are getting bored of Lego hobby OR they are trying to sell everything they have to make room and money for the new line of Lego. As whatever I have seen in the pictures listed with these links, you see a lot of Lego Castle Fantasy Era, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indy Jones and some Pirates.
  • AFFOL_Shellz_BellzAFFOL_Shellz_Bellz Member Posts: 1,263
    @UKtsumi I have both the time and patience to sort it, but not interested in paying the price or cost to ship it to the western US.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,526
    In my opinion, people have always been getting out of the business. You just don't notice it so much when new sellers come along. Some genuinely moving on to other things, some having bulk sales to get rid of stuff that hasn't sold for years, or stuff that they found at thrift stores/charity stores/bootsales. It seems common to me to pile it up, then put a few nicer/rarer/expensive pieces on top to make it look like the lot contains lots of good stuff, then list it as a bulk lot. I've seen people do the same in coins sales, postcard sales, tobacco card sales, toy soldier sales, .... just about anything where there is a bulk nature and you cannot possibly show everything.
  • 111ins111ins Member Posts: 265
    Coolsplash said:

    Either people are getting bored of Lego hobby OR they are trying to sell everything they have to make room and money for the new line of Lego. As whatever I have seen in the pictures listed with these links, you see a lot of Lego Castle Fantasy Era, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indy Jones and some Pirates.

    new Indy? have not heard this yet! any pic's?
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 3,940
    111ins said:

    Coolsplash said:

    Either people are getting bored of Lego hobby OR they are trying to sell everything they have to make room and money for the new line of Lego. As whatever I have seen in the pictures listed with these links, you see a lot of Lego Castle Fantasy Era, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indy Jones and some Pirates.

    new Indy? have not heard this yet! any pic's?
    The new lines being LOTR, Star Wars, Superheroes, Ninjago etc, and getting rid of old castle, Indy, old Star Wars etc.

    As CCC said, when you look at the pictures you soon realise that most of this stuff isn't worth much, with a few good parts dotted around. My theory would be people just trying to sell off their old 80s/90s stuff that hasn't shifted, either to buy new stock, or as others have said, as they're getting out of the hobby.

  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,526
    ^ OLD Indy. That is why they are getting rid of it.
  • mressinmressin Member Posts: 843
    Maybe some people just feel the recession and need money?
  • evileddie1313evileddie1313 Member Posts: 126
    mressin said:

    Maybe some people just feel the recession and need money?

    I agree. Why not try and unload the lot on some sucker and make a quick profit?

  • Brick_ObsessionBrick_Obsession Member Posts: 656
    I can see them doing that. I know I am selling off about 68 sets as I type. Reason being is that Lego has extended that license so you will be getting all the new SW Lego sets. Even if money were not an issue, a person would be hard pressed to store or display all the sets. It becomes a huge problem.

    Secondly, with all the cool Marvel, Spiderman and LOTR sets and mini-figs out there there is more to collect from now. In my opinion, a few years back everything else was just boring compared to Star Wars (excluding trains, modulars and city stuff).

    So yeah, I can see why people are selling off their stuff. Personally, I do not think it is boredom, but rather optimization.
  • atxleeatxlee Member Posts: 155
    edited August 2012
    Is it just me or are there really more people selling off the modulars MS, CC and GG on ebay these past 2 months. To add the prices are also getting more "reasonable" and it a good enough deal comes along for MS, I might just grab it...

  • brclark82brclark82 Member Posts: 217
    edited August 2012
    It depends what reasonable is :). I check every once in a while and haven't seen any better prices than BL.
  • RennyRenny Member Posts: 1,145
    I think its great. I'm in the market (pardon the pun) for a cafe corner and market street.
  • Bosstone100Bosstone100 Member Posts: 1,431
    hmm... I might even try to get a Market Street. I don't really need it but if I get it at a reasonable price, then all the better. However, there are some nice MOC directions out there that may be fit in better with the modulars. Market Street just doesn't quite fit. Just my opinion.
  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,787
    edited August 2012
    I think it is a mixture of people needing money and the fact that stuff just does not sell as well in the summer. It also depends on the actual sets selling.. I search for 10190 or 10182 and I get a lot of chaff with the actual search from goofs keyword spamming for stuff unrelated to those sets. Like those listing the sets number for selling escalators like 10190 and 10182, which is supposed to be against eBay policies
  • brickupdatebrickupdate Member Posts: 1,020
    I hadn't looked up Cafe Corner on eBay in awhile, and just glanced at the completed auctions. I was surprised at how much the prices had RISEN in the past 6 months. Yes, you can still get one for around $500, but plenty of built sets are going for hundreds more. And a MIB set is just nuts, well over $1,000. I checked the UCS Falcon too, which inches up more and more in price. Where is the ceiling with these? I have seen bubble markets before, and when prices don't find a reasonable ceiling, that is a bad sign to me. Something has to give eventually.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    ^ A bubble implies that people are buying these for investment or resale...

    I suspect most of them are being bought, opened, and enjoyed, forever removed from the market.

    Thus, supply goes down while demand remains steady, thus prices go up and probably won't ever really come down, they'll just level off as more and more people say "I won't pay that much".
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    edited August 2012
    If you did see prices for the HOT Modular buildings go down, it may be because of it being summer and/or they sold by auction and somebody got lucky. I haven't noticed any of those building going for lower than normal prices of late...at least the "buy it now" listings.

    I wouldn't think people are buying these for resale although not out of the question. I don't think there is a bubble either. Eventually the prices will level off, it's just a question of when,so this is why I don't think people are buying these with the intent to flip them.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    Cafe Corner at around $1,500 has got to be near the top. Granted, anything can go higher, but at 75 cents a part, you'd think at some point people just aren't going to pay any more.

    Also, we're due for another "corner" building next year, I think when that comes out, we'll see CC start to drop slightly...
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    edited August 2012
    The price for CC could go down, but it's not like CC is like a Star Wars ship that is getting a refresh like the MF and X-wing has over the last few years. Don't we all wish we all had crystal balls ;)
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    CC won't get redone, but I think when the next corner comes out, it reduces the "need" to complete the collection. Also, as more and more modulars come out, it becomes less "practical" to have a complete collection due to size, so people will let it go.

    I think the next corner will impress, I expect over 2,500 parts for $199 this time (it will probably drop 100 parts or so each year for 3 or 4 years, then they'll jump to $249 and start over on the part count like they did with TH.
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    Yikes!!! Make sure you put the boxes where you can find them ;)
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    Funny... Very funny... ;)

    BTW, I took another look for that box today, I think the cat ate it... and I don't have a cat... :)
  • hoyatableshoyatables Member Posts: 873
    Some of us are also getting "list and sell one item for free" on eBay -- for me at least, that was a great opportunity to do what I wanted and sell Market Street.
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    Maybe some mynoks thought the box was some power cables.
  • y2joshy2josh Member Posts: 1,996
    LegoFanTexas said:

    Also, we're due for another "corner" building next year, I think when that comes out, we'll see CC start to drop slightly...

    I think that depends a lot on whether the majority of people are using the corners as bookends rather than true corners. For example, as I've stated before, I think Cafe Corner is an absolutely awful set, but I won't get rid of it completely until I know I have four corner buildings to finish out my block.

    That said, I can definitely see where people who just want the corners to function as either end of a straight line would be glad to dump Cafe Corner as soon as the next corner comes out.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    Pitfall69 said:

    Maybe some mynoks thought the box was some power cables.

    *Mater's Voice*

    I don't care who you are, that there is funny!!!!
  • brickupdatebrickupdate Member Posts: 1,020
    @LegoFanTexas You think that people are buying $1500 Cafe Corners, opening them, building them and displaying them? Maybe a few people do this, but I find it hard to believe that many folks do that.

    If you buy Cafe Corner for $1500 and open it, you immediately flush about $600 or more of value down the drain.

    My family spend a looooong time in the baseball card business, and I can remember selling unopened 1963 Topps packs in the 1980s. When someone bought one to open it (I seem to remember them being $90 each), a crowd would form around them, to see if they got the Pete Rose rookie card. But, while they are gambling, people do so with the hopes they win MORE money, not flush $600 down the drain.

    Over the years, my family has gone through collection after collection, and there is always that MIB sector of the market. To destroy that value by opening something almost goes against the whole point. Would you buy an original Star Wars 12 back Darth Vader and open it?

    Even forgetting the fact that the economy has been so depressed in the past few years, I think those who buy a $1500 Cafe Corner also know that it has investment value. That they can make their money back one day. I know that supports a lot of the logic around my collection. I don't know many people who have the kind of money that they don't mind losing value by opening a "rare" MIB product.

    This is the need of any investment market, to value MIB. There is no reason that a Cafe Corner should be 75 cents per part. There is nothing holding that up other than perceived value. Perceived value of a set made just a few years back, and thousands of them were made.

    I watched the housing bubble and closely followed blogs back in 2005 that showed incredible data showing how big the bubble was. But no one in finance wanted to listen until it all crashed around them. I am NOT in any way shape or form saying that there is a LEGO bubble that will crash. But I also feel that there is no way to ignore that some of the same reasoning may apply that helps support ever-inflating prices on some sets.

    As others have mentioned, LEGO is PUMPING out cool new themes and sets. Heck, I buy a lot of them, and can barely keep up. And my biggest issue is storage space for them all.

    I have a MIB Market Street. Will I open it? No way, I just can't justify eliminating hundreds of dollars of value like that. How can others?
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    I think there are similarities between Legos and baseball cards or Legos and Action Figures,but you can't build with either and most people buy Legos for the building experience. As soon as you drive off the lot with your brand new car you lose a lot as well.
  • LegofanscottLegofanscott Member Posts: 622
    edited August 2012
    brickupdate said:

    @LegoFanTexas You think that people are buying $1500 Cafe Corners, opening them, building them and displaying them? Maybe a few people do this, but I find it hard to believe that many folks do that.

    If you buy Cafe Corner for $1500 and open it, you immediately flush about $600 or more of value down the drain.

    My family spend a looooong time in the baseball card business, and I can remember selling unopened 1963 Topps packs in the 1980s. When someone bought one to open it (I seem to remember them being $90 each), a crowd would form around them, to see if they got the Pete Rose rookie card. But, while they are gambling, people do so with the hopes they win MORE money, not flush $600 down the drain.

    Over the years, my family has gone through collection after collection, and there is always that MIB sector of the market. To destroy that value by opening something almost goes against the whole point. Would you buy an original Star Wars 12 back Darth Vader and open it?

    Even forgetting the fact that the economy has been so depressed in the past few years, I think those who buy a $1500 Cafe Corner also know that it has investment value. That they can make their money back one day. I know that supports a lot of the logic around my collection. I don't know many people who have the kind of money that they don't mind losing value by opening a "rare" MIB product.

    This is the need of any investment market, to value MIB. There is no reason that a Cafe Corner should be 75 cents per part. There is nothing holding that up other than perceived value. Perceived value of a set made just a few years back, and thousands of them were made.

    I watched the housing bubble and closely followed blogs back in 2005 that showed incredible data showing how big the bubble was. But no one in finance wanted to listen until it all crashed around them. I am NOT in any way shape or form saying that there is a LEGO bubble that will crash. But I also feel that there is no way to ignore that some of the same reasoning may apply that helps support ever-inflating prices on some sets.

    As others have mentioned, LEGO is PUMPING out cool new themes and sets. Heck, I buy a lot of them, and can barely keep up. And my biggest issue is storage space for them all.

    I have a MIB Market Street. Will I open it? No way, I just can't justify eliminating hundreds of dollars of value like that. How can others?

    I just don't see the point in collecting sealed Lego, other collectables maybe but Lego is different.

    If your buying to invest in it then thats a different story, i just don't see what enjoyment people get out of keeping a sealed Lego set to collect, sell on, sure but to keep in your collection? :/

    Yes it loses its value but thats the price you pay for the enjoyment of building and displaying it.

    People may say they are buying it as investment but if they they know they could never part with it then they are a collector not an investor
  • y2joshy2josh Member Posts: 1,996
    brickupdate said:

    I have a MIB Market Street. Will I open it? No way, I just can't justify eliminating hundreds of dollars of value like that. How can others?

    I have an MISB first-run UCS Falcon, and I feel the exact opposite. As soon as I have the space to build it, I'm opening it immediately. No point in owning a model just to let it sit sealed forever.
  • Pitfall69Pitfall69 Member Posts: 11,454
    ...and the people have spoken ;)
  • AFFOL_Shellz_BellzAFFOL_Shellz_Bellz Member Posts: 1,263
    There is a pretty wide line, imho, between a Lego collector and an investor who includes Lego in their stock. We got into Lego after Market Street was gone and chose to purchase Green Grocer over Cafe Corner not realizing CC would soon be gone from the shelves of B&M stores. By time we built our layout and discovered we really wanted CC and MS the prices were "up there". We eventually found them used on CL for a price we could live with. Having said that, even if we had paid $1,500 each we would have opened and built them because that was our whole reason for buying them. We too have gone through numerous collections and never once have we bought for investment. I can't imagine ever buying a MISB item that I want to build and deciding it is too valuable to open.
  • atxleeatxlee Member Posts: 155
    Even as a lego collector, I will find it extremely difficult to break open a MISB CC or MS if I had paid market price for one (i.e. >$1000). It is just a psychological barrier for me. To overcome that, I look for used sets so that I get the joy of building it without the "guilt" of busting open a >$1000 set.

    On the other hand, if I had paid retail for it, it would have been long opened and the so call psychological barrier of mine will not exist.
  • RennyRenny Member Posts: 1,145
    I just can't bring myself to open up one of my older sealed sets. Once a set reaches a certain amount over retail I just can't justify the loss of value. I'm better off selling it and using that amount to purchase more recent sets that I can open and enjoy. I actually recently decided to sell off my sealed 10123 and 10129 because I will never open them and just having them sit in my closet does me no good. Same goes for the 10179 I have. I brick linked another one so that I could build it and not open the sealed one. I will probably try to sell that one this holiday season.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    brickupdate said:

    @LegoFanTexas You think that people are buying $1500 Cafe Corners, opening them, building them and displaying them? Maybe a few people do this, but I find it hard to believe that many folks do that.

    I understand that... But yes, I do think people are opening them and building them...

    In fact I know it... I sell many expensive retired Lego sets and I get e-mails from customers saying how much fun the build was. The customer I sold 10181 to last Dec for $1,500, did just that, thanking me for getting it to him quickly so he could build it while he had some free time to do so.
    brickupdate said:

    If you buy Cafe Corner for $1500 and open it, you immediately flush about $600 or more of value down the drain.

    Yes, and clearly you care about that.

    Many people do not. When you buy a brand new car and drive it off the lot, you often throw away $5,000 or more of value, just like that. Buying a 1 year old car can save you $5,000 to $10,000 of money.

    Yet 15 million new cars are sold every year, because people WANT a new car, not a used one, and are prepared to pay for it.
    brickupdate said:

    My family spend a looooong time in the baseball card business, and I can remember selling unopened 1963 Topps packs in the 1980s. When someone bought one to open it (I seem to remember them being $90 each), a crowd would form around them, to see if they got the Pete Rose rookie card. But, while they are gambling, people do so with the hopes they win MORE money, not flush $600 down the drain.

    People do not build and play with Pete Rose rookie cards, and a "new one" is really no different to a "used one", it is just condition.

    Lego and baseball cards are really not the same thing.
    brickupdate said:

    I have a MIB Market Street. Will I open it? No way, I just can't justify eliminating hundreds of dollars of value like that. How can others?

    How can others? you ask? Easy, they have enough money to not worry about it.

    There are a lot of people in this country who have a lot of money. Tons of money. More than you can imagine money...

    I sold a 10030 last year, sealed in the box, to a dentist in California to give to her pre-teen son for Christmas. She could care less about the "MISB" value, she'll probably throw the box away.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,526
    brickupdate said:


    Over the years, my family has gone through collection after collection, and there is always that MIB sector of the market. To destroy that value by opening something almost goes against the whole point. Would you buy an original Star Wars 12 back Darth Vader and open it?

    The point of what? The point of an investment is to make money. The point of a toy is to play with it. If you buy something as an investment, then you should take care of it. If you buy something as a toy, it should be played with.
  • LegoFanTexasLegoFanTexas Member Posts: 8,404
    ^ Better said with fewer words than I used...

    People spend $2K on a bicycle that loses 1/3 of its value once used, then they go ride it.

    A toy is a toy, build it and have fun with it. :)
  • LegofanscottLegofanscott Member Posts: 622
    But surely if you know you won't be selling it then opening it shouldn't be a problem, the positives outweigh the negatives, the only negative being its value, but its not like the set is totally worthless if you DO open it, I just don't see the point in spending lots of money for a sealed set to add to your collection just to look at the box
  • krklintkrklint Member Posts: 502
    Everyone seems to be missing the most common trend. This is the Summer Season for Ebay Lego; and summer equals cleaning the garage and getting rid of stuff from winters-past.

    Last summer and the summer before, I found amazing buys - via Ebay - on Lego.

    Some might be clearing stock, some might need money to pay bills, some are indeed speculating on a Lego craze... in the end, though, Summer is when I search Ebay for great deals... and the Holidays is when the majority of the world goes back to Ebay to buy buy buy.
  • caperberrycaperberry Member Posts: 2,226
    Legofanscott said:

    I just don't see the point in spending lots of money for a sealed set to add to your collection just to look at the box

    It's a foreign concept to me too, but I find a lot of people just enjoy the collecting aspect and the knowledge of HAVING it. Takes all sorts to be an AFOL...
  • hoyatableshoyatables Member Posts: 873
    ^^I think krklint has it right. I just picked up some vintage 1980s Castle sets on ebay from a guy that was clearly selling off his childhood collection. Gave me the opportunity to expand my own with a couple of sets that I really wanted as a kid for a (relatively) reasonable price.

    There are also plenty of younger teens/college kids selling their stuff to make a quick buck. That's a great way to to pick up some recent sets.
  • Brick_ObsessionBrick_Obsession Member Posts: 656
    y2josh said:

    brickupdate said:

    I have an MISB first-run UCS Falcon, and I feel the exact opposite. As soon as I have the space to build it, I'm opening it immediately. No point in owning a model just to let it sit sealed forever.

    I agree with this 190%. Everything I buy I intend to build. I find it way to risky buying these items for investment / profit purposes. Sure you can resell them later on, but the market is small.

    I cannot wait to open my UCS Falcon and build it and display it. That goes for everything else still in boxes lying around.

  • littletokilittletoki Member Posts: 519
    Good lord. This makes me want to sell all my bulk/loose Lego.

    *does some math*
Sign In or Register to comment.

Shopping at LEGO.com or Amazon?

Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon

Recent discussions • Categories • Privacy Policy • Brickset.com

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Sign In Register

Categories

Brickset.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, the Amazon.com.ca, Inc. Associates Program and the Amazon EU Associates Programme, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.