Bricklinking EOL sets to sell.

Pmh · September 2015

Was wondering if there is anyone doing this. I seldomly come across adds like this.

Bricklinking old and popular sets with some small modifications if necessary. Eifel tower, statue of liberty,green dragon,cafe corner,ucs star destroyer,ucs death star 1,ucs millennium falcon.

Quiet a few people bricklink sets like these for themselves. Its a lot of work but the end result can be very satisfying. Was thinking that there might be a rather large market for doing this work for other people and sell bricklinked eol sets. I know that I for myself would be interested in several sets and willing to pay for the effort people make to bricklink them as long as the price is considerably cheaper then the price of the sealed eol set on the secondary market. The demand for sets like this could be so large that it might be worth doing this on a semi professional scale.

Am wondering what peoples thoughts are about this.

Kavster · September 2015

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/3j/iz1b1eftmf1e.jpg

I also would pay for this, in the circumstances you mentioned.
I'm very new to BL, was only introduced to it in the last week or so... So I'm not sure how cost effective it would be for all parties concerned. But I'd definitely buy if it was as you described.

ColoradoBricks · September 2015

As an avid bricklinker myself, I thought of offering that service while doing the Eiffel Tower but it didn't seem to be good idea for a seller stand point.

I could either bricklink in advance and then sell, but let say the Eiffel tower cost $600 to BL, how much do you sell it ? $800 ? If you invest those $600 on other sets, like 4 modulars, it is much less work and probably a much better return.

Or you can propose to Bricklink it for someone for $800, someone buys it and they you realize that a part needed 200+ times is not produced anymore and you have to pay an extra 50c/$1 per part.

Third is not everyone will agree on substitution level, like the Grand Carousel, I used tent cloth that I made myself, I kept the Jester's cap despite the price, but changed the dark red to dark purple.

However I would be in favor a thread, where someone could announce that s/he is going to BL a set (with listed substitutions) and asking if anyone would be interested for $xx for BL twice the pieces (ouch I can't think having 12000 parts layed out for 2 Taj Mahal :) )

ryjay · September 2015

@Pmh, are you asking for someone else to do this so you can purchase or are you asking if there is a market for you to bricklink and sell to others?

CCC · September 2015

It's already done. Quite a few people on BL sell BL'ed versions of sets. They don't tend to sell that well, as they miss the box and instructions. If you make substitutions then it's even worse. They tend to be worth not much more than the collection of parts.

Sethro3 · September 2015

You'd have to have someone agree to buy before you get started so you aren't stuck with a bunch of expensive bricks. Meaning, a signed contract probably. Seems silly for some LEGO sets.

Plus, I've bricklinked a few sets. It is a lot more legwork than you realize if you haven't done it before. And I agree, you'll always end up substituting parts and not everyone will like that. Most people want the official set. Many would also like the instructions at the very least.

I don't think it is worthwhile from a business standpoint.

jesirose · September 2015

I can't see how it would be cheaper once you factor in all the shipping costs too. Especially when you're talking about the UCS sets which have so many parts. You'd have to buy a lot from the same seller.

ColoradoBricks · September 2015

I have bricklinked a many sets of 1000+ parts (from memory, #10189 Taj Mahal, #10181 Eiffel Tower, #10185 Green Grocer, #10182 Cafe Corner, #10129 UCS SnowSpeeder, #3724 Dragon, #3723 Minifigurine, #10187 WV Beetle, #10196 Grand Carousel, #10210 Imperial Flagship) they all came cheaper to much cheaper (including S&H cost) than any used sets (not including instructions and boxes). For all those projects I had to order just once from oversea.

I only order from BrickLink and LEGO B&P or PAB. I can emphasis enough how BrickStock make the experience so much easier, It takes me now less than 30 minutes to create all orders for a 2000+ parts set.

Some had a lot of substitutions (like VW Bettle was done in white/red instead of blue/dark blue, Green Grocer done in Sand Blue), most of them only had few pieces substituted (Taj Mahal, Cafe Corner, Eiffel Tower).
You also get to change parts for better display, like my UCS Snowspeeder is using new grays (like the rest of my UCS collection) while the original had old grays.

Bottom line is that I got to enjoy the same build experience at a fraction of the cost than the used set. Also bricklinking a set has an extra excitement that you don't find when buy a complete set... seeing those package trickling in and that parts list growing to completion (but may be that just me ;-).

jesirose · September 2015

What is brickstock

Kavster · September 2015

@ColoradoBricks - That sounds amazing! I've only recently discovered BL'ing, and tbh, I have no idea what I'm doing. How long did it take you to understand and get to grips with it. You seem to have done a few complicated ones, and I'm looking at doing some of the older modulars. But I'm wondering if I'm drowning in the deep end by doing so!

kiki180703 · September 2015

@ColoradoBricks who did you use brickstock?

ColoradoBricks · September 2015

Brickstock is a desktop application: http://brickstock.patrickbrans.com/

From there you can load the part list from a set, update with BL prices, makes substitutions (based on prices or other factors), create your wanted list for Bricklink, import BL orders (so you can update you part list after each order and recreate another wanted list)

Kavster · September 2015

ColoradoBricks said:

Brickstock is a desktop application: http://brickstock.patrickbrans.com/

From there you can load the part list from a set, update with BL prices, makes substitutions (based on prices or other factors), create your wanted list for Bricklink, import BL orders (so you can update you part list after each order and recreate another wanted list)

That actually answered my question! Going to look straight into this!

ColoradoBricks · September 2015

@Kavster once you understand how wanted lists are working in Bricklink, you are more than half way there. Always create them from BrickStock, not BrickLink so they are easy to manipulate. When a piece is expensive and the build requires quite a bit, look at the BL catalog, it might have another more recent mold listed.

For example, Part 30179 Door Frame 1 x 4 x 6, the BL catalog will point you to the very similar part 60596 and you can save tons.
Another trick is not to buy the complete minifigs, part them out in a hared, torso, etc, they could be cheaper in the end and may be find a 25c torso will look as good as the $25 one.
Last is to always check P&B and PAB on lego.com, while most of the parts are more expensive, some are cheaper there. Also if you need 200 parts and no seller has more than 10, you may be better to put a few extra cents per part with LEGO as you'll save a lot on S&H.

Kavster · September 2015

@ColoradoBricks - Amazing! Thanks =]

Bricklinking EOL sets to sell.

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