Selling LEGOS is becoming an increasingly interesting option. More and more people are finding this to be a profitable business, and more strategies for making money with LEGOS are being found.
In this post, I am going to explain the 5 different ways with which you can make money selling LEGOS.
Buy Sets About to Be Discounted and Sell Later
This strategy is a bit of a hit-or-miss one and requires good knowledge of the LEGO world to work but, if it does, it can give you incredible returns.
LEGO discounts its sets after one or two years of production. Some sets will become popular over time and, after a few years, the price will get much higher than the retail price. There are cases of sets that are sold online now at 10x the price they cost when they were being sold before being discounted.
This strategy is a hit-or-miss because it can be difficult to know which sets will be popular in the future. These sets need to maintain their popularity over time so they are still valuable after a few years of being discounted.
If you want to pursue this avenue, here are some steps you need to follow:
Familiarize Yourself with the Strategy
As I said, to be able to make money with this strategy, you need to become an expert. You need to know how the process works and what tips and tricks the pros use. The best resource for this is BrickPicker, a website that specializes in this strategy to make money.
Familiarize Yourself with LEGO and LEGO Enthusiasts
But understanding the strategy is not enough. To be successful, you also need to understand the market. So, you need to know what ticks with LEGO enthusiasts and what makes sets become popular even after being discounted.
The more you understand about LEGO itself, the better as well. For example, LEGO used to discount the sets in Europe before it discounted them in the US. If you are in the US and you know that a set is about to be discounted in Europe, it is a good time to check for the set to purchase it.
The following are some forums where you can interact with other LEGO enthusiasts and learn everything you can imagine about LEGO:
- EuroBricks Forum – The oldest and most established LEGO fan forum. You can find here anything you can imagine about LEGO.
- Brickset Forum – The second-largest LEGO forum, mostly focused on collecting LEGO sets.
- Reddit Forum – Reddit format forum, great if you are starting.
- BrickLink Forum – This forum is part of BrickLink, the best place to buy and sell your bricks online. Another great resource.
Buy the Sets
Once you are an expert on this strategy, LEGO, and LEGO enthusiasts, it is time to start buying. So, once you see a specific set that you think will be popular in the future, you can go ahead and buy it. Two tips about buying the set:
- Buying a few sets instead of one might get you a better deal.
- Try always to buy sets that are on sale. The lower the price you pay, the easier it is to make a profit afterward.
Store the Lego Set Safely
The next step is to store your purchased sets safely so they do not get damaged over time. Some pros have temperature-controlled rooms where they store all the LEGOS to minimize the damage.
But, when you are getting started, that is not necessary. Just be sure that you store your LEGOs away from light, big temperature swings, and potential flooding. You will know this and much more once you have followed steps 1 and 2 of this process.
Wait
This is the easiest and also the hardest part. It is the easiest because, basically, you don’t need to do anything. You can go check your boxes every once in a while to make sure they are fine, but apart from that, there is nothing you need to know for a few months or years.
After that, it might be a good time to start checking online to see what is the demand for this specific set.
Prepare to Sell
Now, here’s the hardest part. If you see that your sets have increased in value, should you sell?
Knowing when to sell is the most difficult part of this strategy. Because, if you sell too soon, you might see that, after one or two more years, the price of that set has doubled, tripled, or even more. However, if you sell too late, prices might go down after an initial spike.
Examples of Sets that Have Increased Their Value
Just to give an idea of the potential rewards of this strategy, here are a few examples of sets that have increased their value by at least 6x.
- 10179 Millennium Falcon: The initial edition of the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars is selling for 11x its retail price back in 2007.
- 10182 Cafe Corner: The 2007 edition has gone up 23x from its retail price.
- 10143 Death Star II: The 2005 edition has gone up 7x from its retail price.
- 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer: The initial edition from 2002 has gone up 7x from its retail price.
- 10189 Taj Mahal: The initial edition from 2008 has gone up 6x from its retail price.
Be aware that these prices also change; the increase highlighted here is for reference only so you can have an idea of the potential this strategy has.
Buy Sets on Sale in Stores and Sell Them Online
Another strategy that works well is buying sets that are on sale in stores and selling them online right away. This option is a much safer strategy than the first one, but it offers a much lower profit margin.
We tend to think that everything we find online will be less expensive than in a store. However, that is not always the case. And, if you know how to check these things, you can make a nice profit without too much work. This is how it works:
Be on the Lookout for LEGO Sales in Stores Near You
Wherever you go to shops where LEGO is usually sold, check out to see if there are any offers. After some big shopping periods (Black Friday, Christmas, etc.), you can even actively enter shops to try to find out the deals. This is the best time for these offers since stores want to get rid of stock that is not prime anymore.
Check Online Prices
If you find sets at a discount, quickly check online (either Bricklink or eBay) to see what prices these sets are being sold there. This will tell you whether there is a big enough gap between the cost at the store and the cost online to make this a worthy endeavor.
Buy the Sets, Take Pictures, and List Them
If you see that there is enough gap between the price in the store and the price online, you can decide to buy the sets. Then you need to take some pictures. The better the quality of your pictures, the easier it will be to sell. After that, just list them online. The best platforms for selling these are Bricklink and eBay.
If you are just starting, it might be a good idea to buy only one set first to make sure there is enough market to sell these. You don’t want to buy 10 boxes of the same set to then find out that nobody is buying them online either.
But, if you sell them fast, you have your proof of concept. So you can go back to the store and buy some more for a safe and easy profit.
Buy Retired Lego Sets and Resell Them
With this strategy, we are getting into reselling used LEGOs. These can be much more time consuming, but it offers a bigger reward without too much additional risk.
In this case, usually, the best strategy is to buy locally and then sell online. The idea is to get a retired set at a very low price and then resell it at the market price. The best way to find this type of deal is by going to garage sales, flea markets, or checking Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist in your area.
You also want to be looking for people that do not have any experience in the LEGO market, which means they are less likely to know what a fair price is. That is why going local is a better idea. If you go to specialized sites, it is very unlikely to find an underpriced item and, if it is there, it will go away extremely fast.
These are the steps you need to follow with this method:
Be as Familiar with LEGO Sets and Prices as Possible
The more you know about LEGOs, the easier it will be for you to know whether a specific set is worth purchasing. This becomes more important in garage sales and flea markets, where it would be more difficult to check the price online while negotiating. But, even in these places, you can just have a quick look at your phone before deciding to purchase it.
Try to Get a Discount
Most of the time, the profit margin for this strategy will not be very high, so the less you can get it for, the easier it will be for you to make a profit. People selling on these platforms tend to be willing to negotiate, especially if you have been trying to sell that specific toy for a bit of time and have not managed a successful sale yet.
But, if the price is right, don’t get caught up in the discount. A smaller profit is always better than no profit.
Resell the Sets on Specialized Sites
The last step is to resell these sets. To get the best price, you need to list them on specialized LEGO sites; these are the places where your target market is–the one that is willing to pay the market price. However, eBay is also a good option.
Buy LEGOs in Bulk and Sort Them Before Selling
We are changing the focus here and going from sets to bulk. Selling LEGO in bulk is also a very profitable business if done right. However, it has a few disadvantages compared to the previous three methods.
- You need some storage space in order to store the LEGOs you are going to buy. For this method to work, this needs to be done in big quantities, so you need some space where you can store the LEGO parts you are purchasing.
- There is much more work required. It is not only about storing. If you buy LEGOs in bulk, you will probably need to clean them and, if you want to make a profit out of them, you will need to sort them. These are lengthy and boring tasks.
- You need to make sure that what you are buying is really LEGO. Sometimes people will think they have LEGOs when they actually are a different brand, and sometimes people will try to cheat. It is good to know how to differentiate LEGOs from other brands so you can easily tell if what you are buying is really from the LEGO brand.
But if you don’t mind the no-brain work, it is an option that can give you a good income. These are the steps to follow:
Familiarize Yourself with Prices
The first step towards making a profit in reselling is knowing how much you can sell things for, so you know how much you can pay. In this case, Bricklink is the best resource. Get familiar with the prices of pieces by weight and the prices of special pieces. Below are some facts to get you started:
- The price for unsorted LEGOs online is between $6 and $12 per pound. If you sort them by color, the price will increase. Price also depends on the color.
- LEGO Minifigures are much more valuable than normal bricks. The normal ones are sold for around $1 per minifig. Rare minifigs will be much more expensive.
It is important that you get an idea of how much LEGO weighs and how much it occupies. This will make it easy for you to understand how many pounds there are in the boxes that you will be seeing in the next step.
Shop Around and Look for Easy Deals
As with the previous system, the best way to find good deals here is to go local. If you are checking Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, look for people that are trying to sell their things fast, not professionals.
But don’t try to make a very accurate assessment of the price of the items being offered. Instead, look for easy wins. For example, if a big box is being sold to you at $30 box and you know there are roughly 15 pounds of LEGO pieces in a box that big (hence the importance of the first step), then you know that you would be paying $2/pound, which is much less than the minimum $6/pound you can usually get.
Another easy win would be minifigs. If you see that a box is selling for $30 and there are more than 30 minifigs in there, you know that you can sell these for a minimum of $1 each. So, you would be making your money back only with the minifigs and all the other things would come at a profit.
Clean the LEGO Parts
After buying bulk LEGOs, it is time to clean it all. This is the part that most people will hate, but it can actually be done quite easily once you have your system in place. If you want to know a bit more about this, be sure to check our post “This Is The Best Way To Clean LEGO,” where we explain the best way to clean LEGOs plus some alternatives should you not like the method.
Sort Out the LEGO Specialty Parts
Once your LEGOs purchase is clean and dry, it is time to separate the LEGO specialty parts. These are, for example, the minifigs, which are very valuable on their own so they should be sold separately. Also, bigger parts that are difficult to come by should be separated and sold individually; they will bring a much higher profit for just a little bit of work.
Sort LEGOs by Color or By Color and Type
If you got your LEGOs for a very low price or you are looking to make a quick buck without too much work, you can also ignore this step and go to the next one. However, you will get more money if you sell the LEGOs by color or by color and type.
So, just start sorting the LEGOs in different boxes or bags depending on the color they are. If you want, you can even separate them by type (brick, plate, etc.), and even by size (2×2 brick, 3×2 brick, 4×2 brick, etc.).
Depending on the quantity you have, it might be a good idea to already start putting them in the container you will use to sell it, so you will avoid having to go through an extra step of taking the pieces from the main container and putting them in the container you will use for sending.
Weigh Them, List Them, and Sell Them
If you are already separating them in the containers you will use for sending, just weigh them to make sure they are in 1 or 2-pound buckets. These are the most commonly sold weights.
After that, just list them either on eBay or Bricklink and you are good to go. In this step, also list the special pieces and the minifigs separately.
Buy LEGOs in Bulk and Recreate Sets
Another method when buying LEGOs in bulk is to try to recreate sets. This is a good idea if you are buying from someone with half-built sets and that knows that all the pieces are there. It is a great idea for discounted sets that are very popular online.
In this case, you need to follow the same steps from the previous system until step 3. After you have cleaned your LEGOS, the strategy changes:
Try to Recreate the Set
This can be a very time-consuming step, but it can be great if you are a LEGO enthusiast or if you have kids that love LEGOs. In either case, this part will be more play than work, but it will help you make sure that all the pieces are there.
If Pieces Are Missing, Buy Them Online
Assuming you have done a good job at buying these sets, this step might be unnecessary. However, it can happen that sometimes there are a few pieces missing that have been lost that the previous owner did not know about. In that case, check online and try to find those pieces. Again, Bricklink is your best option here.
Once you have them and you have recreated the set, it is time to move to the next step.
Take Pictures, Dismount the Set, and List It
The last step is to take pictures, dismount the set, and list it for sale. It is usually better to sell it dismounted because there is less risk of damage and the packaging is easier. However, people might want to see proof that the set is complete, so it is wise to take some pictures beforehand to be able to prove it.
When listing, for clarity, you can mention that the set will be delivered dismounted. With complete sets, you can ask for a much higher price than the same weight in bulk, so you can make a profit here while having fun trying to recreate a set.
Learn More About Selling Legos
If you are interested in this topic and would like to learn even more about making money selling LEGOs, there is a great book available that will go into even more detail than what I have done here. This book is Brickvesting: How to Make Money Selling Lego® on Amazon and eBay: A Step-By-Step Guide to Make Your Child’s (or Your) Lego® Hobby Self-Supporting, and you can find it on Amazon following this link.