Houston Lego Lot Value - Worth $20K? (Part 3)

Now that Quacs has dissected the real value and investment viability of this lot when it comes to complete sets, I wanted to give you all some perspective and information about a very different way to consider the potential of the lot: Parting out the whole lot.

When you start to think about just how many parts are included in this lot, it becomes quickly apparent that there is a lot of upside to opening every single set and selling each brick on a Bricklink store. But let's evaluate this thought a little further and really see the potential benefits for the investor/re-seller.

First of all, I will assume that the buyer will pay the $ 13,500 asking price. Getting a larger discount will of course just make the potential profits even greater, but let's just focus on the "worst" case scenario:

• Total Number of Pieces: 183,318

• MSRP: $ 18,747

• Price Per Piece (MSRP): $ 0.102

• Asking Price: $ 13,500

• Price Per Piece (Asking Price):$ 0.074

Examining the price per piece based both on retail pricing of the sets as well as the seller's asking price we get two very different numbers. At $ 0.10 per piece based on retail the lot is actually not that bad to begin with, but once you consider the discounted price you get a very nice $ 0.074. When you consider that most sets have a higher part out value than MSRP even when they are available in the market, the appeal of this lot takes a very positive turn. (The following part out value is based on Bricklink's average price for the last 6 months for each element, including whole minifigs and instructions)

Total Part Out Value of the Lot: $ 33,105.85

Crazy, right? This number of course assumes you are able to sell every single brick and minifig for every single one of the sets included in the lot, and ignores all expenses associated with packaging, time, shipping, etc. The only expense I was able to include just to give you a little estimate would be Bricklink's commission from the sales (3%), that amount to around $ 1,000 when all is said and done. That would mean you would get around $ 32,000 for around $ 13,000 in profit.

Even if these numbers may look incredible at first glance, there are several things you have to consider. There are a large amount very desirable and expensive pieces in this lot from sets like the modulars, UCS, and some others as well as a very large quantity of somewhat expensive minifigs that account for a very significant part of the total value of the lot. Just to give you an idea, you would get around $2,200 just by parting out the 3 10188 Death Stars that are included!

Also good to keep in mind is the fact that the number above represents an ideal scenario that is not realistic by any means. There are several costs and drawbacks to parting out LEGO sets, let alone hundreds of them. Some of them are listed below:

• Time: Parting out and sorting just one set is a very daunting and time consuming task. To do the same with hundreds of them, including some very large ones, would take a lot of dedication and a very organized storage space to make finding parts a lot easier when selling

• Not every part included is in high demand. This means that when the time comes to sell, you will for sure have a large quantity of slow moving common pieces that will take a long time to sell, and in all likelihood you just won't be able to sell all of them. This is to me a key disadvantage in this case, as I find no accurate way to really find and estimate the cost of those slow movers.

These two are to me the most important things a potential buyer should consider if the objective is parting out the sets. You can see that the potential revenue is very significant, but it would take someone who is really polished in this kind of strategy with an already set up Bricklink store to be able to maximize the profits by parting out.This is not something I would ever consider attempting myself, but it is an opportunity for someone willing to take the plunge.

I attached an Excel file based on Quacs work along with some of the data I collected as far as part out values and number of pieces. I included them on a table format so that you would be able to sort whatever way serves you best.

Thanks for reading, and special thanks to Quacs for his work on this and for allowing me to expand on his analysis.