Polybags 101: Buying & Selling Little Packages

There are a lot of great reasons to get into polybags; sometimes they show up in your Lego orders for free or after buying enough product, sometimes you see a nice box of them in a store with a sale or clearance price tag and wonder if there is any value there.  Sometimes you see them being discussed on Brickpicker or another Lego forum and simply decide you *must* obtain a certain polybag because it is pretty darn cool or fits perfectly into your Lego MOC.  Whatever your reason, I'd like to outline a few strategies to use for buying, listing, packing and selling these little guys.  I've found that with a little research, some hard work and time, you can get a really solid ROI% (return on investment) for each little poly.  With these attributes plus volume, you can add a decent total profit to your Lego investing bottom line.

Buying

 If you read my other polybag article, covering the 2013 polybags in a hauntingly beautiful photo retrospective, you'll probably conclude that the best bags of 2013 came from S&H offers or video game pre-orders (Elrond was hot a couple years ago for this very reason) so it can be tough to amass a large number.  That being said, the obvious thing to do is make your S&H purchases well-planned around good promotions.  At times I've made purchases without looking too carefully at upcoming promotions and end up blowing part of my Lego budget and getting a so-so promotional polybag when I could have waited and gotten, say, a VW Camper.  I've also found (at least in Canada) that TRU consistently has the most promotions with free polybags if you buy enough.  I know a lot of folks dislike TRU for their ridiculous mark-ups, but sometimes it pays to shop there.  (Best promo of 2013 was spend $30 on Superhero sets and get a free Robin poly, which, at the time, could be sold for $25+, making your LEGO almost free!).  You need to also keep up on the forums to see where polybags are being spotted at a variety of large retailers.  It seems even previously 'exclusive' polybags can show up months later somewhere else in a clearance aisle.  Hunting polybags this way is a lot of fun, and it keeps me occupied when my wife is shopping for other non-essential things like food & clothing (as opposed to Lego)

So you watch your promotions, check out your local stores regularly and still aren't getting enough poly-action in your life - what to do?  I recommend bulk buying.  As mentioned above, in different markets and at different stores, it seems folks can always seem to find things on sale that you can't.  Some of these folks choose to see in lots of 5, 10, 20 or more, looking to make a quick flip without the pain of many, many trips to a mailbox, oodles of envelope licking and the like. (Personally, I derive great satisfaction from envelope licking, but to each their own) If you are willing to buy a lot of 20 and sell them slowly over the next few months one at a time, you can probably make some scratch, especially if you pick a poly that has a nice minifig or comes from a popular theme.

Another great way to grab polys is from the United Kingdom.  The Daily Mail used to run regular promotions where our friends across the pond could essentially trade in newspapers for Lego!  After one of these promotions, there are usually quite a few quick flippers looking to sell bulk lots, and by buying bulk the shipping costs per unit remain quite low.  My best buys from Daily Mail promotions were Zombie Coffin Cars, Hawkeye with Hero Gear, Uruk-Hai's and such.  At one time my wife was giving me raised-eyebrow looks of derision when a couple hundred polybags were in my basement, but they've sold so well that she doesn't complain anymore (about Lego polybags - this does not include complaining about other Lego-related issues).  I'm not sure when the next promotion is, but I'll be keeping an eye on it!  I also keep an eye out for polys that are only available in certain countries/regions and try to find a bulk lot to bring to Canada where I can offer free & fast shipping on 'rare' polys.

Listing

 I almost exclusively sell through ebay, although I'm happy to sell through other channels it seems that I get most of my sales through the 'bay.  I believe in Buy it Now listings for items like polybags.  First, the anecdotal evidence I seen in researching the other polybag article tells me that starting auctions low seems to generally result in lower (on average) prices. If you still want to run an auction but start with an opening bid close to your minimum, you're likely wasting your time - if you price really well, you'll know the high end of what people will pay for your polybag and you're unlikely to start a bidding frenzy.  You'll also have a tough time starting a bidding frenzy for all but the rarest of polybags because you'll have plenty of competition on the market, all of which makes auctions not really worth it in my experience.

I like to list from more than one account.  My wife has an account of her own and sells her own stuff, but I often get her to list polys for me.  If I have a lot of a particular set I like to list it in two places, one with free shipping (in Canada) and the other with a lower price + shipping.  For some reason, some buyers seem to prefer one or the other, even though they ultimately both cost exactly the same.  I like to give choice, plus get more exposure for a set I have a lot of.  Remember, the key is volume with these little guys, otherwise you've spent a lot of time buying & listing a set to only sell a couple for a paltry total profit.

Packaging and Shipping

This is the easiest part of polybag investing; you've already spent time and energy buying polybags, storing them somewhere, listing them, getting paid and now you're ready to get them out the door.  Shipping is satisfying and delightfully easy, plus you can lick envelope glue if you really want to.

Packaging

I choose dollar store small bubble mailers as my go to.  They can fit one poly easily, and when one buyer buys several, you can still usually get at least four or five in there, which means only one stamp needed.  I'm sure wherever you are, you can find a cheap supply of these.  When I started to 'go big', I bought a large pack from Staples when they were on sale, but if nothing is on sale and I'm in need, the dollar store is my friend.  If you get them on sale, they can range from about twenty cents to thirty-five each.  I like the extra little protection you get from the bubbles, and thus far buyers have been quite happy.

Shipping

In Canada, these can be shipped as over-sized letter mail, which costs $1.34.  I factor in these costs when I offer free shipping.  The best part is, these don't need the post office!  I put a poly in a mailer, write down the addresses and simply put it in the community mailbox at the end of my street.  Since the post office can have long lines filled with people who seem intent on wasting as much of my life as possible in line behind them, shipping close to home is awesome.  Check out your postal situation or make friends with someone at your local post office and ask them the best (read: cheapest) way to get your polys safely around whatever country you are in. 

I'm guessing you can find a cheap and easy option. I'm sure there are plenty of other folks with their own strategies for selling these little Lego sets, but I hope you can pick up a few tips here and put them to use.  Whatever you decide to do, find a system that works because if you want to make any serious money, you've got to make a lot of shipments.  A lot.