Building a Green Grocer through LEGO Shop at Home missing pieces site

[Deadfraggle]

Hey gang,

 

Been reading the website for about a year now, but this is my first post.

 

Has anyone tried buying all the pieces for a Green Grocer Modular 10185 or other ModularBuilding through the missing pieces feature of the Lego LEGO Shop at Home website? A good friend of mine has used LEGO Shop at Home to buy all his pieces to build over 20 Custom Modular builidings, but he's never tried to to buy all the pieces for an entire production set. I looked today, and you can buy all but 12 of the pieces for the Green Grocer set from LEGO Shop at Home. I figure I'd use brick link to pick up the remaining few pieces. This set would be for my own personal collection, not for resale purposes. Here are a few key questions I have:

 

1) Will buying all the individual pieces new from Lego likely exceed the cost of purchasing a used set on Ebay or Bricklink?

2) If I am going to buy the set in individual parts, do you recommend Lego or BL as the source? Is there a third option?

2) Will Lego flag my account or ban me for trying to do something like this? 

3) Can I purchase all the pieces in one large order or should I break them up into several smaller orders?

 

Thanks for any advice, past experiences, or words of wisdom.

[j.hermit]

Hello there Deadfraggle, welcome to the site.  I'm no expert - I've never bought the parts to build an entire set - but here are my thoughts:

 

1)  For these old, retired sets that are selling at a huge premium (like this one), collecting the individual parts is often the cheapest option.  Unless there's someone who has recently Bricklink'ed or Pick-a-Brick'ed this set that can tell you their cost, your best bet is adding up your total price for parts to see how it compares to Ebay/Bricklink price.

 

2)  Bricklink should be cheaper, but that depends on how many sellers you have to order from.  There's also BrickOwl, but there's not nearly as much inventory available there.

 

2&3)  I can't see why you'd get into any trouble for buying from LEGO;  just make sure what their rules are concerning PAB.  LEGO is swinging the ban hammer at people who buy multiples because resellers are messing up their production/distribution schedules.  I don't expect the same with buying parts, though, as you'd be using PAB exactly as it was intended.

 

Good luck with the project.

[matt1147]

I don't think there's any risk of a ban or red flag for ordering pieces - someone else may correct me, but since you're just ordering pieces, I don't see any problems.

Now price-wise, this is just my gut feeling, but I bet bricklink would be cheaper if you can find a seller with the majority of pieces. Bricklink, for the most part, is very affordable unless you're paying multiple shipping charges or there's for really rare pieces. Please let me know if you find ordering from lego is cheaper!

[Bold-Arrow]

Hi and welcome to the forums

I recall someone posting that they got banned for ordering too many elements . I dont rememebr the details tbh

[California92563]

Hi and welcome to the forums

I recall someone posting that they got banned for ordering too many elements . I dont rememebr the details tbh

Is there anything you don't get banned for? Lol

[Huskers1236]

When I BL'd the Taj Mahal, I made an approx. $300 order from LEGO Shop at Home for new parts.  The salesperson I talked to when making the order thought it was really cool that I was doing it as well.  I think where people get in trouble is when they are ordering hundreds of very specific pieces that may be very obvious are for resale.  If it's obvious you are trying to recreate a set that is not for sale anymore through LEGO Shop at Home, I very much doubt you will have any hassle from them. 

 

That said, I would do some legwork and compare prices vs. Bricklink.  There can be substantial savings either way depending on the part.  Do your homework.

[Young_Gun21]

I would say Bricklink is your best option. PAB will take 2 1/2-4 Weeks to arrive and I think their "new" pieces aren't better then the new ones on BL. Majority of the pieces will be cheaper through BL most likely. Put all the pieces in your want list then there is an option that shows stores with all your pieces. Using this feature you would only have 3-4 maximum most likely. IMO

[junkrigger]

I have ordered lots of pieces from LEGO Shop at Home bulk pieces and find for rare pieces they are cheaper than BL if they are in stock, but more expensive for common pieces, but only slightly and so the savings on shipping from one place may make it even.  They will invoice your order and then you can decide if you want to place the order as you have to call them once you receive an invoice to pay and compete the order.  It can be a good option

[kenchu2000]

Do they sell sand green pieces?  I do not see them available.

[junkrigger]

Wow now they put prices on the pieces, that is new within the last month, totally awesome, gonna be making a few grand worth or orders here soon.

[redghostx]

I just finished piecing together 2 sets of an old modular and BrickLink is cheaper for most pieces but I just ordered $93 for the last 20 pieces (had to top up for double VIP and Christmas set). If you are building the green grocer, it is a lot cheaper to break down the sand green bricks.

Ex Astris, Scientia.

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

I don't see sand green  either.  the 1x8 sandgreen on bl is 3.24 each and you need 50 ouch

[Alpinemaps]

With that particular piece, a lot of people are substituting the 1x8 with 1x4s, or 1x6s and 1x2s.  They come at a much cheaper prices, and can be used just as effectively.

[bricketycricket]

If someone has already priced it out, I'd be very curious to know what it costs to build this set piece by piece using Lego.com for as many of the pieces as possible. I wouldn't mind breaking down the 1x8 sand green pieces and, in fact, I'd even consider substituting another color entirely for all of the sand green bricks.

[Guest davewager78]

Substituting colours is the way to go on modulars with rare colours imho. Better than spending so much getting it perfect. Each to their own i suppose. I can second the person above who said Lego are cheaper i they have the rarer pieces you need, as they don't tend to mark up on rarity.

 

For example, my bricklinked Taj Mahal (still work in progress!) requires approx 200 2x2 turntable bases. These are not available in this quantity from a single seller on bricklink, rather in 1's or 2's, unless you want to pat around

[biniou]

If it's obvious you are trying to recreate a set that is not for sale anymore through LEGO Shop at Home, I very much doubt you will have any hassle from them.

 

And even if you are banned because of this, just call them and say "hey !!! I was trying to remake this set ! why have I been banned ??" and then they would un-ban you. Not sure of that but it makes so much sense to me...

[Zurno]

Recently I found someone with a nice blog post for something similar, good tips in it. http://www.dagsbricks.com/2014/09/lego-techniques-building-cafe-corner.html?m=1

Also, I found that the pick a brick price was lower on certain tiles. In the US, PaB has a minimum cost of 10 cents, so it makes it easy to check.

[Huskers1236]

Pretty awesome that "Bricks and Pieces" added prices up front.  That was a huge hassle waiting for the invoice to see prices for cost comparison.  It also used to be that prices varied between this and Pick a Brick, so that's another thing worth noting.  LEGO Shop at Home can be a ripoff on some pieces vs. Bricklink, but can be a lifesaver on many others.   As for Green Grocer, it looks like doing this set correctly is near impossible now with the 1x8 sand green being out of stock at Lego.  Pieces do come in and out of stock there, but something like that in a rare color might be gone for some time until another set uses it.  Does Haunted House use 1x8's?  A set that recent in production should keep pieces in production, but Customer Service can tell you if a specific piece is still being made or not.

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

HH does not use 1x8's 

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=3008&in=S&colorID=48&ov=Y

 

 

 

Substituting colours is the way to go on modulars with rare colours imho. Better than spending so much getting it perfect. Each to their own i suppose. I can second the person above who said Lego are cheaper i they have the rarer pieces you need, as they don't tend to mark up on rarity.

 

For example, my bricklinked Taj Mahal (still work in progress!) requires approx 200 2x2 turntable bases. These are not available in this quantity from a single seller on bricklink, rather in 1's or 2's, unless you want to pat around

[10230]

Wow now they put prices on the pieces, that is new within the last month, totally awesome, gonna be making a few grand worth or orders here soon.

Do you talk about Pick a Brick? They showed prices for quite a while...

[Huskers1236]

Do you talk about Pick a Brick? They showed prices for quite a while...

He's probably talking about Bricks and Pieces, which never used to show up front pricing.  Pick a Brick has always shown cost as far as I know. 

[Alpinemaps]

There's a thread over on Eurobricks on this topic.  A number of people do a breakdown of the set and their costs to put it together, piece by piece, along with documenting the substitutions that they make.

[gorbasho]

There's a thread over on Eurobricks on this topic.  A number of people do a breakdown of the set and their costs to put it together, piece by piece, along with documenting the substitutions that they make.

This is the link I came here to post. I used it to bricklink a GG and it was incredibly helpful. Also has good tips in there for Cafe Corner and Market Street. I was able to bricklink mine with all new parts for $450, making the recommended substitutions in that thread (no sand green 1x8s, etc). I know someone was able to do it under $400, by spending more time carefully choosing their shops to buy from.

 

I was also able to put together a Blue Grocer (all sand green parts swapped to sand blue) for under $300. It looks surprisingly good and is an excellent alternative if having the original color isn't absolutely required to you.

 

If you are trying to bring the cost down, definitely go with Bricklink. While it may be easy to just try and buy it all from BnP, I'm fairly certain the cost of doing so is going to come close to just buying a used GG from eBay.

Edited October 12, 2014 by gorbasho

[junkrigger]

Do you talk about Pick a Brick? They showed prices for quite a while...

Ya bricks and pieces of course, they should just shut down pick a brick now, it has always been pretty weak.  Now that they are displaying prices this will give BL some serious competition especially on mini figure pieces and rare pieces they stock.  The only bummer is how much time will now be spent searching for specific pieces and worrying about getting banned for huge orders. Though I have made some huge orders in the past its always a concern.

[varmintt]

I successfully put together a UCS MF 1-2 years ago and a caf