Bricklinking expensive, large, rare, retired, etc.. sets

[spener90]

I've been thinking about using bricklink to build a set recently. Obviously it would be one that is since retired. I am debating between the Millenium Falcon, Taj Mahal, or Eiffel Tower, although none of those are concrete and I would like to here other suggestions. Has anyone had success with this, any recommendations on how to make it both cost efficient and successful?

[heathx3]

would be fun, but what I just noticed in trying to track down the remaining pieces of the 10177 Dreamliner.... exclusive sets are hard to find multiple parts of, especially from a single seller and even more so if they have 1 time colors in them. The S&**** will add up quickly when you get stuck buying from 60 different people. Eifel tower would be fun but the Taj will cost you out the nose with 5900+ parts. Good luck, sounds fun.

[locutus]

I just finished "bricklinking" my first set. It was the jawa sandcrawler. I created a profile in the website rebrickable and loaded in the sets that I already have. It gave me a list of the pieces that I needed. It was about 70% of the sandcrawler. Then I started shopping on bricklink. I tried to buy some of the harder to find pieces or colors with each order so that I wasn't stuck with a bunch of hard to find pieces at the end requiring numerous tiny orders. The process wasn't too bad for me, but I'm sure some more experienced bricklinkers could help you better.

[tonysbricks]

My personal rule is if I have to spend more than 25% of it's value on replacement parts, it's more cost effective (time, money, and sanity) to buy it whole and sell the parts I have.

[cvail8]

I've thought about doing this with a 10179. I know there are a couple parts that basically don't exist, so you either have to pay through the nose for them or have the wrong pieces. Someday...

[Arcanum777]

I just did the Eiffel Tower. I was dumb and didn't order for more than 1 set at a time and bought from 12 people plus a $83 order from Lego proper to get the 254 fence pieces needed for it but the total cost delivered to my door was $503. Still much cheaper than trying to buy it used. The Falcon and the Taj Mahal will be hard to get all the pieces for - but both can be done. The Falcon is doable and you will save money over buying used as a whole. The time commitment to find all the pieces and get them together may make you old before your time though, and the Taj will save a bit of money but not enough when you can buy it used and save the hassle. Advice - 1. minimize the number of pieces that you have to order from Lego proper, as they are generally more expensive than you can find on Bricklink. 2. Find the more obscure pieces and then use that seller to buy as many of the "common" pieces as you can. If you just start buying based on volume, you will end up needing 20 different pieces at the end that only a few people have but none that you can find together. An example being piece number 48288 - LBG plates - for the Eiffel Tower. Trying to find all 11 that are required in 1 place is limited and really expensive so start with the guy that has 3 cheap and then add as may of the more common parts to your order as you can and then move on to the next guy that has 4 or 5 of those plates and repeat. at the end of that process you should end up with all the harder pieces to get and many of the common ones while keeping your number of order - and thus shipping costs - down. 3. Use two or three vendors open as comparisons while shopping for parts. One guy will have part A cheaper than the second but his part B will be way more expensive. Use the rule that Lego averages 20 cents a brick and if the pieces you see are more, shop around.

[grackleflint]

Check out this thread on FBTB about someone who BrickLink'd a 10179 http://www.fbtb.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8339

[Grolim]

Briefly considered doing it for the 10179 after missing out on it, but decided it is still too expensive for now. I'd have to get all the exact parts, my OCD means I couldn't accept a different color brick anywhere! Have been looking into the Darth Maul bust as well, but it seems a couple of those pieces are pricey too.

[gte206w]

... The Falcon is doable and you will save money over buying used as a whole. ...

I wish this were true but I just checked, and the extreme lower bound cost of purchasing every piece [excluding stickers, minifigs] would be roughly $1050 USD - and that's with "used" pricing ("new" would be around $1300). When I say "extreme lower bound", i mean living in fantasyland where everybody has free shipping, so that you just buy the absolute cheapest available while ignoring order count.

Once you add the shipping costs, it would come out to about what you'd expect to pay for a used set on ebay anyway.

:-(

Granted, $270 of that is tied up in boat riggings....another $72 is in stupid little levers...

[heathx3]

Taj might not be as bad as it would seem. Even though it is over 5900 pieces, it's only a single sheet parts list and most are just quantity parts in white and a few tan ones, not really any super rare or exculsive colors. Pull the PDF of the parts list off Lego and start crossing them off.....the more I think about it, the better idea it sounds like....... hmmmmmmmmmm.

[nolanfan34]

I am in the process of doing this on a 10198 Tantive IV. Smaller set, only 1,400+ pieces. I picked up a bunch of parts for it in a bulk buy recently, including 10 of the 11 engines, and the cockpit pieces, so hoping it won't be too much to build out the rest. I will say cataloging which pieces you already have is a pretty tedious process. I am also picky and want to fill the set out without using pieces I already have from other sets.

[Grolim]

Once you add the shipping costs, it would come out to about what you'd expect to pay for a used set on ebay anyway.

I guess that kinda makes sense. Otherwise people would be building sets and selling them on Ebay. A few hundred premium probably isn't worth the time and effort to 'Bricklink' the set, but I'm sure some people must do it.

Lego Arbitrage! Now we are really sounding like an investment site

[@rtisan]

I have a friend who recently bricklink`ed 10179 (within the last 6 months). The final cost he told me was $450 Canadian for the parts, which I think is stunning considering it is below retail even after EOL. Didn`t ask how much he paid in shipping, but it`s easy to assume it is unlikely to have gone past $70-80. It would be great to do this at some point in the future, but for now as I`m learning, just going to stick with sealed sets and buying for my personal collection.

[Grolim]

I have a friend who recently bricklink`ed 10179 (within the last 6 months). The final cost he told me was $450 Canadian for the parts, which I think is stunning considering it is below retail even after EOL. Didn`t ask how much he paid in shipping, but it`s easy to assume it is unlikely to have gone past $70-80. It would be great to do this at some point in the future, but for now as I`m learning, just going to stick with sealed sets and buying for my personal collection.

Sounds like he must have substituted quite a few of the more expensive parts for other colors or variants. That's a pretty good option if you just want the look of a huge set to display.

[comicblast]

I want to Bricklink a Taj Mahal. Fairly regular and easy to find pieces and has a bunch of the SAME pieces which makes it easier.

[spener90]

Thanks everyone, this advice is very insightful. I think I am going to begin by seeing what pieces I have in my collection, making a trip to my local lego store to check out the wall, and go from there. Maybe this Christmas I will have a fun build?

[gte206w]

I guess that kinda makes sense. Otherwise people would be building sets and selling them on Ebay. A few hundred premium probably isn't worth the time and effort to 'Bricklink' the set, but I'm sure some people must do it.

Lego Arbitrage! Now we are really sounding like an investment site

Exactly right! That was my original reason for making a price scraper that I could feed a part list to, but every one that I've checked has come back as a dud.

It would be more helpful if I could include shipping costs and run it as an optimization problem, however that type of info is not easily available from bricklink storefronts. I still find the "extreme lowest possible cost" to be useful - and it's always told me that there is no money in lego arbitrage :-(

[@rtisan]

Sounds like he must have substituted quite a few of the more expensive parts for other colors or variants. That's a pretty good option if you just want the look of a huge set to display.

He`s got it displayed in his living room, so it would make sense to have substituted all the "un-seeable" parts.

[Darth Lego]

Sounds like he must have substituted quite a few of the more expensive parts for other colors or variants. That's a pretty good option if you just want the look of a huge set to display.

He`s got it displayed in his living room, so it would make sense to have substituted all the "un-seeable" parts.

That was a smart move on your friend's part. I assume your friend saved a good amount of money doing that.

[heathx3]

I went on and started to bricklink the Taj. $332.53 covered 3952 of the 5900+ parts, and all were from the same seller so shiping would have been ok. Good chance the Taj could be Bricked for around $500-550. 12 total colors used and most have less than 10 different pieces per color. The 6 blue base plates will be the most exspensive items. otherwise the $550 would be close to the typical $0.10 a piece that most things tend to retail for.

[legopocalypse]

Has anyone tried bricklinking the Statue of Liberty or Grand Carousel?

[Grolim]

I guess that kinda makes sense. Otherwise people would be building sets and selling them on Ebay. A few hundred premium probably isn't worth the time and effort to 'Bricklink' the set, but I'm sure some people must do it.

Lego Arbitrage! Now we are really sounding like an investment site

Exactly right! That was my original reason for making a price scraper that I could feed a part list to, but every one that I've checked has come back as a dud.

It would be more helpful if I could include shipping costs and run it as an optimization problem, however that type of info is not easily available from bricklink storefronts. I still find the "extreme lowest possible cost" to be useful - and it's always told me that there is no money in lego arbitrage :-(

That price scraper sounds awesome. Had thought something like that would be good to do, but I don't quite have the tech capability to do it. Good to know you've done it and run some numbers. Coming back with no margins is what I guessed would be the case.

Could be interesting to sub out some of the expensive parts on some sets and see if that makes a difference. though that may then effect the sale price. But those who just want it for display themselves, this would be the way to go.

[gte206w]

Has anyone tried bricklinking the Statue of Liberty or Grand Carousel?

Acquiring the Sand Green 2x2 corner pieces [509 of them] in "new" condition would be $840 before shipping, which is already higher than the Brickpicker guide's price. That is an average of $1.65, for a teeny little brick.

Other notables:

The 2x2 "Macaroni" corner brick would run $37/ea on average. Since you need 4x, that is a cool $150.

The 2x8 bricks would run $1.88/ea and you need 130 of them. Add another $245.

93 2x2 bricks would be another $135, and 415 2x4 would be $200 further.

All told, bricklinking the Statue of Liberty would run you well over $2200 and all of the above prices are, as I've mentioned in other posts, without considering shipping cost.

[comicblast]

So I did a little research on the 10189 Taj Mahal. Here are the results: 58/164 or 35.5% of the pieces are NOT available on Pick a Brick on TLG website. Out of the 5922 pieces in this set, 4239 can be found on the Pick a Brick site, or roughly 71.5%. I am hoping that these numbers are correct. As a result, I think that the Taj Mahal is MUCH easier to Bricklink than another sets such as the Grand Carousel or the Statue of Liberty.

[varmintt]

I bricklinked a 10179 last year with only couple substitutions and it worked out great.  I put the whole thing together for like 400-500 bucks.  Considering these are going for 1800 used that's a pretty good savings.

 

I am considering bricklinking together a 10182 Caf