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

[boliramirez]

Why brinklink it?  buy mine NISB for a reasonable Price.....

[varmintt]

I can bricklink a new one with no substitutions for $500-600.  The discontinued parts account for about $275 of that.  So with subs I think I can put one together for close to $300 bucks. 

 

Im curious what your reasonable price is but as I am sitting here looking over my outstanding debt to the IRS I doubt my bank account is up to the task.

[marcandre]

I have been toying with doing a green grocer but the green bricks just kill it. Will be interested to hear how you do. 

[@rtisan]

Another option would be to strictly order parts for the exterior, if you are planning to add it to a Modular set up or display. Doing so would take out another chunk of the cost (not sure exactly how much), in exchange for play ability. Would take a bit of work to determine exactly what you could leave out, but the results are worth considering. Same goes for any modular really. 

[Jojoyojimbi]

I have been toying with doing a green grocer but the green bricks just kill it. Will be interested to hear how you do. 

 

change the size of the pieces and they get much cheaper, ie use two 1x4s instead of 1x8

[arobert125]

Honestly....be patient and take your time!

[varmintt]

I was looking at doing a green grocer as well and ran into the same problem.  changing the brick size is good advice.  I may have to give that one a second look.  I was also thinking of just giving it a different color.  ie sand blue grocer

[arobert125]

Any color that you choose and are happy with should be good......

[gregpj]

Another option would be to strictly order parts for the exterior, if you are planning to add it to a Modular set up or display. Doing so would take out another chunk of the cost (not sure exactly how much), in exchange for play ability. Would take a bit of work to determine exactly what you could leave out, but the results are worth considering. Same goes for any modular really.

Cafe Corner has almost no interior pieces so this won't save you any $.

The Dark Red 2x3 slopes are commonly replaced with other shades of red but I have to say... There are lots of them and it does make it quite a bit brighter. Not sure about the windows though.

There is currently a "used" one for sale on eBay with lots of substitutions. Makes for a good comparison.

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[junkrigger]

If u think modulars are hard to brick link try doing the Santa Fe train cars or a bnsf locomotive. Dark green pieces at five buck each, yellow train base not even available, pearl grey pieces cost a fortune, and light grey curved slopes will bankrupt. Color and size substitutions are th only way. Also look for incomplete or parts lots on ebay/craigslist. It really is cheaper just to buy a complete set sometimes.

[TheOrcKing]

I have been toying with doing a green grocer but the green bricks just kill it. Will be interested to hear how you do.

change the size of the pieces and they get much cheaper, ie use two 1x4s instead of 1x8

To somewhat add upon this train of thought, the Haunted House gives a fair amount of sand green bricks; just in mostly smaller sizes such as 1x4's & 1x6's. It may take two of that set to have more than enough to construct a Green Grocer and then some.

[Huskers1236]

I would also check with buying parts at Shop at Home.  The dark blue arches were in the Winter Village Market, so you may be able to find them again.  The dark red slopes were in Pet Shop I believe as well.  Taking a quick look at the site, they are sold out right now, but you could give them a call and they would be able to tell you if they were still making the part or not.  The dark bley birds ARE in stock, though.  I BL'd my Cafe Corner and it ended up around $400.(about 2 years ago)  I am still trying to find the last 2 white 1x2x3 panels for the windows since I won't pay $8 for them, but otherwise, it's 100% accurate.

[gorbasho]

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=90358

Check out this thread on eurobricks, it's mostly for Green Grocer but has a lot of Cafe Corner and Market Street as well. Long, but lots of good discussion and advice on what substitutions to make. I was able to do a GG for around $400 with only the sand green 1x8s substituted.

[Simon_GM]

I think I'm going to Bricklink the Taj Mahal as my summer project as long as I can keep it under 600$. Might display if for a year or so and then sell it on ebay.

[Simon_GM]

Just thought I would start this thread for anyone who is interested in Bricklinking sets or has made this there way of investing. Please share what you would think the best sets would be to Bricklink in order to sell later. Also curious if this style of investing would even work. 

 

I want to bricklink one of these sets:

 

10129 Rebel Snowspeeder (small amount of pieces with big return)

Death Star II

7191 X-Wing

Taj Mahal (lot of work)

 

Thanks,

 

 

Simon_GM

 

[Huskers1236]

Just thought I would start this thread for anyone who is interested in Bricklinking sets or has made this there way of investing. Please share what you would think the best sets would be to Bricklink in order to sell later. Also curious if this style of investing would even work. 

 

I want to bricklink one of these sets:

 

10129 Rebel Snowspeeder (small amount of pieces with big return)

Death Star II

7191 X-Wing

Taj Mahal (lot of work)

 

Thanks,

 

 

Simon_GM

I just Bricklinked a Taj Mahal with new pieces throughout and it cost $800.  Not sure there's a lot of room to make any money with that right now.  10129 and 7191 are bound to have some rare pieces in there.  DSII might be the route to go, though I'm not sure if it's new grey or old grey.  Old Grey could be hard to find some pieces if there are some in large quantities.  Shipping costs make it hard to make money on these as well.

[LegoAidan]

10129

[Stevenplays]

I would recommend seeing first if 10129 has a lot of rare pieces or uncommon colors, if not a whole lot, go ahead with it.

By the way, the Death Star II is the new gray, the old gray lasted until 2003 where during 2003 new gray was introduced but new gray wasn't fully implemented until 2004, and since the set came out in 2005, you'll be fine if you use the new stuff. It will probably be the one of the easier ones to piece together simply because gray is very common and also very cheap. You could expect to get 600 US for the DSII, so just try to keep it at least cheaper than 450 US and you'll make a good amount of profit, but I doubt it would cost that much, my guess if 300 US if you're smart about it.

[Huskers1236]

10129

Check out the orange parts for that set and get back to me.  Bricklinking this set correctly is just about impossible.

[grackleflint]

The other big problem with 10129 is that the stickers are almost impossible to find. There isn't one seller on Bricklink or eBay that is selling the stickers right now. There was one eBay seller who was selling reproductions for $25 each. Since you also won't have the box or instructions, you won't get anywhere near the Brickpicker used guide price so there's not really that much money to be made. Check out the latest eBay sold auctions and you'll see what I mean.

[fatboycarney]

Very interesting thread.. I am interested in the thoughts on this as well.

 

For those that have done this does it pay to try and go with as many new parts as possible when reselling. 

[junkrigger]

You can make money brick linking sets but its not necessarily the large uber expensive ones that work best, many have rare super expensive parts or even unavailable parts/instructions.  Also to get the best deals on parts and even find all the parts you got to go through many sellers, which implies large shipping fees so you have to do this in bulk.  I have done it successfully with a few sets but here is the catch 10 or more of a single set at a time. Used to do it with trains but now the cost of parts is prohibitive. It can be a good way to get a nice set for yourself but again to save on shipping I have at least 3 sets I am gathering parts for at any time to get the best deals from multiple sellers and you got to be patient, like takes a year or more sometimes for me at least.  And a final note sometimes lego will make a new set with exactly the rare part part you need.  This happened recently anyone know the set?

[Simon_GM]

Very interesting thread.. I am interested in the thoughts on this as well.

 

For those that have done this does it pay to try and go with as many new parts as possible when reselling. 

Glad you like it The whole bricklinking sets as an investment has peaked my interest as well, but I think unfortunately most exclusive sets have a lot of exclusive instructions and pieces. If anybody knows a set or sets that you can flip pretty quickly please post.

[Simon_GM]

For those of you who haven't seen this already, here's a guy who bricklinked a 10179 falcon with the cheapest parts he could find on bricklink. 

http://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1txd3g/bricklinked_myself_a_100_accurate_ucs_millennium/

[jbacunn]

You can make money brick linking sets but its not necessarily the large uber expensive ones that work best, many have rare super expensive parts or even unavailable parts/instructions. Also to get the best deals on parts and even find all the parts you got to go through many sellers, which implies large shipping fees so you have to do this in bulk. I have done it successfully with a few sets but here is the catch 10 or more of a single set at a time. Used to do it with trains but now the cost of parts is prohibitive. It can be a good way to get a nice set for yourself but again to save on shipping I have at least 3 sets I am gathering parts for at any time to get the best deals from multiple sellers and you got to be patient, like takes a year or more sometimes for me at least. And a final note sometimes lego will make a new set with exactly the rare part part you need. This happened recently anyone know the set?

I have been doing this recently as well. I am completing incomplete sets bought on eBay. I keep a long list of parts I need for multiple sets and then when I do an order try to pick up as many pieces as possible for multiple sets. It's time consuming and it does take a long time to complete sets but it is worth it if you have the patience for it.

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