Need advice - selling my collection

[keetedw]

I need some advice on how to sell my entire collection of Lego.  The majority were purchased in the last 5 years (or so), though I have probably 5-10 lbs of pieces from my childhood (pretty worn from constant play and then a very long storage and multiple moves).

I stumbled on Brickpicker when I was trying to figure out the value of my used sets.  I was encouraged by the prices I was seeing, but had a minor disaster (or not so minor).  A friend brought his kids over and they took apart every. single. set. my daughter and I had put together.  To the point that some minifigs had arms/legs removed.  I was amazed.  I've NEVER seen that level of "destruction" in such a short amount of time (3 hours, maybe).  My daughter and I had 44 (known) sets assembled.  It would have been so simple to take them apart, bag them up, and sell them off before the boys got to them.

Now? I'm assuming I'll have to take a loss as I can't take the time to dig through ~44 sets and over 10k pieces to get them sorted and rebuilt.

I have gone through a rather painstaking process of sorting the pieces at least by color.  Some have been sorted further (specialty, 1x Wide, 2x Wide, etc.)

Link to a photo album on Imgur

I used the instruction booklets to put together an inventory of known sets, though I'm not sure that'll matter at this point.

So, what are my options?  Where do I go from here?

Sets inventoried based on instruction booklets on hand (7207 - I don't have the instruction book)

8633	Speedboat Rescue	Agents
8967	Gold Tooth's Getaway	Agents
8971	Aerial Defense Unit	Agents
8057	Wreck Raider	Atlantis
7236	Police Car	City
7991	Recycle Truck	City
7737	Coast Guard Jet Ski	City
7741	Police Helicopter	City
7630	Front-End Loader	City
7631	Dump Truck	City
7634	Tractor	City
7635	4WD with Horse Trailer	City
7638	Tow Truck	City
7639	Camper	City
7641	City Corner	City
7642	Garage	City
7686	Helicopter Transporter	City
8402	Sports Car	City
3177	Small Car	City
3178	Sea Plane	City
3179	Repair Truck	City
3181	Passenger Plane	City
7207	Fire Boat	City
7208	Fire Station	City
7403	City House	City
7285	Police Dog Unit	City
7620	Motorcycle Chase	Indiana Jones
7198	Fighter Plane Attack	Indiana Jones
7682	Shanghai Chase	Indiana Jones
7683	Fight on the Flying Wing	Indiana Jones
6241	Loot Island	Pirates
6242	Soldiers's Fort	Pirates
8956	Stone Chopper	Power Miners
8957	Mine Mech	Power Miners
8958	Granite Grinder	Power Miners
8959	Claw Digger	Power Miners
8960	Thunder Driller	Power Miners
8963	Rock Wrecker	Power Miners
8188	Fire Blaster	Power Miners
7897	Passenger Train	RC Train
7499	Flexible and Straight Track	RC Train
5970	Freeze Ray Frenzy	Space Police
5981	Raid VPR	Space Police
4982	Mrs. Puff's Boating School	Spongebob

[lego_fan]

sounds like an expensive 3 hours of play. phew.

[iahawks550]

You will either get the high end of bulk prices, or spend so much time putting together sets that you will probably make minimum wage from doing so. 

[redghostx]

I would suggest that you build the expensive sets (the train, Indiana Jones) to maximize the return on those ones and then sell the rest.  Maybe someone will give you 40-50% of the value for them.

[diablo2112]

There's a couple of collectable sets in your lot (train, Indiana Jones, the City fire station, garage, and passenger plane).  I'd try to rebuild those and sell them separate.  Otherwise, this will be considered a bulk lot you can advertise as "complete kits" with your list.  You should get upper end of bulk-lot pricing, typically $5 to $7/pound.  I'm guessing maybe 20-25 pounds here?  You can do the math.  If you have all the instructions (or better yet, boxes), you can up those prices a bit. Good luck.

Edited May 15, 2015 by diablo2112

[keetedw]

I appreciate the feedback.  I think I'll offer the girl child a percentage if she can assemble the premium kits and go ahead and take a bath on the rest.