Removing Clearance/Price Stickers on Lego Sets - Discussion

[deanearp]

Hello fellow Legophiles. I have found one bad thing about clearance sales on Legos--those stickers they put on the boxes with the clearance price. I got a Diagonal Alley and the tag was over Harry's face. He now looks like one of the dementors got a hold of him. On a subsequent one I had good luck with Goo-Gone but it made me nervous using it. Anybody have any other ideas to get these pesky boogers off?

[Ed Mack]

Hair dryer. Heat them up and peel them off.

[deanearp]

Hair dryer. Heat them up and peel them off.

Thanks. I never would have thought of that! I'm sure my wife won't mind sharing hers.

[jmpkcp]

I found that steam from a tea kettle works a little better. Leaves behind a little less glue residue than a hair dryer....at least for me personally.

[Doofy McGee]

Patience is a necessary virtue to have when removing stickers. I have finally learned this after years of removing price tags. If you just go slow, there is less likelihood to rip off the printing underneath, and the sticker is a lot more likely to come off in one piece. And I wholeheartedly support Goo Gone. It has never steered me wrong. :)

[exciter1]

I've used Goo Gone one all my collectibles when removing stickers and haven't had an issue. Going slow does help...

[hollywdbri]

Hi, Fairly new to collecting so have a newbie question. I've noticed most sets use 4 stickers, 2 on each side, to seal Lego boxes. Are these stickers really secure or just a false sense of security? Once the sticker is removed, theres no glue keeping the box together. If I was investing, bought a set from Target, kept a box sealed - I'd never know if some scum removed the minifigs, resealed the box and returned the set for a refund. Thoughts? HWB

[Legodog]

Hi,

Fairly new to collecting so have a newbie question. I've noticed most sets use 4 stickers, 2 on each side, to seal Lego boxes. Are these stickers really secure or just a false sense of security? Once the sticker is removed, theres no glue keeping the box together. If I was investing, bought a set from Target, kept a box sealed - I'd never know if some scum removed the minifigs, resealed the box and returned the set for a refund.

Thoughts?

HWB

I've wondered this also. I've heard you can use a hair dryer on the seals but I don't think that is true. Maybe someone else knows more.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Seals that are tempted with are fairly easy to spot but who is to say someone hasn't figured out a way to make it barely noticeable.

[cvail8]

If people are willing to risk credit card fraud via drop shipping, I'm sure there are people who figured out a way to remove security stickers to replace Legos with Cheerios. Sadly, it wouldn't be that hard to get it past a Wally World return desk, would it? Buy a Jabba's Palace, an Epic Dragon Battle, and a Helm's Deep, steal the pieces, and return it so some other poor schmuck gets stuck with a box full of cereal. Sell the sealed bags on ebay and you've got yourself $300. Little risk, high reward. I'm sure it has happened before and it will happen again. I make sure I check my seals when I buy retail.

[dunkers97]

Hi,

Fairly new to collecting so have a newbie question. I've noticed most sets use 4 stickers, 2 on each side, to seal Lego boxes. Are these stickers really secure or just a false sense of security? Once the sticker is removed, theres no glue keeping the box together. If I was investing, bought a set from Target, kept a box sealed - I'd never know if some scum removed the minifigs, resealed the box and returned the set for a refund.

Thoughts?

HWB

True dat! I have never really thought about that but I guess it could happen, so if you just inspect all the seals before you buy the set, and don't try take the minifigurs and return the set yourself, you'll be fine! ;)

[Tilted]

Today I was checking a few Diagon Alleys at my local TRU and I'm pretty sure the seals on one of the boxes had been tampered with. It was very well done but, fortunately, I could still spot it. But hey, maybe I was leveling myself as one of the boxes actually had a missing seal, ah!

[Pirate]

Yes, you can most assuredly open and reseal boxes if you know what you're doing. I just had to do this a little while ago on an imperial shuttle that popped open during shipping. In fact, I just replaced the old stickers with new stickers.

[comicblast]

Yes, you can most assuredly open and reseal boxes if you know what you're doing. I just had to do this a little while ago on an imperial shuttle that popped open during shipping. In fact, I just replaced the old stickers with new stickers.

Hmm. I will be more cautious of my in store purchases, with that new piece of information. Rather unfortunate that people would try to scam each other, depriving them of their lumps of plastic!

:^)

[Ed Mack]

I have many sets that have seals that just fall off in storage. They can easily be removed with a hair dryer or heat gun. Point is, it is a huge scam in the making...the next drop shipping you can say. Many sets sold can be tapered with and the investor/buyer won't know because they don't build the sets, they save them to resell later. I've heard of this mini figure removal scam becoming prevalent enough to make large retailers restrict returns on LEGO sets. This is going to lead to the term MISB going the way of the DoDo bird. People will ask, "Are the contents verified?" This is the future of LEGO investing. Verification.

[nolanfan34]

This is going to lead to the term MISB going the way of the DoDo bird. People will ask, "Are the contents verified?" This is the future of LEGO investing. Verification.

This is exactly what happened with unopened baseball wax packs. Pay a bunch of money for third party verification. Super fun.

[StarCityBrickCompany]

I have many sets that have seals that just fall off in storage. They can easily be removed with a hair dryer or heat gun. Point is, it is a huge scam in the making...the next drop shipping you can say. Many sets sold can be tapered with and the investor/buyer won't know because they don't build the sets, they save them to resell later. I've heard of this mini figure removal scam becoming prevalent enough to make large retailers restrict returns on LEGO sets.

This is going to lead to the term MISB going the way of the DoDo bird. People will ask, "Are the contents verified?" This is the future of LEGO investing. Verification.

I think that we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves - Now I will need to get a full time cameraman to verify the packaging of the item I send & an x-ray machine to show the contents (of course, I will also need the video showing the x-ray'd package getting boxed & mailed). Maybe this is how the brickbroker came up with his 5% profit :)

[Ed Mack]

I think that we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves - Now I will need to get a full time cameraman to verify the packaging of the item I send & an x-ray machine to show the contents (of course, I will also need the video showing the x-ray'd package getting boxed & mailed). Maybe this is how the brickbroker came up with his 5% profit

Maybe slightly ahead of ourselves, but how can you be sure you have a complete set unless it's opened and inventoried or weighed and compared to an opened set of the same type? You basically can't. Thieves are already doing this. As more people get ripped off and start talking about this type of scam, more people will follow suit and increase the fraud. We already probably educated enough crooks how to do it. Even these AFA certified sets can be compromised. LEGO will have to address the seal types and or box design to prevent this sort of theft.

[bleejean]

Lego should switch to the type of seals found on laptops and other electronics. They have two layers and if they are separated at any point, the colour changes and there is a message revealed that says something like "seal broken, check contents."

[hollywdbri]

I think that we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves - Now I will need to get a full time cameraman to verify the packaging of the item I send & an x-ray machine to show the contents (of course, I will also need the video showing the x-ray'd package getting boxed & mailed). Maybe this is how the brickbroker came up with his 5% profit

Maybe slightly ahead of ourselves, but how can you be sure you have a complete set unless it's opened and inventoried or weighed and compared to an opened set of the same type? You basically can't. Thieves are already doing this. As more people get ripped off and start talking about this type of scam, more people will follow suit and increase the fraud. We already probably educated enough crooks how to do it. Even these AFA certified sets can be compromised. LEGO will have to address the seal types and or box design to prevent this sort of theft.

As a new collector, the current sealing stickers (I can't even call them security at this point), are so plain and don't even show a VOID when pulled off the box. I mean the fix can be simple, just put regular shipping tape, lengthwise over the box opening... I figure I'll just verify contents from now on for my own piece of mind.

[Legodog]

What really bothers me is if you sell the set and your buyer tries to tell you they opened it and the contents weren't correct and they want a refund. Who do you believe. I can't say 100% that the contents were correct because I never opened the set. So basically fraud can happen on both ends. I feel like there is a lot more risk in LEGO investing than just finding the right sets to invest in.

[Ed Mack]

Lego should switch to the type of seals found on laptops and other electronics. They have two layers and if they are separated at any point, the colour changes and there is a message revealed that says something like "seal broken, check contents."

Yes, a simple and effective solution.

[jmpkcp]

All i know is I've opened a box's seals before with my fingernail, and none of the paper underneath came off, and it would've been easy as pie to push the sticker back down without it being noticed. Could box weighing be a way to prevent fraud? At least it makes it harder to get the exact weight right for those fake returns.

[joelfinch]

All i know is I've opened a box's seals before with my fingernail, and none of the paper underneath came off, and it would've been easy as pie to push the sticker back down without it being noticed. Could box weighing be a way to prevent fraud? At least it makes it harder to get the exact weight right for those fake returns.

Sadly, weighing the box works exactly as long as it takes crooks to start looking up the correct weight - both the thieves and us would probably be visiting BrickSet to see what the correct number is! Even the characteristic sound of bricks stirring when you upend the box is no help; it could easily be the exact weight in cheap second-hand bricks.

On the upside, it looks like a baggage screening x-ray machine will only set you back $10k

What would really work though is if LEGO started putting see-through panels in the side of the boxes...

[StarCityBrickCompany]

We are going crazy over a problem that does not exist. The fact is that this type of fraud could be done with anything. We are fixated on Lego, but there is simply more money to be made by doing it with other expensive non Lego items. Other than for the rare instances of an item being purchased/returned at a big box store (where figs were removed), it doesn't happen. Why? Who would be doing this? Long time sellers, who want to destroy their seller reputations? Amazon, Target, Walmart? Maybe Lego will start shipping empty boxes to multiple purchasers? Like I mentioned - there is more money to be made by scammers elsewhere - easier too (our boxes are too big, why bother).