Advice - selling large vintage lot

[trstnkn]

I acquired a large bin of vintage Legos from the original owner.  They are mostly in good condition.  I've sorted by color and identified just a few sets. (Wibdmill 362 , 6075 castle, old 300 series road plates, 590 engine, 580 brickyard, 382 breakdown truck)  Have much more to do.  Not sure I have it in me to patiently build everything.  Thinking about selling as is...see it two ways:

Gamble on an eBay auction?  (But I always like BIN.)

or sell off figures, plates, specialty pieces on eBay?  Then rid myself of bulk on CL?

Thoughts, advice appreciated!

 

Exxon station also in there.  Probably 25 lbs total.

Edited January 16, 2016 by trstnkn

[Sauromosis]

Does it have the manuals?  You could build the 5-10 most valuable sets, sell those and then the figs in a lot and pieces in a lot.

[trstnkn]

No manuals.  Just a lot of bricks and a good amount of minifigures and baseplates.  Hence why I'm having to figure out what's in there.  Vintage pieces don't always have ID number which makes it harder...

[Huskers1236]

Bricklink is your friend when it comes to those printed and stickered pieces.  Just go into the Catalog, click parts, and then enter what is on the sticker.  It will show you a list of parts that are printed/stickered that have that wording on it.  I found your Legoland Hotel and Exxon pieces in just a minute or two. 

Hint:  That tree on top that is long is a rare Cypress tree and sells for around $15, don't lose that one.

[terrymc4677]

That cypress tree and Legoland hotel sticker are from 6390 Main St. Very desirable vintage set. Personally I would build these sets and sell individually to make the most money. It takes a little more time, but you will get to build some really nice vintage sets in the process. There is some good stuff in there. Free instructions are available online. Good luck.

[Zelgazra]

I can't imagine back then Lego was producing the hundreds of different sets per year that they are now. If you know a handful of the sets, I'd just start looking at boxes or parts lists for all the sets in that era. If you've already sorted everything by colour you should have a rough idea of any of the unique looking bricks on hand. Just start trying to do process of elimination set by set for the given years.

What I like to do for parts verification, is if I think I've got a set nailed, I'll do a Part Set in my wanted list, tick the little box to 'include minimum quantity', as well as change the drop menu to 'parts and minifig parts'  and part out the whole thing. Then go to that wanted list and start picking quantities needed, deleting the items as you go. If you took a bit more time to sort your coloured bags into rough similar size sub-bags, that will make your picking process much easier. I can verify a ~400pc set this way in about 30-40 minutes. 

[trstnkn]

Following up on how this turned out.  Thanks for all of the advice!  Identified most of the sets, but was finding too many missing pieces (5-10% of each set).  Did not really want to brick link and complete them.  I do that occasionally, but I find it frustrating when I just want to finish a set.  Also, with vintage sets I thought it could be risky to order replacements.

Sold:

Lego 677 Knights  - This was my fastest sale ever.  Think it sold within 15 minutes of posting it.  In hindsight, should have maybe done an auction.

Lego 375 Castle - 90% + complete, so put on auction.  

10 Road baseplates - BIN

Auctioned a lot of space pieces 

Was really intent on building Main Street as my husband always wanted that set as a child.  Bu like the others it was missing 5-10% of pieces.  Did not think the vintage town pieces which I had left would be as big of a draw as space and castle.  Through the lot up on Craigslist.  Sold for $150.

TOTAL return (minus fees & shipping) - $465

Bought in November for $65

Total hours sorting/building - maybe 10 max (my 4-year old is a master sorter, and does really well with vintage lots.  She and I built the 375 castle in less than an hour.)

With the limited colors and pieces, I would tackle a vintage lot again in a heartbeat.  Probably my only negative is that I sometimes find the manuals maddening.  Perhaps I am just spoiled with current manuals having what pieces I need and so fewer pieces per step.

Thanks again for the advice.