Expensive parts - Sets to part out

[BP]

Hi,

 

I'm not sure if I'm in the right subforum for this question. 

I'm quite new to the lego buying and selling thing but I'm learning a lot these last couple weeks. 

Thanks to this forum I found out that a 

Pearl Dark Gray Hero Factory Shield with Handle for Clip

brick is worth quite some money thanks to the batpod. 

I have a store nearby that is kinda forgotten by the big public and they have quite some older sets available. 

I cleared out most of the sets worthy of flipping or storing in these last couple of months. 

They have two sets that contain the above mentioned piece so I bought them and almost immediately sold them on bricklink with profit. 

There are some more left so I'm getting them first thing tomorrow. 

Now here's the question:

What other parts are quite expensive and come from rather cheap sets? 

And thus are worth searching for and parting out? 

thanks in advance. 

[Miami Bomb Squad]

Is this one of those spoon feed Money making questions all the veterans here are talking about?

[jaisonline]

these are good places to start.

[Phil B]

Nobody is going to spoonfeed you this information, but here's a recipe on how to obtain the info yourself:

1. Make a list of sets you can get from this out-of-the-way LEGO seller

2. Download and/or Purchase BrickStock (either the free or the purchased version will do fine for what you need)

3. In BrickStock: Ctrl-I Ctrl-I and search for the set (hint: use the magnifying glass and look for "<setnumber>-1" e.g. "10179-1"

4. Press Ctrl-A Ctrl-G to have BrickStock download all the average 6 month sale prices for all pieces

5. Sort items by Price, look at the most expensive ones

6. Also look at total set part-out value.

7. Make your decisions.

[BP]

9 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Nobody is going to spoonfeed you this information, but here's a recipe on how to obtain the info yourself:

1. Make a list of sets you can get from this out-of-the-way LEGO seller

2. Download and/or Purchase BrickStock (either the free or the purchased version will do fine for what you need)

3. In BrickStock: Ctrl-I Ctrl-I and search for the set (hint: use the magnifying glass and look for "<setnumber>-1" e.g. "10179-1"

4. Press Ctrl-A Ctrl-G to have BrickStock download all the average 6 month sale prices for all pieces

5. Sort items by Price, look at the most expensive ones

6. Also look at total set part-out value.

7. Make your decisions.

Thanks

About the so called spoonfeeding, isn't that what this forum is all about? 

There are dozens of sets I bought in the last weeks thanks to this forum pointing out they are wanted, retired or whatever

But I understand your point

[BP]

thanks for pointing out brickstock to me, I'm already having fun

[thoroakenfelder]

The Batpod piece is a fluke. Unless a piece becomes part of a really limited set, a currently available set is not really going to contain a rare and/or expensive piece. This is because all of these pieces are currently available. Now, some pieces may be part of an expensive set, and harder to find, but it's going to take a lot of research and data analysis to figure that out if you are not really well versed in the various pieces. Again, you would do best with brickstock. Another problem that we run into with your out of the way shop is that we are not there. We don't have a list of the sets on hand.

It's basically going to be a lot of legwork for you, sets on hand/parts in set/Data analysis. You can look for the expensive parts in the sets that are currently available (Hint: Minifigures are the main ones) Or you could look for rare parts that appear in expensive popular sets (Look at my blog entry on the UCS Imperial Shuttle for a few examples.)

[Armor]

Remember not all sets that you buy are instant winners, most of the people that have been doing this for a while have had their fair share of mistakes. One that I will remember Is 70400 forest ambush, I could have sworn that would have done well since it was a troop builder with knights. I still have a large amount of those things.

Quote

About the so called spoonfeeding, isn't that what this forum is all about? 

No the forums are not really about that, its should be more of a discussion on what sets people think will do well and many other things. The forums are not just a get rick quick scheme that anyone can do with ease. You will need to read through other posts and do the research and come up with your own onion.

[Phil B]

As @thoroakenfelder says, a high price means nothing if there is no demand for that piece. So unless the set it comes in is desirable or the few other sets that have the piece are desirable, there is not much you can do with the piece and the fact that it has a high selling price. BrickStock (and BrickLink) have this information for you too - click on an element in BrickStock and in the left-hand pane you can see which sets the piece comes in, and how many of these pieces have been sold in the last 6 months (and how many are currently up for sale).

Case in point is this piece: 3665 Inverted 1x2 slope. This is a very common piece, but not in the color Dark Blue. Until Jan 1, 2016, it was only used in this color in 1 set from the early 2000's. The price of the piece was hence ~$10, but very very limited sales (If you're MOCcing something, and you find out one piece is superexpensive and rare, you are likely to find an alternative way of doing the same build instead of forking out big money). Now, as of Jan 1, you can buy this piece again as part of 31045 Ocean Explorer. Looking at BrickStock you might think this set is a winner because of this piece, but that's likely to change as the piece will become more commonplace and will likely see a drop in price (it already dropped $2 in the last month alone) and an increase in sales volume. Long story short - you need to be able to understand why a piece is of high value, and if the high value is paired with desirability/irreplacability.

[Huskers1236]

I've thought about this before but a "rare part database" wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have.  Not necessarily a list of sets that get you the most bang for your buck, but older pieces that you may not know are rare, but are.   I had no idea that that inverted slope in dark blue was only in one set until Phil said it.  It's little things like this that could help a guy going through a lot and finding some small nuggets of gold in the mine.  I think by now most of us know of rare parts like the light blue grey levers that were made rare when 10179 used 60 of them and everybody gobbled them up, but there's many others that people don't know about and are probably lying around in a pile.

[thoroakenfelder]

27 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

I've thought about this before but a "rare part database" wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have.  Not necessarily a list of sets that get you the most bang for your buck, but older pieces that you may not know are rare, but are.   I had no idea that that inverted slope in dark blue was only in one set until Phil said it.  It's little things like this that could help a guy going through a lot and finding some small nuggets of gold in the mine.  I think by now most of us know of rare parts like the light blue grey levers that were made rare when 10179 used 60 of them and everybody gobbled them up, but there's many others that people don't know about and are probably lying around in a pile.

Are you looking for rare or valuable? There has got to be plenty of one off parts out there that no one cares about. Things that appeared in unpopular themes might have no usage anywhere else. So you're looking for parts in expensive sets or that are popular for MOCs. I don't know how to quantify the popular MOC pieces.

[Alpinemaps]

Are you looking for rare or valuable? There has got to be plenty of one off parts out there that no one cares about. Things that appeared in unpopular themes might have no usage anywhere else. So you're looking for parts in expensive sets or that are popular for MOCs. I don't know how to quantify the popular MOC pieces.

That's a good point. Sometimes rare just hasn't become valuable yet. But I think having some sort of list would be good.

For example, there's a part in a Ninjago set that isn't valuable but only appears in one other set - the 2015 San Diego Comic Con Tatooine set. Since I was Bricklinking the set, I needed the part. Only one seller in North America had the part. It didn't cost much, but it's still a rare part that I wonder might go up in value of others want to together that set.

[Loghamel]

32 minutes ago, Alpinemaps said:

That's a good point. Sometimes rare just hasn't become valuable yet. But I think having some sort of list would be good.

For example, there's a part in a Ninjago set that isn't valuable but only appears in one other set - the 2015 San Diego Comic Con Tatooine set. Since I was Bricklinking the set, I needed the part. Only one seller in North America had the part. It didn't cost much, but it's still a rare part that I wonder might go up in value of others want to together that set.

You're talking about the shield?

[Alpinemaps]

20 minutes ago, Loghamel said:

You're talking about the shield?

It's actually the Round, 2x2 Boat Stud Plate in Reddish Brown.

Just found out it's available in a 4th set now.  It's only been available in the 2015 Star Wars Celebration Tatooine set, the 2015 Canadian Fan Expo Tatooine set, and 70741 Airjitsu Cole Flyer.  I noticed this morning it's also available in 31048 Lakeside Lodge.  It's quantity is one in each of those sets.

My mistake earlier when I said 2015 SDCC set.  I meant the Celebration set.  And the Celebration set and the Canadian Fan Expo set are the same set, just with a different minifig.  As of this morning, there's only one seller that has them on Bricklink.  42 of them in Germany.  They're only 53 cents, though.  Valuable?  Don't know.  Rare, yes.

[Huskers1236]

Yeah, should have been more clear, I'm talking valuable.  I'm sure there's lots of old, rare parts that nobody cares about. 

Edit:  With the influx of new parts in sets, there's going to be lots of "rare" parts or colors that are only in a single set, but since they aren't necessarily a wanted part yet, they won't be too pricey.  Also, I'm not a parter-outer, so I don't really worry about having rare parts in inventory unless they are expensive as well.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Huskers1236

[BP]

It's an interesting market that will change a lot. 

Take for instance the batpod: 

For half a year the wheels were the most expensive and sought after part since they only were released in the tumbler set and this was an expensive set for parting out. 

Prices of the wheels went up quite fast because of the tumbler. 

Since the release of the Drag Racer, 92222 suddenly is the rarest piece in the batpod set which means prices are going up quite fast again. 

I've been wondering how the 'parting-out' of the Drag Racer will affect it's lifespan? Will it be retired sooner than expected because of people parting it out for the wheels? 

[justapilgrim]

The wheels can be bought direct from.lego when they are in stock. $10 each, sell for $20