Lego Bulk/Lot Buying (And What to Do)

[letsg0leg0]

It might be too late for that. Bedbugs are fast and if that one is/was alive when it came into the house, you betcha there will be others that already scampered off into crevices. Better find a good repellent/exterminating spray and spray all areas this stuff has been close to.

Agreed I'd go ahead and dump all pieces in some water to drown anything that remains

[donbee]

I had a similar experience finding roaches in a large lot I bought out of the trunk of some lady's car in a publix parking lot. Should've gotten a hint when she told me she needed to sell the Lego to help pay her rent.

I put them in buckets in the tub and filled them with bleach water and soaked them for hours.

Then I grabbed them piece by piece to shake them off and inspect them as I put them in a box lined with a white towel, easy to see dark colored things, and then sprayed them with Lysol repeatedly as they dried.

A lot of yuck went down my drain. Sprayed my tub too, felt bad. That's where I wash my kids.

[Salimr]

After 3 days of cleaning my house is spotless again my kids even helped as they were scared to get bugs!!! I ended up soaking all of it in vinegar and luckily where I moved it is hot outside so I let them bake in sun afterwards.
They are now spotless (smell a little like vinegar)
I did throw out many that I did not want to deal with.

[Salimr]

I had a similar experience finding roaches in a large lot I bought out of the trunk of some lady's car in a publix parking lot. Should've gotten a hint when she told me she needed to sell the Lego to help pay her rent.

I put them in buckets in the tub and filled them with bleach water and soaked them for hours.

Then I grabbed them piece by piece to shake them off and inspect them as I put them in a box lined with a white towel, easy to see dark colored things, and then sprayed them with Lysol repeatedly as they dried.

A lot of yuck went down my drain. Sprayed my tub too, felt bad. That's where I wash my kids.

I looked up the spots and they appear to be roach feces. It totally grossed me out and I rarely get grossed out (I have done food inspections and gasoline station inspections for government at a previous job, so that's saying something)
I guess we learn something new every day dealing with craigslist

[Salimr]

It might be too late for that. Bedbugs are fast and if that one is/was alive when it came into the house, you betcha there will be others that already scampered off into crevices. Better find a good repellent/exterminating spray and spray all areas this stuff has been close to.

It was dead but I called a company to come out just in case. We have allergy issues so everything like pillows and beds are all covered with allergy and bug proof protectors. I may have went overboard but wanted to be safe.

[Leviticus]

After reading your post I decided to keep my bulk lot I bought out in garage.  I'm bringing them in 1 bag at a time and building them to see if they are complete, there were some dog hair in some of boxes.  Not even close to what you had to deal with.

[Salimr]

After reading your post I decided to keep my bulk lot I bought out in garage.  I'm bringing them in 1 bag at a time and building them to see if they are complete, there were some dog hair in some of boxes.  Not even close to what you had to deal with.

They usually have dog hair, dust, marbles, maybe a dead spider or two, but those don't bother me too much. I found a kids tooth and tooth fairy letter once haha.
Nothing compares to this.
What your doing seems like an excellent idea.

[Salimr]

I think we should start a thread; unintended things we found on Craigslist/ebay

[Sandwraith]

20 hours ago, Salimr said:

It was dead but I called a company to come out just in case. We have allergy issues so everything like pillows and beds are all covered with allergy and bug proof protectors. I may have went overboard but wanted to be safe.

Personal experience with a bedbug scare:

My SO went to a friends apartment for a week or so and learned they had bedbugs, she got some bites, and unfortunately had a suitcase (which they love to hide in). And we learned that the females (when pregnant) will hide and find the best place to not be detected and stay there for a long ass time (suitcases), which is the worst because they are the ones who will spread the "colony".

We double/tripled bagged the suitcase, and then put it in one of those large freezers (took out anything that couldn't be frozen and thoroughly inspected it. We never found anything, but we weren't going to take the chance. Putting all the LEGO in water might be good too, but for our purposes freezing was the best option (and most definitive). Anyways sounds like you have things under control, but figured i'd give me story

 

[Salimr]

Personal experience with a bedbug scare:
My SO went to a friends apartment for a week or so and learned they had bedbugs, she got some bites, and unfortunately had a suitcase (which they love to hide in). And we learned that the females (when pregnant) will hide and find the best place to not be detected and stay there for a long ass time (suitcases), which is the worst because they are the ones who will spread the "colony".
We double/tripled bagged the suitcase, and then put it in one of those large freezers (took out anything that couldn't be frozen and thoroughly inspected it. We never found anything, but we weren't going to take the chance. Putting all the LEGO in water might be good too, but for our purposes freezing was the best option (and most definitive). Anyways sounds like you have things under control, but figured i'd give me story
 

Water alone won't work and they get into the bricks holes. I washed in vinegar, then in borax (supposed to work) I then put in black bag and put in sun to heat way up. Then since I'm paranoid I put many into pillow cases and into the drier which is supposed to be a sure way to kill any remaining.
I also threw out tons.
At least I'll make double my money including the pest inspector and extra supplies back on minifigures alone.
I'll also get a donation receipt for the ultra clean bricks I don't want to look at and don't feel right selling.

[LegoMan1212]

4 hours ago, Salimr said:

I think we should start a thread; unintended things we found on Craigslist/ebay

In the last one I got, used shotgun shells and about 50 pennies.  All tossed, you could barely tell that the pennies were legal tender.  

How do they get so much damn hair?  I mean, do they take the Lego and use them as combs?  Do they have their hair cut while building or simply roll in the Lego like a dog?

[brickbuilder77]

On 2 January 2017 at 5:25 AM, Salimr said:

I think I actually just got my last bulk lot. I may change my mind, but this was beyond bad.
My husband picked up a bunch of lego, he almost turned around when he realized it was the ghetto, almost called the police when the guy mentioned they were not stolen (who mentions that?)
And almost left when he saw a bug. I so wish he had.
I think they are covered in cockroach poop and I found my first roach in years. I thought the day could not get worse. I spent all day soaking them in vinegar and buying roach traps and then I found this
I am fairly certain it is a bed bug

I really want to say the f word now

 

I deal with these and sorry to say it is and an adult one, if it doesn't damage lego you can freeze the lot and that will kill them but it needs to stay in the freezer for a while. 

[letsg0leg0]

10 gallons of Lego's for $100. She said she's not quite sure of the sets involved but it's both boys and girls sets. This would be my first bulk buy and I feel a little nervous because it appears to all be disassembled and to lack any instruction manuals. But for 10 gallons... that's a lot of pieces.

[Voltron]

I don't know how you guys have the patience to swift through bulk / count pieces / sort etc.

I'm currently in process of breaking down some old sets to sell and it's taken me ages to dissasmble / sort by colour. Can't imagine hpw tedious it would be to do opposite way. 

[Lego Templar]

So it took me 4 hours to go through all the bins just for the mini figures lol. It looks like I havnt even started the process. It's a bit overwhelming.

Would only recommend if you have free time and patience. Lots of it...of both. Not having second thoughts because when I do I look at how much I paid and how much I'll make when it's all said and done.

Fun side project.

[MarleyMoose]

13 minutes ago, Lego Templar said:

So it took me 4 hours to go through all the bins just for the mini figures lol. It looks like I havnt even started the process. It's a bit overwhelming.

Would only recommend if you have free time and patience. Lots of it...of both. Not having second thoughts because when I do I look at how much I paid and how much I'll make when it's all said and done.

Fun side project.

Yup, gets old quick.

[LegoMan1212]

1 hour ago, letsg0leg0 said:

10 gallons of Lego's for $100. She said she's not quite sure of the sets involved but it's both boys and girls sets. This would be my first bulk buy and I feel a little nervous because it appears to all be disassembled and to lack any instruction manuals. But for 10 gallons... that's a lot of pieces.

I enjoy it. I have a semi-stressful job that seems to never end during the day or night so organizing these late night is a wind down for me.  

I didn't quite get as much as you got here but I would be all over that then I would simply do this...

1. Organize by color first, which I know is wrong but it makes set building a cinch and saves time on the front end because our eyes are trained for color sorting so it can be done quickly.

2. While doing this, any piece that looks "different" (minifigures too to assist in narrowing down choices), I look up on rebrickable to find which sets it could be from, then judging by what else I can eyeball, start to figure out what it could possibly be.  It can be frustrating but I also really enjoy puzzles so this is right up my alley. I also have a magnifying glass and bright light to read the item numbers if I am not sure how to look it up.  Even then I do post a piece here and there on here if I simply am having zero luck.

3.  Keep in the back of my head that if I can't figure out what it is for, that I'm A-OK with keeping it for my kids and building whatever our imagination can think of or eventually cleaning them up and re-selling by the pound on ebay if I ever choose to do that.  For me, I'm still trying to create a large collection of bricks so some day we can go nuts and build something spectacular, all my random chance.  

 

Edit: originally read this as 10 buckets of lego's with only 2 being shown.  I would also try to do the same to see how much it actually weighed before buying or request if she can just so you know how much is in there.  Be ready for MegaBlok though too.

Edited January 7, 2017 by LegoMan1212

[letsg0leg0]

I enjoy it. I have a semi-stressful job that seems to never end during the day or night so organizing these late night is a wind down for me.  
I didn't quite get as much as you got here but I would be all over that then I would simply do this...
1. Organize by color first, which I know is wrong but it makes set building a cinch and saves time on the front end because our eyes are trained for color sorting so it can be done quickly.
2. While doing this, any piece that looks "different" (minifigures too to assist in narrowing down choices), I look up on rebrickable to find which sets it could be from, then judging by what else I can eyeball, start to figure out what it could possibly be.  It can be frustrating but I also really enjoy puzzles so this is right up my alley. I also have a magnifying glass and bright light to read the item numbers if I am not sure how to look it up.  Even then I do post a piece here and there on here if I simply am having zero luck.
3.  Keep in the back of my head that if I can't figure out what it is for, that I'm A-OK with keeping it for my kids and building whatever our imagination can think of or eventually cleaning them up and re-selling by the pound on ebay if I ever choose to do that.  For me, I'm still trying to create a large collection of bricks so some day we can go nuts and build something spectacular, all my random chance.  
 
Edit: originally read this as 10 buckets of lego's with only 2 being shown.  I would also try to do the same to see how much it actually weighed before buying or request if she can just so you know how much is in there.  Be ready for MegaBlok though too.

That's what I was thinking and I read somewhere that 30 gallons is about 70 lbs so I divided that by 3 to get about 23 lbs. I'm thinking for that price it's a pretty good investment but I want to be cautious.

[letsg0leg0]

Update:
She quoted me about 30lbs. I'm still debating because of the lego friend sets but when in doubt I could just sell off for $5 a lbs and undercut everyone to make my money back.

[MarleyMoose]

1 hour ago, letsg0leg0 said:

 

That's what I was thinking and I read somewhere that 30 gallons is about 70 lbs so I divided that by 3 to get about 23 lbs. I'm thinking for that price it's a pretty good investment but I want to be cautious.

 

Are there any manuals/instructions? 

[LegoMan1212]

4 minutes ago, letsg0leg0 said:

Update:
She quoted me about 30lbs. I'm still debating because of the lego friend sets but when in doubt I could just sell off for $5 a lbs and undercut everyone to make my money back.

Let's say it is a loss, or turns out that the bottom pieces are junk (bitten, faded, what have it) and you can only get $50 back or less.  If you can't swing that or if that would hurt you, then I don't think trying to resell anything with risk is right for you or anyone else. There is risk in everything, risk can be high or low, but it is always there in some way.  You either pass on it and don't worry about it, or get it and go from there knowing that a lot of potential time and energy will be used to get back your investment.

[letsg0leg0]

Let's say it is a loss, or turns out that the bottom pieces are junk (bitten, faded, what have it) and you can only get $50 back or less.  If you can't swing that or if that would hurt you, then I don't think trying to resell anything with risk is right for you or anyone else. There is risk in everything, risk can be high or low, but it is always there in some way.  You either pass on it and don't worry about it, or get it and go from there knowing that a lot of potential time and energy will be used to get back your investment.

I passed. I got her down to $80 but she was being difficult with meeting and claimed she had another person waiting. Plus the banks closed today and tomorrow so I don't have the cash on hand to pay her until they reopen due to the snow and it being a Sunday. Plus if I am stuck with the bricks I'd rather be stuck with anything but the princess and friends sets especially since she didn't mention any manuals to be included. I'm new to all of this and have already dropped ~$300 in the past month for various sets, so I'm not in the urge or rush to acquire more until I can start consistently get good returns or find a knock your sock off type of deal.

[Zelgazra]

Keep an eye out for bulk deals like this though. If you see something you really like, as a newer investor, if you have the time and patience to sort through it, Used Bulk Lots are one of the best ways to gain some quick profit to grow your investment of NISB sets.

[Seal Cutter]

As a buyer of bulk, and a seller of sets rediscovered from it, i would say be very careful with discolouration.

Even buyers of used sets don't want bricks whose colours vary from what came out of the factory too much.

The danger with fading is that a set looks fine when you rescue its half dismantled carcass from the bulk bin, because the fading is even across the build. Then as soon as you take it apart, you are left with a pile of bricks that the buyer can struggle to reassemble into something where a wall of a single type/colour of brick doesn't look like a horrible patchwork of different colours

I have found this to be an issue because many bulk sold lots have been built, then the owner has lost interest, and left them built somewhere in direct sunlight for ages, before finally deciding they needed the space/money, and selling them "as is"

[AZNSalinas96]

Where is a good place to find bulk lego minifigure lots? i think it would be fun to sift through minifigures trying to decipher what is what and what might have truly been a gold find in a pile of what seems to be nothing