Gungan sub....forever underwater or will it surface???

[amnesiac]

Yo guys, my local Walmart was hiding a bunch of sets in the back of the garden center. I was able to score 2 Helms Deep for 70 bucks a pop and 3 Mines for 40 each. They have like 7 or 8 Gungan subs left and they dont look like they are going ANYWHERE. Theyre marked down to 40 bucks. What do you guys think?? Even worth it at 30 bucks??

[matt1147]

30 bucks would be tempting but I would prefer to see 20 or 25 on that set

[amnesiac]

Yeah at 20 bucks thats a no brainer. I wouldve grabbed a second cart, filled it up and made a dash for the register

[Huskers1236]

I wish I could have found a couple of these at $40 when they went on sale.  I really think in the long(er) run, the Queen Amidala figure will really help that set.  It is arguably one of the greatest SW minifigs made, and I would imagine rise in price over the years.  The Sub itself does nothing for me, though it is an upgrade from its big brother.

[amnesiac]

I wish I could have found a couple of these at $40 when they went on sale.  I really think in the long(er) run, the Queen Amidala figure will really help that set.  It is arguably one of the greatest SW minifigs made, and I would imagine rise in price over the years.  The Sub itself does nothing for me, though it is an upgrade from its big brother.

So youre pretty bullish on this set at 40 bucks hunh??? I love the Queen A minifig also. At 30 bucks I think I might bite but at 40 I think theres still a little potential for loss. Maybe not so much 2 or 3 years down the line. Who knows......

[@rtisan]

$30 would be amazing considering the lowest I can find up here is $60. Heck, I`d buy in at $40. In terms of investment, I don`t see much potential here for the set as a whole. Queen Amidala is the sole reason to buy the set, considering it is the best version Lego has ever produced. $20+ for it alone makes it a good buy if you can score it cheap (i.e. $40 or less). All you got to do is part out the rest and sell the other figures. Not a great way to make money, but I wouldn`t count it out completely.

[akohns]

I picked up three of these for $25. At the very lease pick these up for $30, keep them until christmas and sell the figures in Nov. You'll at least score some free parts.

[amnesiac]

I JUST got into buying for investment so the idea of parting a set out seems like more work than it's worth to me. Forgive my ignorance if it isn't. I'm gonna head over to that walmart today and see if I can get any insight into when another price drop may come, if it does. Maybe I'll get lucky and another 70 dollar Helms Deep will be there :D

[justafrog]

I JUST got into buying for investment so the idea of parting a set out seems like more work than it's worth to me. Forgive my ignorance if it isn't. 

 

It depends on your definition of "worth".

 

I recently pulled all my investment sets except one off the shelf so I can part them out, because the additional work turns out to be financially worth it to me at this point in time.

 

If I weren't already working full time as a seller online and had other employment, holding longer term for investment, or flipping sets for a small profit, might be more attractive to me. Since I don't, I've found parting out Lego to be a fine addition to our business and cash flow, allowing me to get my money and more back out of each set faster and put it into the next round of sets to part out, lather, rinse, repeat; while still retaining a healthy portion of each set in inventory that turns more slowly (but increasingly steadily) allowing me to increase our inventory faster and actually pull a profit from this after only a very short time in Lego.

 

For those who don't want to put in the additional time on such a project, for those who loathe that particular type of work, for those who are not organized enough to deal with a parts business, for those who can jump start their Lego cash flow with quick flipping of discount/in demand sets and/or don't need money back from their investment for a few years, buying and holding sets is sometimes the better option.

 

But don't poo poo parting out. There's money to be made in it, if that's the way a given person wants to make it.

[kerrmando]

I think it will be a 75-95 MISB in the LONG RUN. the Long run is what we should be focusing on for many Star Wars sets. Especially if the new Movies are as major of a success as the old ones were. the Queen is a pretty sick figure with arguably the best dress Lego has ever made. 

[Quacs]

It depends on your definition of "worth".

 

I recently pulled all my investment sets except one off the shelf so I can part them out, because the additional work turns out to be financially worth it to me at this point in time.

 

If I weren't already working full time as a seller online and had other employment, holding longer term for investment, or flipping sets for a small profit, might be more attractive to me. Since I don't, I've found parting out Lego to be a fine addition to our business and cash flow, allowing me to get my money and more back out of each set faster and put it into the next round of sets to part out, lather, rinse, repeat; while still retaining a healthy portion of each set in inventory that turns more slowly (but increasingly steadily) allowing me to increase our inventory faster and actually pull a profit from this after only a very short time in Lego.

 

For those who don't want to put in the additional time on such a project, for those who loathe that particular type of work, for those who are not organized enough to deal with a parts business, for those who can jump start their Lego cash flow with quick flipping of discount/in demand sets and/or don't need money back from their investment for a few years, buying and holding sets is sometimes the better option.

 

But don't poo poo parting out. There's money to be made in it, if that's the way a given person wants to make it.

 

Frog's right - I've parted out a few sets, and have made at least 30% ROI on each in a short amount of time (typically 1-2 weeks).  To me, this is definitely a nice return for such a quick turnaround, although much is dependent on the discount you find on your purchase.  The work isn't really that difficult (just a little more packing/label printing), and if you want you get to build the set...a definite value add for the recreational hobbyist investor.

[jaisonline]

It depends on your definition of "worth".

 

I recently pulled all my investment sets except one off the shelf so I can part them out, because the additional work turns out to be financially worth it to me at this point in time.

 

If I weren't already working full time as a seller online and had other employment, holding longer term for investment, or flipping sets for a small profit, might be more attractive to me. Since I don't, I've found parting out Lego to be a fine addition to our business and cash flow, allowing me to get my money and more back out of each set faster and put it into the next round of sets to part out, lather, rinse, repeat; while still retaining a healthy portion of each set in inventory that turns more slowly (but increasingly steadily) allowing me to increase our inventory faster and actually pull a profit from this after only a very short time in Lego.

 

For those who don't want to put in the additional time on such a project, for those who loathe that particular type of work, for those who are not organized enough to deal with a parts business, for those who can jump start their Lego cash flow with quick flipping of discount/in demand sets and/or don't need money back from their investment for a few years, buying and holding sets is sometimes the better option.

 

But don't poo poo parting out. There's money to be made in it, if that's the way a given person wants to make it.

 

yup. parting out retired sets have also been known to be lucrative.  however, i'm not into parting out retired sealed sets but open sets, sure will.

[Dallas20]

When parting out a set do you sell via ebay or another avenue? I've pulled a small set out to part out as a test run. After I dump the mini figures/ horse I'm really not sure what the best way to get rid of the other Lego pieces.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Quacs]

When parting out a set do you sell via ebay or another avenue? I've pulled a small set out to part out as a test run. After I dump the mini figures/ horse I'm really not sure what the best way to get rid of the other Lego pieces.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

I sell on eBay for parted and whole/unopened sets using the BuyItNow feature.  The test is a great idea.  I assume you're using LR Cavalry Builder - if so, I parted this out earlier this year.  I sold LR and his horse together, the three army guys together, and the stand, campfire, cannon, and instruction book together.  If I recall correctly, I netted about $17-18 total which is decent on a set I got for $10.  You need cheap bubble mailers (see yesterday's thread - FCB found them on Amazon for $13 per 100), a label maker, and buyers - that's about it.

[justafrog]

When I part out, I sell the minifigs and sometimes other desirable elements on eBay, and the rest go to Bricklink to build our inventory there.

 

Parts that start to accumulate and not move on Bricklink over time, I'll bring back to eBay in lots to sell.

[Quacs]

When I part out, I sell the minifigs and sometimes other desirable elements on eBay, and the rest go to Bricklink to build our inventory there.

 

Parts that start to accumulate and not move on Bricklink over time, I'll bring back to eBay in lots to sell.

 

That's a nice way of populating a BL store.  Any idea on average what % of the sale price the figs usually cover?  Don't feel pressured to release this trade secret if you don't want...

[justafrog]

That's a nice way of populating a BL store.  Any idea on average what % of the sale price the figs usually cover?  Don't feel pressured to release this trade secret if you don't want...

 

For the licensed figs, they almost always cover the entire cost of the set if I manage to get it on any kind of discount - sometimes more (this is predicated on them selling, of course, I don't price cheapest so I am sitting on minifigs in our eBay store anticipating them selling at the prices I've set, or near them, but maybe not this month or next. :-)

[jaisonline]

When parting out a set do you sell via ebay or another avenue? I've pulled a small set out to part out as a test run. After I dump the mini figures/ horse I'm really not sure what the best way to get rid of the other Lego pieces.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I always try Bricklink first to save on fees. Then after 2-3 months, I move to eBay.

[amnesiac]

How can you tell a good set to part out vs a bad one?? Obviously a set with rarer pieces, minifigs, etc. is gonna be easier to move but I know I'm missing something here. I've been over to BL and seen just the ridiculous numbers of pieces for sale and it just seemed to me that anything that I wanted to sell on there would just get lost in the ocean of other pieces being sold on that site. Obviously, this isnt the case as has been pointed out and many of you make a decent profit opening sets intentionally to part out. Is there a "how to" or "beginners guide" to doing this that I may take a look at???

The more I'm reading here the more I'm leaning towards snapping up all of these sets up even if a further discount doesnt come along. Oh and I revisited that store. Theres 13 total sets not 8 as was thought. 10 of them have perfect boxes 3 however are mangled. I also thought about asking for a further discount on the three mangled boxes. Anyone have any success doing that at walmart???

[justafrog]

For parting out, I want sets that I can make my money back on a minority of the set (usually the minifigs) quickly (no more than six months to a year) and have the rest as "free" inventory.

 

Smaller sellers definitely get lost on Bricklink, because buyers want to combine as many needed parts as possible from as few sellers as possible (within price per item reason) to save on the shipping charges.

 

So, as a smaller seller on Bricklink (about 26,000 parts at the moment puts me "above average" but that's not saying much as I think the average is about 12,000 parts), I get few orders. As I grow that number of parts I will get more orders not only because i have more parts, but because I have more multiple-part orders that buyers want.

 

Once I achieve the very simple (ha!) goal I have of 1 million parts minimum, something that less than a dozen U.S. based Bricklink parts sellers have achieved last time I looked, my Bricklink cash flow will very likely be as predictable and easily manipulated as my eBay cash flow (again, this is based on my extrapolation of reading information from larger Bricklink sellers and doing some calculations based on feedback they have received in a given period of time and my own guesses on the percentage of buyers over there who leave feedback.)

[matt1147]

I passed on 5 gungans on clearance at walmart today at $40 each. They would have to be $30 I think to snag them up

[jaisonline]

Good call. Recent prequel sets have done poorly as investments.

[MartinP]

I passed on 5 gungans on clearance at walmart today at $40 each. They would have to be $30 I think to snag them up

I found one Gungan sub at a Walmart for $40 a while ago. Bought it, and it was missing three minifigures. I returned it and never seen one on clearance since.

[TheDarkness]

Average Bricklink price sold for the Queen Amidala minifig alone over the past 6 months is $24. Anyone saying this set isn't worth it at $30 won't have done their research and IMO it is worth it at $40

[remy1492]

I think when i get time i gotta sign up for bricklink. I got extra subs.