What LEGO set(s) are you piecing together from bulk.

[MartinP]

Finished getting most of the pieces together for the 7723 Police Pontoon Plane. Only missing a few pieces. Will be building it within the next week or so.

[tractorboy]

Foolishly started BLing 10187 VW Beetle before I realized how expensive dark blue 4x8 plates were. I'll probably use some 2x8 or 4x6 and 2x4 plates as subs. There's lots of other expensive pieces in there too, so I doubt I'll break even. Ah well, too far in to turn back now.

Also BLing 4999 Wind Turbine which is proving a bit easier.

[DivingDW]

Ok, I just bought some bulk legos that had a few things put together already, and I also got all the boxes and most of the instructions. Lots on Ninjago (10 sets maybe), with two Harry Potter and 1 City Airport 3182. I got these all from a kid for $200. I told him to take a day to think about the $200 because I honestly felt wrong about the price but I knew he was going to get less the way he was selling them at a garage sale. I also expected him to come back with $300 or $250, which still would have been good for me but not nearly as lucrative. Lots of minifigs are still missing as well, but I'd say I got $200 worth of just those. 

Anyways, my question is this. How do you typically sort through bulk lego purchases to see if you have all the pieces to make the sets you bought?

I have a large amount of loose pieces so seeing if they are all there has been quite a task. I've gotten through one entire set and it took me 5-6 hours to get it all situated. It was the Ninjago 9446 - Destiny's Bounty. I'm missing 3 pieces from the boat and tower in total, but the one is one of the sticker pieces. I also have 2 complete minifigs for it but there are pieces for the others. I want to get an order put in for these but feel like I should wait until I know what else i'm missing from the other sets to see if I can get more taken care of in as few shipments as possible. This is taking up a lot of my sorting space and I have a new Pet Shop I want to put together this week.. the dread! Lol, anyways, I've just been trying to find some tips on how other people handle these bulk lots, and my biggest problem is the time to find pieces in the loose legos. I've been debating on just sorting and adding these loose pieces to my inventory as it's easier to find stuff that way, but at the same time, I don't want to mix things up..

[MartinP]

Anyways, my question is this. How do you typically sort through bulk lego purchases to see if you have all the pieces to make the sets you bought?

I have a large amount of loose pieces so seeing if they are all there has been quite a task. I've gotten through one entire set and it took me 5-6 hours to get it all situated. It was the Ninjago 9446 - Destiny's Bounty. I'm missing 3 pieces from the boat and tower in total, but the one is one of the sticker pieces. I also have 2 complete minifigs for it but there are pieces for the others. I want to get an order put in for these but feel like I should wait until I know what else i'm missing from the other sets to see if I can get more taken care of in as few shipments as possible. This is taking up a lot of my sorting space and I have a new Pet Shop I want to put together this week.. the dread! Lol, anyways, I've just been trying to find some tips on how other people handle these bulk lots, and my biggest problem is the time to find pieces in the loose legos. I've been debating on just sorting and adding these loose pieces to my inventory as it's easier to find stuff that way, but at the same time, I don't want to mix things up..

I usually sort bulk Lego by color and piece type. That means I could have a pile of black bricks and then another pile of black plates etc. with every color and piece type so I can find the pieces I am looking for when I need to. Sorting does take a while, but it's very helpful when you need to locate pieces. Also, I would not combine this bulk lot and your current inventory until you are finished with the bulk lot. If you keep it separate for now, it is easier to find the pieces because there is less to look through. One last piece of advice. If some pieces from the bulk lot are missing, use your current inventory before you place an order for the missing pieces. It will save you time and money. 

[thoroakenfelder]

 

Ok, I just bought some bulk legos that had a few things put together already, and I also got all the boxes and most of the instructions. Lots on Ninjago (10 sets maybe), with two Harry Potter and 1 City Airport 3182. I got these all from a kid for $200. I told him to take a day to think about the $200 because I honestly felt wrong about the price but I knew he was going to get less the way he was selling them at a garage sale. I also expected him to come back with $300 or $250, which still would have been good for me but not nearly as lucrative. Lots of minifigs are still missing as well, but I'd say I got $200 worth of just those. 

Anyways, my question is this. How do you typically sort through bulk lego purchases to see if you have all the pieces to make the sets you bought?

I have a large amount of loose pieces so seeing if they are all there has been quite a task. I've gotten through one entire set and it took me 5-6 hours to get it all situated. It was the Ninjago 9446 - Destiny's Bounty. I'm missing 3 pieces from the boat and tower in total, but the one is one of the sticker pieces. I also have 2 complete minifigs for it but there are pieces for the others. I want to get an order put in for these but feel like I should wait until I know what else i'm missing from the other sets to see if I can get more taken care of in as few shipments as possible. This is taking up a lot of my sorting space and I have a new Pet Shop I want to put together this week.. the dread! Lol, anyways, I've just been trying to find some tips on how other people handle these bulk lots, and my biggest problem is the time to find pieces in the loose legos. I've been debating on just sorting and adding these loose pieces to my inventory as it's easier to find stuff that way, but at the same time, I don't want to mix things up..

If a set is partially complete, I tend to break it down, make sure there haven't been any substitutions. I am awful about sorting before I start. But I never start BL-ing until I have multiple sets. someone might have a few parts you need from this one set, but if they have more pieces from other sets you need, then your postal costs will go down, just due to not having to place more orders later when you get the other sets worked out.

[thoroakenfelder]

My bricklink want list includes the following sets that I got from SHopgoodwill lots

3180 Tank Truck

3221 LEGO Truck

4440 Forest Police Station

6206 TIE Interceptor

70814 Emmet's Construct-o-mech

7150 TIE FIghter and Y-Wing

7665 Republic Cruiser

7669 Anakin's Jedi Starfighter

7674 V-19 Torrent

8016 Hyena Bomber

8017 Darth Vader's TIE Fighter

8018 AAT

8019 Separatist Shuttle

8037 Anakin's Y-Wing fighter

8826 ATX Sport Cycle

7151 Sith Infiltrator

and I haven't put a lot of effort, but potentially another AAT, another Anakin Starfighter and a Corporate alliance tank droid. There's probably more, but I got tired and the box was big.

[feed]

Turned up this morning. Listed as 3kg Of Lego, Star Wars Theme, With Some Figures. £50. Took a gamble on the Sand Green.

Dusty but otherwise good condition, haven’t inventoried him yet, but looks promising.
 

 

[Migration]

Lucky you are, hate you I do. ;)

Edited September 26, 2015 by Migration

[CNH1974]

Have you spotted something valuable? :)

[CNH1974]

Turned up this morning. Listed as 3kg Of Lego, Star Wars Theme, With Some Figures. £50. Took a gamble on the Sand Green.

Dusty but otherwise good condition, haven’t inventoried him yet, but looks promising.

not a bad price per kg even if the sets are not complete.

[feed]

not a bad price per kg even if the sets are not complete.

There is going to be enough of Yoda to make him worth building. I’ve plenty of Tan spares and a few missing sand green parts shouldn’t be a problem.

AT-AT looks mostly there so I may built it, but the separatist shuttle isn’t worth the hassle without the figs. 

[MarleyMoose]

The shuttle is a neat little build.

[KShine]

I love that Yoda set.

It would be extremely difficult to piece the pre-built sections back together. I would suggest that you separate the pieces, and do an inventory before either building it, or selling. 

[meganr]

Question for all you bulk Lego people: How do you decide which sets are worth gathering up? For example, when I go through a new box of bulk, I look up unique pieces, printed pieces, stickers, and any other piece that might clue me in on what sets are there. I used to automatically gather the pieces for any and all sets that appeared to be in the box. However, I have started to think it makes no sense to put the time in sorting for a low value set. Like if I find a set that is only worth about $15 used, it seems like a waste of time to sort it out. I am thinking I will add those pieces to my stockpile to use for completing bigger higher value sets. Do you have a value threshold for piecing together sets for resale?

I have sorted through at least 150 lbs in the last several months. It's a good relaxation technique for me. But I just think I am probably not maximizing my efforts. Thanks for any and all input!

[BrickMarket]

Question for all you bulk Lego people: How do you decide which sets are worth gathering up?

Your operation sounds like it is evolving in similar fashion as mine has.

I typically pull out all the minifigs and then go through them to see what sets I may have. I usually have a pretty good 'feel' for what pieces are in the lot after having pulled the minifigs, so once I identify a potential set I will decide if its likely that I have that set or not. I make a spreadsheet for each lot that lists the set #, name, # of pieces, and BP value for all the sets that I identify. Then I prioritize and decide which sets will be pulled out to complete and which ones will be skipped.

I almost always skip sets worth less than $20, especially if it has more than 200 or so pieces or sets that come from unpopular themes. The $20 threshold is certainly flexible, but after pulling/inventorying/building/photographing/disassembling/packaging/listing/shipping enough $6-14 sets, it really became a time sink and I'd rather move on to the next lot than squeeze every nickel out of the spoils of each lot. It is nice to have some reserve stock to potentially complete sets with. Best of luck in your bulk adventures!

 

[CNH1974]

Admittedly as I am doing this for fun I go down to sets that may only sell for £1. I am much more picky when it comes to buying bulk lots. I want to "see" a number of valuable sets within the pictures. Sometimes it's blinding obvious, ie the sets are half made up or the sellers put in pictures of the instructions. I should note here that I mainly look for vintage, 80's sets as that it what I grew up with. Valuable in this case means £10+

But, once I have bought a lot I will try to build as many sets as possible out of it. Right down to the one pounders. I like putting old sets back into circulation. And you can make more than you think from some of these "worthless" sets. For example.
A 22kg lot which I bought for £300. The quick and easy to find sets were sold off quickly for a £320 profit based on their cost of £65. But this only equated to 4.5 kg leaving 17.5kg left over. With in this I found some model team sets, 5580 & 5590 selling those for £100. Plus a number of 1970's sets which I did not think would sell. So I listed them for £0.99 each to see if they would sell.

620 Fire Truck 1970	0.99	6.27
605 Taxi 1971	0.99	2.20
614 Digger 1974	0.99	1.20
611 Police Car 1973	0.99	1.21
643 Mobile Crane	0.99	5.50
612 Tipper Truck 1974	0.99	1.71
659 Police Patrol 1975	0.99	2.71
647 Lorry With Girders 1971	0.99	3.71
674 Forklift and Truck 1978	0.99	4.70
656 Car and Caravan 1974	1.99	5.50
691 Rescue Helicopter 1974	0.99	10.00
640 Fire Truck 1971	0.99	0.99

(Not sure if that table will post neatly)

But all except one sold for more than its listing price which surprised me. Proving, you can never tell.  Profit from them was £28.

I did still have 9kg of this lot left over which I sold as bulk bricks for a £20 loss. Not bad. I still have a few sets to list, including a 95% complete 6285 and my profit on this lot is passing £400, 80% return based on total costs.
So to me, doing the little sets is worth it. But its whatever is good for you. Different people have different strategies. 

 

 

[Migration]

When you see it...

[MarleyMoose]

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2015 at 11:06 AM, Migration said:

When you see it...

How'd that work out for you?

 

[Migration]

19 minutes ago, MarleyMoose said:

How'd that work out for you?

 

One full train complete. One 80%ish. The partial has been finished up via BL and sold, only pricy missing pieces were 2 of the large tan windows. I kept the other one and added power to it. Most of the missing pieces I had on hand.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Migration

[Quacs]

8097 Slave 1 and 3831 Rocket Ride.  Fun builds.  Getting ready to inventory a 7676 Republic Gunship.

[darksarcasm]

So I have a lot of odd pieces from my childhood (read: not a lot of general building pieces) and I want to make 10240. Assuming I have little to no pieces already available, would it be worthwhile looking into buying pieces in bulk to try to make up the set instead of buying it? It's got a lot of common pieces.

[Migration]

Fun with bulk....

[exciter1]

Looks like some good stuff in there.

[nolanfan34]

I'm working on a 4842. Someone had it within a bunch of bulk brought into a local sports card shop. I picked up 8 of the figs for the set for $3 each, and spent about $30 on bulk that I picked through. Need to inventory and go back for more. I wish the dang instructions weren't so expensive for that set!!

[Quacs]

4 hours ago, darksarcasm said:

So I have a lot of odd pieces from my childhood (read: not a lot of general building pieces) and I want to make 10240. Assuming I have little to no pieces already available, would it be worthwhile looking into buying pieces in bulk to try to make up the set instead of buying it? It's got a lot of common pieces.

I would suggest sorting your lot by brick type (not color), then cross referencing the inventory list on BL to figure out the pieces you already have.   Once you know the pieces you are missing, then go to BL to order all the missing pieces.

I personally wouldn't buy bulk lots in the hopes of getting all the bricks to complete a specific set unless the Listing specifically references 10240 parts being included.