I just found out about shopgoodwill.com the other day.  They seem to have a boatload of listings for LEGO.  I looked through some of the completed auctions and there were a few good deals to be had.  There were also lots of ridiculous overpays (especially once shipping was factored in).  Does anyone have any experience buying LEGO this way (I'm assuming some of you must)?  Any horror stories to tell? 

Not sorted or cleaned, few if any mini figs. I avoid these.

Always make sure to double check the shipping costs too... but I'd avoid as well.

i'm banned from buying there because i called out their hillsboro OR and st louis stores for parting out giant lots and separating the minifigures from the pieces just to maximize their profits, the problem is, the asshats who do it don't bother to assemble complete minifigures, or make sure they've got all their accessories, so they also end up selling giant lots of minifigure accessories/helmets/heads/etc so you never get a complete figure from them normally

I purchased "sealed bags" 7662 MTT once.  Showed up in ziplocs.  Needless to say, I have never bought from them again.

as mentioned before, check the shipping costs and terms, most will not except returns even if you're right, had problems with them before, super difficult ppl to deal with

The goodwill's here always smell like pee.

Glad I asked. lol.

i'm banned from buying there because i called out their hillsboro OR and st louis stores for parting out giant lots and separating the minifigures from the pieces just to maximize their profits, the problem is, the asshats who do it don't bother to assemble complete minifigures, or make sure they've got all their accessories, so they also end up selling giant lots of minifigure accessories/helmets/heads/etc so you never get a complete figure from them normally

 

I know what you mean about them parting stuff out.  When I was checking the completed listings I saw one store (I think it was Eugene, Oregon but it might have been Hillsboro) that had all the major parts and minifigs for a Queen Anne's Revenge but they were separated into about 10 different auctions, one sail here, a section of the ship there....  And half of the lots went for $80+ not to mention $20 shipping.  Crazy.

The goodwill's here always smell like pee.

Mine too. These places creep me out.

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I used ShopGoodwill for a long time in the past and scored some amazing deals. And on the flip-side, I have received some real s**t also. But now it seems that everything is bid way too high and you really need to pay close attention to the listing. I haven't bought from ShopGoodwill for almost 2 years now. Be careful and pay attention and every now and then, you can land a good score.

Yeah you have to pay real close attention to the listing details and read everything. It's weird because sets go for retail if not higher plus shipping. Most of the sets are still in stores or they are loser sets investment wise. The bulk pound lots usually go for more than $10 a pound. Someone gave me the a "tip" and it was this place but now I think they only told me because they knew it was a dead end of sorts.

The goodwill's here always smell like pee.

 

I've always thought my pee smells like Goodwill. 

I watched auctions from goodwill daily for about a month last year. I finally decided it just isn't worth it. The deals aren't that great and most of the time it seems like you are just getting crap.

Bought a "31 lb lot" of Lego's from them, when it got here (after taking a week and emailed questions to ship) it was 24 lbs. Emailed to complain and got them to refund the difference by percentage. Condition was mixed and around 1/3rd was Mega Blocks. They get crazy prices on their stuff, I can only assume it's because of the "cause" aspect.

I was looking into their offers too some time ago. Shipping basically negates any deal they might have, it's just not worth it, except _maybe_ if you can pick up locally. Even then you would need to be very picky.

Sounds like a bit of a bust then.  There are a few auctions going on at the moment that I might keep my eye on.  There have been a couple NISB Constitution Trains recently that went for around $70-75 including shipping (around $80 in my crazy Canadian money).  Which isn't bad considering that they're still sitting at $149.99 at my local Toys R Us.

recently i had a buddy shill for me, in order to bid on two of the lego train engines from a few years ago, i put a max bid of $400 on the pair, damn auction went for over 500 and some change, people really are willing to go batshit crazy bidding there for some reason, it's not like goodwill even helps anyone, they're out to make a profit and abuse their special case workers on a systematic basis

I just found out about shopgoodwill.com the other day.  They seem to have a boatload of listings for LEGO.  I looked through some of the completed auctions and there were a few good deals to be had.  There were also lots of ridiculous overpays (especially once shipping was factored in).  Does anyone have any experience buying LEGO this way (I'm assuming some of you must)?  Any horror stories to tell? 

 Its dirty and disgusting .. hardly worth the trouble

I've been watching the auctions there for the last three months, put a few bids in -- and every auction has closed for way more than it's worth as an investor or reseller.  For personal collections, I've seen a couple of items close for reasonable prices -- but really have to watch the shipping & handling.  

 

Also watch out for the boxes where they're prominently showing the weight -- some of them if you look closely are listing "dimensional weight" and actual weight in two different places.  The dimensional weight, which is some screwy thing from UPS (or FedEx or both) is based on the size of the box, not it's actual weight - or some funky thing like that.  Annoyingly the dimensional weight is usually the one that's in a bigger font, easier to find.

 

So if buying for personal builds, take a hard look at each listing, decide how much you want to spend, double check the Shipping and subtract that from what you're willing to spend and bid.  Don't get auction fever!

IMO, this was a great "kept secret" a couple years ago. But as members have pointed out, now the stuff is very highly watched and bid on, the competition is fierce and the bids tend to be too high. Unless you have a LOT of time and need a near limitless supply of bulk lots, for the average investor/reseller I don't believe it is worth the time.

Was going to ask about Goodwill Shop Online for Lego...but just have some of you have noted, a quick search netted me my answer.  Thanks guys!

I dunno . I feel like it has always been too competitive. There are a lot more resellers period than there were even a few years ago, not just Lego, so all these online auction sites are the same. Once in a while you can get a decent deal.

I was pretty skeptical about it at first and a lot of the replies to this thread didn't do anything to make me more confident.  But there's good stuff to be had if you pay attention and check every day. 

 

In the last 3 months I've picked up :

1) a 4842 Hogwarts Castle in awesome condition with the box, manuals and all minifigs for $98;

2) a bulk lot that had 7785 Arkham Asylum, 3830 Bikini Bottom Express and 7625 River Chase (with all minifigs and only missing 21 pieces between the three sets, all easily replaced) plus about 5 lbs of random pieces for $48;

3) a mint sealed 79111 Constitution Train for $61;

4) a mint sealed 6869 Quinjet for $34;

5) a bulk lot with a 100% complete 7018 Viking Ship and an 85-90% complete 7783 Batcave (unfortunately missing Alfred and Mr. Freeze, but otherwise nothing major) plus about 7 lbs of random stuff for $57.

 

My major complaint is that it usually takes FOREVER to ship, and the shipping costs are often pretty inflated.

I've been scouting shopgoodwill for a few days but the bad experiences some of you have had have convinced me it's not worth the time. I even called up my local Goodwill and asked them how they dealt with lego. They admitted to pulling out nearly all the minifigs to sell separately but toss in like half a dozen or less into the bulks. But yeah, even the descriptions sound deterring ... "sets may not be complete" and "there may be megablocks included". It's seems obvious they just pour all their lego donations into one pile and just randomly put them into boxes to sell. Think I'll stick to craigslist for now.

I've been trolling around Shopgoodwill for the better part of 2014.  I've picked up some amazing deals, and had one or two rotten deals.  I'm actually considering writing a series of blogs about shopping on shopgoodwill, what to look for, and what to be careful of.

 

It can be fun, exciting, and frustrating, all at the same time.  There are things to be careful of.  There are strategies for bidding.  It's always interesting to see what shows up on SGW, because there are some real sleepers, and there are some groaners.  There are times I scratch my head, wondering why someone is paying over retail (before shipping) for an active set.  I guess they're "donating."

 

You're got to have a very keen eye, though.  If you scour the bulk lots, and you carefully look at them, sometimes you find a nugget.  Over the last few months, I picked up a bulk lot that I spotted 4842 Hogwart's Castle.  Paid about what you would pay for a used set.  But then I was able to pull out most of 10217 Diagon Alley (short by about 100 pieces out of 2000), 4841 Hogwart's Express, and Quiddich Match.  So those are all "bonus" to me.  (I bought the lot strictly for investment).

 

Found another lot that looked like it had part of Emerald Night in it.  It ended up having the passenger car and coal tender, but not the engine.  But I've already sold off the passenger car for what I paid for the lot.

 

On the flip side, I bought what I thought was an Indiana Jones lot, that had a few extra pieces.  Turns out there were only about 100 pieces there, and none of them had anything to do with Indiana Jones.  They accepted the return, since it wasn't even close to what they were advertising.