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Staples in our town

Got BIG BEN down to $100 after 15% off, TRUTH, rewards and free 12/1 gift cards from last month. No Geoffrey sighting though.

Staples still has $50 TRU gift cards for $40 - my store just put out a bunch this morning and I grabbed $300 worth for $240. Now its time to pillage TRU!

LEGO Ideas Maze (21305)-Toys"R"Us $48.99 (30%) http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=71324296

Corrected that for you Until the next 3-4-2, admit it Tabby you've retired from the game more times than Michael Jordan.

So, guilty feelings. I called the store manager and told him the whole story. He looked up the craigslist ad which is still up. I told him that he or the local police could email the person and set up the purchase of the next gift card. Left the ball in their court and I'm done with this person.

Or simply amateur mistake. I'm still Learning. I try not to undercut anymore, but I'm still strongly at the lower end of prices typically. Also, wife wants her garage back.

And there is the rub with this whole little game we play ...

"Ewok Village" Click post "Yes I think the EU will have a bad year if immigrates don't stop moving in and everyone is leaving EU" Close BrickPicker App

You are reposting lol. I posted like weeks ago! Wait till you get down here you're in trouble!!!

I'll go post it on slickdeals. Those rubes aren't smart enough to wait for truth and you'll know in an hour tops.

4184 POTC Black Pearl for $475 via Amazon FBA Picked this up for $49.50 at the post-Christmas Walmart clearance those few years ago. This was the first LEGO purchase strictly for reselling that got me started on this ride. It was my first LEGO love but figured it was time to let it go with the possibility of new ships with the new POTC movie. Maybe it will keep rising like the Imperial Flagship... All...the good old days

This month (November 2016) marks my first complete year as a LEGO reseller and active BrickPicker, as well as the second anniversary of coming out of my Dark Ages. Okay, I was reading catalogs and buying a few cool sets for my kids every year before 2014, but nothing like the full-on assault of having to catch up with all that LEGO has offered in the past. To celebrate these milestones I thought it would be a nice idea to contribute some of my key lessons from the past year back to this community. First of all, a little background. What really got me out of my Dark Ages was LEGO Trains, actually, it was a Fleischmann N-scale model train set that I used to have when I was a kid and which my dad brought over from Europe to the US 2 years ago. Enthusiasm over introducing my son and daughter to model railroading quickly turned into disillusion because I realized that none of the US manufacturers made tracks compatible with my N-scale track, and that just buying extra rolling stock was going to set me back hundreds of dollars for single-purpose items, which break irreparably when played with by (young) kids. Then a little light-bulb went off in my head: What if I bought LEGO trains instead – we could build our own trains, cars etc., and whenever we wanted something different, we just take it all apart. So with my wife’s blessing, Santa brought the Blue Cargo Train set (60057) and two Horizon Express sets for Christmas 2014. Unbeknownst to her, I had also managed to get an (already retired) Maersk Train, a few My Own Train carriages and some other random train-related bulk lots. I participated in a RailBricks contest (the last one they did before unfortunately shuttering the magazine) and started my decent into the delightful madness that is the world of AFOLs. Since I’m a train guy, you won’t hear stories from me about having to have this or that Star Wars ship, or those exclusive SuperHeroes minifigs. Sure, my son has a Millenium Falcon and Poe’s X-Wing, and the key SW characters as buildables, but our LEGO buying was first focused on Chima (my son loved it), then shifted to Bionicle, and now my kids’ playing revolves around Harry Potter – we don’t own any of the sets, but have a few minifigures and a lot of imagination. My daughter has a lot of Friends sets which she loves, but is slowly growing out of her interest for these (my kids are 10 year old twins at the time of this writing). Then November 2015 hit, and I started investigating the value of some sets, and joined the BrickPicker forums. My first purchases started rolling in ….. Pirate Chess Sets from LEGO Shop-at-Home, and a few handfuls of 10697 Brick Boxes from WalMart. As I really love the brick, I had determined I was going to start my own BrickLink store (having designed several train cars and placing tens of BL orders I had gotten familiar with how this worked). And I read and read and read on BrickPicker, and participated in the discussions, and grew wiser and smarter and, I must say, warier as time went by. Here are the key lessons I’ve learned from my first year: The buying part is easy. The buying part is fun. Great adrenaline rush. But for many of us, there’s too much to buy. Just because it’s 50% off doesn’t mean you NEED to buy it. Case in point: I picked up a 31033 Vehicle Transport at Target in January 2016 for $10 (RRP: $25, so 60% off). Not a particularly nice set, it had just been released, available everywhere, and who will buy from you as a beginning Ebay seller? Needless to say, this set still sits unsold on my shelf. It’s all about buy-in. Where previous strategies mainly revolved around getting your hands on as many of the expensive sets as possible before they quickly but inevitably retired without much fanfare, the LEGO reselling game is undergoing a massive change. Buy-in price seems to be the key factor now. As a beginning buyer I was excited when I saw 20% off. A year later, 40-50% is where my heartbeat starts increasing. Selling takes time. It’s not difficult, it just takes time. Time to establish yourself as a trustworthy seller. Time to wait for prices to rise to a level you’re comfortable with. Unless you stumbled upon something truly desirable and unavailable, or if you are able to price significantly below others, don’t count on things selling within the first 30-day listing period. Darth Revans, Iron Patriots and Silver Centurions are obvious exceptions, but those don’t come by often. For other items it is a slow, slow game – listing and relisting. The game changes continuously. What works one month might no longer work the next month. Every Bob and Sally has LEGO items in their Ebay store. More and more people join and try to eke out an ever smaller amount of profit. Amazon throws up a gate. Ebay and Target stop a lucrative giftcard cycle. You need to stay in touch or your investments become much harder to sell, or your profit evaporates. Making a decent profit is not easy. At least, not for big(ger) sets. Just look at Ebay: You bought a set for $100 and want to make good profit. If you sell for $150 (shipping included), you will pay ~$18 to Ebay/Paypal in fees, and ~$10-$20 in shipping (in the US, depending on where you live). That’s $30-$40 off of your selling price, so you end up making $10-$20. A small profit is also profit, but you’ve spent time on this set, buying it, storing it, packing it, listing it, checking comparables etc. Unless you’re shifting hundreds of these sets a month, this will not be worth your while. Your time is valuable. Even if you consider this “only a hobby”, before you know you’re in your car driving from one Target to another. I have 6 or 7 Targets in a 15 mile radius from my house, and a similar amount of Walmarts. Popping into one is a quick affair. But when those clearance rumors swirly, and stock checkers are unreliable, your “quick check what they have” becomes a 3hrs+ road-trip. Plus, with 800+ LEGO sets on the market, you’re quickly spending 20-30 mins per store checking resale values, BL part-out costs etc. Then you need to list. Take a picture or two. Research what others are listing for. Do your administration (which for a detailed oriented person like me means adding a row for each set in a 30+ column spreadsheet tracking all sorts of aspects of your purchases). And for those of us who do the part-out route, there’s time in sorting out the set contents, setting up an organizational system, updating BL inventories etc. Choose your game plan. There is too much going on (what with LEGO producing 800+ sets a year as mentioned before) to play all fields. Unless you’re sitting on vast amounts of spare capital, you cannot AND go deep on expensive sets, and cover all themes (Modulars, SW UCS, GBHQ, SHIELD Helicarrier, Advanced Technic models etc) and part out, and BrickLink …. Pick one strategy that best fits your lifestyle. Your options are: Good old-fashioned investing – buy expensive sets for true investment purposes, i.e. stash them away for 3-5 years post retirement and see if that magical 3xMSRP has appeared. Clearance hunting for quick flip – grab those 50-75% off sets, and list them within a year to see if you can get >MSRP to get 75-100% ROI. Diamonds in the rough – take a punt on a few sets that you believe are “iconic” and not soon remade. Remember: First rule of fight club is that nobody talks about fight club. Sit back and watch others scramble over the “common” sets, and rake in the profits when the sets are retired and people realize they “need” them. Or at least, that’s the theory. Buy for part-out. Split your sets into minifigs, buildings and vehicles, and sell them separately for more than the original sets’ cost. I’ve had some luck with this strategy, though it was never my game plan – especially with Dimensions (minifigure and video-game discs sold separately, with the minibuilds as parts for my BL store inventory). Buy for parts. Look at which sets have good BL value, but be careful: unique/niche parts can drive up the value but see very little sales. Be selective. Don’t be a sheep. Tied to the previous point. It is so easy to get carried away. “Great deal on this SW UCS – now 30% off!”. Sure, but if you have a budget (and I recommend you have one from the get-go), plonking down a few hundred bucks on a set that you’ll likely have on a shelf for the next 2-3 years might not be the wisest decision. Plus, there are many others who jump in on this, so you need to battle your competitors in a game that is not your strength. Net, stick to your own plan. Document. Document. Document. Keep track of what you spend and how much you earn. A spreadsheet is good enough. Don’t count on profit until you have it in your PayPal account. Account for all expenses – boxes, shelving, tape, you name it. Find the right marketplace. Depending on your location, you have multiple options. Each marketplace has its plusses and minusses. The key ones are: Ebay. First choice for many. Used by bargain hunters, savvy shoppers and has generally a good, sizeable audience. To really have a good experience, you need to be honest in listing (duh), take lots of pictures, price right, ship fast, and have a return policy (and ideally, a generous one). Also, you need to use PayPal, and unless you work yourself up to Top Rated Seller, count on 12% of your total sale price (including shipping!) to be taken as fees. Amazon. Until very recently the absolute best place to start selling. Everybody shops at Amazon. Unfortunately, unless you pay $1k and provide proof of purchase (and potentially a letter from TLG proving you are an authorized reseller), you cannot list LEGO anymore. I was lucky to get grandfathered in based on a few sales I had in the spring and summer. FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) is the best one of the lot – limited effort (buy, add to inventory, pack and ship to Amazon – they take care of the rest) and a lot of eyeballs. This comes at a price: up to 20% of the sale price goes to uncle Jeff, but the “Prime” label makes up for that by commanding a premium price from buyers, and people happily click away. Plus, you get a chance to be featured in the Buy Box. Just be aware of returns – you might have to swallow the occasional destroyed item. Craigslist. Flea-market audience. Has the hassle of having to meet with people (and finding a place where to do this can sometimes take a lot of back-and-forth with your buyer), but once the sale is made you have no risk and no obligations. Also: no fees. BrickLink (and BrickOwl, its key competitor). AFOLs only. Limited eyes, but limited fees (1-2%). Your buyers know what they want. Shipping is extra, so no need to accounting for shipping costs in calculating your price. The only downside is that setting up shop properly is not easy – adding shipment methods, figuring out how to price those methods correctly etc. all needs some research. Of course you can do without, but you get more sales if you do it right. Facebook selling groups. No real experience here on my end. I’m part of my local Buying/Selling group, but what I see is not instilling much confidence: used cars, pitbull pups and phones. I doubt anyone will want to buy a LEGO set at a reseller premium there. Others have reported more success. There are other apps and marketplaces: Offerup, Kijiji in Canada, Gumtree in the UK, Marktplaats in the Netherlands and Belgium …. I have no experience with these but from what I’ve heard, they fit in with Craigslist/Facebook above. Conventions, flea-markets, garage sales. Very interesting venues, each with their own dynamic. You could get away with charging a premium at conventions (and potentially at flea-markets), but often your participation comes with a fee, so you need to account for that. Again, not an area I have dabbled in so far. Read up on key threads. Check what happened to 41999 to understand how the horde can get carried away sometimes. Read the Amazon/Ebay/CL threads for tips on how to get started, and for answers to commonly experienced questions. Check out the Ethics forum to understand what is being frowned upon – if we don’t keep certain practices and standards, retailers will counteract and remove things like the ability to stack coupons, or the acceptance of printed coupons, or even the privilege of a hassle-free return. And before you make your first purchase, check the speculative bubble thread – if you are still convinced you want to do this after reading that thread, you’re probably strong enough to handle what’s coming (or rozy-eyed enough to not care). Master the art of stacking. There are published deals (50% off at Target!) and there are “make your own deals”. The latter have the benefit that they are YMMV (your mileage may vary) – others likely won’t be able to replicate them. Several retailers (Toys’r’us, Kmart/Sears, Meijer, BAM, Ebay, Galeria-kaufhof and mytoys in Germany to name a few) have coupon and discount policies that allow for the stacking of offers. Combine sale pricing with credit card discounts, with reduced-price Gift Cards, with 20% off coupons, with Buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) offers, with points/rewards program certificates, until your buy-in price approaches $0. Then rub it in other’s faces on the "What LEGO set did you buy today" thread. Get in on those loyalty programs. For the price of a small piece of your soul, join as many rewards programs as you can. Ebay Bucks, TRU Rewards, Shop-Your-Way, Meijer mPerks, BAM club membership, Barnes & Noble membership, you name it. Carry the card. And if you don’t mind carrying multiple credit cards, use store-specific CC’s for your purchases, and earn discounts and cashback. Just pay them off every month, please. Be truthful in accounting. This goes two ways: Don’t get into trouble with the IRS. If you sell for profit, you are generating income. Better report it (plus in the US you can deduct the expenses incurred in making the sale, such as car mileage, shipping materials, storage materials etc.). Officially you should also register yourself as a reseller in your state/county (unless you block people in your state from buying from you). For my state (Ohio) this was really not a big deal – a small fee, some paperwork, and a twice-a-year reporting duty (so far always $0). Also, configure your selling accounts (Ebay, BrickLink) to automatically charge sales tax on purchases made by local buyers. You can only do this on Amazon if you have a professional selling account – when you sell as an individual you’ll just have to pay the sales tax out of the sales price. As a benefit: I get to buy tax-free in the few places that haven’t banned resellers (Amazon, Walmart) as long as it is for store inventory. Think about how you account for points, freebies etc. There are many ways to skin the cat, but I prefer this approach: Points never count as a discount on the purchase made to earn them, only as a discount on the purchase where they are used. Freebies count as a $0 purchase, and everything I earn on them is (gross) profit. So, those sets I bought at LEGO S@H for $75 to get the free Gingerbread House really cost me $75, even though I sold the GBH for $50 and made $40 profit after fees and shipping, and got 150 points as part of double VIP. Get approval from your S.O. (Significant Other). Some of us are blessed with AFOL partners. Some of us have bargaining partners – if you want to do this, then let me do my thing. Some of us have eye-rolling partners. And even some of us have to pretend and work undercover. Oh, and some don’t have partners, but I’m giving them a break and will not tap into my arsenal of AFOL bachelor puns. At least come to some sort of an arrangement. LEGO should never be the reason a relationship ends, and should never be more important than your S.O. I had big plans (and still have big plans) regarding my BL shop as well as regarding my LEGO Train building hobby. They’ve been slowed down – my wife protested against the amount of time I was spending on this and she was right. <Insert doormat pun here> Practice self-constraint. No you don’t have to buy it all. Often I go all the way through the checkout process and then take a breather. A quick comparison with other sites. Read some reviews. Think "yes it is x% off, but you still pay $y". And after amassing a closet full of LEGO: “First sell enough until you have more funds and more space, then buy again”. What also helps me is that I have a (very short) list of sets I really want to have for my personal collection. If there ever is a good deal on those, I’ll jump on it (ideally using Ebay Bucks or Credit Card reward dollars). For the other deals: there will be more deals in the future. Be helpful and you’ll be better off for it. Just like you need to build up a reputation of trustworthyness on Ebay or Amazon, I advise everyone to do the same on BrickPicker. Look out for your fellow BP-ers. Help them score a deal when needed. Post those deals when you see them (even if they don’t interest you), or at least, post them after you had your fill. Because all the goodwill you’re building up will help you get better deals yourself – via member-to-member private messages, or just by being "in-tune" with what is happening on the marketplace. And unlike many other platforms on the vast World Wide Web, Brickpicker is a very civilized, high-intelligence online forum. Conversations are kind, well articulated and insightful. Moderators intervene at the right time, and with clear principles. And everyone likes a giggle. Unless you are a professional reseller (and I know there are several that frequent BP), remember that this is supposed to be a hobby. You’ll enjoy it more when you keep your love of LEGO alive. Scale back when you don’t have time. Sell if you need cash. Pop seals and build if there’s something you’ve now taken a fancy to, or if the market for the set has cratered. But please, please don’t get in over your head. To conclude my story: I have spent considerable time over the first half of 2016 on building inventory, writing software to manage my BL store’s sales and pricing analytics, and sorted through about half of my sets and parted them out. I listed ~20k parts on BL, and have seen some nice sales coming through. However, as this is my hobby, I’ve had to take a break from adding to my BL store and it has been in hibernation mode over the past months as other priorities took over. I have continued to list sets on Ebay and Amazon to keep some sales going. I bought well – some initial purchases were not as good as some later ones when I got clearer on what I needed to look for in sets, however, those were offset by some lucky finds (Ghosts for half price, anyone?). I resigned myself to contributing to reporting sales and delightful banter to BP, and with ~3.5k posts to my name in just a year, I think I’ve been quite successful at that strategy at least. To round it all up, some statistics from my first year: Total resale purchases including supplies, shipping costs and fees: $7.3k Average discount over MSRP: 44% Total sales revenue: $3.0k ROI on those sales: >175% (But I sold quite a lot of freebies which drive ROI up) Average fee paid (Ebay, Amazon, BrickLink/BrickOwl): 11.2% Parts amassed for my BL store: ~110k Here’s to a great second year! View full blog article

Hit Meijer this morning but left with nothing. City, superheroes and friends are still all BOGO 40% off but mine did not have any Batman Movie sets out and the DC girls was not included in the BOGO. Even with the Santa bucks almost all deals were "only" 29% off so I didn't bite.

What, this guy doesn't look trustworthy to you?

In Europe we keep getting bombarded with bad news: - Brexit will eventually destroy the Euro/EU. - Syrian and African refugees cause nationalistic parties to gain power where destroying the EU is on their agendas. - Greek economic crisis will return and Grexit will destroy the Euro/EU. - Italian huge balance deficit will eventually destroy the Euro/EU. -.... etc.... When consumers feel uncertain they spend less money on trivial good (like toys and vanity possessions). Which we do see happen here in Europe. So yeah, that means EV and SC don't sell out here in Europe, unlike in the USA. It also means there are people like Val-E and TabbyBoy are pessimistic and spread their gloomy outlook here.

TRU today: 1x mint Mystery Mansion 1x Joker Lowrider for me to build 1x McLaren Mercedes Pitstop 2x Audi R18 e-Trons 2x Italia GT2s 1x Venom poly 4x Creepy Geoffreys $90 after a few of last month's free gift cards, 15% coup, TRUTH, and a 15% discounted GC

Jet.com : 15% off 2 or more toys with code TOYPICKS15.

If you buy one you can keep the box and send me the contents.

Pretty freaken cool IMO, found it on local FB, some already on eBay. Hope I'm not reposting.

Nutcracker by Robert Heim

c_rpg just earned his MOD-wings [emoji1319]

15% + TRUTH + 15% GCs + Seasonal Employees = Indescribable suffering

No 60080 Space Ports for me from Amazon or elsewhere this time around from this past Sunday's fun/buying frenzy and I have none in my inventory. I am content to have my 6339 Shuttle Launch Pad (1995) that I bought a few years with the box and instructions on Ebay for around $60. Did not even know the great deal I got back then. I know more now about buying Lego sets, but sometimes feel overwhelmed with what I have learned from this great site.

Not sure if we have a thread about this or something new. Thought it be cool to share! My girlfriend asked me to wait up stairs (an hour later) I come down stairs to this!! I think she did a really nice job lol! She knows I love Star Wars and I guess wanted to me to get excited for the holidays. (Post pictures of your Christmas trees/decorations here as well!) Happy holidays everyone!

Tabby, it's time to Lego of this negativity.

So, this set was released in January & sale priced in May for $23.99 at LEGO Shop at Home. I did pick up a bunch during the 20% off sale but I will be very disappointed if this one is going so soon & I wasn't paying attention. It's currently sold out at Amazon, FAO, Target, Toys R Us & Walmart. Now, I only see it available at LEGO Shop at Home for online purchasing...

Thank you, AirborneAFOL. Wrote the e-mail. Packaged the correct item. Upon dropping it off at the PO, I mentioned what I did. Surprisingly, the first class package bin was still there from this morning. Shout out to my cheerful, awesome PO (Rumford, Rhode Island) - employee searched through the bin and retrieved the package. I will be taking the PO a holiday food basket next week...

Good old Nigel Farage causing trouble then running off to US with trump...

Oh what to do with statements such as these...

I thought that was your time warp Walmart and this is your Staples.

How is selling a $10 set that was readily available at $5 for $35 after it is retired considered qfll? Did I miss something? Wouldn't most people be happy with roughly 200%-300% roi on any sets that we sell?

This is a functional MOC, but I love the simplicity of the solution. There is obviously some clever SNOT work going on under the center of the crossing, to make sure all the pieces line up with the tracks, but no cutting of LEGO parts by any means. A great way to add a 90 degree crossing to your railway layout! "Train Track Crossover Ver2 Crossing only" by Miro Dudas

Nobody was taking B-A's stapler away though .....

That was a Milton'ism.

I just called my local TRU, and they "have boxes of them still"

So much trouble....but that will have to be later because I am a little busy right now.

SOLD OUT at shop at home USA for a few days. cleared out for ordering with shipping at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and TRU. very limited store stock at TRU according to website. Barnes and nobles showing very limited local stock. The 2 closest haunts are out. Closest is an hour away. Because of the short life and relatively rapid disappearance, hoping there will be rapid price appreciation. The set is especially nice because of the small size and cheap shipping.

Surprisingly, you should see the huge stack at my TRU. Not worried about them running out before tomorrow.

DSC_0440 by Felix Jaensch

You beat me to it, but there are still Mystery Mansions/Machines and Ecto-1s floating around TRU that can be ok. $94.99 turns into sub-$65 after 15% + TRUTH + 15% GCs. Plus a free creepy Geoffrey set!

That may have been me on the garbage truck. I've been amassing an army of these fellas when they were on sale for 13 at Target.

Yes, you won't sell it for $200 tomorrow like Europeans might

Grabbed some 21022 .. $25 a piece. $21 for the one that was damaged.

Helicarrier, GBHQ and Porsche (plus all other Lego!) are 20% off at BigW. Hope you've got you're discounted gift cards stocked up!!

Quite impressive being mostly Duplo. Duplo Truck by Robert Heim

Here's my latest project - as I've now managed to collect all of the regular release Batman/DC/Superman minifigures, I've been trying to figure out a way to display them. As I was doing a little Google search for inspiration, I came across an old Batman comic with members of the "Rogues' Gallery" in individual frames. Thinking this would be fun to emulate, I started to work on my own Rogues' Gallery. First, since i have all of the DC comics minifigures, I decided to use all of the non-Superman DC bad guys in the gallery. I will be doing a Superman display at a later date and will include Lex Luthor, Zod, et al there. Then, I had to figure out whether I could utilize the big figs, but given their scale I decided to give them their own separate displays. So, here's the Rogues' Gallery: The other thing I just noticed is that I missed the Death Stroke minifigure, so I'll figure out where to put him once I find him. Enjoy! I've got close ups that I'll post later, but I'll start with Joker: