I just bought a pallet of Lego O_o

@medz Hopefully no holes. I’m guessing they dumped other bins of Lego into that box, so hopefully that’s just one that spilled out.

@jivs4osu I’m planning ebay and local sales. Also Bricklink. It’s going to take a lot of time to sort and package and sell, but that’s ok.

@jivs4osu @luvche21 I was gonna ask how you planned to sell all this too, but then I saw that hundreds of people bought Caffeinated Nut Spreads today.
Apparently anything will sell easily on the interweb.

@mikibell Not warm here, it’s getting down to the 20s at night lately. No serious snow yet though.

@luvche21 our 1-3 inches of snow is already over 4.5 inches!!

I don’t want to be there when your wife finds out though!!

@mikibell ew, I’m so not excited for snow here yet.

My wife was definitely in on the decision making. She’s been more supportive than I expected with all of this. Both of us however have wanted an excessive amount of building toys for our young boys. She’s also seen how happy it’s made me in having a new hobby

@Targaryen a comment like that is what got @luvche21 into this fine mess

@mikibell you’re absolutely right. @Targaryen just buy a big box of Lego, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

@luvche21 @mikibell Damn things are expensive. I should try hitting up some yard sales.

@Targaryen if you’re OK buying them by the pound, you can find them for really cheap. They’re used, and probably won’t have full sets included, but you can get a lot of them to be more creative!

@Plutonian All I’ve seen so far is in the pictures I posted above. And this close up:

Based on other used lots that I’ve purchased, this is going to be AWESOME.

@Plutonian We’ll keep a lot of specialty parts for ourselves but I’m sure we’ll sell some of them. Is there anything you’re looking for?

@mfladd For you I charge double! Special pricing will totally depend on how quick we want to sell everything and if we’re up for waiting it out.

@luvche21 Let me know when you get it. I am just looking for 1-2 base plates. Or just one cool one

@mfladd OK, remind me too (I’ll definitely post some more pictures here). Depending on how many baseplates are in it, we may not have many leftover that we don’t want.

@RiotDemon Yeah, I think I’ll do that to some degree on a local online marketplace, but I doubt I can sell all of them that way.

@speediedelivery I keep going to that idea of swimming in them, but that sounds sooooo painful.

Video is a good idea, since pictures don’t do it justice. The first box that I bought (only 16 pounds) has so many more pieces in it than I expected. So multiply that by 30…

@tightwad shopgoodwill.com but you didn’t hear it from me!

@mikibell I knew about that site, wasn’t aware that was where this lot was from. Wish I had known as Ft Worth is 1 hour away and Legos are amazing

@mikibell @tightwad I’m glad you didn’t know, because then we would have been bidding against each other!

There are dozens of inexpensive Lego lots that go up every day for auction on that site, keep an eye on them and watch for when there isn’t much bidding activity and you can score some good lots.

Two people jumped in on this one in the last 31 seconds trying to outbid (ended up costing me an extra $350), but luckily it was just under my max bid.

@luvche21 @mikibell my wife is convinced we have enough Legos already…including a custom Lego table that uses Ikea storage bins for organization.

@luvche21 @tightwad don’t all spouses think that about the other’s hobbies? My husband once told me I needed a hobby. He sorely regrets that statement everytime I buy a new spool of thread or cake decorating tip or a roll of vinyl or a skein of yarn or…well, you get the point. Our 11 room house is bursting at the seams!

@mikibell You would get along really well with my wife and her cake decorating. Luckily though I have an aunt that gives us her old tips and molds and trays and everything else cake related.

@Kidsandliz I keep telling my wife they’re for the kids, but we all know it’s really for me!

My neighbor that I’m splitting this with got me hooked on the idea of buying building toys in bulk for my kids, so I’ve been watching for some good Lego lots (I don’t care so much about having full sets, although I’m sure there are plenty of those in here).

I also realized how good of a hobby it is and how fulfilling it is for me. It will easily pay for itself (although I’ll put many hours into it, which I am fine with).

@mike808 ooh, I didn’t think to calculate it on the ton level. That makes it sound bigger in my mind!

What’s the difference between a problem and a hobby anyway?

@luvche21 About 1/4 of a ton? On the other hand you could be building a lego city and the hobby could be making that rather than collecting legos. You might be able to justify hoarding legos them.

In some country or other I lived in - can’t remember which one now - maybe The Netherlands? - anyway they had a really cool, huge lego town with some buildings a good 6’ tall. I can’t imagine how long in people hours it took to build that - nor how many legos. Hope they glued them together in case of a high wind.

@Kidsandliz the collecting isn’t the real point of the hobby (for me at least), it’s the building. I’ve never been much of a collector. I’ve got some ideas on things to build, but nothing too massive yet.

How many countries have your lived in that you can’t remember?

@luvche21 Not counting the USA 6

@Kidsandliz cool! I bet that’s been a great experience. I’m working on getting tenure right now, but once I do I hope to spend some time abroad with my family. Two country options right now, one that I know the language (but I’m not sure I want my family to live there) and one that I don’t.

@Kidsandliz can I ask what countries?

@luvche21 Germany (and I guess Austria sort of counts since half the time we were backpaking, kayaking,etc. in that country since I was living and working 12km from Salzberg so that would be sort of 7), Holland, Canada, Cambodia (I have an NGO over there), England, Scotland (yeah I know part of the UK but just try to convince a Scot that they are the same country as England - besides I was in the Scottish highlands). I didn’t count some of the other countries when I lived on tall ships (Bahamas, US and British Virgin Islands so sort of 8 and 9+) since often I saw little of the actual land because when the tourists went ashore, we cleaned their rooms.

Sailing through there though was pretty and I did get to tour the rainforest a couple of times, sugar plantation, a couple of villages, climb a mountain passing through a giant dope plantation (US Virgins) because it was the only part that wasn’t covered in cat claw bushes thus easier to walk though (and scary once we realized what we were in - told the passengers to pretend they had no idea what it was and don’t even whisper about it until we had left the island and sailed away (turns out the entire population of that tiny island knew we were up there and were waiting to see what we’d do; on a different note we saw a twilight drug drop from a plane to a boat while tied up in the mangos off of Key West in the national marine sanctuary - now there we were really scared when we realized what was going on).

@luvche21 What countries?

@djslack Do they happen to do logistics for other companies ☻

@djslack Is it worth sending me their info? I’m hoping to decide on a shipper soon.

@luvche21 you can find them at mediocre.com

@lseeber I’ll only use the inferior off-brand Lego for that though. Someone sent me this story the other day of someone going for the world record of stepping barefoot on Legos. What a horrible idea!

@luvche21 hahahaha! But… it’s Ragnar! He should have been able to do it! He didn’t even come close. You need a true masochist for that.

@lseeber Yeah, nowhere close. I scream after stepping on just one! Last night I got a cardboard paper cut under my fingernail (while reaching into a box of Legos), and I am extremely proud of myself that I didn’t scream and yell (because I had to bite my tongue).

@luvche21 Oh ouch! I hate the ones that drop you to your knees and suck the breath right out of you.

@lseeber that one was one of those that made me jump up, bite my tongue and pace back and forth while cursing inside. It still hurts to type

@Dakini thanks! I actually just found a shipper yesterday and saved $170 by doing something similar to what you’re saying. It might even arrive next week!

@rtjhnstn that’s seriously impressive!

@compunaut so, in other words, Goodwill has been picking out minifigs from Lego donations for a while.

@compunaut That’s ri-damn-diculous.

@RiotDemon
Or someone like @luvche21

@compunaut @RiotDemon They sure didn’t pick them out of my pallet, I’ve already found about 300!! and I’m less than halfway done!

I did some calculations, and that’s likely only between 2 and 3 pounds. I’m guessing I’ll find 600+ minifigs when I’m all done.

14 pounds going for $1100 on Goodwill - I wonder how much it would have sold on ebay.

@compunaut @luvche21 @RiotDemon I got my son ~25lbs of legos from GW for Christmas. He is 10 and has spent hours pouring through the box and finding gems. I can’t imagine what a pallet must be like! At first I was jealous of your score…but we now have a room in our house only a masochist can walk barefoot into…

@tightwad Luckily the pallet stays in the garage currently. And half of it belongs to my neighbor. And we’re selling a decent amount of it. HOWEVER, with how much I’ve dug through it, I don’t want to sell any of it and I want the entire portion going to my neighbor lol.

@compunaut Minifigs weigh ~3g. Cleaned up, most minifigs can easily be sold for $1-2, and if you have an “interesting” one you can easily get $5+ out of it. Math tells me there are ~2,116 minifigs in that lot, which could be a pretty substantial ROI, depending on labor costs.

@compunaut @hanzov69 Without researching exact numbers, I would estimate $5 cost per auction. Minimum shipping would be $3.66 to $4.06 per package mailed. Ebay and paypal would want some and bubble or padded envelopes. You might be able to send as a large envelope rate to save a couple bucks in postage but no tracking.

@tightwad Lego had a job opening recently and I told my hubby I was considering applying…his response: I hear you have to be careful where you step if you work there!

@luvche21 Now I want to come over with a measuring cup and borrow a coupe cups of Lego’s

@mikibell I wouldn’t bother, they treat their employees like universal cogs

@tightwad Only if you bring them back after you’re done borrowing!

@luvche21 @tightwad hahah …I work for a leasing company, and my friend and.I were joking about leasing Legos the other day! Talk about inventory accounting! Can you imagine the complexity of leasing or even renting legos?? The thought of the potential for fraud alone makes my head explode!

@luvche21 @mikibell @tightwad
Easy. Rent X lbs legos for time Y. Weigh Legos on return. Shipping both ways costs Z.
Difference in weight is charged as a purchase at some $/lb (or kilo, since Lego is of Danish origin).
Not complicated to lease.

If you want complicated, try leasing two or more girlfriends at the same time.

@compunaut That might actually be a bargain, depending on the selection of mini-figs and the amount of time one has on his/her hands to parcel them out on eBay. I estimate one pound to be in the neighborhood of 100 mini-figs, making for a total of 1400+ individual figures.

An “average” mini-fig may go from $3 - $5 on eBay, with some of the rarer ones going for low double digits. Even if a buyer only averaged $2 apiece, one could double his/her money.

@compunaut @DrWorm It takes LOADS of time though as I’ve discovered, and I haven’t even gotten into the selling part. But, sifting through all my Lego has almost been therapeutic for me (definitely super nostalgic), so taking all that time is more than ok for me.

@mike808 Look closely:

@compunaut Don’t do it!

@compunaut @luvche21 One bidder so far. People must be put off by the $2 handling fee.

@compunaut @sammydog01 It ended up going for higher than my pallet, this went for $1,551 (4 bids between 2 bidders). The final bidder raised it $550 in the last 4 seconds - it might have been the same guy that raised mine by $400 in the last 30 seconds.

@compunaut @luvche21 @sammydog01 Are they even worth that though?

@compunaut @sammydog01 @therealjrn Worth it price wise? This comes out to $2.60/pound. The cheapest I’ve found outside of these auctions is $8/pound, after all the good stuff has been taken out. I’ve found 300ish minifigs in my pallet so far and I expect to find another 300+. Selling minifigs alone will pay for the entire pallet if I do it right. My goal though is to just break even and keep a couple hundred pounds for myself that I’ve cherry picked.