Top 5 Tips & Tricks for Selling My LEGO® Collection
Do you have LEGO® lying around the house, taking up space that you could really use for something else?
Maybe the kids have just outgrown their LEGO toys and its time to sell them? If that's the case then this article is here to help you sell your LEGO and make the process easy and rewarding.
Tip #1 – Decide what’s most important to you
This might sound like a strange first tip but it’s actually really important. Decide what your goal is for selling your LEGO® first. For most people in our experience as LEGO® buyers people tend to value one of three things. Maximising the value of their LEGO® collection, saving themselves time and hassle, or finding their LEGO the best home possible.
Here at Bricktastics we offer a comprehensive LEGO buying service, so if your goal is finding your LEGO® the best home possible, then you need read no further. We guarantee better than anyone else on the market that we can get your LEGO collection to literally 100’s of loving kids and adults, who love and appreciate each and every brick. We also have a donation program, to find out more click here.
If your Goal is Avoiding hassle and selling as quickly and easily as possible then we would suggest either: listing your LEGO for a below-average price on sites like gumtree or Facebook marketplace, or contacting us here at Bricktastics as we offer fair pricing and convenient service. For a rough idea of how much LEGO® sells for, you can usually expect it to go be priced by the kg/pound at about $15-22 AUD. Though prices vary drastically depending on your collection condition and rarity, things we will discuss later in this article
But basically, LEGO is a valuable toy and if you under-price it, we guarantee it will disappear instantly, just make sure you take some good photos and list on the correct websites (which we will cover later in this article).
But what if your goal is maximising the price you get for your LEGO®? After all, it wasn’t cheap to buy and we can all understand you want to get some of that money back!
If that’s the case, then read on as most of these tips and tricks are ideally suited for maximising the value of your LEGO® Sale
"Figure out what your goal is first. Is it Saving time? getting the most money, or finding your LEGO the best home?"
Tip #2 – Find out what you Have
As mentioned above, if maximising your LEGO’S® value is your primary goal then you need to find out what you have and what it’s worth. When it comes to understanding how much you can get for LEGO® it is best to remember the saying “how long is a piece of string?”.
When selling LEGO® you can expect to recover some of your losses for the money you spent on it, or in other cases, you can recover all the money you spent on it and then some, and anything in between. So the result you get is only limited by the amount of time and energy your willing to put into selling it. Entire business models are based around the idea of maximising the value of second hand LEGO®. However if you want to maximise your LEGO’s value then be prepared to do A LOT of research, and ALOT of work. If you have the time, your collection can literally be sold piece by piece on websites like ebay.com and bricklink.com, these are websites that can be used to sell each and every piece. Though for the average seller we do not recommend this as it takes a lot of skill and time, and often costs more to organise and fulfil sales than it does to just sell it all in one go and get a day job at McDonald’s!
We recommend a happy middle approach, which brings us to our next tip…
LEGO Collections come in many shapes and sizes, no two are alike and the value of each can be complicated to work out!
Tip #3 – Prepare your LEGO for Sale
So you have decided you’re going to sell your LEGO®, and if you did the above tip, you either decided to sell it all in one go, or have done a bit of research and want to separate your collection out somewhat for individual sale.
There are two main ways to sell used LEGO, all in one go or individually. Before you list your LEGO® for sale, again remind yourself of your goals. If its to sell it easily and quickly, then don’t bother separating and trying to maximise the value of sets or pieces. This increases complexity and you will end up dealing with a lot of fussy customers and wasting a lot of time.
With that said for the average seller, we recommend giving it a quick look through and removing any non LEGO® toys, like nerf guns, puzzle pieces. dolls etc: It’s amazing what kids mix into their LEGO®. Buyers will appreciate this, and more savvy buyers will be looking to make sure they are only paying for genuine LEGO® bricks.
You can also clean your LEGO® if you think it’s dirty, we think though that this doesn’t add any value to your sale, but if your LEGO is particularly dirty I’m sure the buyer would appreciate it. HOWEVER, cleaning is a double-edged sword and a whole other topic unto itself. In short, DO NOT wash your LEGO® unless you are willing to dry it in the sun or with a hairdryer, wet LEGO® is no fun to inspect for a buyer. ALSO if your LEGO is already pre-assembled into sets, then DO NOT break them up, sets are more valuable to buyers when they are complete, they look better in photos and often tell a buyer when they will get if they buy your LEGO®, this also goes for colour sorting, don’t bother unless you want to, people won’t pay more for organised LEGO®
Tip #4 – Take Great Photos and save yourself later hassle
Taking good photo’s is critical, buyers purchase with their eyes, and the better your photos are the better you can communicate the value of your collection to prospective buyers. This means use good lighting, spread the LEGO out so that every thing can be seen. If a buyer has to guess then they are more likely to waste your time asking questions and being indecisive with the sale.
If you have a great collection then prepare for an onslaught of people trying to bargain you down, buy individual pieces and items from you, and overall just waste your time. LEGO® fans can be intense sometimes and often we hear horror stories of sellers being inundated with buy requests and having multiple buyers show up and then change their minds.
Once again if you wish to avoid having to deal with buyers that clearly know more than you and don’t care if they waste your time, then contact us here at Bricktastics we will treat your time with respect and make the selling process easy and rewarding. Get a FREE Quote
Lastly be sure to take a separate photo of the instruction booklets and also the Minifigures, these two photos best explain what your collection likely contains and will ensure that buyers looking for the type of LEGO® you have will find and buy your Collection easier.
Tip #5 – List on the best platforms
So you have decided how you will sell your LEGO collection, you have your photo’s and are ready to start finding buyers.
Before you choose which platform(s) you wish to list on, remember to always use a good listing title and description. We have already covered the photos which will do most of the selling for you. Your title isn’t that important, just make sure it has the word “LEGO” in it, and if you know what themes of LEGO you mostly have, include some of those keywords too, such as “Friends”, “Star Wars”, “CITY” “NINJAGO” “PIRATES” etc:
As for your description, you will want to mention at the very least, How much there is to buy. We recommend weighing your LEGO (excluding the tubs and booklets) and including this information, savvy buyers will be able to work out if the LEGO is fairly priced based on this info. Again we recommend an average selling price of $15-$22 AUD per KG. If you have done your research and know what sets you have then it can often be a good idea to list these also. But be clear in your description if you are willing to sell sets individually or not. Often LEGO buyers want to pick and choose what they get, this is a common complaint we get from sellers. Make it clear in your listings description if you will separate things for sale or not, and prepare for dumb questions from buyers regardless
There are 3 places best suited for selling your LEGO®.
GUMTREE – Gumtree is great for selling LEGO® everyone knows it, it’s free and easy to use.
Facebook Marketplace: Like Gumtree Facebook is also FREE easy to use and we recommend listing on both.
Bricktastics.com – There are a few Australia Based LEGO® Buying Services out there, but to our knowledge non completes on the scale, simplicity and professionalism that Bricktastics does. If you’re Looking to sell your LEGO® we offer fair and transparent rates for your collection, cover the costs of shipping and can purchase from you anywhere in Australia. Best of all we ensure every brick makes its way to a loving home.
In summary, if you want to sell your LEGO® collection, the first thing you should do is decide what your primary goal is: maximizing the value, saving time and hassle, or finding the best home for your LEGO®. From there, you should gather as much information as possible about what you have, including the condition and rarity of your pieces. Preparing your LEGO® for sale involves either selling everything in one go or sorting and pricing individual pieces. You can sell your LEGO® online, through a brick-and-mortar store, or to a LEGO® buying service like Bricktastics. Finally, it's important to do your research, take good photos, and be realistic about the price you can expect to receive for your collection. By following these tips, you'll be well on your way to a successful and rewarding LEGO® sale.