My friend IrishGuy66 wrote a topic, (which got pretty heated) about trading, and so I'll take the brilliant name of his article and make a second installment about this Lego lifestyle. :)The first two pictures are of the minifigures that have traded for over the years, and the third is of the figures that I have gotten from new sets. As you can see, I have way more figs that I have traded for than I have gotten new, and they are all pure profit. My policy is to never trade anything that I have gotten in a set, so that I can keep my sets complete. I still have every fig that I have gotten in a set. One of the things I am most proud of is my Zam Wessel, which is only missing the helmet and goggles, which I hope to obtain soon. I got the other pieces from trading and for free. I hope this illustrates more strongly and visually the benefits of trading! :)

go to bricklink you can probably pick up your missing pieces pretty cheap

I didn't realize it till now, but some things like my Kruncha, second Samukai, original Yoda and Rotta got cut off in the first two pictures! Sorry:(

go to bricklink you can probably pick up your missing pieces pretty cheap

I know, but I'll probably just wait till I can trade for them or buy them from a local Lego store. If your wondering why I have this much time to trade, it's because I'm 15. I priced all of these on Bricklink, (very slowly on an excel sheet) and the maximum, or close to it, price of all of these combined is around $5000, which means I could probably sell it for $2000-$3000. I hate the people on Bricklink however that try to sell cheap figs for $15!

How many figs did you start out with Blackjack?

What are you trading that makes them free?

How many figs did you start out with Blackjack?

I started with a few pieces and figs from some of my oldest none SW sets and then a few i bought from friends, traded them for better things and then my collection just kept multiplying for a year or two because of smart trading. It eventually slowed down, but I've kinda restarted it over the last year. The bad part is, at some point, everyone else knows as much or close to what you do and it's hard to scrape a profit.

I'm not sure why I'm asking, but if you're trading stuff for the minifigures, how does that make them free? The stuff you're trading has some value. Maybe not to you, and maybe less than what you are trading for, but the stuff is still worth something.

What are you trading that makes them free?

A very few pieces that I had initially which were traded properly. For example, very early on, when I was about 10, I bought two zip-lock bags of Legos from some girls I knew for $2 a piece. They let me go through their box and practically fill up the bags with what I wanted. It was mostly Pirate and other old unvaluable themed pieces. Then, I would trade some custom fig or weapon to someone for say, an episode 3 clone, which were common then, and so on. After about 2 years, I had cleaned out the 2 friends I mostly traded with of all their SW, and buisiness was going pretty slow. I Traded with dunkers97 when I saw him, but he is the same caliber of trader as me, so it is hard to rip him off. My buisiness really started up again a year ago and has not slowed down much, although the other kids a wisening up now and it's harder to get a good deal. I trade with IrishGuy66, whiteboy02, Goblin scribe and dunkers97a lot, and it's not uncommon for one minifigure trade to last 20-30-45 minutes. IrishGuy66 even said that he had a trade which involved his limited edition Hulk and someone else's Agen Kolar which lasted 2 hours! When I say profit, I don't actually mean that I sell anything. For example, last Friday, I traded an old Gammorian Guard, ($10) For another Samukai, ($15) that is what I call a profit. Well, I know that's too long a history, but that's the run-down of my Lego trading experience. :)

I'm not sure why I'm asking, but if you're trading stuff for the minifigures, how does that make them free? The stuff you're trading has some value. Maybe not to you, and maybe less than what you are trading for, but the stuff is still worth something.

When I say free, I mean I didn't pay anything for it, not that it has no value.

So who want's to give it a shot! JK. Not really. :)

When I say free, I mean I didn't pay anything for it, not that it has no value.

Well, I'm not going to go around in circles on this, but if you trade one thing of value for another thing of value, the thing you got wasn't free since it cost you whatever you traded to get it.

When I say free, I mean I didn't pay anything for it, not that it has no value.

Well, I'm not going to go around in circles on this, but if you trade one thing of value for another thing of value, the thing you got wasn't free since it cost you whatever you traded to get it.

I don't know how else to explain this. When I traded something from my none Star Wars pieces for something better or for Star Wars, I was getting a valuable SW figure for a none valuable none SW. When I was starting this at just 10-11, I didn't know prices, but if my friends really wanted something, I could trade less of my stuff for more of their stuff. If a kid really wants something, you can get a lot for it. So when I said earlier that I traded a Gammorian Guard for a Samukai, I got a figure that is worth $5 more, which to me, means that I got it for free. Sorry if this doesn't help, but I can't expain it any better. :(

This is pretty much where I was coming from as well. As Mos Eisley has correctly pointed out, you still have money invested in this venture. Unless everything you had was given to you by your parents, but as you pointed out, you had money invested from the beginning. As per your example, you have a Gamorrean Guard. He to you(and we'll say ebay), is worth $10. You trade him to your friend for another figure that to you(and ebay we'll say) is worth $15. You have netted a $5 profit. This is not getting the figure for free, this is getting the figure at a reduced cost to you since a straight trade would have cost you $5 more. We aren't trying to argue with you, just trying to set the record straight. There are many well educated business owners on here and we're just straightening out the free vs. profit. That is all. Saying you got them for free implies that you have stolen them from your friends or given them a hug for their minifigs. I have amassed a quite large minifigure collection through purchasing lots, keeping the figures that I want, and selling off the sets/minifigs/parts that I don't want, but I definitely don't consider them "free" because even if I made all my money back, I have still invested my time into the project, and that is still worth something. Good luck to your venture, we definitely don't want to deter you from what you love doing, it was just a little misleading from the beginning.

This is pretty much where I was coming from as well. As Mos Eisley has correctly pointed out, you still have money invested in this venture. Unless everything you had was given to you by your parents, but as you pointed out, you had money invested from the beginning. As per your example, you have a Gamorrean Guard. He to you(and we'll say ebay), is worth $10. You trade him to your friend for another figure that to you(and ebay we'll say) is worth $15. You have netted a $5 profit. This is not getting the figure for free, this is getting the figure at a reduced cost to you since a straight trade would have cost you $5 more.

We aren't trying to argue with you, just trying to set the record straight. There are many well educated business owners on here and we're just straightening out the free vs. profit. That is all. Saying you got them for free implies that you have stolen them from your friends or given them a hug for their minifigs.

I have amassed a quite large minifigure collection through purchasing lots, keeping the figures that I want, and selling off the sets/minifigs/parts that I don't want, but I definitely don't consider them "free" because even if I made all my money back, I have still invested my time into the project, and that is still worth something. Good luck to your venture, we definitely don't want to deter you from what you love doing, it was just a little misleading from the beginning.

Ok, sorry to confuse you. :)

I just traded a palp's arrest Mace Windu and Clone Wars Mace for another Pythor P. Chumsworth!