i bought 80 9488 Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Pack sealed bags no instructions thinking i can sort them out and sell it on ebay for a profit.now I am trying to sort 80 sets and its real pain not worth the couple of bucks i will hopefully make.

anyone else here ever attempt something like this?

Where the heck did you find 80 of those sets like that?

Where the heck did you find 80 of those sets like that?

i rather not say i plan on buying more as they come but this time i wont sort them

I have to admit I'm a bit confused by this thread. You said you bought 80 of a set, none of them with instruction booklets, so you decide to part it out to make money, found it to be PITA? Is there a question or "the point" somewhere?

ya any pointers to make this less of a pain

Yeah, don't do it, or if you do it, put a movie on and stop complaining ;)

ya any pointers to make this less of a pain

Can't think of anything - I would never part it out but that's a matter of personal preference.. I just find it too much work to separate everything into piles - unless, of course, I'm building it, LOL.

Why don't you just sell them as-is, without parting it out? Or no profit to be made that way?

I did this when the first wave of them came out way back when and it was a pain then and almost no one else was doing it. Now with everyone and their uncle doing it its got to be way more of a pain...

Can't think of anything - I would never part it out but that's a matter of personal preference.. I just find it too much work to separate everything into piles - unless, of course, I'm building it, LOL.

Why don't you just sell them as-is, without parting it out? Or no profit to be made that way?

i already have a bid on my auction for just 80 of the Elite Clone Troopers

Progress

All I can say is if you are not into parting out a set for a profit then don't do it. It is possible to make a profit but probably not worth it if you don't have that kind of time to spare.

Perhaps this is a cautionary tale for other investors? All Lego can be a potential for profit at the right price, but consider the hidden costs such as how much of a hassle it will be to list and sell the items as well as the potential to lose out on investment opportunities while your cash is tied up in inventory you can't move. I'll assume legomylego wishes he'd chosen something else to place his investment dollars in. At what point does the amount of time you spend sorting all these figures and organizing them into lots for sale on eBay become counter-productive? I think most investors would certainly make more money picking up overtime at work/working a second job, and that certainly doesn't seem like a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon so it defeats the whole "hobby" aspect of this particular investment. There's no shame in admitting defeat on a failed investment and selling these figures in small batches of weighted lots to recoup some of your money. That's probably what I'd do, though if you've already taken the time to sort them into piles by part then maybe make batches of 5-10 and sell them that way? in any event, chalk this up to a lesson learned and in the future if you're going to go all in on an investment like you did this time at least try and consider what the exit strategy will be before plunking your money down...

For me personally, if I'm going through a bulk lot of sets trying to set them out and sell separately(loosely related to this) I have to get it for 50% of what I think I can get for the sets. I have to be able to double my money. That's what I have decided is worth my time.

Sorry for my noob question, but when people "part out" sets, are you talking about minifigures only, or bricks as well? so for example, lets say i buy 5 of the same set, and have only 5 different bricks in each set. Would parting out consist of selling a lot of each different brick?

People part out everything, including instructions and boxes hah.

Sorry for my noob question, but when people "part out" sets, are you talking about minifigures only, or bricks as well? so for example, lets say i buy 5 of the same set, and have only 5 different bricks in each set. Would parting out consist of selling a lot of each different brick?

It could mean selling off parts and/or minifigures you do not want to selling everything included in the set. For example, let's say I buy a battlepack because all I want are the minifigures and that is it. So I keep those and then sell off the parts. The same can work in reverse.

For me personally, if I'm going through a bulk lot of sets trying to set them out and sell separately(loosely related to this) I have to get it for 50% of what I think I can get for the sets. I have to be able to double my money. That's what I have decided is worth my time.

Ditto!

This is how I got into this game. I regularly buy large lots and sell the bits on. I have had a couple of spectacular auctions doing this. 10029 cost