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I sold a 76013 Joker Steam Roller this past weekend. Local Craigslist sale. $40. Buy in was $25.xx. Only 43 more to go. Curse this set.

Personally I like to build before I sell. I put in the work, might as well get some fun out of it.

The trouble is, Amazon would rather pay out the A-to-Z claim than litigate. Here's another scary story (though it turned out okay for me). I sold an item in January for $480 to a buyer named Sue V. The shipping address was for a man's name in a city a couple hours away from me so I made out like a bandit on shipping. I wasn't particularly suspicious as it isn't infrequent that someone buys a present on Amazon and has it direct shipped to the recipient. So I sent it Priority Mail and it was delivered 2 days later. A week later, the buyer sends me an email stating that the item wasn't received and requesting a refund...or else he/she would "escalate" the claim. I replied politely that USPS tracking showed that the item had been delivered to the address specified in the order, to please check with neighbors and the local carrier, and that if the item was truly missing to file an A-to-Z claim with Amazon as there was nothing else I could do for the buyer. I got no reply. Another few days went by, and then I get an email through Amazon from the person whose name was on the shipping address. He tells me he thinks the person who bought it might be committing fraud. He explained that he had purchased the item on eBay for $320 from a seller whose listed address was in Israel(!) and he noticed on the packing slip that the cost on Amazon was much higher than what he had paid for it. He also happens to be a 3P seller on Amazon who has gotten burned by this type of fraud and so he wanted to make sure I knew that the package was actually delivered. So of course I thanked him and then I promptly reported the matter to Amazon seller services. At this point, no A-to-Z claim had yet been filed. Amazon seller services obviously didn't care at that point but did assure me that they cared, because that's what they say. Another couple of days go by, and sure enough the buyer files an A-to-Z claim. So I represented my case and Amazon accepted my defense and did not make me provide a refund - but Amazon DID give the buyer a refund. So here we have a case where multiple fraudulent activities occurred - most likely drop-shipped the eBay order using a stolen credit card, then fraudulently claim non-delivery and gets a refund from Amazon despite USPS tracking showing delivery and the person on the delivery address notifying Amazon IN WRITING that the package was received. And yet that lying sack of donkey dung fraudster walks free with over $700 in stolen money...this is why we can't have nice things. So far I have not had an A-to-Z claim go against me. For domestic orders I *always* purchase shipping through Amazon, even though it isn't always the cheapest. I had another claim where the buyer had put a bad address in the system and the postal service delivered it to the nearest valid address, which turned out not to be correct. It took a bit but I convinced Amazon not to charge me. If you bug Seller Support long enough you can usually get justice, at least for yourself. Those wretched frauds though - it really bugs me that Amazon doesn't care enough to go after them. Some day.

Although it's a really round about way to do it, Groupon has a promo for Newegg gift cards: pay $100 for $110 worth of gift card. I use Newegg to purchase quite a few of the rarely discounted sets through Newegg-TRU since it's the only place I don't have to pay sales tax. This 9% savings is quite nice. Not worth the hassle for some people, but I can get the ghostbusters firehouse for under $300 this way and you can submit the packing invoice when you receive it for Rewards R Us points.

I did some research on this not that long ago based on a similar situation, and it appears that this is a scam. If they ship it to an intentionally wrong address in your zip code, they can provide eBay with the tracking number when you file an item not received claim. At that point eBay will either find in their favor, or worst case for them, refund you without taking away from the seller what you've already paid them. Either way, they make out with the cash you paid for your item, all for the price of shipping to your zip. Good on you for tracking down that package and taking a picture. That will be helpful when you do file your claim, which you should probably do ASAP. Most likely the legit looking account you bought from was a legit account at one point that was hacked. I'll admit I'm not an expert on this, so do with this info what you will, but it sounds very similar to a scenario I just recently heard about. I hope it works out for you in the end, good luck!

And for Halloween

It really comes down to your desire and your available time. Here are my usual options: * Often when I get a bulk lot its in pieces, so I wash, sort, inventory, order parts, assemble, photograph and list. And don't forget to order instructions - They're relatively inexpensive and you'll attract a LOT more buyers. Depending on the set I'll leave it up to the buyer if they want it disassembled and color sorted, and I'll mention that in the listing. I don't mind spending an hour to break down a $400 set that I bought for <$100. * If a set 'looks' 100% complete and is clean I'll go through the instructions and see if it looks like its all there, check the minifigs and list it '~98% complete' for a 5-10% discount vs. a 100% complete set. This is purely to manage my time investment. On a $100 set, is it worth 4+ hours to make $10? And I love building huge sets, but I just listed my 4th 6211 in 4 months:P (buy-in $10+15 in parts, list for $170) so I'd rather spend time building a set I haven't done before. Although I really like building the MTT:) (buy-ins $20-60, sold for $165-185) And right now I'm backed up with 30+ $100 sets to process. * When I'm backed up I'll list the sets on Bricklink before building. Buyers there respect the word "inventoried" and don't have to see a completed picture to hit the buy button. Last set I sold there in parts was 7783 The Batcave - Penguin and Mr. Freeze Invasion. Buy-in $25, sold for $325. ...Oh yeah, since this is the What Did You Buy forum, my latest project is breaking down a 10188 Death Star (all 3697 parts and 24 minifigs) from a 110+ lb lot on Craigslist. This I will list as '100% complete, color-sorted parts' for a month, then build if it does not sell. Buy-in ~$30 + $10 in parts, will list for $280.

My friend Kate got some 3D printed signs and pink hats for her city. I think the result is amazing.

EBay: 75053 Ghost + 75048 Phantom - $250 - Buyin $99 after tax 75046 Coruscant Police Gunship (I never hear that one mentioned, what a slow seller it is) - $90 - Buyin $37 after tax 2x Complete series of 9 Mixels S9 - $70 ea - Both international sales through GSP - Buyin $29 after tax

2 FBA sales so far today: 1x 75920 for $157.89, buy-in of $35 1x 41171 Emily Jones and the Baby Wind Dragon for $19.98, buy-in of $4

Haunted House 10228 for $399/shipped on Ebay. Not bad and not great, but clearing some inventory in order to spend some more money.

We got hit with the snow blizzard down here in jersey but I made a call just for you and I was wrong...freaking black mech lol ?

Well, here comes that "Human Centipede" minifig.

Just one? Don't you mean 43? I'll have one set aside for you. Just give me the word. ??

Can we sticky the wheel? I keep having to search back in the thread on mobile.

I finally had a chance to build 6866 Wolverine's Chopper after eBay's last 8% promo. Picked up a bunch on-sale from target.com back in 2013 and sold them all last yr. Never built the set though. Been kicking myself for not keeping one. My kid started the build, lost interest and I finished it Pretty darn good Superhero set for $20 back in 2012. The Helicopter is cool. Now if only the seller dude included the correct Wolverine hair element (black Joker hair from the 2006-2008 Batman theme). I sent him an eBay msg.

I might not know how big the new UCS Falcon will be, how many pieces it might have, or how much it will cost. But it does feel pretty safe to say that regardless of those answers, its impact will damage the value of the 10179, and will do even further damage to LEGO valuations in general. It's unfortunate that LEGO doesn't realize that having those high priced retired sets actually helps people to justify overspending on their currently available sets.

Today I picked up this lot on Craigslist. They are a bit dusty and the minifigs are missing, but I am happy for $300. It is going to take some time to sort through the parts that fell off and to reassemble it all, but most sets look close to complete. Here is the breakdown: 6209 Slave I (missing some parts; with box and instructions) 6210 Sail Barge (missing some parts; with box and instructions) 6211 Star Destroyer (with box and instructions) 7665 Republic Cruiser (with box and instructions) 7672 Rogue Shadow 7675 AT-TE (with box and instructions) 7680 The Twilight (with box and instructions) 8037 Y-Wing (with box and instructions) 8039 Venator 76105 Millennium Falcon (missing a lot of parts but it was thrown in).

FBA 7498 - Police Station - $220 9500 - SW: Sith Fury-Class Interceptor - $160 10672 - Juniors: Defend the Batcave - $60 40144 - Bricktober Toys R Us Store - $25 41054 - Princess: Rapunzel's Creativity Tower - $80 41063 - Princess - Ariel's Undersea Palace - $80 41089 - Friends: Little Foal - $15 42028 - Technic: Bulldozer - $100 60034 - City: Arctic Helicrane - $60 60057 - City: Camper Van - $49 60075 - City: Demolition Excavator and Truck - $68 70144 - Chima: Laval's Fire Lion - $60 70224 - Chima: Tiger's Mobile Command Block - $137 70754 - Ninjago: Electromech - $42 70818 - Lego Movie: Double-Decker Couch - $55 75020 - SW: Jabba's Sail Barge - $168 75036 - SW: Utapau Troopers Battle Pack - $32 75049 - SW: Snowspeeder - $75 75052 - SW: Mos Eisley Cantina - $98 75053 - SW: The Ghost - $190 75054 - SW: AT-AT - $336 75058 - SW: MTT - $170 75080 - SW: AAT - $60 76021 - SH: GOTG Milano Spaceship - $100 76023 - SH: The Tumbler - $340 76035 - SH: Jokerland - $175 79008 - LOTR: Pirate Ship Ambush - $133 79018 - Hobbit: Lonely Mountain - $190

KMART PROMOTION: SPEND $30 ON TOYS, GET $10 IN POINTS, IN-STORE SIGN THROUGH 7/29/17 I saw this in the store yesterday, pulled up the $5 off $35 coupon and made a few purchases. I had to call a SYW supervisor, but I did get my points today (shows "Pending"). The numbers look like this for me: $31.34 for 76034 Batman - The Batboat Harbour Pursuit + $4.99 small set = 36.33; Take $5 off = 31.33; Add $10 in points = $21.31 (41% off). After GC Discount + tax I was at $22.02... $19 for the Batboat Depending on the item prices you'll need to play with the purchase amounts to try to get as close to $35 or $50 to use the coupons. By default the $30 requirement is met with the use of the $35 coupon ($35-5=30). So if you max out the coupon (purchases of exactly 35 or 50) the respective theo maximum discounts are $35-5-10-.35 = 44% and $50-10-10-.50 = 41% It's KMart, so naturally they raised the prices on nearly all of the new sets, but the older active and retired sets were left unchanged. FINE PRINT (sorry, the pic isn't very clear) * The sign was in the store, but it did not mention that it was only for in-store purchases * The total must be at $30, before sales tax and after discounts, so discounts are basically encouraged * Excludes clearance items * It runs until 7/29 * On the SYW Order History page it reads "In select stores only" - so YMMV

To back up this statement, I just purchased a few bricks with stickers attached from a 7783 Batcave. Paid about 16 euros for the 3 large panels, which is quite a bit more than the parts alone. In my case that's still quite a bit cheaper than buying a new sticker sheet though!

When I buy bulk lots of assembled or semi-assembled sets I break them down, inventory, re-build, photograph, and then I break them down into bags numbered based on the instructions (like when new) {this is a PITA I wouldn't recommend the numbered bags}. I also replace any missing pieces of course.

It takes great courage to admit defeat ... in the middle of a snow storm. Appreciate the call, and phew.

How dare you support reseller scum like that! Unless you qfll it, then cheers to you!

This !! I have heard this reasoning several times. If this set was a 'failure' for Lego and sold for 50% off just to get rid of it, well that was 2008-2010. MANY, MANY, MANY, AFOL's have been created since then who never even knew Lego was capable of such amazing models at that time. (myself as an example) I'm not sure there's any correlation, but I seem to remember a US Stock Market crash in October of 2008 and an imploding housing bubble that followed for several years. Perhaps market conditions were not right for a $500 luxury item that many Star Wars fans had no idea existed. Perhaps they are IDEAL now. (Star Wars Renaissance under Disney, New Theme Parks, New Movies EVERY year, HAN SOLO being rebooted, etc)

@Lego Templar I'd call eBay to explain the situation. If you end up opening INR case, insist on getting full refund instead of replacement. You were lucky you found the envelope this time.

Sounds to me like your detective work has paid off, @Lego Templar .... You have the smoking gun in your hands. Send EBay that picture of the envelope, and make sure you speak with an agent to explain the case. Check if the return address matches the seller's address before you do so. Then push hard for having the seller shut down for fraud. I don't think they counted on that envelope ever being found, and I think they deliberately sent it to a non-residential address, knowing that it would most likely get tossed out and not returned or anything else. Keep us posted on how you fare!

Would that by any chance be the f word?

TRU.com

Chima Wolf Legend Beast via Amazon FBM for $49.98, buy-in was $10 (RRP) 10 months ago. I didn't buy a lot of Chima but the Legend Beast sets aren't too bad.

FBA sales the last few days: 41178 Dragon Sanctuary for $104.95, buy-in of $30 75055 ISD for $357.48, buy-in of $99 3x 70787 Tahu for $30, buy-in of $9.98 2x 75000 Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas for $33.50, buy-in of $13 71342 Dimensions Green Arrow for $43.88, buy-in of $0

Red Wheel (http://www.shopyourway.com/app/16250/l) is paying out for me today: On my primary SYW account: So I'm bragging here Did win 950 points in various random sweeps for a total of $1. Then I switched over to my secondary account, and won exactly $0 by playing all Sweeps. Decided to give the Red Wheel a whirl there too, and got this: Not complaining

New Guggenheim (21035) stated as 'Coming Soon on April 1 2017' on Lego.com is currently available from Walmart if interested for $79.87+tax.

Left a bunch waiting for 50%

Abandoned Formats by J.B.F

Amazon just passes on these losses to 3P sellers in fees and commissions . They don't pay sh*t from their own pocket . Suck it up buttercup is more like it

Great story - thanks for sharing. The lengths people go through to scam you/me/corporations is amazing. The thing is, by the time the money lost to scams like this is substantial enough for Amazon to really do something about it, it is already too late and the marketplace will have been redflagged by buyers and sellers as too risky. They should take action now to prevent this from becoming a too big problem in the future. The problem is that this realization will likely hit the top echelon when it's already too late ....

Pretty much this plus a few points. First, these big sets are not where Lego make their money. They make it selling hundreds of thousands of the smaller sets over and over again every season. Having a $600 UCS MF is a "look at the prestige of this toy company" kind of move. People keep talking as though the success of this or the Death Star has any noticeable impact on Lego's sales numbers. I'm guessing the impact is minimal, but the marketing campaign and foot traffic/publicity etc. is more than worth the trouble. Did you see how much good press they got just for saying yes to a set with women scientists? Second, there is a new generation of AFOLs with money that didn't have it then or that came out of their dark ages and won't pay the current 10179 prices (me). But this is 100% a day-1 purchase for me and several other people I know that don't have 10179 and will never pay $2000+ for that set, let alone the current going rate. So all you naysayers, just don't buy one. Sell off your last copies of 10179 before the price tanks (it will), and then start QFing the hell out of these for about 6 months, since there is almost no way TLG keeps this thing in stock for a LONG time.

I even posted the link in my post above yours!!!

Sell them Chima! Exciter1

Underrated item included in this sale is the Fire Truck (60112)...no TRU mark-up, TRU exclusive and already sold out at SAH. Of course, not everyone loves City for investment. "Big trucks" though, do seem to do well and, at $35, its a good buy-in.

honestly, 10179, 10221, etc... are just too big (and delicate) even a UCS MF refresh at 75% the size of 10179 is close enough to minifig scale and good enough.

I'm working on an "intro to the Shop Your Way & free Lego" video for those who have been asking/ PMing and DMing me questions on here and Instagram. If anyone has any tips that you think should be on it, screenshots of crazy purchases / coupon stacking, or general opinions about this idea please PM me (you will be credited if I use any pictures or tips that you send me) My hope is that it will help out those who are new to the circus.

Paid $100 on a craigslist ad and got a big box of jumbled bricks. Based on the boxes and my discussion with the seller, the purchase had: 4709 Hogwarts Castle (includes box and manual in rough condition) 4736 Freeing Dobby (box included in decent shape) 4737 Quidditch Match (box included in decent shape) 4755 Knight Bus x 2 4865 Forbidden Forest (good condition box and manual) Because the sets are so old, the manuals don't include parts lists. I'm going to have to test build to find out what needs to be replaced, but most of the minifigures appear to be present and some of the very identifiable pieces - the trophy and rings from the Quidditch set, spires from Hogwarts, banners with house logos - are definitely there. Should be a fairly quick and profitable flip.

Lego Classic Space Monorail by RVA LUG

Be careful with pricing common, popular bricks at a loss. Let's say you buy 200 white 2x4 bricks as a loss leader, and they cost you $0.20 each. You list them for $0.15 to attract people to your store. Then someone comes in and places an order for just 200 white 2x4 bricks. What do you do now? Buy more white bricks at a loss? You don't want to end up as the Kmart of BrickLink. When I opened my store, I noticed that the common bricks typically sold full available quantity. So this is IMO a very likely scenario. I personally would put common bricks in my store at a premium, provided that you have a wide range of non-common pieces. That way people spend the extra dollar on the common bricks because they know they get the special pieces they want in the same order and save $5-$10 on shipping that way.

Gothic Cathedral by Wineyard