Good Evening.  I have an opportunity to buy a lot of partially build sets. The goal is to rehab them to completion and sell on ebay.  Problem is the guy selling does not have manuals for them and I am not sure what those sets are.  Could you let me know the ball park number I should offer for this?  He is estimating it to be 80 pounds.

 

Edited October 24, 201411 yr by matrosov

My eyes!

that would be a lot of fun to go through. Unfortunate about the manuals.

looks like there are a great deal of sets partially put together, but there is a stock pile of random pieces.

The minifigs look to all be in good shape.

I'd guess ~$600, but I'd wait and let antother BPer with more experience take a look.

I'd say $600 is a good price. Maybe $700 shipped. How do you lose all those manuals?

The more I look the more the more work I see.

If it's 80 pounds then make sure to buy in so if you decide you don't want to sort through it you can still make money. Power Miners are nice sets that sell pretty well. They look to be close to complete and can range from 50-100+. Manuals are kind of a downside though. I personally would be more comfortable around $500 because then if you sell some bulk this Christmas it will still be profitable. Be aware of the work required too. That's gonna be a very long grueling process and if you don't love it you will drive yourself crazy.

I know I am still sorting thru 200 pounds that I bought from that same seller last March Last time around he had manuals so at least I could pull them off bricklink to sort.  Sorting this stuff is a chore for sure but at the end I'd get to build them all.  

Wow. That's crazy. How did this guy acquire so much LEGO?

Wow. That's crazy. How did this guy acquire so much LEGO?

....and lose ALL of the manuals? I'd be leery about this one. Personally, I'd stay away from this lot.

If it was 80 pounds in money, I'd bite his hand off!  I'd only buy stuff like this for my own collection or a MOC as it's a hell of a lot of work to prepare it for resale.

....and lose ALL of the manuals? I'd be leery about this one. Personally, I'd stay away from this lot.

 

I agree. I see lots of incomplete vehicules and not that much parts aside.

 

I would stay away from such a lot, as a reseller, but would be interested as a builder.

I would offer anywhere between $400 and $500 for the lot. Even though the lot is very big, there can be a huge potential to make money if you buy it. I know that the Power Miners and Agents sets are worth some good money in used condition. Also, you have some valuable Star Wars sets in there. 

There also looks to be some sun damage (see the lg shark) - so who knows what you can't see.

For some reason I think I saw this lot on my ebay feed and checked it out and the guy was asking an obscene amount for it.  I agree with others that $500 would be  a max, but you'll have to know, and you do by now, that there will be lots of time and money that will have to go into this to make it very sellable.  For parts or collection this is a great lot, but I  would avoid for re-sale unless you can get it cheap.

Estimates are always waay off when you actually get there (likely there'll only be 60 lbs),

 

imho, some moderately good money sets in there but unfortunately the easy flip ones appear to be too far gone (incomplete) to be worth the effort to rebuild, once you include multiple BL order shipping costs.  The starwars sets are common, the city vehicles do well selling as individuals (rather than rebuilt sets), the figs are a nice wide selection (some good ones).    For a parter-outer it's a good selection, for rebuilds - not so much.   it's basically a $5 per pound offer due to the work involved.

 

missing instructions isn't a significant deterrent, they are easily found for free next to free as they are all recent sets - most of them are pretty easily recognisable.

Too much work, not a lot of fast sellers. I would skip this.

Agree with most above. I wouldn't go near this lot even if it was for a good price. Too much work. I can hear my girlfriend already cussing for a week if I would dare to bring that quantity in. The manuals is not that big deal for recomposing them, since you can find them on the net, but your printer will be working for a few hours.

I'm sure you'll get some profit from this, and perhaps even a very nice profit but do not underestimate the time you'll put in it.

$5 a pound is a good point to stop at. However this lot is in decent shape (minus the lack of manuals). I would start at 450 and go no higher that $550.

I am not really worried about labor time.  I am an AFOL so the chance to build them all outweighs the pain of sorting.  My concern is additional exposure to acquire missing parts  that would seriously cut into my profit when I try to resell it.

It really doesn't hafta be about $$ profits, there's some profit just in enjoying the hunt & reconstructions...  @ the right price you likely won't loose money & you have the fun of it for free'ish

It really doesn't hafta be about $$ profits, there's some profit just in enjoying the hunt & reconstructions...  @ the right price you likely won't loose money & you have the fun of it for free'ish

 

When you have dozens of similar boxes of fun piling up - it isn't so much fun.

When you have dozens of similar boxes of fun piling up - it isn't so much fun.

 

This I know all too well... I just moved from one house to another across town & the Lego rooms alone filled a 55' lowbelly tallboy... (she married me anyway!)

I have 22 bins of unsorted "never gonna get to its" on kijiji right now & another 30 of new minifig-less set dump-outs from a club member in the basement yet to deal with.  (it's just so hard to let go of hoards ya just know there's treasures in... but who has the time!)

I am not really worried about labor time.  I am an AFOL so the chance to build them all outweighs the pain of sorting.  My concern is additional exposure to acquire missing parts  that would seriously cut into my profit when I try to resell it.

I am also an AFOL, but after dealing with a smelly, fungi, glued, yellowing, hardened sticker and missing part 20 kg lot (at least it still had manuals), I changed my opinions on buying bulk lots. To each its own of course. Succes for when you buy it.

When I buy a bulk lot I don't even bring them in a house   I put a pair of gloves and dump them into five gallon buckets pour scolding hot water on them and a good measure of antibacterial dish detergent and leave them sit for two days. After that they go for a rinse and a spin in a dryer and then I touch them .  

 

As for this lot he wants a bit too much he had an offer apparently of 1100 which is too much risk for my blood.  But his other lots were ton of fun made me a 17% net net profit  plus ton of fun building 100+ sets.  Bricklink shipping charges is what kills it.  

When I buy a bulk lot I don't even bring them in a house   I put a pair of gloves and dump them into five gallon buckets pour scolding hot water on them and a good measure of antibacterial dish detergent and leave them sit for two days. After that they go for a rinse and a spin in a dryer and then I touch them .  

 

As for this lot he wants a bit too much he had an offer apparently of 1100 which is too much risk for my blood.  But his other lots were ton of fun made me a 17% net net profit  plus ton of fun building 100+ sets.  Bricklink shipping charges is what kills it.  

Tell him if he got an $1100 offer he should take it and run because he won't get anywhere close to that from an informed buyer.