Hey Brickpickers,

I'm still deployed, but at least getting closer to my return back to the U.S. this summer. My oldest son sent me a news article a couple days ago, and I found it very interesting. Apparently my current hometown, Columbus, Georgia (home of exotic Fort Benning) is getting a Bricks & Minifigs LEGO store. I was not familiar with this particular franchise until I read the article.  After a cursory amount of research, I've learned they have approximately 30 retail locations in U.S. and Canada. The official website describes their mission statement as:

Bricks & Minifigs® is your one-stop LEGO® shop! We are the largest toy store of our kind, specializing in only new and used LEGO® items.

We buy and trade all things LEGO®, from tubs of bulk to storage unit sized collections. If it’s LEGO®, we’ll take it!!

Enjoy our selection of individual minifigs, bulk bricks, components and accessories. With the largest assortment of new, used and retired sets we keep your collection growing!

https://bricksandminifigs.com/

Couple of questions.

#1 Has anyone actually shopped at one of these retail stores? How are the selection and prices? I've read online that they set their retail prices in line with mid-range Bricklink offerings.

#2 Has anyone sold any product to one of these stores? What sort of offers for your LEGO did you receive?

 

Chris

 

Great store, I love it.  Great prices, lots of sets changing all the time.  I have traded with them, bought, never sold.  I would own one if I had the time.  Our local one was just sold.

It's a franchise chain that is apparently doing very well. The two I frequent are owned by a very nice young couple.

While I've not sold them anything, I think for sets, they offer around half of what they sell the sets for, and I'm not sure of pricing for bulk.

Firstly, Chris - thank you for your service to the country. As far as Bricks & Minifigs is concerned, there is one close to me in Louisville, KY but I gotta admit after visiting 4 or 5 times I'm not sure I'll ever go back because almost everything is painfully overpriced compared to BrickLink or even Lego.com. (I'm talking $5 minifigs going for $15 or current retail sets with prices even higher than the TRU standard markup.

I love the idea of the store and want to support a local business like this, but I'm guessing that they are able to get away with the prices they do because we don't have an official Lego store nearby or people just don't feel like shopping around on Amazon or Lego.com.

Regardless, I think it's a great idea for a franchise and I hope - if you consider moving forward with it - that you'll find a way to keep prices respectable for us AFOL's and our young families.  

2 hours ago, nickhuhn said:

Firstly, Chris - thank you for your service to the country. As far as Bricks & Minifigs is concerned, there is one close to me in Louisville, KY but I gotta admit after visiting 4 or 5 times I'm not sure I'll ever go back because almost everything is painfully overpriced compared to BrickLink or even Lego.com. (I'm talking $5 minifigs going for $15 or current retail sets with prices even higher than the TRU standard markup.

I love the idea of the store and want to support a local business like this, but I'm guessing that they are able to get away with the prices they do because we don't have an official Lego store nearby or people just don't feel like shopping around on Amazon or Lego.com.

Regardless, I think it's a great idea for a franchise and I hope - if you consider moving forward with it - that you'll find a way to keep prices respectable for us AFOL's and our young families.  

Thanks for sharing your experiences with shopping at this store.

I am not looking at opening a franchise myself, but someone else is opening a location in my current town later this month. I was not familiar with the store at all, and found the concept intriguing. The store's corporate website says franchisees should expect to invest $125,000 to $200,000 in initial operating expenses. I love LEGO, and I dabble a bit with reselling, but I'm not nearly business savvy enough to spend that kind of cash on opening a retail store. I make an okay living doing medicine, so that's probably a safer bet.

Hey mr. Army medic  

none of those brick&minifigs stores in IL, maybe because there are 5 Lego stores here. 

The ones near me are priced quite fairly. They use BrickLink to check pricing and their prices are negotiable on the used sets.

I use their bulk bins to get pieces I need to complete sets

We've got one here in Billings, I try to drop by one or two times a month. The owner is an awesome guy. Their new boxed sets are priced high. Minifigs are typically priced over the top as well, have purchased a few on sale for my personal collection that have been at or below BL prices. Their used sets, at least at mine, are always priced well below the Bricklink sales average. I find myself buying used sets from them regularly (just picked up a ghost with phantom 1 from them last week for 120$). Good sales around holidays as well. I have a good relationship with the owner, and am able to get bricks and minifig parts I need occasionally dirt cheap to free.

Visited this store today in Madison WI area thanks to tip from @Kevink24. Pretty cool store but it's not cheap (rocket raccoon polybag $20 for example). Couple people were buying overpriced sets which made me want to catch those customers outside and give them my number lol. They had UCS MF on display that wasn't for sale. When I asked about it, I was told that it's a set that was put together by a customer who put it together from loose bricks showing what awesome parts and pieces can be purchased there...yeah right.

 

I'll be honest, that store in Fitchburg is nice but I'll almost never buy anything there (at least any set or used set) Everything is very overpriced and I only ever go there to check out what some sets look like for eyeing up online or in bulk and to possibly grab a few pieces here and there just cause it is fun to search but I really dislike it that they don't have parts by type for sale behind the counter. I've seen people bring in large sets and to me not get enough store credit for it as well. I get that it is a business but it's near robbery it seems at times.

A store I love going to is south of Atlanta called Atlanta brick company. Extremely reasonable prices on used sets. You can buy exact pieces and types there as well and the price per pound isn't terrible, or is much lower than my local one in fitchburg.

I know this isn't the most glowing of reviews but it's an honest review.

I knew Brick Picker would have a thread on this chain. Just caught wind of it myself today. Never heard of it because there is almost no locations in Canada so my interest has peaked. I'm guessing no franchisers are BP members?

46 minutes ago, lobo1969 said:

I knew Brick Picker would have a thread on this chain. Just caught wind of it myself today. Never heard of it because there is almost no locations in Canada so my interest has peaked. I'm guessing no franchisers are BP members?

I'm guessing that every franchiser absolutely is a BP member.

5 minutes ago, KShine said:

I'm guessing that every franchiser absolutely is a BP member.

Well if they are lurking here , hopefully they can share some insight. I'm not asking for trade secrets just some anecdotes about getting started and maintaining their brick and mortar business which seems counter-intuitive these days.

8 minutes ago, lobo1969 said:

Well if they are lurking here , hopefully they can share some insight. I'm not asking for trade secrets just some anecdotes about getting started and maintaining their brick and mortar business which seems counter-intuitive these days.

Back in 2011 I looked into doing a franchise - I am sure that I have the info somewhere, although it is likely so dated that it wouldn't be relevant today.

16 minutes ago, KShine said:

Back in 2011 I looked into doing a franchise - I am sure that I have the info somewhere, although it is likely so dated that it wouldn't be relevant today.

How far in the process did you get?

35 minutes ago, lobo1969 said:

How far in the process did you get?

Not too far - I was considering opening a B&M store, researching what advantages there might be in going franchise, as opposed to going it alone.

Edited November 3, 20178 yr by KShine

Not mentioned is that they will do offers for LUGs. Locals will invite local LUG to help sort used bulk, and then let them have first crack at buying before it goes to public.