LEGO Techniques - Bricklinking a Super Star Destroyer 10221

It's been a while and I've got a backlog of requested sets to analyze for Bricklinking. This analyzing stuff is fun. I also do it for the readers of my ebook, Insider Secrets to Funding your LEGO Hobby. I review sets for part out value. Get the book and get on the list!

For those of you not familiar with BrickStock, find a tutorial at the beginning of this popular post and then come take the walkthrough of this set. I'll be doing it in real time meaning that even as I'm typing this I don't know how much we can shave off of the bill.

A brand new one can still be had for $900. Not near the prices of the Millennium Falcon so my first gut instinct is that you might as well buy new. Fire up the gerbils and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-G to get the average prices of all of the parts. Once you've done this toggle the status to get all the variants at the bottom. Go through each one and strike the most expensive version. There aren't a whole lot of doozies except for the 3x6 cylinder piece and even that's not terrible. My computer shows me ~$650 of parts value.

As usual, I'm going to strike the minifigures from BrickStock. That takes off $100. The sticker is another $32. Now toggle the price to get the most expensive pieces at the top. The yellow right angle technic brick poses a problem. Almost $12 each? Change it to black for $1.25 each. Total value for 6 of this part goes from about $70 to $7.50. Part prices quickly fall to reasonable from there. Toggle the Total Price column now.

We want to be careful about changing out too many colors since this build is very drab and needs to stay that way, What we're looking for are variants that might be a little more obscure or were updated after this set was retired. But there are seriously no variants to be found here!

The only things I can find that would make a lick of difference are things like the tan 1x8 plate. Forty-one of a piece you don't see at 20c each can be swapped for any other color, even medium lavender. Whee, we just saved $4. The blue hinge plate could be swapped for green to save another $3. But these kinds of minimal savings can easily be gained or lost depending on the buyer you choose.

At this point I'm going to anti-climatically shut down the rest of this study. I'm down to $450 for new parts. Add another 12% for shipping and you're at about $500. Not even half off. What if we change the condition to used? Now at $350 for pieces and $420 delivered. Considering all the orders you'd make, the time spent checking them, as well as organizing all the pieces and you may decide to skip it and buy new.

Coming soon, the Grand Carousel!