New Installment - Used Tuesdays

It's been about last July since I stopped posting. Sorry about that. I became so overrun with work that I could no longer keep up on non-income producing activities. Like this blog, sad but true. But I've got a bit of a slow down right now, enough to start an occasional new topic I like to call Used Tuesdays.

As you may (or should) have read in my amazing ebook, Insider Secrets to Funding Your LEGO Hobby, I sell new parts on Bricklink, almost exclusively. But that's slowly been changing. I'm not giving up new, just adding a bit more used into the mix. Here are some lessons I've learned so far.

My first used lot was donated from a good friend. I was mentioning that I would be teaching after school LEGO classes and needed to find a nice lot on Craigslist to use. Her kids were grown and out of the house and she offered her old LEGO. It was 42# but ended up containing at least 10# of off-brand and non-LEGO items. There were quite a few classic sets in there and with her permission I reassembled some to sell to help pay for extra materials for the class. All sets were missing pieces, most were older looking and worn. A few were in good enough condition to put in my Bricklink store, the rest will become BRIX Museum pieces.

I used this lot to teach a couple of terms of after school classes for kids. It worked pretty well, the kids improvised with older pieces just fine. When it came time for the ramp race it was immediately apparent that wheels were lacking, and I hadn't pulled any out to complete older sets. I'll continue to use this lot for classes and such but I obviously need to add some wheels and other pieces. I've thrown some of my own older pieces in too.

Lessons learned:

• Even self proclaimed LEGO fans may not always consider Mega Blocks as off limits.
• Even if all the parts are there to complete a set, the condition of pieces may not be suitable.
• Those couple of missing pieces could be worth half the amount of the set itself.