Correctly sort used LEGO

CSC

Hello everyone,

I bought some used LEGO in bulk, received it, sorted through it to the best of my abilities, cleaned it and now it is here and I want to sort and list it.

What are your suggestions on how to do this correctly?
Is there an "easy" way to spot fakes?
How do I know what part I have when it is not your of the shelf brick or plate?

Any hint, help or suggestion is much appreciated.

Thanks

patpendlego

Hello,

IMO there is no easy way, shortcut or cheat

What I do is start with the item that you have the most of, and then the next. Or, with the item that interest you the most. But in the end, you just have to go piece by piece.

Good luck

Calibrick

I walked in pretty unknowledgable about LEGO in 2017 after getting hooked on it personally... really, the only way to learn is to look for the parts in the catalog and you start to get a feel for the search terms. Also understand that dimensions in the catalog are based on stud size, e.g., a 1 x 1 plate is the teeny plate with one stud. **One big help is that LEGO prints the actual part number on most (but not all) of their parts, which you can use as a search term here (typically a four or five digit number)**. I did have to invest in a lighted magnifying glass for my 53-year-old eyes. ;-)

For example, key words include plates (the thinner regular parts with studs on top), bricks (the good 'ole building bricks), tiles (studless plates), technic (odder looking parts with holes or pins), etc.

A good way to introduce yourself is to pick a no-brainer color (like yellow or black), and start perusing the catalog, comparing what you see to parts displayed. After a time, you start to get a feel for what is called what. Before you know it, you're typing in specific searches to find your part immediately, such as a "brick 1 x 2 with hole" and even remembering the part IDs.

Re fakes, it can get tricky - newer (last couple of decades) items almost ALWAYS have the LEGO logo somewhere. If there are studs, it's on the stud - for parts with "hollow" studs, it may be on the interior. Most minifig accessories also have the logo printed somewhere - but be aware, some do not. I've encountered the most "fakes" on minifig weapons, particularly Star Wars and basic stuff, like pickaxes. Look for that logo. And some parts there ARE not logo at all, such as the "bars" used as the light saber wand (called a bar here). They just can't fit it on there.

Another tipoff to fakes is the part color - except for older LEGO parts (such as that production run that had a very soft, soft brick and the really old ones that have aged into weird shades of blue and white) and the color Pearl Gold, LEGO is pretty consistent in its part colors. Some sellers build themselves a "color pallette" made of of 1 x 1 plates or tiles so they an always cross-match a color with something and be assured that color is light gray vs. medium stone gray, or pearl gold vs. flat dark gold.

I also recommend you show care on how you list in terms of condition... read the condition definitions on BO carefully, customers expect what you sell to match that condition. :-)

We wish you good luck on your new venture! It can be hard work, but also a lot of fun and personally rewarding. :-)

One_Click_Off

@CSC Welcome!
There was a discussion a year ago where @Teup shared I think an 8 part sorting thingy but can’t find it now- it was really close to ours...
Learned from previous threads before sorting to “Never, never sort by color”- 😁
We had an evolving inventory post cleaning but got us through very well:
Bricks...by size and separate bags for mold variations
Plates
Tiles and slopes, all separated by type and condition
Wedge, wing, and hood plus special vehicle bases
Minifig and parts and accessories, preferably bagged with identifying info
Wheels, tires, and vehicle parts- bagged when appropriate
Technic and all connectors
Windows, walls, doors, windscreens and supports plus embossed bricks.

Really depends on the size of your inventory and how well you manage the incoming order list with regards to BrickOwl category, color, etc. You have options for the viewing to ease pulling and can configure your storage to fit.

Many parts have the number somewhere to be able to reference and those that aren’t LEGOmay be identified by no copywriter symbol anywhere or number...just to be simple about it.

Hope this helps from us, notably a previous small-time store.🙂

CSC

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly.
I guess I have to invest in a magnifying glass as well. *lol* My eyes are not what they were last year. Must be from all the healthy food and work out I started doing...

I will work through these two pounds of parts and see where it leads me.

Again, thanks for your answer!!!

patpendlego

And prepare for the hole... where you might fall into when digging into all the different versions and variants

CSC

I am there. It is funny at least in my opinion...

robwoolly

interesting the suggestion not to sort by colour. This is how I do it and it works but its painful at times. I usually just sort a large collection into colours and then have a minifigure bag, a flower/plant bag, minifigure bag and then a specials bag which would contain any odd ball items.

May look at trying to sort by type of brick on the next round, see if that is any quicker.

Mrs Swoop

The thing about sorting by colour, it's so much easier to find e.g. black 1x2 bricks amongst a pile of different colour 1x2 bricks than it is to find one amongst a pile of different sized black bricks.

Jay37

Interesting about the not sorting by colour too! I do that myself as in the early days of working out the different colours it was more straightforward to do it that way. Depending on quantity of parts, generally it is bag for bricks, bag for plates, bag for smaller items and bag for 'other' (plus small containers for minifigure parts). These larger bags can then be subdivided if necessary; for example in the smaller items I may have a bag for bricks, one for plates and one for 1x1 parts. I have my picking lists in alphabetical order by colour, so for me it makes sense to keep the parts in colour order also. Agree with @robwoolly that it can be a pain at times but it's what I'm used to now and feel it may be more 'painful' to switch it up now. "Old dogs, etc..."

carlptaylor

I'm with @Mrs Swoop ; no sorting by colour ...

my own personal way is to do sorting in stages ..

firstly, split bricks ( everything over 1x2 ), plates ( everything over 1x2 ), tiles ( all ), wheels and associated, mini figure or the like, slopes, technic ( pins, axles, beams etc ), into nice big bins

that way the bulk is now in a place which is easier to find if required.

next is to use my sieve ( had one made especially ), to get all of the small items into another bin ( there will be millions in there, but at least they aren't at the bottom of a pile of parts )

then its the painstaking process of sorting the presorted types, bricks, plates, slopes, tiles etc .. into their respective sizes and count into stock, i.e all 1x4 bricks any colour into a bag, in a bricks drawer.

while this is happening, I'm removing anything which is iffy ( chewed, marbles, fake rubbish ); anything which is quite cool popped into a specials tub as they may get listed earlier.

I find the presort and size sort helps to get the items into stock in a shorter time, also if I find I'm short of something when picking, I can get my hands on it easier rather than rifling through huge bins of unsorted stock.

this is my little way, but we all work out our own way, as long as its enjoyable that is main thing.

Colorado Bricks

I am doing a lot right and I use the same method for the last few years.
First in a few categories (Brick, Modified Bricks, Plates, Modified Plates, Technic, Wheel/Tires, Doors/Window/Fences, etc )
Then I sort those by parts like bricks all 1x1 then 1x2, etc. This is where I filter out non Lego.
Once I have all that done, I go part by part, like brick 1x2, I sort by color as it makes it easy to add in inventory same item, just different color and quantity in BrickStock.

Once I am all done I swear I will never do it again until I buy the next lot

Calibrick

I generally sort as follows (usually a stupid volume all at once, like right now):

1. Review for quality/fakes, and presort into one of several categories: standard brick, standard plate, mod brick, mod plate, technical/pins/bars, vehicle (wheels, windshields, etc.,), doors/windows/glass, arches, all-things-round-except-wheels, slopes, wedges, tiles (standard and mod), walls/supports, and specials (anything decorated, minifig, accessory, etc.).

2. Clean by category

3. Subsort by item.

4. Subsort by color for higher volume things.

5. Input into inventory :-)