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Building up a 'reserve' of bricks
I realise this may have been asked before so apologies for that. We have a collection of bricks and parts made up of the following :
* Full sets collected over the years in their boxes complete with instructions sitting in the loft. We have built them but nowhere to display them in the house so when finished they have gone back into the loft for storage.
* Assorted sets that the kids used to have, some complete , some not that we have broken apart and sorted into colours
* Bought parts to build specific sets ( MOCS and sets that we have seen online )
* Bought random job lots off ebay that are made up of random stuff.
Now we would like to build up our reserve of parts and bricks as we are more into building stuff ourselves, starting to do MOC but simple stuff etc and would like to be able to have a nice collection of the basic parts that we can just dip into when we feel like and if we don't have them, order them on here or BL.
So the question is , what is the best way to achieve this ?
* buy a shed load of bricks from PAB. Con- they are usually higher in cost - For- one delivery charge and usually have the quantities ( usually would order 20-50 of each)
* try and buy bulk parts on here from stores that have what we need. Cons- may be cheaper per part but not every store will have everything we need so multiple delivery charges
* buy sets second hand that we know have a huge load of 'basic' bricks.
or a combination of all of the above ?
I do understand that the question remains, depends on what you are wanting to build, so I guess the answer may be we like Buildings
Anyway just wondering how other people have achieved this. We are not int he market to be selling, purely buying at this stage.
thanks
* Full sets collected over the years in their boxes complete with instructions sitting in the loft. We have built them but nowhere to display them in the house so when finished they have gone back into the loft for storage.
* Assorted sets that the kids used to have, some complete , some not that we have broken apart and sorted into colours
* Bought parts to build specific sets ( MOCS and sets that we have seen online )
* Bought random job lots off ebay that are made up of random stuff.
Now we would like to build up our reserve of parts and bricks as we are more into building stuff ourselves, starting to do MOC but simple stuff etc and would like to be able to have a nice collection of the basic parts that we can just dip into when we feel like and if we don't have them, order them on here or BL.
So the question is , what is the best way to achieve this ?
* buy a shed load of bricks from PAB. Con- they are usually higher in cost - For- one delivery charge and usually have the quantities ( usually would order 20-50 of each)
* try and buy bulk parts on here from stores that have what we need. Cons- may be cheaper per part but not every store will have everything we need so multiple delivery charges
* buy sets second hand that we know have a huge load of 'basic' bricks.
or a combination of all of the above ?
I do understand that the question remains, depends on what you are wanting to build, so I guess the answer may be we like Buildings
Anyway just wondering how other people have achieved this. We are not int he market to be selling, purely buying at this stage.
thanks
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PaB on Legos.com aren't necessarily always cheaper per part, I did some recent comparisons and some bricks are cheaper to get there - depends on the brick. Also, with VIP & free standard shipping over $35, often things just on the edge are worth getting that way - especially since the bricks will be 100% new.
PaB in-store is also best if the store happens to have the bricks you need and you have the patience (and time) to stack carefully so that you maximize how many bricks fit in a cup. I think Legos might be realizing people over-do the small parts to make that super-efficient and I'm not seeing very many small parts there now.
Buying here (and I suppose BrickLink which I have yet to use), is great for pieces that are hard to get from the above 2 scenarios, especially if you don't mind used pieces.
Buying from classifieds (craigslist or eBay or yard sales) seems to be a crap shoot with pretty mediocre quality parts and a lot of effort to sift out the non-Lego parts (sub-brands or knock-offs) plus a lot of junk pieces.
My own last resort is getting parts by buying sets and then parting the sets out. That only seems to make sense (for me) if one of the following is true: You like the set and want to build it at least once, you have a store to sell parts through, you can get the sets at decent discounts - getting new bricks this way is one of the more expensive options for non-rare bricks (average is like $0.10 to $0.13 per brick before discounts).
>I think Legos might be realizing people over-do the small parts to make that super-efficient and I'm not seeing very many small parts there now.<
In my experience there's been better small parts here in the UK since the pick a brick wall models. Although some stores might limit you to 1 tub if the parts are from the models.
I've also heard that they might be introducing fan favourites to the walls starting in the US.
Here in California, of the 3 stores I've been to and checked their PaB walls - it's mostly the same 20-30 bright color parts which are the type toddlers would play with (mostly 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and 2x6 standard bricks), a couple of bright-colored 1x2 jumper plates, vehicle windshield parts, bright-colored 1x1 round plates and few other misc parts. Someone maybe could build a simple square house with all this. Now I just grab the tan, brown, & white pieces, extra jumpers for filler and some plates if the colors look useful. Same 1x4 white arch, only arch they ever put on the wall, minifig size doors & fences. One store had piles of the 1x1 round tiles medium stone gray, only saw it on 2 occasions.
Problem I have found is lets say I go onto PAB UK and try and get to even 8000 - bricks nowhere near 53000, my basket is showing something crazy like £627 just for that small quantity compared to you so it does not make sense how that is achievable. Maybe I am missing something here ( a brain and a decent calculator for one
So all I can think is you managed to get some parts for 0.01 which is incredible
Looks like I had the same crumb on my iPad!! :-D
Since many of the rare parts I've gotten here are usually over $0.20 and even some that I really wanted over $0.50, I have gotten many parts in the $0.03 range or less to get the average cost reasonable - typically the "yard sale" kind (craigslist etc) or just being really good at stacking when putting into PaB buckets. Even the kids at the store look at me strange - and ALL of them start playing with my stacked bricks if I leave the buckets for just 10 seconds to collect more bricks!
So...
My average when shopping here: $0.143
My average when buying via Legos.com PaB: $0.10
My average when buying sets: $0.12
My average with PaB walls: $0.033
My average when buying via locals: $0.02 (but it takes HOURS to sift through, organize, and put aside the junk)
I'm trying to find even more alternate ways - like FREE but that one is hard lol