More Fun Turning Old LEGOs Into Cash

in #hive-1420102 days ago

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It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. Not only keeping up with the house cleaning and the yard, but my LEGO side hustle has been keeping me busy as well. Around the holidays I normally see an uptick in sales on items, but this year it's been several items a day. I'm not complaining about that, but it has gotten in the way of some other projects I have been meaning to get completed. More about those in a minute...

First up though, I always like to share some surprisingly expensive LEGOs that have been produced over the years. This was produced in 2017 as part of a free raffle by the LEGO corporation. They made series of different Star Wars characters in precious metals and gave them away to lucky contest participants. This was the last item they gave out that year, a solid silver Star Wars C-3PO. As a member of the Silver Gold Stackers this is right up my alley. Getting pictures of these items is pretty difficult because only one was made. Fortunately, it was sold on eBay so not only do we have a picture, we also have a price it sold for, $34,000!

brickfact.com

I wish I had the luck to win a raffle like this one. It probably would have helped had I entered the raffle. Like they say, you have to be in it to win it... But a very cool LEGO collectible for the lucky auction winner!

Some time back I shared an early picture of this first bunch of LEGO mini-figures today. There was a missing part which I finally found and listed these guys for sale. They sold in less than one day for $80, not too bad! They were a limited set and brand new one's go for just over $100. This is how my final eBay picture came out, not my best work buy not my worst either:

The problem I ran into is that they are dark colored figures and I didn't have any display LEGO plates that worked. The colors were wrong and you couldn't see the details. So I ended up having to build one from spare parts I had laying around in bins. This background turned out to be a bit of a Frankenstein in appearance, but it made the set sell quickly. It only took about an hour to find the parts and build it, this is how it came out:

Pretty ugly isn't it? It wasn't easy to fit all of the small tan pieces together and make them look good. On the back you can see all the extra parts I had to add to get it stand up and hold the pieces in place. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done!

Last time I did a LEGO post I mentioned this LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Express train set that I had found in one of my thrift store buys. It really looks nice but it is it has turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Not many of the sets were produced which means finding spare parts becomes expensive very quickly. It's an awesome set though!

My first issue was the child who put it together wasn't a very talented sticker placer. The stickers are done pretty poorly which means I'll have to replace them, the cheapest ones I have found go for $16.


Apparently, the same child was also rough on toys, because the wheels on the front of the engine had been broken off. Not just a little break, enough to bend the plate on the train engine where I circled as well as where the pin had sheared off the wheels. Two more part to replace...

Overall it is a really cool set, the top of the cars come off so the kids can play and interact with the train's interior. I wish they had made LEGOs this cool when I was a kid!

This train is probably worth fixing, but will require about $40 to $50 investment. I can probably get around $120 out of it when it's fixed up. This came in a bin of several other sets that have already generated quite a profit so far, so I'll likely repair it. It's just too cool a set not fix up, and some kid or adult collector will probably cherish it once it's complete! Just some more fun in my LEGO flipping world...

Flipping LEGOs is a lot of fun but can be challenging. You will, on occasion, run into necessary fixes that outweigh the value of the set, in that case you end up selling the parts. It takes a lot longer to make money that way, but eventually everything sells. Just keep in mind that you end up paying fees for all of those sales, so it can cut into your profits if you aren't careful.

If you are thinking of trying it out yourself, start with a small investment on something from a major movie franchises. Star Wars is almost always a winner! I've had the worst luck with Harry Potter, which is why it's taken me so long to really work on this train. Never buy boxes full of random bricks, look for partial or full sets especially with instruction books. Even better if there is a box, it bumps up the value quite a bit. It's a great side hustle, and you work at your own pace which is perfect for me.

Thanks for stopping by and having a look. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. Thank you for all of your support, it's greatly appreciated! Have a great day everyone!

Disclaimer:

I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. Please do your own research before investing your hard earned money in any project or commodity.

All photos are mine unless otherwise indicated.

Header generated with ideogram.ai.

References:

https://brickfact.com/blog/lists/the-top-10-most-expensive-lego-minifigures-ever

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Thanks for sharing again, I'm really enjoying your Lego posts!

Using these blocks to build helps develop the imagination not only of children, but also of adults. I love them.
I wish you a happy weekend.

You received an upvote of 88% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!

Thank you for contributing more great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag.
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Wow, that’s amazing! The rarity and value of that solid silver Star Wars C-3PO are truly impressive. Sounds like your LEGO side hustle is thriving, despite being busy with other projects. Great to hear about your unique interests!

Thanks! It's a lot of fun, you make money playing with LEGOs!
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Kids can definitely be rough on trains. I guess I was as well when I was little😇
Sounds like it is definitely worth repairing, you can get some good money out of it afterwards!👍
Trains have always been a hobby/passion for us, we have quite an assortment of LGB German made trains.😊

I was surprised how well done this one is. LEGO apparently makes good trains, I had no idea! Trains are always a lot of fun!

I’ll have to look for some Lego trains the next time we go to Goodwill. I had no idea they made trains either!
Sounds like they are very popular !😊

I gave a bunch of those knight guys kicking around somewhere. I remember I got one of the castles one year and it was so epic! Took forever to build the thing though...

Despite the Frankstein back ground the cropped picture presented the items well :-) I really like the train Lego. I'm a sucker for steam trains what a cool toy this would have been for me ages ago, haha.

Sounds like business is doing great :) Congrats on the LEGO quick sale. Your ingenuity in making the background paid off, even if it was ugly in the back, the front side did its purpose :) All the best on that train express😉

Running into several fixes that would not amount for the time and effort as well as money you've put in can be tiring. Only if you run into those sweet sales that brings decent profits here and there. The set you sold for 80$ seems really cool. I guess the secret is finding rarer stuffs

There is a lot of luck involved. I know some items will do well when I see them, others you take an educated gamble. I won't take a sheer gamble when I have no knowledge whatsoever. I go to thrift stores a few times a week and to estate/ yard sales people have at their homes every weekend pretty much. Maybe ten to fifteen percent of the time I find something valuable that I pickup for next to nothing. That bunch that sold for eighty just happened to be mixed in with bunch of figures that I bought at one point, and I didn't pay much either. Luck is a lot of it, right place at the right time...