Comments on: Breaking even: sustaining your LEGO-building hobby through selling on Bricklink [Essay]

By: menacingvitamin

menacingvitamin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:27:48 +0000

Thanks for the write-up, this is exactly what I do on bricklink. Minifigs go a long way to sustain a lego junkie.

By: Ryan H.

Ryan H. — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:11:47 +0000

How do sales through Bricklink compare to those through eBay?

By: :Bob:

:Bob: — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:59:04 +0000

Having been a seller (and buyer) on BL and ebay, I can safely say that at least for me selling Lego® was not a “get rich quick” scheme. It took time and effort to post and maintain the store and stock, supplies, sorting, packing, shipping, etc. Yes I had some fun but it was still work and took time. So it was more of an offset for my hobby expenses until I liquidated all of my inventory as I entered my Bley Ages. Although I did buy some sets on clearance and then part them out for more than the set cost, but that took even more time and effort of course than just selling sets. It also was much more of a pain in the patootie. Then the money came in but did not go out in the form of more Lego®, instead going for household expenses and the downpayment for a car. So I considered myself mostly a ‘hobbiest’ seller as opposed to a ‘professional for profit’ seller. I believe that the IRS also makes that distinction, BICBW.

By: Puddleglum

Puddleglum — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:34:16 +0000

I don’t think stockpiling gold is a business by any definition?

By: Legeaux

Legeaux — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:40:47 +0000

I’m not familiar with the US tax system, but converting income into an asset (“inventory”, right?), would probably be of interest to the IRS.

By the reasoning above, if you spent all your income on buying, say, a stockpile of gold, you’d “in the red”, so you’d pay no tax?

I think not. But this is not tax advice, and I encourage you to seek the advice of a taxation professional in your own jurisdiction.

A word of caution though: if you’re selected for audit, tax investigators will be interested in any large transactions (or large groups of small ones). And it is always, always, better to have disclosed such things up front.

By: Puddleglum

Puddleglum — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:39:14 +0000

Income on tax returns, really? As long as you’re operating in the red (say, buy $200 of LEGO, sell $180 of LEGO each week) is there really any income to report? Sure your “inventory” is growing, but the last time I checked business aren’t taxed on inventory, right?

By: A Most Serious AFOL

A Most Serious AFOL — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:23:53 +0000

Also, in the interests of keeping things mature – I hope you’re declaring all that income on your tax return, Nannan. I’m sure you are, but I note you lack mentioning anything about it in your essay.

By: A Most Serious AFOL

A Most Serious AFOL — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:11:11 +0000

Fostering commerce is an important part of community leadership. Way to go, chaps.

By: notenoughbricks

notenoughbricks — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:33:11 +0000

Cheers to Nannan on a great essay. Much like any other suggestion, it is up to you to decide if it is something you would consider following. I for one have made nearly $1,000 selling LEGO on ebay. Whether it be minifigs from sets, classic Pirate and Space LEGO or newer sets that were on clearance, I have made money so that I could put it back into my hobby.

I have spent several thousand dollars since becoming an AFOL 2 and a half years ago. I am an adult with bills that need to be paid just like any other adult. If I can part with LEGO that I don’t think I will miss to help support my hobby so that I can pay my bills so be it. I am not looking to become rich but if I run all over town and find clearance LEGO then I will buy it for myself, my fellow AFOL friend or to make a profit.

On Black Friday of ’07, 2 men were pushing 2 shopping carts each overflowing with LEGO. Kmart was selling LEGO, Buy 2 get 1 Free. I arrived about 5 minutes after the store opened and these two guys cleared Kmart out completely! I was really annoyed at the time at these 2 guys but it was Kmart’s responsibility to place some sort of limit on what you could buy.

With all of this in mind though, I do not purchase every single LEGO set on clearance or on sale as I do think of others. I leave these sets behind with the hope that they might find a child who will convince his parents to buy them.

I can see the validity behind what others are writing but there is no right or wrong here in my opinion.
notenoughbricks

By: Magnus

Magnus — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:45:15 +0000

Puddleglum,

Based on your response, I suspect we differ fundamentally on what it means to be part of a building community. I can live with that, I just wanted to give voice to a perspective that I would guess I am not alone in, but that Nannan’s article didn’t seem to take into account.

Nannan,

Are you saying that someone hoarding sets on sale in order to make a living is really all that different from someone hoarding sets on sale in order to fund a hobby that results in more MOCs being put up online for the rest of us to enjoy? I’ll grant you there may some minor difference but at the end of the day, in both cases when someone else gets to TRU or their local LEGO store, the shelves will be just as emplty and the prices will be just as high when they come home and take a look on Bricklink.

I mean, if you are a scalping tickets to Redskins games is it somehow any more justifiable if you are a Redskins fan yourself?

I’m not saying don’t resell LEGO that you don’t need if it is valuable to someone else. I’m just saying think about what you want your role to be in the community aside from being a good builder (we’re all builders, and we all want to be good).

Do you want to be the person involved in your local lug or in large conventions? Do you want to be active online and maybe champion certain themes or contribute to a kickass blog? Do you want to make contacts with TLG and maybe become an Ambassador? Do you want to make the hobby your full time job? Do you want to be the guy who just cleared out three local TRUs of SW sets on 50% off?

I just don’t think completely unbridled capitalism is condusive towards community building, that’s all. When you get carried away to a certain level with acquiring stuff cheap at the expense of others I don’t think that’s good for the community. Now most BL sellers I’ve met are respectful of other AFOLs and don’t take things to ridiculous extremes, and I’m grateful for that.

cheers

Magnus

By: Bram

Bram — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:47:46 +0000

you can sell all bricks
but you probally don’t get your money back .. at least not the full 100%

By: talltim

talltim — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:59:18 +0000

But what happen if the SW figs are the only parts you want to keep?

By: Nannan

Nannan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:39:39 +0000

Hi Magnus,
I know what you mean, and I tried to hint throught my essay that you’re reselling minifigs to support the hobby and that first and foremost you’re a builder. We’ve both seen profit driven resellers raid the stores at conventions, but for our purposes we resell to buy more bricks so we can build more MOCs to share with the community.

By: Puddleglum

Puddleglum — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:12:14 +0000

Magnus,
I’m no big-time BL seller by any means, but I’m going to have to disagree with you. Retailers and LEGO are responsible for meeting consumer demand. If the shelves are empty, you should voice your complaints with them. If you’re talking about sales – sorry dude, it’s finders keepers. Nobody owes it to anybody to leave bargan-priced LEGO on the shelf, just in case some hypothetical person comes by and wants to buy it. In fact, if you buy LEGO on sale with the intention to resell, you are essentially guaranteeing that the set will get into the hands of a LEGO fan, at a price they are happy with!

By: David4

David4 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:48:16 +0000

I used to buy the older Star Wars sets when they were decent and not overpriced. Boba Fett is $12 for the cheapest when the set was only $20, yellow Slave Leia is $7 when I got the set for $12.