It’s a well-known fact that LEGO sets are pretty expensive, and it’s only obvious that a thought of ‘can I get these a bit cheaper?’ must have crossed your mind. While collectors and enthusiasts will probably never even consider this as an option, hobbyists and people on a cash-strapped budget most certainly will.
Today we want to discuss some of the main ways of getting LEGOs at a cheaper price, which sets you should and shouldn’t consider buying at a lower price tag, and which sets you can’t, so without any further ado, let’s get straight into it.
How to get LEGOs for cheap?
Essentially, there are many ways by which you could get a cheaper LEGO set, such as visiting online marketplaces, auctions, searching up trade groups on social media, and lastly, looking for people that are re-selling various toys.
Online Marketplaces
The easiest and most convenient way of getting cheaper LEGO sets is by ordering them online from any reputable online marketplace, such as Amazon or E Bay, for example. There are numerous benefits to be had if you choose to go this way, as well as a couple of potential downfalls that you should be aware of.
The ‘competition’ on online marketplaces is strong enough to make the participants constantly pump up and lower their prices, but it’s not as dynamic and fast-paced as the competition on auctions, so with a bit of persistence and good timing, you’ll be able to find any kind of bargain.
People need to make their personal accounts before they can put anything up for sale, which means that potentially ‘scam-y’ offers are pretty easy to spot.
The main downfall of online marketplaces is that you’ll often have to forfeit shipment costs in case you want a refund. This could range from $10 to over $100, depending where you are and where you are ordering from. Amazon is generally considered as the ‘safest’ online marketplace, and if you are searching for cheaper LEGO sets, you should probably start there.
Auctions
The first thing that probably comes to mind when we speak about ‘auctions’ is a large space (indoors or outdoors) where a person with a hammer takes up bids, speaks thousands of words per second, and where people yell their bids in the meantime. This might be the norm for jewellery and items that are thousands of dollars in value, but it’s quite different for LEGO sets.
Namely, LEGO auctions are held online and are available in pretty much every bigger country. Again, there are several advantages and disadvantages that this option presents you with.
Fool-proof security is the first notable advantage, as your bids and buyouts will be backed by various guarantees, so we can safely rule scam out of the picture.
Ease of access and the ability to bid on several pieces are also pretty neat benefits. A regular auctioning process typically has just a couple or hundreds of participants, so there’s really no point in making several accounts just to ‘forge’ bids while trying to outwit your competitor bidders.
The thing that you probably won’t like so much about LEGO auctions is that it’s not so great for collectibles and smaller, already-cheap bundles and sets. You’ll oftentimes need to pay a certain fee in order to place a bid, and there are auction houses that will take the ‘cut’ from the final bid, which means additional fee to pay.
Social media
Social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and nowadays even Twitch and other platforms that were not included in this particular field offer simple and quick means of finding connections and forming groups of LEGO re-sellers. However, this is by far the sketchiest option precisely due to the fact that it’s so easily and readily accessible.
Social media platforms are available to everyone for free, which is a two-way street in this case. At one hand, a platform having more people means that your odds of finding a good deal are higher. On the other hand, this also leaves plenty of room for ‘simulated’ deals and scam.
Buying and selling things on social media works in the same way as putting them up on online marketplaces, with the very important exception of personal authentication. LEGO resellers don’t need to ‘verify’ their profiles, and you often have no means of reaching out to people you intend to buy from.
Knowing this, most LEGO resellers on social media are forced to cut their prices down to a rock-bottom level, which is obviously a great thing. However, there’s a thin line between a great deal at a bargain price and a scam offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What LEGO sets should I try searching for at a cheaper price?
Simple LEGO blocks, such as Architecture and LEGO Originals are your best bets. Re-sold bundles sometimes have certain missing pieces, and oftentimes these are invaluable to the bundle as a whole and otherwise unobtainable as standalone bits.
Even though all LEGO blocks are compatible with bricks from other themes, you can’t really put Harry Potter’s head on the Batman’s body. Pieces that can be seamlessly interchanged offer just a bit more value in this particular situation.
Where should a LEGO collector search for cheaper bundles and sets?
Collectors usually end up exhausting all of their options before the ‘bug’ is satisfied, but if you want to play it smart, we advise you to first visit the Auction spots and online marketplaces before hitting the social media platforms.
Lego auctions are not only the safest, but they also offer more diversity and bigger selections of bundles and brick sets.
Which way of buying cheaper LEGO blocks is the safest?
Again, LEGO auctions seem to be far safer than offers on online marketplaces and on social media platforms. At every auction process, all of the participants are known, and the auction house provides additional guarantees.
Online marketplaces are pretty safe, but not entirely. Deals made on social media are completely unsafe from a legal standpoint.
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