How much money I made buying and selling LEGO for 4 years (side hustle)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- For the last 4 years I've had a side hustle of buying and selling LEGO sets. In this video I go over what I learnt, how much I made and why I've now stopped investing in LEGO.
Disclaimer: Please do not consider anything in this video financial advice, I'm just here to share my experience.
Amazon Price Tracker: brickranker.com/price-tracker...
00:00 Intro
00:20 How I got started
01:38 Starting to buy LEGO
01:59 Where I bought LEGO
02:57 Troubles with shipping
03:54 Problems I encountered
06:00 How much I made
08:45 Why I've stopped buying LEGO
10:11 Outro - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Thanks for sharing your experience in this experiment. I think with anything collectible it’s best to do like you said and just buy what you are willing to keep. The reason things like cloud city go for crazy prices is not because speculators bought a bunch when it was in stores but because not many people bought it when it was in stores. People can guess and like anything else - sometimes they’ll be right and sometimes they’ll be wrong. The good thing with Lego is that you rarely lose ever unless you just paid too much for something. I get tickled this days when I hear people talking about rare and valuable Lego sets that I remember sitting in clearance bins. Look out Black Panther
Haha, or imagine if the table football set became valuable! Thanks for your comment sir. I’ve been a fan of yours for a while
Nice video . I’m a little older than you if any indication of that I’ve been collecting Star Wars memorabilia since 1978 That being said I started buying Lego Star Wars since 1999 and I started reselling as a side hustle about 13 years ago. As a business owner separate from my side hustle and being in business for 28 years so I didn’t go into to this but to make some extra cash. First the days of massive returns are over except for a few exceptions. So many people now buying to invest and Lego pumping out sets on a larger scale. In my opinion there is money to be made but you have to be selective and patient and also pick up when there are sales or clearance. It seems the problem you had was the subject matter you chose to invest in wasn’t the greatest . Maybe for the exception of stranger things which only had one set and is doing well the others are longer holds. Patience and research is the name of the game . Bottom line is you did make a profit. How many things can you buy at retail and resell for profits these days???
Thanks for the comment. Yeah true I definitely picked the wrong themes. I should have just gone with Star Wars and only bought those sets. I do think Speed Champions are often overlooked. They can very quickly double in price. I did buy some SDCC minifigures that I’m keeping hold of as long term investments.
Thanks for sharing your experience, your ups and downs and for not pretending that everything was/is perfect. Good luck!
Thanks, I appreciate it! I like to just be as real as I can in my videos, whether that be positive or negative experiences. Social media is filled too much with success stories and “perfect” lives these days
Great video. I've been investing in Lego for a number of years now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
I prefer to sell at Brick Festivals and other physical sales events rather than ebay as I am not a fan of ebay, for the reasons you mentioned, plus I dislike having to post out a lot of sets.
Storage space is always going to be an issue but I'm lucky that i have a reasonable amount storage space where I live.
It also helps that my TH-cam channel generates a small amount of income so I can reinvest that into Lego.
I do still have a full time job, but Lego is very much my main passion these days and I do have the time and resources to continue with my hobby.
I was thinking about selling at brick festivals but never got round to it. Selling in person definitely makes it easier to make sure both parties are happy with the transaction. If you’re in the UK I may see you at one soon.
I think best invesment in lego is just buy your most wanted set then play with it until you wanna trade it for a another secondhand lego set that you like
Young padawan.
Buy only Star Wars LEGOs where the Force is strong !!
this was a really honest and informative video - thanks chris! Also great to see a fellow uk lego collector and talking about shops, prices and things i know.
Thanks for watching! Yeah I like to be as honest and transparent as I can. More LEGO content on the way soon
Same boat. Stopped the acquisitions a year ago and now just selling off the inventory. But I don’t sell anything until they have been discontinued for 5 years. Then I start looking at sell values. Ran into the exact issue with a garbage in the box buyer. I bought the set from Target and it sat on my shelf for 6 years only to have someone buy the sealed set and have a complete meltdown. Since then I only buy online from Lego direct or the Lego store unless I plan to build it myself. But sales are rare so it is even harder to make profit. Small sets just aren’t worth the return so all my sets are larger investments. And the prices for these large shipping boxes to arrive undamaged is crazy. Not worth my time and I cannot wait until these are all gone.
Glad to hear someone else has reached the same conclusions as me. Bigger sets are better but it only takes one buyer to make an ebay complaint to wipe out any profit. It’s hard when there’s no way to verify the contents of a box. From now on I’m just going to invest in minifigures and build my collection
@@pattle I wonder if, due to the increasing cleverness of folks skimming and repacking Lego sets, “opened and verified contents” is going to become the new “mint in sealed box” for secondhand Lego sets? That is: the gold standard and the set condition that will command the highest price?
I haven’t been burned by a purchase from Target or similar yet, but the talk about this has me trying to remember if any of my backlog came from retail (rather than from Lego directly)? Because it’s obviously much harder to get any sort of help or recompense for a 6-year-old set than for one you bought last month.
(I don’t tend to buy new on Bricklink, because I’m usually there for the deal, so I almost exclusively buy used sets. But I _have_ bought a couple new sets for my niblings, and I’d hate for one of those to turn out to have been skimmed of the valuable parts or minifigs. )
@@natbarmore I'd like to see LEGO themselves come up with a solution to prevent box tampering. Maybe a new type of box seal?
It's in their best interest to come up with something (as long as it's not to experience) as it will keep both customers and retailers happy.
Well said and thank you.
I have bought some old sets for my kids to start a bricklink store in the future. And going through this process i have realized all that you have said. But its worth it in a limited capacity so my kids can learn how to set up a business. Other than that it doesn't seem woth it.
That’s a great idea! Yeah plus when you turn your hobby into a business it’s not as fun anymore so now I’m purely buying things to build or add to my own collection. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Your chart "Profit by theme" is quite interesting as most ppl invest into themes like SW or HP, particularly those two tend to be less profitable due to constant relaunches of same sets while other themes that were launched just once were the most profitable even I can't imagine to get attached to them so much due to shortlived series from consumer perspective.
yeah if a theme has a very short shelf and it’s licensed like (e.g Scooby-Doo) then those sets should do very well. I think SW and HP can still be very profitable you just need to pick and choose what you invest in carefully
I agree what you said about ebay. It pisses me off. I was selling pokémoncards on ebay and a few time they went crying/lying to ebay that it wasnt what was in the description and everytime ebay refunded their money and took it back from me. Even when i opend a case and gave them pictures.
Yeah, i hate ebay always favoring those scammers 🙄
It’s really unfair, you basically have zero protection as a seller. Like I said I was pretty lucky, but I’d never feel comfortable selling a high value item on there.
I once sold the lego haunted house the original one, Sealed from lego never opened, The buyer complained one piece was slightly off colour how was I to know that, I told them to get in touch with lego Denmark. They did but I never sold on ebay again too many crooks.
Yes Lego is a toy. It’s meant to be played with. If you want free money, then just swing trade on the stock market. There’s tons of free money to be taken there. I use it to buy legos and build what I want.
Dude! You got 40-50% return in 4yrs. Thats awesome. Getting that on stocks and shares is a lot harder.
No its not. A little bit more % than the stock market and you have a lot work to Do, insurance and storage costs....
The craze is over, though there are more and more advisors who tell you which sets are "safe" investments. What is more disturbing, the quality of Lego has gone down dramatically while the prices have gone up exponentially.
Would you recommendation be different if you knew what you were doing?
The resale value and the oversaturation/overhype of the minifigures have taken a lot of fun out of the hobby (actually building and creating with the toy).
This is the same reason why I very quickly learned why I hate Funko Pops.
I don't do it for profit, but just as a hobby, its nice to buy and enjoy sets as a hobby knowing that they have good resale value. May not be a liquid asset, but its nice to know that the sets hold value.
It’s does hold it’s value well, helps to justify spending $$$ to our partners haha
I think the best way to make money with lego isnt speculating on new sets but to buy old sets secondhand and use bricklink to replace missing pieces, then sell as complete.
A
I was just talking about this in a comment section. Crazy i came across this video later the same day
Ha, that’s the algorithm for you. Hope you enjoyed it
ive thought about this... ive got a liquidation place and they have legos pallets all the time for 20-30% retail value. But its always like the lego friends, dots, or even a few hundred Halloween books with legos in them. I'd personally do individual parts, but I dont think even with this cost that id make more money than if i just worked overtime.
After going through the hassle of sorting, listing and shipping it might not be worth it, even if it works out as more per hour than overtime. e.g If a job is 2x more stressful but 1.5x more pay it doesn’t make sense to do it
A few solid investments there... I think you could have really simplified your business and had better results for less time spent. Sorry to see you go! Also, would love to learn more about your price tracker - got an email I can reach you at?
yeah sure it’s my [firstname].[lastname]@gmail.com
How did you make the brick ranker website? What tech stack did you use?
PHP for the backend and VueJS for some of the frontend
What about storing them in good condition for >5 years , dors it worth ?!
When a store excepts a lego set as a return they should open it, verify its contents on the spot and only except it if correct. Then having Lego brand stickers to seal it closed and then sell it at a discounted price
👆This
Yes, then the same guy will come and rebuy the same set at discount.
@@Cortesevasive good point. Maybe just send it back to Lego or not except returns at all
Im actually considering the same after somewhat years. After some decent profits. Last year I bought some random exclusive Disney items online and in the parks and well. Off the roof. A bit like Lego investing from 20/15 years ago…
What were some the items you bought that did really well? Yeah some sets can do amazingly, it’s just hard to work out what ones they will be! I’m trying to build a data analysis tool that will spot trends and be able to indicate what sets to buy
I just began buying Lego sets to resell and therefore expect to pay some of my own sets. It seems difficult to really know what will or not so maybe the trick is to buy AT discounts and to focus on "modulars" "Lego Ideas strong ones" "bricklink designer program" "some star Wars but not all" "some Harry Potter" "some Ninjago towns".
I think it can still be profitable, but requres more patience and longer hold times. The number of investors (and number of sets made by Lego) surged during the pandemic, as so many people had spare cash. That has flooded the resale market, which is why highly recommended 2023 investments like Medieval Blacksmith, Brickheadz Endor Heroes and the Star Wars Fighter Tank are still available at less than retail price on ebay 5 months after retirement.
It's still a worthwhile side hustle, but I think the days of 100 to 200% ROI within 1-2 years is becoming rarer.
I also started investing 4 years ago, and have now decided to hold almost all sets long term, and only sell gifts with purchase or sets that have grown in value and then flatlined. Just need a bigger house now for storage...
Thanks for sharing! Could You elaborate also on ebay fees, shipping fees, and taxes? If I would do this in my country (selling unopened new lego sets consistently) I'll have to register a business and pay taxes. Which will all cut into the profit.
Taxes would typically be 20% on profit. The figures in the video are after shipping costs have been taken off. I only listed items on eBay when they had the “£1 max selling fees offer”. They don’t seem to do that anymore but they do have 80% of selling fees every other weekend so normally it works only be a few pounds per item. Hope that helps.
I always have a bit of a giggle at this whole lego investment trend. There are so many doing it now and buying up so many sets to sit on and resell. It seems like a market that is going to eventually burst. Sure, some of the older kits that were pretty much always purchased to play with, would now be quite rare, especially in mint condition, but when you hear of investors sitting on 200-300 of a kit and there are significant numbers doing the same.... Well, there are going to be plenty of mint kits out there for a long long time.
I buy to build. You know, the entire point of the stuff in the first place. There was a discontinued Architecture set I wanted. Prices in the hundreds but equally hundreds for sale. Picked up a perfectly adequate alternate brand version for under $20 and it is great.
nice video, my question is whether it's worth doing it at a young age, considering that I have a lot of space to keep Lego, or maybe it's better to do something else, and if I were to start, what series should I focus on and will it be profitable, let's say in these 5 years?
Thanks for watching. I think Star Wars is a safe bet. Things like the 25th anniversary sets that are coming out this year are what I’d buy
I have an idea 💡. Could you kit-bash sets that are not selling to have something that no one else has in the marketplace?
You mean create my own sets an instructions? That is a good idea. Obviously it would require quite a bit of work and I’m looking for more passive investments but it could be quite lucrative
@@pattle Lego used to have alternate builds on the back of every set. Re brickable does this where they have alternate builds for sets. Build it and sell the model without instructions. If you’re just sitting on sets that aren’t selling what’s the harm in trying something new? You’ve already spent the money. How many people have set … You would be the only one selling set … modified.
I didn't actually hear you say if you made money or lost money. More the figures you were giving before eBay fees or after eBay fees. What about shipping fees?
What about taxes? Also would be very interesting to know if you used any discount site such as rokuten Or credit card rewards.
as someone who has sold a lot of Lego on eBay and Bricklink, the taxes are pretty killer. You have to file all kind of extra tax forms each year, and the IRS consider it self-employment, which is ridiculous since I already have a full time job (this all pertains to people living in the U.S.) Also, don't forget the costs of boxes and packaging materials, time it takes to take pictures and do all the postings, dealing with needy/complaining buyers. Another aspect, in terms of buying sets as investments - with the rate of inflation now, if you bought something for $150 a couple years ago, and sell it for $200 - that barely covers inflation now
The figure doesn’t take into account taxes. I mainly sold items on ebay when they have offers on selling fees (e.g £1 max fees). Also the figures were excluding shipping fees which I charged extra for so that should be break even.
I didn’t use discounts sites as most of what I bought was on Amazon which doesn’t feature on Rakuten or TopCashback
Glad you've found the right way. Lego, wine, books, these are things to be bought, opened, used and enjoyed. Invest in boring things with predictable, reliable growth. For fun stuff, don't invest: enjoy!
I managed to buy a few Ninjago destiny bounty the lge one for only £35 holding on to them for a while, I may even give them away eventually, Definitely would not sell on crookbay?
Good break down analysis on you journey of Lego flipping journey. You made a "OK" gross profit on you hobby. You are the 15 percenter that actually walked away with a gross/net profit. I use this term because many speculators don't even include actual the TVM principle (time value money). As a flipper/business "investor/speculators" have include all opportunity cost, personal time/labor, inconvenience(space and organization of inventory). For the amount of opportunity cost used you likely would have net more working an Mickey D's for a month and put the money in an investment portfolio with a 7-10% yearly return. Potential investors please, please, please..... understand the the business risk and apply the basic principles of TVM and opportunity cost before you set out on the adventure of making it rich flipping collectibles. Said from a investor/retailer of 35 years.
Isn’t it to be expected that the chart at 9:33 shows lower ROI the closer you get to the current year? A sealed set from 2002 will on average be worth more than a sealed set from 2022, because someone had to keep it 20 years and there aren’t many available on the secondary market. Now I do agree that there are more investors, more stock, but there are also probably more buyers and more collectors. The ROI is smaller but if you choose well the sets and the price to buy them at, it will be a good one, even if not as good as if you had invested the same money in lego Star Wars 10 years ago. Profits made by the first to do this will always be bigger but it doesn’t mean now the ROI is zero or negative, as your chart suggests. Come back in 5 or 10 years and calculate it again and we’ll see. I’m sure it will be green instead.
That is a good point, and one I should have mentioned. That graph will look different in 5 years but I do think that ROI is falling disproportionately. I think the average is about 15-20% year on year but more recent sets aren’t achieving that.
There’s a few videos on this topic and peak price is 12-24 months after retirement.
Also there are star wars sets from the sequels which nobody cares about.
In any case, in whatever you invest. 7,5 to 10% is a good return. You just make sure you outrun inflation. All the rest is bonus, luck or fantasy. 100% return on 10 years is the target.
yeah true, although when the investment involves doing work you want more to cover the time cost. 10% is very good if it’s just a case of doing nothing
Did you concider using bricklink ?
To buy new sets?
Well you got several problems with reselling:
1. You only got that many platforms and ebay is one of the most popular ones. As seller as you pointed out it can be a very frustrating experience. Some sets I only sold via direct pick up outside of ebay.
2. Of course you gotta pay tax... so it's a real business... difficult.
3. Very time consuming.
4. Very space consuming.
5. People are nasty...
Some things I'd like to point out from my experience. It can be a VERY lucrative money maker. BUT you need to invest the time. (and have the space to store the stuff in the meantime...which should be 5-10 years so the value goes up).
Some sets you don't know when they will retire: Star Wars Dearth Star for example. I think the AT-AT as well as the MF are examples where it's really guesswork. They will skyrocket after they retire... but could take years! You just don't know. investing 10.000 Euro in AT-ATs that take up A LOT of space (and/or Millenium Falcons... doesn't really matter). Just to discover that 10 years later LEGO still sells them... ouch.
Your logic is a bit flawed I would say when it comes to the most profitable set. The small sets oftentimes are more profitable if you apply factor X to it. Like you made 3 or 4 or 5 times what they did cost you. But if you buy for 9 Euro and sell for 27 Euro, even if that is 3 times the price, in the end you only made 18 Euro (before tax). If you buy 1000 copies you have to sell 1000 copies (which includes the complete process!!! do never underestimate that! it is exhausting!). If you buy only one AT-AT for 850 Euros and sell it for 1000 Euros you made 150 Euro. For ONE sale. to me that's the better deal. Your time counts. (Which is a factor many people do not consider at all... which is wrong if you ask me!).
If I would give one advice: Focus on the big sets that are special. And on the sets that won't come back anytime soon. Best example: Pirates of carrabean bay or fort eldorado or indiana jones sets right now. Something that's always good: Modulars. Something that will also be good: Ninjago City the really big ones. Big ideas sets. The bigger the better. Or the more pop culture value the better. My best set has been the delorean set. Not the most beautiful build if you ask me. I bougth like 6 or 10 (the small ones back then) and bought them for 30 euro I think. Selling them for 90-150 Euro.
Rare minifigures can also be great. The upcoming R2D2 together with Darth Malak will probably be profitable (the Darth Malak at least) in 10 years.
So go big, go pop culture, go rare.
Leave the small sets be... they are more hustle. But of course if you are into the work they can be more profitable margin wise.
Thanks for the great advice. You made a good point about the small sets taking up more time etc. It’s definitely annoyingly having to constantly ship parcels, it feels like a burden. I agree that the delorean will do well, but I have a feeling that LEGO will keep it around for a while. And yes that Darth Malek figure is a must buy.
@@pattle Sorry, I wasn't clear about the delorean. Talking about what has been (past tense) my best value resell set.
I was talking about the old delorean set 21103. It is already retired. It's just the one that went best for me. The big one I don't really know. It will probably perform well though.
@@bjoernoswald2473 Ah okay sorry. Yes I wish I'd bought that one. I still think the new one will do well
If you look at it from the perspective of return on your money it’s not bad
True, it’s more than I’d have got if the money just sat in the bank
Also need to account for the cost of your time. Could you take the hours spent buying/selling/shipping LEGO, and use those hours to do something more profitable.
@@redwing634 absolutely. As someone who has a pretty large reselling business, I’ve gone back and forth for years between the small margin/sell fast model and the larger profit/sell slower model and haven’t really come up with a great answer. I certainly know the algorithm on eBay prefers the former while I’d rather do less and make more per item. Cheers
I have a question was it worth it?
Not really to be honest
Nice video, the only thing that bugged me was that Ninjago is pronounced nin-jar-go not nin-jay-go 😃
Thanks for watching. Oh I always thought it was nin-jay-go but after reading your comment I watched a few review videos and you’re right, everyone else seems to say it nin-jar-go. Sorry about that
Shipping costs kill me usually...
Did you take that in account?
Also Lego is inflation proof, so when you say 3600€ profit, it's 4400€ in real life value.
And when you keep them for decade(s), if not in a climate room, you're Fd...
In my case, kept some for 12y and then they robbed my house empty while travelling and took all sets and a whisky collection from the 60ties.
Had the best assurance possible and they payed me out 8000€, while there was 45000€ stolen... Welcome to the real world
Sorry that happened to you, that sucks. Do you think it was an insider job?
Shipping costs aren't too bad here in the UK, smaller sets are about £4, medium are £5-6 and large set are £8. I never paid extra to have them insured. I just took the risk and luckily none of the parcels got damaged / went missing.
Yeah you're right you do have to be careful how you store them because LEGO does degrade quite fast if left in the wrong conditions.
Bro said ninjaygo
Wait until people get older and become nostalgic again. Another Lego Movie like the first one will do it and the cycle will repeat. I find that Trains, Planes, Ships and Lego products with name brands do well. For example, Maersk Ships, trains, and trucks do well. And space sets with NASA on them do great too. For example, the Mars Rovers (Opportunity/Spirit/ Perseverance/Curiosity). The money makers are the smaller sets.
Good points. That maersk freight train is one set I definitely wish I had. Maybe one day…
Star Wars Sets ftw
Some people say that it’s better than gold and I say absolutely not. I collect gold.
U need an Australian size house not a pommy one. Plus u forgot golden rule with investing is time. Got to sit on them a lot longer then a lot longet
100% I should have been more patient but it’s hard when it impacts your day to day life (e.g taking up space in my house). I’ve switched to buying minifigures now as they take up less space and I can just leave them under a bed and forget about them for 10 years or so.
nin jay go? bro doesn’t even know the name of the line that gives him the most money
Brick bucks. Wolf of bricks.
Just invest in minifigures. Done
Yeah unless u have sealed sets from the late 90s and early 2000s there is too many competitive brands now. Got The Old Fishing Store for $63 to my door and it is a perfect piece for piece copy of the Lego one that people want $550 for. And other brands like Mould King and FunWhole are same quality. As a builder I have Lego and all those other brands and some in my collection. Can't tell them apart. And as a collector why buy when the price isn't gonna go up more than u buy it for. In a way it's nice to be able to be selective and get deals as a buyer. Hopefully Lego just keeps mass producing and rereleasing sets so everyone can enjoy building at a decent price.
There’s still plenty to make, but you def need time, patience, and a lot more than 8k invested
I’ve never bought a LEGO alternative but I’d be interested to give it a try, especially considering that LEGO’s quality seems to have dropped in recent years. The Old Fishing Store is one of my all time favourite sets 👌
Disagree with you on that one. Cheap knockoffs are crap. And worthless after buying.
@exoespeon Agreed. If given the choice people are going to want to buy authentic Lego. Cheap knock offs are what they.. cheap. Usually not as durable and simply just not as value without Lego’s very valuable brand.
LOL! That's it? That's all you made in 4 years? I make more than that in dividends every year from stocks and don't need to fill my house with dozens of Lego boxes.
That’s why I’m stopping. There are better ways to invest my money that require less effort
Generally, LEGO investing when done efficiently, outperforms the stock market. 40-50% annual ROI is pretty common with LEGO investing. The stock market is about 10%.
@@redwing634 Wrong. S&P 500 tends to be 10% year after year. However, if you invest on good dividend stocks, you get paid an additional 4%-8% every 3 months for life on top of your stock growth. By re-investing your dividends and continuous re-investment, your dividends start to snowball to the point where you can just live off dividends forever. With Lego, once you sell a set, it's gone. it's a 1 time transaction. if Lego was more lucrative, don't you think everyone would be investing in Lego?