What sets do I spend money on?

Post by **RoC77** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:15 pm

Came to this thread a little late, if you get 4 of these sets, (http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Product ... n=97&d=203) you'll have 2 squads of troopers (6 men each) & 4 of flyers with money left over to get parts for a larger vehicle.....

Post by **piltogg** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:30 pm

Well, haveing visited about 300 garage sales, I have actually found LEGO about 20 times, but each one of the times I have found lego, I got about 300$ worth of lego for about 15$, so thats around 5,700$ saved, making it about 19$ worth of Lego saved every time I go to a garage sale. (which is where I get the vast majority of my crap) And all of that happened over the past 9 years.

Post by **Hoboman** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:38 pm

piltogg wrote:Well, haveing visited about 300 garage sales.....

I have a way to go to catch up with your 300.

Post by **morganm** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:09 am

My wife has been to hundreds of garage sales and she knows I'm always looking for Legos. She loves 'garage sailing' and she hits the season early all the way into Fall. I dunno if she's just not telling me about them because she think I'm a big dork or just isn't finding them

It's been a great way to get a lot of things for dirt cheap but haven't scored any Legos.

The few I've been too and found Legos... the people knew they were worth money. For the price they wanted I could go buy sets at retail price. It was just misc crap.... boxes full of rainbow bricks, handful of shitty minifigs, and nothing that made me even entertain the idea of spending real money on them. This isn't exclusive to Legos... lots of ppl think their shit is gold at garage sales. I don't think they understand a garage sale is a method for getting rid of your junk... not a way to try and make money or try to break even.

I have seen some OK deals on Craigslist. The good deals you really gotta get on early. I've seen some that I was too late on; great prices per pound, baggies of minifigs for good prices, and full sets far below retail price. If you're gonna do Craigslist you gotta be patient and persistent; check often, wait for great deals, and pounce quickly.

Post by **piltogg** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:41 pm

morganm wrote:My wife has been to hundreds of garage sales and she knows I'm always looking for Legos. She loves 'garage sailing' and she hits the season early all the way into Fall. I dunno if she's just not telling me about them because she think I'm a big dork or just isn't finding them It's been a great way to get a lot of things for dirt cheap but haven't scored any Legos.

Well, we live pretty close to one-another I'm pretty sure, so that could be a factor...

Post by **Bragallot** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:01 am

Make a list of the items you require, then buy the item you need the highest quantity of for the cheapest price on Bricklink. If the store has other items in the quantity you require and the prices don't differ much it's better to buy the items so you'll have to place less orders. If the item you need is pretty rare and not sold in high quantities elsewhere or you need only a few of it, get it anyway unless the price is ridiculously high. You can easily see how much you're 'paying extra', if it's less than the shipping costs you'd pay for getting each item at a different store, go for it.

For generic minifigs (even if you just want to use them for parts) I figure some of the battlepacks must be the best buy if you get them at the official store 'cos the 'price per equipped fig' isn't going to be much lower if you put them together on Bricklink, perhaps even higher.

If you want to save money and time, already look if you can get items you need cheap and in the quantities you need while designing the army. Also make sure you have a good picture of whatever you'll be making in your head and that you're happy with it - you'll get in trouble designing armies if a troop design turns out to suck and you have parts you can't use elsewhere anymore without making a whole new troop design.

Something I do is making squads of 6 for each (basic) unit type so you can easily swap parts around with any other squad in any other army without falling short of items. You could do this with any number for the squad, you'll just have to stick with it.

For parts, I recommend putting the model together on LDD and then buying the parts from Bricklink, just avoid having to place too many small orders to avoid huge shipping costs. What I'd do is put together a few first and trying to use the same parts as much as you can and coupling these orders with your minifig stuff purchases.

I'm saying this 'cos I got a LOT of sets (some more than once since we got less figs and didn't have battlepacks 'back in the day') and usually still can't build something exactly the way I want it since I often don't have enough of a specific part and it'll keep you from having to dig through enormous piles of crap before you finally get to the part you want!

With 90 bucks you can build a pretty decent faction if you spend wisely.

Post by **RunsWithLegos** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:49 am

OneEye589 wrote:Don't buy things for only one army. What fun is it to have a gigantic army if they can't fight against anyone?

This is probably the best bit of advice on this thread.

Post by **Natalya** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:44 am

piltogg wrote:Well, haveing visited about 300 garage sales, I have actually found LEGO about 20 times, but each one of the times I have found lego, I got about 300$ worth of lego for about 15$, so thats around 5,700$ saved, making it about 19$ worth of Lego saved every time I go to a garage sale. (which is where I get the vast majority of my crap) And all of that happened over the past 9 years.

What the hell. Every time I go to garage sales none has Lego.