Buying Lego Parts

So further to my last post about the 10030 UCS set, I have been delving into various sites to figure out how much parts are worth when buying individually.

There is no doubt that the best site out there for buying parts is www.bricklink.com, it is simply awesome, with an incredible number of stores and parts. So if you are looking for something specific, that is the place to go.

Beware though, while in general, new Lego parts go for about US$0.10 each on average, if they are unique parts from retired sets, particularly sets like Star Wars UCS, they can go anywhere from a few bucks to over a hundred bucks per part! My UCS project has come to a screaming halt at the moment because of this.

So I am hoping to pick up a few bulk sets, both for this project, and just in general. I ultimately intend to build a Lego city with the kids, which would likely consume a lot of non-set specific pieces. Plus I could try to reconstruct some retired sets and sell them off perhaps.

Anyway, my research leads me to believe as I said that about 10c per piece is the going rate for new Lego. For used, highly variable, but in general I am thinking about 3c-5c per piece for standard pieces. You'd have to look up the rarity of more unique pieces - in some cases it might even be cheaper to buy sets to get the pieces you're looking for, who knows!

Oh and I also worked out that in general, there are about 750 pieces per kg of Lego. That, with the numbers for new and used can help in figuring out the value of bulk lots that you can see for sale regularly on Ebay or Craigslist.

More to follow on my Bricklink escapades!