How to acquire large amount of Lego?

[pijani]

Nice collection. I wish I had at least 2,000 1x1 round trans-medium blue round plates (studs) for water techniques.

~RBC

Well, one PaB (Pick-a-Brick wall, google it) contains from 3000 to 4000 1x1 round plates, and trans light-blue and trans dark-blue are pretty common in almost all the shops (PaB is a wall in LegoShops). So, here is some more info and here is the list of shops (maybe there is one in your city?)

If not, there must be a lot of your friends from Classic-Castle that live near PaB, and somebody can buy you one cup (bricks can be mixed in one cup, so you can take half light and half dark trans blue ))

The price is (usually) 15 $ in USA and 16 e in Europe.

There is no PaB in or near my country, but I have a member of my lug that lives in Vienna, so we are getting cups regularly (a lot of 1x2 trans light blue tiles there at the moment. If you want, I can connect you with him, and he can send you one cup?

...there is some risk as you don't know me, but I am Ivan Angeli (google me:), and I am also TLG ambassador, so I hope that gives at least little trust... If you live across the ocean, I strongly recommend PaB from your continent, as content of one cup is quite heavy, and shipping is costly overseas.

So, the main question would be - in what city do you live?

[AK_Brickster]

There are lots of CC members here in the USA who would likely be able to help you out as well, RBC.

[pijani]

Siercon and Coral helped me with my first cup, and later, the whole gang from Historica
As you have guilds (lands or fractions:) here too, I bet people will be more then happy to help you

[royalbrickcustoms]

Hey guys,

I live in about 45 minutes from Augusta, GA (where the Masters Golf Tournament is held). I've only been to a Lego store twice in my life, and I've only bought 1 PAB cup!

The closest lego store is in Alanta, GA more than 4 hours away!

Unless someone could fill a PAB cup for me, it will probably be quite a long time 'til I get another one.

[pijani]

Hi guys,

I would like to address this topic again

it is 2016 ( actually, we started 2017 by now:), and I am 6 years smarter.
One sentence rings in my years every time I remember this topic, someone said that people who have their channels to get large amounts of LEGO bricks keep it for themselves, or keep it quiet

When I started this topic, I was looking for 10.000 1x2 bricks. Today, I think I have 500.000 1x2 bricks (I still think they are greatest for building large things), and I also bought a ton of other bricks, with not so much money invested.

I would like to share my experience:

Bricklink: use wanted list, and switch from "larges quantity" to "lowest price". Use "min parts required" to root sellers that don't have as much as you need - don't buy when you need, buy when there is a chance for a great deal. Ask for discounts. Pay special notice on massive sellers who have flat shipping (like German shop bricksy (I am not affiliated in any way), they have a ton of bricks and 3 flat shipping for Germany, 6 for Europe and 10 for world - that means how ever much you buy, the shipping charge is the same. I once bough 35 kg of bricks, paid 6e for shipping.

PaB: great for small parts, not so great for large. If PaB is on weight, great only for bamboo leaves, nothing else, as far as I know. Get friendly with manager or some other employee, ask to be notified if the brick you like arrives. Follow brickbuildr or similar sites

Lugbulk: every Recognized Lego User Group (rLUG) has opportunity to buy, once per year, loose bricks in large quantities with great discounts directly from Lego Company. You have to pay for shipping and VAT from your country, and that is that. There are some rules, ask your local rlug representative for additional info. Prices are privilege information, only the one who join lugbulk program get them. Trust me, they are very good, especially as they are not depending on color, but amount of plastic used - this meaning 1x2 in white and 1x2 in sand green is probably going to be the same price. Like I said, there are some rules, like no reselling policy, and your rlug should know them all.
You can find lugbulk rules and guidelines here: [url=https://fileshare.corp.lego.com/node_share_l ... 36d72c1668]link[/url]
If you are not sure if there is a rlug in your area, check this map [url=https://lan.lego.com/lugs]here[/url]

Resellers, blackselers: after some time in AFL world you get to know a guy who knows a guy. Boxes fall of a truck, resellers get gazillion bricks from shady stocks, someone is selling their whole collections, someone needs money asap and has bricks to sell, etc - keep your eyes and years open. Few years ago, I met a guy in Hungary who had his house full of bags with Lego bricks. He had a bench on the vegetable market where he sells LEGO bricks on grams. And he was not the only one. If you get friendly with someone from AFOL community, ask for contacts for re-sellers and black-sellers. I don't know if it is illegal, but when I shop over bricklink I never ask for paper on where did the bricks came from

Conventions: on massive conventions (like Fan Weekend) there are sellers who sell with great prices. You can also make good contacts

Project support: again, RLUG members can be part of the Project support that handles loose bricks as support. Please ask your rlug representative for suggestions

[legobeethoven]

Interesting topic... I just took the time to read through it all. Great that you bring this back up, as I'm sure it's an issue that many of us run into. Thanks for all the tips for bricklink and other sites, very useful!
I've often found the best deals for cheap LEGO on Craigslist. Lots of people are just trying to get rid of their bricks, so you can run into some really good deals. Try individual searches for "Lego" and "Legos" for the best results. I also suggest attending conventions and such, as you said, you can often find great deals from the vendors. At the most recent convention I went to, the guy right next to me had a bin of free used pieces. Many were broken and worn, but I still found some great stuff, all for free! Anyway, just keep your eyes open, and finding a good deal is not that difficult.

[pijani]

yes, and patience is always the key

also, I like to build with what I have, not to need something and wait for few weeks for it to arrive, this aproach adds so much to my happines with LEGO bricks

[Bruce N H]

yes, and patience is always the key

Great points above, especially the advice about PAB. I always see PAB as more of an impulse buy rather than actually trying to accumulate. I check the wall and if there's something interesting I'll fill up a cup, to give myself a challenge like "what would I build if I had a big pile of pink 1x1 round bricks?" or whatever, as opposed to a strategy to acquire more 1xn gray bricks to build castle walls.

But the patience thing is the big key. I've said this in other threads on this sort of thing. Many builders, particularly younger builders, fist encounter the online community and they see people with these huge collections building massive MOCs and they wonder how they can get that much LEGO. The answer, usually, is to just buy a little bit, and then next month buy a little bit more, and then again, and before you know it you first joined an online community in 2003 and now it's 2017, and by golly I've got a lot of bricks (actually, these days I pretty much just buy for my kids, but if you combine all of the bricks in the house into one it's a pretty big pile). Of course "just wait a decade" is sometimes an unsatisfying response, so your other point:

I like to build with what I have

is the other key to happy building. Yes, a 400,000 brick rendition of Hogwarts is pretty cool, but so is a scene built on a 32x32 footprint, and if your collection doesn't allow the former, the latter can be just as satisfying.

Bruce

[pijani]

My user name is Angeli everywhere (except here, as this was the first forum ever where I registered)

On Eurobricks, where I participated in Guilds of Historica, we had challenges almost weekly - and most of them had baseplate size restriction - I hated that I was a large scale builder who always built 1m tall castles - I worked a lot to get bricks for that, and I enjoyed that

But as community was all agreeing on size limitations, I joined and built - and it was a revelation - I was constrained with space, I planned it with more details, I built differently, and it really felt good

So, building on 32x32 could be a great feat for any builder
---

Also, I am a castle builder. I've built only fantasy castles for years. But then I had to go outside the comfort zone and build something space themed, and it felt good. Then I built Chima for exhibit, it felt even better, I combined my castle and space skills

Then it exploded. I liked it so much, going outside the contort zone, building something totally different, that I've been jumping trough themes from that time - I almost didn't build a castle moc in three years But I have pirates, steampunk, steampunk pirates (heh), city, Fabuland, aquariums and a lot of different themed stuff

So, guys, choose your buying opportunities. Sometimes I have extra 20 EUR, and nothing planned, so I go on bricklink and buy some minifig parts. Days later I have a great idea and opportunity for 5000 1x2 bricks in trans light blue that would be the same price - but I don't have money anymore.

And build outside of your comfort zone. I built Starcraft moc. It was SO outside of my comfort zone, as I never built vehicles - building siege tank I left for last - but it gave me most pleasure - and this is what building with Lego bricks is all about - pleasure, creativity and expression all trough having fun

[JCool]

I'm glad this topic got brought back to the surface. It's great to hear the perspective from when someone starting collecting to where they are now, 6 years later and with a sizeable collection.

I'll echo the statement that it doesn't happen overnight. I've been extremely fortunate to get amazing deals throughout the years and find opportunities for expanding the collection that never hit craigslist or a retail store. That being said though, there have been droughts where I go a long time between deals. It's important to remember that having more bricks doesn't automatically make you a better builder, it just means your collection takes up more space than it did before

I've always found that I'm most impressed with builds that can utilize parts I never would have thought to use, parts that often find their way to a bin buried deep below all the others. It encourages me to go back through my collection and pull out those parts and try to find new uses for them. The worst thing, in my opinion, is to have a large collection of parts and never use most of them. For that reason I'll fluctuate from Castle to Space to Wild West to Pirates to Town and back again to keep things fresh and continually go outside of my comfort zone and use those oddball parts.

[Athos]

"He who gathers... little by little makes it grow."

Steve