Piecemeal Purchasing: The World of Bricklink
Most often when people think of purchasing Lego, one imagines heading to a store, browsing Amazon, or if you’re really lucky an actual Lego Store. These are all great for buying new Lego sets that are currently in circulation, but what happens once the sets aren’t made anymore? How does someone buy specific pieces or find the minifigure that eluded them? The go-to marketplace for second-hand Lego, Bricklink.com, connects a buyer with thousands of potential shops to purchase from.
Navigating the actual website is quite simple, the front page has the market divided into Lego sets, parts, minifigs, but also custom MOCs as well. These categories break into subcategories, such as Jurassic World sets or Lego Food, and some subcategories can break into their own sub-subcategories.
Every Lego related item that is sold through Bricklink has a itemized code. For singular bricks, Bricklink uses the design ID that Lego prints on specific bricks of any type. Lego uses two kinds of ID numbers, a design number and an element number. The design ID is the specific part, such as a 1x2 plate. The element ID is different as there is one for each color of every piece, but also for the batch productions of these pieces as well. Two identical blue cylinder pieces could have different element numbers because one was molded in 1999 and the other in 2016.
While it all sounds and looks quite organized from the exterior, navigating the Milieu of these virtual storefronts can be daunting when in need of a specific piece. Some sellers could have all the parts needed for a build, or only have two of that part you need seven of. This aspect of Bricklink adds another level to how one shops there.
When arriving at any store page on Bricklink, the left hand side presents a menu of the seller‘s categorized inventory. The menu displays the same categories for every store, but as it is based on inventory (or Lots), the sellers won’t always have the same Lots in the categories. This provides an incentive to check every category a seller has, as one could possibly find rare pieces or certain pieces for a lesser price.
On occasion I enjoy browsing Bricklink for needed parts or minifigures. I began with a search for Scooby-Doo minifigs, as Mystery Inc. is not complete without a fearless Fred, daft Daphne, or visually-impaired Velma. The Fred and Daphne minifigs were not especially expensive when looking, with lower-end costs averaging $8–10 per figure. This higher price for a minifig is understandable, as the sets have been out of production for some years now and were not in each set as were Scooby and Shaggy. Now let’s look at the Velma minifig.
Oh, okay…. That doesn’t seem to be quite so cheap. Rather than purchase this minifigure outright, I searched Bricklink for the set that Velma came with. I was able to find a seller from the US that had the complete set, however it was for ~$145. Sets without minifigs are commonly sold on Bricklink, as many enjoy displaying creations. These are most often cheaper, and for this set averaged $85–90 per set without the minifigs. Had I really wanted the set enough I would have purchased that more expensive offer, as having Velma (plus other figs) with the set is the cause of that price increase. Rather than purchase Velma or the set, I looked into what else the store had to offer.
Going onto a store’s page now allows me to browse and see what else they also may have to offer me within the categories. When looking at a store’s categories, I usually scroll down and begin with the minifigures. There were some that I had interest in with the store, such as those from the Pharaoh's Quest or Adventurers line, however the cost for those minifigs was more expensive than I wanted to pay. So rather I searched for those minifigures by their Bricklink specific code. This brought up all the sellers, local and international, that had the minifigure for sale in their store. Now I could find a store that has this minifig at the price I would prefer to pay.
Occasionally I will look at the actual Lego sets that a seller may have, as many sell sealed and open boxes of new and old sets. For some AFOLs collecting sealed Lego sets and maintaining the boxes are a staple in their collecting, which is also common in other forms of collecting as well.
The main focus of my browsing on Bricklink is the individual parts categories that each seller has. I particularly enjoy searching through the minifigure pieces (on Bricklink a minifigure can be sold put-together or as separate pieces) as you can find interesting torso pieces, faces, and hats/helmets. My favorite type of Lego would have to be transparent pieces, as some of the colors glow under black light and most lego pieces as a neon transparent color look visually satisfying. Here is a video by Beyond the Brick showing off a spectacular use of neon green transparent pieces and lighting.
Like many other AFOLs I am drawn towards the nostalgia of my past, and that manifests itself through the Adventurers and Alpha Team lines. I enjoy the ‘knock-off’ Indiana Jones character that is Johnny Thunder, who has compatriots such as Harry Cane and Dr. Charles Lightning and faces off against the sinister Lord Sam Sinister and Barron von Baron. Alpha Team is more underwater James Bond/ Mission Impossible, with the Alpha Team facing against the evil Ogel and his skeleton henchmen.
I’d found various offerings for the minifigures that interested me, but some were extremely high priced for my budget. When I saw one that would be too expensive, I look into the parts categories to see what extra parts of the minifigs they might have. This opens up the option to purchase parts and literally piece together the item one wants. Often this is the route to take when rebuilding an old Lego set as it lets one control the cost much more effectively, however it require a more in-depth approach when choosing vendors and the purchasing process.
I was doing just this, until I came across a minifigure that I could not piece together. A vibrantly colored Mayan-esque minifig, Achu, with a heavily detailed cape and headpiece had captured my eye, and I could not look away. I instantly went onto the sellers storefront and added it into my cart. By the time I was done looking through that sellers inventory, I had a shopping cart that was quite overflowing. As is with most wish-think shopping, eventually the cart must get emptied to a degree. Pieces that I only thought were cool were removed, whole carts were even cancelled as I had them with five separate vendors on Bricklink. I skimmed my carts down and settled on making two orders of various pieces and minifigs, with both coming out to ~$30 each in total.
A question that could be asked is, “Why on earth did you spend $19 on that Lego guy!?”. A snide retort to that would be, “Because I wanted to!”, however that doesn’t explain my reasoning too easily. The best way to understand is that the cost for that minifigure is the cheapest that it will be from this point forward. Age can cause quite a bit of wear and tear on minifigures. Arms can crack, torsos can split, the legs can become loose. Each of these instances occur to many of the aging minifigs that are in the second hand market. Eventually, as these pieces age even more, their rarity will rise and so will their prices. Pieces specific to one set, especially discontinued sets, hold a higher base price than those that do not as well. A comparable example would be a Jurassic World set that I purchased for $50–55. The set came with a Lego Tyrannosaurus, and on Bricklink that T-Rex was worth $30 of the set’s total price!
The prices of the T-Rex and Achu, or even other pieces are not something that I can condemn. For myself, the enjoyment I receive from my hobby is worth much more than the once-in-a-while cost for plastic bricks. The same can be said for other hobbies, whether its someone collecting coins or another hanging football jerseys on the wall each would still receive gratification that overshadows that personal ‘cost’. With my orders complete, I now must wait for my 45 Lego pieces to arrive.
Fun Fact! This Lego piece is a 2x2 plate with a (kinda) readable article. It became notable after its picture and transcript were posted on flickr.com by Neil Crosby. The article reads:
“The greatest LEGO hero ever!
The LEGO news interviewed the hero after helping the old man. It was a quiet afternoon in the LEGO City. The minifigure hero walked through the streets and heard the old man shouting for help. Like every other minifigure the old man tried to protect the world against evil. He just forgot that he was old and not that fast anymore. After running through many streets the evil monster of the universe captured the old man and lifted him up in a tree. The LEGO hero ran when he heard the shouting, captured the villain and saved the old man in the tree. He only had one comment “I will do whatever it takes to save minifigures” ” Journalist: Annemette”
