Lego Fatigue

[LiveLean]

Our sons, 12 and 10, seem to be outgrowing Legos. We have a spare room that looks like Hoarders: Lego Edition. I've delivered an ultimatum that I want it all cleared out or else I'll do it myself. (Wife and I want to transform it back to the home gym it once was -- at least for display purposes as we look to move out of our 3,400-square foot clown house.)

Stumbling through it today and seeing the paperwork for 50-plus sets and all of the little individual mini-figures that each cost $3 to $5, it killed me that there's probably $5,000 to $6,000 wasted in a jumbled mix on the floor -- money that my wife and my very un-MMM in-laws spent, though the kids also used any Target gift cards that came their way on Legos.

As a kid, I remember when you just got a box of random Lego blocks, not a set with connect-the-dots instructions. (Great revised business model by Lego, of course). Our kids would put the set together and either display it on the shelf (rarely) or just dismantle it with the pieces going into the giant abyss of Legos.

Clearly we have some work to do in teaching the kids the value of money.

Question: How do I unload this cache and get anything back for it? I'm guessing the value, such as it is, is in these mini-figures.

[Lkxe]

Replaybricks.com Brinklink.com  eBay  theplasticbrick.com brianstoys.com. I haven't used any of these (spouse likes to tuck them away for " future grands?"


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[relena]

I was searching on craigslist for used lego, but they seem to fetch for a tiny bit less than new. For me it was better to wait for a really good sale and buy a box. You might want to sell them on craigslist. It might be better if the kids could try to find out which set which belongs with what.

[Luthien]

You can definitely make a decent chunk of money selling used legos. A quick Google search tells me the going rate is $6-12/pound for unsorted. Higher prices for sorted sets.

[forummm]

You know, selling them sounds like such a hassle. Just box them up and send them to me and I'll put them to good use.

[rocketpj]

Seriously, box them up and tuck them away for your kids to take with them.  It isn't like Lego is going to deteriorate over time.  Then when/if they have kids they can just have the big box of pieces.

It doesn't take much space.  I know several kids who are currently playing with second and third generation legos.

[NumberJohnny5]

You know, selling them sounds like such a hassle. Just box them up and send them to me and I'll put them to good use.

Hey, I'll come to you AND I'll even give you $100 if you help carry them out to my car.

[Workingmomsaves]

My son is 4 and he just started getting into the real Legos. He will play with them for hours.  I second the box them up and save them for future generations. If you really don't want them I think easier than selling would be to donate them and write it off on your taxes.

[FLA]

my BFF has two Lego obsessed boys.  She buys them by the pound on eBay, says they are a hot ticket item.  It's ok that they are not sets at their age and also because I send them those books with how to build many things, not just put together an exact replica of a Star Wars ship and then you are pretty much done.  The books get harder as age increases

[2Cent]

Get your kids to sort it out assemble the originals, print any missing instructions and take a nice picture for e-bay. Then give them a cut of the proceeds. Selling your toys is a good learning experience in terms of value of money, depreciation of assets(they fetch a lot less than they cost to buy), and how to sell things.

You can let them use the money for a new bike, or a computer or just for their savings.

[SomedayStache]

YES - get the kiddos involved and let them keep the proceeds!

[mm1970]

Our sons, 12 and 10, seem to be outgrowing Legos. We have a spare room that looks like Hoarders: Lego Edition. I've delivered an ultimatum that I want it all cleared out or else I'll do it myself. (Wife and I want to transform it back to the home gym it once was -- at least for display purposes as we look to move out of our 3,400-square foot clown house.)

Stumbling through it today and seeing the paperwork for 50-plus sets and all of the little individual mini-figures that each cost $3 to $5, it killed me that there's probably $5,000 to $6,000 wasted in a jumbled mix on the floor -- money that my wife and my very un-MMM in-laws spent, though the kids also used any Target gift cards that came their way on Legos.

As a kid, I remember when you just got a box of random Lego blocks, not a set with connect-the-dots instructions. (Great revised business model by Lego, of course). Our kids would put the set together and either display it on the shelf (rarely) or just dismantle it with the pieces going into the giant abyss of Legos.

Clearly we have some work to do in teaching the kids the value of money.

Question: How do I unload this cache and get anything back for it? I'm guessing the value, such as it is, is in these mini-figures.

Tough one because these are such good toys.  My MIL kept all of my husband's and his sister's, and sent them to us in one very large box.  So we have a stash of 40+ year old legos.

Plus my 9 year old was pretty crazy for them, and we have a ton of the kits.

So, you can go one of three ways:
1.  Box them up in one big box and save them for your grandkids.  Which - I dunno if that's mustachian or not.  Depends on space constraints, but we LOVE the legos.

2.  Box them up into a big lot and sell them locally or on-line.

3.  Painstakingly separate them out into the kits - as in, rebuild as many as you can, completely, and then put them into individual bags.  To sell.  You can probably get more money this way, but it's a lot more work.

So, what do you and the kids want to do?  Personally, it was very freeing when we took the 30+ (maybe even 100, heck I don't know) individual kits and just put them in the plastic drawers with everything else.  They are color coded though.  It's much more fun to build your own stuff.  But my older child did go through a phase at age 4 to 7 where he was REALLY into following directions - so he liked having the kits separated.

[zolotiyeruki]

+1 to the "box it up and save it for the grandkids" suggestion.  With an alternative suggestion of "I'd be happy to give them a good home!"  My parents still have my legos from when I was a kid (and won't let me take them! *sob* ) and their grandkids are *always* playing with them.

We used to have our legos in 20-qt plastic bins, but when we got new cabinets for that room, we put all the legos in a wide, shallow drawer.  That has made a HUGE difference--it's much harder for them to get scattered across the floor, and when kids actually play with them, it's easier to paw through the legos and find what you're looking for.

[Thegoblinchief]

Depends on storage space but I'd consider keeping them for next generation. At the very least, keep some of it around  for when friends with younger kids come to play.

[LiveLean]

Depends on storage space but I'd consider keeping them for next generation. At the very least, keep some of it around  for when friends with younger kids come to play.

OP here, surprised to see so many variations on this comment. I don't want stuff around that's not being used. It's just clutter, weighs us down, takes up space. Even if I was "keeping them for next generation," my guys are 12 and 10. Why keep anything for 20 years minimum?

I kept a lot of stuff from my childhood thinking the boys would like - Matchbox cars, baseball cards, etc. And they did like them, briefly. I've since hawked everything.

[cchrissyy]

i recently cleared out an incredible amount of legos.  I took them to a toy consignment shop in town. If that hadn't been available, it would have been Craigslist. 

When we had the box and instructions, we actually constructed it and made sure to include every last piece, since the store can get more for full sets.   Then I sorted out the people, and the other interesting parts like wheels and plants, and put them in their own bags.  The rest, the bulk classic legos and things from sets we don't entirely have anymore, those just all got sold together. Or at least, I hope they did! haven't visited the consignment place lately to find out!

While getting this organized, it became easier to find - and enjoy - the few sets the kids actually cared to keep. so now we do have some legos left, but only the preferred stuff, not the clutter!

[chouchouu]

I would sell them on eBay. My kids are just getting old enough for real lego and I was looking at buying on eBay but the prices are quite high so I think you'll get a good amount to put in their accounts. Seems like lego is more expensive in the US as you priced them at least $100 a kit? Only the really fancy kits sell for that much here.

Thought I might ask, I'm going to buy them lego this Christmas, I was thinking of a kit but want it to be played with rather than just displayed. Should I go for the classic instead?

[aFrugalFather]

It saddens me a bit to read about growing out of Lego because I never did and hope that my kids won't either, but I know it is inevitable that they will want to move on.  Have they tried Lego mindstorm?  The robotic aspect may give them some new enthusiasm for creating things.  But if you are set to get rid of it, the easiest is just put the lot on craigslist, but as others have mentioned you will always get more money when you get put it back together in as close to original form as possible. 

[zolotiyeruki]

We have some friends whose kids have grown out of their legos.  I told my wife to offer her $6/lb... *rubs hands together with a maniacal grin*

[aFrugalFather]

We have some friends whose kids have grown out of their legos.  I told my wife to offer her $6/lb... *rubs hands together with a maniacal grin*

$6 is pretty good to buy at if it includes sort of complete and clean sets.  So many people sell for $10 a pound with no minifigures and just random pieces which is def. too expensive unless its a particular bundle that you need for something. 

[Melissa]

We always taught our kids the importance of keeping the boxes and instructions. A few years ago they sold off most of their Legos (except the Harry Potter collection).  My daughter had a Creator set that was retired. She had received it as a Christmas gift so it cost her nothing.  When she went through he parts list to ensure everything was there and sold it on EBay......I was shocked! When it was a new set it was 49.99.  She sold it for almost $200 and she played with it for 4 years first. If you have original boxes and instructions you are golden!!

[merula]

I would leave it up to your kids. If they want to be involved, they're old enough to manage the research-assemble-package-list process of selling them on eBay or Craigslist. If they don't, then I think you make the decision if you want to do it or just sell by the pound.

I don't think it's worth keeping all of them, given that you have a roomful, but maybe keep a few special sets, or the random pieces that are leftover when you've sold everything saleable? My parents kept everything, rooms and rooms of toys for three kids. My kids don't even have the chance to play with everything they "saved for the grandkids" because they're just not over there enough to play with anything but their favorites. (Also, I have two boys, my parents had two girls and a boy, but they're very into gender norms so they won't let the grandsons play with 50%+ of the toys they have.)

[Bello_Marinaio]

Legos are well made.  As others have mentioned you should store a couple of the best sets for the grandkids.  One of my sons 6th birthday gifts was my original castle set that was 30 years old!  He loves it just as much as I did when I was a kid.

My 7 year old now has maybe $300 ($500? including old castle and space sets) of Legos and its already overwhelming.  I plan to stop buying Lego sets for a year or two.  He hasn't finished building the last several sets.  They were gifts from various relatives.

[powersuitrecall]

To add to the "organize!" suggestions ... Before we had kids, DW and I both each had boxes of random Legos & a stack of instructions from our childhood.  We spent an entire weekend reconstructing all of the sets and putting them in plastic bags.  Sooo much space Lego!  We are planning to give it to the kids when they are older ... I'm really glad we did.  Maybe your kids will be glad too?

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

My kids have started to play with my husband's old Legos and they love them.

But... my MIL moved those things like 8 times. It would surely have made more sense to sell them, then buy a bunch of used ones when the time came rather than storing and moving them for 20 years.

[LiveLean]

OP here. In the month since they boxed them all up, they've been sitting untouched in our 12-year-old's closet, taking up much of the closet. I'd like to think I could inspire them to put them back together in the interests of selling -- we kept the instructions, but not the boxes. I'm guessing they'll pull out the mini-figures and either keep those or be inspired to sell them separately.

Meanwhile, I've cleaned up and repainted the former Lego room. Not sure what we'll do with it, but if nothing else it will give potential buyers a lot of food for thought of what they can use it for. Looking to sell our 3,400 square foot clown house within two years.

[Gone Fishing]

Sell high (now) and buy low (later, when you have grandkids).  Legos are great toys but the bubble will pop eventually (e.g. Beanie Babies).  The stories of kids with collections like yours abound, and I have personally witnessed many of them.  When all this inventory eventually hits the market they will be dirt cheap.   

[Homey The Clown]

I don't really have anything to add to the original poster, but wanted to say that my 5 yo son loves Lego. He will play with them for hours. We got him a number of sets and at first he would build them over and over. The last couple, he built once and now uses them to build whatever his little master builder mind tells him. He has plenty for now, although there was a good priced huge bulk set at Legoland (not mustachian, but we did get BOGO entry for him and his cousin). As he gets a bit older, I want to work with him to build more complex designs. I second the idea of using Lego bricks in a maker sort of way, ala mindstorm or something else like this: http://woodgears.ca/domino/.

[Immerito]

Get your kids to sort it out assemble the originals, print any missing instructions and take a nice picture for e-bay. Then give them a cut of the proceeds. Selling your toys is a good learning experience in terms of value of money, depreciation of assets(they fetch a lot less than they cost to buy), and how to sell things.

You can let them use the money for a new bike, or a computer or just for their savings.

I vote for this. The kids are responsible for the mess; they should have a part in taking care of it.