How much money I made buying and selling LEGO for 4 years (side hustle)

For the last 4 years I've had a side hustle of buying and selling LEGO sets. In this video I go over what I learnt, how much I made and why I've now stopped investing in LEGO.

Disclaimer: Please do not consider anything in this video financial advice, I'm just here to share my experience.

00:00 Intro
00:20 How I got started
01:38 Starting to buy LEGO
01:59 Where I bought LEGO
02:57 Troubles with shipping
03:54 Problems I encountered
06:00 How much I made
08:45 Why I've stopped buying LEGO
10:11 Outro

[BrickTsar]

Thanks for sharing your experience in this experiment. I think with anything collectible it’s best to do like you said and just buy what you are willing to keep. The reason things like cloud city go for crazy prices is not because speculators bought a bunch when it was in stores but because not many people bought it when it was in stores. People can guess and like anything else - sometimes they’ll be right and sometimes they’ll be wrong. The good thing with Lego is that you rarely lose ever unless you just paid too much for something. I get tickled this days when I hear people talking about rare and valuable Lego sets that I remember sitting in clearance bins. Look out Black Panther

[iainsbricks]

Great video. I've been investing in Lego for a number of years now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
I prefer to sell at Brick Festivals and other physical sales events rather than ebay as I am not a fan of ebay, for the reasons you mentioned, plus I dislike having to post out a lot of sets.
Storage space is always going to be an issue but I'm lucky that i have a reasonable amount storage space where I live.
It also helps that my YouTube channel generates a small amount of income so I can reinvest that into Lego.
I do still have a full time job, but Lego is very much my main passion these days and I do have the time and resources to continue with my hobby.

[KI.]

I think best invesment in lego is just buy your most wanted set then play with it until you wanna trade it for a another secondhand lego set that you like

[tonyricca]

Nice video . I’m a little older than you if any indication of that I’ve been collecting Star Wars memorabilia since 1978 That being said I started buying Lego Star Wars since 1999 and I started reselling as a side hustle about 13 years ago. As a business owner separate from my side hustle and being in business for 28 years so I didn’t go into to this but to make some extra cash. First the days of massive returns are over except for a few exceptions. So many people now buying to invest and Lego pumping out sets on a larger scale. In my opinion there is money to be made but you have to be selective and patient and also pick up when there are sales or clearance. It seems the problem you had was the subject matter you chose to invest in wasn’t the greatest . Maybe for the exception of stranger things which only had one set and is doing well the others are longer holds. Patience and research is the name of the game . Bottom line is you did make a profit. How many things can you buy at retail and resell for profits these days???

[Jedi.Bricks]

this was a really honest and informative video - thanks chris! Also great to see a fellow uk lego collector and talking about shops, prices and things i know.

[erwincoplo]

I agree what you said about ebay. It pisses me off. I was selling pokémoncards on ebay and a few time they went crying/lying to ebay that it wasnt what was in the description and everytime ebay refunded their money and took it back from me. Even when i opend a case and gave them pictures.
Yeah, i hate ebay always favoring those scammers 🙄

[AdamHolubek]

Thanks for sharing your experience, your ups and downs and for not pretending that everything was/is perfect. Good luck!

[MattSmith-kslc]

I also stopped reselling LEGO about 8 years ago for the same reasons. I also find LEGO is now even more expensive than ever and fewer retailers have sales. Since there are so many good LEGO sets now, it's no big deal missing out on a few of them.

[JayFab]

Same boat. Stopped the acquisitions a year ago and now just selling off the inventory. But I don’t sell anything until they have been discontinued for 5 years. Then I start looking at sell values. Ran into the exact issue with a garbage in the box buyer. I bought the set from Target and it sat on my shelf for 6 years only to have someone buy the sealed set and have a complete meltdown. Since then I only buy online from Lego direct or the Lego store unless I plan to build it myself. But sales are rare so it is even harder to make profit. Small sets just aren’t worth the return so all my sets are larger investments. And the prices for these large shipping boxes to arrive undamaged is crazy. Not worth my time and I cannot wait until these are all gone.

[chrisken]

Young padawan.
Buy only Star Wars LEGOs where the Force is strong !!

[NicJoe-gb]

I started the journey about three years ago. I agree with some of what you said. Lego reselling isn't for everyone and is not easy money as some would make it out to be. I'm an expat living in Asia and I have found that retail arbitrage works well because of the cultural and language differences. I can capitalize upon this. Shipping is also extremely inexpensive and convenient. I make 3k USD a month in sales minimum. I just sell mostly minifigures, a few retired sets I picked up cheap and now parts. I made the same mistake as you in the beginning by buying when sets were on sale but not about to retire. I think overall I have had more good than bad experiences and will continue along this path. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I wish I had watched this video sooner before I made some of the same mistakes

[productionsinparadise]

The resale value and the oversaturation/overhype of the minifigures have taken a lot of fun out of the hobby (actually building and creating with the toy).
This is the same reason why I very quickly learned why I hate Funko Pops.

[ZombieRofl]

Thanks for sharing. This gives a pretty good overall view 🙂

[CastorRae]

I think the best way to make money with lego isnt speculating on new sets but to buy old sets secondhand and use bricklink to replace missing pieces, then sell as complete.

[tollyboy-]

Dude! You got 40-50% return in 4yrs. Thats awesome. Getting that on stocks and shares is a lot harder.

[pandasontheroad]

Your chart "Profit by theme" is quite interesting as most ppl invest into themes like SW or HP, particularly those two tend to be less profitable due to constant relaunches of same sets while other themes that were launched just once were the most profitable even I can't imagine to get attached to them so much due to shortlived series from consumer perspective.

[JellyLancelot]

I don't do it for profit, but just as a hobby, its nice to buy and enjoy sets as a hobby knowing that they have good resale value. May not be a liquid asset, but its nice to know that the sets hold value.

[lammyjammy]

This is useful information. I have been toying with the idea of getting more into flipping/selling, buying old bulk lots and trying to complete sets, all that, but it's not a good return on investment if you're strictly looking at it as a money thing. Better to look at it as a way to supplement your hobby. I think I will just stick to occasionally selling stuff so that I can offload the Lego from bulk lots that doesn't interest me so much, and then use the money to get the stuff that I really want. But trying to squeeze profit out of it is akin to stock market trading. You can make your bets on which LEGO sets will go up in value over time but you could be wrong and lose money. The more stuff you try to buy and flip, the more room it takes up. There's other ways to earn money that won't fill up your house with stuff.

[BrickBucks]

A few solid investments there... I think you could have really simplified your business and had better results for less time spent. Sorry to see you go! Also, would love to learn more about your price tracker - got an email I can reach you at?

[ygrbooks]

The craze is over, though there are more and more advisors who tell you which sets are "safe" investments. What is more disturbing, the quality of Lego has gone down dramatically while the prices have gone up exponentially.