freshvintage eBay Challenge: Lego Mania

On one of my lunchtime trips to a local thrift store last week, I came across a pile of these legos sitting on the floor near the front door:

A man had just dropped them off. Usually, the 100-year-old women at that thrift store won't let you touch anything until they bring it to the back and price it. But they were very busy and short on volunteers that day, so I asked if I could save them some time and buy the pile of legos right away. They said yes...two bucks each.  They were pirates and castle lego sets, so I figured that my four-year-old son, Finn, could play with them. At the same time, I also realized that the boxes looked a little old. Hmmmm...maybe they were worth some money. 

I went back to my office and looked up the biggest box (Black Seas Barracuda pirate ship) on eBay. I did a search for completed auctions and found that one had just sold for $172! Holy sh$t, I nearly peed my pants.  I searched for the other sets and found that two of them had sold for over $100. The smallest set sold for $35. 

Sorry, Finn...but I'll find you some other toys to play with.

I noticed that the sets that had the highest bids on eBay were usually 100% complete. Oh crap. That meant I had to either put together the whole set, or count all of the pieces. Keeping in mind that I was desperately trying to hide these six boxes from Finn, I figured it was easier to count the pieces. I printed inventory sheets from a site for Lego junkies called Peeron.com.

Not a particularly fun task. I spent every night for the past week counting legos. If I never see another lego, I will be a happy woman.

After all the inventories where finished, I had one set that was 100% complete. The rest were only missing a few pieces. And there were enough pirates, soldiers, swords and boats leftover for me to fill a separate ziploc bag. I just listed the six sets on eBay, along with the extra set of leftovers.

I thought it might be interesting to share the whole process of selling on eBay with you. People who don't sell on eBay that much don't realize that the fees can really take a bite out of your profit. There is a blog that I read regularly called The Auction Rebel by Gary Hendrickson. He is in the midst of a $10,000 Ebay Challenge, where he is trying to generate $10,000 in profit on eBay within five months by selling items he found at garage sales. He lists all of the costs and profits for his auctions each week.  I think I'll steal his idea for my Lego auctions:

Item	Cost	eBay Listing Fee	Final Price	eBay Final Value Fee	PayPal Fee	Net Profit
Black Seas Barracuda	$2.00	$0.75
Caribbean Clipper	$2.00	$0.75
Eldorado Fortress	$2.00	$0.75
Forbidden Island	$2.00	$0.75
Forestmen's Crossing	$2.00	$0.75
Forestmen's River Fortress	$2.00	$0.75
Pirate Leftovers	$0.00	$0.75
	####	$5.25

I know it isn't that interesting because I'm selling Legos. But I'm planning to sell more things on eBay in the near future, so if anyone is interested, I will continue to show the costs and fees. Eventually, you will see that it isn't worth it to sell small ticket items on eBay. I try to only sell things that I know will get me at least $20 in profit.

Here are a few definitions for those of you who don't know much about eBay:

Listing Fee: When you list an item, you pay a fee based on the starting price of the item. I started all of my Lego auctions at $9.99, so my listing fee was $.40. I also have a gallery picture for each auction, which adds $.35. The gallery picture is the photo that shows up when you search for items.

Final Value Fee: This fee is based on the winning bid. It is at least 5.25% of the final price, depending on the price range. If I sell one of my lego sets for $100, the Final Value fee will be $3.94.

PayPal Fee: I only accept PayPal for my auctions because it is easier for me. I don't want to have to wait for checks to clear or money orders in the mail. The PayPal fee is 2.9% + $0.30 for credit cards. My fee would be $3.20 on a $100.00 transaction.  The first few credit card transactions are free.

You can find out more info on eBay fees here.
You can find more info about PayPal fees here.

My auctions end on Sunday, July 15th. I'll update the grid again with the winning bids. I'm hoping these legos might be my ticket to one of these!  Well...I might have to settle for this. But hopefully not this.

Comments

[Amy]

oh I So remember lego, as a child we had two sets we put together and we played with them constantly :-)

[Heidi]

Great buy. Even before you said anything about completed listings I knew they were winners! I think those are older sets. I just picked up a Harry Potter set and I need to check if it's complete so thanks for the Peeron.com link! Hope your legos do well--can't wait to see those totals!

[Ginny]

I'm a powerseller on eBay & you are right the fees kill you. I barely make any money at all, but anything helps since I'm a stay at home mom. I can't wait to see your totals! Awesome find BTW!

[heather]

I had no idea old legos went for so much! I'll have to start looking for them! Hope you get your camera...

[Rosemary]

Amazing find!!
I hope you make lots of money!
I want to sell on Ebay someday.
Thanks for sharing that info with us.
Rosemary

[Audrey]

I sold an old Vic 20 computer on ebay a few years back. I was going to trash it but looked on ebay and saw that people were actually buying these. The guy who bought it said he wanted it mostly because the box was in such good shape. It is amazing what people will buy! There is a collector for everything. I keep a spreadsheet when I sell things on ebay and it does help you realize just what your efforts are worth. I just found your blog a week or two ago and I love your sense of humor (new uses for cupcake liners!!). Good luck on your hunt for goodies.

[Tiffany]

Holy Cow...congrats on the awesome deal!

Happy Ebaying!
Tiffany

[jenny holiday]

You are a riot! lol! Fantastic post!! Really great!! Love it!!
Best of Luck!!!!!
xoxo Jenny

[Gary H]

I just found your blog while checing my stats this morning. A great read for those who share our addiction.

Congratulations on the find. I hope you do well with these.

Gary H.