Plastic to Gold: Ways to Make Money with LEGO Bricks.
The first LEGO bricks were made in 1958, and they have remained popular ever since. People of all ages can make money from their hobby. Or you can start a business to make advantage of the growth and interest out there in LEGOs. As the company and industry has been around for decades. Find how to make money from LEGO bricks below.
In fact, the LEGO Group, the company that manufactures the plastic bricks we all love so much, is growing year on year. Fueled by the growth of the AFOL groups (adult fan of LEGO), its consumer sales are growing over 10% per year, and its market share is outpacing the rest of the toy industry.
It is clear that the LEGO Group is making vast sums of money, but is it all possible for you to share in their success? Can you make a profit or even a few extra bucks from LEGO bricks? The answer to this question is yes. Whether you are an AFOL, or just someone looking to make a side income, there are numerous ways to make money from LEGO, including the five ideas explored below.
1. Sell LEGO on an online marketplace like eBay
Perhaps the easiest way to make money from LEGOs is to sell your unwanted sets, minifigures, and bricks on eBay or similar services, including Facebook. Complete sets with the original box and instructions are always popular, but incomplete vintage sets can also sell for big money. Use websites like brickset.com to help with set identification, and use eBay's completed sales function to determine their current market value.
Some minifigures, even in used condition, are worth a great deal. If you are lucky enough to find the LEGO Star Wars Boba Fett minifigure from the Cloud City set (10123), for example, you could be over $500 better off. Or find other online marketplaces for selling items.
2. Sell LEGO bricks on Bricklink or BrickOwl
Another way many LEGO builders supplement their income is by maybe buying and/or then reselling LEGO bricks on the bricklink.com or brickowl.com e-commerce platform, which are the two leading marketplaces (but there are others). Each has their own benefits.
Recently purchased by the LEGO Group, Bricklink allows LEGO builders to purchase specific parts, often in bulk quantities. Some of the stores on Bricklink have over a million bricks up for sale. Most of these store owners purchase new LEGO sets when they are on clearance, open them and sort the bricks (known as 'parting out' in the LEGO community), before uploading the pieces into their online inventories.
Although small Bricklink stores can be profitable, the more inventory you have listed, the more buyers you will attract. Maintaining a large store is time-consuming and will require a dedicated storage area.
3. LEGO set investing
With a few exceptions, the value of sealed LEGO sets appreciates over time. Many fans of LEGO buy extra sets and carefully store them with a view to selling them years down the line for much more than they originally paid for them. For example, had you purchased the Cafe Corner set for $139.99 when it was released in 2007, you could sell it unopened on eBay today for around $2500.
This is an extreme example, but there are lots of opportunities to double your money with LEGO set investing. Purchase sets when they are close to being retired from the LEGO catalog, and focus on themes with enduring popularity, like trains, the modular Creator range, castles, and pirates.
Most LEGO sets go up in value if you keep them for long enough in pristine condition, and many people have started to consider LEGO a serious alternative investment akin to investing in whiskey, wine, or art. Websites such as BrickEconomy and Brickpicker have been developed to help investors track the value of their LEGO set portfolios, and more people every month are starting to amass collections of LEGO sets with a view to selling them years down the line for massive profits.
Long-term LEGO investing can lead to massive profits. If you are patient and willing to play the long game by holding onto your LEGO investments for five years or more, massive returns are achievable.
For example, in 2006 you could have bought the LEGO City Heavy Loader (Set 7900) for approximately $15. It now routinely sells for more than $100 dollars in new and sealed condition. And this is by no means an exceptional result. Dozens of LEGO sets have shown a similar level of appreciation over the years. The Carousel (Set 10257) was selling in stores for $159 in 2017, and it now routinely sells on the secondary market for more than $300.
You can also make short-term LEGO profits. If you target the right sets and purchase them at the right time, it is also possible to achieve larger profits from your LEGO investments over a shorter time period.
The LEGO Group will only produce each LEGO set for a limited time period. Some LEGO sets are retired after one season, whereas others remain in the active catalog for several years. The trick to holding your LEGO investments for the shortest possible time is to buy your sets just before they are due to retire, preferably when they are on sale. If you've chosen your sets correctly, demand will exceed the supply, and the prices will steadily rise. At that point, you can choose to cash out by selling your inventory on eBay, Amazon, or Bricklink.
The Harry Potter and Hedwig BrickHeadz set (41615) was a great example of a short-term LEGO investment. Released in 2018, the set retailed for around $15, but as soon as it retired it doubled in value, as Harry Potter and LEGO enthusiasts scrambled to add it to their collections.
One of the pros to investing is it's hard to lose all of the funds you've invested. Because you are sinking your money into a physical product, even if you haven't invested in the most sought-after sets, you will still own the bags of brand new LEGO bricks that make up the sets. These are valuable to LEGO builders, and you can recoup most of the money you've put into a poor LEGO investment by selling the parts and pieces individually on Bricklink or eBay. Compared to many alternative investments, LEGO is relatively low risk.
One downside is Storage. Even the smaller LEGO sets take up a lot of space, especially if you've invested in multiple copies. Unless you have a dedicated area to store your investment in, you will soon find that boxes of LEGO begin to encroach on your living space.
Furthermore, most of the larger sets are factory sealed with strips of LEGO-branded tape. In order to sell your investment sets for the highest price, this tape must remain attached to the boxes. Unfortunately, dust and moisture can loosen the tape, and this needs to be considered when you are choosing the best place to store your sets. As a result, many serious LEGO investors opt to store their collections in temperature-controlled storage facilities.
In some cases, it can take time and/or it can be challenging to sell your investment sets if they have gone up in value. The more a set grows in value, the more the pool of potential buyers will shrink. Although you will eventually be able to find someone willing to pay the going market price for a desirable set, you may have to wait days, weeks or even months. It is not always easy to get your money out once you've decided now is the time to sell.
Rereleased LEGO sets may also impact your investment. Occasionally, the LEGO Group will bring a retired set out of retirement. This will obviously affect your investment, as collectors who previously missed out on a set now have the opportunity to purchase it at retail price. Although there will always be the completists who require a copy of every single set, a rereleased set can significantly reduce the demand for the original.
As with all alternative investments, LEGO investing will be more suited to some people than others. If you have enough space, are willing to carefully research the best sets to buy, and are in a position to keep your money locked up in LEGO sets for a number of years, LEGO investing might just be perfect for you.
4. Sell custom instructions on Rebrickable
If you are a creative builder capable of designing MOCs (My Own Creations) that will appeal to other LEGO fans, you can sell your custom instructions on rebrickable.com or eBay. You probably will not make a fortune, but if you enjoy building, why not generate a little side income from an activity or even a hobby you would be doing anyway?
5. Start a LEGO-themed YouTube channel or use Social Media
Finally, if you are a talented builder or have a large LEGO collection, you could start a YouTube channel to showcase your best builds, review new sets, or discuss LEGO news. Several LEGO YouTubers are making a full-time income from their channels. Or set up sponsored posts on Instagram or Facebook, or use TikTok to talk about and out together creative LEGO content to gain followers to monetize.
In the past, they derived most of their income from running ads on their videos, but since YouTube changed their monetization policy, along with other toy content producers, LEGO YouTubers like JANGBricks and SolidBrixStudios have had to adapt their approach. JANGBricks funnels his viewers towards his patreon.com account, and SolidBrixStudios makes money by advertising his custom minifigure business. Find other ways to make money on Youtube.
Conclusion - yes it is possible to make money with LEGOs
As you can see, there are lots of ways to make money from LEGO. Even if you only dabble with them as a hobby. Use the ideas in this article as a starting point, and focus your creativity to turn plastic LEGO bricks into a reliable source of income.
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