The (not so) Secret to Finding Discount LEGO Sets

9 March 2022 update: Added some tips from Target.com. Added the Reddit Lego Deals page.

Buying LEGO can be expensive.  At the in person sales that I have done, I have seen many a parent balk at the prices of sets and minifigures.  "That set is how much?"  While I don't know what the LEGO Company's profit margin is per set, I do know that they are doing okay.  Thankfully, there are some ways to get discount LEGO sets.

LEGO Shop @ Home: Buying from the source can sometimes be a good deal.  This however is not always the case.  For most of the year, they throw a lot of sets up for sale that they weren't able to sell.  There are a few key times however.  The Star Wars set sales during the May the Fourth sales and the Brick Friday Sales offer some great deals.  Often they throw a few other sales in there, but you need to pay attention to them.  If you get on their mailing list, you can get notices of when they are coming up.

LEGO Shop VIP Program: While it’s not the greatest VIP program in the world, it gives you the opportunity to build points to garner discounts in the future. For every $100 you spend, you get $5 off in the future. Sometimes LEGO offers double VIP points so $10 back for spending $100. While some of the other deals they offer aren’t the most exciting, if you plan to buy a set from LEGO, you might as well get the points that go with your purchase.

BrickSet.com - Amazon.com deals in the US: Amazon has kept a good deal of discounts on sets.  If you pay attention, they have a great deal of some of the main lines (CITY, Friends, Star Wars, etc.) at a 20% discount.  As they approach Christmas time, they often increase sales to include discounts of 30% or more.  It's definitely worth it to check this site out before buying a LEGO set to see if there's a discount.  BrickSet used to have a Walmart sales site, but that one has since been shut down.  

BrickPicker.com: BrickPicker is more of a resource for those who collect, invest, and sell on the secondary market.  It focuses on LEGO sets that have long since retired and where people are willing to pay big money for some of the rarer sets.  They do show some current discounts on Amazon in various countries and if you follow the forums, you can see what deals people are finding at some of the big brand stores.

Walmart and Target: Both of these retailers have either pushed all of the fan sites to take down their sales searches or people took them down on their own.  I'm not sure what happened, but I have yet to find an easy way to find the LEGO deals at these stores.  Has anyone found something useful out there?  If so, please let me know. I have found that joining Target Circle gets you 1% of every purchase that you can use towards your next purchase. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. Also, Target will run deals every so often where they will send you a $10 eGift card for every $50 purchase.

Ratuken.com (formerly Ebates.com)- Okay so this is not a way to save money buying LEGO in a direct way.  However, there are a few ways you can take advantage of it.  For those of you not familiar, Ratuken/Ebates is a website where you sign up, go to the website before you shop, and then Ratuken/Ebates and you get a cut of the total sale when you are done.  If you sign up, you get spam emails every day.  The good news is, you can use it to buy LEGO.  LEGO Shop @ Home typically offers 2.5% cash back.  You place an order, they hold onto 2.5% of the sale, and then they return it to you in quarterly payments.  You can receive a check or link it to your PayPal account.  Historically around Christmas time Ratuken/Ebates has between 5% and 7.5% cash back deal on LEGO Shop @ Home.  Combine that with Double VIP points and it was a pretty good deal!  Also, you can share their site with friends and get a referral payment (amount varies).  The link I placed is just to the site and not an attempt to get the referral payment out of you.  Amazon.com and Walmart are linked to Ratuken/Ebates too, but often they are linked to specific categories of products.  I have yet to see them give cash back for toys.

Of note, recently I stopped getting cashback on Ratuken with purchases from LEGO.com. Perhaps I over purchased? Has anyone else seen this issue?

Brickseek.com - A reader told me about this one. This site was originally created to help people find LEGO sets. It has since expanded to a much larger inventory. You can still search for sets though. You can pick stores near you or you can search for online deals as well. While I have not used this site personally, I’m told it’s not always 100% accurate for what is in the store, but often times it lets you know when items have been placed on clearance. The reader who emailed me about this one said he got a few sets for around 50% off.

SlickDeals.net - A reader mentioned this one to me as well. It is another site that lists deals and you can search specifically for LEGO sets. The site is run by people posting the deals they find. So it’s only as good as the information that is posted. If you live close to a store and go often, it might be useful for you to use if someone posts a tip. It looks like this site works overseas as well.

Facebook Groups - I will admin that I don’t have the time to use social media so I’m not the best advocate here. A reader mentioned to me that there are Facebook groups out there for people to share deals they have found related to LEGO. If you are into Facebook, it might be something worth checking out.

Thanks to OJG for the last 3 tips!

Reddit Lego Set Deals - Some of the deals may not be deals to you or ones you care about, but you can always scroll through to see if there’s anything worth your hard earned funds.

What else am I missing?  Feel free to comment on any sites I'm not aware of or you can email me here.  

I'm not an affiliate to any of these sites and I am not paid to endorse any of them.  If you want to support Bricks for Bricks, you’ll have to wait until my BrickLink store re-opens in a few years. Thanks and happy building!

Bricks for Pencils of Promise

Bricks for Bricks is always looking for local groups to help out with, but we've decided to support some larger groups as well since our online sales will not always be from people in the local area.  With that being said, the first group we have decided to support is Pencils of Promise.  Have you ever heard of it?  Pencils of Promise was founded in October 2008 by Adam Braun.  While traveling in India, he asked a boy what he wanted most in the world.  The boy responded that he wanted a pencil.  Adam handed the boy a pencil and so it began.  Since then, Adam put together a team that collects funds to build schools in Guatemala, Ghana, Laos, and Nicaragua.  Besides building schools (329 finished since 2009), they provide support to teachers, water and health programs for the school, and scholarships for students.  If you want to see more about them, you can visit the Pencils of Promise site here.  

So what's the plan?  Bricks for Bricks is focused on giving back.  In the past year or so of operations, we've given a small amount of funds to various local groups by participating in sales at their fundraising events.  Now that we're selling online, it's time to reach out to help a wider audience.  Why not help people around the world?  So here is the announcement...

Starting today, 24 January 2016, bricks for bricks will be giving 15% of our profits to Pencils of Promise.

Pencils of Promise lists a number of goal amounts:
-$25 provides educational opportunities for 1 student
-$500 supports a teacher
-$10,000 provides a WASH (Water Sanitation, and Hygiene) for a school
-$25,000 builds a Pencils of Promise school

So what can we do?  Support a few students?  Support a classroom of students?  Support the class and their teacher?  Keep the class healthy?  Build a school?

What can you do?  Just check out our STORE and get the minifigures you were looking for.  We'll track our profits and give 15% to Pencils of Promise.  Simple as that.  No extra work required.

One other bonus...

Starting today until our supply is exhausted, we'll give a free brick separator to anyone making a purchase of $25 or more.

Brick separators are sold by LEGO for $2.49.

250 million children worldwide lack basic reading, writing, and math skills.  Together we can change that.  Every purchase can help make a difference.  Thank you for your support!

Happy 2016!

It's been a bit since I've posted.  You saw a lot of posts around the holiday period because I took some time off from my day job and got to spend more time with my fun job.  I've finished off most of my building backlog minus one set.  I'm working on the Simpson's Kwik-e-Mart set.  It's taken me longer to build since it's a larger set and I've been busy.  I'm taking notes and pictures and will post a review once I'm done.  There are 17 bags and I'm only through around 4 at this point.  A good build so far though.

For those of you that follow the LEGO company and their sales, one big event for them is the day after Christmas.  They put a lot of sets on sale.  You can find some good deals although you have to act fast.  Often times I'll check in the morning on 26 December and most of the sets they had listed are sold out already.  I was able to pick up some Simpson's Series 2 minifigures and a LEGO Movie set at half off.  I also picked up another Rey's Speeder set which means some additional inventory for the store.  

LEGO also released some new sets on 1 January.  There are some new Star Wars - The Force Awakens sets, the new LEGO Nexo Knights, and a few others ones so check them out.  I haven't bought any yet, but will let you know if I do.

I also managed to catch the LEGO Ideas - The Big Bang Theory set on sale at Amazon to add some minifigures to the store inventory.

Were you able to catch any of the sales after Christmas or in the New Year?  Have you purchased any of the new 2016 sets?  Let me know in the comments!

55 Minifigures for $62 with Free Shipping???? WHAT????

At my last show in Rio Rancho I had a parent tell me that she found a large number of minifigures online for dirt cheap.  It was something like 46 minifigures for $28 or something.  The parent said I should check it out and that she had placed an order.  They hadn't arrived yet, but were due in from China.  My first thought was that these minifigures cannot be true LEGO minifigures. 

So I did a Google search... I won't post the link, but I'm sure you can find them...  I found a site selling 55 Marvel Super Hero minifigures for $61.36 with free shipping from Chenghai, China.  The cost goes down with the more sets that you purchase.  The figures are labeled as "LEGO Compatible," but clearly are not LEGO brand as if you look closely you can see the LEGO studs do not have the LEGO logo on them.  

From looking at the pictures, the representations look pretty darn accurate and very close to LEGO figures.  They clearly did some major copying of what LEGO did.  I'm sure this company has paid LEGO royalty fees for using its designs and I'll bet they've paid for the use of the various Super Hero logos and designs too.  (yes, I'm kidding there)  Not having purchased these myself, I can't say whether the quality matches LEGO or anything else related to the physical products.

Should you buy knockoff minifigures?  That's completely up to you.  My personal opinion is that you shouldn't.  Besides the fact that I sell LEGO minfigures and this is direct competition to my business, you don't know what you're going to get.  If there are issues, do you trust a seller in China to provide you with good customer service or to help fix issues?  If you're not concerned about that, then give it a shot.  If you or your kids don't care that the minifigures are not from LEGO, then you can probably save some money.  If you've purchased some knockoff minifigures, please let me know.  Send an email (store@bricksforbricks.com) or post in the comments.  I'd like to know what you think of them.

With all that being said, please know that the minifigures sold by Bricks for Bricks are all genuine LEGO branded minifigures.  There are no knock off parts for China or anywhere else.

How Much is a Waffle?

First off, thanks to all those who came out and supported Stapleton Elementary School in Rio Rancho.  We sold a lot of minifigures and our new addition of minifigure Christmas ornaments.  Support from Bricks for Bricks and other vendors there will help the school with many of their programs.

At the shows I go to, I get to talk to many fans of Lego.  Some are kids, some are parents with kids who are fans, some teens and adults who are fans, and many others.  I had some interesting conversations at the Stapleton Elementary School event.  One of them involved a missing waffle.  Not a real waffle, but a LEGO waffle.  It's a 2x2 round tile plate and I'm pretty sure that it comes from set 70818 The LEGO Movie: Double Decker Couch.  It looks something like this:

This screen shot comes from www.brickset.com on the parts lists for set 70818.

Long story short, a boy at a friend's house lost the waffle part and they wanted to replace it.  So they went onto E-Bay and found the part for $4.  Needless to say they weren't happy to pay that much for the new part.

So what should you do if that happens to you?  Well first off, be warned that there are a lot of folks out there on E-Bay, Amazon, and other sites looking to make a quick buck.  Did someone profit on this one?  My guess is yes.  

Set 70818 was sold on LEGO.com from 1 January 2015 to 23 November 2015.  I didn't catch when the part was lost, but if it was before 23 November, it would have been good to just buy the set for the $14.99 that it retailed for versus paying the $4.00 for the one part.  

Another option is to check with the LEGO Company themselves.  If you lost a piece, they will sell you replacements.  I have never used the service, but it is available.  You can go to their website HERE.

If you need to find the part info, you can go to www.brickset.com and type in the set number.  They will give you an inventory list with all of the info on every part in the set.

Another option is to go to Bricklink.  Bricklink is not as easy to use, but the competition is much greater so sometimes you can find some good deals.  I looked up the part and the info I found is HERE.  233 sellers are selling 1,797 waffle parts on Bricklink.  You have to weed through a few if you don't want to deal with foreign sellers.  The first US seller I found is from Texas and has the part for $0.30, but the shipping is $2.45 and the minimum order is $2.00 so you'd have to find a few more things to buy from that seller.  Either way, $0.30 is much better than $4.00 for the part.  Granted you'll probably end up paying a little more than $4 due to the minimum order, but you'll get a few more things.

I hope my suggestions helped.  Worse case, find a LEGO fan (or nerd if you want to call me that) and I'll be glad to help you find the missing piece and give you a bunch of options.

Next up! 5 Dec - 9 AM to 3 PM - E. Stapleton Elementary in Rio Rancho

Our next sale will be on 5 December 2015 from 900 AM to 300 PM at E. Stapleton Elementary for their annual Holiday Craft Fair.  The school is located at 3100 8th Ave NE  Rio Rancho, NM 87124.  You can click the link for a Google Maps view of where the school is located.

We have a few new items in to include some Star Wars sets, some new minifigures, and a few new LEGO Movie sets.  If there's anything specific you want me to have at the show, send me an e-mail here. 

Thank You!

Thanks Albuquerque fans of Lego for coming out to support this past Saturday.  We supported the Manzano High School Marching Band and their future events.

The next show is on 5 December at E. Stapleton Elementary in Rio Rancho.  This will be the second year Bricks for Bricks will be selling at this show.

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Another note for Albuquerque Lego fans, Bricks and Minifigs in ABQ reopened yesterday (14 November).  The store is under new ownership.  I haven't been yet, but I'm excited to know that ABQ will still have this great store.

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I'm going to continue working on building my online store and I'll be posting a few reviews of sets that I've acquired, but haven't been able to open up yet.  Those sets include Wall-E, The Big Bang Theory, the Kwik-E-Mart, and the Ferrari F40.

Sale this Saturday!

Bricks for Bricks will be at the Manzano High School Royal Guard Marching Band craft fair fundraiser.  It is this Saturday, 14 November from 1000 AM to 300 PM.  For more details, go here.

I'm making sure inventory is in order with some of the new sets an minifigures acquired in the past year as well as some bags of bricks so you can buy whatever you want.  Hope you can stop by and get some bricks.  Plus be sure to check out some of the other vendors.

Break--Break

Bricks for Bricks currently has one more show scheduled before Christmas.  I'm working hard to also get our inventory online so people can order right from our website.  It's still a work in progress.  It's taking a while to load all of the inventory and I need to make sure the process is in place before I open it to the public.  So stay tuned!

Sad News in Albuquerque for LEGO fans (Updated with good news)

In case you didn't see, Bricks and Minifigs was bought and has new owners.  YAY!

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While Albuquerque does not have a LEGO branded store owned by the the LEGO Group, it does have a franchise of the company Bricks and Minifigs.  Bricks and Minifigs sells sets, bricks, minifigures, accessories, holds parties, and more.  Sadly, the store will be closing on 18 October.  

The good news is that they are running some sales to get rid of inventory.  I'd recommend stopping in sooner rather than later to grab what you can.  Please be sure to thank them for serving the Albuquerque LEGO fan community over the past few years.

Turn Rectangles into Circles

Okay, maybe it's more of a cylinder... and it's not a perfect circle.  It is however very creative and shows the extent of things that you can do with LEGO bricks.  You aren't forced to just put things into sharp 90 degree angles all the time.  There are a ton of ways that you can stack LEGO bricks together and you can even use them to make a round-ish object.  

Full disclaimer... this isn't my original idea.  I'm not sure who can claim the initial win for building a circular shape with bricks.  So here's the question... how else can you do it and with what pieces?  What if you wanted to make a curved wall with 1 x 4 bricks or 1 x 6 bricks?  

An update on the business... I have another job and sadly I don't play with LEGO sets all day.  That other job has kept me involved over the past few months, but I'm still expecting to be back to bricks in the fall.  I also have some new sets that I need to dig into.  I ordered set 21302: The Big Bang Theory (Brickset review here).  I also ordered some of the second series of Simpsons Minifigures (and should have some available for sale in the fall too.  Thanks for your patience.  I will continue to post as I get new things to show, but won't be able to sell again until the fall.