An acquaintance of mine once made a living by selling legos online by the piece. He'd buy sets and tear them down, sort them, etc. Apparently this can be profitable especially if you can get a lot of hard to find pieces.
This was back in like 2008, so I have no idea if the site exists or if he's still doing it.
I feel like you should invert the color scheme. If something is out of stock I don't really need to be drawn to that. If something is in stock, though, I can buy it.
This site reminded me again of how expensive Legos are though... really makes me feel like a spoiled rich kid for having had so many way back.
I love this site as simply an index of interesting Lego sets. But on a few of the items I spot-checked marked OOS, they are in-stock at Amazon. Impressive amount of work for a nice parent-friendly niche problem though.
So for Amazon it shows whether they are in stock by Amazon directly. Not necessarily other sellers selling through Amazon. A reason for this is a lot of sellers that are not Amazon directly jack up the prices for Lego sets. So they are considered by the system as "OOS". I'm planning on implementing a status and a price soon. But for instance take a look at the Super Star Destoryer on Amazon. Retail price by Amazon is $399 when they have it in stock. Currently the price is $799 by an outside seller listing it on Amazon.
Thanks for doing this! We've been trying to track down a new set and eventually just put in an order at lego.com and hoped for the best for xmas delivery (it's fluctuating between 30 days and 2 week estimate), but this is very useful moving forward.
I like that implementation as I try and avoid Amazon Sellers when I can (and hate how Amazon intentionally confuses Amazon direct with Amazon sellers).
I'd definitely prefer, if you want to add Amazon Sellers, a completely separate column rather than conflating it with Amazon direct. The current site works for me.
Off topic but for anyone that might have some of it, is the Minecraft lego worth what appears to be an exhorbitant price, even compared to the other themed sets? Youngest daughter is desperate for some but when Lego is about a close a real-world representation of Minecraft as possible, I don't want to shell out just to get the theme...
The retail prices on the new Minecraft sets (The Cave $20 / Crafting Box $50 / The Mine $110 / etc) are pretty closely in line with other branded sets. If you're looking at a marketplace price on an OOS item (e.g. crafting box at $85 right now on Amazon) it's easy to get a bad impression though.
Looking briefly at $50 list Star Wars sets, the piece counts are actually generally lower. Compare the 518 piece minecraft set to the z-95 headhunter @ 373, Umbaran MHC @ 493, & Droid Gunship @ 439.
The set I've been pining for is the Motorized Bulldozer[1]. My hope is that Lego will reissue it one day. That said, as a Lego fan, I've started getting pretty annoyed at the company for their "special parts" and limited edition print runs. Talk about creating artificial scarcity! I look forward to the day we can get a quality 3D printed construction system - with opensourced designs of course!
Good site, but now I'm annoyed at how much more Lego costs in the UK than the US. The Back to the Future Delorean - actually not on this list but I found it clicking around Amazon recommended links from something else - has a list price of $34.95 in the US or £53.95 (that's $85!) in the UK.
The Lego set I'd most like to buy if it hadn't been ridiculously limited edition is the Mars Rover set, 21104.
Nice site. One advice is to remove the lego keyword from your domain ASAP. It's a trademark and they really enforce in a bad way. Change it to "bricks" as almost everybody know bricks refers to lego.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 36.4 ms ] threadThis was back in like 2008, so I have no idea if the site exists or if he's still doing it.
This site reminded me again of how expensive Legos are though... really makes me feel like a spoiled rich kid for having had so many way back.
I'd definitely prefer, if you want to add Amazon Sellers, a completely separate column rather than conflating it with Amazon direct. The current site works for me.
Looking briefly at $50 list Star Wars sets, the piece counts are actually generally lower. Compare the 518 piece minecraft set to the z-95 headhunter @ 373, Umbaran MHC @ 493, & Droid Gunship @ 439.
[1] http://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/technic/model/c...
The Lego set I'd most like to buy if it hadn't been ridiculously limited edition is the Mars Rover set, 21104.