Does anyone find Legos at garage sales/swap meets anymore?

[Count]

Im just wondering if anyone still goes to swap meets, garage sales, or yard sales to look for lego's anymore. And when I say legos, im talking 80's and 90's stuff. I get the feeling that legos would be very rare these days and are probly all on ebay. I was thinking about trying it out, but waking up early on a saturday or sunday just doesnt seem worth it.

-Count

[Aragornn45]

Im just wondering if anyone still goes to swap meets, garage sales, or yard sales to look for lego's anymore. And when I say legos, im talking 80's and 90's stuff. I get the feeling that legos would be very rare these days and are probly all on ebay. I was thinking about trying it out, but waking up early on a saturday or sunday just doesnt seem worth it.

-Count

Thats why you need to do what I do. My mom and my sister both like to go to garage sales, so I tell them to look out for legos at them. Try asking members of your family to do the same thing, that way you wont have to get up early Unfortunately I think that you are right about there not being any legos at garage sales because they still haven't found anything

[Count]

My grandma goes to garage sales alot, but she doesnt know all to well what she is looking for. They have to be lego products, plus if I tell her castle, she wont know the difference between new castle stuff and old. You know what I mean?

-Count

[JoshWedin]

I was thinking about trying it out, but waking up early on a saturday or sunday just doesnt seem worth it.

So, would you rather have Lego or get more sleep? I think that's the real issue here. If making the sacrifice of getting up early isn't worth it, than you aren't going to find any Lego deals at garage sales or anywhere else.

You can find used Lego at thrift stores and yard sales. But you have to go a lot. My wife and I used to hit all the local thrift stores at least once a week and I constantly found Lego. Now we go about once a month and we still find it occasionally. If you are going to go garage-saling, you have to go early. Lego goes fast. If you find used Lego, don't limit yourself to Castle only. I buy it all, if it is reasonably priced, and sell off what I don't need. Also, as we all know, there are many pieces you need that don't come in "Castle" sets.

A couple of years ago, I found a twenty pound bag of 80s Lego at a thrift store. I paid 17 dollars for it and it had 5 black falcons and a black sword, in addition to all the other Lego in there. Deals are out there, but you have to hunt hard.

Josh

[Prince Imdol]

Well, this would be the day something great would happen. I would literally die of happiness if something like that happened.


P.I

[wunztwice]

Robin's wife found a SUPER deal at a arage sale during brickfest this year. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was one sweet deal she got for him!

[Count]

Thanks for all the responses.

So, would you rather have Lego or get more sleep? I think that's the real issue here. If making the sacrifice of getting up early isn't worth it, than you aren't going to find any Lego deals at garage sales or anywhere else.

I can only sleep in weekends and im a horrible morning person but Legos are more important then a few extra hours of sleep. I think I might hit up some yard sales for a few weeks and see how lucky I get.

Do you look in the paper for garage sales that say Toys(or maybe even Legos) or do you just drive around and look at all the sales you find?

You can find used Lego at thrift stores and yard sales. But you have to go a lot. My wife and I used to hit all the local thrift stores at least once a week and I constantly found Lego. Now we go about once a month and we still find it occasionally.

I have heard stories of people finding Legos at thrift stores, but when I think of thrift stores, I think of clothes. Most thrift stores around here dont have very many toys. Worth a try though.

-Count

[Emp.Justinian]

I have heard stories of people finding Legos at thrift stores, but when I think of thrift stores, I think of clothes.

That's what I have always thought, though now that I think of it I'll have to look there on occasion. My Grandmother is a garage sail addict, and I mean this just about seriously. She has so many garage sale finds that a good 90% of her large house is absolutely packed with them. I suppose that she might as well be on the look-out for Legos. Sadly however she'd probably perposly look for the newest sets and leave the old ones If I didn't tell her not to. I just hope she won't just get Harry Potter legos either, she thinks I am obsessed with those books.

God speed

Emp.Justinian

[Patron of the lego]

Newspapers, a good source of knowledge and garage sales!!!

[Brickzone]

There surely are, or certain ebay sellers would not be able to keep selling kilo-ware Lego. No-one's attic is that big, nor can you get those quantities cheap enough on ebay for resale even if buying gigantic lots (although I did see someone sell a roomful of Lego once - a multi-generational collection; and I'm sure a reseller bought it in the end).

However, I don't know the situation in the USA. Most of the ebay sellers I've seen with seemingly indefinite supplies of cheap bulk Lego are based in Germany; but then most listings I see on ebay.ie are from Europe (incl. UK) due to shipping restrictions. I would say my purchases are nearly half and half UK and Germany, with just a handful of ones from US, France, Italy and (once or twice) Australia.

I do wonder how people get rid of Lego in Ireland though. Maybe it is all still in attics if not being used. I haven't seen a single ebay.ie Irish listing for Lego, and I do manually search through all Lego listings (only true way to get bargains).

[Bruce N H]

I guess I haven't looked all that hard, but I've not been luck with garage sales. My impression is that anything good gets sold through E-bay these days. Perhaps I need to be more dilligent about hitting the garage sales.

If someone else (e.g. your grandmother) is getting it, don't try and specify what they should look for, as long as it's LEGO. A brick is a brick is a brick. Besides, you never know what treasure might be in a box of used LEGO.

Bruce

[Athos]

I've been to a couple of garage sales and flea markets solely with the hope of finding Lego, but have found nothing.

On a note about the thrift stores from my mother who used to work at one and still frequents them. She said a lot of the workers just throw out the Lego because its too much trouble to sort out the Lego parts from all the other crap that gets mixed it (i.e. tacks, dried bits of play-do, GI-Joe accessories, etc.)

Steve

[Legendary_Corsair]

I try to go to all I can but nobody has Legos for sell where I live.They would probably only sell megablocks.

[engineerio]

I've made my hunt much more efficient by just checking 'www.Craiglist.com' once a week. Some times folks are unloading a bunch for cheap, sometimes they know what they're really worth! Just have to be patient for a deal...

Paul

[Chrislad77]

I've talked to friends who have done yardsales and people come fairly often asking directly for "legos". I have rarely found Lego products for sale though, to me it seems like people don't usually sell them as they are small, have good memories , and tend to be mixed in with a huge collection of other things. My best story is at a firehouse flea market I found a Forestmens Crossing 6074 complete with box and orginal instructions for $12 , Black knights Stronghold 6059 for $10 again with box and instruction also grabbed a harbor sentry (cannon,boat , rare hat) and tiny pirate set for $1 each. Great day indeed, I wasn't even that interested in Lego at that point but I knew I had to grab them at those prices.