Have you ever thought about selling LEGO products? Maybe you have some extras you want to get rid of, maybe you'd like to make a few extra dollars to get the brand new modular building set that came out, or maybe you think you can get rich quick. Whatever the case may be, let me suggest to you that you don't follow the path that I took initially.
Let me back up... I decided to start selling LEGO products in September of 2014. I had already started to build up a bunch of sets and minifigures to sell and finally decided it was time to make the plunge. I had registered my business name, done all of the tax paperwork, and it was time to make my fortune in plastic bricks. I had a table to use, I bought a few display cases for minifigures, I put price tags on, I built a change container out of bricks, what else did I need? My plan was, as it still is, to give back while selling LEGO products. I decided I would do this by selling at garage sales and craft fairs run by different groups looking to raise funds for their own efforts. It sounded great! I could just show up and these groups would bring the crowds of LEGO fans to my table to buy everything I had to offer.
VISIT MY BRICK CLASSIFIEDS STORE
My first effort was at a garage sale. It was me and about 15 other people selling everything from jewelry, to homemade baked goods, to junk they found around their home. I'm not going to lie, my setup was pretty awful. My price tags were hard to see, my pricing scheme was weird, and the sets blocked each other so you couldn't see them. I used small white tags to write a lot of information about a set and then taped it to the box. No one could see the actual price or even tell it was there. Since I was a registered business, I owed tax. I had no credit/debit card processing tool at that point so I set my prices up to come up at whole dollar amounts with tax. That way it would be easier when it came time to make change after people handed over their wads of 20 dollar bills. My table just had a bunch of sets stacked on it around some containers with minifigures.
What did I learn? Besides that I needed a business card, a web site, and a credit/debit card system, a whole lot. People kept asking what the prices were and they couldn't see sets. I also learned that really my table was just a place for people to come look at all of the fun minifigures. Mainly kids would come by and tell me about their favorite figures or which ones they had at home. When it came time for parents to open wallets, that didn't happen much. Many parents couldn't believe how much I was charging for minifigures. Telling them that you would pay much more for it online didn't work. Needless to say, I didn't make much beyond the $15 table fee I paid.
One last thing you shouldn't do. I thought I could attract people by having a give away. I bought 2 small Creator sets for about $12 each. I thought I would make plenty of money that day so they'd be a wash. The plan was I'd have a building contest for time. First place would get the unopened set and second place would get the set I opened for the competition. The deal was you had to donate to the group hosting the garage sale in order to participate. In the end, I had 2 kids participate and each donated $1. So I raised $2 for the group I was supporting and then lost $24 on the sets I purchased because I didn't make enough to recoup the costs.
I wasn't giving up. I was determined to improve. I signed up for Flint. It's a card reader and they take Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. The fee was lower at the time, but now it's 2.9% + $0.30 (same as PayPal) and you don't need a swipe tool like Square. I enlisted my NLS to build me a business card (the joys of having a communications designer as a spouse), and I used my LEGO bricks to build stands so you could see my sets. We also came up with an easy to see price tag. The next sale was at a craft fair and I was ready to rake in the cash. All of my changes would easily make me a fortune.
Okay, not so much. I think in the 6 hours I sat at this craft fair with 10 other vendors, maybe 20 customers went through. I thankfully sold a few items, but didn't come close to making back my $35 table fee. The group realized it and invited us back to sell at another event they were having for free. Luckily there were more people there (mainly kids and it was before Christmas) so I sold a bit more and made back my fee.
I did 3 other sales at craft fairs and all had similar outcomes. Lots of people wanting to talk about LEGO, lots of people who looked, but wouldn't open their wallets, and a bunch of time spent sitting at craft fairs while no one purchased anything. Did I want to continue with this trend? I spent hours prepping for each one and then a whole day sitting at a table in order to break even. It just didn't seem worth it. I enjoyed spreading my hobby and seeing all of the excited kids and parents, but it just wasn't worth my time in order to make a few dollars here and there. What have I learned? Here are the key takeaways:
1 - The mass LEGO consuming public gets their LEGO products at Toys R' Us, Walmart, Target, Amazon.com, Lego.com, and from other mainstream sellers. If you plan to sell sets, you need to prove why they should buy from you versus going to one of those stores. I tried to discount some from the retail price, but that hurt my margins as I had to find things steeply discounted as well. I also said I was giving profits back to the groups where I was having sales and I think that only helped to close one sale. It's much easier for people to buy from the big stores.
2 - LEGO is expensive. While many fans like me see a lot of value in the product and the ability to build and create an endless amount of things, many parents see it as a toy that will be purchased, played with once, and then they will step on parts when the kids don't pick them up. My experience was that parents went for the cheaper sets (<$20) and minifigures that were <$6. Only a few went for the larger ones. It's hard to make a profit on the cheaper ones because you have to buy them at a steep discount and that is tough to do (at least it is for me).
3 - If you're going to try and sell at a sales event like a craft fair, verify that there is actually an audience who wants to attend said event. I learned the hard way that these events are all held in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the events compete with themselves. Many were set up by teachers or others who didn't have a stake in the outcome. They just wanted it to be over so when I asked what advertising they had done, they just said a whole bunch of websites and newspapers. Apparently no one looked at those because potential buyers at these events were few and far between.
4 - The logistics trail of doing a pop up sale at a craft fair type event is large. You need a table, signs, price tags, receipts, the ability to accept credit/debit cards, change for cash payers, a way to carry your stock in and out, and a method to track sales. If you're a small startup like me who didn't invest in inventory software, this can be a challenge. Be prepared to handle all of that or get some help if you can. It's a lot to do by yourself.
5 - Get ready to deal with kids. Many were bored because they were at the event with a parent and were glued to my table. They looked at sets and minifigures, carried on conversations with me about their favorites, asked what I could give them for free, dragged their parents over only to be told "no way," and then came back for more. It's great to see the interest, but tough when you'd like to make a sale versus talk to a kid about what you are trying to sell, but they can't buy.
Would I do it again? Maybe at a LEGO Convention or Fan event, but never again at a craft fair, garage sale, or similar event. Between the preparation time, the actual sale time, and then the clean up, these events just took too long for too little return. My advice to everyone is that unless you have a sure thing sales event where lots of people are going to be there and they want to buy your items, don't bother. It's much easier to post your items online, get notice that someone bought it at 1 AM that morning, getting a PayPal payment, printing the label at home, dropping the item off at the post office, and being done with it. But that's a post for another time.
Have you had any in person sales events where you sold LEGO products? How did it go? Any tips or advice to share? Any horror stories? Post in the comments or send me a note.