Why Buy Bricks from LEGO when Amazon Discounts them?

The good news... right now (10 Oct 16) there are a lot of sales going on at Amazon on some great LEGO sets.

-Star Wars 75059 Sandcrawler
-- Retail Price = $299.99, Amazon Discounted Price = $262.98
-Ideas 21305 Maze
   -- Retail Price = $69.99, Amazon Discounted Price = $50.88
-Creator 31052 Vacation Getaways
    -- Retail Price = $69.99, Amazon Discounted Price = $55.99
-CIty 60134 Fun in the Park - City People Pack
    -- Retail Price = $39.99, Amazon Discounted Price = $31.99

There are a few more sets and possibly more will show up as we get closer to people buying for Christmas time.

The bad news... why should you buy straight from LEGO or LEGO Shop @ Home?  If you can wait it seems that Amazon (and often Target and Walmart) will discount the set eventually.  As long as you don't mind waiting a few months, it seems like the set you are looking for will be cheaper.  It's not the easiest thing to do, but it could save you big time.  The 4 sets listed above purchased on Amazon today versus from LEGO (like I did) would result in a savings of $78.12.  The Sandcrawler is rather pricey for a LEGO set, but if you planned to get it anyways, wouldn't you want to save some on it?  Hindsight is 20/20, but an extra $78.12 would be nice.  

My guess is LEGO is aware of this and they are still making money through Amazon although not as much as they could be.  Also, LEGO keeps some sets in their pocket that are never discounted.  Modular Buildings, Collectible Minifigures, a number of the Creator Expert sets, and a few others are never discounted (I don't expect to see the Technic Porsche GT3 RS discounted).  We'll see if LEGO keeps it that way or not.  

So what should you do?  I'm curious to hear your opinions, but my opinions are to do your best to get the best price you possibly can.  Wait a while to see if you can get a set at a discount, but if it's a set you are really looking forward to, then go for it.  Really it's all about how much do you value the purchase.  

Happy building!

Is now the time to buy? - Fall 2016

I don't have any sets to review this week or interesting LEGO® related stories, but I can say that I've been buying a bunch for the store to plus up sets and some sets that I plan to break apart for minifigures.  If you pay attention to the sales out there (for the US) at Amazon.com, Walmart, and Target there have been a lot of sets for more than 20% off and oddly enough a lot for 30% or even 40% off.  

If you haven't read any of my previous posts about buying sets, I highly recommend using some of the online tools that scan all of the sites for sales.  My favorite is Brickset's buying tool.  It shows the sales from LEGO®, Amazon.com, Target, Walmart, and Bricklink.  On the linked page you can see the top sales and then if you drill down you can see all of the sales down to some that are only 1% off.  A screen shot from the site is below.  It's pretty easy to use.

As for themes, it seems that there are sales for all of them.  Friends, City, Train, Disney Princess, Technic, Nexo Knights, Ninjago, Architecture, Minecraft, Dimensions, Creator, Duplo, Super Heroes, and... did I miss any?  Oh yeah, Star Wars.  If you've ever paid attention to Star Wars sets, they often are not on sale and they are usually very expensive.  You can now find a few for 30% off and a bunch for 20% off.  Search for them and if you had planned on picking up one, get them while they are discounted.  Some of the sets have been listed for a while, but others are only or a limited time.  For example, Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle - #75104, was 20% off at Amazon.com and Target for only a few days.  Then it slipped back to 12% off on Amazon.com.  Also to note, Amazon limited the number of Kylo Ren's Command Shuttles you could buy to only one.  I did not see what Target did.  A disappointment to note... Target discounted the Star Wars Sandcrawler - #75059 by 10%.  It's not a lot, but I have never seen it discounted before.  The sale was misleading though.  You couldn't order the set online, you had to get it in the store.  Of course, none were in stock within a 50 mile radius of my home.  Stink.  What is not listed?  Collectible Minifigures, Speed Champions, Exclusives, and some of the newer sets that were just released.  

What does this tell us?  Are inventories high and retailers are just trying to unload stock?  Are they trying to get early sales ahead of the Christmas season?  Are these just teaser sales that will end in a few days/weeks?  Time will tell I guess, but if you are a LEGO® fan and have been looking for a particular set, now is the time to pick one (or more up).  What are your thoughts?

Bricks for Bricks August 2016 Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know where I'm yet.  As I've posted previously, the store closed in order for me to move from NM to FL.  Have I moved?  Yes.  Unfortunately I had to shut down my NM business and I need to start a new business in FL.  Part one of the process is that my main employer has to agree to my business venture.  They want to make sure there is no conflict of interest between what I'm doing and my main job (there isn't, but the approval process is taking a while).  After that is done, I need to work with FL to start the business up again.  If anyone has ever done this, you'll know that it's not easy.  The government doesn't make it easy to set up a business.  There are multiple agencies you need to contact to get various approvals.  There are tax documents, approvals to use your doing business as name, registering with your county, etc.  I apologize to anyone who has an interest in purchasing something from the store, but has to wait.  A few items have been favorited on my Brick Classifieds store... don't worry it will open up again.  Thanks for your patience!  If there is something you are interested in, please contact me and I can take it down and hold it until the store is open again.  

There are a few items I'd like to buy personally that haven't been easy.  The Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056) is on my list, but it seems to always be out of stock.  Over the weekend I saw it available briefly, but I failed to make the purchase right away.  I have a number of VIP points that will help to cut down on the price so that will be a bonus.  Now I just need to actually place the order.  Also, Series 16 Collectible Minifigures are out.  They are sold out as well.  

Is there anything else I should post on the blog or that I should add to the store when it opens up?  Post in the comments or send me an email with your thoughts.  

UPDATE: 15 hours after I wrote this post, I checked LEGO® Shop at Home and the Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056) was listed as in stock.  I dumped all of the VIP points that I have been saving for quite some time on it to get a sweet discount.  The order has been placed and I'm looking forward to the shipment arriving and writing up a set review for it.  SWEET!!!!  My NLS gets questions from friends about her tolerance for the excessive amount of LEGO® in the house.  The usual response is that it could be wrose and I coudl be into sport cars or something more expensive.  What happens when I buy a sport car made of LEGO®?

10 Tips for Moving your LEGO® Collection/Business

As I mentioned on my post back on 25 May, Bricks for Bricks is moving.  I'm not at the point where this business is my full time employment so the other job that I have decided to move me.  Thankfully, the move came with movers that packed and shipped for me.  That makes life a lot easier, but still creates some challenges.  Today I'll be sharing what I learned through the process.  Oh and by the way, yes I did make it in one piece.  I have not opened up my stash yet, but it all appears to be there.

Okay, so maybe 5 or so of these boxes do not have LEGO® in them.  

1.  Make sure you have a good inventory
Part of having a moving company haul your stuff from one place to another is that if anything goes missing, you have to prove it's missing.  Having an inventory of what you have is important for tracking.  For the business side, I already had a list of the items I had to include minifigures and unopened sets so that was easy.  For the personal collection side, not so much.  I decided to take the risk on loose bricks (business or personal) and no inventory them so that make it a bit easier.  If you are a Bricklink seller, then you might already have an inventory of your bricks and this won't be an issue.

2.  Take pictures
Another step to proving you own it is taking pictures.  This is what I did with a lot of the sets in my personal collection.  For some of the smaller sets, I just took a picture of the large box they were all in, but for some of the larger sets I took pictures of the set separately or in the case of modular buildings, pictures of each floor.  For the business side, I took pictures of the conditions of the unopened sets that I am selling.  The last thing I want is a damaged modular building or Star Wars set.  If the packers or movers destroyed an unopened box and I have a picture showing that it was good before it was packed, I should be able to claim it with the moving company.

3.  Use boxes from LEGO® where you can
Some sets are oddly sized and movers come with specific sized boxes that may not line up.  I placed some of the larger boxed sets that I had in some boxes that I had saved from the LEGO® company.  This made packing easy.  For those that have never had movers come in and pack their stuff, you are supposed to let them pack everything.  That means you can't use your own packing material and tape boxes shut and then claim damages after they are shipped.  I placed sets in the boxes I had and then let the movers tape them shut.

4.  Bag up loose and sorted bricks ahead of time
When the packers showed up at my house they just start opening drawers and putting stuff in boxes.  I can't imagine what would have happened if they had to sort through my loose bricks that are separated by type and color.  I took the time ahead of the packers arriving to dump my sorted bricks into plastic bags.  The bad part is that I need to replace them in all of the drawers that I had, but the good news is that I don't have to re-sort all of my bricks.

5.  Transport anything yourself that you just can't bare to lose
If you have a set, piece, minifigure, MOC, or whatever the case may be and you don't want to lose it, transport it yourself.  During this move I decided to let the movers take everything.  In a past move, I had an unopened Emerald Night set that I decided to transport on my own.  During this move I decided to let the movers take everything.  What would you want to transport yourself?  Do you have an unopened Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon (#10179)?

6.  2 Gallon plastic sealable bags are your friend
If you want to keep your built sets partially assembled or at least keep the parts together the 2 gallon bags are great.  I was able to put floors of the modular buildings that I have in them and also some of the other larger sets that I have.  I highly recommend getting a bunch to help you pack.

Some bagged up modulars...

7.  Be prepared for ridicule
Why do you have all of these LEGOs®?  Another box marked LEGO®, huh?  YOU play with LEGO® still?  I think they are just jealous.  People knew I had a big collection, but when it was all put together and in boxes it looks much bigger.  

8.  Know where to get rid of cardboard boxes
Please recycle if it is an option in your area.  With that being said, you need to either put some out for your weekly collection and space it out for pick ups or you need to find a place to bring them all.  I was lucky to have a place in my new area that had bins for cardboard collection.  It has worked out great to dump all of my boxes and get them out of my house (to make room for LEGO® sets of course).

9.  Have a plan before you unpack
I have a large stash of LEGO® sets, bricks, and pieces.  While it's exciting to open everything up, it's not a good idea to just open them up and stash them wherever.  Put some time in planning ahead of time as to where you will put everything.  If you have a NLS (non-LEGO® spouse), make sure he/she is on board with your plan ahead of time.  Hopefully you moved to a bigger place that allows you to have your own brick cave.  I sadly do not have a cave in my new place, but I was allotted some space.  I hope to have my own cave someday.

10. Get ready to build
If you were like me and had to take lots of things apart, you can enjoy putting them all back together again.  And if you're like me and enjoy building, you're actually looking forward to it.  

Good luck!

How to Create Your Own LEGO® Based Event

(Post thumbnail from http://events.brickfestlive.com)

If you're a LEGO® fan, you're probably familiar with some of the people who have started businesses associated with their favorite brick based building materials.  A few weeks back I posted about Brik Book.  Where you can buy covers for your Mac Book laptops and build designs on them.  There are many others out there to include customized bricks and minifigures, renting sets, and then your standard sales of LEGO® items.  

Today I have another LEGO® based business to share.  The company is called Learn with Bricks LLC and its founder is Chad Collins.  I heard about this company from a podcast I listen to called Entrepreneur on Fire.  Chad was episode 783 and you can find the link to get more about him and his interview here.  

Chad started Brick Fest Live.  In short it is a weekend long event revolving around LEGO® geared towards younger fans.  They have a good intro video on You Tube that shows the highlights of the event.  The event features a derby race (kids build cars out of bricks and race them down a track), free build areas, a chance to build a piece of a LEGO® mosaic, a mini golf course made out of bricks, models on display, a chance to play LEGO® based video games, and more.  The site lists 8 upcoming events between August and December.  Most are in bigger cities, but they are fairly spread out with events in NY, CA, CO, FL, VA, and MD.  Looking through their social media it looks like they've had shows elsewhere to include PA and TX.

Until hearing this podcast, I had never heard of this event before.  I'm sure it's a lot of work to put on an event like this, but I'll bet the attendance is pretty good at these events.  The link for tickets on the website lists prices at between $22 to $27 depending on location.  It sounds like an interesting and fun event to attend.  If you've been to one of these events, let me know.  Either post in the comments or send an e-mail to let me know what you thought of it.  

How to Brick Up Your Mac

I was supposed to be doing more set reviews right now, but sadly everyone else ordered the same sets and they are back-ordered at LEGO.  Fun in the Park - City People Pack (#60134) and Fountain (#40221) are currently on their way after being ordered a week ago.  Vacation Getaways (#31052) is still back ordered.  Sad...

I did stumble across something that I haven't seen before on any of the other LEGO fan blogs and sites that I regularly look at.  The back story is that I listen to a number of podcasts and one of them is Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income blog and podcast.  The podcast released on 8 June 2016 was an interview with Brett Miller.   Brett is one of the founders of Brik Book "THE LEGO™ COMPATIBLE MACBOOK CASE."  The podcast interview with Brett by Pat Flynn goes through Brett's journey to bring his idea to reality.  So what was Brett's idea?  Here's a screen shot from the company's web site:

www.brikbook.com

The product is a LEGO compatible case that clips onto the back of MacBooks.  You can then use LEGO elements to build designs onto the case.  As you can see by the screen shot I took at the website, the cost is $49 for the case.  They come in grey, blue, and clear and you can pick the size of the MacBook as well.  As you can see, the case comes with enough bricks to build the Apple design as shown.  Similar to LEGO, you can also purchase pre-made designs with the corresponding bricks and instructions.  They can be found here.   They also sell 1x1 plates to help you make different designs on your own.

As a PC owner (go ahead and sneer and jeer at me now if you are a Mac fan) it looks like Brik Books does not sell PC compatible products yet.  The site does say they are working on it so we'll see what happens.

So what do you think?  Is this a cool idea?  Do you have one already and I'm just late to the game in hearing about this product?  Let me know when you think in the comments.  

If you'd like a 20% discount, listen to the podcast for how to get the deal.  

www.brikbook.com

Bricks for Bricks Update for June 2016

In the last month of our campaign, we're at $107.43 to donate to Pencils of Promise.  Thanks for those of you who have supported the campaign and bought some good LEGO items in the process.

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We've added a few sets to Brick Classifieds.  

70816: Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! - The LEGO Movie - $105 - Free Shipping
     (3 available)

70809: Lord Business' Evil Lair - The LEGO Movie - $69 and $12 shipping
     (2 available)

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Lots of discounts available in the US via Amazon.  As of the evening of 31 May, there are over 200 sets priced at 20% off or more.  Check out the Brickset Amazon List for details.

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Finally, the summer 2016 LEGO Catalog arrived at my home today.  While there are some amazing looking sets, I was initially shocked about how much of the catalog was filled with Licensed sets.  The first few pages were Star Wars sets.  Then there were Minecraft, Super Heroes, Ghost Busters, Speed Champions, Angry Birds, and Disney Princess.  Yikes!  That's a lot.  The breakdown of what's available (in the US only):

-Star Wars has a number of Rebels sets and a few new Force Awakens sets.  I'm not a huge fan of the Rebels sets.  There's an X-Wing fighter and a set from Jakku.  Both have BB-8 and a few other good minifigs though.  
-I'm not a Minecraft fan and I don't follow or sell any of the sets.  You tell me what you think.
-A few Super Heroes sets are listed.  Nothing new that I wasn't already aware of.  
-A page on the MINDSTORMS EV3 and a page on City Skylines from the Architecture line (nothing new)
-The current LEGO Ideas sets.  The Big Bang Theory (#21302) was recently discounted at Amazon for 34% off so I get the feeling it's not selling really well.
-Ghostbusters
-Modular Buildings and some of the Creator Experts buildings, but not including the new Big Ben set (and YouTube video), some of the fairground sets, and some of the vehicles.  
-Speed Champions
-The amazing looking Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS.  The You Tube Designer video is here.  It looks pretty awesome... although it's $299 so... yikes!  A few other Technic sets are listed as well.
-LEGO Simpsons & Classic are next
-Some new LEGO Creator Sets are next.  The buildings aren't as impressive as some of the older Creator houses that existed, but the Vacation Getaways brings a new style to some of the CITY Campers of the past.  The details look pretty good too.  
-NEXO Knights are next, followed by Ninjago, and Angry Birds
-As a Train fan (no new trains... come on LEGO!!!), I look at the city sets to see what might go good with future train displays.  There are some new aircraft.  Nothing drastically new, but they might be worth waiting for discounts on Amazon in a few months.  The Fun in the park - City People Pack  is a great edition to any LEGO City.  It includes a LEGO baby minifigure, the first LEGO figure in a wheel chair, and a bunch of other great minifigs to add to a CITY scene.
-The rest of the catalog hits on Disney Princess, Friends, Elves, and then the Minecraft Village on the back.

A few notes:
-Yes, I'm biased and I only spent time mentioning the themes I enjoy.  
-LEGO VIP members get free shipping on orders over $35 in June.
-Purchases over $75 get an exclusive Fountain (#40221) set which goes well with the Fun in the Park set.

Happy Building!

How to Move Your LEGO Business and Collection

Here's the part where I'm supposed to write a great blog post on the best ways to pack your LEGO collection and business up to move.  Sadly, I don't have that post in me, but perhaps I will soon.  As it's time for Bricks for Bricks to depart New Mexico.  While I wish I did this full time, I do not.  I have another job and they are moving me to Florida.  I'm excited for the move to Florida, but it does bring challenges for an AFOL.  I will lose Amazon's tax free sales to New Mexico and Albuquerque's Bricks and Minifigs store.  There is a LEGO brand store in Florida, but it will be around 7 hours away from me so that's not fun.

As for moving my collection and the store, that's another story.  These are just some of the boxes.  I have a few other staging areas in my home and it drives my NLS (Non-Lego Spouse) nuts to see the pile getting bigger.  If anyone has advice on how to do this, let me know.  My current plan is to have a good inventory of what is in each box and to take pictures of the more expensive and harder to replace items.  Beyond that, I'm just hoping for the best.

The site will remain up during the move, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post to the blog.  The store on this site and the Brick Classifieds store will close on 26 June 2016.  For minifig purchases from my store, I'm offering free shipping on orders over $30 of minifigs.  Just enter "MIFGSHIP" at your time of purchase.  For the Brick Classifieds store I went through and lowered some of the prices.  I'm also willing to come up with deals for purchasing more than one set.  Take a look and contact me via email with what you have in mind.  Thanks for helping me to have less stuff to move.  I hope to have the store back up and operating in Florida by the end of the summer.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on how to move my collection or tips on what not to do, please let me know in the comments or email me at store@bricksforbricks.com.

What do I buy my 4 Year Old Nephew?

I received a question and I figured I'd answer it on the blog.  What LEGO sets do you buy a boy aged 4?  Given the numerous amounts of sets out there with different themes, this is actually quite a challenging question.  I'll share my thoughts and I'm curious to hear if there are others.

The first place to start with LEGO in terms of age is the DUPLO line.  You can view LEGO's current DUPLO line here.   The age range listed on most of the sets is listed as between 2 and 5.  The DUPLO line has come a long way.  It now has sub-themes and a variety of sets to include Super Heroes and  Disney characters.  Should you get them for a 4 year old?  I think if he has DUPLO sets and enjoys playing with them still, then more DUPLOs wouldn't be a bad thing.  If he doesn't have them or already is into LEGO sets, then stick to LEGO.  If you're looking for a deal, Amazon's DUPLO sales are here.  You can also change it to view sales at Target and Walmart.

Next up in terms of age is LEGO Juniors.  This theme was started 2014 and the age range listed is between 4 and 7.  LEGO's current line can be found here.  What's good about this theme?  It uses standard LEGO elements and minifigures, but the sets typically have fewer parts.  Currently there are City, Super Hero, Disney Princess, and some pink sets geared towards girls, but still within the City line.  The sets are marketed as "easy to build."  This line could be a good place to start for a 4 year old boy who is just starting in LEGO.  Amazon has a few sales on Juniors sets which can be found here.  You can switch it to see Target and Walmart sales too.

Another option is one of my favorites.  The LEGO Classic line has an age range listed of 4 to 99.  Why centennials can't use them, I'm not quite sure.  You can view LEGO's Classic line here. Why is the LEGO Classic line good?  They are just boxes of bricks.  There are some examples of what you can build on the box and sometimes they come with idea books, but beyond that you can build whatever you want.  They come with some vehicle elements, elements to make animals, elements to build houses, and numerous others to encourage imagination.  Plus you never grow out of them.  You can use them to build whatever you want or connect them with other themes as you want.  Classic sales at Amazon are here.  As listed before you can see Target and Walmart sales too.  Also, you can read a post that I did on one of the Classic Sets here.  

The last theme I'd recommend is LEGO City (view the line here).  The age range listed is 5 to 12 so a year more, but that could be okay.  It could be a good set to build with him as a 4 year old or perhaps have a parent or guardian build with him.  As he gets older (if not already), he should be able to put it together pretty easily on his own.  Most of the City sets are not too challenging to build and there is a wide range of smaller, cheaper sets to larger, more expensive sets.  LEGO City always seems to have police and fire fighters.  There are usually others too such as space, construction, transportation, and a few others.  They tend to be pretty easy to find a retail stores like Target and Walmart.  As mentioned before, you can see Amazon discounts here (and switch to see Target and Walmart sales).  

LEGO has a bunch of other themes and all could be good options.  Not knowing what he is into, I went for the safer bets.  He could be a Super Hero or Star Wars fan and LEGO has numerous options for both. The age ranges listed on those sets vary based on the set so you'll have to take a look.  A quick view showed some Star Wars sets at ages 6-12 and others at 8-14.

I hope this post was useful and answers the question.  Good luck and happy building!

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!