Sorting Lego Lots – My Process

Hi guys.  I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about how I go about sorting Lego lots rebuilding sets from large Lego lots (LLL) I purchase.  Results may vary depending on what I get, but this is the system I’ve developed over the years.  I’ll try to illustrate the process using pictures from a recent LLL.  

I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of the tub before I got started…. 

Why Bother Sorting Lego Lots?

Before I begin, let me take a moment to tell you WHY I go through the process of rebuilding order from chaos. My Lego hobby is self funded.  This means if I want to buy something, I need to sell something.  I buy Lego lots regularly to grow my collection of bricks for future projects, but I can’t have my Lego money tied up indefinitely so I rebuild sets to sell and recoup my investment.  When I’m done, I end up adding thousands of bricks to the collective, and I still have funds for new purchases!

Looking at a bin of mixed Lego (and other stuff) can be overwhelming. You just know it’s going to be a daunting task to make sense of everything.  The first thing I do is paw through the pile looking for chunks of models that are still assembled.  I set these aside, and try to figure out what sets they might be.  As my sorting progresses, I’ll keep a look out for parts I might need for rebuilding and add them to these little piles.

Next, I grab a smaller tub and fill it with a handful or two of Lego.  This is a more manageable amount to sift through!  As I go through this tub, I’m looking for several things:

• Useful pieces and colors
• All other Lego pieces
• Off brand pieces
• Garbage

Useful pieces and colors

You’re probably asking yourself, what’s a useful Lego piece?  Aren’t they all useful???  Well, yes and no.  I always have a number of projects marinating inside my head that I hope to get to someday.  As I’m sorting, I pick out pieces that may eventually be useful to them.  I’ll always pull out windows.  Doors.  Mini figures.  Sloped bricks.  Arches.  Various decorative bits.

I also grab bricks in colors that will be useful in my city builds.  Grays, tans, browns, sand green, dark red.  Anything that is rare or in short supply.

All other Lego pieces

Anything I can’t see an immediate need for, anything I have a ton of, goes in this pile.  Highly specialized pieces.  Most cockpits.  Most tires. Red, blue, yellow.  Eventually this gets dumped into a large bin with the remnants of previous lots.  Once that tub is full, I’ll sell it in an attempt to further grow my Lego budget.  🙂

Off brand pieces

For the average consumer, Lego and Mega Bloks are the same thing.  Any plastic brick with the studs and tube design really.  In the past, if I found them in the tub, they got pitched.  I fully admit I am a Lego snob.  The other brands just aren’t the same.  The colors are off, they don’t have the same clutch power.  They even feel different.  Have a different sound.  But I realized not everyone feels the same way, and thought someone still might enjoy them.  Now I keep a printer paper box on hand for Lego clones.  They all get dumped in together.  Once it’s full, I’ll try to sell it, or donate it somewhere.

Garbage

For whatever reason, big tubs of Lego attract random bits of randomness.  Remember the scene from the Lego movie with the Hall of Relics?  We saw the Cloak of Ban Da’id and the Orb of Ti-Teleest.  Well, that stuff is true!  I kid you not, I’ve found bandaids in Lego bins along with KNEX, marbles, army men, Hot Wheels, action figures, batteries, etc.  I just don’t have the room or patience to store even the usable stuff, so it all gets pitched.  One man’s trash isn’t always another man’s treasure!

If a bin is filled with enough grossness it will undergo the washing process, but that is a tale for another time!

Do you buy lots of Lego off Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace?  What’s your process like?