Can a LEGO Buyer Change the Price on the Day? at BuyMyBricks

Can a LEGO Buyer Change the Price on the Day?

Home › Selling LEGO › Can the price change
Selling guide Peter Pilling, BuyMyBricks · 26 September 2026 · 4 minute read
Short answer

Some can and do, and it is the single most common way people end up with less than they agreed. The mechanism is simple: if the real offer only arrives after your collection is in somebody else’s building, your only options are to accept it or pay to get everything back. Ask one question in advance and you avoid the whole thing.

Key takeaways
  • The risk is not theft. It is a figure moving once you can no longer say no.
  • Ask before anything moves: is this the price I will be paid?
  • A price built from your list can hold. A price given without seeing a list cannot.
  • Grading on arrival is where the money goes. A dent can cost a large share of a set.
  • One set being wrong should affect that set, not the whole deal.

This is worth understanding before you agree to anything, because it is the difference between the number you were told and the number that reaches your bank.

How it happens

Most people accept. That is not weakness, it is arithmetic: the cost and hassle of getting it back usually exceeds the reduction.

  1. You get an attractive headline figure, often without sending much detail.
  2. You are asked to post the collection, usually at your own cost.
  3. It is inspected on arrival and graded.
  4. A revised figure appears, lower, with reasons attached to condition.
  5. Your choices are to accept, or to pay to have a large quantity of heavy boxes shipped back to you.

Why grading on arrival is where it bites

Box condition genuinely does affect value, so a reduction can always be justified with something real. A dented corner, a crease, a faded panel. Once your boxes are somewhere else, you cannot meaningfully dispute the assessment, compare it to anything, or take them elsewhere.

The question to ask, in advance

The answer tells you almost everything. A buyer who prices from your list and stands behind it will say so plainly. A buyer who says it depends on inspection has told you the number was an opening position.

Is the figure you have given me the figure I will be paid, and what happens if you disagree with me about one set?

What a price that holds looks like

Stage How it should work
Before anything moves You send a list. The price is worked out from it
The figure One number for the whole lot, and that is what you are paid
If one box is worse than described That set is discussed. You can keep it. The rest does not move
Transport The buyer arranges and pays, so you keep possession until payment
Payment On the day, before the boxes leave

Your side of it

A price can only hold if it was built on accurate information. That part is yours. Describe the worst box, mention anything that has been in sun or damp, and flag any seal you are unsure about. An honest list produces a figure that does not need revisiting, which is what you want.

If a collection described as mint turns out to have a crushed corner on the largest set, a conversation has to happen. That is not a buyer being difficult. It is the consequence of the price having been built on the wrong picture.

How we do it

We price from your list before anybody travels, and that figure is what you are paid by bank transfer on the day, before the boxes leave your house. If a set genuinely is not as described we will talk to you about that set and you can keep it if you prefer. We do not re-open the whole deal over one scuff, and we do not ask you to post a collection at your own cost and risk.

If it has already happened to you

You are not obliged to accept a revised figure just because the boxes have moved. Ask for the reduction to be itemised set by set rather than given as a single number. An itemised reduction is either defensible or it is not, and asking for one changes the conversation.

Getting it in writing without making it awkward

You do not need a contract and asking for one would be odd. An email is enough, and any reasonable buyer will send one without blinking.

  • Ask them to confirm the figure by email, with the collection date.
  • One line is plenty: the number, what it covers, and that it is payable on collection.
  • Keep your own list of what is going, with quantities. A photo of the stack does the job.
  • If a buyer will not put a number in an email, that is the answer to your question.

This is not distrust, it is a record. It protects the buyer as much as you, because then nobody is relying on remembering a phone call.

Get a price that holds

Send a list of set numbers and rough quantities. One figure for the whole lot, worked out before anybody travels, and that is what you are paid on the day.

Get a price for your collection

Written by Peter Pilling, BuyMyBricks, 26 September 2026. LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorise or endorse this site. This article describes practices we have seen described by sellers. It is not a comment on any specific company.

Before you scroll on

Want first dibs on retired sets?

We send one email when a new sealed shipment lands. No discounts, no daily blasts. UK only.

No spam. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Back to blog