Where to Sell a LEGO Collection in the UK

Most people who contact us have already had a look around and come away confused, because the advice online is written either by someone selling a course or by someone who has never shifted more than three boxes. This guide is the honest version. It covers what each route actually involves, what it costs you, and which kind of collection suits which route.

One thing to get straight first. A sealed collection and an opened collection are two completely different markets with two completely different values. If your sets are built or opened, most of what follows does not apply to you, and the section near the end explains why.

Route one: sell each set yourself

This pays the most per set. Nobody takes a cut, and you set every price. It is also, by a wide margin, the most work, and the work scales with the number of boxes rather than with the value.

• Every set needs researching, photographing, listing and describing.
• Every sale needs boxing, padding, weighing and posting. A large sealed set needs a box bigger than itself and enough void fill to survive a courier network.
• Every buyer needs answering, and some of them need chasing.
• Selling fees and payment fees come off the top, and they come off the whole price including what the buyer paid for postage.
• Damage in transit is your problem. A dented corner on arrival usually becomes a partial refund.

Route two: sell the whole collection to a specialist

One price, one transaction, one day. You are paid less per set than you would get selling them one at a time, because the buyer is taking on every job in the list above plus the risk that some of it does not sell. That is the trade, and anybody who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you.

• You send a list of set numbers and rough quantities.
• You get one figure for the lot.
• If you accept, the buyer arranges collection.
• You are paid, and the boxes leave.

What to check before you accept any offer for the lot

The headline number is not the offer. These four questions are what separate a real offer from a number designed to get your boxes out of your house.

1. Is the price fixed before the collection, or is it re-assessed when the boxes arrive? A price that can be revised after you have handed everything over is not a price, it is an opening position.
2. Who pays to move it, and who carries the risk while it is moving? If you post it, a crushed box in transit becomes your loss.
3. When are you actually paid? On the day, or after an inspection period that has no stated end?
4. What happens to the sets they do not want? If they cherry pick and leave you the awkward half, you have not solved the problem, you have made it smaller and harder.

Route three: split the collection

This is the right answer more often than people expect. A collection is rarely uniform. There are usually a small number of sets that are genuinely worth listing yourself, and a long tail of smaller boxes where the postage and the effort eat most of the difference.

• Keep back the few largest or most sought-after boxes if you are willing to do the work on them.
• Move the tail in one go, because that is where selling individually pays worst per hour.
• Be honest with yourself about whether you will actually do the work on the ones you keep. A box sat in a spare room for eight months has cost you the time you were saving.

How we price a collection

We price from what sets are actually selling for now, not from asking prices and not from what anything cost when it was in the shops. An asking price is a wish. A recent completed sale is evidence. Where a set has no meaningful recent selling history we say so rather than putting a number on it, because a made up figure helps nobody.

We price competitively against other people who buy collections, and we price the whole lot rather than cherry picking. The figure we give you is worked out from your list before anything moves, and that is the figure you are paid. If one set genuinely turns out not to be as described we will talk to you about that set and you can keep it. We do not re-open the whole deal on the doorstep.

What we buy and what we do not

Opened and loose LEGO is a genuinely different trade with different buyers and different values. We would only be guessing at what yours is worth, which is no use to you. Tell us about it anyway and we will say plainly what we think.

Write your list before you speak to anybody

Whichever route you take, the set number is the thing that does the work. It is the four to seven digit number on the front of the box, usually in a corner. With a list of set numbers and quantities, anybody can value your collection properly. Without one, everybody is guessing, including you.

• Set number and how many of each. That is enough to start.
• Note anything obvious about the boxes, such as crushed corners, sun fading or shelf wear.
• Do not open anything to check. On a sealed set the seal is part of what you are selling.
• A photo of the stack is useful, and a photo of any box you are unsure about is more useful.

How long each route takes

A note on timing

People often ask whether to sell now or wait. Nobody can tell you what a sealed set will be worth next year, and anybody who says they can is selling something. What is knowable is that boxes get worse in storage, not better, and that a collection sat in a loft or a garage is quietly losing condition while you decide. If the boxes are stored properly and you are under no time pressure, waiting costs you little. If they are stacked in a damp garage, waiting is costing you money.

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 method rather than specific figures, because set values change constantly. Check recent completed sales for your own sets before making a decision.