A lucky find at BookOff.
My best discovery in a BookOff was a near-complete 21338 A-Frame Cabin.
I'm always shocked when I find large, expensive sets at a place like BookOff -- which pays peanuts, so why do people sell valuable Lego there? Yeah, I know they might not have the time or patience to put sets up for sale online; or, it's a set they've been gifted, didn't want, and may not know the value of. But still.
I already have an A-Frame but figured I could make more than a buck off this one.
It was sitting in a glass display case, so I could see almost everything was intact on the exterior at least.
Two of four minifigures were missing; instead, there was a random fig with body parts from goodness knows where. (The photo below depicts the correct set of 4 people.)
After asking to examine the interior, I decided to buy it. It was only about 7,000 yen, roughly 1/3rd the price of a new copy.
Most
of the missing pieces were common -- so, easy enough to replace. The
only pieces I didn't buy a replacement for immediately were two red
leaves; instead, I nicked two leaves off my own A-Frame Cabin (to be
replaced in the future).
But the minifigures cost more than I expected to bring up to standard.
In the end, instead of forking out more to complete the set of 4 minifigures, I listed the set with only 2 of the original minifigures. As compensation for the missing ones, I offered 2 minifigures of the customer's choice out of a selection of 4 from my collection.
Figured there would be someone who cared only about the cabin and less about the minifigures.
And I was right. My listing soon sold for 3/4th the price of a new set. After deducting the cost of replacement parts, I still made 6,400 yen in profit. That felt really good!
It's very rare to find a Lego set in BookOff worth reselling. This was only my 3rd time in a few years. I don't count on having such luck again, as BookOff knows how to price Lego sets profitably (in their favour, not the customer's).
But who knows what I'll find next?
