Why would I ask this…well…our 7-year old LOVES LEGO bricks, but as you know, new sets can get expensive QUICKLY.
Best Gift
One of the best gifts my son EVER received was a bulk container of my childhood LEGO bricks from the 1980s. Grandad unpacked them from the garage and split the lot between his two grandsons for Christmas. (Check out our list of great LEGO gifts for kids).
BIG TIME WIN FOR MY SON, and ME, TOO!
I spent several hours that day recreating sets from my childhood, because, of course, my Dad saved the instruction manuals, too! My son loves that we have LEGO BASIC building guides.
Fast Forward…
We thought we could once again benefit from a large bulk set of LEGO bricks to replenish our collection, so we recently turned to eBay. (We checked our local Facebook marketplace, but our area had very few options for LEGOs). During our search, I kept seeing assortments listed as 10lb sets. I had no idea what brick count that might be, so I turned to good ‘ole Google.
What did we find?
WIRED magazine’s writer, Doug Cornelius, ran an experiment and wrote about it in his article, “Finding Lego Bricks in Bulk.”
What do you get when you order 10 pounds of Lego bricks? According to our barely scientific measurements, about 3,000 pieces.
Doug Cornelius, WIRED.com, written in 2009
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3K LEGOs sounded like a good deal to me (that’s about 300 LEGO bricks per pound) especially as you can purchase 10lb bulk boxes from $20 to $50 plus shipping costs.
Our first bulk purchase was a complete success!
Our son spent an hour or more sorting out all the NEW, and VERY COOL pieces.
We heard:
“OOOOOOHHH!!!!”
“WOOOOOWWW!”
“YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS!”
“OH MY GOOOODNESS!”
“LOOK AT THIS!
“EEEEWWWWWWW!”
“AWESOME!”
and more…over, and over, and over!
Our bulk LEGO set even included many complete LEGO Bionicles (now discontinued, LEGO Bionicles date from the early 2000s). As Bionicles were new to us, we didn’t know how to put them together, but again, Google served us well. We quickly located building instructions for 3 or 4 of the Bionicles included in our bulk set. Since this initial purchase, we’ve specifically ordered several other Bionicle kits and made many Bionicle MOCs. Bionicles are one of recommended LEGO Gifts for Kids.
Should you buy LEGO in bulk? Yes, we recommend bulk used LEGO brick purchases.
So, if you’re considering purchasing used LEGO sets in bulk, our advice is to go for it.
Our box was FULL of many very useful bricks for creating robots, animals, vehicles, and buildings, plus very unique pieces from the Bionicle sets.
And, NOPE, we did NOT count our pieces, so we can neither confirm nor discredit our suggestion that 10 lbs of bulk LEGO bricks equal 3,000 bricks.
Happy building (and shopping!).
Personalized Brick-Built Decorations
There must be a LEGO-loving individual in your household! We bet he/she would love to decorate with a personalized window or wall decal designed from his/her MOCs. Check out our custom and ready-to-buy brick-built designs.
Free LEGO LIFE Magazine for Kids
Did you know LEGO sends out FREE magazines to kids ages 5 to 10 every quarter? This magazine is such fun LEGO fan mail. The LEGO LIFE magazine is definitely worth the time it takes you to sign-up.
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PS. This post is not sponsored. We’re a LEGO brick-loving family who posts about our favorite builds. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase we will earn a commission. Keep in mind that we link to these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission we receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.