I would like to start a company trading in bulk LEGO. I have been told, however, that trading in volume is quite difficult and good discounts are only really given to the likes of Walmart and other huge players. So I would be interested to know if there are other secondary sources in Europe or North America, where new LEGO can be bought in bulk. You can buy LEGO in bulk at any official LEGO store. It is called the PAB (Pick-A-Brick) Wall. They will sell them to you buy the cup, or if you need really large quantities, you can also ask them for full boxes. Keep in mind that the selection changes seasonally, and you will not be the only seller who buys parts this way, so there will be competition. Other than that, your only other option is to take advantage of sales at retail stores. Right before Christmas is an excellent time to stock up as many stores have great deals. Also, right after Christmas when stores are clearing out last year's stock to give room to new sets (LEGO always releases a whole range of new sets in January).
LEGO does not sell parts in large bulks to individuals, unless you become an official LEGO Certified Professional. However these people get access to huge amounts of LEGO not because of reselling the pieces, but because they are creating art. In general LEGO does not like resellers and will not support them in any way. You will have to find your own resources/angle if you want to get into the business. Trading in LEGO isn't an easy way to make a lot of money. The margins are much smaller than they were, and you'll face stiff competition. That said, it is possible to make a profit if you do your research and you're willing to put the effort in. Few of us make a fortune, but many of us make enough to fund the odd purchase for our own collections. To trade LEGO successfully, you're going to need several things: A lot of dedication and enthusiasm for the product. A good source of information. A regular supply of cheap LEGO. Not just any LEGO, but LEGO that is of interest to your target market.
A reliable place to sell your LEGO. So, where to source your LEGO? I am given to understand that TLG won't deal with you at all unless you're able to take substantial quantities of stock - I've heard the figure £40,000, but I can't recall where, and to be honest I question its accuracy. Nevertheless, you're going to have to sell a lot of LEGO if you want to deal with them directly, let alone get the big discounts that are reserved for sellers like Amazon and TRU. The remaining ways to buy LEGO from TLG - such as PAB and the replacement parts service - tend to be expensive and unsuitable for bulk purchases. (And forget LUGBULK - the T&Cs prohibit reselling). You may be able to find a wholesale distributor of LEGO, but this isn't an area on which I am qualified to comment. Furthermore, it may be possible to buy remaindered or damaged stock from wholesalers or resellers. I don't have a lot of experience in this area either, but some time ago I came across auctions for pallet loads of goods, some of which included LEGO.
Whether or not this is still a viable approach I couldn't say. An alternative - the approach I use - is to buy LEGO from regular retailers when it is on sale. If you research the market you will be able to find sets at substantial reductions, and by combining offers you can pick up 10s of boxes of LEGO at a good discount. Of course, you need to be choosey, as the cost of storing, selling and shipping LEGO quickly eats into your margins. Even though I've been at this game for a while, I still make small losses from time to time. Fortunately, these can be offset by the wins. The main problems with this approach are that (1) the risk that you won't get the returns you expect, (2) supplies are limited to what is on offer at the moment, and (3) you may need to hold on to some sets for a while: getting a good price for your LEGO is often more about timing than anything else. My final idea - one I have yet to try, but which certainly looks viable - is to consider buying used LEGO from private sellers with a view to selling at a higher price.
The two general approaches to this are (1) to pick and choose individual sets where you can see a market and a profit, or (2) buy bulk loose LEGO at low prices. Either way, you may end up spending a considerable amount of time sorting, cleaning and replacing LEGO parts. Also define what you mean by "Bulk LEGO" - just the pieces in bulk, or are you planning to purchase sets in bulk and resell them online (so basically becoming a LEGO retailer like Walmart/Toys'r'us and the likes? The latter would probably be something you can get set up by working with TLG directly (I have no experience though). To resell pieces I would think you would need to go the route outlined by @TheBrickBlogger.Browse other questions tagged shopping investment or ask your own question.Business Feds raid Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria Federal law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at various Caterpillar facilities in the Peoria area Thursday morning, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed.
Business Business Business Business ColumnistsFollow me over to the blog for more homemade goodness . . .As many Americans finish up their personal tax returns over the next few days, they’ll marvel with horror at how much hard-earned cash gets siphoned up by the government. At times like this, it’s satisfying to have a corporate bogeyman to hate–like , which has faced a withering hail of criticism since The New York Times proclaimed last month that the conglomerate paid no federal taxes in 2010, despite $5 billion in U.S. profits. There goes corporate America again, always sticking it to the little guy. But is there any real reason to believe that? Sure, GE has an army of accountants and lobbyists trying to reduce its tax burden, but wouldn’t you if you had $150 billion in worldwide revenue and $14.2 billion in pretax income last year? To see if GE was an aberration, we took a look at the 2010 annual reports of the 20 most profitable U.S. companies. Some of the results may surprise you.
The average income tax rate within the group was 25.4%. America’s three biggest oil companies, , all endure income tax burdens of more than 40%–higher than the statutory U.S. rate of 35%. Exxon, with a 45% rate, tallied $21.6 billion in worldwide income taxes for 2010. paid $7.1 billion (at a rate of 32.4%) in income taxes. In Detail: What The Top 20 U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes All these tax burdens are higher than the average citizen pays. Contrary to what many in the public seem to think, the conglomerate did pay taxes in 2010. It reported $2.7 billion in cash tax payments during the year, and on its income statement lists a provision for income taxes of $1.05 billion. Considering GE’s pretax income of $14.2 billion, that makes for a tax rate of just 7.4%. The only one of the 20 corporate giants with a lower rate was , at -6.4%–but that was only because MaBell won a tax settlement with the IRS that reduced its tax liability by $8.3 billion. So how to make sense of GE’s taxes?
The outcry seems to focus on the $5 billion in profits GE made in the U.S. Now if GE were to pay the 35% statutory federal corporate tax rate on that, it would come to $1.75 billion. Yet, as the Times trumpeted, GE has recorded a $3.25 billion tax benefit for the year on its U.S. operations. It’s important to understand that this “benefit” is not a refund (which is why the Associated Press should be doubly embarrassed for being fooled Wednesday by a bogus GE press release concocted by the Yes Men that said the conglomerate intended to return its $3.2 billion tax “refund” to the U.S. Treasury). It just represents an amount GE will balance out against other tax obligations. But why does GE get this benefit? Simple: its finance arm, GE Capital, lost a lot of money during the financial meltdown (roughly $30 billion) and it’s still carrying those losses forward and deducting them from current income. As GE spokesman Gary Sheffer wrote in his response to the Times story: “Without these financial crisis losses at GE Capital, GE’s tax rate would have been near the average of other multinational corporations.”
He added, “In short, when you lose money, you don’t pay taxes.” If GE’s industrial side (maker of jet engines, light bulbs, turbines and such) were a standalone entity, its global tax rate would be 16.8%. It’s only after consolidating its results with the GE Capital side that its rate drops down to 7.4%. A lot of other mega-corporations suffered losses during the financial meltdown as well, but their tax rates aren’t as low as GE’s. So what’s GE doing that they aren’t? Yes, GE’s lobbyists have helped get laws passed like those that grant federal tax credits for green energy investments like wind turbines. GE both builds such turbines and invests in wind farms and gets millions in such credits. But the real tax benefits are gleaned overseas. The U.S. has higher corporate tax rates than nearly all the world’s biggest economies, so it’s only natural that GE would seek to generate as much of its profits overseas as possible. As long as those profits aren’t repatriated to the U.S., GE doesn’t owe U.S. tax rates on them.
GE’s surely not the only company taking advantage of overseas tax shelters. reportedly uses colorful-sounding strategies like “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich” to send revenues through low-tax countries like Ireland and Holland, giving it a 20% tax rate for 2010. says that it saves $1 billion a year in taxes by operating in some countries where it’s “wholly exempt from taxes,” resulting in a 21% rate. overseas cash hoard leapt from $17.4 billion in 2009 to $30.8 billion in 2010, in part because its intellectual property is owned by foreign subsidiaries. GE reports that its overseas profit pile has grown to $94 billion. That cash is put to work, often lent to customers of GE’s big ticket items. GE explains in its annual report some of these “intercompany transactions.” GE makes aircraft engines for the likes of , then GE Capital buys the planes and leases them out. Likewise, GE Capital will buy buildings and cars and lease them to GE And GE will sell GE Capital its receivables.