Yard sales and thrift stores can be very hit-and-miss. When you find them you can get great bargains, but most of the time it’s not fruitful unless you have other reasons to shop there. When I built my Pokemon sculptures, I was able to do that using a bulk brick tub that lego was selling at the time (set #3033). I bought about 20 of those at $20 each and still ran out of certain parts – that’s why Squirtle’s tail was so small. Sadly, that tub was discontinued a few years ago and the bulk tubs that are available more recently haven’t had nearly as good of an assortment or as good of a price per brick. Probably the easiest way to get cheap parts is to shop on BrickLink. It’s an online shopping mall just for LEGO. Sellers buy sets in bulk (generally when they have clearance sales at retail stores) and sort the parts, putting the individual pieces on their stores. Then you can go in and order any part in quantity. It’s an awkward site to use, but I think the best way is to start at the Catalog tab, find the part you want in the color you want, and then find a store that has them in sufficient quantity.
(Disclaimer: I have my own BrickLink store.) There’s also bulk brick available from LEGO; usually they’re a lot more expensive that way but once in a while you can find some real bargains. Look for the “Pick-A-Brick” in the LEGO Shop-At-Home Store and if you have a LEGO store in your nearby mall, they have an in-person pick-a-brick wall where you can fill up a plastic cup with LEGO parts for a set price. And of course don’t forget about buying sets on sale. Check for sales at LEGO Shop-At-Home (and try their phone number too, as they have weekly phone-only sales as well). If you know any other good ways to find bulk LEGO at economical prices, please post it here as a comment…. Shop for LEGO on Amazon$29.99Buy It Now watching | View DetailsCondition:NewTime left:15d 4h 6mItem location:UtahBuilding the new LinkedIn Logo in LEGO bricks for the Mountain View lobby required me to buy a huge number of specific bricks in the same color. This is useful because you can order any brick in production.
Limitations are that you cannot order bricks that are out of production, and fulfillment times are often 10-15 business days for large orders.2) Fax an order to LEGO. The LinkedIn logo required over 5,000 blue 2x8 bricks as the primary component of the construction. For large, detailed orders you can call the LEGO store at 1-800-835-4386, and they will give you a fax number for the order. Unfortunately, fulfillment times here depend on brick type - I ended up waiting 6-7 weeks for some components of the order. Also, LEGO seems to have no concept of shipping notifications or tracking for orders placed this way.3) Local LEGO stores "Pick a Brick". I used both the Valley Fair and Hillsborough stores to acquire bricks at times. You can buy bricks three ways: a small cup for $7.99, a large cup for $14.99, and an entire box for $70. As you can imagine, you are somewhat limited by your ability (or patience) in terms of cramming different brick types into containers. Most clerks will tell you that you can't buy bricks by the box - they are mistaken.
Ask to talk to a manager, and they will sell you a box, but only if they have more than one in the back. They are not allowed to sell "the last box."The biggest limitation of this approach is that not only do stores not stock all brick types or colors, they also have no ability to "special order" Pick-a-Brick bricks. They get fulfillment once a week, and have no control over which bricks they receive. The trick is to call ahead, and be flexible with your design to adapt to the bricks they do have.4) Bricklink. For example, getting 20-30 small 1x2 tiles to finish off the base edges of the lettering. Bricklink is relatively slow on fulfillment, and it's common to get bricks that are discolored by age or cleaning. This means they may not match other orders of a similar brick. It's also very hard to get large orders of many brick types & colors.Overall, for the LinkedIn in LEGO project I purchased approximately 12,000+ bricks. 8,000 I was able to get over 7-8 weeks from a Fax order to LEGO.
/) and click on "Buy Lego." BrickLink is a kind of Craigslist for Lego bricks -- you can get pretty much any kind ever made, in any color it was made in./PAB/ Prices aren't great but they are actually roughly about the same as what you would pay in a boxed set.What will you build next with Stud.io? Available for Mac and WindowsPrevious post: LEGOLAND Florida bus sighting… Next post: Add some bling to your LEGO! You're not really allowed to buy specific bulk bricks as an individual, unless you have special connections with the company. Certified LEGO Professionals (for instance) are allowed to buy in bulk from LEGO at reduced prices.You can buy lots of LEGO through the Pick-A-Brick program online, although this is prohibitively expensive, and they reserve the right to put a stop to any orders beyond a certain size (though they rarely if ever do this, since nobody I know of orders bulk this way).The other common option is buying from Pick-A-Brick in stores. This is actually reasonably cheap at LEGO retail stores, but doesn't provide much in terms of selection.
At LEGOLAND theme parks the selection's better, but it's instead sold by weight, and is again pretty expensive.There is a LEGO bulk buying program for members of certain LEGO clubs, although there are a number of limitations on what you can order, when you can order it, and in what quantities. It's hardly free reign.If you're otherwise exceptional, and looking to buy (say) $100,000 worth of LEGO in one purchase, they would probably make an exception and let you buy in bulk, but I'm not sure what the bar of entry is there.There are a few other ways to get bricks cheaply from LEGO, but they're not what I would call "buying in bulk", and you similarly need particular types of relationships with LEGO in order to get them.If you're looking for bulk LEGO, I would have to recommend Bricklink, which is an after-market selling forum for LEGO. They have a lot of different sellers, most of whom have very high quality parts, and can often sell things for reasonably cheap (occasionally even more cheaply than buying directly from LEGO!)