where to buy LEGO pieces?

You may soon notice that several pieces used in this book are hard to find in the latest LEGO sets. That’s natural—most LEGO sets are discontinued after two or three years of production, so many individual pieces go out of production as well. Some elements get replaced by something better; others are gone forever.

Luckily, finding these older pieces isn’t an issue thanks to the secondhand market. Countless international sellers have all sorts of LEGO pieces available for purchase. The best place to look is, of course, online. Other than obvious websites, such as eBay (http://www.ebay.com/), there are specialized online LEGO markets, most notably BrickLink (http://www.bricklink.com/). It’s Bricklink I am referring to when discussing availability and pricing of various pieces throughout this book, and it’s Bricklink’s vast and up-to-date catalog that the piece ID numbers in the book come from.

Bricklink has been operating since 2000, and over the years it has become the essential source of cheap pieces for the worldwide community of LEGO builders. It has a ratings system for each seller so you can check whether you’re buying from someone trustworthy, and the prices can be quite good, often beating all alternatives. In short, it’s safe, it’s cheap, and it will let you find the pieces you need. Shopping at BrickLink is a daily routine for many builders. I’ve personally made more than 600 orders myself, and only 2 of these orders went missing (most likely because of the post office); in both cases, the sellers happily compensated the loss.

The key to using BrickLink effectively is understanding that it’s not a single online shop but an immense collection of individual shops located all over the world. Almost all shopping starts by following these two steps: (1) Simply find the item you’re interested in and (2) select your desired color, quality, and condition (new or used). BrickLink will then provide you with a list of shops that have the desired item (or items) for sale, and you can narrow that list down by selecting the region you want to shop from (nobody wants to pay for shipping from across the world if they don’t have to). From there, all that remains is to click the desired shop and add the items to your basket. (You can also browse what else this particular shop has to offer, which may end badly for your wallet.) Once you’re happy with your basket, check out and wait for the seller to send you an invoice, which will also tell you how to pay for your order.

You pay individual sellers, not BrickLink itself, and there are many payment options available, from onsite PayPal payment to money transfers. When in doubt, refer to Brick-Link’s extensive Help section.