What's the most cost effective and efficient way to buy bricks?

Question

After a 20 year hiatus I picked up LEGO again as a hobby. I've been into the Trains lately and need bricks. I found a couple places to pick them up but they all suck for various reasons. The first was http://www.bricklink.com/ and I found their user interface confusing, clunky, and straight out of 1998. The other was Ebay, which is fine for most things, but it's still Ebay. I even bought a mystery box of 300, which was cool, but doesn't work when you need a specific brick in a specific color. The most efficient way I have found thus far is via Pick a Brick on the LEGO site but they don't have ALL the bricks available.

Does anyone have a more effective and efficient way to buy bricks?

Answer 1

First off, as you mentioned, Ebay is not the greatest place on the net to get bricks. As you seem to be aware of, it is difficult to get individual bricks from these individual sellers. Having to pay separate shipping from various buyers plus the unreasonable prices can really add up.

Then there's LEGO Shop. Here, you can buy LEGOs directly from the LEGO company. You can individually purchase bricks from Pick-A-Brick, or buy their currently advertised sets. The downside to this is that they obviously do not carry discontinued sets, the selection in Pick-A-Brick is limited, and the prices are unsatisfyingly high, making the bucks add up quickly. Shipping times can be pretty quick and cheap, that is, if they're not currently having any difficulties with their warehouse. If they are, then orders can be delayed by a large amount of time, which has happened to me twice. I once placed an order there which took nearly two months to arrive.

Then, there's Bricklink. You seem to be aware of this website. I like it very much. It is, in many people's opinions, the best source from which to acquire LEGOs. The prices are cheap, it carries almost every piece and set ever released, (even discontinued ones) the tools for finding bricks are useful, and most of the people there are pretty nice. The interface is quite useful, you just have to be familiar with it. Once you get used to it, I'm sure it won't seem so "clunky" to you. For detailed help, enter the chat room. The people there are very nice, and will be happy to you point you in the right direction. Shipping times vary depending on which area you buy from. Buying from within your country might generate shipping the speed of TLG on their best days. Bricklink, however, is much less likely to have technical difficulties as each order is just an individual seller sending something off to the post office, and has therefore generally been more reliable in my experience.

Answer 2

Bricklink really is the best place to get bricks you are looking for. Their site is a little confusing at first, but it works well once you get the hang of it. It also makes it pretty easy to find pieces you are looking for... if you know what it's called or how to describe it.

The hardest thing to get used to is what parts are called. So my suggestion is to find a seller with a large inventory, and just peruse it and figure out where parts of different types are located and what they're called on Bricklink.

Answer 3

If you contact your closest LEGO store, they can sell you a 'case' of bricks for about $70, which will give you, I'm told, about 650 2x4 bricks, which is about $0.11 per brick. These are bricks that usually go into the pick-a-brick wall. You might be able to buy case by just walking into the store, but expect the manager to have to order the bricks, with a 4 week lead time.

I feel this approach is a nice complement to bricklink.com.