Selling a huge Lego collection - how do I value it?

[Robert_Smith]

I collect Lego as a hobby and estimate I currently have about £50k worth at market value. It's taken me years to build the collection I have and as well as collecting I also occasionally sell some in order to fund buying more. I've also recently bought a house and need to pay the mortgage down fast in order to get the interest payments under control. I'm planning on selling most if not all of the Lego collection over the next 2 years so that when our current 2-year fixed mortgage term is up I can use the lump-sum to reduce the overall mortgage that we have.

My understanding is that any income over £1000 is basically classed as a business and subject to tax. However I should be use the amount I paid for the Lego to offset any tax I have to pay. I have some receipts / invoices covering approx. the last 12 months of some of the items I've bought, but it doesn't even begin to cover the total amount.

My main question is therefore: if you are starting a business with a large amount of stock that you've built up over a number of years, how do you value that stock when calculating what tax you should be paying? As a rule-of-thumb I know I typically paid about 50% of the market value when buying the Lego, so I can estimate the amount I paid but with the exception of maybe £5-10k of it I can't really *prove* how much I paid for it. In this case am I stuck with just having to pay tax as though the Lego was free, or would the HMRC accept a reasonable estimate of the value of the stock I have?

 

[Mark T Jones]

It won't be taxable if you are selling a collection built over time

 

[IanSuth]

It likely won't be worth what you think and def not if you need to dispose quickly.

Friend of wife had a child born with a disability, husband wanted to shift his massive collection to allow a room used for it to be converted and to raise £. (Also meant he could get his garage back as well which was full of storage tubs of lego)

After 6 months of trying to get big £ (and refusing to break the collection up/sell me the odd bit) he took a lowball offer under half what he wanted as he got desperate for the £ and otherwise wife had to go back to work

It was a bigger collection that yours mind you

 

[WaveJumper]

Well there you go another thread worth reading perhaps

HMRC and online sales

I thought people might be interested in this: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/jan/01/selling-goods-online-be-warned-hmrc-will-soon-know-about-it

www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk

 

[Robert_Smith]

It likely won't be worth what you think and def not if you need to dispose quickly.

Friend of wife had a child born with a disability, husband wanted to shift his massive collection to allow a room used for it to be converted and to raise £. (Also meant he could get his garage back as well which was full of storage tubs of lego)

After 6 months of trying to get big £ (and refusing to break the collection up/sell me the odd bit) he took a lowball offer under half what he wanted as he got desperate for the £ and otherwise wife had to go back to work

It was a bigger collection that yours mind you

Thanks for the reply. I'm intending to sell it in small batches for the parts and individually for the minifigures. I know if I sold as one job-lot I'd not get full value but selling in small batches / one figure at a time, it's probably worth around £50k.

 

[Robert_Smith]

Well there you go another thread worth reading perhaps.

Thanks for the link. This is partly why I'm asking, I know the HMRC are introducing stricter rules so want to make sure I comply with them.

 

[IanSuth]

Thanks for the link. This is partly why I'm asking, I know the HMRC are introducing stricter rules so want to make sure I comply with them.

I saw an article earlier stating that ebay/vinted etc will have to send reports on each seller to HMRC and they will expect self assessment forms from anyone who has made over £1k from sales in a year.

i would value your lego at the bulk £6 per kg mixed price now and then if you get nay arguments later you at least have a base value to deduct from sales to reduce any tax liability they try and argue (obv remove and particular rare figures/boxed sets and list separate as well in your starting value) - take pictures and keep records as well

 

[WaveJumper]

Perhaps he could use them as the building blocks to a new business venture ?

 

[DontAsk]

You'll make a lot more if you still have the boxes and instructions and can recreate the boxed sets.

 

[IanSuth]

You'll make a lot more if you still have the boxes and instructions and can recreate the boxed sets.

not really other than for some rare sets for specific themes and all instructions (inc historic) are on lego's site

 

[DontAsk]

not really other than for some rare sets for specific themes and

We'll have to agree to disagree, based on my experience.

all instructions (inc historic) are on lego's site

Not by a LONG way. NOTHING from my childhood is on there.

 

[Robert_Smith]

"Not by a LONG way. NOTHING from my childhood is on there."

There are lots of discontinued sets you can't get from Lego anymore. Bricklink usually have them but they will be very expensive if still unopened.

 

[IanSuth]

"Not by a LONG way. NOTHING from my childhood is on there."

There are lots of discontinued sets you can't get from Lego anymore. Bricklink usually have them but they will be very expensive if still unopened.

i have sets dating back to the late 60's (my uncle won one in an art competition) - i have found every set of instruction i have ever tried to look for dating back to the beginning of the City era in the late 70's (i remember opening a little Fire Chiefs car with a minifigure 602 at my great nan's house when i was 7 and i had what i called "dummies" as men in an ambulance helicopter before that)

 

[IanSuth]

30 seconds of google found the instructions for that set i just mentioned - https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/386/Ambulance_helicopter_and_van

 

[DontAsk]

30 seconds of google found the instructions for that set i just mentioned - https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/386/Ambulance_helicopter_and_van

That's not

on lego's site

And still missing a lot of kits.

 

[IanSuth]

That's not

ok - but as far as i know other than early Harry Potter/Star Wars etc, few sets have an intrinsic value as a set (if they do my wife's obsession with keeping all her old boxes from her 80's technics sets may pay off)

 

[japancool]

Boys, boys...

 

[DefinitelyMaybeUK]

OK, not a scientific test, but just had a search on ebay for one of the very first mini builds I had (a 435 Tipper Truck!) and found the original supplied paper instructions only (i.e. no bricks!)) are up for £15, whereas a built truck is £5 (no instructions supplied, but they were on the brickinstructions site in this case). No boxes were evident from anyone. I would suspect that a set with a box would likely follow classic die-cast / corgi prices and command a high premium - I think your wife is onto a good thing @IanSuth

 

[IanSuth]

OK, not a scientific test, but just had a search on ebay for one of the very first mini builds I had (a 435 Tipper Truck!) and found the original supplied paper instructions only (i.e. no bricks!)) are up for £15, whereas a built truck is £5 (no instructions supplied, but they were on the brickinstructions site in this case). No boxes were evident from anyone. I would suspect that a set with a box would likely follow classic die-cast / corgi prices and command a high premium - I think your wife is onto a good thing @IanSuth

saying that i remember a few years back there was an original Ewok Village set that sat on ebay for a year with a stupid price - people would say "they are worth x huge price as they saw that one on Ebay - but they are only worth what someone is actually paying.

And OP has a timescale

As an aside we were given a bunch of lego sets by a mate when he and his wife split as children had left home and they needed to clear in a hurry - i think they were the kind of kids who built the set once and put it away as they all had instructions and the front of the box - loads from the late 80's/early 90's i guess, a riding stables, shell garage, blacktron spaceships etc etc. they are all still in a separate set of containers.

PS i had 435 as a kid but one of the prongs broke off the end of the blue tipper hopper so it had to be stuck down on plates and not tip - the trouble of giving a 5 year old models with small bits

 

[DefinitelyMaybeUK]

but they are only worth what someone is actually paying.

ahh, so true for many things, whether it's a car or a house or a business

 

[wayzgoose]

When we downsized 7 years ago, came across my son's lego railway set from around 1990. It was complete with box and instructions. Decided to get it all built to video and sell it. Needed to get half a dozen missing pieces from Bricklink. Popped it on Ebay and it went for over £400. Noticed on Bricklink there was an unopened version on sale for £2000 and one had recently sold for £1850. So with the right kits, there's definitely money involved.

 

[DontAsk]

people would say "they are worth x huge price as they saw that one on Ebay - but they are only worth what someone is actually paying.

That's why you look at the sold listings, not what is on offer.

 

[DontAsk]

When we downsized 7 years ago, came across my son's lego railway set from around 1990. It was complete with box and instructions. Decided to get it all built to video and sell it. Needed to get half a dozen missing pieces from Bricklink. Popped it on Ebay and it went for over £400. Noticed on Bricklink there was an unopened version on sale for £2000 and one had recently sold for £1850. So with the right kits, there's definitely money involved.

I got good money for my original Lego trainset from the 60s/early 70s, the one with the 4.5 V motor that pulled the batteries along in the tender. No boxes or instructions, but made way more than I expected.

 

[DoolallyTap]

I sold Lego on Bricklink for a couple of years. Mixed, used pieces need sorting, all pieces need a good stock management system for picking and packing, making the listings is easy but takes time. Rare or special boxed, unopened, perfect condition sets sell. Picking packing posting takes time, needs an address label machine, and if sending out volumes a franking machine saves on postage costs. It became a part time home income generator which was a nice retirement hobby for a while.

What do you mean - I currently have about £50k worth at market value - is this what you paid or what you think it is worth? where did you get that valuation?
-I know I typically paid about 50% of the market value - how did you do that? did you buy it second hand?
You don't say if it is new, boxed or just a pile of pieces, which is it?

Why worry about the taxman, sell it first, get the cash in and then resolve the taxman issue.

Have you got a stock list or images of what you have ,let us see what you really have, someone here may buy the lot!

 

[WaveJumper]

Well I never after talking to one of my sons friends yesterday I learnt he was a Lego enthusiast among other "great builds" he finished off the Titanic last year which apparently was massive. Seem's there's quire a following and a decent secondhand market out there for those interested.

So maybe there is a small business to be had in the "collectors market" after all, especially for the rare builds.