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Mark,
I can't buy them for less than one cent each, so selling them for that after
working on them isn't possible. Besides, I offer them out at one cent for
thousands and let the market set the price. I go as fast as I can on the
auctions and make my margins, but not enough to justify the labor. For the
most part, it is just cutting the cost of the bricks I keep for my train
layout. I run 16 tubs at a time and put them up in 10 day auctions 2 times
every 3 weeks. I have enough tubs in my garage and with this order here to
keep me running my auctions for another 8 1/2 months. I occasionally pull
out some bricks for personal use and sometimes sell some off of ebay to keep
the cash coming in, so I should be out by the end of September, if not
sooner.
What I do happens to be a service to others, but it primarily must be a
service to me. I don't want to sell the bulk bricks any other way than I am
doing because it always ends up being more work for less money. Too many
people just want 240 black 1x4s or white 1x8s or something else. I just
want to get rid of what I don't need. I have neither the desire or the time
to start a bulk ordering system. That is Lego's job. When they do that, I
will still be doing this because I know they will charge a lot. I was
offered bulk ordering for these bricks and it was too expensive. They
wanted 3.6 times what I was paying. I can get them cheaper in tubs and I
can sell off what I don't need cheaper than they will.
Mike Poindexter
Mark Benz <Mark.Benz@BroadVision.com> wrote in message
news:FB90BFF591F3D311A232000629383E661F4B78@rw-msg-01.broadvision.com...
> Hi,
> It also just occurred to me that you could do some serious damage on ebay
> with an efficient, cheap bulk sorting system, and new bricks at less than • 1
> cent each...
> Hum. Maybe bulk bricks from S@H, or incredible simulation, is not too far
> off.
> Mark
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Benz
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 11:22 AM
> > To: lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com; lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf@lugnet.com
> > Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> > Wow, I say, it never hurts to ask your dad. He might get a
> > kick out of it.
> > Worst he could say is NO, are you nuts! Would make a nice
> > newspaper article
> > w/ color photo, etc. though. What does the company usually
> > use the equipment
> > for when not sorting lego? I think any simple solution that
> > saves time is
> > worthwhile. Might also get TLG to reconsider how they package
> > their goods...
> > Mark
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mike Poindexter [mailto:mike@poindexter.cc]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 11:12 AM
> > > To: Mark Benz
> > > Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> > >
> > >
> > > I have round hole screens at work that I could use, but I
> > > still have the
> > > problem that they mix 2 different colors of 1x1 bricks in
> > > each of the 3 bags
> > > they are in. Plus, the smaller bricks don't really get in • the way of
> > > picking out the bigger ones.
> > >
> > > I suppose that if I was going to go really crazy with this
> > > (i.e. was going
> > > to do 5,000 tubs or so) I could completely go crazy with our sorting
> > > equipment at work. We have an Elbiscan Laser Sorter that
> > > could sort the
> > > bricks by color with 99% accuracy. I could set that up for
> > > colors and then
> > > just use a scale for weights of lots, but that entails
> > > bringing in a bunch
> > > of Lego bricks in to work and I don't really want to do that.
> > > Still, it
> > > would be pretty crazy to see that operation and the Lugnet
> > > crew would die to
> > > see a $400,000 computer controlled laser Lego sorter in
> > > action. If you did
> > > copies of just one bag, you could get the first pass with the
> > > shaker table
> > > to get the sizes right and then the laser sorter to do color.
> > > Finally, I
> > > have sorting tables that would work for the final visual sort.
> > >
> > > If I owned the company, I suppose I could look into this, but
> > > I don't think
> > > my father would approve of using the company equipment for
> > > such endeavors.
> > >
> > > I think that our laser sorter could do about a 100,000 bricks
> > > per hour. It
> > > could go much faster, except that almost half of the product
> > > going through
> > > would be considered a "reject" as it kicks out colors
> > > lighter/darker than X
> > > and the air ejectors would get overloaded.
> > >
> > > I think the easiest way is to just sort them on the floor
> > > while listening to
> > > music, although a couple of the baggies would be very much • easier with
> > > shaker screens. Mostly the red/blue, blue/white and
> > > red/yellow, as they
> > > have 2x4, 2x2, 1x2 and 1x3 all together. Pulling out the 2x4
> > > makes the rest
> > > easier to sort and dropping the 1x2 out also makes it go a
> > > little quicker.
> > > Of course, these are the easiest ones to sort anyway. I will
> > > take home a
> > > couple of screens and see if it helps. If so, I won't need
> > > any made up, as
> > > I already have them at work, but I could probably get some
> > > idea on whether
> > > or not it is useful enough to warrant others to go out of
> > > their way and get
> > > them.
> > >
> > > I still have 230 tubs to sort in my garage besides the 160 I
> > > have to pick
> > > up, so even saving 10% of my time is a lot. I figure it
> > > takes 4 hours to
> > > sort 16 tubs. That puts me at having about 100 hours to sort
> > > these. 5
> > > hours a night for 3 straight weeks would drive me insane.
> > >
> > > Luckily, I will be at 773 tubs when I get finished, which is almost
> > > two-thirds of my initial goal of 1,200 blue tubs.
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Mark Benz [mailto:Mark.Benz@BroadVision.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 10:43 AM
> > > To: 'Mike Poindexter'; lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com
> > > Subject: RE: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > How do you sort them? by both color and size I assume.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts about making a shake grate, or whatever they
> > > call the wood
> > > frames with wire mesh or screen stretched across to sift
> > > dirt, fossils, etc.
> > > This would at least sort FAST by size, particularly with the
> > > volume you are
> > > talking about. It would be easy to do a coarse division this
> > > way if you
> > > could get even just one or two frames with the right size • mesh. Might
> > > scratch'em a bit though.
> > >
> > > I have some 1" chicken wire around, may have to overlap two
> > > layers to adjust
> > > the spacing and test it... Could probably get a frame • pretty quick to
> > > separate the 2x2s and larger from everything smaller. If the
> > > mesh is the
> > > right size, you may not even need a frame, just hold it over
> > > an empty blue
> > > tub and shake/pour. You might check a hardware or garden shop
> > > for mesh.
> > >
> > > I you want real fancy you could make a frame with two or
> > > three levels, or
> > > sections on one level with different mesh spacing and slope
> > > the frame over 3
> > > tubs. Depends on how much work it is to sort vs. building the
> > > frames. Sounds
> > > like a good BAYLUG club infrastructure activity... Color
> > > sorting is another
> > > matter.
> > > Just a wild idea.
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Mike Poindexter [mailto:lego@poindexter.cc]
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 10:15 AM
> > > > To: lugnet.market.shopping@lugnet.com
> > > > Subject: FOTW on Blue Tubs from TRU!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I had purchased as many of the <set:3033> from a $5 off sale
> > > > about a month ago
> > > > and ended up with as many as I thought I could afford, but
> > > > still wanting more.
> > > >
> > > > Last night, I got a call from the manager of one of the local
> > > > Toys 'R' Us
> > > > stores and he had been shipped 160 of the blue tubs, even
> > > > though he didn't
> > > > need any. Since he just got Kids 'R' Us put into his store,
> > > > he has no room,
> > > > so he offered me all 160 at the $5 off price! Normally, I
> > > > don't go crazy
> > > > about 25% off, but I have never seen these available for any
> > > > less and even so,
> > > > it would be unlikely that I could ever get this kind of
> > > > quantity if I did.
> > > >
> > > > If your local TRU is getting a Kids 'R' Us put in, the
> > > > management might be
> > > > willing to cut some deals to move stock, but your mileage • may vary.
> > > >
> > > > Now, does anybody want to help sort 160 tubs?
> > > >
> > > > Mike Poindexter
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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