Buying sets for minifigures or both

[1brickshyofcrazy]

So, I was just wondering and since I'm starting to get an addiction to minifigures even though I haven't collected any from the CMF series but I do have a few from sets and want more.

So here's my question(s) and I'm sure I may have some follow up ones as well.

Does anyone buy sets just to collect the minifigures and resale just the sets?
Do you sorta make some of your money back by reselling the sets minus the minifigures?
I don't expect anyone to make a full return on what they paid out for a set but would like to know if it's reasonable.
I'm asking this because there are some sets that I don't want to collect but I like the minifigures from them and I would probably buy the set for the minifigures and either piece out the parts on BL or just sell the set minus the minifigures.
Or do you think it would be better to just buy the minifigures in the after market sales?

I'm just wondering if anyone does this or has any thoughts.

Thanks...

[jasake]

i buy superhero line for the figs but keep the set, i just break them down for parts or try to re-sell once they discontinue. If you like building MoC then i would go for the set itself once its on a discount, if not then just buy the figs separate.

[1brickshyofcrazy]

Thanks for the response - I've considered buying the figs separately but seeing some of the pricing for the figs makes it seem better to just buy the set and do what you mentioned.

i buy superhero line for the figs but keep the set, i just break them down for parts or try to re-sell once they discontinue. If you like building MoC then i would go for the set itself once its on a discount, if not then just buy the figs separate.

[vynsane]

Selling individual parts can take a long time, though, so if you have the money to sit on pieces for a long time and have the time to pack them up and ship them out, then I guess it could be worth it. I found BrickLink to be a slow and laborious process. I made back most of the money that I laid out, but it took a long time to recoup the expenses and the sorting/invoicing/packing/mailing took a lot more time than I really had free.

[ncbarrett]

why not just buy the minifigs from bricklink, or post a want list in the B/S/T forum?

[condor]

I think it's easier to sell the minifigs and keep the parts than vice versa. I have also seen others post about doing a group buy and splitting up the parts/figs that way. Might be worth a shot posting it up on the trade forum.

[Luciant]

That's a really good suggestion Condor. I'm in the same boat as you crazy... As my ever-expanding collection grows, I find myself tied more to Minifgs than most of the sets...

I like building a set but then am more upset about having to put away some of the figs than the set. I agree that BL'ing it takes a while. You can't really make a living on BL unless you're dedicated to pretty much doing that. So long as you have the storage space/patience waiting for parts to sell, you can do it. That's what I plan on doing since I was already considering parting out some of the extra sets rather than trying to sell unopened sets. I think the biggest thing is planning and organization.

[legohunter]

I found that I could save money from buying a box set at discount and keeping the minifigs, rather than just buying minifigs from auction site or bricklink. If you keep browsing this forum's sales and deal posts, it won't be hard to discover that the price/cost of a box set (after discount) was so closed to the price/cost of minifigs, and the parts ended up free.

6857 The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape and 6873 Spider-Man's Doc Ock Ambushis are very good examples. 6857 comes with 5 licensed minifigs for only $39.99 at MSRP. 6873 comes with 3 licensed minifigs for only $29.00 at MSRP. Obviously, I don't see any reason to just shop for the minifigs. Do the Math, and you will see you just pay little for the parts.

Sometimes, it happened to me that there were some sets that I just wanted the minifigs but not the parts, then I would only buy the minifigs in the after market sales. Certainly, I might paid few bucks more for the minifigs but I saved my time and energy to part-out and go thru the selling process at bricklink.

[Oberst Hajj]

Kind of funny, I'm the exact opposite as most of you. With a few exceptions, I could careless about the minifigs in a set, I just want the bricks! My biggest problem is that I don't want or need the bright colored bricks that come in most sets :(

[legohunter]

I kept the minifigs only because I didn't have room to display the sets. I don't like to hide my collection.

[1brickshyofcrazy]

Thanks everyone for the input and legohunter is more on target with an answer to my question.

I'll continue doing what I've been doing and had in mind as well.