This whole process can also happen on a computer with an animation program.

There are also marketplace sites like Bricklink that facilitate selling LEGO boxes to hobbyist and resellers that will then use the box to complete a set for their collection or to increase its value for resell.

Here is a link to box categories by theme:

BrickLink Reference Catalog - Original Boxes

LEGO boxes can be worth hundreds of dollars for sets that sell for thousands of dollars.

If saving boxes for collecting purposes or resale, you must decide if you will store them collapsed or in box form. Will you store them in a black plastic bag with a moisture desiccant inside? Will you store them in a temperature and moisture-controlled environment? 

You may also be able to donate the LEGO boxes you are no longer using so they do not just go in a landfill. Some hobby stores that resell used LEGO sets will accept the boxes as donations and try to use them again. If you want to find a used LEGO store near you, check our map and look at Independent LEGO Resellers. https://www.musiccitybricks.com/map

There are also marketplace sites like Bricklink that facilitate selling LEGO build instruction manuals to hobbyist and resellers that will then use the box to complete a set for their collection or to increase its value for resell.

Here is a link to build instruction categories by theme:

BrickLink Reference Catalog - Instructions

LEGO build instruction manuals can be worth hundreds of dollars for sets that sell for thousands of dollars.

If saving build instruction manuals for collecting purposes or resale, you must decide how you will store them. Will you store them in a black plastic bag with a moisture desiccant inside? Will you store them in a temperature and moisture-controlled environment? 

You may also be able to donate the LEGO build instruction manuals you are no longer using so they do not just go in a landfill. Some hobby stores that resell used LEGO sets will accept the build instruction manuals as donations and try to use them again. If you want to find a used LEGO store near you, check our map and look at Independent LEGO Resellers. https://www.musiccitybricks.com/map

You can get the LEGO instructions free on LEGO.com by clicking help and then building instructions.

Building instructions landing page

They also provide a free app on the same page. It is called the LEGO Builder App and the instructions are free in it as well. It is available for Android and Apple.

Note that this article is about custom instructions. we have a separate article about official LEGO instructions.

Here are some reputable websites for acquiring custom LEGO instructions.

We highly recommend anything from Sarah Dees for building fun basic creations from your LEGO bins at home.

Here is her website: LEGO Archives - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

Here are her books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sarah-Dees/author/B01M0XE8Z5

Rebrickable is a great all-round site for custom instructions, especially alternate builds using only pieces from official LEGO sets: Rebrickable | Rebrickable - Build with LEGO

Brickmania has a great line of printed and digital instructions for building military models out of genuine LEGO pieces and Brickarms weapons. Music City Bricks, just outside of Nashville, TN, carries all the printed custom instructions Brickmania publishes as well as most of the products Brickarms produces. Digital Instructions - Brickmania Toys

Bricklink Studio: Studio Gallery [BrickLink]

For all you modular building fans:

Ideas for more cars for your modular city: Build a Vintage car to cruise the streets of LEGO® Modular Buildings! | LEGO® Ideas

Brick City Depot

Brickbuilderspro Custom Instructions for Lego at Brickbuilderspro

How To Build It Modular Building LEGO MOC instruction – How to build it

Brickative Modular Buildings

Alternatives for the Green Grocer: Other coloured Grocers - LEGO Town - Eurobricks Forums

Free custom LEGO Train instructions: Model – Open L-Gauge

Some people are able to use this to claim they reliably fund their own LEGO hobby by purchasing two of every LEGO set they get. They build one and sell the other after three years.

At Music City Bricks, we do not recommend LEGO set investing to anyone. Here is our math:

Let's say you want to do it full time as a small business with you as the only employee and you want to generate an income of $100,000 per year. Let's assume absolute perfection and efficiency in every aspect of your process and see if it can be profitable for you. At the end, remember that you are unlikely to achieve perfection on even a single point, much less all of them.

Our timeline:

Year one, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $0. Warehouse $100,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year.

Year two, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $0. Warehouse $200,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year.

Year three, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $0. Warehouse $300,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year.

Year four, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $100,000 for $200,000. Warehouse $400,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year. Take home $100,000.

Year five, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $100,000 for $200,000. Warehouse $400,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year. Take home $100,000.

Year six, purchase $100,000 of LEGO sets. Sell $100,000 for $200,000. Warehouse $400,000 of LEGO sets for 1 year. Take home $100,000.

So you need to pay a startup cost of $400,000 for LEGO sets so that you can work for $100,000 a year.

Our assumptions:

Every LEGO set you pick is perfect and doubles in value after three years.

When you are ready to sell the three-year-old sets, you are able to sell all of them, and they all sell immediately.

The platform you sell them on charges you no fees to list them, sell them, or process payments for you.

All your sets sell with the buyer paying for all packaging materials, labor, and shipping costs on top of the sale price.

None of your LEGO sets get ruined while in shipping to/from you or while in storage for years.

You are able to securely warehouse $400,000 worth of LEGO sets in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment for free.

You have not electric bill, gas bill, internet bill, trash/dumpster bill, or other labor costs.

You have no costs for shelving, forklifts, fire suppression, or insurance related to $400,000 worth of LEGO sets or the warehouse.

You have no labor costs associated with buying, receiving, storing, and fulfilling orders for hundreds of thousands of dollars of LEGO sets per year.

You have no acquisition costs beyond purchase price for the LEGO sets. No labor to go get them. No shipping. No sales tax. No inventory/property tax.

You have no costs to setup the business or operate it or keep up with the bookkeeping.

You have $400,000 available to create a business so that you can have a job that pays you $100,000 per year - assuming a perfect business with no operating costs.

The reality is that you would be lucky to make $10,000 a year and you would be working 60-100 hours a week.

So, how do businesses make any money reselling LEGO sets? Sadley, many don't and they go out of business after spending down all their life savings or a business loan trying to keep it afloat before going bankrupt.

Some can lower their upfront costs by purchasing LEGO sets on clearance, but it can be hard to source enough to run a business without spending a lot of time and money driving around hunting deals.

Some can lower their costs by being selective about what they buy so it goes up in value sooner and they do not need to warehouse it as long.

Some are lucky enough to inherit a building or the startup costs so they can start the process more aggressively with less risk.

Even with everything perfect, it is a hard business model to make work.

Most LEGO set resellers that survive are not doing it as set investing, but as authorized resellers where they buy the sets at wholesale from LEGO and sell them in less than 30 days. This is also a hard business model because the margins are so small for sellers that do not have the buying power of Walmart and Target.

Think long and hard before fooling yourself into thinking you can make money at LEGO set investing.

You can pull up a LEGO set on LEGO.com and check its price.

We have three LEGOLAND resorts in the USA and they each have online shops where you can check price and even place orders:

New York LEGOLAND Shop

Florida LEGOLAND Shop

California LEGOLAND Shop

There are also a series of LEGOLAND Discovery Centers that have very small LEGO stores built into them like a giftshop.

If you want to find an official LEGO store, LEGOLAND Resort, or LEGOLAND Discovery Center near you, check our map and zoom into the area where you live or where you will be traveling. https://www.musiccitybricks.com/map