Pick-A-Brick

Last Friday, I made a "brick run" to a nearby LEGO store (I am fortunate to live near not one, but TWO!) to check out what they had at the Pick-A-Brick (PAB) wall.

The way PAB works is that you get to fill one of two sizes of cups with as many pieces as you can (it isn't weighed). The small cups go for $8.99 and the big cups are $14.99, but if you bring back an old PAB cup, you can get a 50 cent discount.



This ends up being one of the most economical ways to stock up on pieces.

As a reference point, a typical, well-priced LEGO set will average 10 cents a piece (with rarer pieces and/or licensed sets like Harry Potter/Indiana Jones/etc. averaging closer to 15 cents a piece). A big 50% sale on a set can bring that price point down to around 5 cents a piece.

For this trip, I ended up getting 3 large cups and counted a total of 1085 pieces not counting the large amount of 1x1 flat pieces that were used to fill out the empty spaces in the cups.

Not counting taxes, I paid $43.47, which averages a mere 4 cents a piece. The price would get even lower after factoring in the hundreds of 1x1 round lime green pieces I got (that will hopefully be reasonably useful for grass landscaping in the future).

Now, your mileage may vary because the PAB selection can vary greatly from "useful" to "useless" depending on what you're building. In this case, I stocked up on 1x2 Black Bricks that I needed for the Dark Tower, and I also scored a bunch of 1x8 black, white, blue and red tile pieces. Other times though, you may be able to get a good price point, but not find the right pieces or colors you're needing.

I've found it beneficial to check on the selection often, as it changes quickly. I had actually made this recent trip based on a report from my sister that there were clear glass doors and bamboo plant pieces available, but they were all cleared before I was able to get to the store 6 days later.

If I didn't have to factor gasoline (if only I could pay a fixed amount for as much gasoline as I can pump into my car!!), I'd be visiting my local LEGO stores on a weekly basis.