Buying bulk LEGO® by the bin or by the pound: is it a good deal?

What’s in a typical bin

Most bulk LEGO is a family’s collection after the kids moved on: sets built, broken up and mixed together over years. Expect a lot of standard bricks and plates, wheels and windows, bits of a few recognisable sets, the odd instruction booklet, and some things that aren’t LEGO at all, from other construction toys to marbles and hair clips.

Minifigures are the first thing many sellers pick out, because they’re easy to sell separately. If the photos show figures, ask whether they’re included. If they’ve been removed, the price should reflect it.

The seller’s description is a starting point, not an inventory. “All LEGO” usually means “mostly LEGO”.

Price per pound or kilogram

There’s no universal rate for bulk LEGO, and anyone who quotes one is guessing about your area. Work it out from the market instead.

1. Collect five to ten local listings that give a weight. Search “lego bin”, “lego lot” and “lego by the pound” on Marketplace and Kijiji.
2. Divide price by weight. As one example, a Kijiji ad on 6 October 2026 offered bins of LEGO weighing about 200 lb for $500. That’s about $2.50 a pound, or roughly $5.50 a kilogram.
3. Adjust for contents. Bins with minifigures, Technic, sets and instructions sit at the top of your range. Bins with DUPLO, other brands, dirt or broken pieces sit at the bottom.
4. Weigh the bricks, not the tub. A big plastic tote weighs a few kilograms by itself. Ask for the weight of the contents, or how it was weighed.

If the seller doesn’t know the weight, ask them to stand on a bathroom scale holding the bin and subtract their own weight. It takes a minute and it’s accurate enough.

To sense-check a bin with a few identifiable sets in it, BrickLink can show what those sets sell for, new and used, over the last six months. Don’t add up the parts of an unsorted bin that way: bulk sells for a fraction of what the same pieces fetch sorted.

Spotting other brands in a bin

Nearly every LEGO stud carries the LEGO logo. That makes it the quickest check there is.

• Look at the studs. Grab a handful of 2×4 and 2×2 bricks and look closely. Blank studs mean another brand. Older MEGA Bloks pieces often have the brand name moulded between the studs instead.
• Look at the colours. Other brands’ reds, greys and tans are often a shade off from LEGO’s, and side by side they stand out.
• Feel the plastic and the fit. Other bricks can feel lighter or glossier, and they often clutch too tight or too loose.
• Read the listing. “Compatible”, “building blocks” or a brand name in the text tells you before you go. We counted 244 Kijiji ads for “lego compatible” in Toys and Games across Canada on 6 October 2026.
• DUPLO is genuine LEGO, made for toddlers at twice the size. If you’re buying for a toddler, great; if you’re buying for a builder, it’s weight you don’t want.

A few other bricks in a big bin aren’t a scandal. A bin that’s a third other brands is a different product and a different price.

Questions to ask, and a message to copy

Hi, is this still available? A few questions before I come by: roughly how much does it weigh, not counting the tub? Is it all LEGO, or are DUPLO or other brands mixed in? Are there minifigures, Technic pieces or any instructions? Could you spread some of it on a table and send a photo? And is it from a smoke-free, pet-free home? Thanks.

The table photo matters most. A spread-out layer shows colours, part types, figures and other brands far better than the top of a tub.

At pickup: a five-minute check

• Dig to the bottom: the heavy, small and dirty stuff settles there.
• Pull 20 random bricks and check the studs for the logo.
• Look for minifigures, printed pieces and Technic.
• Smell it. Smoke and damp don’t wash out easily.
• Check for broken, chewed or yellowed pieces.
• Confirm the weight if you’re paying by it. A luggage scale is handy.
• Bring sturdy bags or boxes. Bulk LEGO is heavier than it looks.

Cleaning and sorting

Plan on washing anything secondhand. LEGO’s own guidance:

• Wash by hand in water no hotter than 40°C, with a soft cloth or sponge. Hotter water can damage the pieces.
• A mild detergent is fine; rinse well with clean water afterwards.
• Don’t use a washing machine or a dishwasher.
• Don’t dry pieces in the oven, the microwave or with a hair dryer, and don’t leave them in direct sunlight.
• Wipe electronic parts and pieces with metal in them with a damp cloth only.

Mesh laundry bags make big batches easier to handle in a sink or tub. Leave stickered and printed pieces until last, and don’t scrub them. Spread everything on towels to air-dry, turning it once.

Sort in the way you’ll build. Families often sort by colour; builders usually sort by part type. Pull out the printed parts and unusual pieces as you go: those are the clues to which sets are in the bin. Look them up on BrickLink, Brickset or Rebrickable, or photograph them with Brickognize, which identifies parts and figures from a picture. If you rebuild a set and a piece or two is missing, LEGO.com offers replacement pieces for many sets.

Searches and filters

• English: lego bin, lego lot, lego bulk, lego by the pound, lego tub, bulk lego.
• French: lego en vrac, lego au kilo, lot de lego.
• Words to block: duplo (unless you want it), mega, compatible, table, storage, “building blocks”.
• Alerts: save a search for “lego bin” or “lego lot” with your distance set. Good bins near a big city often sell the same day.

Bulk is heavy, so distance matters more than usual. A bin 80 km away isn’t a deal once you count the drive. Our used LEGO guide covers set hunting, and the used LEGO price guide covers pricing complete sets.

With Sift on a computer

Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, makes bulk hunting less of a scroll:

• The LEGO kit switches on for listings with LEGO in the title and adds a BrickLink search to “Check elsewhere”.
• “May not be LEGO brand” when the seller writes “compatible with LEGO”, “building blocks compatible” or names another brick brand.
• A real distance limit from the home you set, with a distance badge on each listing, so you only see bins you’d actually collect.
• Price history and “↻ Reposted” badges on bins that keep coming back, so you know when a seller has dropped the price or relisted to look new.
• New-listing alerts for a watched search like “lego bin”.
• Start a hunt › LEGO saves a preset with the parts pack, which hides “broken” and “for parts” listings. If a bulk seller writes “for parts”, peek at what was hidden.

Sift’s fair-price badge compares a listing with the others on the same page, so it isn’t useful on a mixed bulk search. Compare bulk by weight, as above. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer. Sift is independent and not affiliated with the LEGO Group, MEGA, BrickLink, Meta or Kijiji.

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