Thankful Thursday

Okay. Still selling Legos on eBay but determined to catch up here a bit. :) 

So, last week, obviously, was Thanksgiving. My list goes back to a bit before that, though. Thankful for...

1. Micah's perseverance. The Friday before Thanksgiving week, Micah finally sent (finished) a boulder problem (route) he'd been projecting for almost two weeks as part of the local, virtual competition. Seriously, folks, he put in some significant effort figuring out each move and finally put everything together! And his hard work paid off...as he finished fifth in the competition. Yay!

2. Memories of Belize. Photos from a year ago kept showing up in my Facebook timeline and such last week. It's crazy to think that a year ago we were having such a warm and wonderful time in Belize. So very thankful for all of our Belize Thanksgiving memories! 

3. The sound of all three boys laughing together. Couldn't go anywhere this Thanksgiving break but had a different kind of good time. :) We picked up Noah on Saturday and enjoyed having him home for the week. Over the week, we played some pickleball...a new to us game called Kan Jam (a frisbee ring toss sort of game)...some of our favorite board & card games (like The Farming Game, Ticket to Ride, pinochle, Codenames and Telestrations)...and some online Jackbox games. Nathan and Noah played many games of chess. Everyone compared notes on shows we'd been watching. I particularly loved hearing the laughter throughout the week.

This was us in the middle of some pickleball. We're not very good, but we had fun. :)

4. Our extra little fridge & take out. Noah's old little dorm fridge has been in our dining area (which we don't use as a dining area) since we moved him out of his dorm last March. It's been fairly handy. (He didn't need it in his new apartment, as it has a regular sized fridge and kitchen.) Mostly, we just keep drinks in it. Over Thanksgiving week, it was particularly useful. 

Rather than cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, we decided to support some of our favorite local restaurants in these tough times. We ordered take out from a number of different places throughout the week and for our Thanksgiving day. It was lovely. Here, for example, is a Thanksgiving platter we ordered from The Fox & the Crow...yum!

5. Six word memoirs. On Thanksgiving day, The New York Times published a number of reader submitted six word memoirs (a form of writing popularized by the author Larry Smith). They'd asked readers to send in six words describing what made them thankful in 2020. The list was fabulous and entertaining, so I asked all my guys to come up with one of their own. Here's what we came up with:

I wanna go back to sleep. -Asher

Thank goodness Trump did not win. -both Noah and Nathan

Thankful for my absolutely massive muscles. -Micah (as if you couldn't tell, lol)

So incredibly blessed, thankful every day. -me

6. Squirrels. And, throughout the week (and still now), our backyard squirrels continue to provide much entertainment. Nathan keeps creating new little challenges for them so we can watch and see what they'll do. At one point, he was hanging walnuts just out of reach...

And then he created a floating platform of sorts just outside our sliding glass door. The squirrels aren't fond of the instability but are getting braver...

It's hilarious watching them trying to decide what to do. Some are definitely braver than others. Little things like watching a squirrel get freaked out by the sound of the platform hitting the door brighten each day.

And that's some of what I've been thankful for in the past week or so. :) 

We're back now to "normal"...boys are all finishing up their semesters (all remotely...Noah's back at his apartment), Nathan continues to work from home, and I'm still selling Legos (have shipped 49 packages now but getting ready to put up another 10 listings on eBay, as we decided that specific sets out of the Bionicle/Hero Factory trunk/pile made more sense than one giant lot). One of these days, we'll actually switch gears and start holiday things. Really. :)

eBay is my friend

Hi all. Happy, happy December to you! I know I still owe you some catching up from last week and such; I'll get to it. :) I've been distracted by this Lego project...

To recap...once upon a time, while growing up, Nathan had Legos. His parents saved them and gave them to Noah when he turned four. That small collection exploded...and exploded some more, leading to a full-on Lego room in our house, a trip to Legoland, and many fond lego memories. Then, around September of this year, I finally decided to do something about the gajillion Legos still in the house. Nathan and the boys convinced me that keeping them for potential grandkids was impractical and unnecessary. So. I started sorting legos...and sorted some more. I took a break for a bit in October as Asher and I visited colleges and worked on things related to that. And then I was motivated to finish up before Thanksgiving so Noah could use his room when he came home. :) A little over a week ago, I mostly finished up and had a list. I sold a number of sets to a neighbor and a cousin then listed the rest on eBay last Wednesday. 

Some numbers for you...

• 173 Star Wars minifigures identified (beyond the many already included with sets)
• 38 Star Wars sets checked for completion (most everything was complete, btw)
• 7 non-Star Wars sets checked for completion
• 13 lots of various Lego theme pieces (not checked for completion)
• 87 eBay listings so far
• 72 of those eBay listings have sold (it was actually a little alarming how quickly they started selling...most of the sales happened in the first 24 hours)
• 47 packages have been mailed (a number of people purchased more than one listing--yay!)

Along the way, I've had some thoughts and tips...

• The best tool for dusting Lego sets is a paintbrush.
• You need a LOT of containers if you decide to sort out all your Legos.
• I'm thankful that Staples had bubble wrap as one of their Black Friday sales...half off!
• Lego sets related to a movie (like Star Wars, Avengers, and The LEGO Movie) sell considerably better than other Legos.
• It took me a minute to get reacquainted with how eBay works, but it was pretty straight-forward and easy. Whew. (I've sold a few random things there before, but it was years ago.) They've got their system pretty well worked out.
• I don't have any concrete evidence, but I'm feeling like listing these over Thanksgiving break was probably better than listing them at other times...seemed like people were actively online shopping for the holidays or themselves. 
• Good packing tape is much better than cheap packing tape.
• Thankful for the ability to print out and purchase postage online! For the few packages that were heavier than my home postage scale could handle, I visited my little neighborhood post office (the one that's also a dry cleaners) and am so happy to have avoided the actual post office. 
• Legos are lighter then you'd think when shipping (such that shipping via flat rate isn't as useful as you might hope).
• It's a little amazing how well Legos hold their value.

So. That's a good bit of what my past week has looked like. It's been a little crazy. I still have all the bulk Legos sorted and sitting in Noah's room. And Micah and I have been going through the trunk full of Bionicle/Hero Factory pieces in Asher's room. The huge pile is now sorted by piece type (into more little piles because we're out of containers, lol) and we're going to reassemble some of the sets to sell...because they'll definitely be worth more as complete sets and we know they're in there.

After that, we haven't fully decided what to do with all the remaining Legos. I'm not sure I want to deal with shipping them. I know I *could* sort them out further and sell useful pieces. I'll probably at least try listing them for sale locally as one or two big lots. If that doesn't pan out, we'll probably donate them to a school or something once Covid allows for kids to be in-person to play with Legos. (If you happen to know of any place that would particularly benefit from something like this, let me know!)

And that's why my Thanksgiving week/weekend was a bit busy, lol. 

Thankful Thursday

Happy, happy Thanksgiving! I'm going to spend it with my guys and will be back later this weekend to catch up. :) 

Please buy our legos

UPDATE: I'm starting to list things on eBay today (Wednesday, 11/25).

The day is here, people. I've gone through most of our legos now and checked sets against their building instructions for completeness to the best of my ability. I've grouped other sets together into lots. I've sorted and identified 173 Star Wars minifigures. Pretty please help me clear these out of our house. 

So. Here is a list of what I've got available and the boys' initial asking prices. We're willing to negotiate. It's impractical to add all the photos here or make individual listings to start with for family and friends. Please let me know whatever you're interested in and I'm happy to send you the actual photos. I have LOTS. Here are some samples...

An example of the photos I have for each set that I went through (this is the Millennium Falcon, obviously)...

Here are the Star Wars lots that I put together. I didn't go through these sets piece by piece for completion...what you see is what you get. (Okay, I did go through the advent calendar minisets piece by piece. The minisets that are there are complete...it's just that they aren't complete advent calendar sets. There are 36 minisets from advent calendar sets from 2011-2015. Does that make sense?)

Here are some examples of the MANY Star Wars minifigures that I have available. Some are being sold individually and some are in lots. (The grey plate they're all standing on is not included.)

And here are some non-Star Wars lots of things I found in boys' rooms. I didn't go through these sets to check for completeness at all but did try to group them by Lego theme. Being sold as is. 

Everything here is pre-owned and gently used (and has been dusted at least initially). What is pictured for each item is what you get. Most were built and then sat on a shelf for years. Some were gently played with...normal wear and tear. Pet and smoke and covid free house. I've noted anything that's missing in sets. Happy to ship (though those costs are not included in the asking price). 

You know you'd love to get some legos to gift or for yourself. Really. ;) Please let me know asap. I'm offering these up to friends and family first but will start listing things on eBay next week. 

(Yes, I also have random bins of pieces...a LOT of pieces. And random minifigures and minifigure pieces. I've got to figure out how I want to group all of that and will let you know about those soon...and will tell you here before I list them on eBay. Whew.)

Thankful Thursday

A quick entry tonight because I'm on a roll and must get back to the legos...because Noah's room (and the closets in both Asher and Micah's rooms) is still, um, very full of legos...and Noah's not going to want to sleep on the couch at Thanksgiving. 

So, things I'm thankful for today...

1. That Lego has all of their instructions online. Yes, I've been utilizing online instruction booklets aplenty. Once upon a time I actually still had all of the booklets in a big box. But then the box got too full and it felt a little ridiculous and I told myself, hilariously, that I'd never need them again anyhow. So I recycled them all. Thankfully, they're all available online now. And I can use them to reassemble all sorts of things...even little Advent calendar pieces:

These are 36 "days" of things from Star Wars Advent calendars spanning 2011-2015. We probably have all the other pieces but these were the ones that were still mostly together and recognizable, and I'm not willing to go hunt down all the others. So there. 

2. That Lego disassembly tool. It has an actual name, I'm fairly sure. But you know what I mean? That piece that helps you take apart legos without utterly destroying your nails? Yeah. It's lovely.

3. A husband who knows me so well. Between bouts of lego mania and frustration, Nathan reminded me..."Don't let perfect be the enemy of good...or of done." Dude. I so needed to hear that, lol. I'm soooo close. Really. And I was stalled for awhile letting my tendencies to want to see things completed and organized get in the way. After the bulk of the Star Wars sets were gone through, I didn't know how to proceed with everything else. But. I'm through that roadblock now and almost done. I've accepted and embraced the concept of "sold as is" and it's very freeing. Whew. 

4. The internet. It's fabulous how much information you can find about random lego sets on the internet. Honestly. You can search "lego star wars rebel guy" and find what you need. It's kinda amazing. 

Okay, that's it for today. I'm sure next week will have non-lego thoughts, lol. In the meantime, if you're interested in buying some pre-owned legos, especially almost four dozen complete Star Wars sets...seriously, let me know. :)

(I have loads of stuff and will be listing things for sale shortly...still working out the best format/site to use but thrilled to work with friends and family directly. Keep in mind, though, that boys are aware of how much these sets can go for online and are always happy to have more funds for their young adult lives, lol.)