Vinted – The Good, The Bad And The Missing Pieces!

There are many places to get your new and used LEGO. Some well known examples are Bricklink and eBay. But there’s more places you can hunt for a bargain.

Vinted is a UK app where you can buy and sell goods, it has overtaken Depop as the UK’s biggest second-hand marketplace app due to the fact you don’t pay fees like on Depop or Ebay. It has over 50million downloads on Android alone.

So, the question is, second-hand LEGO, is it worth it?

Over the last month, we have purchased a few sealed sets & a few second-hand sets just to see if we were really getting a good deal. We bought 3x sealed sets, which in their description all mentioned slightly damaged boxes. Which for us is absolutely fine as we build 90% of our sets. We offered a reduced price on all 3 and all 3 offers were luckily accepted!

The sealed sets were:

Set 75364, New Republic E-Wing™ vs. Shin Hati’s Starfighter – RRP of £94.99 – We managed to get this for £35 + Postage.

Set 75353, Endor Speeder Chase Diorama – RRP of £69.99 – We managed to get this for £25 + Postage.

Set 76248, The Avengers Quinjet – RRP of £89.99 – We managed to get this for £40 + Postage.

All 3 boxes came damaged but sealed. While we haven’t built any of these yet, we did open the boxes just to make sure all contents were in there and sealed. Just incase it had been resealed with Minifigures and/or Stickers removed. Luckily they all were there and we can’t wait to get building them after getting through the rest of our backlog.

The total RRP for those sets in the LEGO store today would be £254.97 but we paid just £100 (plus £10ish on postage). That’s a stupid amount of savings at over £150! Really worth our time and effort this time around & were really happy with our finds. 

While we would love to end our post here and pretend it’s all perfect on Vinted, we have to talk about the downside of our experience on the app.

Second-hand ‘preloved’ sets. Are they worth the hassle or should you avoid them?

Just like the sealed box sets, we scrolled Vinted and found some LEGO sets we liked, sent a lower offer and 2 got accepted. The 2 we managed to buy were:

Set 42138 – Technic Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 – RRP £44.99 – We managed to get this for £8 + Postage.

Set 75230 – Buildable Porg – RRP doesn’t really apply here as its a retired set but when looking for a sealed one, it was roughly £70. But we managed to get this for £40 + Postage.

Some things to note on these sets, which we were aware of at the time of buying. The Technic Ford had been partly built. The buyer stated bag 1 had been built but ALL parts and stickers were there and accounted for, box & instructions were also included. Apparently an unwanted present and they didn’t want to do it anymore. Which meant happy days for us as we were saving ourselves £30 on a Technic car Lj already wanted!

The Porg had been previously built and displayed but all pieces were included. No instructions but box in mint condition. The plaque hadn’t been built before so the sticker was in perfect condition too. With a saving of £30/£40 we really couldn’t pass this up as its on Meg’s wish list and it’s the first time we’ve seen it on sale for a decent price.

On Vinted, just like Ebay or Depop, the buyer doesn’t haven’t to send it straight away. They have around 5 days to get it sent – then the agonising wait of it coming with the parcel company (This time Evri, on both occasions). We got them both around 10 days later.

One issue we have with pre-loved sets is you never know if you’re getting 100% of the pieces – you just have to hope they haven’t lied.

Let’s start with the Technic Ford.

We were out when this was delivered so our lovely delivery man popped it in our outhouse for us. Unfortunately when we got home and I went to grab it, I noticed our first issue. It had been poorly wrapped in a inside out carrier bag, so poorly that there was gaping gaps in it where the handles would normally be.

On the floor of the outhouse, I noticed a piece of Technic. This is when I started to panic.

I took it inside & untapped the bag and found the box to be in the worst possible condition. The box was wide open from the top exposing all the contents inside, the LEGO from the bags? All open & loose. Yep that’s right, the sender has sent loose LEGO inside an open box, within a loose carrier bag.

After checking the contents of the box, we noticed that there were a lot of pieces missing. Mostly Technic, in which we had a few spares in our collection so we were lucky enough to be able to salvage most of it and make it look correct, although in reality. It’s missing a lot from the insides.

I contacted Vinted with my issue and raised a complaint with the seller. As expected they refused to accept any liability and said they didn’t send it like that so couldn’t do anything about it. Vinted however, sent me a refund & we got to keep our half built car. Some would say a win, but it was probably more hassle than it’s worth!

Our next set came with its own issues – Vinteds policy itself.

It says you only have 2 days to rectify any issues with the buyer after the shipment has been delivered. Which for clothing or some toys it would be fine … a large LEGO set on the other hand? Means you’ve either got to build it and make sure all the pieces are there OR sort out all the pieces and compare them to the back of the instructions to see if there’s any missing bits. So we did the first option and we built it that night!

Packaged correctly, the box was well secure and bubble wrapped which was great to see. No instructions like the Vinted description said so we reverted to the iPad and used the LEGO app!

Along the way, you could tell this set had been built before, dust on part of the Lego, some dirt etc – but the worst part is that it just felt really loose. Like that lovely click you get when you press certain bricks down? Just not as satisfying.

It wasn’t until 1/2 way through that we first thought something wasn’t quite right – we were missing a bit of the fur and some Technic parts but worst of all we were missing the feet!

Genuinely heart broken, we didn’t have any spares in our storage boxes and resorted to sending a message to the buyer in hope that they still had them lying around. Luckily they still had the feet and Technic stored away but no luck on some of the fur. They apologised and sent the feet the very next day so we only had to wait a few days for them to arrive & finish the build.

Built, the buildable Porg is really nice set and we’re super happy to have it in the collection. We will have a review up on our Instagram soon!

All in all, Vinted can be a goldmine for people who really know what there looking for. Although the last month or so has seen people trying to scam others or raise the price of certain products because they contain certain Minifigures (Looking at you Clone Battle Packs). Don’t fall for it, do your research on what you’re buying and ask yourself is it still available elsewhere? if so check if it is on sale that’s not the LEGO store. Check whether it is cheaper on eBay or other reputable market places.

Always check the description, ask questions and always remember the Vinted deadline of 48 hours!

We will be continuing our Vinted hunt but will be a bit more cautious about the sets we buy.

Have you bought any LEGO off Vinted? How was your experience? Let us know via the comments section below.