Bricklink.com is the best place to find new and used LEGO building parts sets and minifigs. Whether you are looking for a piece that is lost for a set or making your own creation Bricklink is the place to go. I found Bricklink in 2002 because I was looking for pieces that I had lost for some Classic Space sets. Baylit.com was one of the first sites I found that I could buy random pieces but that site is no longer with us. Bricklink was the next one that I found and it was great. I didn’t have to buy a set to just get the few pieces that I wanted. From that moment I was hooked. Using the site for a long time it is easy to use. For new users it can be tricky.
When you are on a Bricklink page there are the three color circles near the top right. Market, Studio and Community. These did change recently. Market is where the pieces are at. Studio is Bricklink’s computer building program. Community is where the forums and help is at. Hovering over Market shows the above screen. Catalog on the left and Stores on the right. Under Catalog you can click on one of the types. I am clicking on Parts.
You get a list of all the part categories on Bricklink. There are more than shown here. One of the things that got me when starting to use Bricklink is what I called the piece wasn’t want Bricklink calls the piece. This can vary to what The LEGO Company calls the piece. You can explore the different categories to see what pieces are there.
Also at anytime the top of every page is a search bar. Most pieces have a number on them and you can search for the number. The numbers are very small. If you have an iPhone in the settings under Accessibility there is a Magnifier option. Once enabled if you click the home button it opens and you can zoom in on the number on the piece. It is easier than just using the camera to do the same thing. Don’t know how to activate it on the newer phones that don’t have a home button.
I clicked on the Brick category. It brings up the list of bricks. You might call every piece a brick but these are just rectangular pieces with no holes or slopes. I am looking for 1×1 bricks. I can click the 3005 and will open a new page. Under that listing you can see the other versions of this piece. These are older ones that are no longer produced and have differences from the normal 3005.
There is a lot of info on this page. You can see all the sets that this part as appeared in. You can see the Related Items which is the different variations of this piece. There is also Items For Sale, Color Info and Price Guide. This is where how I buy differs from most buyers. I find the stores and prices from the Color Info page.
From here you can see Lots For Sale, Wanted Lists, Price Guide and Known Colors. More info than the other tabs but the other tabs take you straight to that section. Here I can see if it is a known color. The number next to the color is how many sets it appears in. I click on the Price Guide Info for the Dark Bluish Gray.
There is the Last 6 Month Sales to show what the piece has sold for. Current Items For Sale is what is currently available for New and Used pieces. New pieces are pieces taken directly from a new set. These pieces haven’t been used in any way. The pieces from the Pick-a-Brick wall at a LEGO store also qualify as new. Used pieces are everything else. Most sellers won’t sell pieces that have too many scratches, bite marks or discolored. There will be some scratches but sellers shouldn’t never sell pieces with discoloring or bite marks. But that can be in the description of the piece. So read the description once you click on one of the green squares. The red ones are stores that don’t ship to your country.
It will take you to a store and will show you the quantity and price. Select how many you want and click Add Items to Cart. Is this the easiest way to buy? It can be if you are looking for just a couple of pieces. In the picture you can see the red heart. This means it is on my wanted list. If you need a lot of different pieces then you need to make a Wanted List.