By David Stenklyft for Wausau Pilot & Review
Signs for garage and rummage sales are common on weekends in just about every community, including the Wausau area.
Typically, browsing the options, you’ll find a wide variety of housewares, auto parts, clothing, furniture and more.
Some feature lemonade stands or other refreshments, too.
But last month, one Weston family held a very specialized sale without the salt shakers, used sheets or coffee mugs you might normally expect to find.
Instead, they featured just one product: LEGO® toys. Hundreds of LEGO® toys, in fact, with something for just about anyone. Star Wars sets. Harry Potter specialties. Some sets that run into the hundreds of dollars due to their rarity, complexity and overall value.
Clearly, this is not your average rummage sale.
Scott Kresin and his three sons operate a LEGO resale store and associated Facebook page called Wausau LEGO®. Once a year, Kresin said, you have to have a sale to make room – for what else? More LEGOS®.
The selection is so vast and varied, it is, simply put, jaw dropping.
One of the sets on sale was for a Lamborghini automobile for $450 and another of the Star Wars Death Star with a $650 price tag. The Mall of America showcases the most expensive creation, a 34-foot robot, at their LEGO® store.
It is common for the family to get a request for a single piece for a set from customers worldwide. And it’s possible, too, that the price of shipping is more than the price of the piece. Each set has a manifest that shows each piece and also assigns it a number. But if a hobbyist needs one piece to complete a set, they might be likely to pay the shipping.
Kresin said there are approximately 100,000 resale LEGO® organizations or sites like theirs. And while you might think this is a hobby only practiced by kids, there is a popular acronym in in the trade: AOFL, which stands for “Adult Fan of LEGOS®.”
Kresin oversees the family operation, but his sons run the business, and in turn teach them responsibility, creativity, math skills, supply and demand and they earn their own money.
Plus, they have the fun of building and creating amazing LEGO® designs at the same time.
