Hardcore LEGO® fans know Bill Lynch’s company, Cincinnati Bricks LLC, as a go-to place for hard-to-find sets and replacement pieces. In 2006, he started out with collections and mixed lots of LEGO pieces and sets that he stored in his basement and sold online. It grew to fill his garage. Now, with over 700,000 pieces in his inventory, he’s expanded to fill 4,000 square feet of warehouse space in Forest Park.
He describes it as “a side project,” but this local entrepreneur now operates one of the largest U.S. parts suppliers on the LEGO secondary market. “Essentially, we are ‘chop shop’ for LEGO sets,” says Lynch, “We buy the whole sets in quantity, break them up, and sell the pieces individually, worldwide via the Internet.”
Lynch sources inventory in a number of ways, including buying private collections. “I resell LEGO sets and parts exclusively. I buy wherever I can,” he said.
Customers can purchase single pieces one at a time, or whole sets, directly from his website and through Amazon.
Up until last year, Cincinnati Bricks was exclusively an online retailer. In 2011, Lynch began taking stock on the road to a number of toy and game conventions in the region and selling onsite to show guests. The show circuit reaped good results and he plans to take the business back on the road again this year to six events.
Recently, he began making warehouse order pickup service available, by appointment only, to local customers who want to save shipping costs.
While he currently can’t accommodate casual customer foot traffic, Lynch has considered the possibility of opening a brick-and-mortar retail store at some point in the future. There are no concrete plans for that right now though. Instead, he’s expanding his warehouse and furnishing some new office space. Plans for 2013 include creating a facility that could host birthday parties for children.
Here is a list of shows where customers can buy from Cincinnati Bricks in person:
- BrickWorld Indy: March 10-11 - Indianapolis, IN
- Bluegrass Brick Jamboree: April 21-22 - Burlington, KY
- BrickMagic: May 19-20 - Raleigh, NC
- BrickWorld Chicago: June 16-17 - Wheeling, IL
- BrickFair: August 3-5 - Washington, DC
- Cincinnati Comic Expo: September 22-23 - Cincinnati, OH
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