From Bricks to Success: The Story of a Side Hustle that Led to a Thriving New Career Path

The castle pictured is what took my side hustle of selling online to a full blown business. I wish I had a picture of my listing but a random eBay photo will have to do.

It was 2005, we were living in Nashville, TN and we were thrifting and selling things on eBay as a way to make extra money. It was one of the many side hustles we had to pay off debt. One day my mother-in-law called. She found a box of my husband’s toys from his childhood. A box of Lego. She asked if we wanted them and reluctantly we agreed to take them. We figured we would look through them, sell them if we could or just take them to Goodwill. We had no idea what was about to happen.

Surprisingly, the Lego was worth money and we decided to sell it on eBay. The first item to sell was the castle in the picture below. We sold it for $300.00 and we were shocked. This prompted us to learn more about selling Lego online and we quickly discovered the possibilities. We were excited and ready to jump in!

We began accumulating Lego and selling it on eBay. We did this on a part time level for a couple of years; working our full time jobs during the day and selling online until the early morning hours. Slowly the business grew and so did our inventory. Continually outgrowing every apartment we had. Thousands and thousands of pounds. Lego was everywhere. In 2010, the business was more than I could handle while working my full time job so I quit to pursue it full time. Nate followed me two years later. I remember telling family and friends that we were quitting our jobs; mine as a paralegal and Nate managing a UPS Store, to sell toys on the internet. We were met with a lot of skepticism and some laughs. I remember one person even saying “Let me know when you need a job.” At that time selling online was not that common, especially full time. We were selling on Amazon, before Lego was gated and when most people thought it was just a place to buy books.

Along the way we added different streams of “Lego” income including my husband’s custom Lego business, which he still runs today. We create custom Lego items for corporations, collectors and even some celebrities. We were able to travel to almost all 50 states as vendors at various Lego fan events and we have shipped tens of thousands of packages of Lego all across the world.

In 2022, I retired from my portion of the business. At 41 years old I was able to retire (That’s another post for another day. I will explain what retirement means to us.) thanks to Lego. My husband still runs his custom Lego business. We have achieved what we sought out to do, pay off debt and stay debt free. However, Lego led to so much more than that for us. Time freedom and doing something we loved. Which we consider priceless. And to think it all started with a side hustle. That is why I am so passionate about side hustles. You never know where they might lead.

So as I share side hustles in this group, never underestimate the possibilities. Some could bring in extra cash but some could be life changing. It was for us.