The whole "beheaded" angle was irritating. Their heads are made to come off. And they're just plastic figurines, not living things.

just NYT dishing out counterproductive bourgeoisie chum as is their staple

Bricklink seems like a pretty lousy place to sell counterfeit Lego bricks. Sellers get reviewed by the buyers (and vice versa), and the buyers there are pretty much committed to genuine Lego bricks (and vocal of sellers not keeping up their end of the bargain). I doubt if there is much counterfeit stuff on there.

The economy for sellers lies more in picking up unopened new sets for bargain prices from local shops, both on and off-line, and reselling the individual bricks. New Lego sets just are cheaper in Eastern Europe. Part of this economy is that some bricks are much more sought after, which is reflected in the piece prices. This also means that more common pieces will be sold cheaper. It seems to balance out.

Personally, I rarely need to look beyond the Netherlands for bricks I buy for MOCs on Bricklink. Sometimes Germany or Belgium. The prices just are competitive.

not all eastern bulk vendors are fake/involved in some form a illegal action

there is some (small) money into taking Lego sets apart and selling the parts (1), but only if the sorting and for used sets taking apart, cleaning, damage/quality assessment are cheap enough. So countries with lower wages(2) are better suited. At the same parts people from less-wage countries have more motivation for "clever"/unusual business ventures weather legal or not.

(1): Naturally not for all sets, but every session there are some badly selling sets you might be able to buy both with large Rabatt and in bulk and have enough "good" parts to be worth it. "mini figure only" collectors and sometimes being able to buy for retail prices can help, too.

(2): While especially Poland has been catching up Europe in general still has the lowest wages in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_...

Only the lego figurines are protected.

You can legally produce lego compatible bricks and many reputable companies like Cobi do so. There is nothing grey about it. Some of these companies offer better quality than Lego these days. Lego isn't the only game in town anymore.

Bricks and pieces is pretty limited and cyclic. Many part out sees but others have access to internal model maker part ordering.

Lego bought brick link to keep it alive after the founders family tired of running it after he died.

I inherited a rare vintage LEGO advent calendar set, unopened and still in its plastic sleeve. I tried to 'cash in' on this find but there was a surprising lack of interest and we ended up keeping it in the family. Maybe I was just trying to sell at the wrong time of the year.

Regardless, this made me wonder about how strong the secondary marketplace for LEGO actually is. How much of it is people buying LEGO for their kids and how much is it adults buying for their inner nine year old selves?

Nonetheless, LEGO definitely is attractive to thieves when there are these secondary marketplaces. With stolen goods the goal is to get rid as quickly as possible to get cash as quickly as possible. With the price of LEGO being what it is, with $1000 sets, the thief only has to undercut legitimate retailers. For the likes of myself with a rare and collectable set to find a buyer for, I want the premium and I am not going to sell cheap, hence I might have been understandably disappointed by the secondary market for LEGO.

Yes, things are really moving a head.