Best Speed Champions LEGO Sets to Part Out

What Makes a Speed Champions Set Worth Parting Out?

A Speed Champions set is worth parting out when the combined resale value of its minifigure, printed panels, exclusive wheels, and windscreen beats what a complete built set sells for on the used market. In my experience, that gap shows up most on sets with a printed driver, brand-specific stickers or prints on the body panels, and wheel or tire molds that don't show up in many other themes.

Speed Champions cars are small, usually somewhere between 190 and 700 pieces depending on the release year, but they're dense with parts that don't exist anywhere else in the LEGO catalog. That's the whole reason part-out works here better than it does on a generic City set. When I'm sorting a lot, I'm not looking at how cool the car looks built. I'm looking at how many pieces in that bag are hard to find loose.

Why Do Resellers Part Out Speed Champions Sets Instead of Selling Them Whole?

Resellers part out Speed Champions sets because a built or bagged set usually has one buyer, while the same set broken into a minifigure, a windscreen, a set of wheels, and a handful of printed panels can have four or five buyers, each paying closer to top dollar for exactly the piece they need. I've seen this play out over and over with sets that would sit for weeks whole but sell out in parts within days.

Whole-set buyers are usually looking for a display piece or a gift, and they're price sensitive because they can compare your listing to a dozen others. Parts buyers are different. A BrickLink shopper hunting for one specific wheel rim in the right color isn't comparing your price to the next seller's whole set, they're comparing it to the two or three other stores that happen to stock that exact piece. That's a much better position to sell from.

Which Speed Champions Parts Hold the Most Value?

The parts that hold the most value in a Speed Champions set are the driver minifigure, the printed or stickered windscreen, exclusive wheel and tire combinations, and any body panel with brand-specific printing like a manufacturer logo or racing livery. From what I've seen, the minifigure alone can be worth a meaningful chunk of what the whole set sold for retail.

A few categories worth sorting for separately when you break a set down:

• Driver minifigures, especially printed torsos tied to a real racing team or brand.
• Windscreens and canopies, which are often mold-specific to a small handful of sets.
• Wheels, rims, and tires, particularly larger performance-style molds that show up in only a few themes.
• Printed panels and stickers, though printed pieces almost always outsell stickered ones for resale.
• Spoilers, exhausts, and small accessory pieces, which are cheap individually but add up across a lot.

I always tell newer sellers I talk with to sort into these buckets first, then price each bucket separately instead of lumping everything into one listing.

Are Speed Champions Minifigures Worth More Than the Rest of the Set?

Speed Champions minifigures are frequently worth more on their own than the rest of the parted-out car combined, especially when the figure has a printed torso and legs instead of a plain body with a separate accessory. In my view, this is the single most common mistake I see: sellers bundle the driver in with the car parts instead of listing the minifigure on its own.

This tracks with what I believe about minifigures across the whole hobby, not just Speed Champions. They're small, they're easy to store by the hundreds, and they carry character and brand value that plastic panels just don't have. If you want to double check what a specific driver figure is currently worth before you list it, brick'em's minifigure database is a fast way to look it up instead of guessing.

How Did the 2023 Speed Champions Redesign Change Part-Out Value?

LEGO redesigned the Speed Champions theme in 2023, moving from smaller, simpler builds that had been mostly unchanged since the line launched in 2015 to larger, more detailed cars with more parts, more printed pieces, and higher retail prices. That redesign generally raised part-out potential because bigger sets mean more unique molds and more printed elements per box.

I noticed this shift pretty quickly once the redesigned sets started hitting shelves. The older, smaller cars still have collector demand, especially early releases, but the newer sets tend to have more going for them when you're breaking them down for parts: more wheel variety, more detailed printing, and driver figures with fuller prints. If you're choosing between an older small set and a newer larger one at a similar price per piece, I'd lean toward the newer release for part-out purposes.

How Do You Calculate Whether a Set Is Worth Parting Out?

You calculate whether a Speed Champions set is worth parting out by adding up the current sold prices of the minifigure, windscreen, wheels, and any printed panels, then comparing that total to what a complete used set sells for and what you'd pay to acquire it. If the parts total clears the whole-set price by a solid margin after fees, it's usually worth breaking down.

Here's the checklist I actually use when I'm deciding in the moment:

• Look up the current sold (not asking) price for the minifigure alone.
• Check sold prices for the windscreen or canopy piece separately.
• Check sold prices for the wheel and tire set, since these can vary a lot by color and size.
• Add in printed panels or stickers if they're in good condition.
• Subtract estimated selling fees and shipping supplies from the total.
• Compare that number to what a complete built set actually sells for used.
• Factor in your own time. Parting out and listing five separate items takes longer than listing one.

This is exactly the kind of math I built brick'em's haul calculator to speed up. Instead of running each of those lookups by hand, you can scan a set or a bulk lot and get a part-out estimate in a fraction of the time.

Where Should You Sell Individual Speed Champions Parts?

The best place to sell individual Speed Champions parts is BrickLink, since it's built specifically for loose piece and minifigure sales and buyers there are already searching for exact molds and colors. eBay works well for the minifigure and for small parts lots, and Whatnot can work if you're already running shows and want to bundle several parted-out drivers into one segment.

BrickLink has much lower selling fees than eBay, which is a big reason sellers are willing to list something worth two or three dollars there, since the buyer covers shipping and the numbers still work out. eBay, on the other hand, is tougher to justify for anything under about five dollars once you account for packaging and the cut eBay and PayPal or promoted listings take. I still love eBay, I've sold over $100,000 worth of LEGO there over the years, but I reserve it for the minifigure and higher value pieces rather than small loose parts. Mercari is another option worth checking, especially for minifigure lots, though I use it less than the other two.

Is Parting Out Actually Profitable, or Should You Sell Sets Whole?

Parting out is usually more profitable than selling a Speed Champions set whole when the set includes a strong printed minifigure and unique wheels, but it takes more time, and time is a real cost most sellers underestimate. I recommend testing both approaches on a few sets before committing your whole inventory to one method.

When I sort a new lot, I separate sets into two piles: ones I'll part out because the individual pieces clearly outweigh the whole-set price, and ones I'll sell complete because they'll move fast as a built car and the time savings beats the small extra margin from breaking them down. A seller I know who runs a mid-size BrickLink store told me he only parts out about a third of what comes through his door, and sells the rest whole or in small bundles.

What Mistakes Do New Resellers Make When Parting Out Speed Champions Sets?

The most common mistake new resellers make when parting out Speed Champions sets is pricing everything off the asking prices they see on other listings instead of actual sold prices, which leads to items sitting unsold for months. The second most common mistake is tossing the minifigure in with a bulk parts lot instead of listing it separately at its real value.

A few more I've run into personally or watched other sellers make:

• Not checking BrickEconomy or BrickLink sold history before pricing a rare wheel or windscreen.
• Selling printed and stickered versions of the same part at the same price, when printed pieces should almost always be priced higher.
• Ignoring condition on stickers, since a peeling or misapplied sticker tanks the value of an otherwise good panel.
• Underestimating how long sorting and photographing loose parts actually takes compared to listing a set whole.

I learned most of these the hard way early on, which is honestly how most of us in this space learn them. If you're just starting to build out an inventory system for this kind of work, it's worth setting up a free account and tracking your lots from day one rather than trying to remember what you paid for what six months later. You can create a free brick'em account to get started, and once you've got a few sets logged, brick'em's collection value calculator gives you a running total across everything you're holding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Speed Champions sets a good investment?

Speed Champions sets can hold value well, especially sealed early releases and sets with popular manufacturer licenses, but results vary a lot by set and condition. Treat any investment framing as community experience rather than guaranteed returns, and check current BrickEconomy and BrickLink data before assuming a specific set will appreciate.

Should I keep a Speed Champions set sealed or open it to part out?

If a set is sealed and from a popular manufacturer or an early release, I'd generally lean toward keeping it sealed since sealed sets tend to hold value better than opened ones over time. For already opened or incomplete sets sitting in a bulk lot, parting out is usually the better call.

Do all Speed Champions minifigures have printed torsos?

Not all of them. Some driver figures use plain torsos with separate printed or molded accessories, while others have fully printed torsos and legs. Printed figures generally sell for more than plain ones, so it's worth checking each figure individually rather than assuming.

What's the fastest way to check part-out value before buying a lot?

The fastest way is to scan the lot with a tool that pulls current pricing automatically instead of looking up each piece by hand. That's exactly what I built brick'em's haul calculator to do, so you can get a part-out estimate on a whole bin of Speed Champions sets in a couple of minutes instead of an afternoon.