Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - This Business Sells Lights for Lego And It’s Making $500K!

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Michael and Heather break down an Estonian e-commerce business selling lighting kits for LEGO sets, questioning its steep 7x EBITDA price tag amid thin margins, one-time buyers, and China sourcing risks.Business Listing – https://www.bizbuysell.com/Business-Opportunity/lights-for-lego-game-of-bricks/2322004/Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.💼 This episode is sponsored by Verivend — the platform built for independent sponsors and private market investors to move faster and cut out friction. From raising to returning capital, Verivend streamlines investment management with instant, secure payments and automatic reconciliation. It’s like Venmo for capital calls, deployments, and distributions — all with no transaction limits. Learn more at https://www.verivend.com📈 Also sponsored by Acquisition Lab – Your fast-track to business ownership. Get hands-on support, world-class resources, and join a top-tier community of acquisition entrepreneurs. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.acquisitionlab.com and mention Acquisitions Anonymous!This week, Michael Girdley and Heather Endresen dissect a fascinating e-commerce deal out of Tallinn, Estonia: a business that sells lighting kits designed to supercharge LEGO displays. With $3.7M in annual revenue and $500K in EBITDA, it’s priced ambitiously at $3.5M — roughly 7x EBITDA — raising plenty of red flags.Key Highlights:- Asking $3.5M on $500K EBITDA (~7x), 13% net margins- 20% customer return rate suggests mostly one-time buyers- Likely sourcing from China, possible drop-shipping under de minimis rule- Geopolitical & tariff risks could hit future margins hard- Hosts conclude it’s a cool niche, but overpriced — fair multiple closer to 3.5-4xSubscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [e-mail]

Hey, Michael here. If you are a Lego nerd, we have the deal for you. Heather and I went through this one, and it's actually located in Europe and involves the Millennium Falcon. So come listen to this one, see what you think, and see what we think. And let us know what you think in the comments below. All right, here's the episode. Acquisition Anonymous. Hello, another episode of Acquisition Anonymous. We don't have 100% beers anymore. And thumbs downing on just the plus inventory line. Hey everyone. I just want to tell you that this episode is brought to you by Varevend, which is the only platform purpose built for independent sponsors and private market investors

who want to move faster and eliminate friction. VerraVend is cool because it combines investment management and secure instant payments into one platform. So that means capital calls, deployments, and distributions. They all work like Venmo. One-click, real-time transfers with no transaction limits and automatic reconciliation. So from raising capital, to returning it, VARIVAN handles it all. Deal marketing, data rooms, K-Y-C- and accreditation for your investors, signatures, capital flow, dashboards for your investors, and even fund administration, accounting, and taxes. So whether you're raising a single deal or managing a full fund, V-A-V-R-V-E-N-D-F-F-F-F-F-E-N-D-com. Okay, so just for

the audience to know and catch you up last 10 minutes, Heather and I just been talking about why neither one of us has tattoos. But it's actually a fascinating generational thing about tattoos, Heather. Like one of the things I've noticed is you're at a restaurant, right? And like it used to, this was a few years ago, you walk up and somebody at our age, like in 40s and 50s walks up and has tattoos, you're like, ooh, bad life choices there. That's the person's lived a rough life. Somebody walks up in their 28 and they have a metric ton of tattoos.

you're like, oh, cool, a millennial. Yeah, it's fine. Oh, where did you get this one? What is this one about? Yeah, it is. It is. Our age just didn't do it at a young age, or you were really out there if you were doing it at a young age.

You know, you're getting tattoos. We're like, whoa, what is he doing? That's crazy, you know. One of the guys that has started a mountain bike with us, which is fun that, you know, if you stay active as a middle age person, you do things with cool young people and sometimes not so cool young people. This guy's cool. he's 24 years old, 25 years old

kind of still figuring out his life. So he's less than half my age. So pretty fun. And he's a nice guy. And he's got tattoos. And he's like, oh, like, you know, he's got one around his neck. And I kind of joked about it being the no regrets tattoo.

Yeah, with the miss belly. Yeah. And he goes, oh, that's not my biggest regret tattoo. Let me show it to you. And he pulls down his lip. And on the inside of his lip, it says, eat shit. Oh my gosh. I was like,

I was like, dude, what? Where are you thinking? He's like, I was 14. I was like, who gave you a tattoo when you were 14? In your mouth. Ow. He says it actually doesn't hurt. There's no nerves on the inside of right there.

Do you know, that's where you tattoo race horses, their number. Oh, really? And their lip. Mm-hmm. So he's like a racehorse, I guess. You tell that. Okay. So amazing.

Segway, let me tell you about this Lego business that I bought. Legos, all right. So it's from Tallinn, Estonia. So you're familiar with where Estonia is? Let's start with that. Not, no, it's somewhere in Eastern Europe. It's one of the Baltic countries. So if you, like, you know where Finland is, right?

There's Russia, Finland. It's just like, it's down there. It's the ones on the Baltic Sea. I see. So there's a bunch of little kind of Baltic countries there in Estonia is one of them. I think that Estonia is one of them. I think Estonia was one of the first ones to let you have like digital citizenship. Like you can become a dual citizen of Estonia and the United States and stuff if you wanted to.

Anyway, don't worry about that part. Okay. So the name of this one is Lights for Lego and it's a game of bricks. And they are asking $3.5 million. And so the picture here looks like it's some Legos. And this is the Millennium Falcon. Yes, I can tell. I recognize it.

And it looks like there's Lego kits that are built. And then what this has is lights in the Lego kit. Yeah, it's like really fancy Lego, you know, that are already constructed, but they must add the really cool lighting to these kits, I guess. Yeah, it does look nice. If you're into Legos. I did a whole video actually when I went to New York. While my family takes naps, I go do like economist and business nerd videos. And I went down and actually showed, I did two ones that I was really proud of. One was I went to the Lego store and basically like showed how Lego went from losing a million dollars a day as a company in the early 2000s to being the biggest by revenue toys company in the world. Wow.

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy turnaround. But you go into the stores, there's no kids. Yeah. It's all kidults. It's like adults who are buying nostalgia and Harry Potter like Lego kits. It's crazy. Wow. Anyway, stay tuned to my YouTube channel.

You can hear all about it as I walked that through Chelsea in Manhattan. All right. So the asking price for this business is $3.5 million. Gross revenue is $3.7 million, who's established in 2019 and has EBITA of $500,000. So they're asking seven times EBITA, basically? Yeah, I was going to get my calculator, yes. Bill GPT is on vacation today. Yeah, that was nuts.

So I have to use an actual calculator. The Game of Bricks is an e-commerce business dedicated to Lego enthusiasts and anyone who loves to build and create. Since launching in 2019, we've experienced consistent, significant growth each year. So far, 2024 has been our best year generating $3.7 million while maintaining a solid profit margin of 13%. We have a 20% customer return rate and millions of views on videos featuring our lights thanks to our web partners support, question mark. I don't know why there's a question mark there, but there's a question mark. Yeah, there is. So they have an extensive Lego-focused product range.

We specialize in high-quality lighting kits and accessories that enhance any Lego set, appealing to a wide audience of Lego fans who are passionate about making their builds truly spectacular. Strong online credibility with the domain authority of 28, Game of Bricks, has established a significant online presence, reinforcing his reputation, as a trusted destination for Lego-related products. Big online presence and strategic partnerships, impressive customer support, and stellar ratings, and they have remarkable customer loyalty. They have an impressive customer return rate of 21%.

and assessment to the satisfaction and trust our customers place in us. There's an outstanding market opportunity for those seeking a profitable e-commerce venture. Gameo Brex offers a unique investment opportunity with consistent revenue growth, a strong customer base and a clearly defined niche in the Lego community. The business is posed for continued expansion. There's some tremendous opportunity to grow the business, they said. You can sell to passionate Lego lovers, e-commerce. Oh, and they have like a video here.

Hmm. Hmm. Oh. He lit up the Lego town. That's cool. Hopefully the editors can put the... A little Lego guy. All right. That's cool.

Cool. Employees five facilities. They have a logistical customer support, and they manage systems and integrate logistics to ensure fulfillment across the globe. Blah, blah, blah. Man, this just keeps really going here. And then here's the website, game of bricks. EU.

Oh. Yeah. And it's here in Estonia. Oh, here's a map of Estonia. Oh, there we go. Okay, now I know where it is. Oh, okay. I see.

Yeah, supposedly this town where they're in Tallinn, T-A-L-L-I-N, this supposedly is like a really cool place to visit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you go to Finland, like, this is a cool place to go across this right. And then here's Russia right here. Yeah, right there. Right.

Yeah. It's too bad we can't go to St. Peter's Forg anymore. That's someplace I like to go in my life. Yeah, that would be cool to go. Okay, this is interesting. So e-commerce, I guess, it's in Estonia, but does it, I guess it could be located anywhere? They don't tell us if they drop ship. Yeah, it's not really clear where they're shipping from. Here's their website. They put their website here, so we're not talking to them. But yeah, these are, so in its core, it's lighting for Lego. Yeah, right. That's what this is. Right, which I think is cool. Like, if you're into building these models and you want them to look great and just right, I think lighting would be something, you know, next level, right?

It looks really cool at night. Of course, you know, put these little bricks that have lights in them and the whole thing that just looks a lot better. So I like the product. 13% margin. It feels kind of skinny. Like maybe there's a lot of marketing costs here. That feels thin for what the product actually is. But, you know, good community of buyers.

Only 20% repeat buyers, though. What do you think of that? I felt like it should be higher. Yeah, it feels like it should be higher. It feels like they end up being a source where people, by and large, are mostly, like, doing one thing. Like, they're building a Lego kit, like some of the ones we're watching in the video here. and then they go through and like do that one thing, they light it and then like they never come back.

It's over. Yeah. Yeah. Are you ready to take a leap into business ownership but you don't know where to start? Well, look no further than Acquisition Lab, the premier resource for entrepreneurs seeking to buy their dream business. Founded by Harvard MBA and acquisition expert Walker Dibble, the lab is your fast-tracked success in the search diligence and acquisition process. With hands-on support, well-class resources and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, Acquisition Lab gives you the tools and confidence to navigate every step of the journey. And we're proud to call Walker and Chelsea, the Labs Director, longtime friends of the podcast. They're passionate about helping entrepreneurs

like you take the next big step. So don't wait to make your business ownership dream of reality. Visit AcquisitionLab.com today to learn more and schedule your free consultation. And when you do, be sure to tell them the Acquisitions Anonymous podcast sent you. So that is maybe why margins are thin because 80% of your customers, you've got to go find every day. And that costs a lot of money. in terms of marketing. Yep. Yeah, yeah. So they don't manufacture this,

or did they say? They just probably get it manufactured somewhere else. Yeah, I think that ties into a big question that I have, which is, what is the sourcing plan for this? Mm-hmm. My guess is it's made somewhere in China. Mm-hmm. And this looks like Chinese stuff.

Here they're showing some of the thing here of how to do it. Yep. These are very straightforward little kits that are basically Chinese. It looks Chinese made. Yeah, Chinese electronics, basically. Yeah, so you've got a factory in China that's producing, you're probably doing a little bit of design, keeping up with the latest Lego kits that are out there and that are popular,

getting it manufactured there, probably carrying some inventory somewhere, and marketing, spending a lot on marketing. So you can find your customer. Yeah, I think, you know, dropping to the bottom line, 13% as a profit margin, you know, it's not that far off of, you know, your typical Main Street business. So I, that actually, I wish it was higher, but actually, I kind of like seeing that because it's not like, you know, it's, it's not crazy, right? It's not like they're operating

of 40% net margins, which would be scary if they were that high that they were pulling some shenanigans. Given this seems like pretty commoditized product in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, probably. But so what am I buying when I buy this? business. So I get a customer list. You get a customer list, some inventory, some designs, and some kind of relationship with the manufacturer in China. Yeah. And ultimately, buying and owning a business like this, I'm really just betting on the future of Lego. I mean, that just seems like what this is, right? Are, is Lego going to keep going that direction? The good news is millennials love

nostalgia so they keep buying Hoggworths Express kits there's a decent chance they're going to keep doing that and they've got a long run and they're going to start making more and more money so i like that aspect of this business like i think i i think i'm bullish on where lego is as a business yeah people keep doing this they will keep doing it it's probably very stable you're paying seven times though and so to me for a company of this size if you're if you're asking seven times you should have a lot of growth opportunities and i don't really see that here i feel like like this is something that might just be more stable than growth-oriented. Where are they talking about? One of the biggest challenges in this business is that our lights

consist of many different parts, such as connecting cables, expansion boards, et cetera. And since there's no robot to pack them all, human error can sometimes occur. Plus, we have significant opportunities on the horizon, a range of new products that can potentially double our revenue in just one year, as well as the possibility to expand on Amazon and stock lights directly in the EU, USA. Together, these factors can give our business a substantial boost. They do talk about how long their delivery is, which was shipping one day, get there in nine days. They also,

here, I'll show you this here, our promise. One day business dispatch three to nine days delivery. So that smells like they are drop shipping these straight from China under the de minimis rule. So that's another aspect of this.

Like tariffs are not going to be. These have been shipping tariff free and that's not going to continue. And we don't know where the customers all Are they European, you know, is it a 50-50 European customer versus U.S.? You know, it would be nice to know that in terms of tariffs as well. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know what the mix is. All right. Well, it seems like at first glance, like it seems like a good business. My first takeaway is assets continue to be expensive. Like I applaud these guys for seven years ago being like, you know what we should do sell kits for Lego and we're going to create a ton of value for ourselves. So I think it's another testament to me, like, you know, creating businesses is where the alpha is these days. But secondarily, just, you know, for what it is as an e-commerce business that's kind of undifferentiated and doesn't have a U.S. presence, I'm with you.

It just feels expensive. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But cool business at a lower price for the right person who's, like, into Legos, I think it could be a good business. Yeah. If you are a rich Lego nerd who wants to live

in the Facebook meta ads UI for the rest of your life and loves dorking out about this stuff it's a good business I mean and there's something to be said for Estonia

it's not if you want to escape the U.S. move to Estonia. But yeah, I don't think, especially with an Estonian business like this

I don't think they're getting seven times for this business like that's insane. No, doesn't seem like it. Super fun. Okay, so where are you at on this one?

I'll pay no more than 4X, probably three and a half. Oh, Heather, I knew you were a classic Lego nerd. I like it. At that price, I like it. That's a cool business. Yeah, I have a thumbs up on business category, thumbs down on price. And I probably also, this is a business that's just going to have a hard time selling right now. Just there's so many moving parts geopolitically around China and all this stuff.

Just, I don't know. I don't know how this sells. So yeah, I agree. All right. Well, thanks for being here this week, guys. This is a fun deal. Let us know what you're taking the comments below. And if you enjoy this episode, please send it to a friend.

And we'll talk to you next time.