The Corporate Loophole™
Seize a store, inherit everything inside - including stuff that was never yours! Works on consignments, allegedly.
$200,000
The Story
A father, a son, and a lifetime in bricks
For over two decades, Bryan Mansell and his father - now around 83 years old - built one of the most impressive private Star Wars LEGO collections you'll ever hear about. By their count: more than 780 sets and roughly 1,200 minifigures.
As his father's health declined, Bryan made a hard decision. Rather than sell piece by piece, he consigned the collection to his local Bricks & Minifigs store in Keizer, Oregon in November 2023. A consignment means something simple and important: the LEGO stayed Bryan's property until each item actually sold. The store would take a commission on sales. Everything unsold would come back to him.
The goal was heartbreakingly ordinary - help cover his ailing dad's medical bills, and maybe set a little aside for the grandkids.
What "consignment" means
You hand someone your item to sell on your behalf. You still own it until a buyer pays. The store earns a cut. If the deal ends, your unsold things are returned to you. That's the whole premise - and it's why Bryan says what happened next wasn't a misunderstanding.
Then everything changed
In November 2024, parent company BAM Franchising, Inc. seized the Keizer store from its owners over an alleged ~$200,000 in unpaid franchise obligations. New operators took over - and Bryan says they claimed his collection as their own, locked him out, and (he alleges) removed the identifying tags and kept selling it.
ⓘ Where this site says "allegedly," it means exactly that. These are Bryan's and others' accounts and the subject of an open police investigation - not adjudicated facts. BAM Franchising denies wrongdoing; read their full statement ↓