(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Doug Davis and Melissa Peterson (and “Big Doug” in the back) celebrated the three year anniversary of the current location of their Lego resale store It’s A Block Party. The business has been open for ten years.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
At the corner of Southport Road and Main Street is quite possibly the largest collection of Legos in central Indiana.
The 5,000 square-foot building is home to It’s A Block Party, a Lego resale store owned by Perry Meridian High School alumni Doug Davis and Melissa Peterson. The couple originally opened the store at Madison and Edgewood almost ten years ago, and moved to its current location three years ago Nov. 29.
“Yesterday was our third anniversary, and we bought this building about three years ago, mostly because of claustrophobia from the previous building,” Davis said with a laugh. “Our previous building had about 1,200 square feet, and we have 5,000 now. We have a lot of stuff.”
Davis has collected legos for as long as he can remember. The two were inspired to open the store after taking a trip to Louisville, Kentucky, and seeing a similar store.
“Someone else did a similar thing, and I thought, ‘I have more stuff than they have. We should do our own store,’ so we came back and talked to an existing store at Madison and Edgewood called The Toy Drop, and we opened with them,” he said. “They ran the store when we weren’t there, and then we realized this was a money-making idea, and we probably needed to be there more often. It grew from there.”
It’s A Block Party buys everything Lego. And they mean everything.
“We buy everything — we buy by the pound, by the truckload, by the trailer load, it doesn’t matter,” Davis said. “If you have a Cool Whip container at home you have Lego in, I’ll take it. We have a buy window, so if you come into the store, you literally walk straight through the door to the buy window and we’ll buy whatever you have.”
(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Davis showcases his organizational setup for the Legos he purchases. Its A Block Party buys all Legos, including individual pieces, which helps Davis complete sets that may be missing pieces.
Sets and minifigures are carefully organized throughout the store. In the back, individual plastic drawers full of singular pieces are well-labeled, ensuring that Davis can fill sets he purchased with any missing pieces to sell them whole. It’s A Block Party can even sell individual pieces to builders who are missing them from their own sets. Buyers can even Build a Minifigure.
“If you need something sometime, a flag to complete a 1989 racetrack set, or any kind of part that goes in a Bionicle piece, or any kind of a ship or train track, anything, we usually have that kind of stuff,” Davis said.
The couple didn’t think they’d still be in it ten years later when they opened their business. But their passion for Lego (and the money) has kept them in it so long.
“It grew on its own, really,” Peterson said. “We work very hard, but we also never felt really like it was work. It just kept developing on its own. Sometimes I walk in the store and I think, ‘How did I get here?’ Because we didn’t start off with this vision at all.”
“Yeah, the fact that people bring us stuff they want to get rid of, and the fact that we never grew up and want to buy their stuff — it just seems to be a smart thing,” Davis said.
It’s A Block Party started as a hobby business, Peterson said, but now they have a team of full-time employees and a few part time friends who help out.
The duo goes to Lego shows where Davis can show off his giant displays and sell some inventory. Brickworld Indy comes back next year, and Davis plans to go. He once displayed a Geonosis Droid Factory (from Star Wars) at a previous Brickworld, and it’s now on display in the store.
The business even offers birthday parties, which includes an open build area, a mosaic wall, Ninjago spinner station, racetrack, and other activities. “Big Doug” — a giant Lego figure resembling Davis — sits in the corner of the party room.
And their gift cards are actually Gift Legos.
“Our gift cards are Gift Legos,” Davis said. “They’re printed on the front and back. The kids seem to really like that.”
For updated information, visit the store’s Facebook page or its website, itsablockparty.com.