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Don't sell! You'll regret it.
An obligatory theme of this thread is complaining about current LEGO, so here goes. :)
compared to some of my daughters modern stuff which has loads of specially moulded parts that I think you'd struggle to find a place for when building without instructions.
Oddly enough, there were a lot of specially moulded parts in the 90s, too, to the extent that LEGO felt they had to reduce the number to reduce production costs. I can't help feeling that they're back with a vengeance, though--all those special licences that they get for films and so on. Pirates may well have been able to do without much of that stuff. I go back a bit further and my favourites are still the grey Knights sets and the grey-and-blue Space sets. I really don't think that this is because they were around when I was at an impressionable age, but because I felt the balance between generic and special bits was just right then.
It was interesting to be in the LEGO shop in Leicester Square the other day. That wall they have of parts was completely ignored (probably because it's always a tiny selection of parts and they can't even use all of the wall since some of the slots are much too high up for people to reach--a bit of a misconception, really), whereas the minifigures stand was besieged by people three deep. I personally don't like all that customised faces stuff (I don't think children need that at all), but it's hugely popular and probably one of the main reasons for the LEGO resurgence.
LEGO today seems completely overpriced, and judging from what my nephews have, it seems as if you rarely get chunky bits in any series apart from Creator and Minecraft, but mainly flat bricks with which you can't really build anything.
Oliver Schick-
You're absolutely right, of course, about not selling. We've held onto the stuff for almost 30 years, it's been through and played with by four brothers but now parents downsizing, small london house etc etc etc.
The Pirates definitely have a lot of special bits compared to the earlier sets - the boat hulls, the cannons, etc. But those two forts linked above are almost all flat / block pieces; and building them was quite different to the new super-hero stuff that we've got in the house, where one single use specialist block will solve a load of angles completely on its own (and which you'd be in trouble if you lost).
The old instructions have a pleasing level of ambiguity in places as well!
The classic space stuff was great, we have some of that that'll be hitting ebay at some point soon too.
For price, that fort above still had the price tag on the box - it was £40 in 1992, which is about £75 now. It had 608 pieces, so possibly the value is better now (given 1167 pieces at £65 for @StandardPractice 's beetle - licencing costs on the marvel / star wars stuff probably makes a big difference though)
christianSpaceman
I had that plane - I'd totally forgotten about it!
I'm currently selling a load of old Pirate lego that we had as kids (couple of forts, castles, ships). It's been excellent rebuilding it again. They were the main theme that we got heavily into.
It's funny rebuilding them how most of the parts are pretty generic; compared to some of my daughters modern stuff which has loads of specially shaped parts that I think you'd struggle to find a place for when building without instructions.