Josh Ball, a junior at Fountain Hills High School, donated nearly 3,000 minifigures to Stitchers of Hope at Shepard of the Hills Lutheran Church. The Stitchers of Hope then donated the minifigures to Operation Christmas Child for local packing parties at Fountain Hills churches this winter.

Ball had 2,800 minifigures taking up space in his inventory and his donation will have an impact all around Fountain Hills this Christmas season. Ball has been selling items on Amazon for two and a half years, and he got his start selling replica Lego Star Wars minifigures.

“The main problem I solved and the way I made my money, was real authentic Lego minifigures became collectable, so they skyrocketed up in price, and I just got replicas and knockoffs and I sold those,” Ball said. “Lego is such a massive brand, that anything that seems like a knockoff will just be taken down. I had to eventually stop selling that and so now I’m on to bigger and better things.”

Ball said he’s become more design oriented and sells furniture and home products now. He used to sell minifigures for $10, but most of his items sell anywhere between $80-$250. Just last Wednesday, Nov. 16, Ball had a shipment of 500 units worth approximately $13,000 delivered to his home.

Ball said there was a big learning curve getting into selling on Amazon. He said the most important lesson he’s learned from his job is learning to add value to a product and differentiating himself from his competition.

“I don’t want to be selling on Amazon for the rest of my life, but I’m doing this to create opportunities for myself in the future,” Ball said. “I plan on going to college and I’m pretty sure I want to pursue mechanical engineering, but I still want to incorporate this sense of entrepreneurship and business into what I do with mechanical engineering or whatever I decide on in the future.”