I have duplicates of most sets that I own just so I can have parts to Moc with while still keeping the sets intact. Sometimes I end up with 5 or 6 of a set because their parts are so useful.
I don’t know why I answered these as I don’t really MOC much anymore and I’ve never bought from Bricklink.
Actually, I’ve never actually bought pieces or sets with the intention of MOCing. Any spare parts I have outside of the ones I already owned from sets I got from a friend.
But yes, sadly, I did scrap a lot of my original G1 sets for MOCs. The only one I have mostly intact is my Axalara T9, but pilot Lewa is disassembled. My Toa Mata are mostly intact in their canisters, but I harvested their masks and weapons or other key parts for my revamps.
I also scrapped my G2 sets, and in some cases half of their pieces went missing. I recently inventoried all of my sets, and found that Gali 2015 had 42 missing pieces out of the 87 total.
I’ve actually bought like one G1 set in my life, and the other I got from my aunt. Most of my technic/Bionicle has come from actual Technic sets and bulk lots on Ebay. I find that out of say, 2 lbs of used parts, until a few pieces are in actual bad shape.
wait, I cant vote for both scrapping sets and displaying them? I usually display or at least keep together sets, but a good few have been scrapped for mocing. as for bricklink, my money is going elsewhere at the moment