Investing in Lego

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Neo
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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by Neo » Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:08 am

One thing I've notice is that the popularity of a Lego set depends what drives its interest.
I see the interest being driven by four factors: gaming, part compatibility, collectibility and storyline.

What keeps Ninjago popular is that it is both a game(battling spinning tops) and building set

Technic are compatible with Mindstorm NXT which is supported by schools robotic courses.
Modular buildings are compatible with the Train set which is supported by AFOL & LUG train enthusiast, e.g.. the railroad crossing set which wasn't all that expensive when I bought it - but its value tripled after it was discontinued. Other times special part also drive the market. For example, I bought the City Police Boat just because I wanted the large floating boat hull.


Supplemental minifig kits which are used to build and *army* of mini-figs are collectible - like the sw clone/storm troopers are supported by Lego enthusiasts interested in building very large collections.
Just having a well designed head helps make a minifig really popular ( e.g. anubis guard ) .

The constant stream of super Heroes cartoons and movies is keeping up the interest up Batman, etc.
Persistent holiday themes help drive interest for kits like the Winter Post Office.
The persistent activity of the SW media franchise is keeping SW Lego popularity up.

Warning Signs:
=============

The problem with one time movies and licensed of limited media characters is that the buying public forgets the storyline and loses interest in the set. The interest in the specially designed minifigs for that license evaporates. Depending on just one blockbuster movie or TV season makes it difficult to keep the interest up.

I have stayed away from the initial Friends kits because of the lack of variety interchangeable body parts (the bodies all look the same! The hairdos all look the same too! They lack hats/headgear). It looks like the second Friends series kits addresses some of these short comings.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by emazers » Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:54 am

If you seen my pictures of the Lego's I buy and sell you will see all are the big sets. And to make money you usually have to wait a year or two after they are not made anymore. With Ebay, Paypal and buying boxes its easy to loose money selling Lego's. So after 8 years of selling Lego's I have had only 2 sets that were Dud's, The Star Wars 7754 and 7659. I have spent Thousands of Dollars on Lego's Most people think I am Crazy, but if you do it right you will make money, I do have a account with Lego to buy them direct, but Lego Changed there Policy now you have to buy all the sets that go with the series, which its not worth doing. You can almost get them as cheap from Amazon, the 2 sets that I will be buying alot of is the Haunted House and the New Batman 10937 Arkham Asylum that comes out soon and since Amazon will have both get them when any of them go on sale. Look at it this way, if you are saving $150 or so a month in a savings account or bonds or whatever I would be buying one of these. Now there are other sets that will go up, but you can't buy them all. Anyone who didn't invest in the POTC Queens Revenge and Black Pearl Missed out along with the Star Wars Imperial Shuttle and Harry Potters 10217 Alley. And The Friends Lego Sets, The 2 to buy are the 3315 and the Lego store and Toys R Us 3185 sets. "But like I always tell people its Easy to buy the Sets, but the problem with most people is to sit on them for a few years to make money, I feel the same way once it a while, one example the 8098 Turbo Tank, I paid about $75-85 for 72 of them during the 3 years they were out, I could start selling some now and make about $40 or so clear on each one now, but in a year or so more it will be about $100 or more. Take the $8129 AT AT, Lego Store and Toys R US Excluse from 3 years ago, toys r us had them for about $80 now and then, check ebay now, $200 or more. So for anybody young lego's are a good investment, I am 63 years old so I can't keep this up forever. So here are the sets I would buy and will buy. and if you need boxes and you get find a place where you live this place is great.
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-4 ... ated-Boxes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; this size box fits most of all the big sets, a perfect box for them.
1- The big $100 sets Ninjago
2- Friends 3185 & 3315
3-Haunted House
4-Batman 10937 Asylum
5-The New Jabba's Sail Barge
6-The New Attack Gunship
7-Lord of the Rings Helm's
8-Potter Alley 10217
9-Imperial Shuttle 10212
10- POTC Queens Revenge and Pearl.
11- Harry Potter Castle
12-Vampire's Castle
13- The Batman Funhouse, for $40 these will be a great investment, so pick these up whenever you can.
14- The Big Tower Bridge
15- Fire Brigade
16- And The Big Death Star and Super Destroyer
17- And The Falcon 7965 will be a Big Money Maker!!!!!!
"But if I had to pick one to get in the future for a top seller is the Batman 10937
So anyone looking to invest and resell Lego's good luck, I am sure other people don't agree with my choices, and there are other sets that will be worth alot more money, but like I said you can't buy everything. But I will say last year on E-bay I made $72,000 on ebay, On Lego's I made about $19,000 profit on Lego's, I had 40 Attack Gunships' 7676 that I sold last year- $350-400 each set and I paid About $85 for each sets, so stick with the Big sets. Ed

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by cstojano » Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:00 pm

Can't disagree with your pics emazers. One thing I don't like about the new superheros sets is that the buildings all look so skeletal. My daughter noticed this today on the new Echo Base which I think looks awful, its like a mess of outer walls and random gear and stations. The superheroes sets feel that way to me. Of course this is just me.

Awesome link on the boxes too. Honestly boxes are a huge problem for me.

One thing I did not see mentioned is the international market. I sold 4 Troll Castle sets this month (likely too soon) 2 of which went to Australia. Odd.

OH and I am kicking myself but I was at Target last week and watched the woman put the 50% price tags on the Star Wars 7959 Geonosian Fighter and 7877 Naboo Star Fighter. I went back a few days later and they were gone. I hate both sets but for 15 dollars for the 7959, man.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by cstojano » Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:02 pm

Oh yes and Home One, people hate that thing for some reason, the prototype to Palpatine's Arrest design-wise

One other issue is the re-issue for licensed themes. You picked the new MF which seems solid but this is their 3rd (?) not including the UCS and they get better each time. I saw some late 90s SW sets at a local toy show and man they stink to heaven.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by phey_05 » Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:53 pm

It seems that Lego Technic is not a popular discussion with regards to investment.

based on this review, there are some that appreciate its value.

http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/ev ... nimog_u400

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by Brickmythic » Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:56 am

OH and I am kicking myself but I was at Target last week and watched the woman put the 50% price tags on the Star Wars 7959 Geonosian Fighter and 7877 Naboo Star Fighter. I went back a few days later and they were gone. I hate both sets but for 15 dollars for the 7959, man.
ouch, 7959 is going to be a classic. low production numbers, on shelves for limited time, amazing HTF minifigures in Ki Adi Mundi and Cody. powersellers avoided parting it out for the most part.only the few super big 'TLG family' wholesellers ever ran through parted out product. the $29.99 pricepoint hurt the product while on the shelves but makes such sets extremely rare in the long run.

hahaha, most of us hated 7959, but loved the figures, and wished it was $20 instead of $30.
sales never really made the product approachable.

usually that's a formula for win in the long run.

the recent crop of Star Wars sets going EOL is full of short term and long term winners from planet sets to 7959.


Thanks for providing us with some of your picks, Ed!

I disagree about only investing in big sets.

Big sets are great but with recent rise of part time investors last few years, especially those with clearly disposable income buying absurd numbers of big sets with a click of a button are inevitably driving prices down.

This, in turn, is starting to drive prices up on medium to smaller size sets since less is being invested in smaller and medium size sets. TRU's inflated prices haven't helped the small set seller lately because for at least 10 years, TRU used to have good sales and stackable promotions. TRU's stackable BOGO50% with coupons and other promos made investing in smaller sets for the average joe much easier.

These days finding deals at TRU is much more difficult. add on to that combative management and overall bad shopping experiences has distracted most of us from shopping there.

I think big sets are great but this holiday season I've definitely seen a significant spike in small set sales and a drop in big set sales.

So selling and investing big sets has now become more attractive than dealing with a TRU managers attitude when they walk over to the register you are checking out at and glare at you while they direct negative vibes and attitude your way while they belittle both you and the temporary register employee because you wanted to buy some gandalf polybags that werent rigning up as legos for some reason and wouldnt count towards a promo so the manager had to key it in.

hahaha so ya, maybe big sets are better despite the little change in trend we are starting to see!

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by cstojano » Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:11 pm

Ugh, I didnt know enough to know whether the MFs in 7959 were exclusive to that set or not. I picked it up several times, looked at the dumb looking ship (sorry) the bug, the random clone guy and the worst Jedi (in my book) and thought better. Oh well.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by Luciant » Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:06 pm

cstojano wrote:Ugh, I didnt know enough to know whether the MFs in 7959 were exclusive to that set or not. I picked it up several times, looked at the dumb looking ship (sorry) the bug, the random clone guy and the worst Jedi (in my book) and thought better. Oh well.
I felt the same way too.. no interesting pieces even in the set. I got mine at like 50% off and I still wasn't happy but bought it for completion.
I have mixed feelings about new releases: I can't wait to see and get the new sets... but I can't figure out where I'm gonna put them or store them.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by ricefields » Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:47 pm

Emazer

We started around the same time in 2004 regarding collecting and investing/selling and have some questions for you. My main reason for selling was just to eventually support the hobby - some day I will be able to say that my entire collection was paid for by my sales.

is this lego selling an official business for you ie report sales, pay taxes, buy lego at vendor prices, etc.
Some of the sets you should be able to get cheaper (more than 25% off) if you have access to vendor prices or has it been your experience that the US sales for a consumer was better (and I believe you noted that)

What did you sell this year to keep the machine going? from my ebay observations and selling myself, I think the hottest set was 9450 epic dragon battle, and these sales were only fuelled because stock ran out. Ninjago was predictable. So did you sell knowing these were happening in dec?

Lastly have you seen or believe there is a peak to specific set investments ie holding it on longer does not mean it keeps on increasing and in some cases it decreases. Example UCS snowspeeder was selling for about $1200-1500 all year except in the fall/winter when prices dropped to $800 for a new set. May have something to do with too many sellers entering market thinking christmas is best time - that may be true for new sets but not necessarily collectables. Do you fear rereleases will decrease future selling price of sets (and do you do anything about it ie unload some before rerelease). Some examples includ slave 1, at at, falcon, gunship, mtt, at te

thanks for sharing and hope you can answer some of the above questions!

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by popnfresh » Fri Dec 28, 2012 6:43 am

AFAIK Lego does not deal with small vendors directly, if you want wholesale pricing, you need huge orders, tens of thousands that only the big boys can make before they will even give you the time of day.

As for SW rereleases, yes they get affected greatly, falling 25% - 40% when the new one comes out, but prices stabilize after that no matter what they re-release again. You can probably count on making a profit, but it will be less, ideally you should dump them before the new sets are announced around January and play that guessing game. The Original gunship is still sitting around $300, peak pricing was about $400 from what I recall. Right now the 2nd edition gunship is around $400, and should start falling soon (BUT the 3rd edition doesnt look to be as good as the 2nd, so it might even stay high).

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by emazers » Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:24 pm

I do have a Account with Lego to buy Wholesale, and You only have to order at least $500 worth of Lego's to keep your account active. Here are some prices, which sometimes you can get cheaper somewhere else. All are 2 per case.

1- Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl- $140 per case 2 per case Plus $10 Shipping for each case. Costco had them for $60 each last year
2-Queens Revenge- $168 Per Case plus $10 Shipping each case
3- Star Wars Falcon 7965- $196 Per Case plus $10 Shipping each case
4- Star Wars Republic Frigate- $168 Per Case $10 Shipping each case.
As you see any set that sells for $119.99 The Wholesale Price is $83.99 each piece, plus shipping.

"But Cannot buy the Hard to Find Sets like the sets you see on Toys R Us Page, You have to set up a special account with Lego. Which is just very hard to do as you have to buy a huge amount of Lego's. Two sets I will be getting when Amazon has them cheap and Maybe if Lego or whoever gets them cheap is the
1-Haunted House
2-The New Batman Asylum These will be around a good 2-3 years but once discontinued and these will never be made like this will be a great investment
3- And on the Harry Potter 10217 Alley set the price should skyrocket once they are sold out, I have 54 of them, after Ebay and Paypal fees should clear $100 and Up,
4- And The Imperial Shuttle 10212, I have 58 of them and paid $180-$209 for each one, so here is another one that Lego will never make like this one again, since these are about done if you can get a few you can make money. "But the key again is you have to wait at least a year to make good money. So if I only Make a $100 each for the Shuttles thats $5800 Profit, out of all the sets I sold on Ebay the only 2 that I can call a Dud, are the Star Wars 7754, and the Imperial Landing Craft 7959.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by Martin » Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:05 pm

Well my first few months have gone well and I ended up selling 8 items: 3* Minecraft, 1*medieval market village and others as the price was right....so far my sales are £465 with a profit of £102 (after ebay fees P&P etc) which is nearly 40% on original purchase price (22% on sale price) or 7% on the total I invested in lego to date. What is interesting is that about half the profit goes to paypal, ebay and P&P.

With my sales money i bought a Black pearl and a few retired star wars items.

A few learning points for me which may be useful to others:

- If the price is right sell or at least sell part. I sold all minecrafts and some medieval markets when the price was right didnt just hang on to them
- Be aware of upcoming sales : I bough some stock that then went on sale soon after (2* Hoth echo bases) but I am just chalking that down to inexperience and school fees.

Catck you soon...OMG this is fun

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by emazers » Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:57 pm

Looks Like if you didn't get these sets that are discontinued you missed the money train. If you are a seller. The Falcon 7965 is out for another year, so if you have a chance to get them cheap get them, as when these are retired they will be big bucks, I have 60 of them now, I am going for 20 more. The one that I goofed up on was the AT AT 8129 from a few years ago, Lego and Toys R US Exclusive, Toys R US had them for $83.99, I only got 25, as they are selling for $220 and up now.

THESE ARE THE SETS THAT ARE RETIRED AND WILL BRING BIG BUCKS
1-Harry Potter Alley 10217
2-Harry Potter Castle 4842
3-Queens Revenge
4-Black Pearl
5-Ninjago-2507 Temple of Fire
6-Shuttle 10212

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by nerdns » Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:23 pm

Couple of questions.

1) Is it a safe bet to say that licensed lines have better chance of profit in the future?

2) Why did Toy Story & Cars line fail. I thought for sure it would be a hit with Disney and Lego fans alike.

3) What's the theory on investing on expensive and larger sets rather than the small ones. Is it because Lego produces less in the long run?

Thanks.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by SpaceViking » Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:22 pm

nerdns wrote:Couple of questions.

1) Is it a safe bet to say that licensed lines have better chance of profit in the future?

2) Why did Toy Story & Cars line fail. I thought for sure it would be a hit with Disney and Lego fans alike.

3) What's the theory on investing on expensive and larger sets rather than the small ones. Is it because Lego produces less in the long run?

Thanks.
Just my two cents...

1) No. Prince of Persia is a great counter example.
2) Not enough Adult/AFOL appeal.
3) Larger sets (particularly sculptures, UCS sets, and the like) appeal to adults with disposable income.

Money can be made investing in smaller sets, but its much more hit or miss than the larger sets. e.g. The Hero Factory Von Nebulla set sold for $150+ at a healthy clip for me this past holiday season. I had picked up a few on clearance a 2 years earlier, and the ROI was 10x. But, the other HF villains have not seen such a dramatic increase.

And while the larger sets are more satisfying to sell, with one package to ship in return for $1k or so, the risk is much higher. I sold one such item in early Dec, which was great 'cause it covered our Christmas CC budget. But, I'm still anxious that the buyer will return with a complaint and initiate a charge-back.

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Help!!! An offer I cant refuse or should I?

Post by Martin » Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:30 pm

Hi, I have been investing in MIB lego for a short time now (see posts above) with reasonable success and have really got the bug.

I have recently been made and offer to buy a 30kg mixed collection dating from the 1970's to present. No boxes no build guides just boxes and boxes of the stuff. It is from a household that had it in their attic and now want to sell. I had a brief look and it is one shed load of lego. I remembered and dated 3 minifigures to 1993, 1998 and 2002 but some of the lego is definitely 70's. The seller has agreed to let me view it for one week and will sell somewhere between £15 - 20 a kg which is more or less on par with local ebay prices a total of £4-500. Do I buy, do I run? Do i try to make up these historic sets and sell. Do I sort and sell......my heart says buy or they will split and sell on ebay losing the chance of rebuilding lovely sets forever....but my head says you are insane!!! Anything in particular I should look for. Any lego guru that can offer assistance....I really dont want to waste money i could put into MIB unless there is a chance of good return....thanks

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Re: Help!!! An offer I cant refuse or should I?

Post by Zeya » Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:53 pm

Martin wrote: Do I sort and sell......my heart says buy or they will split and sell on ebay losing the chance of rebuilding lovely sets forever....but my head says you are insane!!! Anything in particular I should look for. Any lego guru that can offer assistance....
Disclaimer: I'm more of a collector/MOC'er than a reseller.

I'd say definitely look through it. As you look, take note of how used/damaged it is, if there really is a lack of instructions, if it looks like they've sold off minifigs or devoid of other interesting parts (space cockpits etc). If it's just all basic bricks, I'd say easy pass; you want to make sure the parts come from minfig-oriented sets and not just old basic brick sets. If he/she'll let you take your time, make set aside interesting parts/figs and take some photos, then hit up Bricklink to see what sets you're dealing with and if that type of thing is worth money. An ideal case would be if they have a yellow castle or an iconic space mothership from the 80s, or a Black Seas Barricuda, stuff like that.

Then (assuming it's good stuff and not picked over already) if you have the time and money, go ahead and buy it. If you don't have the time and/or money, I would advise passing on it as it may not be worth what you put in.

Worst case scenario, if you do buy it, you can always flip it on eBay for roughly what you paid. So in essence the question is more if you have the time you'll put in, I'd say.

I have my childhood collection to go through, myself. It's a question of finding the time at this point. Life.

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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by Luciant » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:24 pm

nerdns wrote:Couple of questions.

1) Is it a safe bet to say that licensed lines have better chance of profit in the future?

2) Why did Toy Story & Cars line fail. I thought for sure it would be a hit with Disney and Lego fans alike.

3) What's the theory on investing on expensive and larger sets rather than the small ones. Is it because Lego produces less in the long run?

Thanks.
1) The simple answer is Yes. Licensed themes tend to have higher values, lower production runs, and are only good for the life of the license, so therefore cannot be "re-hashed" in the future unless said new license is born. In this instance, you generally are banking on the Minifigs, since it's the unique /rare minifigs that generally skyrocket the value. The 'sets' themselves typically aren't that parts that are typically skyrocketing. Lots of factors play into this, which I will get into in the next answer.

Space Viking isn't wrong by saying No either. Now just because it is a Licensed theme by itself does not guarantee value. Look at PoP, Toy Story, Cars, etc. Their values haven't moved at all, even with some interesting / unique Minifigs and parts.

2) Toy Story, Cars, PoP, and many other similar Licensed themes failed for a multitude of reasons. "Not enough Adult/AFOL appeal" is one of the smallest portions. Our community, be as vocal as it may, only makes up less than 10% of the overall market. (I want to say its closer to 5%). Many of these themes had no intention of targeting adults, as LEGOs clearly specified focus is children 2-12.

In my opinion as an economist, it has more to do with utility of the themes/popularity, and advertising/availability.

Advertising/Availability - Lego came extremely late to the party for these themes. Toy Story was already in its 3rd movie before picking up the line. Cars was picked up at the end of 1, and didn't put any Cars2 sets until after it had already been out. PoP was acquired and put out way after the movie flopped. Of the 3, Toy Story could have been more solid had they got in during TS1 or 2. These are also movies that are not likely to get re-released or re-done in some form, so ultimately unless they have "fanboys" they will eventually be forgotten. Look at Harry Potter too... these last waves sold terribly. They were released WAY after the last movie came out and then sat on shelves until they were clearanced.

Notice with the Hobbit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc they are now releasing sets BEFORE the said movie / show comes out to generate interest and then ride on the popularity, instead of always chasing that popularity wave.

Utility & Popularity - Some licensed themes simply do not fit well with other themes. It's hard to fit Toy Story into other settings, except maybe Buzz / Woody. Cars can somewhat fit into city as extra cars. PoP can somewhat fit in as an Arabic / Mideastern theme. But, you have to be creative and make them work, and don't just fit in. PotC is a good example. It can easily merge into Pirates and be indistinguishable. Notice the ships (that fit nicely into Pirate) are the big sellers. It's also how you grow up with them too. I see many 3-6 year olds LOVE Cars. What happens when they get 7-10? Cars drops out for GI Joe, or Ninjago, etc. Toy Story is the same as well... somewhat too kiddie to bring keep maintaining as you get older. PoP is more a victim to "What was this theme from?" since some didn't even know it was based off a video game which became a movie :P Themes that you can continue to play with as you get older, tend to do better.

3) Viking is on point with part of the explanation. Secondary market is more about the adults than kids, unless its a SUPER-hot item (see Ninjago Dragons).

Risk - People are not angels. As Viking said, 1 larger set going for $500 disputed hurts more than 10 disputed $20 sets. Some people try to mitigate this as best they can, but ultimately, many of the online methods of sale are buyer friendly, and put the MAJOR burden of proof on the seller.

Profit/Loss - If I buy a $100 set for $75, sell it for $150, I made a quick $75 only having to make 1 sale. If I buy 4 $25 sets for the same $75, and they all double in price, I still have to sell at least 3 of them to make the same profit with some extra potential for more. The problem is selling sets. They don't sell nearly as fast as you think / hope. On top of this, you still have to ship them, which costs you time, gas, and possibly shipping, all of which reduce your actual profit made.

Quantity - In general, there are fewer higher dollar sets sold due to people not wanting to spend $100+ on 1 set of Legos for someone else. Since fewer are sold, there are fewer in total actually produced. When they stop being sold, the over-all supply/demand will be what move the price. USC MF sold TERRIBLY at MSRP and even for small discounts. It wasn't until the price was SLASHED before they cleared their inventories. Terrible sales during peak shopping = low supply. Later when absolutely no more were to be made, boom, demand is still there but supply is no more, causing a "what is it worth to YOU spike."

Storage - This is where big sets lose. Very hard to store lots of big boxes. The boxes tend to be flimsier compared to the weights they carry, and ultimately get beat up more. More expensive to ship, etc.

PPP - Price Per Piece on higher dollar sets tend to be MUCH better, so any discounts in purchase make them even better. Some sets, you will NOT sell, so you might decide to sell particular parts / minifigs, etc. Some people break sets down to pieces and sell them that way if they aren't moving unopened, so of course the more pieces, the more likely you are to get some or all of your investment back.

Selling is hard to do and make a profit simply due to Time Investment, Space Investment, and risk. You just figure out what you have, what your willing to do/give, and try to mitigate the negative effects of the things I mentioned. Space is spot on that the scariest part is the "keep your stuff and dispute to get money back." I personally make a video of me packing the box, showing all seals intact, sealing the packing box with some way of knowing if it was opened, and of course use shipping methods that are traceable / insurable. I have been fortunate not to run into any charge-backs yet, but I think for any purchase over a certain amount, i might require a Cashier's Check, Wire Transfer or some other form of payment that avoids a charge back. Haven't crossed that bridge yet though.
I have mixed feelings about new releases: I can't wait to see and get the new sets... but I can't figure out where I'm gonna put them or store them.

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Re: Help!!! An offer I cant refuse or should I?

Post by Luciant » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:31 pm

Martin wrote:Hi, I have been investing in MIB lego for a short time now (see posts above) with reasonable success and have really got the bug.

I have recently been made and offer to buy a 30kg mixed collection dating from the 1970's to present. No boxes no build guides just boxes and boxes of the stuff. It is from a household that had it in their attic and now want to sell. I had a brief look and it is one shed load of lego. I remembered and dated 3 minifigures to 1993, 1998 and 2002 but some of the lego is definitely 70's. The seller has agreed to let me view it for one week and will sell somewhere between £15 - 20 a kg which is more or less on par with local ebay prices a total of £4-500. Do I buy, do I run? Do i try to make up these historic sets and sell. Do I sort and sell......my heart says buy or they will split and sell on ebay losing the chance of rebuilding lovely sets forever....but my head says you are insane!!! Anything in particular I should look for. Any lego guru that can offer assistance....I really dont want to waste money i could put into MIB unless there is a chance of good return....thanks
Honestly, I would say shoot the guy a low-ball offer, and explain your reasoning for the lower value:

1) No boxes is generally ok, but no instructions creates cause for concern about the "handling" of the item. It also makes there no way of knowing what you might or might not have.

2) While you can hope to find treasures in a land-fill... your gonna be sifting through mainly trash. Unless you have need for lots of loose brick, or another method by which to sell them and regain some investment, especially without manuals, a majority of your buy will end up being this.

3) Without manuals ends up create a huge time-sync weather it is for personal collection or re-sale. You have to go through and sift out non-Lego. Then you have to clean them all. Try to make sets from what you THINK might be there. Figure out what pieces are valuable. Try to put sets together and then figure out what's missing from them. Look to acquire their instructions.

IMO I avoid 'lots' that have no instructions, as it is a very good indicator of how the lot was maintained and how much more I'm going to have to do. Unless I can easily spot a minifig like original batman / old star wars, or some specific pieces to sets (Hulls of boats, canopies, flags, shields, light sabers, etc.) that is something decent, I steer clear.
I have mixed feelings about new releases: I can't wait to see and get the new sets... but I can't figure out where I'm gonna put them or store them.

super26
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Re: Investing in Lego

Post by super26 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:08 am

Just wanted to say thanks to all those who posted here. I am learning a lot from you guys/gals. Thinking of getting the Falcon at $179.99CAD - 30% discount from my workplace. For those who brought the Falcon 7965 before, did you guys get it lower than $125.99CAD + Tax? before, and if so, how often does this happen?

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