A Guide to Collectable Minifigure Series Investing

One of the biggest "home-grown" LEGO themes around today is called the Collectable Minifigure Series. In each series are 16 minifigures that can be found in plastic bags at LEGO distributers. Each bag is non-see through, so it is by chance that you get the minifigure that you want... Or is it?

Just because you can't see what's inside, doesn't mean you can't feel for it. There are often distinct features of a minifigure that make them easy to feel for. The second method is by bump codes. These codes are imprinted onto the bottom seam of the backside of the package, and each minifigure supposedly has an individual bump code. I personally rely on the feel method.

Now onto investing...

Each LEGO CMS minifigure retails for a price of $2.99. Often investors and resellers either feel the bag for the minifigure or they open the minifigure directly, to confirm the contents. Both methods are fine, but I would feel much more confident if I knew for sure what was inside.

There are a series of ways how to make money with CMS minifigures. One of them is via the traditional way of LEGO investing: waiting a few years and then selling for (hopefully) more than you paid. Often, investors who go this route buy sealed cases of CMS minifigures instead of individual bags, which reduces hastle on the seller.

Another one of those ways is by only buying minifigures that are on demand and then selling them immediately for maybe $4-$5 a piece. Though the margin of profit is much less, many resellers go this route to cover the cost of other minifigures they might have bought for their personal colleciton.

Before you say that both methods are hopeless and take too much work, let's look at a few examples of minifigures that have done well in the secondary market. Notice that many of these minifigures are from older series such as Series 1-5. Thanks to Brickset.com for some of the numbers below.

Minifigure: Zombie
Series Number: Series 1
Year: 2010
Average Price* : $21.05

Minifigure: Spartan Warrior
Series Number: Series 2
Year: 2010
Average Price*: $14.3

1 Minifigure: Elf
Series Number: Series 3
Year: 2011
Average Price*: $7.74

Minifigure: Roman Soldier
Series Number: Series 6
Year: 2012
Average Price*: $8.24

*Prices are in USD and are as of 6/19/13 on Bricklink.com for items in NEW condition.

Looking at these numbers, you can see that a few of the minifigures in the CMS series have struck gold. Though rare, they are still about. To pick good investments, try looking for minifigures that you can have more than one of, and your LEGO scene will still make sense, like "army-builders"! Good luck!