BrickIndex Spotlight: Imperial Shuttle #10212

On this edition of the BrickIndex Spotlight we will be analyzing the latest SW UCS set to have been retired: the Imperial Shuttle 10212

This is the first appearance of this set since it was retired just a few months ago, and so far it has managed to secure the 12th position after this past data update with a growth of 51.4% over the past 6 months.

The UCS Imperial Shuttle was one of those sets that for some reason were not especially talked about or liked by investors despite the fact that it was part of one of the most successful line of sets and a very popular ship from the original SW trilogy. In my Sleeper sets article, I categorize it as a Cat 2 sleeper because of that, and now that a few months have passed and its growth has been extremely positive you can probably tell why.

One of the most interesting features about the set is the fact that it was designed to minifigure scale. It is very rare for a LEGO set to be designed this way, and to me those few that are really hold an extra appeal since you can place the characters and they will not make the model look weird or out of place. This model included 4 cool minifigs that fit perfectly in the IS cabin.

Let's now evaluate the sale and market value numbers of this set over the past 12 months:

In the graphs above there are a couple of things that are worth noticing. First, in the one depicting the number of sets sold you will see that even though the set has been retired for a few months and has increased significantly over MSRP it continues to sell a pretty large amount of copies, especially New ones. This speaks volumes about the popularity of the set, especially when you consider that this past month of May the set sold more new copies than in any other month with the exception of November, December and January.

Now, take a look at the sales trends graphs for the past 12 months. You will see that up to December the set maintained a pretty consistent price around $20 below retail but once January hit the Shuttle started its pretty good growth trend that it has maintained for the last few months. Currently, the set is selling for around $ 355.

At this point I would say that there is still plenty of room for growth and investors with the ability to get a few more copies of this set would make a very good choice if planning to hold them for at least a couple of years before selling. The numbers for the majority of the UCS sets have been outstanding, and this particular one is already on the same path as some of its predecessors. I would be really surprised if this set does not reach $400 by the time December 2013 comes around. Expect this set to continue positioning itself on the BrickIndex for the next couple of months.

Recommendation: Strong Buy (6/30/2013)