Investment Analysis of LEGO 10211: Grand Emporium

The LEGO Modular Buildings series came out in 2007, and has quickly turned into every investor's dream.  The first three sets that have been retired have all skyrocketed in value in a relatively short time.  This Evaluation Corner installment will take a look at the Grand Emporium, set 10211.

There is a lot of other great data about the Modular series that can be found in a previous Evaluation Corner article that was done on the Fire Brigade.  It does a good job of illustrating the rapid rise to power that the earlier Modular buildings have enjoyed.

Here is the official LEGO description of the Grand Emporium:

Welcome to the grand opening of the Grand Emporium!
The LEGO® Modular Buildings series continues with this spectacularly detailed 3-story department store, designed in a realistic scale with lots of special building techniques and rare pieces. On the street outside, citizens carry shopping bags, send letters at the mailbox, admire the window mannequins, then cool off at the ice cream stand while a busy window washer works above. Enter through the revolving doors to discover a ground-floor clothing department, complete with a cash register, fitting room, hats, jewelry, perfume, and even a selection of spare trousers. A brick-built escalator carries customers to the second floor housewares department with glassware and golden plates for special occasions, and then it’s up to the top floor for the toy department (complete with toy house and push-scooter) with an impressive chandelier above the open atrium. Up on the roof are a billboard and skylight!

• Add this classic department store to your LEGO Modular Buildings collection
• Grand Emporium features many authentic details
• Set includes 7 minifigures
• Measures 15" (38cm) high and 10" (25cm) wide

The Grand Emporium is currently locked in a battle with the Fire Brigade as to which set will be next to retire.  Although the Fire Brigade has been around since September 2009 and is continuing its improbable three year production run, these sets are typically available for around two years.  The Grand Emporium just hit the two and a half year mark, and recently sold out on LEGO.com.  While it may end up ultimately being restocked, it always turns heads when something sells out from the original source.  There are an awful lot of Modular sets available right now, so it seems that one or even two sets should be going away by the end of 2012.  Fire Brigade and/or Grand Emporium are both great candidates to hit EOL status very soon.

This set is in a unique position in a sense that it may be in its final days of existence, but is still widely available to those who want to grab one before they're gone.  Another fact that is worth mentioning is that this is only the second corner building to come out.  What good is a street if there is never a corner to…round it out?  There will be more demand for it because people are going to need that corner building, but very likely won't want to pay the going rate for the Cafe Corner set.

I think that the Grand Emporium is destined for greatness, and that any serious LEGO investor would be very wise to pick one up in the next couple months.  It's very difficult to argue with the track record of the Modular buildings series.  This set should be a lock to at very least double your investment in a couple years.  From a personal standpoint, when I was first getting back in to LEGO, I had no interest in investing, but when I saw the Grand Emporium, I immediately wanted to build it.  I suspect that a lot of other people are going to experience the same feeling when they first lay eyes on it.  So whether it is for a collector, or a builder who missed the boat on this set, the price tag to obtain one is only going to go up.

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