21017 - Imperial Hotel

[Sprocket77]

1 hour ago, TabbyBoy said:

Even though this is a lovely set, I don't think it's iconic enough for investing in as only 0.01% or less have heard of it before LEGO starting making it! The White House on the other hand..... I've gone in VERY big on the White House as it's simply the most recognised of the lot.

I tend to think the White House will do well if it ever retires, but I don't agree that sets in this range do well because they're the most recognised. I'd never heard of Farnsworth House or Fallingwater before I made nice profits on them.

[donbee]

Yup. Just RRP. I didn't post a deal. I posted a link for a set that's not available online currently at any other retailer.

I see. I thought maybe there was a sale or pricing error I missed. I see these at BN and Bmillion all the time. I didn't realize they weren't available online.
I have one I got at 20+10% off
Was hoping to pick up more at that price. Maybe I should just settle for the 10% off.

[Legojona]

1 hour ago, Sprocket77 said:

I tend to think the White House will do well if it ever retires, but I don't agree that sets in this range do well because they're the most recognised. I'd never heard of Farnsworth House or Fallingwater before I made nice profits on them.

I tend to agree with you and think this one is interesting as a niche object. I was able to get it at 110 which is about -15% under RRP in the Netherlands. Time will tell, but I think it is the most promising Lego Architecture set available now that will suddenly will be gone everywhere.

[dcdfan]

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/toys-games-lego-architecture-imperial-hotel-21017/25555799?ean=0673419190701

Edited September 10, 2016 by dcdfan

[Lordoflego]

Poof, lol

[red panda]

Hi,

Local shop has one near me which I see every time I go in. It's £89.99 with slightly damaged box. Pretty certain could get a tenner off.

worth getting?

Thanks.

[Fenix_2k1]

It's been retired for quite a while and has had a lot of avaliability post retirement. It probably will start to creep up now but damaged box on an architecture set is going to severely drag it down.  I wouldn't pay any more than 40. 

[Val-E]

21 minutes ago, red panda said:

Hi,

Local shop has one near me which I see every time I go in. It's £89.99 with slightly damaged box. Pretty certain could get a tenner off.

worth getting?

Thanks.

Bargepole.

[Sprocket77]

51 minutes ago, red panda said:

Hi,

Local shop has one near me which I see every time I go in. It's £89.99 with slightly damaged box. Pretty certain could get a tenner off.

worth getting?

Thanks.

"Which I see every time I go in".

Think that says everything about it.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

I'd say the boat has been missed on this one as it was at £75 in a mint box. I can't understand why it's not doing so well as it's a superb display set. When a Japanese colleague resigned last year, we gave him one of these as a leaving gift - he loved it!

[LegoSteve]

I've seen people mention on this forum how disappointed they are about how this set is performing after retirement.  I too have been a little disappointed at this set and it's performance as well.  I believe that one of the contributing factors is because there was one warehouse that still had this set available until yesterday.  Hopefully now this set will at least go north of $175 during Q4.  Just passing some info along.

[HappyHawkeye]

I'm still optimistic. I was still able to find some NIB Fallingwater sets late last year for $175, and it's over $315 on Amazon now and should keep rising. I don't know if this one will perform that well, but it hasn't been gone from stores that long & there always seems to be lingering Barnes & Noble stock for architecture sets that make them slower out of the gates.

[Val-E]

8 minutes ago, LegoSteve said:

I've seen people mention on this forum how disappointed they are about how this set is performing after retirement.  I too have been a little disappointed at this set and it's performance as well.  I believe that one of the contributing factors is because there was one warehouse that still had this set available until yesterday.  Hopefully now this set will at least go north of $175 during Q4.  Just passing some info along.

The Imperial Shelfwarmer is slowly showing signs of apprecation on Ebay too. Sales are still very sporadic and there is plenty of stock out there so one for the patient.

[nolanfan34]

The analysis here is really simple. Frank Lloyd Wright. Might be slow out of the gates, but is a good long term hold due to that alone IMO. Would be great if they did some more FLW buildings though, maybe less likely without Tucker's involvement for some reason?

[landphieran]

This thing is still crawling.. I say a prayer every morning that Toy Planet doesn't have 50,000 of these lurking.

[Val-E]

3 minutes ago, landphieran said:

This thing is still crawling.. I say a prayer every morning that Toy Planet doesn't have 50,000 of these lurking.

It will eventually pull up out of that stall but the writing was on the wall when the last seal codes were from May and it retired in November.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

It's shame as I've seen the original and it's a lovely building. In the UK, it's still well below RRP after fees and tax. The zest has certainly gone out of LEGO as a collectors item as even the best sets are now performing like turkeys.

[Val-E]

Villa Savoye on the other hand - ching ching!

[mudcatsfan]

HOW IS THIS SET STILL BARELY ABOVE BREAK EVEN AFTER FEES AND SHIPPING AND TAXES?!?!?!?!?!

 

Even the pandemic bump had eluded this spectacular looking investment turd.

 

Is anyone else as surprised and perplexed as me?

[TANV]

1 minute ago, mudcatsfan said:

HOW IS THIS SET STILL BARELY ABOVE BREAK EVEN AFTER FEES AND SHIPPING AND TAXES?!?!?!?!?!

 

Even the pandemic bump had eluded this spectacular looking investment turd.

 

Is anyone else as surprised and perplexed as me?

I too am perplexed. It took me time to get rid of the spare one I had. I settled $15 profit last year on it after I got it at a 30% discount some years before.  I don't get it either, man. This set is actually pretty good looking and excellent display piece.

[mudcatsfan]

6 minutes ago, TANV said:

I too am perplexed. It took me time to get rid of the spare one I had. I settled $15 profit last year on it after I got it at a 30% discount some years before.  I don't get it either, man. This set is actually pretty good looking and excellent display piece.

I just found this very well written article by @Fcbarcelona101 from 2015, where they clearly lay out the sets positive factors and they did a comp against robie house. 

 

how is this set not selling for 300 plus yet? There was a graph!!!!

[me crying quietly in a corner]

Edited May 14, 2020 by mudcatsfan

[nolanfan34]

26 minutes ago, mudcatsfan said:

HOW IS THIS SET STILL BARELY ABOVE BREAK EVEN AFTER FEES AND SHIPPING AND TAXES?!?!?!?!?!

 

Even the pandemic bump had eluded this spectacular looking investment turd.

 

Is anyone else as surprised and perplexed as me?

I am in the surprised bucket. I think the fact that the architecture line has moved away from actual architecture models, vs landmark/city models. My assumption with this set was that the Frank Lloyd Wright name would be enough to give it value, but that's not quite the case.

Of course on the other hand I just sold my last Fallingwater for $489 on Amazon, but that is a more iconic design I guess.

[mudcatsfan]

24 minutes ago, nolanfan34 said:

I am in the surprised bucket. I think the fact that the architecture line has moved away from actual architecture models, vs landmark/city models. My assumption with this set was that the Frank Lloyd Wright name would be enough to give it value, but that's not quite the case.

Of course on the other hand I just sold my last Fallingwater for $489 on Amazon, but that is a more iconic design I guess.

you might be on to something re skylines.

From 2019, Chicago took off,  Buckingham palace and great wall of China, less so. 

But Buckingham is still way ahead of Imperial Hotel % wise,  so maybe it's a scale price point thing. 

50 can go to 100 plus 10 bucks shipping  more easily than 130 can go to 260 plus 20 shipping.

But countering that logic, also from the 2019 class,  US Capitol is doing great relative to Imperial. 

Perhaps it's just awareness of the set and caring what it is or not. 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by mudcatsfan

[LegoSteve]

Having owned 70+ of these at one time it was a tough pill to swallow but I eventually accepted it & moved on. It may be a great set but how many people actually visit the that building let alone vacation in Japan. Eiffel Tower & Buckingham Palace is another story.  I always factor how much traffic litterally goes through the lanmarks before I buy a architecture set. U.S. Capital, Space needle. These are no brainers. Everyone has either been to Chicago, Vegas, New York, or knows someone whose been there.

[cladner]

1 hour ago, LegoSteve said:

Having owned 70+ of these at one time it was a tough pill to swallow but I eventually accepted it & moved on. It may be a great set but how many people actually visit the that building let alone vacation in Japan. Eiffel Tower & Buckingham Palace is another story.  I always factor how much traffic litterally goes through the lanmarks before I buy a architecture set. U.S. Capital, Space needle. These are no brainers. Everyone has either been to Chicago, Vegas, New York, or knows someone whose been there.

lol - you can't visit this building - it was demolished in 1968. 

i have attributed this fact to the uncharacteristically poor  performance of this set which should have done much better given its pedigree. 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by cladner