Architecture - general discussion

[Quacs]

Have any Architecture sets gone EOL? If so, how have they done after EOL?

[redeemed763]

We have no idea yet, they are all still in production. They could be slam dunk, but I'm not spending much money on them.

[glucapg]

LOL...Solid investments. Sleepers. Love the sets, but they don't get the love because of the lack of child fans and the high CAGRs. I have them all, multiples of some. I would say, if you like these sets, buy them. They are classy and make for wonderful office displays.

could you tell us two set that, in your opinion, will do the best in secondary market? thanks

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO

[Anakinisvader]

I may be alone on this but I think the Architecture series is freaking wierd. Come on, a square white house? Anyways, if I can make money on them I will. I'm not an artsy fartsy person so one persons junk is another persons art.

[dunkers97]

The pieces are mostly 1x1 and they usually cost more than $0.10 a piece!

The 21013 Big Ben is about 8 1/2 cents a piece so that one's a pretty good one. The new Imperial Hotel though is about 10 1/2 cents a piece so it all depends on the set. But I do agree with you that they can be expensive sometimes.

[dakotahorn]

I think I will stay away from this line. I feel as though these sets involve too much speculation for my taste. I know if I tried to pick winners and losers from this line it would be 100% speculation on my oart. Not saying others can't do well with them, just not me. Regards, Cody

[Ed Mack]

This theme is not for everyone. I enjoy it, others might not. I think they are classy. I don't invest heavily in them though.

[TheOrcKing]

A couple are neat for display, but most are just so so designs. The LEGO version of the Sydney Opera House is still the worse in my opinion. Truthfully, this year's Imperial Hotel was the one that actually caught my attention. And then I got dissappointed with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sheesh, a nice one next to a cruddy one (in the same year no less).

[LEGO Oleg]

Hard to say...no retired sets yes, except S. Korea building 21016 (sold out shop.lego.com MSRP $34.99)...looks like price going up already. IMHO will be winners.

[kerrmando]

I wonder if 21016 will come back though....

[TheOrcKing]

Well, if anyone is curious here's The Brick Show's review of the Imperial Hotel.

[TheDarkness]

The Opera House is very disappointing. Hopefully if they release a larger scale one this year it will do it justice.

[WHP517]

The Capitol, Notre Dame Cathedral, The CN Tower For sports stadiums, I would go with classics like Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, Memorial Stadium (RIP), Ebbet's Field (RIP), Maple Leafs Gardens, Boston Garden (RIP), etc.

[keithkez]

Sagrada La Familia, Barcelona

[kerrmando]

I'd love to see some iconic college buildings. Also a great wall of China segment...pyramid...anything that is a great wonder of the world.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Which iconic college buildings would you be referring to?

[kerrmando]

I'd love to the the Radcliffe Camera (Oxford) and the Rotunda (UVA) just to name two.

[kerrmando]

I like Thayer Hall and the Mess Hall at West Point as well. The Summer Palace in Russia is a must have along with the Hermitage

[kerrmando]

I've decided that the utmost set Lego could produce in the Architecture series is a rendition of the Homestead in Hot Springs Virginia. Google it if you havn't been there or seen it before. I'd also love Pinehurst and Greenbrier!

[1derman]

Hey guys, I came here to talk about minifigs but I'm starting to get interested in the investing idea. I'm out of work on disability recovering from a serious illness and I could use a new hobby that'll put money IN my pockets rather than take it out. I took my first trip to the Lego store today and I was just looking at the architecture and ended up really liking it. I picked up a Farnsworth house to be a little place to display my minifigs, even though the scale is way off. The whitehouse was cool, but way too small. However, I was really impressed with the Tower Bridge and I might have to grab one of those. I heard somewhere else on the forum that it was going to be retired soon. Is there any way of knowing this? Are there any other sets that are expected to go off market soon? What kind of value do these things reach when they're no longer available from retailers? I had good experiences with Marvel Omnibuses. They're oversized books. I always buy two of the ones I want and usually double my money on one, covering the price of the other. I'm hoping I could fund my Lego buying somewhat in the same way.

[Jeff Mack]

Hey guys, I came here to talk about minifigs but I'm starting to get interested in the investing idea. I'm out of work on disability recovering from a serious illness and I could use a new hobby that'll put money IN my pockets rather than take it out. I took my first trip to the Lego store today and I was just looking at the architecture and ended up really liking it. I picked up a Farnsworth house to be a little place to display my minifigs, even though the scale is way off. The whitehouse was cool, but way too small. However, I was really impressed with the Tower Bridge and I might have to grab one of those. I heard somewhere else on the forum that it was going to be retired soon. Is there any way of knowing this? Are there any other sets that are expected to go off market soon? What kind of value do these things reach when they're no longer available from retailers? I had good experiences with Marvel Omnibuses. They're oversized books. I always buy two of the ones I want and usually double my money on one, covering the price of the other. I'm hoping I could fund my Lego buying somewhat in the same way.

First welcome to the site, second, I hope you have full recovery from your illness. For the rest, you really have to look at this like any other type of investing, everything is a gamble and risk. Sure there are some sets that there is some decent information on when they may retire. For instance, we know the Monster Fighter theme won't be around for a long time. We also now know that the Jabbas Palace will be gone by the end of the year. As far as the Tower Bridge, most think it should be going soon, so yes, I would grab one sooner than later, but yes, we really don't know for sure when it may go EOL. The big joke all the time is the Death Star. People have been waiting for that to stop for years now, but it keeps going and going and going and going.....

[1derman]

First welcome to the site, second, I hope you have full recovery from your illness. For the rest, you really have to look at this like any other type of investing, everything is a gamble and risk. Sure there are some sets that there is some decent information on when they may retire. For instance, we know the Monster Fighter theme won't be around for a long time. We also now know that the Jabbas Palace will be gone by the end of the year. As far as the Tower Bridge, most think it should be going soon, so yes, I would grab one sooner than later, but yes, we really don't know for sure when it may go EOL. The big joke all the time is the Death Star. People have been waiting for that to stop for years now, but it keeps going and going and going and going.....

Hey man, thanks a lot for the good wishes.. it really does mean a lot when people express their concern.

And thanks a lot for the advice and info. I think this Lego investing stuff could work for me. I think I'll give it a shot on a small scale to start and I'll stick around the forum to see what good advice I can find and what info I can hopefully contribute. Now you say you are never sure when a set will go EOL. Is it, however, a sure thing that when it does go EOL it will increase in value? In other words do the sets remain desirable to collectors after EOL? Could you tell me the names of some sets that have recently ended and what they cost before going EOL? That might help me figure things out

[srm_520]

Without letting this thread get too threadjacked - I think you run more of a risk investing in the Architecture series than other classic investment sets - especially the small scale sets. I own every set in the series and they were really what brought me back into collecting legos as an adult (I collected them for displays and not for investments), so I could be wrong but here are my two cents. First - the Architecture series may have the highest quality of any series instructional manuals. I mean - you get a history lesson with each manual, and many have a fantastic booklet bindings. The packaging is also second to none, so you can tell these sets are really aimed towards the AFOL market. Having said that though - sets like the Space Needle, John Hancock Building, Sears(Willis) Tower, and Empire State Building just have such a high price per piece (Space Needle is 35 cents per piece!) that I just don't know if you could really get a good return on them. Not to mention that some of those have been out since 2008 with no aparent sign of EOLing any time soon. Another crappier set that IMO is probably the poorest of all the line is the Burj Khalifa. You could probably Bricklink this set cheaper than buy it on the secondary market. A few sets that might show a decent return in the future could be Falling Water, The Robie House, The Villa Savoye, and Sungnyemun. I haven't seen a lot of Sungnyemun's at the B&******'s lately, but you can usually still find the others. If you can find a decent enough deal with the others, you could get a decent return, but one of the problems I've found it that you won't find them in small shops since they have a exclusive market through B&******. So, that basically forces you online. I would go with Falling Water since it may be the most iconic, top design, has a average price per piece (12.3), and the length of time it has been out, but at this point I still wouldn't pay over $85 new. Weird sidenote - anyone else find it interesting that Falling Water is the only set not to have the black lined based with the name on the base? Another sidenote - anyone else think that the upcoming Leaning Tower of Pisa could rival the Burj Khalifa for being worst in the series? Bottom line I think is it will be hard to judge the return success of this series because of it's niche market and the fact that we've never seen one EOL. I guess time will tell. One last side note - you may want to invest in the 21000-1 series that has the Sears Tower nameplate since at least that is no longer in production since 2011 and you can typically only find the 21000 Willis Tower sets. Even though the Willis Tower currently has a higher CAGR seems like it could make things interesting in the future. But at 29 cents a piece, you still may have a long time to wait.

[kerrmando]

I'm one of the dumb people sitting on Twelve Robie Houses and fourteen Falling Waters.... so I can tell you first hand that it is definitely a waiting game for this line

[srm_520]

You know it's funny - I make what I believe to be educated long post, (sigh) but then the John Hancock Center smacks me write in the face. Okay - in addition to previous comments - I suppose 21001 will be a good judging point and could make me eat my words on the return value of the small scale architecture sets. It has a healthy CAGR right now with prices on Ebay unreasonably high. (It's funny, I picked one up at not too long ago at a local B&****** - before I even knew about this site or thought about investing in Architecture series. Oh Well) Anyhoo - it will be interesting to watch in the following months as things level out. Ans will definitely be a great one to watch for any follower and investor of this series.