LegoTwins Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Hello, I am totally new to the site and have spent a week or so browsing before deciding to post! My husband and I have five year old twin boys who are Lego fanatics. They started with the Lego Architecture series just before they turned four years old and by 4.5 they had completed the Robie House- "reading" the directions and laying every single brick with their own little fingers! So here is why am here- Our sons have desperately wanted the London Tower Bridge for nearly two years now and the Sydney Opera House since it was released. Given their age we have not jumped at the idea! Our boys are learning about how sets retire and increase in price. Their main goal in life is to save enough to buy the Taj Mahal! They are also aware that by the time they are old enough to get the London Tower Bridge and Opera House, they will be retired and rather expensive. My husband and I have recently decided that we are going to purchase both the bridge and opera house now and put them away until our boys are a bit older in case either set ends up tripling or quadrupling in price like the Taj Mahal did. In deciding to do this, we stumbled upon the idea of investing in Lego sets- thus how we found this site. Our sons are actors and have a decent amount of money sitting in their savings accounts. We do not touch this money. However, my husband and I are now considering purchasing a few large sets that are likely to increase in value after retirement. We understand it will make small gains in our sons money. We are not looking to make huge, life-altering profits. But some small gains would be nicer than the money just sitting there. We are looking at buying four to six large sets, based on information gathered from this site. Our question is this- Is it safe to say we would at least recoup our investment? Even if the sets do not go up drastically in value, is it likely that we could at least off-load them for what we paid? In browsing trends and sets currently on eBay, it seems that almost everything sells for at least what it was worth, if not a bit more. Surely it is a risk- but is it a relatively safe risk as far as not losing a lot??? Any input would be greatly appreciated. We are totally new to this and not sure if it is something we want to do! Quote
Neosphinx Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 It is safe to say that if you have taken the time to read various threads on this site, that you will not lose any money. In fact, it will be very difficult to make less money then having it stored on a bank account. The amount of money you will gain will be dependant on your cashflow for this investment and the chosen sets of course. Don't overspend yourself. It is easy to get caught up in the 'hunt' and have patience, good ROI takes time to achieve. 2 Quote
Cross Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) Welcome aboard. The "safest" play is to go with large, exclusive sets such as those you mentioned above- the Tower Bridge, the Opera House. There is essentially no case to argue that they will drop in value at any point in the future. If you acquire the right sets, it is essentially like buying individual stocks with no risk of them deteriorating in value. A nice place to start your research is the Lego Shop online; go to the "Hard to Find" tab, and look at the sets that are $150+. Where you will need to do your homework is identifying when the sets retire, which is what this board is all about. Rarely does anyone know for sure. There is good reason to believe the Tower Bridge will be done in 2015... as for the Opera House, unknown. A real challenge with Lego investing, for many folks, is where to put these sets (space gets eaten up quickly), and how to sell them. Based on your post, a reasonable play would be to buy one or two Opera Houses for the future, and as many of the Tower Bridge as your $ and space can accommodate. The Tower Bridge is more likely to retire soon, showing you greater returns faster, and demand for the bridge will almost certainly be greater than that of the Opera House once both sets retire. Edited December 9, 2014 by Cross Quote
Sauromosis Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Completing the Robie at 4 is impressive, welcome! Quote
rastascoob Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Here's the problem I see with your situation however. In order for these sets to be worth anything you have to sell them. Selling them and storing them is difficult sometimes (look how much Opera House weighs). It seems like you are very busy with your kids' lives so this may be hard. I have 4 sons of my own and the hardest part for me is not giving them sets when I have 10 of the same on the shelf. However, if you just bought 1 of the Tower Bridge and Opera House each month and then whatever they replace it with each month you will make a good deal of money in a few years off those. (See Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal) Big architectural Lego sets have done very well. Quote
ISO8T0 Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Welcome. Interesting post. Mainly due to the fact that your boys are into Arch. sets and not the commercial ones e.***. Star Wars, Chima, Ninjago etc. I personally am not a fan of the Arch sets. I find them completely over priced for what you get. Perhaps I'm more biased than most. (My wife and myself are both architects) As for investments and as previously stated you can not go wrong with buying the Modulars. They will not lose money. Keep an eye out for used sets on ebay and Craigslist. I purchased a TB from a lego fan off of CL for $140 that was complete and with the box. Me my wife, my 5 yr old and 7 yr old all built it together. (one of the great things about legos) Good luck and you've come to the right place, b/c any and all questions you have or will have regarding collecting, build and investing in LEGOs can be found on this forum. Quote
LegoTwins Posted December 9, 2014 Author Posted December 9, 2014 Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome and input! I feel more confident about investing in a handful of large sets. We do not want to buy too, too many as we are quite busy (and don't want to spend all of our sons savings!)- but being that we have the space, a few sets seem like a good idea. pstebbing- Ironically our sons' love of architecture pre-dated their love of Lego. We thought they were far too young to graduate from Duplo blocks at 3 and a half years old, but they saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Big Ben at the bookstore and those were two buildings they had been obsessed with so we figured we'd let them try. We were quite surprised to find that they could assemble them with very little assistance. They then moved into a huge obsession with Frank Lloyd Wright, so they asked for most of those for Christmas last year. The Robie House and the Architecture Studio topped their Christmas list and they actually cried when they received them! We do not let them do any of the more commercial sets- we don't feel Star Wars and Chima are age appropriate for them. We haven't even let them see the Lego movie! They are collecting quite a few City sets and really like those, but their hearts are still with the architecture sets! No matter how much we try to convince them otherwise, they are saving to purchase a Taj Mahal someday! Quote
sflv Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Selling is probably the biggest hurdle in investing. If you have never sold anything on eBay/Amazon, it might be best to try selling some small items around the house first. Fees and shipping can be upwards of 25% of the sales price. There have been stories of members here that dropped thousands of dollars buying without even thinking about how to sell them when the time came. Quote
legoray01 Posted December 9, 2014 Posted December 9, 2014 Welcome aboard. As they all say go big. The larger sets do not seem to lose money but you have to be careful that there is no "guarantee" Whatever you invest is with money you don't see needing for years. The way you describe your approach is a long-term buy and hold method so you have to be willing to sit on stuff for a while. The major value in anything is condition. Mint is worth more then damaged, unopened is worth more then opened, etc. If you are thinking for the kids in the future I would suggest buying two - one for investing and one for play. The hardest part will be in the future when the set is worth X and you paid a lot less then x - are you going to be willing to open it? Are you going to be willing to open it when that might reduce its value 40%. Investing in Legos and playing with Legos is very distinctly different mind sets. But read the posts and fourms and you will learn a lot. Quote
Ciglione Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 Welcome! Tower Bridge and Opera House are good investments. Quote
terrymc4677 Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 Welcome to the site. The advice already mentioned by others is very sound. Selling is the hardest part to get a good feel for. From reading your post though, I get the impression that you are not looking at diving into this large scale, but rather only planning on buying a small amount of a few high end sets. If that is the case, then selling locally on craigslist may be an easier and more profitable route for you. Craigslist buyers are typically looking for a "deal", but if you hold long term and offer your item at a fair market price then you will eventually find a buyer at a price point you are comfortable with. Craig's is not a reliable selling platform for those of us holding hundreds or thousands of sets, but for moving only a small handful it should help protect your investment a little more as compared to the selling fees on eBay and Amazon. Good luck! Quote
makr Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 I have 4 sons of my own and the hardest part for me is not giving them sets when I have 10 of the same on the shelf. Sounds familiar, except I play the role of the kids in this. And usually, I do give in. 1 Quote
Kenxxx Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) Cross said: ...There is essentially no case to argue that they will drop in value at any point in the future. If you acquire the right sets, it is essentially like buying... with no risk of them deteriorating in value.... Isn't that what they say right before a bubble bursts? ... Chilling... I generally agree with all of the commentary here, but still... some words give me the heebie jeebies. Edited December 10, 2014 by Kenxxx Quote
inversion Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 Welcome! Haha your sons remind me of myself. When I was 5 years old my first LEGO was the Technic Space Shuttle (yup, the big one). My grandpa thought the others are too childish. I never had System or Duplo sets. Quote
speedsausage Posted December 12, 2014 Posted December 12, 2014 Welcome to the forums legotwins! Quote
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