A grown-up lego fan

[bkthunder]

Hello everyone, 

I am a 28 years old lego fan and I sort of had the "illumination" of investing in lego sets the other night, only to find out minutes later that you guys are already here doing just that! 

Well, I still have all of my sets of city/technic since I was a kid, and a couple of years ago I bought the motorised excavator after years of not playing with lego. I'll fill out my portfolio on the site. 

 

Some questions/opinions:

As far as investing goes, what do you think would be the best among these:

- Mobile crane Mk II

- Mercedes Arocs truck

- 42042 crawler crane

- Volvo front loader

 

The mobile crane and Mercedes Arocs are my favourite from a "kid" point of view, but not sure about investment. The Crawler crane has the blue parts which seems like a rare thing..

 

Another small question: Why are technic sets from the later 90s and early 2000s so lowly priced? I was surprised to see that 8479-1 Barcode truck (which I own) has such little market value, considering it was a flagship set with very unique functions.

Thanks

 

Edited August 28, 2015 by bkthunder

[Sandwraith]

Welcome!

I am not a Technic investor myself, but i know there are some avid Technic fans here who could better answer your questions - paging @gregpj ! (or it's possible your answers are already here on the forum in various threads).

As for the older sets; most sets from the 90's and early 2000's were (arguably) poorly designed by today's standards, and many of them have seen remakes (mainly SW line). Aside from some sets; most sets in that time period aren't worth as much as some of the stuff from say 2007 on. 

Have fun!

[marcandre]

Mk II will retire first so probably the best investment as far as the technic line goes. 

[MartinP]

Welcome to Brickpicker!!

[kensBricks]

Welcome! I too am 28 and just getting started. There are some great resources on this site and in the forums, looking forward to seeing you around.

[bkthunder]

Thanks for the warm welcome and replies, I'll take my time to get a feel for the market before I take a dip, hopefully won't take too long   

[TheOrcKing]

Welcome to the site, bkthunder.

[Ciglione]

Welcome!

I would say concentrate on MKII first. The others are for later concern.

[lobo1969]

Welcome!

 

Go with the MKII.... my favorite

[gregpj]

Thanks for the warm welcome and replies, I'll take my time to get a feel for the market before I take a dip, hopefully won't take too long   

Welcome! I really like Technic sets but investing in them seems to be a very tricky thing...

1. Rarity helps but not always... That motorized excavator is rare so big $$!

2. Parts... Technic sets are great, but the true value seems to be in the parts themselves. Many newer sets have improved parts making some older sets less valuable.

3. Sales... Technic sets always seem to be available on sale/discount these days making collecting the older sets less desirable.

2+3 - technic has a huge mocing community who will prefer to get the sets up front and pick up full sets on sale for their mocs... So we're fighting for the scraps of kids who've grown up trying to backfill their collections!

4. Age appropriateness... People are buying $200 Lion Chi Temples and many other sets for kids. These big technic sets are not being bought by parents for their kids.

That said, old sets are worth money. They just have a much smaller audience so they are harder to sell. I think many people around these parts are going to be surprised how long it takes to unload their MKII and Volvo loader sets for 2x or 3x retail. I've been buying from Amazon UK and flipping them locally (keeping a few of course for long term). I've almost paid for what I have kept by doing this.

That blue crane just came out with the Arocs, but to me those will be the $$ from this round. The old cranes are very rare and the new pneumatics have been getting rave reviews. The little fire plane can't be counted out either... At that price point it will be a winner IMO. Smaller than that is risky... I stick to well known vehicle types that look realistic - ie staying away from the skid steer loader as its neat but a pretty bad representation of a real bobcat (tracked or not). But I do have a few of the mini backhoe loaders.

Enjoy! And I highly suggest reading the MKII and Volvo threads... Very good discussions in them about investing vs builds vs etc. Skip out on the 41999 thread if time is tight, but it's a lesson in flipping technic.

[bkthunder]

Thanks greg, good hints.
Seems that technic is not really a market for beginners...