20% off @ Smyths Toys

[TheGallows]

Yeah I think it all depends on what your looking to get out of it. I started as a collector, then moved into investing to pay for it. 90% of my portfolio is long term hold. I've sufficient cash flow to invest in Lego put it away and 'forget about it'. For me it will be nice in 3-4 years to able to sell a few sets and take the family on holiday.

The collector in me wants to keep 1 of each of my favorite sets extra long term (10+ years), see what they get to, and probably pass them on to my kids. All my used sets will be boxed back up at some point and the same will happen with them. At some point if Ive had enough, I wouldn't rush out and sell all my inventory, I just wouldn't buy any more.

The stuff I sell now, I offset on the lego i'm buying to hold. I've sold 5 RR this month which means the 2 I have left have cost me near nothing.

I enjoy doing this, but do not consider it a career, just a hobby with benefits.

 

[Val-E]

Me too, work is work and hobby is hobby. Another point to make people who missed out on the sale is that you might have missed out but you kept your time and dignity. All those professional buyers that were no doubt getting up early, flirting with store managers and doing all manner of unethical things to make their numbers - was it worth it for a measly 20% reduction?

[botchy123]

 

Moreover, if you live in the UK you now have access to better deals across the Eurozone due to the strengthening of the pound whereas 2 years ago it was the opposite. Great for buying but bad for selling.

 

 

 

 

Also good for EU sellers to sell more in the UK than EU, they list in pounds so benefit from the exchange rate also.

[Val-E]

Also good for EU sellers to sell more in the UK than EU, they list in pounds so benefit from the exchange rate also.

ssssshhhhhh!

[hannibal]

If lego investing seems like a job or a chore but pays less then you have probably answered your own question already.

I didn't say it's a burden. It is a hobby and as already said I love Lego to start with. However, I am a busy professional with tons of work on his hands and personal life too, so sometimes the profit we get from this could hardly be justified! If I was a pensioner or had nothing to do all day, then maybe devoting myself to selling full time on ebay could be something I would consider since it's a hobby you can easily turn into business.... 

Yeah I think it all depends on what your looking to get out of it. I started as a collector, then moved into investing to pay for it. 90% of my portfolio is long term hold. I've sufficient cash flow to invest in Lego put it away and 'forget about it'. For me it will be nice in 3-4 years to able to sell a few sets and take the family on holiday.

The collector in me wants to keep 1 of each of my favorite sets extra long term (10+ years), see what they get to, and probably pass them on to my kids. All my used sets will be boxed back up at some point and the same will happen with them. At some point if Ive had enough, I wouldn't rush out and sell all my inventory, I just wouldn't buy any more.

The stuff I sell now, I offset on the lego i'm buying to hold. I've sold 5 RR this month which means the 2 I have left have cost me near nothing.

I enjoy doing this, but do not consider it a career, just a hobby with benefits.

 

Same here. Not a problem holding long term, but with projected profits getting lower and lower i start to wonder when we draw the line. The golden days of lego investing are over!

Me too, work is work and hobby is hobby. Another point to make people who missed out on the sale is that you might have missed out but you kept your time and dignity. All those professional buyers that were no doubt getting up early, flirting with store managers and doing all manner of unethical things to make their numbers - was it worth it for a measly 20% reduction?

Ha! Some people would happily sell their mum for a single £!!!! I mean people in general. When it comes to cash.... there is no dignity involved, no pride...nothing. World out there is cruel and people would do anything to get their hands on a set heavily discounted set before EOL, even if they have to lie about stuff like their family member being really sick on bed etc... It is scary watching what greed can do to the human brain!

I did acquire one set though. I have a Sandcrawler at work on display..and also bought a second one for the home collection. So it wasn't a wasted time going to Smyths, and this is what I told the guy in the store - it is for a personal collection. 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

I didn't say it's a burden. It is a hobby and as already said I love Lego to start with. However, I am a busy professional with tons of work on his hands and personal life too, so sometimes the profit we get from this could hardly be justified! If I was a pensioner or had nothing to do all day, then maybe devoting myself to selling full time on ebay could be something I would consider since it's a hobby you can easily turn into business.... 

Same here. Not a problem holding long term, but with projected profits getting lower and lower i start to wonder when we draw the line. The golden days of lego investing are over!

Ha! Some people would happily sell their mum for a single £!!!! I mean people in general. When it comes to cash.... there is no dignity involved, no pride...nothing. World out there is cruel and people would do anything to get their hands on a set heavily discounted set before EOL, even if they have to lie about stuff like their family member being really sick on bed etc... It is scary watching what greed can do to the human brain!

I did acquire one set though. I have a Sandcrawler at work on display..and also bought a second one for the home collection. So it wasn't a wasted time going to Smyths, and this is what I told the guy in the store - it is for a personal collection. 

I remember Smyths when they had a similar sale with Super Star Destroyers at 20% off. Seeing the pushing and shoving to get the large boxes down was scary. I remember one mother pulling her little boy out of the way otherwise he'd have been whacked with a large heavy box. Luckily, staff noticed this careless idiot with the box (not one of you lot I hope!) and refused to sell it to him - LOL. I also called him a greedy selfish arsehoIe as I walked passed pushing my large trolley with 10x R2-D2. The fenzy with the R2-D2 wasn't in full swing at the time. I'm happy just to sit back and let them get on with it. Looking forward to cleaning up with my 100+ Research Institutes shortly after some of you tried to put me off buying them ;-)

[botchy123]

 

 

 

 

 

 

" The golden days of lego investing are over! "

 

Phew, glad i got my initial investment back in my pocket recently.

Edited September 22, 2015 by botchy123
mistake

[Guest TabbyBoy]

" The golden days of lego investing are over! "

 

Phew, glad i got my initial investment back in my pocket recently.

Yes, they are long gone. I've moved back to selling bike components, much more lucrative and customers couldn't care less if there was the tiniest scratch or dent on the box. LEGO buyers are getting so demanding now and a lot of them are crooks trying to pull a fast one. I've already recovered my initial £20K and have a market-value of £25K still to get rid of. It's been profitable but very, very hard work and I'm not going through that again.

[TheGallows]

Yes, they are long gone. I've moved back to selling bike components, much more lucrative and customers couldn't care less if there was the tiniest scratch or dent on the box. LEGO buyers are getting so demanding now and a lot of them are crooks trying to pull a fast one. I've already recovered my initial £20K and have a market-value of £25K still to get rid of. It's been profitable but very, very hard work and I'm not going through that again.

Out of curiosity, when you say I'm not going through that again, do you mean your not buying anymore and just selling remaining inventory, or just down scaling? Just wondering as I think its a point we may all get to at some point in the future.

[botchy123]

Yes, they are long gone. I've moved back to selling bike components, much more lucrative and customers couldn't care less if there was the tiniest scratch or dent on the box. LEGO buyers are getting so demanding now and a lot of them are crooks trying to pull a fast one. I've already recovered my initial £20K and have a market-value of £25K still to get rid of. It's been profitable but very, very hard work and I'm not going through that again.

I dont think they are over, i was quoting a poster above. I'll stick at it a while longer i think.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

@TheGallows & botchy123.... The main thing that scares me is LEGO starting to resurrect retired sets which started with the Winter Village Market last year and now the Toy Shop. If the "wrong" sets are resurrected again, a lot of us (myself included) stand to lose thousands or tie up storage space for much longer. Can you imagine if the 10179 is re-released in time for the new Star Wars movie? I wouldn't put it past LEGO as they know they'll sell as many as they could make. Also the proverb, "Too may cooks spoil the broth" comes to mind with all the "investors" and QFLLs these days. The last time a walked down the aisles of Sainsbury's, Asda and Smyths during sales - all I could see were people buying multiples of each discounted set. You have to be smart and go against the grain which is why I filled my boots earlier this year with Research Institutes even though others on here weren't too keen. Opportunities like this are rare and it's big risk that you have to be prepared to take. OK, it may not be over per se but, It's a hell of a lot harder than it was!

While we're on the subject, a little bird told me that the Argos 3-for-2 sale is imminent but, you have to act quickly.

[Val-E]

@TheGallows & botchy123.... The main thing that scares me is LEGO starting to resurrect retired sets which started with the Winter Village Market last year and now the Toy Shop. If the "wrong" sets are resurrected again, a lot of us (myself included) stand to lose thousands or tie up storage space for much longer. Can you imagine if the 10179 is re-released in time for the new Star Wars movie? I wouldn't put it past LEGO as they know they'll sell as many as they could make. Also the proverb, "Too may cooks spoil the broth" comes to mind with all the "investors" and QFLLs these days. The last time a walked down the aisles of Sainsbury's, Asda and Smyths during sales - all I could see were people buying multiples of each discounted set. You have to be smart and go against the grain which is why I filled my boots earlier this year with Research Institutes even though others on here weren't too keen. Opportunities like this are rare and it's big risk that you have to be prepared to take. OK, it may not be over per se but, It's a hell of a lot harder than it was!

While we're on the subject, a little bird told me that the Argos 3-for-2 sale is imminent but, you have to act quickly.

I agree. Remakes of exclusive sets with only detail changes are a much bigger bubble buster than more investors than sellers.

[Val-E]

I dont think they are over, i was quoting a poster above. I'll stick at it a while longer i think.

If it was me, I was misquoted!

I think that the situation with investors is the same as in many sectors of the unskilled labour market - the older generations got better paid than the newer ones who are prepared to work for less in order to have a job. On the other hand,the newer ones benefit from better health and safety, technology and many other aspects than before.

One should not always be obsessed with just the bottom line, but what ones has to do to get the money.

[waddamon]

20% off exclusives in the USA would have been awesome

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20% off exclusives in the UK, with stock available, would have been awesome too.

[GiliusThunderhead]

So generally sounds like this is on again for next weekend (basing on the dates for the last 2 years).  Never been down but does anyone have any comments from the 2015 sale on what stocks were actually like? Was thinking of going on Sat (if the sale is on) but would be a special trip - i think they take the site down and i wouldn't rely on the stock checker anyway - is there likely to actually be a good range left?

Reading the comments from page 1 i'm assuming not.

I can imagine anything worth getting will be gone by 6 on Friday (at the latest) and the rest of the weekend its really the stuff you can generally find at 20% off or more if you wait long enough.

I know amazon started price matching a few items.

[feed]

On 9/10/2016 at 2:53 PM, GiliusThunderhead said:

So generally sounds like this is on again for next weekend (basing on the dates for the last 2 years).  Never been down but does anyone have any comments from the 2015 sale on what stocks were actually like? Was thinking of going on Sat (if the sale is on) but would be a special trip - i think they take the site down and i wouldn't rely on the stock checker anyway - is there likely to actually be a good range left?

Reading the comments from page 1 i'm assuming not.

I can imagine anything worth getting will be gone by 6 on Friday (at the latest) and the rest of the weekend its really the stuff you can generally find at 20% off or more if you wait long enough.

I know amazon started price matching a few items.

Locally. 

2014 Stock lasted all weekend, 20% stacked on top of existing discounts. 
2015 Most sets reset to RRP and all decent exclusive stock was gone by lunchtime.  (Beat up Tumblers and Pet shops only at 15:30) 

I would expect Slave1, Porsche and GBHQ to be gone by 10am, EV by lunchtime.  PS and Simpsons likely only remaining at the end of the day.  

But YMMV if you have day an out of the way store.  

I have the day off and plan to hit one as soon as they open and the second as soon as I can get there afterwards.  
 

[GiliusThunderhead]

Thought I'd just bump this thread to avoid everyone in the UK/Europe deals thread getting spammed about what people are buying/deciding on for the smyths 20% off weekend.

Sounds like everything was put back up to RRP last night (so no deal stacking?).  Hopefully they'll still be some reasonable stock levels left for tomorrow (who am i kidding right).

[Fenix_2k1]

Sat outside waiting at my local store now.  Praying for a gbhq

[Manse1001]

Picked up an EV and PS. Passed on S1.  Plenty on the shelves, at present.  Batcave and Ninjago Temple back up to RRP in store as predicted. 

[thebrickdad]

Picked up a few EV.
At least two people there buying one off everything in sight. Part of the new horde!
Still a good selection at Thurrock.

[Fenix_2k1]

Picked up Slave, EV and Advent Calendar for my son.

No GBHQ but they do apparently have a delivery coming in at lunch so I'll check back later. 

 

Lots of porsches, slave, few EV, few PS ton of the batcaves but doubt they'll shift many of those after they had a better offer on the other weekend. 

[GiliusThunderhead]

7 minutes ago, Manse1001 said:

Picked up an EV and PS. Passed on S1.  Plenty on the shelves, at present.  Batcave and Ninjago Temple back up to RRP in store as predicted. 

I know its all all a craps shoot really but I think S1 will be around for next years sale.   How busy was it looking?  I've heard it can get pretty hectic!
I like 20% off on EV.

[Manse1001]

Damn you Lego, just walked back in and picked up a S1 !!!!!! 

[Fenix_2k1]

They were certainly prepping staff for a big weekend.  Had to wait for them to finish briefings so i could get the big stuff. Not a bunch sat waiting though. Pity, I was hoping to meet my competition lol.

I expect qf's to be all over Gumtree and shpock by middle of next week.