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40139 - Gingerbread House


capsa77

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I spent the summer of 1998 selling Beanie Babies. I still feel dirty taking over 10k off a dad for buying 4 "collectable dolls"... just... ouch. 

I sold enough of those stupid toys as a 9th grade student in high school to purchase my 1st car! Beats working fast food any day.
My mom held all hers and is still donating them to local police stations and hospitals when they need.
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8 hours ago, Salimr said:


I sold enough of those stupid toys as a 9th grade student in high school to purchase my 1st car! Beats working fast food any day.
My mom held all hers and is still donating them to local police stations and hospitals when they need.

And with that life experience in the pocket, you probably saved on the need to go to university too! Like any bubble or Ponzi, the people with good timing/luck make money.

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11 hours ago, Val-E said:

So you probably need to selll the remaining one for about 400 euros to compensate for the rest! Just goes to show that a  free promo is not always so good if what you buy to get it is a turd.

I beg to differ. If the selling value of a free promo is higher than the best discount you could find on the set (remember, in The Netherlands we don't get discounts as good as local stores in Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland or UK regularly have), then that promo makes it worthwhile to get that set and use the revenue of selling the promo as discount on that set.

  • Parisian Restaurant --> Generally considered as the most beautiful of current Modulars. Don't think this will be a turd after it retires.
  • Doctor Who (+ minifig to get to €65) --> This was bought for my own collection, so the promo gave it a really nice discount I couldn't get otherwise :) 
  • Sandcrawler --> GBH sale will serve as discount on this set. I couldn't have gotten it cheaper elsewhere anyway.
  • 2x Ecto-1 (at the time I believed it was going to retire that year) --> GBH used for my own collection, so they will have to stand on their own merits. Closest to being a turd. :P 
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1 hour ago, Val-E said:

Like any bubble or Ponzi, the people with good timing/luck make money.

Right. Be at the top of the pyramid and you win. Join late and you're at the bottom feeding those at the top. 

I never forgot when I read an article about some smart entrepreneurs who started the "Postcode Lottery" in The Netherlands, using the innate fear of many people of being excluded from a big price falling on their postcode and their neighbours enjoying the price while they're left empty handed. Of course, the only real winners of any lottery are the ones organising it, as long as the value of the combined prices is well below the total value of lottery ticket sales.;) 

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4 hours ago, Haay said:

I beg to differ. If the selling value of a free promo is higher than the best discount you could find on the set (remember, in The Netherlands we don't get discounts as good as local stores in Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland or UK regularly have), then that promo makes it worthwhile to get that set and use the revenue of selling the promo as discount on that set.

  • Parisian Restaurant --> Generally considered as the most beautiful of current Modulars. Don't think this will be a turd after it retires.
  • Doctor Who (+ minifig to get to €65) --> This was bought for my own collection, so the promo gave it a really nice discount I couldn't get otherwise :) 
  • Sandcrawler --> GBH sale will serve as discount on this set. I couldn't have gotten it cheaper elsewhere anyway.
  • 2x Ecto-1 (at the time I believed it was going to retire that year) --> GBH used for my own collection, so they will have to stand on their own merits. Closest to being a turd. :P 

When I saw your Ecto1 purchase I got a sinking feeling and, sure enough, I did the same thing for the same reasons. Perhaps the only smart move was only buying one.

In hindisight would you have bought other stuff or do you stand by the originals? Doctor Who and Ecto were both discounted to 50% at SAH this year and we now know that they won´t perform as well as expected in 2015.

 

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1 hour ago, Val-E said:

When I saw your Ecto1 purchase I got a sinking feeling and, sure enough, I did the same thing for the same reasons. Perhaps the only smart move was only buying one.

In hindsight would you have bought other stuff or do you stand by the originals? Doctor Who and Ecto were both discounted to 50% at SAH this year and we now know that they won´t perform as well as expected in 2015.

Doctor Who was discounted to €45,50 in The Netherlands before retiring. The one I bought in 2015 at full price came with a GBH which I sold for €30. So that was a sweeter deal in the end. Plus I've enjoyed this particular Doctor Who set in my Lego Ideas display ever since I built it. :) 

But in hindsight getting more WALL-E sets would have been a better way to go than those Ecto-1 and Doctor Who sets. :P 

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1 hour ago, brickolodon said:

I see under $150.00 @eBay

Yup, the virus seems to have calmed down. 223 USD on Amazon and  sales rank plummeting. Seems only the British are buying now on Ebay. No sales on Bricklink and 80 euros / USD is the SP.

How long till we see it back at 70 USD on Amazon?

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Boom! Back down to 190 USD on Amazon. The only thing comparable with the madness of those  soccer moms rushing to buy this last week is that of the resellers now rushing to undercut each other.

One on hand, this case has actually helped restore my faith in the robustness of the Lego resale market as it has followed a classic supply and demand pattern and now we know the reason for the initial spike. It´s also good to see that non lego fans can still be hooked with the right publicity.

On the other, there are still so many units of this little 4 day special bad boy hoarded that it illustrates the problems of chronic oversupply.

Edited by Val-E
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Sold 2 of my 4 and was all smiles with the sales. Kept the last 2 because I had planned to really sell them during full on holiday shopping times thinking they would spike then. As I read the customer reviews, I think people bought the hype and let their buyer's remorse overtake them when they saw the actual size of it.

Perhaps this might spike a little again during holiday rush but I question whether it gets back to ludicrous levels again.

Edited by MrToes16
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