75159 - UCS: Death Star (2016)

[gregpj]

This one is for you LEGO, inspired by @BrickLegacy and brought to you by Brickpickers everywhere.

[Migration]

5 minutes ago, Brickalicious said:

Actually, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

and tenement halls...

I think we need a bridge over this troubled water...

[Brickalicious]

I just got started last year, and I was all Star Wars. I saw a bunch of other themes seemed to be doing better and I had purchased 2 Death Stars, so I traded one of them off in exchange for several sets in other themes, and for the past year I have felt like it was a huge mistake. Now I look at several super hero sets, some Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, creator, and poly bags/ freebies like Bricktober mini modulars and feel much better about the deal. Tempted to buy back my old DS, though - he's got it listed on CL for MSRP.

[biking_tiger]

43 minutes ago, Brickalicious said:

Actually, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

and tenement halls...

But what about the studio walls... concert hall? That's it! The Royal Albert Hall circa The Man Who Knew Too Much is the next creator landmark!

Because this leap in logic and citing Rush via Simon and Garfunkel took far less tinfoil than some of the corporate conspiracy theories espoused in this thread. 

 

[Frank Brickowski]

8 hours ago, Val-E said:

Others on their way to a 75159 protest march outside Lego HQ

On the other hand more and more investors now start to realize that their prospective "homes on Wall Street" were in fact mobile ones parking there just for a couple of hours.

[Ed Mack]

[Ciglione]

[Ciglione]

[Ed Mack]

Notice the grey color. Same as a lot of large UCS sets.

[Brickalicious]

2 hours ago, biking_tiger said:

But what about the studio walls... concert hall? That's it! The Royal Albert Hall circa The Man Who Knew Too Much is the next creator landmark!

Because this leap in logic and citing Rush via Simon and Garfunkel took far less tinfoil than some of the corporate conspiracy theories espoused in this thread. 

 

Ah, but this is not about a man who knew too much, so we must indeed seek the inverse: The Man Who Knew Too Little, featuring Bill Murray as the groundskeeper Carl at Bushwood Country Club.  Egads! That's it!  10188 is a code -- The back nine wraps back around, and the tee for the 10th hole is adjacent to the tee for the 18th as it returns toward the club.  A precise swing of an 8 iron from that tee will result in the ball landing ... on a buried mountain of Death Star sets, similar to the ET cartridges for the Atari 2600 they tried to cover up.

The answer to restoring value to 10188 is to find the real life location used to film Caddyshack and rip up the 18th fairway! Don't you see, people!?! It all makes sense...

At least as much sense as leaving a set out on the market for 9 years.

Still, 75159 will be interesting if for no other reason than I want a mini of a prototype mouse droid.  Or a gronk.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Brickalicious

[labfreak7]

From a business perspective, you don't retire a set that is making you lots of money. Alternatively, Lego may have overproduced this set, and are repackaging it in order to sell the massive amount produced. In either case, this IS their flagship set- more popular than the SSD, and therefore still around. From an investor standpoint, it sucks because we are forced to liquidate at cost, or hold for another decade.
I chose the DS over the SSD, because I think it's a better set. Unfortunately Lego thinks so too, so they are letting it stick around longer.

I still think they betrayed the die hard collectors, but at the end of the day money talks and well. ....

[TargetZero]

3 hours ago, labfreak7 said:

From a business perspective, you don't retire a set that is making you lots of money. Alternatively, Lego may have overproduced this set, and are repackaging it in order to sell the massive amount produced. In either case, this IS their flagship set- more popular than the SSD, and therefore still around. From an investor standpoint, it sucks because we are forced to liquidate at cost, or hold for another decade.
I chose the DS over the SSD, because I think it's a better set. Unfortunately Lego thinks so too, so they are letting it stick around longer.

I still think they betrayed the die hard collectors, but at the end of the day money talks and well. ...

death star better than SSD.. i respecfully disagree

[labfreak7]

We can agree to disagree, but the fact remains that one is retired, and one is not.

In hindsight I'd like to be sitting on two SSD's right now instead of my DS, but I still think the deathstar is better.

[Brickalicious]

I've built the SSD - it's on display in my house - and I have another one sealed; I haven't cracked open my DS yet, but since I can pick one up near retail I can keep one sealed and buy one to build.  Sucks for investors, but not necessarily for collectors.  Of course, with the new DS coming out I'm curious what it will mean.

The SSD is a display model, pure and simple.  Somewhat laborious to build and painful as anything to get all the little 1x1 pieces lined up straight (Big Ben is going to kill me), but there is very little to play with once it's together.  DS on the other hand was a playset by design, so I could see it being more popular.  Tons of figs and although it melded scenes from episodes 4 and 6, it just meant it served dual purpose playing out the scenes.  The Death Star II that came out a while ago would best be classified as a display-only set as well.  Wish I had one.

I'm hoping that the new one is somewhere between the two DS models they've put out so far.  Maybe the dish is a separate assembly that you can slide into and out of place?  Display stand holds it with the dish on the bottom like in the Rogue One trailer?  Just hoping it's fun to build.

[redcell]

Folks, I hate to break it to you, but the sky ain't falling and the four horsemen of the Lego investing apocalypse aren't charging down the road. DS is one set. If you're so weak in the knees that a single set is going to do something you didn't expect, you should head for the exit and forget about ever wearing big boy pants. In the grand scheme of things, DS is a blip.

[labfreak7]

Well, it's a little more than a blip. It is the second reissue in as many years that Lego has put out in the market. I don't recall there being exact copies of previous sets out out like this. It is going to push some to sell, and certainly most of us will be a little more reluctant to take the plunge on sets.

[Stud-Flipper]

18 minutes ago, Brickalicious said:

I'm hoping that the new one is somewhere between the two DS models they've put out so far.  Maybe the dish is a separate assembly that you can slide into and out of place?  Display stand holds it with the dish on the bottom like in the Rogue One trailer?  Just hoping it's fun to build.

Did you not see the pictures? There is no "new" one. 

[fossilrock]

I do think the Star Wars line is walking the tight rope. And then the question begs, if Star Wars is no longer a worthy theme to put your money in to and every year the theme get less and less worthy as an investment, what's the next bet?   The creator modular line - it seems sets are extended for a longer period than traditionally was the case a few years back.  The creator cars line never has a retiree as well, and if they go longer than a 2 or 3 year cycle, then that could spell doom for it as "investments".  Many other lines have more and more people stocking and hoarding them.  Where's the safe bet?  Sure there are some sets here and there that will be a good bet, but sometimes it's not who wears the biggest pants.  It's who has their freaking thinking cap on.

[Bold-Arrow]

2 minutes ago, fossilrock said:

I do think the Star Wars line is walking the tight rope. And then the question begs, if Star Wars is no longer a worthy theme to put your money in to and every year the theme get less and less worthy as an investment, what's the next bet?   The creator modular line - it seems sets are extended for a longer period than traditionally was the case a few years back.  The creator cars line never has a retiree as well, and if they go longer than a 2 or 3 year cycle, then that could spell doom for it as "investments".  Many other lines have more and more people stocking and hoarding them.  Where's the safe bet?  Sure there are some sets here and there that will be a good bet, but sometimes it's not who wears the biggest pants.  It's who has their freaking thinking cap on.

 

[shortyz]

diversify. i buy twice as much gold/silver as my lego stash. I will however never buy a funko poop.

[fossilrock]

12 minutes ago, shortyz said:

diversify. i buy twice as much gold/silver as my lego stash. I will however never buy a funko poop.

That's a given.  But, since this is a site about lego, I was keeping it strictly to future lego themes that are going to perform at a level that star wars, and some other themes have over the last few years.  I'm just thinking, that I don't think those future performers will be as frequent, or as prevalent at the rate they traditionally were.  At least not for a few years, as things cycle through again. So, yeah, moving money out of lego sets and putting in another asset seems like a somewhat smart move...

Don't get me wrong, lego investing is a heck of a lot more fun than most other forms of investment, other than perhaps investing in real estate.  At least to me, so I understand why some people can't let go.  But, I wouldn't want to have 50 Assault on Hoths, or even 50 75159, or even 20 of half the other sets that came out.  Sure, Disney Castle is nice, but do you guys think that will go away anytime soon?  

[shortyz]

personally i like POE fighter and the Slave 1. Only 2 star wars sets i would buy, and i own 0.

[redcell]

Well, it's a little more than a blip. It is the second reissue in as many years that Lego has put out in the market. I don't recall there being exact copies of previous sets out out like this. It is going to push some to sell, and certainly most of us will be a little more reluctant to take the plunge on sets.

So What? All it means is that you have to change strategies. Evolve or die.

[redcell]

I do think the Star Wars line is walking the tight rope. And then the question begs, if Star Wars is no longer a worthy theme to put your money in to and every year the theme get less and less worthy as an investment, what's the next bet?   The creator modular line - it seems sets are extended for a longer period than traditionally was the case a few years back.  The creator cars line never has a retiree as well, and if they go longer than a 2 or 3 year cycle, then that could spell doom for it as "investments".  Many other lines have more and more people stocking and hoarding them.  Where's the safe bet?  Sure there are some sets here and there that will be a good bet, but sometimes it's not who wears the biggest pants.  It's who has their freaking thinking cap on.

I have seen absolutely no evidence that SW isn't a worthwhile theme to put money into. I continue to make money every year on the SW sets that I buy.

[fossilrock]

Just now, redcell said:

 

I have seen absolutely no evidence that SW isn't a worthwhile theme to put money into. I continue to make money every year on the SW sets that I buy.

 

Sure, I agree, we all are making money on them.. But i'm not talking about last year, or the present. I'm thinking ahead here.  Not in the now, but in a few years... 

Slave 1 will be so overly hoarded and while it's a great set, it's going to have a few thousand resellers holding it to start.  I like the Sandcrawler, but slowly it's getting hoarded. If it goes past this year, forget it.  It will have more than 200 people selling it at the base when it goes EOL, and that's just at the surface, because there will be thousands of others that have it waiting to list it at some other point...  Ewok Village is already sitting at 150 some sellers on amazon.  If it does go EOL this year, it's going to be like so many sets last year, and maybe even worse, and will not be profitable for all but those that used a lot of points, and bought at a discount. 

When sets get that high in the number of sellers that have them, just like last year, they don't move and sit at basically a few profit margin above RRP for what's going to seem like years.. .  There's so many others anymore.  At that point, it's just volume that will win the game.  Last year, the AT-AT's, Cantinas, and ISD's were a bit of a "surprise retirement" so many didn't stock those in time.  This year, I don't see that as much.  Already, there are more IST's than there were AT-AT's and ISD's this phase in the game.  Just sayin'...

I agree, that buying at walmart's 50% discount is an easy way to make decent money.  And that's going to be about the only way to do it at this point.

[Bold-Arrow]

Party is now at the 75059 thread