HOW do you collect LEGO?

[mauro23]

Hi all, 

I had a look to my LEGO collection over the weeked and had to note that I have really a lot of LEGO sets and to less space to build them up or to buy newer sets.

Long story short I have to reduce my collection.

 

Now I have a dilemma HOW to do it? 

a) Should I sell all sets from a theme which I don't like as much as other themes

b) Should I sell all sets from a theme beside one or two great (exclusive) sets (e.g. Imperial Flagship from Pirates II theme)

c) Should I sell some sets from a theme and keep simply all sets that I like

 

Therefore i would appreciate to hear how do you collect your LEGO sets from a particulat theme.

 

Thanks,

Mauro 

[inversion]

I buy sets I like, regardless of theme. If you stick to completing themes you will end up with sets you don't like and those are the ones that are wasting space. 

The only situation when I acquire sets I would not buy based on their own merits is when it fits into some of my planned displays. Those are an extended Haunted House and the modulars. So some City sets with useful parts/vehicles and monster themed sets can end up in my collection. Otherwise it is a hodgepodge collection, with a particular fetish for sets with high piece count.

[HandyHand]

Ha, the curse of many LEGO collectors.  

Personally I limit myself to building from the Star Wars, the Creator Advanced and the Ideas themes. And then only to sets I really like to own and have on display. I'm not at all a completionist, so not getting all sets in a theme doesn't bother me one bit. For example, while I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory as TV-series, I have no interest at all in getting the TBBT Ideas set. And though I do have the VW T1 Camper Van, Mini Cooper, Ferrari F40 (and sometime in the future I will add the new VW Beetle set), I have no interest in acquiring the older 10187 Volkswagen Beetle.

But truth be told, I've only just dropped out of my Lego Dark Ages less than a year ago, so I'm sure sometime in the future I will have to face this problem too, when I just don't have enough shelf space to display my collection.  

[Ciglione]

Interesting and also difiicult question.

I am in the same situation.

Currently I have enough space to keep hoarding until oblivion. But in the near future I will be moving to a smaller house with less hoarding space. Moving alot of lego sets is a pain. I've done it before. So I am decreasing my stack as well. 

At first, a very difficult process. It is not only an emotional but also a rational dilemma. 

What I would suggest:

Go to your storage space and take every set in your hands. Look at it and question yourself the following:

Do I really really like this set? Am I going to build this set? Does it still have growth potential or is it a flatliner?

Furthermore put some firm buying restrictions and keep to it.

This is my plan and it is working very well.  

 

[mauro23]

Ok, thanks for your thoughts so far.

I would proose that you give some points to the following themes I have (5 is the best, 1 is the worst)

 

- Orient Expedition

- Fantasy Era

- Kingdoms (the new line with 10223 etc.)

- Architecture

- Modular Buildings

- Indiana Jones

- Jurassic World

- Discovery

- Star Wars UCS

- The Lord of the Rings

- The Simpsons

- 9V trains (Only special sets like Santa Fe, Burlinton etc.)

- Creator Buildings

- City themes (Arctic, Airplane etc. from 2004 till today)

- Pirates II (the line with 10210 etc.)

- Monster Fighters (only HH)

- Pirates of the Carribean (only the both ships)

- RC trains (Only special sets like Emerald Night, Maersk train etc.)

Edited July 6, 2016 by mauro23

[mauro23]

43 minutes ago, Ciglione said:

Interesting and also difiicult question.

I am in the same situation.

Currently I have enough space to keep hoarding until oblivion. But in the near future I will be moving to a smaller house with less hoarding space. Moving alot of lego sets is a pain. I've done it before. So I am decreasing my stack as well. 

At first, a very difficult process. It is not only an emotional but also a rational dilemma. 

What I would suggest:

Go to your storage space and take every set in your hands. Look at it and question yourself the following:

Do I really really like this set? Am I going to build this set? Does it still have growth potential or is it a flatliner?

Furthermore put some firm buying restrictions and keep to it.

This is my plan and it is working very well.  

 

How have you decided when you look at my first question - a or b or c ?

[Calli]

I would go with c) keep the sets that you enjoy looking at and sell the rest.

[Brian Briggs]

I only collect what I like and don't aim for having a complete theme just for the sake of completeness. Sometimes I only keep partial sets and sell either the buildable part itself or some/all of the minifigures.

So I'd choose option C as I want to get enjoyment from looking at the sets in my collection, both in built and boxed form.

[longshot]

Id go for option D....... Thats the Double down option. Figure out what you have and double it down cus then you can look back and see how little you really had. Do this every 6 mo and you wont have time to worry ( or care ) how little room you have.........

[Locutus001]

I'm hoping to get more room for my LEGO stuff in time and if I don't I hope that it still fits into some boxes and can be stored somewhere *g*

Truth be told I'm a little bit afraid as my collection is growing faster than my salary/living space ;-)

[Alpinemaps]

We get sets that we like.  Whatever those are.  So it might be Star Wars, Ninjago, Friends, Elves, Architecture - whatever it is that appeals to us.

However, we do have three "themes" for eventual MOCs that we want to build:  a Fairground scene, a Winter Village, and a Halloween Town.  So as long as the sets fit into those themes (and it can be pretty broad as to what I define "fitting into" a theme), then it goes in there.

[Ciglione]

7 hours ago, mauro23 said:

How have you decided when you look at my first question - a or b or c ?

a cocktail of a, b and c

[mauro23]

19 minutes ago, Ciglione said:

a cocktail of a, b and c

have you an example of c ?

[Sfcommando14]

I'd would say photograph, dismantle, and rebox/bag the ones you'd consider getting rid of. Wait 6 months and see if you miss them. If not, sell (you already have pictures!). If you still like it, keep another 6 months and consider it again. If you haven't rebuilt it after an amount of time you consider appropriate, sell. You don't want to make hasty decisions on expensive sets that will cost a lot to reacquire, but removing them from display will let you know if you actual miss them or not.

[Ciglione]

3 minutes ago, mauro23 said:

have you an example of c ?

Monster Fighters... I am trying to sell all the sets of the theme. Including the famous 9465 the zombies. Which is an easy decision. But I will never open and build it.

But I am surely keeping the Haunted Houses. Cause I like it best and it still has alot of room to grow in value.

[landphieran]

I currently live in an apartment and use my storage room in the basement to store legos. The storage room filled up quite quickly and the legos leaked into my appartment in the form of 2x large racks, a growing lego box wall and a rack at my parents place.

I have reached the point where i no longer really have space to grow my collection/investments. I don't have enough liquid assets to afford a downpayment on a house in my area (nor do I want a home here). I considered moving to a different state but anticipate moving my inventory will fill up most of a larger uhaul and cost a fair amount.

To answer your question: I have been selling sets that I don't believe have strong potential or extra long hold times that isn't worth it for me to wait out and sets that I believe have hit a more stagnant growth period. That being said I would venture to say these are good investment practices anyway?

I would sell the older rarer sets as they are likely not going to see a huge boom in growth (Imperial flagship, indiana jones, etc). I would sell retired sets that appear to be very slow growers or over supplied. The profits of these sets you may make 3 years from now aren't worth the headache of storing them. Don't sell your newer investments that aren't retired unless you are desperate. 

Using these tactics I have been able to stabilize my inventory at a stagnant volume since the end of last year. My downfall has been kmarts free money and barnes and noble's clearance/coupon code mess-up. I find it very difficult to say no to stacks of free money.
 

Edited July 6, 2016 by landphieran
Grammar

[ZULU]

10 hours ago, mauro23 said:

Ok, thanks for your thoughts so far.

I would proose that you give some points to the following themes I have (5 is the best, 1 is the worst)

 

- Orient Expedition

- Fantasy Era

- Kingdoms (the new line with 10223 etc.)

- Architecture

- Modular Buildings

- Indiana Jones

- Jurassic World

- Discovery

- Star Wars UCS

- The Lord of the Rings

- The Simpsons

- 9V trains (Only special sets like Santa Fe, Burlinton etc.)

- Creator Buildings

- City themes (Arctic, Airplane etc. from 2004 till today)

- Pirates II (the line with 10210 etc.)

- Monster Fighters (only HH)

- Pirates of the Carribean (only the both ships)

- RC trains (Only special sets like Emerald Night, Maersk train etc.)

My 2C:

I would keep SW, Simpsons, Trains, Architecture

I would kill Pirates, City, IJ, Discovery, Fantasy, Orient

The rest should go at a good price.

But most of all, I would stop buying for a while. 

Currently I'm not even buying  Amazon UK (cheap GBP/EUR :-)) listed  Poe fighters at 40% discount anymore. Business is slow and my rule is: don't buy unless you have sold for at least the same amount. Last year I passed on T1 Campers at -40%. Not worried about that at all. Deals will come and come and come. I'm a patient investor.

Doesn't mean I don't pick up a top notch set for my family, just not an aggressive net investor anymore. (like I was 4 years ago)

[donbee]

Learn from drug dealers.

Rule #1 never use your product.

It's been hard. I've been pretty good about it. I live vicariously through my children, but still I have a strict rule. Only give them a set they want, not one that I want.

Back to topic, like any addict, try weening off. Like some one said earlier hold each one in your hand and decide which ones you can live with out. Start off easy. It's not always easy to unload sets, so don't spend a lot of time sorting through every set, just to find it takes 6+ months to unload. Then get stricter. Make rules. Only buy a new set after you sold an old, etc.

Good luck.

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

41 minutes ago, donbee said:

Learn from drug dealers.

Rule #1 never use your product.

It's rule four

 

on topic go route C

Edited July 7, 2016 by brickcrazyhouse