It's very quiet in 2018 north of the 49th parallel...

[Stragus]

I haven't posted in a while, and the forum's activity is pretty low, but I realize there hasn't been a sale worth reporting in months.

I'm actually surprised, I have been selling parts for 4 years, and I don't remember seeing such a drought of sales to resplenish the inventory. In fact, I have bought almost nothing to part out in the past 7 months!

Did TLG solve the non-linear system of equations to achieve the perfect production-sale equilibrium? Is the great 2x4 brick in the sky frowning upon our erethic ways? Is it an early sign of humanity entering a new post-plastic age?

[jeff_14]

I did quite a lot of buying from the recent wal-mart sales, mostly Batman LEGO movie and Star Wars. Hoping to move them for Christmas

[Substored]

couldn't agree more.. the Canada section used to be booming with talk. Now i see maybe a post every week or so.. ? I have been buying but have adjusted what % off im willing to buy at. im starting to look more closely at the 20-30% range and have started buying in that range. where as before I wouldn't touch it until i see 30%+ off.

[lobo1969]

Have not bought much myself in 2018 but I'm still selling various sealed sets in bursts this year. X-mas season will be telling for the after market.

[Sandwraith]

I know i'm guilty of not posting much anymore, but that's morso because of my declining enthusiasm/interest in LEGO. Lackluster sets, increasing prices, remakes, etc etc, have all left me just kinda feeling "meh" about Lego.

Maybe the Clone Wars announcement will have us seeing some sets i enjoy, but who knows. I have not been excited about a set since the UCS falcon last year.

[TargetZero]

Same here, no deals and except brickheadz that i do with the kids,  i dont build lego for myself anymore... been there done that... , moved to something else, i still love lego , like the lego porsche... but i lost the flame for putting alot of money into this

Edited July 21, 2018 by TargetZero

[Guest ph4tb0i]

Just ended up taking too much time. Don't even have enough time to build all the modulars / amusement park sets that I've added to my collection! 

That and life priorities have changed a bit for me. It was a fun run and I learned a lot about running a small online business from selling LEGO. The experience ended up helping me get a boost on my professional career outside of LEGO as well! 

[Rebel Bricks]

I have only recently started collecting and investing in Lego, so I hope all is not lost! My goal currently is just to sell enough to cover my collecting. I definitely learn a lot from reading your posts, so I hope those of you who are still active will remain so. I think I also need to get more active and post sales when I see them. But as Stragus mentioned, sales have been a bit lackluster. Although as a noob I still get excited when I see 30% off!

[jeff_14]

Bought 2 Flying Foxes for 40% off from Chapters last week and now Walmart has them at 50% off

[jimmajenga]

2 hours ago, jeff_14 said:

Bought 2 Flying Foxes for 40% off from Chapters last week and now Walmart has them at 50% off

I saw those for 50%. Had an opportunity to grab lots but passed it up. I have next to no luck reselling DC sets. My DC ads gather basically no interest so even at half off, I just couldn't do it.
Yea... few deals worth while so far in 2018. Just selling down stock I have from 2016-2017.

[jimmajenga]

On 7/21/2018 at 6:59 PM, ph4tb0i said:

Just ended up taking too much time. Don't even have enough time to build all the modulars / amusement park sets that I've added to my collection! 

That and life priorities have changed a bit for me. It was a fun run and I learned a lot about running a small online business from selling LEGO. The experience ended up helping me get a boost on my professional career outside of LEGO as well! 

This! 
It's time consuming and for me, I'm gaining next to no profit on a lot of my Lego collection because it's too competitive and people basically expect you to give it away! In my experience anyway. I'm just trying to sell down my collection... if I see a really good sale on a set worth buying, I'll buy... but I'm very careful with my buy in now... 50% sometimes isn't even worth it!

[kira0500]

ya I'm on the same boat of selling down my stock down, now i'm buying less legos. 

[TargetZero]

This year is the worst for walmart clearance in store

The reason is pretty clear: walmart didn't stock up like they used too. In my area i have 3 walmart, and they basicly cut the shelves by 25-50% depending on what walmart, so after this christmas, they was next to nothing left.... use to be alot, but eh. and for exemple: brickheads, they don't sell really much here and sheleves are full of series 1 in store here. But you cannot find serie 2 becasue they didn't sell them in store because of poor performance of the others. same with buildable figures....   On the next batch, only TANOS was on shelves, nothing else.

75% of my stock was coming from walmart... at 50%_90% off.....  so they clearly is a decline in popularity

[Codes]

I bought a house, and I have a lot less disposable income for LEGO, especially on the investment side of things.  And as others have mentioned, there haven't been many worthwhile sales (especially since I moved from Alberta).  A lot of items I have need to mature, so I'm not actively selling at the moment.  I'll probably re-stock my Bricklink store and EBay listings closer to Christmas, but going forward, I think I'll re-focus my purchasing for myself and my family.  Really, hoping we get a new Republic Gunship with the new wave of Clone Wars sets.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Codes

[jimmajenga]

On 7/23/2018 at 6:05 PM, Codes said:

I bought a house, and I have a lot less disposable income for LEGO, especially on the investment side of things.  And as others have mentioned, there haven't been many worthwhile sales (especially since I moved from Alberta).  A lot of items I have need to mature, so I'm not actively selling at the moment.  I'll probably re-stock my Bricklink store and EBay listings closer to Christmas, but going forward, I think I'll re-focus my purchasing for myself and my family.  Really, hoping we get a new Republic Gunship with the new wave of Clone Wars sets.

I love me some gunships! They're one of the few star wars ships that are always a winner!

[wilandirene]

Yes like many others here it's been a mix of changing priorities (real life job and family taking up more time, less sales, the declining Canadian dollar (not as much buying south of the border) and frankly it takes too much room. I still check Craigslist every so often to add to my used Lego collection but haven't bought any new stuff for awhile. Sales are also quite slow (although this past month I've moved a number of mid range sets). This is the first time I've logged in for a few months now!

[Rebel Bricks]

I have been buying a bit, but that is probably because I'm new to this - 2018 - and so am still figuring out what level of discount constitutes a good deal, what sets to buy, and what my realistic ROI should be. I'm not even engaged in selling yet, so I can't tell if selling is slower than usual. From what I read and watch it seems that there is a lot of competition in Lego investing now, and you have to have a decent 'game' to do well. I'm enjoying the experience (probably spending more than I should - shopping endorphins), and enjoying building Lego again.

So will see how it goes!

[Substored]

On 7/28/2018 at 3:07 PM, Rebel Bricks said:

I have been buying a bit, but that is probably because I'm new to this - 2018 - and so am still figuring out what level of discount constitutes a good deal, what sets to buy, and what my realistic ROI should be. I'm not even engaged in selling yet, so I can't tell if selling is slower than usual. From what I read and watch it seems that there is a lot of competition in Lego investing now, and you have to have a decent 'game' to do well. I'm enjoying the experience (probably spending more than I should - shopping endorphins), and enjoying building Lego again.

So will see how it goes!

Selling is the hard part of all this. In fact most of the guys above have slowed or are not into it as much anymore is mostly due to the aspects of selling. We ALL LOVE the collecting and building our collections.. ? As for your ROI.. that depends on you. You could try to quick flip and just maintain a 20-30% usually after a year of holding it turns into a 50-90% then after that its all up in the air. Is the set well received by collectors or not. Keep in mind this is all high level rough numbers. Depends on the discounts you buy the sets at. Where or what platform you decide to sell on and competition on said platform. 

As a last tip, have a plan before you get to deep into purchasing. If you search these forums you will find Several posts about people who got to deep to fast and found that selling wasn't their thing and are now stuck with $20,000+ worth of lego (or worse) Try selling some now get set up to sell on Ebay. 

And keep enjoying the build... its LEGO after all.  

[jeff_14]

Summer was slow for me in sales but active in purchases until August when my Amazon sales lit up. Which is good because they've moved the Christmas selling qualification period to August and September. Just need a handful more sales to make it over the line. Even my Kijiji ads are getting inquiries again.

[Substored]

6 hours ago, jeff_14 said:

Summer was slow for me in sales but active in purchases until August when my Amazon sales lit up. Which is good because they've moved the Christmas selling qualification period to August and September. Just need a handful more sales to make it over the line. Even my Kijiji ads are getting inquiries again.

You only need to make it over the line if you are selling FBM.. FBA is good to go all year round.

[Phil B]

You only need to make it over the line if you are selling FBM.. FBA is good to go all year round.

I hear that all the time, but 2 years ago I went in with that assumption and was blocked from shipping in anything FBA because I hadn't met the 25 shipments during the qualification window. So unless they changed it last year you need to qualify regardless of FBM or FBA.

[exciter1]

On 7/21/2018 at 12:01 AM, Substored said:

couldn't agree more.. the Canada section used to be booming with talk. Now i see maybe a post every week or so.. ? I have been buying but have adjusted what % off im willing to buy at. im starting to look more closely at the 20-30% range and have started buying in that range. where as before I wouldn't touch it until i see 30%+ off.

You have a loud mouth in there, but most of his posts get deleted.

[jeff_14]

2 hours ago, Substored said:

You only need to make it over the line if you are selling FBM.. FBA is good to go all year round.

I’ve read enough complaints about FBA from sellers on here and I’m too small scale to really use it so I’m happy to stick with FBMe. 

[Substored]

16 hours ago, Phil B said:

17 hours ago, Substored said:

You only need to make it over the line if you are selling FBM.. FBA is good to go all year round.

I hear that all the time, but 2 years ago I went in with that assumption and was blocked from shipping in anything FBA because I hadn't met the 25 shipments during the qualification window. So unless they changed it last year you need to qualify regardless of FBM or FBA.

I do know that last year Amazon messed up and sent out an email to everyone that they were not allowed to sell during the Christmas season. However it was just that.. a mistake. Last year I literally just started selling on Amazon with less then the required 25 sales. Yet I was able to sell FBA during Q4. If it ever becomes an issue I would contact seller support. On a side note I sell on .ca not .com and wonder if the "rules" are different.

[Substored]

14 hours ago, jeff_14 said:

I’ve read enough complaints about FBA from sellers on here and I’m too small scale to really use it so I’m happy to stick with FBMe. 

LOL... That is kind of funny because I read the complaints about FBM and the numerous scams customers do to scare me away from doing that.. Also I don't want to keep that many boxes around.. ?