Treasured Lego: To open or to not open

[brickbuyer230]

I picked up a SW advent calendar on sale today and I am torn between Opening it to add the figs to my collection or to keep it for winter resale. Same deal with my Tc-14 polybag. Help me sort it out in the polls!

[comicblast]

How many did you pick up? Do you have access to get more of them? Alot of times, members buy multiples of sets to open and build some. If you can buy 2-3 of them, go for it and then open one of them, then save the other ones for reselling around Christmas time. I do not particularly like the Advent Calendars because of the selling time frame limit. People only buy around Christmas time. They always come with some nice minfigs, so getting it on sale is a good idea. Just an FYI, the most recent SW Advent Calendar was 50% off on LEGO Shop at Home for a couple weeks right around Christmas time, at around $24, so this probably is the ideal ballpark that you want to buy one of these for. For me personally, I have trouble not opening sets, so I usually buy multiples to open and build. This is not an unknown feeling as most of us buy sets that we, ourselves, would enjoy building and playing with.

[StarCityBrickCompany]

I picked up a SW advent calendar on sale today and I am torn between

Opening it to add the figs to my collection or to keep it for winter resale.

Same deal with my Tc-14 polybag. Help me sort it out in the polls!

You could open the calendar & get more $ out of it by selling the minifigs separately (if/when you want to). The Advent calendars are a hard sell. My believe is that many people believe that since it says the year on it, that it is for that year only - but it is a perpetual calendar, so it makes no difference. As far as TC-14, did you get it for free? If you collect minifigs, you should have that one in you collection (very nice minifig).

[astroricardo]

I've only been buying for a couple of months, but I did pick up 2 Advent calendars. The small builds are a lot of fun (to me), I really enjoyed it. Actually I was thinking of picking up 2 from 2011 on Ebay since I had so much fun with the 2012.

[Teeird]

ONLY buy at 60% discount or more! So then you can for sure make tons of $$! Anyhow, that's what I did.

[dmoser22]

My philosophy: Never open a set to build it. In general, opening an EOL set instantly reduces its value, as they tend to be worth more than the sum of their parts. Opening a current set to part out for sale on eBay or BrickLink can make sense, because the value of the parts and minifigs in New condition are often higher than the set's retail price. But if you want to *build* a set, get one in used condition. If you're not rough on the parts or instructions, you can always disassemble it later and sell it to someone else for at least as much as it cost you. For instance, I've got a couple of Grand Emporiums on the "investment" shelf. But when I saw a used one for sale, I snapped it up. Now I've got the pleasure of building it to look forward to (when I have time) without incurring the inherent loss that comes when you change new parts into used parts. -djm

[sadowsk1]

I think you have to question your motives behind why you purchased the set initially. Did you buy it for your personal collection or the intention to resell it? It sounds like you bought it because you wanted it and if that's the case open it and enjoy! It seems like just particular figures are popular in the advent calendars and if you feel remorse you can try to sell them around next christmastime.