Hello to all from Holland.

[Gnobama]

Hi all, I want to take the oppertunity to introduce myself due thie post. My name is Raymond, 39 years old, father of 4 (1 son, 3 girls) and a LEGO investor, reseller, builder and huge FAN of the brand. I started a webshop in Holland 5 years ago, in the meanwhile I opened a store on bricklink and became a direct customer at LEGO. Due the fact it's still a hobby I had to close my dutch webshop and my focus is currently on bricklink and in investing sets. Like most of all I invest in the exclusive range but I'm busy with regular sets as well. I noticed that a lot of people are investing in LEGO, and it's good to have a place where we can meet. Fur further questions don't hasitate to contact me. Best regards, Ray

[Dunamis]

Hi Ray, It is good to see your post and I will probably shoot you some more questions at some point. I will be moving to the Netherlands this June for work near Amsterdam for approximately 5-10 years. I have bought and sold Lego for a while and since I have 4 boys (aged 8, 5, 3, 1) I see a lot more Lego in our future. One quick question: I am not planning on bringing over any full investment sets; I will just store them at a relative's house in the U.S. I do have some significant minifigure inventory (primarily SW, LOTR, and CMF) which I sell quite well on Amazon here in the U.S. Is the demand for individual minifigures as high in Europe as the U.S. and is it just as easy to sell them on Amazon there? At this point my understanding is that I can bring them into the country tax free as long as I don't sell them during the first year. I could be mistaken about this though. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Blackjack]

Welcome to BP!

[Gnobama]

Hi Ray,

It is good to see your post and I will probably shoot you some more questions at some point. I will be moving to the Netherlands this June for work near Amsterdam for approximately 5-10 years. I have bought and sold Lego for a while and since I have 4 boys (aged 8, 5, 3, 1) I see a lot more Lego in our future.

One quick question: I am not planning on bringing over any full investment sets; I will just store them at a relative's house in the U.S. I do have some significant minifigure inventory (primarily SW, LOTR, and CMF) which I sell quite well on Amazon here in the U.S. Is the demand for individual minifigures as high in Europe as the U.S. and is it just as easy to sell them on Amazon there? At this point my understanding is that I can bring them into the country tax free as long as I don't sell them during the first year. I could be mistaken about this though. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

We don't have an amazon.nl here.

I know they are opening one soon though but what I understand from my LEGO accountant is they are not happy with Amazon because of the prices they often have.

I'm not familiar with minifigs but I think you can easliy sell them through amazon.co.uk, amazon.de or another amazon.

In Holland we have a side called marktplaats.nl but since Holland is a small country I don't think you need to expect much from it.

I'm also not familiar with the fact that you can import them under the conditons you mention, will ask around since it might be interesting for me if this is possible.

Please know that you can always contact me with any kind of questions.

[Darth Lego]

Welcome to the site Ray!

[Dunamis]

Thanks so much for the response! I have looked into marktplaats.nl and it seemed like a rough Dutch equivalent to Craigslist in the U.S. I still need to research the import tax side of things a bit more and any further details you have would be great. I was going off of the laws related to moving to the country. I have read on several sites that if you own items (household goods, furniture, toys) for a year prior to moving and do not sell them for the first year you will avoid import/customs related taxes.

[Rich B]

Welcome to the site! Glad to have you here!

[dunkers97]

Welcome Ray! We're always happy to get another user.

[jetser]

Hello Raymond, welcome. I am also from Holland, investing in Lego for two years now and lurking on this great site for a couple of months. Interesting to see that there are big difference between the US Lego market the Netherlands. In Holland we have a small market with lately, a growing number of Lego investors. When you look at "Marktplaats" you see a lot of people reselling Lego with minimal profit. I am beginning to worry that de "glory days" of reselling Lego with good profits are over, because an increasing amount of people are participating in Lego investment. Are you also selling on ebay ?