LEGO Investing Future - As dark as Baseball Cards and Beanie Babies

[Ed Mack]

Well, this site was developed to educate people and to help the LEGO investment and collecting community find the best deals on LEGO sets. In the process, there will be "ancient Chinese secrets" exposed to the world and a lot of old school LEGO re-sellers and investors will get upset, because they feel this site promotes speculation. I beg to differ with that synopsis. While we do talk about certain sets exploding in growth, our overall emphasis is on discounts and where the best deal is. We give the LEGO fan links to the cheapest sets from EBAY, Amazon, Chowren Toys, Target and now Walmart. We are always looking to expand to other retailers, especially in Europe and Great Britain. The 'secrets' to LEGO investing are simple: ***BUY LOW, SELL HIGH ***BUY THE RIGHT SETS I'll let people try and figure out which set are the "right" sets. I mean, I wouldn't want to give away "my secrets." LOL

[TheOrcKing]

Buy low, sell high

That's a given. Anybody that buys a $60 item, only to end up selling it for $34, is going to go broke rather quick. Usually one hopes to make atleast the original cost plus half or twice what was invested.

Buy the right sets

This is always the most tricky. I mean, how can anybody always know what most people want? One strategy for this would be that 'the right sets' are the ones that are 'the most unique'.

Here's an example:

Island Extreme Stunts - Truck & Stunt Trikes (6739)

Retail: $29.99

Made: 2002

This set is ten years old now, so it should be worth something, right?

Nope, it's barely worth more than what it originally retailed for.

Why?

Well, look at it. It's just a truck (an okay one at that) with a couple of trikes.

Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo.

There's a VERY LONG list of trucks that have been made throughout the years, plus the three characters in this set are practically in EVERY single set for this theme! So again, what's unique about it?

Pretty much nothing.

Now take a look at this set that was in the same theme:

Island Extreme Stunts - Skateboard Challenge (6738)

Retail: $19.99

Made: 2002

The lowest I've seen a mint box of this was around a hundred dollars!

Hell, there's an eBay lot right now for this at the low, low price of $357.60!!

....HO...LY....CRAP!!!

Now why is this set worth more than the other?

They're both the same age, as well as from the same theme, and they both share two characters.

So why is this one worth more?

Simple. How many skateboard related sets can you think of?

Exactly, there really aren't any!

In the following year, LEGO released the SPORTS line. Part of these were for the Gravity Games, with barely three sets revolving around skateboarding. Their value has gone up pretty good, just not quite as good as the original skateboarders set.

I can only speculate that is due to the "Skateboard Challenge" set being the first, making its value similiar to how the 1st issue for a comic book series is always worth more than any other issue afterwards (with a limited few odd exceptions).

Some recent examples of 'unique' sets are the varied 'store exclusives'. In general, each set has limited production runs, but these sets have an even further limited run.

STAR WARS - Luke's Landspeeder (8092) (Walmart Exclusive)

Retail: 24.99

Made: 2010

By even BrickPicker's own words, this set has become one of the most bought sets on eBay (and on a few other sites I'm sure). Why?

It's one of the best designs of the landspeeder to date, you get a nice selection of minifigs, AND Walmart is the only (physical) store that carries it.

Of course, these "Limited Edition" or "Special Edition" (or however the store wants to label these as) are not guaranteed investments, but they usually make good ones.

In the end, despite everything, one thing remains true.

"Something is only really worth, what someone is willing to pay."

Well, I gotta go before I miss the season premiere of "Dexter".

Til next time!

[Ed Mack]

I left the "PICK THE RIGHT SETS" to your imagination. That's why you need Brickpicker.com...LOL. On a serious note, there are plenty of investment dogs and old LEGO sets that are worthless or close to it...even in mint condition. Who would have figured Sponge Bob or the Power Miners Being so successful? There is some luck mixed into the LEGO investment game as well.

[TheOrcKing]

Who would have figured Sponge Bob or the Power Miners Being so successful?

Yeah, really.

Course, the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon is INSANELY popular. So I suppose it's no real surprise the sets are too. Then again, the Avatar cartoon was pretty popular as well, and those sets stagnated when they came out. Now they'll cost you a bloody fortune!

It's probably due to the lack of sales of the only two AVATAR sets that LEGO didn't even bother to try and create new sets to be released around the time of "The Last Airbender" film. Either that or the license would have been too much of a pain in the butt.

[Doofy McGee]

legotrader just beat me to the punch! Lol. I was going to make many of the same points, but instead I will chime in and echo some of the same thoughts. I don't believe LEGO can be compared to Beanie Babies or sports cards. The fact that they were/are both heavily collected is where the comparisons should stop. A baseball card just sits there, that's it. You don't spend consecutive hours holding it and looking at it, etc. You collect it because it is just that, a collectible. It doesn't have any actual function. Same thing with Beanie Babies. People collected them because they were the trending collectible at the time. But they also don't really have a function. People would collect them and then put them in a case. No one says "hey I am looking forward to this weekend so I can have a tea party with my Beanie Bears." As a 32 year old adult, I still love those quiet days once in a while where I can dedicate a few hours to building a large LEGO set that I haven't had the time to get to yet. Since LEGOs actually have a use, they can't fairly be compared to sports cards or Beanie Babies when it comes to collecting, and especially reselling. Beanie Babies and sports cards best purpose at this point may be kindling for a bonfire. A LEGO set will always be fun to build, even if the value has tanked and it's not worth the plastic it was made out of.

[TheOrcKing]

I don't believe LEGO can be compared to Beanie Babies or sports cards.

Certainly not. I kinda remember when those Beanie Babies came out and, honestly, I thought they were ugly. And besides, the whole Beanie Baby craze lasted how long? A few years? It was there in a flash, then gone just as quick.

I feel sorry for anyone that had PILES of these things just sitting around when the 'bubble' popped. When the craze started in 1993, the average person didn't have a computer back then, let alone an internet connection. (Heck, eBay wasn't around until 1995.) And when people finally did get internet, whooboy, THAT'S when 'it' hit the fan.

It would seem the only reason they became so collectible was based purely on the fact no one really knew just how many of these on the market there actually were. So when people got internet and realized just how flooded the market was, POP! There goes their investment...

As for sports cards, umm... I really have no idea. I never was into card collecting myself. There isn't anything going for them really. You buy a blister pack with some number of random cards, and....get to look at them? I don't know. Atleast cards for MAGIC THE GATHERING and the like make more sense. I mean, you use the cards to play a game and the artwork is just brilliant. But still, overall, you basically just look at them.

With LEGO, there's a WHOLE lot you can do! They are not limited to any one area. You can buy one set, build it to the instructions included, then take it apart and build something completely different! LEGO will always be worthwile just because of how versatile it is. The market can get flooded with a particular set, but it will only make that one set worth less. It will not have an effect on every other set in the market simply because each set is uniquely different.

So long as LEGO continues to make a quality product, LEGO will always be a worthy investment.

To build or collect.