Up To Date Information

[kphamilton]

Hello everyone, I'm still somewhat new to the Lego collecting world, but I had a few questions that Google has been unable to answer for me. Is there a website (ie, on shop.lego.com) that says when a set actually is retired? I am aware that predicting when sets WILL retire is anyone's guess, but is there a place to see if something is currently retired? What I am really asking is if there is a website that I can go to each day to check on sets to see if they have officially been retired? Does the Lego Shop website return a 404 or something if it retires? Thanks and I apologize if I am asking n00b-ish questions. EDIT: It seems that if you go to http://shop.lego.com/en-US/*-*-*-####?p=#### where *-*-* is the title of the set (with hyphens as spaces) and the #### as the lego set number, then it takes you to the Set Page. If the set it retired, it takes you to a Page Not Found page. Could this be what I am looking for? If anyone has any insight as to this process, please let me know. Thanks!

[Ed Mack]

Hello...Welcome to Brickpicker. The EOL information you seek is difficult to come by. There is no site out there that has exact data on the retirement figures for LEGO sets. Most of the EOL info out there is approximated. Sets can be out of stock and EOL one month, then back in stock two months later. LEGO keeps this information secret and likes to mix it up, keeping buyers and LEGO fans guessing.

[quakerlaker91]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but brickset.com is a good resource for set information. It's a set database with all sets from the past 40 years. You can type in a set number and it will give you information on the set, such as release date, retail price, even price per piece. Most importantly, however, it tells you when this set was discontinued on LEGO.com (if its still in production it will say release date to present). Here's an example: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=10179-1. Hope this helps.

[Ed Mack]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but brickset.com is a good resource for set information. It's a set database with all sets from the past 40 years. You can type in a set number and it will give you information on the set, such as release date, retail price, even price per piece. Most importantly, however, it tells you when this set was discontinued on LEGO.com (if its still in production it will say release date to present). Here's an example: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=10179-1. Hope this helps.

Brickset is an excellent resource and Huw does a great job with the site. Their EOL information is about the best that you can hope for on the internet...and that is questionable at times. In many instances, LEGO sets have gone to EOL and back into production because a 'sold out' or 'out of stock' set was mistaken for a set that was retired. To update and keep track of 400 to 500+ new sets yearly, not to mention the 9000+ sets already in existence, is a rather daunting task for EOL info, when LEGO does not release anything concrete about EOL dates.

The EOL data would be very useful, but at this time, I haven't seen any information on the internet that gives me enough confidence to make future LEGO prognostications and purchases off of it.

[Doofy McGee]

Don't get me wrong, Brickset is great and I love it as a reference, but they change the status of a set's availability at LEGO every time it sells out, even when there is an expected ship date for it to be back in stock. I think it is a safe bet when you go to shop.LEGO and there is a NOT FOUND message when you type in the set #. This is what currently happens for some of the PotC sets. I think it is a pretty safe indicator that the set is EOL and not going to be sold again on the site any time soon, if ever.