Are you a serious investor/collector of LEGO?

[LEGO Oleg]

Question: How much you need to invest to consider yourself serious investor or collector. What do you think?

[Blackjack]

I think that time is also a very crucial element. I have very little money to spend on Lego, but I still consider myself a very serious collector, I spend a lot of time researching both my sets, and minifigures.

[redeemed763]

Answers here will be all over the map, I'd say those $50,000 or more of lego in their collection/folio are pretty serious, I am quite casual right now, once we buy our house, I will be able to put some of our our few thousand extra a month into lego, at that point, I may be able to get serious. In some ways though, people with as little as $1000 of Lego could be considered serious, all depends on your point of view.

[kerrmando]

I think to differentiate Collector and Investor would be better. I know serious Collectors who only want one theme... but they are religious in that one theme. I know serious investors who won't touch a set that retails for under 100 bucks. As for my standard. I'd say anyone that has over 10k in investments is being fairly serious about it. I know tons of collectors who have more money in Lego's than investors do, but they are not expecting returns ever. As for me I don't input anything unsealed onto Brickpicker. I consider this my investment website, and I consider my investments to be mainly sealed sets. Anything opened is in my collection or getting flipped ASAP. I input my actual collection into places like brickset because I don't care what value they yield me. Also collectors are willing to drop a ton more money on specific items than investors are. So that has to be differentiated too. For myself I didn't feel I was a serious investor until I hit the 40k mark of sealed sets. So being "serious" is really relative. (I hate saying things are relative but sometimes it just depends on the factors influencing your own Lego purchases)

[Veegs]

I'm closing in on 10K and my wife thinks that this is pretty darn serious. I spend a whole lot of time and effort on both the collecting & building side as well as the investing (to pay for the former). I wish I could be more 'serious' and have the amount of LEGO Emazers has :)

[legopocalypse]

I've spent 30k since I started investing back in December of 2012, my wife's ready to kill me...lol

[kerrmando]

^ atta boy

[Rich B]

I've spent 30k since I started investing back in December of 2012, my wife's ready to kill me...lol

Hahahaha...........she won't kill you once she sees the money you make later down the road, assuming you bought investment winners, which I'm sure you did :)

[Snowcrash]

Hahahaha...........she won't kill you once she sees the money you make later down the road, assuming you bought investment winners, which I'm sure you did

When you buy a new mercedes with the profits in 2 years you'll be looking like a genious in her eyes :)

[Rich B]

Hahahaha...........she won't kill you once she sees the money you make later down the road, assuming you bought investment winners, which I'm sure you did

When you buy a new mercedes with the profits in 2 years you'll be looking like a genious in her eyes

Exactly!!

[TheOrcKing]

I'm as serious of an collector as I can be with my finances though really am more of a 'casual' one. Real casual like Mario games casual. Even if I had a ton of cash raking in, I still would be a casual collector. This is my hobby and I'm stickin' to it.

[comicblast]

This is my hobby and I'm stickin' to it.

Right on. Even though I do invest to a certain degree, I only invest to fund my collection, and because it is fun. :)

[sadowsk1]

I agree with the sentiment is a persons own mentality. No matter the sum if a person is serious about one or the other or both it doesn't matter the quantity so much as their own state of mind on the matter.

[Alcarin]

Right on. Even though I do invest to a certain degree, I only invest to fund my collection, and because it is fun.

Exactly...

I only invest as much as

1. I have room

2. I need, so I can buy LEGO for myself...

[Alcarin]

Question: How much you need to invest to consider yourself serious investor or collector.

What do you think?

I think serious investors are those who invested above 10.000 whatever currency into LEGO. By that I mean as they HOLD so much in their investment closet right now.

If you bought 1000 worth of LEGO then sold it and bought another 1000 thats not SERIOUS investing... but if YOU have 10.000 worth of LEGO in your closet right now for investing for me you are serious investor.

I hold around 2.000 of USED and NEW sealed LEGO stuff at home, and close to 1000$ investing stuff.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Right on. Even though I do invest to a certain degree, I only invest to fund my collection, and because it is fun.

Exactly...

I only invest as much as

1. I have room

2. I need, so I can buy LEGO for myself...

Make that three of us. The main reason I got into this was so that I could basically get some extra money to expand my collection without having to touch the rest of my money. I really think that for people like us this ends up working really well, since It's somewhat easy to make the profits needed to get new sets we want.

[Alcarin]

Right on. Even though I do invest to a certain degree, I only invest to fund my collection, and because it is fun.

Exactly...

I only invest as much as

1. I have room

2. I need, so I can buy LEGO for myself...

Make that three of us. The main reason I got into this was so that I could basically get some extra money to expand my collection without having to touch the rest of my money. I really think that for people like us this ends up working really well, since It's somewhat easy to make the profits needed to get new sets we want.

Granted it is usually room thats the problem...

I just wish I could find someone who wants Bricks and sells LEGO minifigs so we could work a deal cheap for both of us...

Since I usually aim towards displaying/building events (like Attack on Helm's Deep) and usually want around 80-100 minifigs per event display which makes severe costs for my budget even bricklinking lol

[eracine]

I am not sure where I fall in. Like most I was Lego kid and now my kids are Lego kids. I discovered the obscene amount of money people spend on retired sets so that is when I was convinced of Lego investing. I find it more of a hobby. My family and I have thousands ($$) in Lego sets that we build with and I have my "investment" room ($$). Not sure what my end game is. I just find it fun to do both, build and invest. I recently sold 6 Live stars, but I flipped them into more sets that are EOL soon. I don't know, my wife is fine for now who knows when we hit 10k which will be in a few months I am not sure what she will think. I bought 1300 in poly bags recently and have made about 700 on them so she seem to like the idea!! For now :)

[kerrmando]

Polybags are where its at haha

[stephen_rockefeller]

Polybags are where its at haha

why do you laugh?? Getting enough polybags at the right price and selling them could net you big profits......

[redeemed763]

Polybags are awesome for those who can put the time into learning that side of the business, many polybags don't go anywhere, just like traditional sets, so you do have to know what you are doing. The savings on shipping with polybags can really help, you can send them all in a cheap bubble mailer for $1.50 and never worry about a damage claim. For me, I just haven't taken the time to learn polybags, I tried to sell a few when I started but even after the scores I was most proud of, my profits for the time spent just weren't adding up so I decided to move on to large sets. The sheer volume of sales needed is quite overwhelming, if you were going for $20,000 in sales in a year, at an average of $10 per bag, you are looking at 2000 orders total, I am hoping to average $250 per sale of my sets, that would amount to 80 orders a year or roughly 8 per week during peak selling season and 1-2 per month the rest of the year.

[eracine]

I agree that it has to be the right poly bag. You need to know which ones to buy. I did my research before I bought them. It has been a good deal for me. Agree though, you need to know what you are doing. Before I found one I struck out a few times.