21006 - White House

[Rodeogeorge]

They need to make room for the reissue...

[Guest TabbyBoy]

21006 WH is now gone from major UK retailers. Only 3 pages of comments on here so far tell me it could be a sleeper. I daren't mention how many of these I have. I can only imagine the interest in this set after Donny's inauguration ;-)

[Voltron]

I still personally think this won't do good in UK. On ebay, there has only been one sale every few days, it's a slow seller, it is iconic building but it will do much better in North America than Europe imo. Still if you managed to get 3 for 2 you'll still make money but I personally didn't buy any as rather buy JW or scooby doo. 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

8 minutes ago, Mhd747 said:

I still personally think this won't do good in UK. On ebay, there has only been one sale every few days, it's a slow seller, it is iconic building but it will do much better in North America than Europe imo. Still if you managed to get 3 for 2 you'll still make money but I personally didn't buy any as rather buy JW or scooby doo. 

Each to his own I suppose. I won't be selling this only in the UK as I'll still be able to post this to the US quite cheaply by piggy-backing off a mate's Royal Mail account so It'll still cost me the same to send to the US as it will cost for a 1st Class Signed For small parcel in the UK. How can it fail? Just look at the crazy sold prices for the Rockefeller Center (correct spelling is centre) and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.

Iconic building? It's only one of the most famous residences in the World! (after Liz's house of course!)

Yes, I bought most of them during 3-for-2 which means -40% for me.

Straight up... I've actually just arranged to ship a free one to the real White House itself as I bet "Donny" won't have one on his desk! I have a friend in DC who used to work for US Airways security and has contacts within the US government who may be able to help. At least my proof of postage can be shown on my listings ;-)

I can just imagine him standing during his inaugural speech and thanking me for this incredible gift in front of billions - LOL.

[tractorboy]

At 40% it'll do fine. I don't think it'll be another Farnsworth or Villa Savoye though. It's been out ages and will be well stocked by resellers. Let's just hope it's not another Imperial Hotel.

I'm hoping people will want to collect this along with the Lincoln Memorial and Capitol Building as a set of three.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

41 minutes ago, tractorboy said:

At 40% it'll do fine. I don't think it'll be another Farnsworth or Villa Savoye though. It's been out ages and will be well stocked by resellers. Let's just hope it's not another Imperial Hotel.

I'm hoping people will want to collect this along with the Lincoln Memorial and Capitol Building as a set of three.

The Imperial Hotel hasn't been gone for long and was available for £74.99 not that long ago. However, it doesn't float my boat anyway and I've not bought any. I have bought a lot of Lincoln Memorials to pair with about half of my White Houses but, I need a good deal on the Capitol before I bite into that.

Marina Bay Sands is the kiddy and I just never bothered to buy one when I saw one in Kuala Lumpur for $150. I've been buying Bright Bricks cathedral sets in the UK when I can.

[Val-E]

The US buildings are all going to tank in Europe - Flatiron is like a vertical Maze, WH has been out for 6 years and is no Fallingwater and the other one is just forgettable. Imperial Hotel will soon have some friends to play with in the clearance bin.

Trevi and Big Ben might have done OK if they had gone quickly and quietly but the retiring soon foghorn has probably killed them too.

I hope I am wrong as i invested in all of them.

[Achilles]

The White House is going to be fascinating to watch, because I think it really will show the impact on increased LEGO Investing. In the US, this is a set that has sold for double MSRP during holidays when it was simply OOS from other retailers - it is very very popular here. So if this thing doesn't end up at 3x MSRP in a couple of years (assuming no rehash), I will find it very interesting. And unlike most sets, there wasn't a lot of warning here. Yes it's been out a long time and more people have it than some of the other Arch winners - But I view this is as a landmark set to observe post retirement.

 

[Val-E]

Yeah, you guys should be ok with a buy-in of 50% off. You also raise the point of a rehash and I can see that happening sometime down the line as happened with BK and GG - 30% bigger and a 99.99 price tag, would work a trick and would make a Trump maxi fig easier to fit outside!

[exciter1]

23 minutes ago, Val-E said:

Yeah, you guys should be ok with a buy-in of 50% off. You also raise the point of a rehash and I can see that happening sometime down the line as happened with BK and GG - 30% bigger and a 99.99 price tag, would work a trick and would make a Trump maxi fig easier to fit outside!

Architecture isn't sold in many big box stores here, so 50% off would have been much harder to achieve.  A 33% discount was more achievable at times, but I don't recall it being available at 1/2 off to a widespread base of buyers.  We'll see, I'd be happy to double up on it.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

45 minutes ago, Val-E said:

The US buildings are all going to tank in Europe - Flatiron is like a vertical Maze, WH has been out for 6 years and is no Fallingwater and the other one is just forgettable. Imperial Hotel will soon have some friends to play with in the clearance bin.

Trevi and Big Ben might have done OK if they had gone quickly and quietly but the retiring soon foghorn has probably killed them too.

I hope I am wrong as i invested in all of them.

Really?

21002 Empire State Building did well, I bought at £12 and sold easily at £25-30 in the UK only.

21007 Rockefeller Center has done very well and I sold all mine at £55 each last year in the UK and Europe (not US) with no trouble.

21020 Trevi Fountain is already selling for slightly above RRP so signs are postive on that, my buy-in was £23 so that's a tenner in the bag already.

21016 Sungnyemun performed brilliantly for a build that most of us had never heard of, including me and I've been to Seoul on business.

I hope you're wrong but, I think you know (like me) that the WH & LM are potential gold and worth a punt. Remember that that these sets need to be sold Worldwide to get the best returns. However, at least our buy-ins should guarantee our money back ;-)

We're all going to learn a lot over the next few months and then decide if what we're doing is sustainable or not, none of us have crystal balls!

[tractorboy]

28 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Architecture isn't sold in many big box stores here, so 50% off would have been much harder to achieve.  A 33% discount was more achievable at times, but I don't recall it being available at 1/2 off to a widespread base of buyers.  We'll see, I'd be happy to double up on it.

Yeah, even here it's rare to see Arch sets at 50% off. The recent Tesco UK blow out had some but not for very long. I got some Flatirons a while back for 50% from amazon.it, but deals like that are few and far between for most of us in Europe. 20-30% is more typical and usually that's early on in a sets life cycle, so you've got to be willing to hold indefinitely.

The cheapest WH could be had on amazon.uk was 37% back in late 2013/early 2014. Since then it's rarely dropped below 20%.

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by tractorboy

[c_rpg]

4 minutes ago, tractorboy said:

Yeah, even here it's rare to see Arch sets at 50% off. The recent Tesco UK blow out had some but not for very long. I got some Flatirons a while back for 50% from amazon.it, but deals like that are few and far between for most of us in Europe. 20-30% is more typical and usually that's early on in a sets life cycle, so you've got to be willing to hold indefinitely.

The cheapest WH could be had on amazon.uk was 37% back in late 2013/early 2014. Since then it's rarely dropped below 20%.

Best I've seen for most Architecture sets is around -40% so anything below 30% is not a bad buy-in imo. Surprisingly, Capitol Building has been around 30% off at a lot of places lately, so maybe that one will go down to -50%. 

One advantage of Architecture sets is they don't take as much space as other expensive sets. That makes them easier to ship too.

[Val-E]

We have seen with the recent large Technic sets what happens when people stockpile too many of a niche theme for the market to absorb. The architecture line´s advantages are also its disadvantages and a White House will never be as popular as a Millennium Falcon.

The trend to rehash has also hit so I´d not be comfortable with anything less than 40% off, except for on Trevi. I believe that set was much harder to get with deep discounts than the rest.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

37 minutes ago, Val-E said:

We have seen with the recent large Technic sets what happens when people stockpile too many of a niche theme for the market to absorb. The architecture line´s advantages are also its disadvantages and a White House will never be as popular as a Millennium Falcon.

The trend to rehash has also hit so I´d not be comfortable with anything less than 40% off, except for on Trevi. I believe that set was much harder to get with deep discounts than the rest.

The Trevi Fountain is a really nice set and I built one of mine since the box was damaged. There's so many useful small parts like the turquoise 2x1 plates and 1x1 bricks so if I get lumbered with another 4 of these, I'll build a modular-scale MOC. Well I love the set and very pleased that I bought into it.

I've not built a White House yet but, I'll look for the worst box I have and will crack it open within the next few days. I have a feeling that I'll be just as pleased with this one.

I thought the Delorean was a hideous POS and look at it now!

It makes me laugh how our opinions on here differ so much and, as the saying goes... "One man's turd is another man's treasure."

[Crustybeaver]

"One man's turd is another man's treasure."

Lego reselling is more "one mans treasure is nothing but turd"

[Val-E]

1 hour ago, Crustybeaver said:

Lego reselling is more "one mans treasure is nothing but turd"

2016 addendum - Yet another turd has one hundred listings by turd party sellers.

[wotguvnotmeguv]

I was in the White House Visitor Center in DC last week - they had three separate displays of 21006. 

[BarryZola]

On 01/12/2016 at 6:36 PM, Crustybeaver said:

Lego reselling is more "one mans treasure is nothing but turd"

Sorry not to add anything to the discussion, but I must let the poster Crusty know that I spat some wine out when I read that comment. Bravo, Sir

[Guest TabbyBoy]

QFLLs should move to a Turd World country.

[brickolodon]

I know 80-90% of all architecture sets are great performers...proof me wrong.

[dustyshelf]

Woops, wrong thread.

Edited December 5, 2016 by dustyshelf
I'm idiot.

[Black_towr]

I'm staring at a lone WH right now at B&N.   I don't buy much Lego here. Any coupons or deals happening right now?

[GhostDad]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 5:59 PM, brickolodon said:

I know 80-90% of all architecture sets are great performers...proof me wrong.

United Nations.  Imperial Hotel.  Brandenburg Gate.  I'm sure there are many others.

[grackleflint]

The only standard no-hassle way to get a discount at BN is the $25 annual membership which gives you 10% off in-store or discounted gift cards. Discounted gift cards can be bought from cardpool.com or BN's annual Xmas offer of a $10 gift card valid after Xmas for purchasing a $75 gift card. There was a few days where it was a $50 gift card purchase that got you a $10 gift card. Then there's also the BN credit card for another 5% back.

So, if you just buy $250, you have paid for the membership fee. In the past couple of years, Architecture sets weren't being regularly discounted at retailers like Target/Amazon, etc, so it was an OK discount and any discount is better than no discount..

Now that you can get bigger (20%) discounts regularly from Amazon/Target, it's probably not worth it unless you are also buying non-LEGO things at a B&M store, like maybe books?

Edited December 16, 2016 by grackleflint