21018 - United Nations Headquarters

[exciter1]

Just now, Val-E said:

Annual genie-in-a-bottle convention.

Spittoon festival

[Val-E]

Some of these items will be worth more than DS10188 shortly.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

Just now, Val-E said:

Some of these items will be worth more than DS10188 shortly.

WH & TF to name 2 ;-)

However the 10240 R5 has now overtaken the 10188 DS to claim the "UCS Turkey of the Year" award. At least DS can be sold for RRP, R5 can't!

[grackleflint]

Now this is funny... Both Toy Planet and Blue Proton have lowered their prices to be the lowest priced period, FBA or FBM (where's the FBA price cushion?)

Gotta love it when the titans clash. I thought it was only the nervous small timer who is supposed to be leading the race to the bottom, undercutting others by a penny and trying to move stock while the big boys laugh and wait for them to quit to reap the higher prices.

Similar thing is happening with 10228 Haunted House. Lowest FBA price in early Nov was $460. One week ago, it was $430. Yesterday it was $390 with a seller having 17 units. Right now the two lowest FBA sellers are $370 and $379.

[exciter1]

Now this is funny... Both Toy Planet and Blue Proton have lowered their prices to be the lowest priced period, FBA or FBM (where's the FBA price cushion?)

Gotta love it when the titans clash. I thought it was only the nervous small timer who is supposed to be leading the race to the bottom, undercutting others by a penny and trying to move stock while the big boys laugh and wait for them to quit to reap the higher prices.

Similar thing is happening with 10228 Haunted House. Lowest FBA price in early Nov was $460. One week ago, it was $430. Yesterday it was $390 with a seller having 17 units. Right now the two lowest FBA sellers are $370 and $379.

It's a good time for bargain hunting.

[Bold-Arrow]

price on Lego are crashing across the board for the most part. pretty common for this time of the year.

[cladner]

9 hours ago, exciter1 said:

Toys R Us parking lot, FTW!

looks like the reception and gift table at the kmart parking lot wedding.

[pete411]

You guys apparently never got the memo.

Hottest Christmas Toys for 2016

1.Hatchimals

2. NES Classic

3. UN Headquarters 21018

[grackleflint]

3 minutes ago, pete411 said:

You guys apparently never got the memo.

Hottest Christmas Toys for 2016

1.Hatchimals

2. NES Classic

3. UN Headquarters 21018

Toy Planet sales in the last 24 hours as the lowest priced seller on Amazon => 4 

Toy Planet's FBA inventory went from 252 to 248 while Blue Proton still has over 999

[Val-E]

8 hours ago, Bold-Arrow said:

price on Lego are crashing across the board.

Fixed.

[grackleflint]

On 12/3/2016 at 9:17 PM, grackleflint said:

Toy Planet sales in the last 24 hours as the lowest priced seller on Amazon => 4 

Toy Planet's FBA inventory went from 252 to 248 while Blue Proton still has over 999

Update: 12 days later and TP is down to 42 units so they've sold over 200. BP is down to 950 from 999+ so sales appear to be about 25 a day.

However, the price has dropped to $61.80 as TP has continued their drive to be the lowest priced seller on all their 200+ LEGO listings. BP (950+ units) is holding at $62.98.

Looks like the 2015 retirees (BG, IH, UN, VS) are not doing very well while the 2016 not yet retired in US sets (WH, LM, TF) are (so far). TP even has the IH at below MSRP at $127.99 but we can't see how many units they have since they've turned on the new limit per buyer option at 14.

If TP has a LEGO wholesale account (probably since they appear to sell lots of other toy lines) and the standard wholesale discount is 20% off MSRP, I can't see how they are making much money selling at/below MSRP with the Nov/Dec FBA storage fees. Maybe being like TabbyBoy and clearing what they don't think are winners?

Glad I got out of the very few that I had (at barely break-even) and re-invested in WH and TF. Never liked the UN so I've been (obsessively) tracking this to see if I made a bad decision.

Maybe the early bad results for 2015 retirees got fewer people investing in the 2016 retirees so now the 2016 sets have fewer competition or the 2016 sets are simply more popular and better (I think so)?

[exciter1]

9 minutes ago, grackleflint said:

Update: 12 days later and TP is down to 42 units so they've sold over 200. BP is down to 950 from 999+ so sales appear to be about 25 a day.

However, the price has dropped to $61.80 as TP has continued their drive to be the lowest priced seller on all their 200+ LEGO listings. BP (950+ units) is holding at $62.98.

Looks like the 2015 retirees (BG, IH, UN, VS) are not doing very well while the 2016 not yet retired in US sets (WH, LM, TF) are (so far). TP even has the IH at below MSRP at $127.99 but we can't see how many units they have since they've turned on the new limit per buyer option at 14.

If TP has a LEGO wholesale account (probably since they appear to sell lots of other toy lines) and the standard wholesale discount is 20% off MSRP, I can't see how they are making much money selling at/below MSRP with the Nov/Dec FBA storage fees. Maybe being like TabbyBoy and clearing what they don't think are winners?

Glad I got out of the very few that I had (at barely break-even) and re-invested in WH and TF. Never liked the UN so I've been (obsessively) tracking this to see if I made a bad decision.

Maybe the early bad results for 2015 retirees got fewer people investing in the 2016 retirees so now the 2016 sets have fewer competition or the 2016 sets are simply more popular and better (I think so)?

I just think the big dogs haven't started moving their stashes from the back of the warehouses yet.

[Sfcommando14]

20 minutes ago, grackleflint said:

Looks like the 2015 retirees (BG, IH, UN, VS) are not doing very well while the 2016 not yet retired in US sets (WH, LM, TF) are (so far). TP even has the IH at below MSRP at $127.99 but we can't see how many units they have since they've turned on the new limit per buyer option at 14.

This was seen last year with spikes of the non-Arch retiring sets (last years Arch are still on my BN/BAM shelves, so they still don't qualify).  People scramble and gobble up sets fearing some gigantic 3x RRP increase, before prices normalize back near RRP+

10 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

I just think the big dogs haven't started moving their stashes from the back of the warehouses yet.

This too

Edited December 15, 2016 by Sfcommando14

[grackleflint]

28 minutes ago, Sfcommando14 said:

This was seen last year with spikes of the non-Arch retiring sets (last years Arch are still on my BN/BAM shelves, so they still don't qualify).  People scramble and gobble up sets fearing some gigantic 3x RRP increase, before prices normalize back near RRP+

At my local BN yesterday, I pushed aside the BG (still have 2 of these from Feb 2013 for $23) and LTP to get to a TF and a WH (these have really started to disappear recently, I blame BP). Figure if they are still there after Christmas, I may get them with those $10 promo BN gift cards to make me feel like I got a good deal/discount.

Edited December 15, 2016 by grackleflint

[GhostDad]

8 hours ago, grackleflint said:

Update: 12 days later and TP is down to 42 units so they've sold over 200. BP is down to 950 from 999+ so sales appear to be about 25 a day.

However, the price has dropped to $61.80 as TP has continued their drive to be the lowest priced seller on all their 200+ LEGO listings. BP (950+ units) is holding at $62.98.

Looks like the 2015 retirees (BG, IH, UN, VS) are not doing very well while the 2016 not yet retired in US sets (WH, LM, TF) are (so far). TP even has the IH at below MSRP at $127.99 but we can't see how many units they have since they've turned on the new limit per buyer option at 14.

If TP has a LEGO wholesale account (probably since they appear to sell lots of other toy lines) and the standard wholesale discount is 20% off MSRP, I can't see how they are making much money selling at/below MSRP with the Nov/Dec FBA storage fees. Maybe being like TabbyBoy and clearing what they don't think are winners?

Glad I got out of the very few that I had (at barely break-even) and re-invested in WH and TF. Never liked the UN so I've been (obsessively) tracking this to see if I made a bad decision.

Maybe the early bad results for 2015 retirees got fewer people investing in the 2016 retirees so now the 2016 sets have fewer competition or the 2016 sets are simply more popular and better (I think so)?

UN's performance strikes me as a bright red flag for Architecture sets generally.  It's about the most, uh, international landmark out there.  I wasn't paying attention when it retired, but if I had been, I probably would have scooped it up.  Obviously I'm glad I was asleep at the wheel.

Edited December 16, 2016 by GhostDad

[zskid00]

The UN building just doesn't seem very interesting to me even though it has international recognition. I bought some for 30-50% off last year at Meijer when they carried architecture sets, but this trend of massive inventories being dumped on FBA with corresponding price drops is a bit alarming.

[Ciglione]

Trevi is much much better than this one.

UN HQ is also very difficult to sell here. Not very much wanted.

[GhostDad]

42 minutes ago, Ciglione said:

Trevi is much much better than this one.

UN HQ is also very difficult to sell here. Not very much wanted.

But has anyone ever heard of the Trevi Fountain?  The UN has as much name recognition as the White House and it flopped.  I'll bet no more than 2 or 3% of Americans have any idea what (or where) the Trevi Fountain is.  For a US seller, that's a big problem.

[Migration]

But has anyone ever heard of the Trevi Fountain?  The UN has as much name recognition as the White House and it flopped.  I'll bet no more than 2 or 3% of Americans have any idea what (or where) the Trevi Fountain is.  For a US seller, that's a big problem.

The Trevi fountain is a very well known landmark. Although the set would have been better had they included the little gelato shop up the stairs to the right of it.

[zskid00]

Love the Trevi Fountain model, but I've also been there. Count me in the 2-3%.

[grackleflint]

It's still too early to declare the UN a flop. Let's see what happens with the two big sellers. Do they stay low to clear most of their stock or do they eventually lead the price higher when the small sellers have given up and they've made enough for the Xmas season. Does another big seller jump into the mix too? It just won't shoot up like the early Architecture sets but maybe it does the slow rise that's considered more "normal". I just think you will get a faster return with WH or TF which is why I got out. I don't have the deep pockets to have everything.

Personally, I think the UN Headquarters is too "political" for people who would also have a corresponding view of the UN as an organization to make the set attractive to the general public while it will still be attractive to architecture people.

Edited December 16, 2016 by grackleflint

[Val-E]

5 hours ago, GhostDad said:

But has anyone ever heard of the Trevi Fountain?  The UN has as much name recognition as the White House and it flopped.  I'll bet no more than 2 or 3% of Americans have any idea what (or where) the Trevi Fountain is.  For a US seller, that's a big problem.

This is the risk with Architecture sets, like SH the regional demand varies a lot. In Europe the most recognised sets are Eiffel, Big Ben, Trevi, Louvre, Buckingham Palace and White House. Stuff like Flatiron, IH  and SSN don´t mean jack to the majority. On the other hand, series collectors and building fans will know them all, but they are the minority of buyers.

Maybe that´s why there has been a move towards cityscapes as they are more universally recognisable. Until they do Milton Keynes, that is.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

21018 UN has been selling well in the UK. The last one sold for £72.95 posted which probably would've been 2x buy-in for the seller.

Architecture sets in the UK (apart from the 21017 Imperial Hotel) have mostly been performing very well.

Since they are small sets but, geography specific, they should always be offered to a Worldwide audience and most are small enough to post fairly cheaply.

[Val-E]

The other thing is the shelf life. Even obscure sets do better when they retire "early" and UN was out for less than the normal time. See also Robie House, original BK and the two limited edition sets.

[kobus]

I had no trouble selling the UN building, sold 3 for 85Euro each (buy in was 30Euro). So I'm not complaining, except for not buying more