Getting rich selling Lego?

[Ed Mack]

To make a $1,000,000.00(US) you need to spend a $1,000,000.00(US).....

This is true.

[h311m4n]

I think some of the European folks here are not doing their strategy right.

 

I live in Switzerland. Yay, it's a great country but we got no amazon (and if you ship anything above 60CHF to CH, you'll pay import VAT), no wallmart and no lego shop except shop at home.

 

How do I score deals?

 

Very simply by keeping close track of all the online retailers selling legos by using a price compare website. A spreadsheet helps me keep track of the current prices against the lego retail price and as soon as something pops at 40% off, it notifies me.

 

What did I score thanks to this? 3 technic unimogs for half price and 4 helm's deep for half price as well.

 

So yes, it's more difficult to get good deals in EU, but it's not impossible.

[kenchu2000]

To make a $1,000,000.00(US) you need to spend a $1,000,000.00(US).....

 

if I had $1,000,000.00, I would throw all the money into real estates, rather than selling Legos set by set.

[justafrog]

If I had a million more dollars to invest, I would invest in Hostess Cupcakes to survive the coming zombie apocalypse.

[asharerin]

Do the Asian buyers contact you through eBay?  Are they the ones who ask for large quantities at ridiculously low prices?

 

No I don't sell much on ebay. I list my sets on ebay at ridiculously high prices and maybe sell 2-3 per month but that is about it. My asian buyers are previous customers through other sites.

[Alfiepops]

All this is true but even though the US get Lego cheaper, The aftersales market when things EOL proves that buyers in the US are prepared to pay more than retail. So if you are a Lego investor and do the ground work and find say a Helm's Deep for $50 on a clearance instead of the $100 rrp, keep it until it EOLs and sell it for $150 then you are working in the right market and using your knowledge to make a profit. Nothing wrong with that. That's what makes the economy work, people pay for other peoples knowledge ( except on this forum where it is available for free). The main problem for the UK is that people are tight b******s and don't want to spend any of their money. The UK has a money saving website that post daily deals which comes from the public posting their finds and I can tell you that when people post deals on Lego they usually nearly always get a load of responses from people saying it was (for example)

[Mos_Eisley]

I've sold quite a lot of retired LEGO sets to buyers in the UK at very high prices so I doubt that nobody over there is willing to pay a retirement premium.

[Alfiepops]

I've sold quite a lot of retired LEGO sets to buyers in the UK at very high prices so I doubt that nobody over there is willing to pay a retirement premium.

I'm not saying everyone won't pay the going rate. it's just locally you can see how so many people complain about deals not being good enough even though people have gone out of their way to post discounted deals. A lot of people are begrudging at deals if they were cheaper before. If they know it was cheaper in the past they won't  buy at current discounts. Obviously this doesn't apply to serious collectors who more than likely wouldn't even look at these sites. Some people have enough money that they couldn't care less for discounts. If they want it they buy it. Simple as that

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

I've sold quite a lot of retired LEGO sets to buyers in the UK at very high prices so I doubt that nobody over there is willing to pay a retirement premium.

 

Yeah tell that to Mark Reed - the guy who has close to 400 Crawlers now. I think he knows people will pay a premium over there.

[Anakinisvader]

Buy a time machine and buy 500x 10179s!

 

Uh, hello?  Time Machine is readily available at your local LEGO retailers.  Now to just get it to work.  McFly, McFly!!!!!!!

[Alfiepops]

Yeah tell that to Mark Reed - the guy who has close to 400 Crawlers now. I think he knows people will pay a premium over there.

LOL. UK the home of Technic. 

[emazers]

I still would rather have 400 haunted Houses than 400 Crawlers, which I will never have 400 Haunted House, but I will have 50-60 of them. with the double points I got 7 since Tuesday all $30-40 off.

[Mos_Eisley]

How are you getting them from the LEGO stores at $30-$40 off?

[fendiixx]

I invest in Lego as a side job/hobbie as i've always loved Lego. No intention to get rich from it but it's a nice way of turning

[exciter1]

How are you getting them from the LEGO stores at $30-$40 off?

 

He just said, double-points, so he's cashing in the points.

[TheOrcKing]

I still would rather have 400 haunted Houses than 400 Crawlers, which I will never have 400 Haunted House, but I will have 50-60 of them.

Awesome as the Haunted House is, I can't quite see it perform better than the Limited Edition Crawler even in the long run.

[Sauromosis]

Awesome as the Haunted House is, I can't quite see it perform better than the Limited Edition Crawler even in the long run.

 

I agree.  There's got to be a lot more than 10k Haunted Houses.

[justafrog]

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I can see where emazers is coming from - the Haunted House is a lot more appealing to a wider range of people than I think the Technic stuff in general and the Crawler in particular may be. Yes, there are more of them, but there may be a correspondingly greater interest in them down the road.

 

We should start betting pools on some of these and then pay each other in Brickpoints in a few years. 

[Sauromosis]

A side betting system automated by BP...sounds good. 

[TheOrcKing]

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I can see where emazers is coming from - the Haunted House is a lot more appealing to a wider range of people than I think the Technic stuff in general and the Crawler in particular may be. Yes, there are more of them, but there may be a correspondingly greater interest in them down the road.

 

We should start betting pools on some of these and then pay each other in Brickpoints in a few years. 

I do see both sides of the topic. I personally would buy a bunch of Haunted Houses to build and sell whereas the Limited Crawler only to sell really. I do like Technic; I'm just not a huge fan. (I'm so not mechanically inclined.) Even so, the theme of Technic continues to have heavy hitters and could have a larger fan base if Toys R Us (apparently) wasn't the only retailer carrying them in store aside from Lego's own outlets.

Either way, it really is a trade off, isn't it? Haunted House is so seasonally unique and an awesome house build with general availability while the Limited Edition Crawler is a special vehicle design under a great theme with a severly limited run.

[Mos_Eisley]

He just said, double-points, so he's cashing in the points.

Double points doesn't add up to $30-40 off each set.

[exciter1]

Double points doesn't add up to $30-40 off each set.

 

It does when you have a million points in the bank.

[@rtisan]

Double points doesn't add up to $30-40 off each set.

 

 

It does when you have a million points in the bank.

^Agree with this, but you don`t have to have a million. Just for example, I have $115 in points. I`ll assume US MSRP for this example. HH is $180. I buy my first one and use up $15 worth of points to do so. HH just cost me $165. Now I get $16 worth of points, bringing me back up to $116 in VIP. I now buy HH #2. I use $30 worth of points, cost is now $150, but I get $15 again, bringing me to ($86+ $15) $101. I just got $30 off, if you want to look at it that way, and still have $101 in points. Technically I`m only down $14 from when I started and already got significant discounts. Now I buy HH #3 and use $40 worth of points, cost is now $140 and I get $14 again bringing me to $75 in VIP points. I just repeat the process/modify it slightly.

 

 

It`s a really unique/clever way to use points. I could have bought 1 HH and used all $115 on the first one, then bought 5 full retail, then used all the points from that on #7 to provide another heavy discount. Technically the total amount of money should be the same. But it sounds and looks better to say that you`ve bought them $30-$40 off, which is true. Kudos goes out to those (and emazers) for using this tactic. Not difficult at all if you know how to crunch the numbers, and it can work out to very good deals.  

[kenchu2000]

I think double points is good only if you live in a State that doesn't have to pay sales tax, otherwise, the double points will only be good enough to offset the sales tax.  Of course, it's better than nothing.

[Mos_Eisley]

^Agree with this, but you don`t have to have a million. Just for example, I have $115 in points. I`ll assume US MSRP for this example. HH is $180. I buy my first one and use up $15 worth of points to do so. HH just cost me $165. Now I get $16 worth of points, bringing me back up to $116 in VIP. I now buy HH #2. I use $30 worth of points, cost is now $150, but I get $15 again, bringing me to ($86+ $15) $101. I just got $30 off, if you want to look at it that way, and still have $101 in points. Technically I`m only down $14 from when I started and already got significant discounts. Now I buy HH #3 and use $40 worth of points, cost is now $140 and I get $14 again bringing me to $75 in VIP points. I just repeat the process/modify it slightly.

 

 

It`s a really unique/clever way to use points. I could have bought 1 HH and used all $115 on the first one, then bought 5 full retail, then used all the points from that on #7 to provide another heavy discount. Technically the total amount of money should be the same. But it sounds and looks better to say that you`ve bought them $30-$40 off, which is true. Kudos goes out to those (and emazers) for using this tactic. Not difficult at all if you know how to crunch the numbers, and it can work out to very good deals.  

6 of one, half a dozen of another.  No matter how you want to look at the points, you're getting 10% back on money you had to spend.  If you want to account for all the discount on your current purchases and put none toward the purchases that originally earned you the $115 in points, that's up to you.  But the bottom line is that you aren't really getting $30-$40 off each set because those points cost you money to get in the first place.