10211 Grand Emporium & 10197 Fire Brigade Not Retired Yet

[Rich B]

I know there has been a lot of speculation lately about 10211 possibly being retired after it has shown up sold out on LEGO Shop at Home and some other sites. For what it's worth I was just on the phone with LEGO Shop at Home ordering some train tracks and I asked the Lego sales associate if they were getting in more GE's and he told me that yes they would be getting in another shipment before the holidays (he did not know exact date) and it was not getting retired anytime soon to his knowledge. I also asked about the FB and he said that it was also not going to be retired anytime soon and would still be available for 2013. It seems that after the first 3 Modulars CC, MS, and GG Lego has realized and caught on to just how good these modulars do when it comes to sales and are keeping them on the shelves as long as possible in order to increase profits (I don't blame them I would do the same). However this is killing us investors that have a multiple FB's and GE's stashed away (I am guilty of this). This is just another reminder of why it is very important to diversify when it comes to Lego investing because for all we know the FB and GE both may be on the shelves for many years to come. Believe me, I hope the sales associate I spoke to is wrong but I guess only time will tell.

[Ed Mack]

I know there has been a lot of speculation lately about 10211 possibly being retired after it has shown up sold out on S@H and some other sites. For what it's worth I was just on the phone with S@H ordering some train tracks and I asked the Lego sales associate if they were getting in more GE's and he told me that yes they would be getting in another shipment before the holidays (he did not know exact date) and it was not getting retired anytime soon to his knowledge. I also asked about the FB and he said that it was also not going to be retired anytime soon and would still be available for 2013.

It seems that after the first 3 Modulars CC, MS, and GG Lego has realized and caught on to just how good these modulars do when it comes to sales and are keeping them on the shelves as long as possible in order to increase profits (I don't blame them I would do the same). However this is killing us investors that have a multiple FB's and GE's stashed away (I am guilty of this). This is just another reminder of why it is very important to diversify when it comes to Lego investing because for all we know the FB and GE both may be on the shelves for many years to come. Believe me, I hope the sales associate I spoke to is wrong but I guess only time will tell.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Grand Emporium is still an active set on S @ H. It was in the new LEGO catalog, so I was assuming it would still be available for awhile. LEGO investing should be viewed with more of a long term time frame. Making money in LEGO investing while a set is not EOL, close to EOL or even shortly after EOL is rare. Most sets take a year or two after EOL to see decent gains...if you are lucky.

[bibious]

I posted on the the other thread about my phone call with lego about the GE. quick summary from the lady on the phone: No more GE's in the warehouse and not expecting anymore stock of it. She suggested for me to try one of their retail partners like Walmart and Target. She even told me to be careful otherwise the set will get real expensive once they are sold out everywhere else. On Saturday I was in a physical Lego store buying my B-Wing. I asked the associate about the GE as I saw a few on the shelf and mentioned how they were Sold out online. He said they had a few more but they are soon to be retired. He actually said both the FB and GE are on their last legs and soon to be retired and even though the FB came out first whatever one sells out first will be the first to go. Conflicting stories against what you heard but I feel pretty confident that hte GE and FB are on their last legs; I think they were just over produced compred to the Cafe Corner/Market Street and Grocer thus might have a few more months of retail life left. Ed makes a good point though the Catalog listing threw me for a loop; maybe another to Lego is a good idea to try to order one since its in the catalog but sold out online.

[Lateral-G]

So, if they are so good for sales why not re-issue the older sets? It wouldn't be that hard.....

[Ed Mack]

I posted on the the other thread about my phone call with lego about the GE.

quick summary from the lady on the phone: No more GE's in the warehouse and not expecting anymore stock of it. She suggested for me to try one of their retail partners like Walmart and Target. She even told me to be careful otherwise the set will get real expensive once they are sold out everywhere else.

On Saturday I was in a physical Lego store buying my B-Wing. I asked the associate about the GE as I saw a few on the shelf and mentioned how they were Sold out online. He said they had a few more but they are soon to be retired. He actually said both the FB and GE are on their last legs and soon to be retired and even though the FB came out first whatever one sells out first will be the first to go.

Conflicting stories against what you heard but I feel pretty confident that hte GE and FB are on their last legs; I think they were just over produced compred to the Cafe Corner/Market Street and Grocer thus might have a few more months of retail life left.

Ed makes a good point though the Catalog listing threw me for a loop; maybe another to Lego is a good idea to try to order one since its in the catalog but sold out online.

There is no doubt that the Fire Brigade(which is not in the new LEGO catalog) and the Grand Emporium are on the road to retirement. It could be this week or next month, but it will be soon. I have my doubts about this set lasting past XMAS.

[Rich B]

My fingers are crossed that this is the case Ed :)

[Ed Mack]

My fingers are crossed that this is the case Ed

LEGO is the master of deception with the EOL. Sets can go "sold out" and a month later, whammo, back in stock. Smart business practice. It causes potential buyers to go out and buy the sets before it is too late, even though there is no rush in reality.

[stephen_rockefeller]

I am 97% convinced that the the employees that work in the stores and the ones that answer the phones for S@H are just making stuff up as they go! I think they just want to sound like they know what they are talking about. They had me fooled for the longest time, now I pay no attention to what they say and really don't even ask them these types of questions. You could ask 20 diff employees the same question and get 20 diff answers.

[Ed Mack]

I am 97% convinced that the the employees that work in the stores and the ones that answer the phones for S@H are just making stuff up as they go! I think they just want to sound like they know what they are talking about. They had me fooled for the longest time, now I pay no attention to what they say and really don't even ask them these types of questions. You could ask 20 diff employees the same question and get 20 diff answers.

Yes, most employees have no idea. They make stuff up to feel important.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Making money in LEGO investing while a set is not EOL, close to EOL or even shortly after EOL is rare.fangpyre mech FTW lol

[stephen_rockefeller]

LEGO is the master of deception with the EOL. Sets can go "sold out" and a month later, whammo, back in stock. Smart business practice. It causes potential buyers to go out and buy the sets before it is too late, even though there is no rush in reality.conspiracy theory alert..........what if they are not really sold out online at all, and TLG is just playing us like a violin??? Lol

[Rich B]

LEGO is the master of deception with the EOL. Sets can go "sold out" and a month later, whammo, back in stock. Smart business practice. It causes potential buyers to go out and buy the sets before it is too late, even though there is no rush in reality.conspiracy theory alert..........what if they are not really sold out online at all, and TLG is just playing us like a violin??? Lol

Haha exactly, for all we know Lego could have a production team dedicated to solely producing more Fire Brigades, Death Stars, and MMV's, knowing that investors will keep buying them even though the market is flooded with them.......and in the end Lego wins ;)

[sgoldham]

Pretty good marketing strategy if you think about it.

[Ed Mack]

LEGO is the master of deception with the EOL. Sets can go "sold out" and a month later, whammo, back in stock. Smart business practice. It causes potential buyers to go out and buy the sets before it is too late, even though there is no rush in reality.conspiracy theory alert..........what if they are not really sold out online at all, and TLG is just playing us like a violin??? LolI don't know if it is a conspiracy, but I do know that LEGO manipulates its S @ H. If it is not manipulation, then it is just inaccurate. I have seen "sold out" sets come back into stock. Why not just say "out of stock"? The majority of LEGO sales are to children who don't give a crap about EOL, but I do think LEGO cares about the adult collector and likes to play around with listing terms that could generate sales.

[bnb123]

I know there has been a lot of speculation lately about 10211 possibly being retired after it has shown up sold out on LEGO Shop at Home and some other sites. For what it's worth I was just on the phone with LEGO Shop at Home ordering some train tracks and I asked the Lego sales associate if they were getting in more GE's and he told me that yes they would be getting in another shipment before the holidays (he did not know exact date) and it was not getting retired anytime soon to his knowledge. I also asked about the FB and he said that it was also not going to be retired anytime soon and would still be available for 2013.

It seems that after the first 3 Modulars CC, MS, and GG Lego has realized and caught on to just how good these modulars do when it comes to sales and are keeping them on the shelves as long as possible in order to increase profits (I don't blame them I would do the same). However this is killing us investors that have a multiple FB's and GE's stashed away (I am guilty of this). This is just another reminder of why it is very important to diversify when it comes to Lego investing because for all we know the FB and GE both may be on the shelves for many years to come. Believe me, I hope the sales associate I spoke to is wrong but I guess only time will tell.

Yes, Diversify is key, but also another reason is to KEEP GOOD INVESTMENT INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!

People searching for FREE or Easy Money will never stop, this is a given.

Sites like this and the hundreds of others (new ones cropping up each day) continue to make, what used to be hard to come by free investing information, as easy as a click of a mouse.

Therefore everybody and their brother invests in hundreds of "Sure things" and then the "Sure thing" turns into a profit monster for LEGO. This leads to the delay of discontinuation or the discontinue never comes such as the Death Star debacle.

The only people truly going to profit from LEGO investing are the people that yes Diversify and do their investment research the old fashion way (not always relying on these websites) and of course all the people that own websites, such as this, that are earning profits every single time you click through one of their links to go drop a quick hundo or two on LEGO.

And I almost forgot The biggest winners of LEGO investing..... The LEGO Group.

(this reply is not intended to downplay the value of this or any other LEGO website. Brickpicker provides many beneficial LEGO collector resources such as a huge database, collector knowledge and storage services. The above reply's purpose was to illustrate points of the importance of diversification and how the sharing of information can negatively effect your investments.)

[Ed Mack]

Yes, Diversify is key, but also another reason is to KEEP GOOD INVESTMENT INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!

People searching for FREE or Easy Money will never stop, this is a given.

Sites like this and the hundreds of others (new ones cropping up each day) continue to make, what used to be hard to come by free investing information, as easy as a click of a mouse.

Therefore everybody and their brother invests in hundreds of "Sure things" and then the "Sure thing" turns into a profit monster for LEGO. This leads to the delay of discontinuation or the discontinue never comes such as the Death Star debacle.

The only people truly going to profit from LEGO investing are the people that yes Diversify and do their investment research the old fashion way (not always relying on these websites) and of course all the people that own websites, such as this, that are earning profits every single time you click through one of their links to go drop a quick hundo or two on LEGO.

And I almost forgot The biggest winners of LEGO investing..... The LEGO Group.

The old fashioned way? Do tell...Sites like this one costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. Please forgive us if we make some money from affiliate plans to pay for the EBAY Terapeak data, servers, advertising and the thousands of hours that were put into the site. By the way, this valuable data is FREE to members.

There are quite of few people that I know that do quite well investing and reselling LEGO sets and bulk. I'm sorry if this site is letting the cat out of the proverbial bag for the old school LEGO investor that wants to keep all this secret, but the days of keeping information to yourself is over.

[bnb123]

Yes, Diversify is key, but also another reason is to KEEP GOOD INVESTMENT INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!

People searching for FREE or Easy Money will never stop, this is a given.

Sites like this and the hundreds of others (new ones cropping up each day) continue to make, what used to be hard to come by free investing information, as easy as a click of a mouse.

Therefore everybody and their brother invests in hundreds of "Sure things" and then the "Sure thing" turns into a profit monster for LEGO. This leads to the delay of discontinuation or the discontinue never comes such as the Death Star debacle.

The only people truly going to profit from LEGO investing are the people that yes Diversify and do their investment research the old fashion way (not always relying on these websites) and of course all the people that own websites, such as this, that are earning profits every single time you click through one of their links to go drop a quick hundo or two on LEGO.

And I almost forgot The biggest winners of LEGO investing..... The LEGO Group.

The old fashioned way? Do tell...Sites like this one costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. Please forgive us if we make some money from affiliate plans to pay for the EBAY Terapeak data, servers, advertising and the thousands of hours that were put into the site. By the way, this valuable data is FREE to members.

There are quite of few people that I know that do quite well investing and reselling LEGO sets and bulk. I'm sorry if this site is letting the cat out of the proverbial bag for the old school LEGO investor that wants to keep all this secret, but the days of keeping information to yourself is over.

Ed, Let me apologize for the lack of addition to my last post. As you were posting this I was typing this: to add to my last post

"(this reply is not intended to downplay the value of this or any other LEGO website. Brickpicker provides many beneficial LEGO collector resources such as a huge database, collector knowledge and storage services. The above reply

[Ed Mack]

Yes, Diversify is key, but also another reason is to KEEP GOOD INVESTMENT INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!

People searching for FREE or Easy Money will never stop, this is a given.

Sites like this and the hundreds of others (new ones cropping up each day) continue to make, what used to be hard to come by free investing information, as easy as a click of a mouse.

Therefore everybody and their brother invests in hundreds of "Sure things" and then the "Sure thing" turns into a profit monster for LEGO. This leads to the delay of discontinuation or the discontinue never comes such as the Death Star debacle.

The only people truly going to profit from LEGO investing are the people that yes Diversify and do their investment research the old fashion way (not always relying on these websites) and of course all the people that own websites, such as this, that are earning profits every single time you click through one of their links to go drop a quick hundo or two on LEGO.

And I almost forgot The biggest winners of LEGO investing..... The LEGO Group.

The old fashioned way? Do tell...Sites like this one costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. Please forgive us if we make some money from affiliate plans to pay for the EBAY Terapeak data, servers, advertising and the thousands of hours that were put into the site. By the way, this valuable data is FREE to members.

There are quite of few people that I know that do quite well investing and reselling LEGO sets and bulk. I'm sorry if this site is letting the cat out of the proverbial bag for the old school LEGO investor that wants to keep all this secret, but the days of keeping information to yourself is over.

Ed, Let me apologize for the lack of addition to my last post. As you were posting this I was typing this: to add to my last post

"(this reply is not intended to downplay the value of this or any other LEGO website. Brickpicker provides many beneficial LEGO collector resources such as a huge database, collector knowledge and storage services. The above reply

[CelesAurivern]

Thanks for your reply. I know there is a faction of LEGO fans and investors that dislike what we do. Either they hate the promotion of LEGO investing or hate the idea of resellers and making money from selling LEGO sets. They find it tacky and think it will ruin their little secret.

It's no secret, really. Buy low, sell high, scalp rare EOL sets. Tons of people on ebay are doing it.

I think it's good that your site promotes what you promote. More people entering the market means prices will eventually come down as there are now more potential suppliers hoarding MISBs.

[Ed Mack]

It's no secret, really. Buy low, sell high, scalp rare EOL sets. Tons of people on ebay are doing it.

I think it's good that your site promotes what you promote. More people entering the market means prices will eventually come down as there are now more potential suppliers hoarding MISBs.

Believe me, LEGO investing is still a secret to most of the buying public. We haven't seen the real "bubble" yet. When more and more people realize they can make money from LEGO sets, there will be an explosion of new members. The one good thing is LEGO does not overproduce sets, so hopefully demand will go up with the amount of people interested.

As for these "purists" as Jeff and I like to call them, they are alive and well in the LEGO world. They just don't like people "pimping" and profiting off of LEGO sets. They fail to realize a site like this promotes paying proper prices for LEGO sets and not overpaying for them. We advertise deals and sales. Hopefully, with time, we will convert these LEGO "socialists" into LEGO "capitalists."

[Veegs]

As a relative new forum member, what is the longest period of time a set was 'sold out' on LEGO Shop at Home and then returned? Just to be safe, I grabbed a couple Emporiums, but I'm curious how long of a gap they leave in this manipulative technique.

[Rich B]

As a relative new forum member, what is the longest period of time a set was 'sold out' on LEGO Shop at Home and then returned?

Just to be safe, I grabbed a couple Emporiums, but I'm curious how long of a gap they leave in this manipulative technique.

Not sure what the longest 'sold out' period is but 10211's status on LEGO Shop at Home has been changed from 'sold out' to 'out of stock expected ship date dec 7th'. So who knows what's going on with this set......

[Ed Mack]

Not sure what the longest 'sold out' period is but 10211's status on S@H has been changed from 'sold out' to 'out of stock expected ship date dec 7th'. So who knows what's going on with this set......

It always seems these sets near EOL go in and out of stock more frequently than the usual set. This set is back in stock on Dec 7th, so it might be out of stock two weeks later and so on. This kind of action happens quite a bit with sets near retirement.

[Brickmythic]

I don't know if it is a conspiracy, but I do know that LEGO manipulates its S @ ****. If it is not manipulation, then it is just inaccurate. I have seen "sold out" sets come back into stock. Why not just say "out of stock"? The majority of LEGO sales are to children who don't give a crap about EOL, but I do think LEGO cares about the adult collector and likes to play around with listing terms that could generate sales.

I've been in the business several years and I can absolutely agree with you, Ed.

Its also a way to generate sales in Brick and Mortar locations imo.

Sets like GE and Lloyd and Kai's Blade Cycle etc... are not on Lego shop @ home to generate B&M sales of obvious hot x-mas legos.

[Spartikis]

Wal Mart and several other large distributers are sold out, my guess is LEGO is just stocking up for a a last holiday run. They did the exact same thing with the Imperial Flagship and Emerald night last year.