Ed Mack Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 As someone with the most knowledge about the number of members, brickfolio values and other data on this site along with access to very helpful eBay data I would love to hear if/how you plan to change your investment strategy for the future. Will you slow down your purchases and limit your investments? Maybe you already have? I don't expect you to give away your entire strategy or anything but just a general idea of how you are personally moving forward would be very interesting. Also I would just ignore anyone who thinks this site ruined LEGO reselling. If you guys didn't do it others would have anyway. I would rather have this site in your hands than someone else's. You guys have always been fair and helpful. Like many others I may have done LEGO investing without this site anyway but having it has been an invaluable tool which has benefited me beyond what I could have accomplished on my own. I am still bullish, as indicated by my wife yelling at me this morning about my Target.com charges from last month's super sale. I invest long term, so the daily gyrations of the site's members and prices don't really bother me much. I see a very consistent and steady trend to the upside, with solid gains year over year, similar to The LEGO Group's own numbers. More sellers? YES. More buyers? YES. Are they in proportion? DON'T KNOW. Can profits still be made in LEGO investing? YES...if you are smart and put in some work. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justafrog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 The people who don't mind making $5 here and there on their investment wont care and will keep going thinking that everything is great. I know a lot of people who would easily keep doing this making very small margins. It's those that can no longer make 50% or more on their return that will leave and move on to something else. In any case I am somewhere in between. I will keep investing until it just isn't worth the time involved anymore. Of course everyone's time is valued differently and those with careers, children, etc may have a harder time justifying the time to profit ratio than others. Which is the smart thing for them to do. If I couldn't make the profit margin I wanted in what I was selling, I'd figure out what I had to do differently to meet my goals, and that might include moving on to other widgets, other markets, etc. Shouting at the rising tide that its ruining my sandcastle isn't an effective business strategy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_cotta Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Would this be an appropriate time to shift some of the blame to the Chinese counterfeiters? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biniou Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 $1 billion dollars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legodog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 My takeaway from this thread and a few others is that those people are the worst and need to be burned at the stake for ruining the once lucrative Lego market. A little extreme perhaps? The issue is if you are working a minimum wage job and can make $5 here and there selling LEGO that seems great. If you are making $50/hour it doesn't seem so great. Everyone is going to have their cutoff where the work/time involved no longer makes it worth investing. For some this day may have already come or will come in the next year. For some others this day may never come. That is why I think it is silly to thing new investors will eventually leave. Some will and some wont I guess. I am still bullish, as indicated by my wife yelling at me this morning about my Target.com charges from last month's super sale. I invest long term, so the daily gyrations of the site's members and prices don't really bother me much. I see a very consistent and steady trend to the upside, with solid gains year over year, similar to The LEGO Group's own numbers. More sellers? YES. More buyers? YES. Can profits still be made in LEGO investing? YES. Thank you for responding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Raichu Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Don't worry. I am now selling hats made of the finest aluminum pan lids for all your head-protection needs! (That, by the way, for those paying attention, is a lesson in how to react to changing market needs. You're welcome. ) Sold 400 of those by selling them $.50 cheaper than you.. profit maybe slim but I do not do math... HA!!! :) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migration Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Would this be an appropriate time to shift some of the blame to the Chinese counterfeiters? One super villain per thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legodog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 How can we blame the large number of new resellers when we make the LEGO investing party look like so much fun with a giant pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If I was on the outside looking in I would want to join the party too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Mack Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 How can we blame the large number of new resellers when we make the LEGO investing party look like so much fun with a giant pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If I was on the outside looking in I would want to join the party too. Well I can tell you that LEGO investing is not all roses. I have two huge rooms and then some filled with 20 or more shelf systems to store my collection. It is not a pretty site and many people do not have this luxury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenbart Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 I don't know if I've said this before, but I will say it anyway. Having lots of availability is not a bad thing for collectors and therefore sellers, if they know they can be collected they will collect. Some collectable markets die due to items being hard to find and the consumer simply doesn't bother, you have to look for the upsides. My strategy was to collect as much as I can last year, this year I will probably spend 50% less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legodog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Well I can tell you that LEGO investing is not all roses. I have two huge rooms and then some filled with 20 or more shelf systems to store my collection. It is not a pretty site and many people do not have this luxury. Mine has just recently overflowed out of the spare bedroom. Now I am using my office where it looks like my desk is being swallowed by hundreds of LEGO sets. My wife is very understanding but I think I am about to cross some line where she will be a lot less so. I attached a photo. So maybe it isn't so bad.... yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No More Monkeys Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 How can we blame the large number of new resellers when we make the LEGO investing party look like so much fun with a giant pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If I was on the outside looking in I would want to join the party too. They should promote the complaint thread on front page of the site. The banner for Daily Thread must be replaced with a banner leading to Complain Thread and/or the Fruitcakes thread. Also, the ticker should include only the sets with negative changes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naf Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Look at the stock market. It jumps up and down daily, sometimes from one extreme to the other. But if you look at the market for, lets say, the past 100 years, it's done nothing but go up on average. I think people are looking to offload their sets and double their money 6 months after retirement, since I see lots of "why isn't this set or that set appreciating" threads. The general rule of thumb is to wait 1-2 years. Perhaps now you need to wait 3-4. Maybe even longer. The "too many sellers" issue might be affecting the short game, but those who are willing to wait will be rewarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoltzjl77 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Living this market since 1999 is all the data I need to see a downturn. Not just a slow and steady downturn but a large downturn. Markets don't just "mysteriously" change. There are reasons. Being in this market only a few years doesn't give the whole picture. I appreciate all the newbies trying to chime in with their "experience" but secondary collectible markets are a whole different monster when compared to a retail market. I'm not worried about myself. I'll look back in a few years and say "wow, where did 90% of the newbies go"? I don't blame Brickpicker for this. This site is only gasoline. Its the multiple newbies that are the matches. Sooner or later one will strike Maybe it's me! Better watch out. I have it on good authority that before you came along in 1999, the market supported 1000% returns! And now look what happened! Aaaaaaggggghhhhh! Look, I understand your frustration. I can see the market has changed (for the worse) in just the past 12 months, I don't disagree with that. It is way harder to find reasonably priced bulk lots now than it was this time last year. I get it. But the data show the pie is getting bigger, too. Sellers who don't know what they are doing will weed themselves out. So yeah, I hope I'm not part of that 90% you're hoping will lose their shirts and walk away naked. I still think we're fine as long as LEGO doesn't pull a Ty on us. And they *seemed* to have learned that lesson in the mid 2000's. So I'm going to support BP and use it to make smart investments, stick to my strategy, adjust and adapt as necessary, and not worry about all the things I can't control. In the end, if I have to walk away I'll be left with a bigger LEGO collection than I had when I started, and that's not a bad thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No More Monkeys Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Mine has just recently overflowed out of the spare bedroom. Now I am using my office where it looks like my desk is being swallowed by hundreds of LEGO sets. My wife is very understanding but I think I am about to cross some line where she will be a lot less so. Anyone considered digging kinda underground bunker for storing lego in one's yard? Obviously assumes making digging a hobby (but, hey, it is an exercise as well!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcortez Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Now there's a use for those discounted Mega blocks -- build a LEGO storage bunker out of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labfreak7 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 To be honest, I am a "new seller" to this. I have had some success selling Lego in the past, and when the opportunity arose for me to buy some good sets at 50% off, I took it. Seeing how long you have to wait for such little return, I can honestly say this will be a short lived venture for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young_Gun21 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Now there's a use for those discounted Mega blocks -- build a LEGO storage bunker out of them!No, it would fall apart and break and then you would lose your collection. Never trust Mega Bloks with the protection of your LEGOs -I don't always go shopping, but when I do I buy Lego- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustybeaver Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Mine has just recently overflowed out of the spare bedroom. Now I am using my office where it looks like my desk is being swallowed by hundreds of LEGO sets. My wife is very understanding but I think I am about to cross some line where she will be a lot less so. I attached a photo. So maybe it isn't so bad.... yet! You have a very understanding wife! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young_Gun21 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Mine has just recently overflowed out of the spare bedroom. Now I am using my office where it looks like my desk is being swallowed by hundreds of LEGO sets. My wife is very understanding but I think I am about to cross some line where she will be a lot less so. I attached a photo. So maybe it isn't so bad.... yet! Organize it all and it will look great. I think it's more of you have everything spread out. -I don't always go shopping, but when I do I buy Lego- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naf Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Mine has just recently overflowed out of the spare bedroom. Now I am using my office where it looks like my desk is being swallowed by hundreds of LEGO sets. My wife is very understanding but I think I am about to cross some line where she will be a lot less so. I attached a photo. So maybe it isn't so bad.... yet! Those bookshelves look empty, you have plenty of storage space! Honestly storage is the biggest issue for me, and is preventing me from investing much further until I figure something out. With 3 kids I don't have the luxury of a spare bedroom. I put shelves up in my workshop in the basement, but they're at capacity and I've actually started storing some of my sets stacked up in our bedroom - that's not going to fly much longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legodog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Organize it all and it will look great. I think it's more of you have everything spread out. -I don't always go shopping, but when I do I buy Lego- I keep it really organized in the LEGO room. This is just overflow that hasn't been entered in to BP yet. http://youtu.be/o74jo3UpQ1s 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young_Gun21 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 I keep it really organized in the LEGO room. This is just overflow that hasn't been entered in to BP yet. Nice LEGO room. I was thinking you more organized then the first picture showed. How long have been in LEGOs -I don't always go shopping, but when I do I buy Lego- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Raichu Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 ^^ I had to triple check to make sure I did not accidentally open the storage room thread. Enough with the discussion on storage. Lets continue talking about my thriving tin foil hat business and how much mrs frog hates it :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justafrog Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 ^^ I had to triple check to make sure I did not accidentally open the storage room thread. Enough with the discussion on storage. Lets continue talking about my thriving tin foil hat business and how much mrs frog hates it Please. Tin hats are so two hours ago. I've moved on to selling prozac on the beach to everyone who can't get over the good old days. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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