Leaderboard

I came across 2 good articles today for both buying and selling items, like Lego. http://lifehacker.com/sometimes-its-better-to-ignore-auctions-when-selling-1136561610 http://lifehacker.com/learn-the-secret-price-codes-for-staples-to-grab-the-bi-1124057490 The first one has some interesting aspects of the 'buy now' option and how it can both hurt and help your sales. The second article has a chart of the markdown and clearance codes for Target and some other larger chains. They just took the chart off, and they replaced it with a neater list of codes. Here is the chart, if you want to see it: http://lifehacker.com/know-the-secret-price-codes-at-major-retailers-to-save-921445013

I think the Minecraft sets are ugly little things, but that doesn't mean I won't flip the shiz out of 'em.

This is such a fantastic site with so much useful data and so many knowledgeable members, I've been exploiting it's merits for over a year already and feel that I really should get more involved with sharing and discussion. Nothing too long winded in this introduction suffice to say I'm in the UK, I loved Lego in the 80's, I love it even more now, my collection is just about under control although the wife may disagree. I had some great success with my fair share of Harry Potter castles and POTC ships last year and some epic fails with Ninjago, Spongebob and Cars II sets, it's all part of the game though and I find it as addictive and enjoyable as ever. So that's me, really must thank Ed and Jeff for their sterling efforts and to every member who's posts I've learned and earned from. Looking forward to playing my part...... Stu.

I was out running errands and stopped into one of our cities many thrift stores yesterday and in the toy section I saw 5 big bags of Lego sitting there. I have found some Lego recently but nothing like this. So for a grand total of 27.32(give or take a few pennies) I walked out with what is at least 30-35 pounds of the good stuff. I was absolutely stoked! I could tell right off the bat that there was plenty of star wars as well as one bag that had been specifically sorted to have town pieces in it. This is going to take me a while to sift through but based on the minifigs I have found thus far and certain unique parts I have thus far determined that the following sets, or remnants of the following sets are included in this lot: Star Wars: Set 7676, Republic Gunship Set 7666, Hoth Rebel Base Set 6211, Imperial Star Destroyer Set 6665, Republic Cruiser Set 7670, Hailfire and Spider Droid Set 7669, Anakin's Star Fighter Toy Story: Lego 7579, Army Men on Patrol Lego 7596, Trash Compacter Escape SpongeBob: Lego 4981, Chum Bucket Lego 3830, Bikini Bottom Express Town: Lego 4031, Floating Boats Fire Rescue Lego 7206, Fire Helicopter Lego 4011, Cabin Cruiser Lego 6395, Victory Lap Raceway I am sure there is more sets to be identified but for the time being I am already overwhelmed. Not sure how I am going to approach this lot yet because I already have 4 more lots that still need to be sorted including some classic space stuff. The work is piling up but I couldn't be happier about it! Here are some pics Untitled by roadrunner1633, on Flickr Untitled by roadrunner1633, on Flickr Untitled by roadrunner1633, on Flickr Untitled by roadrunner1633, on Flickr

Tell me about it. I used to sell in my country's eBay equivalent (they actually had an official partnership for a while) and most of the time I was required to meet with most of the buyers. Considering my country is very dangerous doing business was extremely difficult to say the least. Thank goodness things over here work a lot better. Just to echo what emes said, bundling the shipping costs in your price and offering "free" shipping is the best way to go. Plus, it removes the ability of the buyer to leave a less than perfect DSR on shipping charges. Limits on shipping? eBay can do whatever they please. I have no problem either way, it comes down to buyers paying attention to what it is they are actually buying.

One thing to consider is how many sets have come out recently and been added to the list of Star Wars. A whole lot of zeros will bring down the average of anything considerably. There also have been a handful of duds (even exclusives) which haven't really been worth diddly for a while. I'm seeing across the board of themes and their values many have gone down with a select few going up. The Star Wars theme has a humongous list of sets contributing to its overall CAGR; it's bound to take a hit when anything new comes along.

So eBay punishes all for the actions of a very small minority? If something is going to cost me

eBay facilitates the transaction, and charges the final value fee on the full value of the transaction. Why would there be anything legal that requires the middleman to only charge for a portion of the value of the full transaction? When this change was made, it was primarily because of people charging $1 for an item and $100 for shipping, thereby largely circumventing eBay fees. Think what you will about eBay and fees, but eBay is a for profit business and they are entitled to charge whatever fee they want for their services. They have shareholders that want a return on their investment. If the buyer picks an item up, then shipping would have been zero, therefore the final value fee on shipping in that case would be $0. We never offer ocal pickup because it's too much trouble, but fvfs are one of the reasons that for every listing we make, shipping costs are bundled into the item price and we offer "free shipping". There are a couple of other reasons as well. My advice to everyone is that you really need to take a look at things and start offering "free shipping". It's way better from a seller perspective.

Idea: I think a Craigslist specific section could be added to Buying and Selling, similar to the Target, Walmart, etc, ones. I did not read all 44 pages to see if this has already been discussed, but throwing it out there. :-)

Amazon currently has the Batcave for $56.06. That's a pretty good deal if you aren't able to find one at Walmart for $49 on clearance. Just picked up two of them,

I'm not trying to back the guy up, as it is a bit excessive. But it is a total cost (Item + Shipping). He would have a better shot at selling it for 2900, and free shipping. I have sold a few smaller items for around $5 and $5 shipping, and I get people saying that they would buy it if I wave the shipping. When making a purchase on eBay, always check the total cost.

But it and tell them you will pick up locally. He would crap his pants knowing he took a huge loss. Edit: Damn, Ninja'd by Ed.

Yes, all fine now, thanks. Being a web software engineer myself, I appreciate how much time/effort you guys put into this site - by any metric, this is a grade A+ site. Now that I'm done stroking egos, time to plan my buy/sell/hold activities for the weekend...

Kinda reminds me of the "TRU prices are too high so I don't like it" threads. The difference here is someone is upset that someone can LEGALLY sell something cheaper than most people can. Does it drive the price down, yes but it's legal...it's not immoral...you can do it too...

There are many other things that affect the price charts, people take the minifigs out of a set but it gets picked up as a sold listing for a NEW item, or when someone makes a listing for $0.99 but charges $30+ shipping. I think as long as you realize that its just a rough estimate of the value youre fine.

Here is the picture just in case it gets deleted.

Eight used Indy Jones sets for $150, one used Batman 1 Batwing for $25 (w no Batman fig). All re missing a few pieces, but nothing major.

My son is addicted to these reality t.v. shows where cameras follow the participants around 24/7 and we are treated to not only video clips of certain events but also video clips of the participants narrating and discussing said events. I guess that is why Im wishing we had video of you making this find. I find myself wanting to know things like (1) did you play it cool ("yeah I've been here before .... No biggie")? (2) were any soccer moms and/or children knocked over as you dove for the set? (3) were any cartwheels turned, and, if so, how many? And I also want to have the entire scene narrated by the 17-year-old part-time Target employee who happened to be in the vicinity of "the find." I need to know his thoughts and feelings about this event .... Oh well, I guess until Brickpicker becomes a reality t.v. show, I will have to settle for your thumbs up emoticon and I will have to congratulate you here on the forums, instead of in a video snippet. So, CONGATS! Awesome score!

I am posting this as I been getting alot of E-mail from people saying they really screwed up by buying hundreds of the small cheap sets, instead of getting the Big and exclusive sets. Now I guess Everybody on here would get as many old Exclusives as they could afford at the regular Retail price right now if that had a chance. Like the Remote AT-AT, Imperial Flagship, Carousel, Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Dubai, Statue Of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Imperial Shuttle,Diagon Alley, 10195 SW Dropship, SW 8129 AT AT and there are more, but the point of this is so most screwed up and missed the Train on Most of these. So I am telling you that you don't have to screw up this time. Everybody wants the Haunted House, Tower Bridge on one of Amazon's Flash sale, well if you are on the computer at that time and you get 2 thats great, but its only 2, and that goes for all the other exclusives we are all hoping for a flash sale,But don't hold your breath.Thats why buying some of these exclusives at retail for me is still a deal, But it looks to me if most of you who can't save 30% or more on the sets you won't buy it. And the ones that said that on the older exclusives I listed should be pissed off at thereself for not buy at retail. If you would of just bought 5 of each you would of cleaned up. Well its going to be the same situation on the exclusives out now. I am 64 years old and spent about 24 grand on Lego last year, and looks like this year will be at or more, because in about 5-6 years I should have hundreds of thousands of Lego ready for selling, So $179 haunted house from 2014 sold for $500 and up in 2019 and I have 49 left, thats why if you have to pay full retail do it, get those HH, TB, Batman Arkham, Death Star, SSDS, Fire Brigade,GE, Town hall, Pet Shop, Ewok Village, ETC.So After I make a few hundred grand I will most likely be done selling Lego, I think I no what I am doing on selling lego I have made lots of money selling them, so much I paid Cash for a new car in 2004 and another brand new car in 2008 in cash.I will be investing 90% of my Money on the Lego sets that I think will do good,"AND THERE ALWAYS BE EXCLUSIVES,AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE PEOPLE THAT WILL BE BUYING AND PAYING BIG BUCKS FOR THE RIGHT SETS." But for you new investors who want to make serious money you have to spend money not $50 or $500 I mean thousands to get started, and the hard part after you spend thousands you have to way a few years. And for you guys riding around all day looking for cheap sales well good luck, but the big money is not going to be made doing that, now if you are making money flipping and buying the big and exclusive sets well thats great. Ed

Time for another episode of Animeme.

That's odd, the final duel on the Death Star kept interrupting the Ewok battle

Very nice! Thanks for those. Here's one I currently love. Not strictly a Brickfilm but based on the Lego video games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSUK4WgQ3vk

R2-D2. That is all.

Wonderful. When will the growth stop? They have been out for half a month almost and seen 150% growth. Wanna know what the CAGR for that is? 3600% CAGR! If it keeps this up, it will be worth $12,093,235,200 in August of 2018!!!

I don't think prices will dip. Let's say that they'll send the last 1000 to the stores, IIRC there were a bit over 100 stores in the US, that makes 10 units/store at most, that won't make too much of a difference IMHO. Maybe a couple of quick flippers but I think most of these buyers will hold on to them for a while. On a side note, I can't help but laugh when I write or read 'flipper'. My mind instantly goes to ---->

Earlier today I just did the Yoyo 20% deal and got some new SW sets; one 75021 Gunship, one 75019 AT-TE and one 75017 Dual on Geonosis. I maximized the discount (which caps at $50) by ordering exactly $250 worth of sets. Made my total exactly $200 before tax. With tax $218 and free shipping. Yesterday (and I know most of you will chastise me for this but I just couldn't resist!) I bought the 10192 Factory Space Skulls set NIB shipped for $41.50 off eBay. I'm still not quite sure why I bought it? It will most likely never increase in value, and I really have no interest in building it. I guess part of me did it because the PPP is just over 4 cents. But I think the other part of me did it just to appease my crazy collector side. I think I just now realized that I am turning into a real deal collector, and I buy things like this only because they're rare and quirky, not necessarily valuable. -PB

Once you have them sorted using the advice given above, then I sort them into sets using the parts list off peeron. I actually print off the lists so I can check them off as I go. (You can use the list in the booklets too, but can't mark in them then). This is a lot quicker than trying to build the sets from the sorted piles and allows you to already have a list of missing pieces to then order from brick link. This part can be tedious, but if you love building Lego as I do, I find it fun! Good luck and nice score once again!

Never ever try to put a set together from the bin. It is horrible. I did that two years ago, and it took me a week to put together four Star Wars sets. I would sort it by size and color.

Here's my method, 1. Gather a few smaller containers and a few larger containers. Clear plastic are usually the best. For shuffling loose parts shallow under the bed plastic containers are awesome. 2. Pick out all minifigures and accessories as well as any parts that catch your eye into 1 or more smaller containers. 3. use one of the larger boxes to throw larger chunks of put together pieces. NOTE: I try to take appart anything that looks MOC and leave everything that looks like part of an actual set. It will save time on you later because those pieces will already be together and it gives you clues on what sets you might already have. 4. Once I've got 2. & 3. done I should have a fairly easy to sort box of pieces. I start another box of larger pieces like wall panels and windshelds and larger plates (usually 4x4 or larger) to help make the box easy to sort. I frequently use the Lego Head sorter at this point picking out any thing I see along the way and dump large pieces from the first Head sorter section into one box, pieces from the second section into another box and so on. This will leave you with a box or boxes of: Minifigures & accessories large set chunks large individual pieces large pieces meduim pieces smallest pieces I find this is the easiest way to quickly tame a larger collection so that you can actually find pieces. Of course as you're looking you'll be throwing pieces that didn't sort right through the Head sorter into the correct box but it also makes it a lot easier to move the pieces around rather than having pieces of different sizes mixes together.

Oh, and clear plastic totes are your best friend. And if the minifigs aren't separated in plastic bags, I would throw all the heads, torsos, weapons, completed figs, etc. into a bin of their own to go through after... I've found hundreds of sought after minifigs in these lots that don't belong to any of the sets I purchased, so you never know what you'll find in there. I'm sure I forgot something, but I'll post again if I think of any suggestions to make it easier.

Since $ Investments in Lego are determined by price AND quantity of units purchased, comparing % Growth or even % CAGR across different priced sets is not always the best indicator of where you should place your investments. Why? Because the leverage of that x% changes based on the denominator. 100% Growth on a $10 unit will net you $10, whereas 100% Growth on $100 will net you 10x the amount. The #1 KEY FACTOR is expected rate of INVENTORY TURNOVER, relative to your expected CAGR. If 10 units x $10 ea. grow at 100% in half the amount of time it takes 1 unit x $100 ea. to grow at 100%, then you will obviously have the ability to make more with the lower priced units, and vice versa. Why does inventory turnover matter? Because you value your time. % Growth per Annum is a very attractive statistic, but none of us live forever, so the 'A' in CAGR becomes important. At the Age of 64, Ed has fewer 'Annuals' left in his lifetime than some college kids saving up for the next keg party. The ultimate goal is to generate the biggest bankroll of cash in the shortest amount of time. What Ed points out is that these higher priced units have a MUCH HIGHER rate of inventory turnover, later in their lives...meaning in 2-4 years from now, Haunted House could turnover 10x per year at 100%, whereas if you were to instead have invested that $ in, say, Avenging Cycle's at $10 per unit, it could possibly take several years to turnover enough units to generate enough profit that those Haunted House's brought in just one year. This is just in example, and everyone's valuations will differ slightly, but the principles remain the same. Get the idea? 2 items with equal CAGR will not necessarily have the same RATE of INVENTORY TURNOVER. More importantly, how does the rate of inventory turnover change, as the desired CAGR changes? Could it be possible that cutting your Expected CAGR in half could triple the rate at which your inventory turns over? Thus, when comparing LEGO investments between forum members, opinions will always VARY, based on your Expected CAGR, Expected Rate of Inventory Turnover, and the number of Annuals you expect to have left in your working lifetime.

They are - but not like a Cafe Corner would be. You have to list every single one of them. You have to ship them all separately. Thats the point. They are possibly worth your time, but not as efficient time wise as big sets. But if its a hobby, its no big deal. I hate shipping so I am getting out of the small set business.

One of those rare times I would bite my tongue and just accept it, especially with Lego's account banning in effect. If in all likelihood you will open it, regardlesss of principle, silence might be prudent depending on your account history with Lego.

I would like to see thanos maybe a sabretooth and Nightcrawler for sure.

Galactus