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This globe was made for POTC, and is accurate to that time period.

Yup this is a problem. Why it is good to use BIN. If you are just starting, buy a big set of minifigures for cheap (not a big deal if you don't break even). Sell the crap out of them to get your feedback score up.

That a TLG graphic artist failed US geography.

Money ;)

I have a question about BrickLink that I am hoping that someone more experienced might be able to help... So I've put together a "Wanted List" on BrickLink (for pieces from the Taj Mahal), and was able to find a list of sellers who had the highest amount of "unique lots" on my list. Once I click on a store, there are two options for "mass adding" items into your cart: "Auto-Fill Cart Max" and "Auto-Fill Cart Min". Is there a way to add items to your cart using the quantity specified in your wanted list? Second question: I'm sure that many of you guys have BrickLinked sets at one point or another. So how do you decide which seller has the best "value" for the pieces, besides searching each brick individually? Thanks!!

Let me first say that this is by no means a knock on this site. I enjoy this site and it provides a lot of great features you can't get anywhere else. The sad news for me though is that the way the site has been taking off over the past year has actually had a big impact on me buying less sets for investment purposes. There are so many posts from people who are amassing substantial quantities of sets I would have easily invested in in the past. Now I know some people are just talk and don't really have what they say, but there are plenty who really do have what they claim. Not only are the huge collections concerning, but the vast amount of sets spread 1-5 at a time across multiple investors adds up quickly to an alarming amount of sets that will have to be unloaded after retirement before really significant gains can be realized. I've said it before, but I think last year's retiring sets will be the last that see really big gains quickly. Yes, there will occasionally be a SE Crawler or The Zombies set that comes along, but those will generally be hard to predict (aside from Crawler situations). In the past, 2-3 years was a pretty standard time frame for a set to reach it's peak after retirement, but I foresee this becoming more like 5-7 with very gradual climbs after a possible initial small jump. With those kinds of holding periods, I just don't see it being as worthwhile anymore. Obviously, there are many ways to make money at this. I've tried all sorts of ways, and I don't think the method I've settled on is viable going forward. Doing small, quick flips just isn't worth the time and effort for me. All the hoarding that's going on combined with the significantly longer shelf lives of sets is creating an environment where sets will have to be held for far too long to make the returns that make it worthwhile for me. I think the risk vs. reward is skewing in the wrong direction. In the past, I have purchased at least 5-20 of every set I wanted for investment, and it was a lot of sets. When I see posts about buying dozens of this set and that, I cringe a little. Those posts actually make me buy less of a set than I normally would. In the past, I would have been all over something like The Orc Forge if I knew it was on its way out. I didn't buy a single additional set during all the hype for the set a month or two ago. Will I regret that? Possibly, but I doubt it. I'm not saying that I'm done buying, collecting, or investing. I will always be a collector. But my days of buying large quantities of everything I want are definitely gone. For investment purposes I'll only be buying quality sets that I can get for at least 30% off, things like BTTF and SE Crawler aside.

Easiest way I have found is to go to your wanted list after filling out the parts you need and clicking on the "by shop" tab. This will give you a list in descending order of the shops that have the most unique parts that are on your list. This will save you lots of money by finding shops that can fill most of your order in one shot.

Made my first Craig's list transaction. Got a new 10212 imperial shuttle and a 4195 queen Ann's revenge for $400 total.

One thing I've learned: it's much easier to build your rating with purchases than with sales. I'm currently "awaiting" feedback on 17 sales. Seventeen! And the worst part is, 4 of them are the priciest items I've sold. Anyway if buyers had any respect for the process, I'd be at 112. Instead I'm at 95. I know we've discussed lack of feedback before, but it really irks me when I sell a $400 Lego lot that I spent weeks sorting, cleaning, and packing, and the deadbeat buyer can't be bothered to take 2 minutes to say he appreciates the effort. Just something to keep in mind when you're getting started on ebay.

I don't this so. Lego know how many minecraft sets have sold and will adapt accordingly to the next waves. If you are the first to get them you might make some money, but I don't think they will make the same mistake twice.

I find the most interesting thing about this is the power given to TLG. They materialized 4 million dollars in a few weeks. Anytime they need a cash infusion they can whip up a special edition with a nice color and BAM mo money. /slowclap to the geniouses at TLG for thinking this up and executing it flawlessly

I have a few and didn't want to buy them out. If everyone went into the stores when they saw deals or hard to find sets and bought them out many people would be missing out. Figured I would post it here to see if someone else wants it or maybe some kid who really wants this set grabs it. I am in this game to buy and enjoy Lego's and hopefully cover my costs (which can be significant). I really think people need to think about clearing a store out every time they see a good deal. Leave some sets on the shelves to keep people interested in this hobby.

Kroger grocery in centerville OH has much better clearace than the walmarts. Star wars were 60-80% off. Lego city 60%. Ninjago up to 80%. Lotr and duplo. No rhyme or reason but diffnt sets than wallys or target were clearancing. Will post pics later

Buy a bunch of .99 cent items to get around 10 feedback and then use stock photos on your expensive items that you are selling below retail. Ok, ok , this is what NOT to do.

These are so awesome, they should be posted on both this and the joke thread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cfxv8Pq-Q

So, I just finished building the Town Hall modular. While I love the overall buildings in this theme, I'm especially a fan of the micro-builds that go along with them. When I got to building the globe that appears on the third floor of the TH, I was amazed by the piece's fantastic printing. The globe printing is amazingly accurate and I was just in awe of how cool the micro-build turned out. However I was stuck by one little detail more than anything: Do you guys see it? California is clearly separated from the rest of the United States. Now, this cannot be an accident as it would be harder for lego to design and print the little extra piece of the state rater than put it in with the rest of the US "blob". Is LEGO trying to tell us something? Haha, the conspiracy theorist inside me would like to think so.

See, now I always found a stern talking-to worked out fine and I didn't have to go to extreme measures like these. Of course, I have girls...

Definitely prefer new in unopened box for our own builds - don't care if the box itself is trashed, though. The main reason is that nobody except my husband can apply decals to his standards, and I'm tired of hunting down obscure decal sheets to purchase for him after he explains in minute detail that he needs them, immediately or sooner, and that the person who put the decals on his set of the week was obviously a convicted felon, a vandal, and probably talks in movie theaters.

Details on the coupon today exclude lego so they actually are right this time - even though they gave the wrong reason.

many years ago before the entire U.S. was explored and mapped correctly California was thought to be an island. explorers came upon the waterway in Washington state that is connected to the pacific ocean and assumed that it flowed all the way down the entire continent, which would make California an island. old maps actually show this, plus I just saw it on last week's episode of pawn stars...lol. rick was in England buying a couple of old maps and they showed the same thing.

Isn't this a fairly general rule in business. Make things that will attract potentional customers. I think that is why people create 2,000,000 flavors of ice cream, there has to be at least one flavor that will attract a potential customer.

Hey Orc, the Legends of Chima sets were revealed last week http://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-legends-of-chima-2014-sets-revealed/

that was me. ebay's definition of new is "an unopened unused undamaged item" i just didn't want to set myself up for negative feedback by having someone complain their "new" item was damaged, because they didn't read the description.

Ever heard the expression "Even a broken clock is right twice a day?" That's pretty much what we're dealing with here. Sure, occasionally one of the low-level store clerks will be "right" - I reckon the vast majority of the time by accident. My broke brother-in-law occasionally says something smart about money, too, but I won't be basing my own financial decisions on his advice.

The main issue that I see with this is that ability to buy something does not mean everyone has an equal ability to manage inventory, market items, sell items, and process orders. The buying part is really the easy part in all of this. In no way is this a level playing field, and it never will be because of incompetence, laziness, differing skill levels, etc... This is not a slam on anyone specifically, but I would say that based on the listings we see and based on many of the things posted here in the forums and some of the blog articles that a large percentage of would-be investors are somewhat incompetent when it comes to effectively doing all of the activities required to operate profitably in a secondary market. This could be because they just haven't learned how to do it yet, or it could be that they just don't care. As you mentioned quick-flipping, it often gets a bad rap here because people say the time involved isn't worth the return. This is at best short-sighted. While I have no definitive proof, this is evidence to me that the people attempting it haven't really thought through what they're doing. Whenever you have a process that is inconsistent or inefficient, results will be impacted. The only reason I can quick-flip things profitably is because we're following a very well-defined, predictable process that produces predictable results. For example, I don't print shipping labels the way many of you do, I use standard box sizes, I buy boxes in bulk at really low prices, I use automation to manage inventory and create listings, etc... People also have issues with how long it takes to list things, which is yet another indication that people are using ineffective or no automation techniques to speed all of this up. This results in low-quality listings that take people a ton of time to create. Just wait until close to Christmas when we see people whining about hitting item and selling limits on eBay that they don't know exist, or all of the complaints we will see about negative feedback because they didn't take the time to properly package and ship things. You'll see some people drop out of the market after that.