Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/03/2014 in all areas

  1. Just want to look out for you here and say, "DO NOT DO THIS". Spouse sees gift, wonders if it means you're going back, you admit, no,,,,,,its's just a lego set, Poof, thoughtful gift turns into disappointment At least, that's how it would go in my house.
    4 points
  2. Absolutely 100% correct Almost every other worry posted isn't really an issue. Overproduction? Lego doesn't keep producing a dead horse. If they did, they'd be broke. Too many investors? There's too much credit given to the people on this site who buy Lego as an investment. How many members here can spend 1k+ each month? Let's say you do--or the average is 1K--that's a minute portion of the amount of sets available at any one time. Not to mention discounts or closeouts. And there's also people here or elsewhere with a garage or basement full of Lego that won't get sold for another 10+ years. How many of us here have a few Fire Brigades? Should be most of us, especially those who were able to get them from Amazon a while back for $105. Seemingly overnight the price jumped once it retired. Is anyone worried? No. How many of us have either sold our stock or have them listed right now? I'm guessing it's a small percentage. And yet no one is worried that there's too many out there or too many in people's investment portfolios. There's about 90 listed on ebay right now as a BiN, but probably 20 of the listings(using Lego 10197 as search) pull up non-set items. Should it worry anyone who wants to list theirs that it's among 70 other people selling them? Only if you're over invested and need cash. List yours for either the going rate or $10-20 higher and let it run(which is what's happened over the last 2 weeks). Lego imposing limits or banning people. Nope, not an issue. And as has been commented on a few posts up, it will eventually help resellers on the secondary market. Remember the FB from the above paragraph? Suddenly, we all are paying $150 for them. Does anyone realize that this could actually raise the prices/profits once the sets retire? And besides, there's always a way to purchase from Lego. Undercutters. There will always be people who are either impatient or just want to work harder at a lower profit margin. They sold their FB's 6 weeks ago for under $200 while now they're in the $240-260 range. All you usually have to do is to just extend your window to sell by about 2-6 months. Let the initial wave go by and then list your sets. Learn how to market your items - good pictures, explain your shipping procedures, don't have your listing details written out like a 3yearold with 6 different font sizes and colors. Be a good seller. Your items will sell. Funny thing is, if you are patient, YOU can be the undercutter. Regardless, there's a limited amount of any one set a person has and when they're gone, they're gone and you might be the next cheapest without adjusting any of your prices. Too many resellers. No denying there's a lot of people selling Lego sets, and that number will likely only rise. But patience is good here too. Let's say you list a set but it doesn't sell in a week. Should that be a big deal? I don't think so. Either accept a lower profit or hold onto it for longer. Or find other areas to sell it. If you list a FB set and you're bummed it didn't sell for $299 so that you could double your investment, that's on you. Find out your profit margin and either list or don't. Take profit or wait. But keep in mind, there's hundreds of different sets all available at any time. Do you have multiples of sets? List one or two of a dozen different sets. Or bundle some sets from the same line and try that aspect of selling. Do you ever track a set? Make a chart for a set you expect to retire soon. Mark the lowest cost you know of or that you paid for that set. Once it is officially retired, mark the date on the chart. Then either once a week or two, or monthly, keep track of the amount listed, amount sold, and average for both. Is there a crazy glut for the first month? A significant peak for prices at the 3 month mark? Do sales drop after 8 months? It shouldn't be the same percentages for every set, but it might give you perspective on how to deal with values and quantity available. And the cheaper the set, usually the more are available at any time down the road. If you've been stockpiling Death Stars for the past 3 years, you should also be able to wait 1-3 years after it retires to sell them. If funds are too tight or you purchase too much, you may need to stop buying for a set amount of time. Regroup, then go back to it with limits in mind. Bad economy. Lastly, this is also a non-issue of sorts. Parents always want their kids to be happy. You might have slow sales for a few months, but there's always people out there who can afford whatever they want. Lego isn't for everyone. Let's face it--Lego is expensive. But from August/September through the end of January, you can sell out of your inventory at times if you choose to. You might have to adjust your margins over the rest of the year or just let your investments age a little more. Anywho, sorry for the long post. Blame Glenbart! His post got me thinking heh
    3 points
  3. For everyone here that got their VC's for 25. Please don't sell yours for 75. Minimum 100 please...get the ROI you deserve. You shouldn't have to hold onto these forever to see your money back and then some. Getting 75% off and then flipping for a quick 25 or so would be foolish.
    3 points
  4. But the new one will have purple pants.
    3 points
  5. spent two days on building these two sexy sets and celebrating Chinese new Year.
    1 point
  6. The LEGO Movie was way ahead of you. Lord Business Shoes and Wigs coming soon to Heartlake Mall near you
    1 point
  7. I didn't say anyone was wrong, people need to look at the bigger picture with some of these sets. There are peripheral benefits that shouldn't be overlooked.
    1 point
  8. I hear you on selling via CL! I think with the increased postage rates at Canada post it almost isn't worth selling non locally. Can't compete with the lower shipping rates from the us! Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker
    1 point
  9. Definitely got to go with the fakes/replica category from the list, but also what others have mentioned in regard to over-production/longer lifespans. The fakes will over time kill the value of many Lego figures, then combined with the potential of there being sets available for considerably longer periods of time. The former situation is already growing and is an immediate threat. We`ve already discussed the fact that people are willing to pay much less for something that looks almost the same. This worries me, and I`m sure anyone else who wishes to sell individual/lot figures as well. The value of sets will come down over time as well if this keeps up. Figures drive the value of many boxed sets, not all but to a large extent, and this is a big concern. Over-production, if it were to happen with more sets, would also be a big problem. I don`t see it happening though. Only with a select few sets which are clearly popular and highly desired. Lego is unlikely to ever increase the lifespan of all/most of their sets. They are a toy company, and toy companies need to stay fresh. You couldn`t have the same rotation of sets available for 4 years at time, people will get bored, and you couldn`t add new sets alongside them, because then there would be far too many options available at once. More strain on production/distribution for this scenario, and it would likely hurt the profits for them. Bottom line, if you buy the bricks/sets cheap enough you`ll make money. And you know what, a lot of us are in this part time. If the value of Lego crashes (which I seriously doubt anytime soon), I`m going to go out and load up! Maybe build a 100,000 piece MoC for dirt cheap, or a life sized Helm`s Deep out of "worthless" Helm`s Deeps They may be worthless, but both would look pretty damn cool
    1 point
  10. Hong Kong/China fake replicas of Sets/Minifigs - People who pay high dollar for retired lego sets know their products well and can spot a fake with easy. Anyone trying to pass off fakes wont last long. 3D Printing - The quality just isnt there yet, very difficult to match the exact dimensions, colors and other features of a lego piece, not to mention its very expensive, it will be years if not decades before 3d printing can exactly replicate a lego piece at a reasonable cost. Economy crash/decline - this might actually be an issue but economic recessions usually are short lived. Plus as lego found out there sales did fine during the recessaion, the reason being parents would rather spend money on quality instead of quantity of toys, parents know $50 for a lego set is pricey but they also know those lego sets will still be around generations from now, i still use legos from the early 1980s! and chances are my kids will use those same legos and probably even my grand children, thats something no other toy can live up too. Any attempts by TLG to stop resellers - TLG is only a threat to the large scale investors/resellers, im talking epopel who are doing tens of thousands of dollars in sales per years. The avg joe investor who has a could thousand dollars sitting in a closet is of no concern to lego. So 99% of the people on this website will not be affected. Other (explain in post) - This was my vote. I beleive the greatest threat to lego investing is new investors, in the last decade we have seen a massive decline in returns. This is due to so many new investors saturating the market. You used to be able to buy any star wars lego set and get 300-400% ROI in 1-2 year, now most inverstors avoid star wars and even the best investment sets are returning 100% in 1-2 years if youre lucky, im predicting that in the next 2-3 years from now 50% ROI will be considered good and in 3-5 years from now 25% will be considered a good investment return. They key is to watch the market and realize when it is time to bail and move on to other area of the lego market.
    1 point
  11. If you're signed in and looking at your own listings, you're going to see eBay's delivery estimate for shipping from your own zip code to your own zip code. A buyer living farther away will see different estimates, and depending on the distance, May or may not see the fast and free logo.
    1 point
  12. People need to stop over thinking this set looking for bad news. At worst, this set will bring loads of new AFOL to the market. And once they are hooked, they'll be looking for all of the sets that they missed. BTTF, Simpsons, Ghostbusters, etc are all focused on bringing the post-college 80s children back to LEGO now that they have disposal income.
    1 point
  13. Yes, many sellers are clueless (regarding whether they are making a profit). I often purchase items that end up costing the seller more to ship the item, than what I paid for the entire purchase. That's one of the worst things nowadays about having so many re-sellers. It's bad enough that there are so many sellers willing to accept prices that are way too low, but then you have some sellers who are selling at a loss, never know it, and somehow never will. It gets hard to compete with people who are willing to accept a loss.
    1 point
  14. Series 4 actually should have been released already at the start of January as the Friends Collectables share the same release pattern as the Collectable Minifigures line. However, I do know a lot of this year's themes and their first wave sets have been pushed back due to The Lego Movie so it could take until far as the beginning of March before they finally pop up in stores.
    1 point
  15. Fast and free doesn't necessarily mean they're shipping priority. Depending on location between buyer and seller, standard and even economy shipping can get a fast and free designation because eBay's averages show it'll likely get there within 4 days. Regarding how people make a profit at it, who knows? Maybe they got a deal, maybe they're trying to liquidate and get out, maybe they're bad at math and don't realize they're losing money (not kidding here, a hefty number of eBay sellers don't have the faintest idea how much they're making, or not), maybe they stole the items so any profit is all profit, maybe they have or know someone with an employee discount...
    1 point
  16. I think that none of the cuusoo sets will be 2 or 3 hundred dollar sets...ever. I think people might have unrealistic expectations of these sets. If you did miss it just move on it won't make or break you as an investor.
    1 point
  17. I`d pass. You could invest $60 in many, many other, better places at the moment. The set is retired, and people have mixed feelings about it. The RingWraiths are really what seem to push this set, so their rarity will be important to consider if Lego does not release them in anymore sets. If you don`t have any and want one, then yes buy, you`re not going to get another discount. Personally, I just don`t see it going up enough anytime soon to justify at that price, but I`m sure there are others who won`t agree Just my $0.02.
    1 point
  18. So funny. Today I was digging through a huge 20lb lot I purchased last summer looking for some feet for the creature Obi Wan rides in Episode 2, and what do I find but Killer Croc! Happy day, and congrats on yours!
    1 point
  19. Sent it to the brickshow so they could review it!
    1 point
  20. $44 at amazon for rancor is pretty good
    1 point
  21. Found one in SW MN today. A few other area walmarts have them listed at $64 but are out of stock (android app). Found one at a WM that was allegedly OOS this afternoon. Anyone know any deals on the Rancor Pit? It serves as the basement of the palace.
    1 point
  22. The guys on the bottom with the blue tritons on their chest are from the aqua raiders line. You'll have to check the heads though
    1 point
  23. You got a few good ones in there! Namely, second row, first one to the left is Killer Croc from the old Batman line and appears to be very close to complete (the waistband should be the same dark blue color as the pants, but definately not rare and easy to replace), and worth upwards of $30! Also, Third row first from the left is a Shadow Trooper from Star Wars and worth about $7. The Batman fig definitely has the wrong arms and head, and isn't really worth much without the correct head, arms, cape and cowl. Maybe could get $5 for the torso if it's in good shape seeing as it's the older, original version. Not sure about the rest of the non-licensed figs, but I presume they;re not worth much at all, maybe $15-20 for the whole lot. I could be wrong about the first row, first from the left, and second row, third from the left as they may be valuable old Ninjas or something. Hope that helps, -PB
    1 point
  24. The Star Wars guy on the bottom left looks a little like the Shadow Trooper from the Tie Crawler 7664
    1 point
  25. Middle row far left killer croc set 7780
    1 point
  26. Are u sure it wasn't because you were checking your phone every 1/4 mile for deals on BP???hmmmm Nice buy btw
    1 point
  27. I watched an advanced screening yesterday as well. I loved it! Anyone else have thr everything is awesome song stuck in their head? I went to eat tacos and then the lego store right after watching the movie lol.
    1 point
  28. Ah, but I have a 2 year old, and as any good father should do, I'm stoking an interest in super heroes. He already loves the Duplo he's got....I'll have to pick these up as well.
    1 point
  29. A lot o comments on here seem almost angry at the thought that you might not be able to resell Lego sets in the future for ridiculous gains. Legos are and always have meant to be toys first and foremost, you play with them, kids, adults, whatever it doesn't matter if you're worried about stockpiling hundreds of sets that you won't be able to resell for a profit open them up and make yourself a bed to lie on because you got yourself into the situation with dreams of golden bricks falling from the sky Live by my motto and you'll never be burned. Never buy a set you wouldn't want to build or play with, it doesn't matter if you're 16 or 66, you can still have fun making something out of legos
    1 point
  30. The real danger would be if someone were to start a website that tells every idiot how to do it - without requiring any patience, knowledge, research, or discipline (sorry, I just couldn't resist).
    1 point
  31. Yup. This website actively spreading the idea doesn't help anyone, except the people that own it and get the commissions from ad clicks from new members stocking up. I respect the hard work and ability to seize an opportunity, but it really will kill reselling in the long run. At the same time, we're all guilty of using it and profiting so none of us have the right to complain about the crash when it happens...
    1 point
  32. I still play with dolls. Dang it, they aren't dolls, they are action figures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    1 point
  33. Dude, I just went to the lego store and all the Chima Cragger and Temples are gone. Mod edit: You could probably tone it down a bit. You're at an 8, we could use you at around a 5.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...