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Ran across this today, it explains so much...

No Lego purchase for the first time in 2014. +1 for self control.

Not sure if this will/should be moved and stickied, but we need a thread to say thanks! Yes, thanking other members for such services as: hooking you up with coupons, finding deals, helping with info and much more is needed to show the love around here... I'll start it off and say, Thanks hxckid88, you hooked me up with a much needed B&****** 20% coupon, which will be put to good use! See how easy that was? Now you give it a go!

So the results are in! I bought a DYMO 450. Super easy to get going and set up with labels for USPS. I cannot believe I ever used a freaking printer. This thing is INSANE! I thought I could also give people a little insight into my methods too. Feel free to suggest your improvements! So here are some starting points - I am all about efficiency when working so I do a lot of timing myself and taking statistics. So here you go: I ship an average of 12 things a weekday - about 20 for the full weekend or more. Most of these are minifigures and parted out sets or used sets I sell without the box. I use USPS for the majority of shipments obviously - first class. My old Process is this: Look at Ebay and see what I have sold. As I multi-ship, I write down the purchases into my records along with the zip code. I then print all the labels Using my records, I write on the tops of the labels what goes in each I then make my way to my Lego storage - in a room in my house I have tons of drawers and shelving. I retrieve everything I need. Once I have them, I cut the labels all at once and lay them out and place what goes with each on each label. I package them all and fold the tops of the labels down so you can't see what I wrote. I then use my tape dispenser and pull off enough pieces for every package (I do this on my kitchen counter so I put them on the ends) Then I tape each package. Minifigures are the toughest as the packages are small and you have to get all the ends down (I use 4x8s). Sets are easy because I can just set the label on the them and apply the four pieces of tape. I then bag everything up to go to the PO. On a normal night, the records and printing the labels take about 20 minutes for 20 packages. Picking them out from storage is 10 minutes. As far as taping and packaging, timing myself I find it takes me 30 minutes to do 20 packages (about 16 minifigures and 4 sets as is my usual). Adding in the label printer affects several things. Super fast printing. The 450 prints 51 a minute and you can get faster. My printer was pretty fast, but it didn't match this. Everything attached together. Why does this matter? ORGANIZATION! I write my records down in the order I print so... Everything lines up! Easy to go right down the list and tell what label is what. Also much cleaner. Sometimes papers start flying out of the printer. No ink. No refills except labels which are honestly about the same price of paper. Right now my cost per label is $.015. NOT LOUD. OMG loud printers piss me off. Really small. It is seriously like 4 inches by 8 inches. Will fit anywhere. As for timing? For the printing and categorizing labels, I cut 20 down to about 18 minutes from 20. It doesn't help me pull them out of storage unfortunately. Packing and taping - NO MORE TAPING! I hate taping so much for so many reasons. I pull it off and stick it. 20 packages... 17 minutes!!! Insane cut in time. So for me, it is saving me 15 minutes per 20 packages. Considering my usual time was about 1 hour - thats a 25% decrease. What did I pay for this beauty? 70$. Just doing a bit of very rough math, lets say with an average of 10 packages per day over the next year, pulling out one day a week and guessing that I add two days of 10 packages to equal my control of 20 (although thats probably not quite true) then you are looking at: (3 sets of 20 packages a week x 52 weeks x 15 minutes) / 60 minutes per hour 39 hours in a year this saved me. Assuming you would at least use this for a year, you spent $1.8 per hour to have this help you. Worth it? Yes. Dymo 450 Link USPS compatible labels Edit: The dymo has gone back up to $87. Watch and it may drop again.

A process that is likely to take a half hour or more at most Walmarts. :-)

I don't buy many boxes.... However there are a lot of benefits to it IMO. 1. Particularly with selling on Amazon, many people think they are buying it from Amazon, not some third party. I try to use only professional looking boxes for these shipments. Otherwise you get people thinking "Somebody made money off me, where could I have found this cheaper?"... Returns cost a lot! I am a strong believer in making your packages look professional puts the customer at ease. 2. Time saved in cutting down boxes to the right size. This is a pain, can look terrible, and can make the box weaker. 3. If you can get boxes that are the right size, you need less packing material... saves more $. Like many things, the upfront cost may be outweighed by hidden savings.

Stupid Flanders.

You found a WHAT?!

What exactly is this self control of which you speak? I`m not familiar with the term

The head is from Even Piell from set 9498 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626cpb778

Yes, there are quite a few examples of this. It`s definitely possible to predict, that takes a skilled eye or just dumb luck, but I was mainly referring to investing in sets in general. These highly sought after sets are few and far between, and absolutely there is the possibility to make a large amount of money. If you think you know of a set that will be in high demand like those listed, Minecraft, etc, absolutely stock up early. There is nothing wrong with holding sets longer, that depends on your personal amount of cash flow. If you can sink money in for longer periods of time comfortably, do it, that`s awesome Goes for anyone. Those sets you mentioned there had a reasonable shelf life. For some reason a small, for lack of better word, "bubble" formed around them and the price inflated very quickly. They were literally available 1 day and gone the next. People panicked and bought in. I guess to directly answer your question, that opinion of mine doesn`t really fit the context of these kind of sets. More so for the general sets that will retire and gradually rise over time. There aren`t any 100% guarantees, it`s very much a combination of skill and gamble, but the rewards can be quite substantial if you do it right. I`m still earning myself, and that`s only one perspective. There are lots more, I`m just saying as a general rule, you want to buy sets as close to retirement as possible while trying to get the largest discounts. Not an absolute by any means, more so just a rule of thumb to apply with most sets.

Well, that being the case, Walmart is going to have to ship another because this one is unacceptable in my opinion. And i will keep making them ship another until they ship one that isn't damaged.

I'd like to thank the academy, my agent, parents, wife and myself for investing in Lego

All the stores around here have restocked on Batcaves. But no JPs anywhere.

I've never understood the number of sellers around here who don't use Carrier Pickup. Everyone complaining about waiting in line at the post office is crazy. 1) Carrier Pickup 2) or if you just really like the post office, just walk to the front of the line and dump your already stamped packages on the counter and leave

You can print straight from ebay shipping, and you can print any type of labels that you can print at home (first class, priority, parcel post, etc) Glad to hear you finally jumped on one DNIIM. Welcome to the future.

Just buy a set from Yoyo.com once in a while and you never have to worry about padding. They ship LEGO in oversize boxes with tons of mailing air bags.

I ordered the 20" x 14" x 4" to accommodate these sets. I'm not sure I'd want to go much smaller than that.

Dang it, Anakin! Your stupid talk about 'sharting' in the other thread made me read this as "pooping" instead of "popping"! :rofl:

I hate it when I try to fart and something else comes out.

Here is great close-up of the Radio DJ Robot with a comparison to the Series 8 DJ. Via Eurobricks

Maybe I'm showing my age but, I agree. When I was a kid and someone was dropping the F bomb. Believe me someone was really pissd off. When you use a word too much it loses its meaning. Remember when extreme was extreme? Now under arm deodorant is extreme.

I am sick and tired of shows and films that cannot seem to go a whole minute or so much as thirty seconds without somebody dropping the F bomb or any other swear word. They may be 'adult' terms but any moron can cuss like a sailor.

I'd like to see themes that aren't licensed so that there can be huge discounts at the end of their lives like monster hunters I suggest. Space Pirates Steam Punk World Victorian England world Atlantis with a greek theme

Grand Emporium is supposedly the next Modular to retire, meaning we could get another year out of the Town Hall. MSRP in the states is $200, so not even a 10% discount wouldn`t be enough for me to justify buying it. You at least get that full 10% back if you buying during x2 VIP, so for that reason I`d wait. And if we do have another year out of it, there is plenty of time to get it at the end of the year or possibly early next year. Your money would probably end up stagnant if you buy now. I`d pass on this personally.

here it is

Just about anything from the Sci-Fi channel, Eureka, the Warehouse or Stargate SG-1 / Atlantis / Universe. Charlie Brown Scooby Doo Through the Disney connection: Tale Spin, Duck Tales or Darkwing Duck

so today after work, I got: Another PM - VC for 24.98 Another PM - Funhouse for 19.98 5 series 11 minifigs for 0.98ea 1x gugenheim for 25.16 2x " for 35.95ea 1 cloud cuckoo palace to give my wife a unikitty minifig for 17.95 1x rockefeller plaza for 25.16 1x willis tower for 12.56 2x SEARS towers yes SEARS for 12.56 ea ON THE SHELVES AT B&******!

It's here all year.

At this point, yes I`d buy both for sure at the price point. They should do well, and I could see the value on ebay being x2 that at some point quite easily. You should be able to net a 50% + return, if not more, quite easily. I`d take that any day EDIT: After thinking for an additional couple seconds, I`d maybe pass on the Doc Ock. I`m not sure how long that one will take to get up there. Battle over Gotham will be a solid investment, so I`d definitely buy all those no questions. Maybe 1-2 Doc Ock if you are worried about missing out.

I have not bought any LEGO since Friday

I was traveling today and found a Wal-Mart glory hole that was discounting stuff 50%+ off. 3 x Ninjago: Sonic Raider - $40 each 4 x GS: Crater Creeper - $5.50 each 2 x Spongebob: Flying Dutchman - $9 each 1 x SH: Batman vs. Bane Tumbler - $20 1 x HF: Furno XL - $10 1 x HF: Dragon Bolt - $10 They had a couple more Sonic Raiders that were a little beat up, an Epic Dragon Battle for $60 (I passed) and some other Chima and Galaxy Squad for 50% off. They had already reset their Lego aisle and also had the new Doc Ock and Joker Steamroller sets out. I found another store that had a stack of 10+ each of Galaxy Squad Bug Obliterator ($25 each) and Hive Crawlers ($20 each) and I passed on them all. I already have one of each and I didn't want these sitting around for eons before being able to offload them for a decent price. I hate passing up sets that are almost 70% off, but I did. They also had the big Mega Block Halo: Countdown for 60% off, but I passed. I also noticed several Wal-Marts starting to clearance their Call of Duty Mega Blocks.

Yeah, I am hoping that at some point when TRU has is at actual MSRP, use the coupon (assuming that the trick with having at least one regular price item still works) to get a few. And really tempted to build one (and I try hard not to get into building)

I can't believe it but what he said word for word!

I agree with DNIIM. Technic cranes are great investments - small or large, they bring nice returns.

I love it - I have 30. Its creeping towards 40$ US already and its technically not retired. I think it has a pretty high ceiling too - maybe $60 - $70.

Looks like this is the torso: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=973pb795c01

1. Smokey and the Bandit Series 2. Dukes of Hazzard Series 3. a 1967 Corvette build. You know thinking about it, old muscle cars are very popular, and Lego could find a really big following releasing old muscle car builds of the most popular cars from the 1950 and 1960s.

New Friends polybag: Emma's Flower Shop (30112)

What I think happened was that they opened amazon facility somewhere in your state which is probably why they started collecting taxes, but the item that was not taxed came from another warehouse and not the one from your state. Did the items originate from different locations?

So jealous you had to post it three times!! Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker

Lol. (Obviously not that weird when you look at the complete name...) "Secret Police" bit dark for LEGO

all a matter of opinion on this. With that said, I have 1 ghost train. However.......if it flew on it's own, I'd have 100.

I have 4 for investment at this point going for 10 minimum. I'm buying at least one a month regardless of discount (which don't exist anymore). I'm also mixing in some Pet Shops to try to get ahead of the game. If it doesn't retire until the end of the year I should have 15+ but I just have a feeling it's going to retire this summer? I think the Modulars are no brainers along with large scale models, Seasonal(Winter Village) etc... I believe unless you have unlimited funds there are to many large sets to own(for the collector) or really to invest in for the reseller. I think this bodes well for most investors its a natural limiting factor for the average collector or investor where in sets retire before they have obtained them. At this time LEGO has(and has had recently) so many good large sets($100+) to invest in it diversifies the pool of investors which is why I believe the FB is doing well. Even for those that didn't invest in the FB they may have just put those funds towards another winner. At this time I just can't imagine someone investing and losing unless all they are buying are $5-$25 sets and even then they might make money in 5-7 years. Now fast flipping is a whole other thing. For the most part I'm on a 2-3 year cycle from retirement to sale. I won't be selling my FB's for another 2-3 more years. After your in that cycle is where you make much bigger $ with much less work. I just don't have the time or interest to make 5-10-20 $ a set, I realize that it works for some but I make to much at my regular job for such a low return on my time. Wow...I rambled oh well just my 2cents Nothing ground breaking or unique

Parisian Restaurant, naturellement! Do we have any idea when the next double VIP point time is?

But the new one will have purple pants.

I fear unions, progressives and the far right. Oh, are we talking about Lego

I fear a lack of security in a Chinese LEGO factory and some valuable molds walking out the back door into the hands of some knockoff company.