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This is an excellent thread. Way too many people concentrate on buying and don't ever try out selling before they are just too deep. I am one of these people and I have long since learned my lesson (I think). For the first year and a half all I did was buy. I bought up over 1000 sets during this time. I would say that I was addicted (still am). The point came where because of money and space it was time to offload some of my sets. In order to buy more I would need to start selling first. So in January of this year I started selling. This was an eye opener. I know everyone says that it takes time to list, sell, package, ship, etc but you really don't understand until you do it yourself. It is very time consuming. You also have to expect there will be problems. Lost packages, buyer returns, etc. This all eats in to your profits and time. I know a lot of people say large sets are the way to go and I agree to a point. Just know that those sharks on eBay/Amazon looking for sets to scam people on aren't looking for small inexpensive sets. I've got burned a few times already and it is always on large sets. A mint condition Imperial Shuttle returned banged up and opened, a Robie House returned destroyed after FedEx left the package in the rain, a AS returned because the buyer "bought it for someone who didn't like LEGO", a Robie House and AS on the way back now for a mystery reason, 0 feedback buyers everywhere, etc. Some of these can be avoided with experience and others are just part of the selling process you have to deal with. And here comes the big one everyone is warned about over and over but never really understands until they sell.... FEES. The fees are much more of an impact on your bottom line than you may think. Make sure you find a good fee calculator online and just play with it a little and enter some values in for sets you have. See what you must sell at to get a certain return on your investment. This is easy and takes just a couple minutes but it will be an eye opener for some who haven't even thought about the selling side of this yet. Make sure you add in estimated shipping costs and add a little for supplies. I know most people don't think about tape, boxes, paper, ink, etc but it adds up very quickly when you start selling at a higher volume. As an example I have spent $40 this year just on packing tape itself. I made the mistake as I am sure a lot of others do of thinking if rough times come or I need the money to reinvest I will just sell a bunch of sets and be fine. The truth is it takes a lot of time for things to sell. Like others have posted its not like selling stock. It will take months before you can sell a large inventory of sets. If you need your money fast you will be basically giving your sets away to sell them fast. Many times I have been the lowest price and still had to wait weeks for the item to sell. To sum this all up I am still learning but I feel much more confident that I have gone through the selling process and know what is involved. It will actually change your investing and buying decisions. It has drastically changed mine and now I am making more money and spending less time because of it. Since I started selling in January I have sold almost 600 sets totaling just over $37,000. This has allowed me to grow my investment to over 2100 sets and make much better investment decisions. If anyone wants the exact numbers on profits, fees, etc on those 600 sales you can PM me. Buying is only half of the investment process. Make sure you try the other half before you get in too deep.

I picked this one up at Target last night. It was a quick build, but it was fun. Sorry for the bad lighting. I will get better finished pictures later. Two large bags with one small bag in each. Bag and book 1. Bag and book 2. Just a few extra pieces.

naw nowhere near $5000, I got it all for $1200, the other half of stuff has lots of coastguard, grand carosel, and more stuff

Looks like after this set retires, this thread is going to move on from "pointless speculation" to "how do I ship ths #$@&ing thing???"

>MichelBaygelo by Oky - Space Ranger, on Flickr

This was an 80 pound lot I just picked up cheap. No instructions, few minifigs. It looked to be from the late 90s to early 2000s. I just washed it and a boxed it and am selling as is. I'm getting a little over $7.25 per pound shipped. I'll take that, and not spend the time sorting colors. I only rarely sort out bulk lots like this one by color when I sell them. If it's a lot that I've sorted to build sets from than sure, sell each color/style by itself, otherwise I don't spend the time. I did pull out all the mini figures and any rare pieces and will sell the mini figs as their own lot, minus a couple rare ones that I will sell individually and the few that I wanted to hang on to. I try to treat each lot individually and maintain a pile of less than 100 pounds at any given time. Otherwise they do have a tendency to take over.

Gondorian, I would like to thank you. I think your honest posts have been a great service for the BP members, Especially us newer ones. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Here they are...

See you in the semi-finals, Bernard

Due to the excitement about the pending retirement of the 10221, I decided that I had to build one. Luckily I had a damaged outer box (destroyed actually) SSD that I got from Amazon Warehouse Deals for about $275. Taking a page from jaisonline's book (although not nearly as detailed), I decided it would be nice to try and document the process as we go along. I apologize in advance for the pictures, my cell phone is currently my camera... First off, as many know, the box for this thing is huge and it weighs nearly 20 lbs. Inside the large outer box there are three numbered boxes and one manual box. BOX 1: Box 1 has 2 unnumbered bags, six bag 1's, and six bag 2's: 14 total bags. The bag 1's have the five minifigures in them. Admiral Piett, Darth Vader, Dengar, IG88, and Bossk. I am a big fan of the bounty hunter books, so I really like this selection. The remainder of the contents' of the bag 1's (and some misc items from the unnumbered bags) ends up looking like this when completed. It is very large, but it is fragile right now. Had to keep it put away or my 18mo old would remove pieces for me. The 2 bags add a lot of support and strength to the model. I would consider bag 2 the skeletal system of the 10221. Box 2 coming soon...

Wondering if US SAH would offer that white classic spaceman in the future like what they are doing now in UK and other countries from 7/1-7/7 . Don't really care about that Chima Phoenix figure they are offering while it's icing on the cake together with that white spaceman. And yes mini mini cooper is in August, while it looks just like a normal Lego small vehicle (similar to the vehicles in the cargo train).On the other hand the T1 looks closer to the Actual Lego T1 and it's unique. With that said I'll still try to get at least one. lol.

Like maybe the instructions and parts list?

Something similar to this is always on sale on Black Friday every year. I remember that when I was younger I would get one of these creative buckets and spend hours upon hours of building with them. Now, I have a large collection of Lego sets and I also invest in them. Who knew that giving a small kid a toy like this would turn into an expensive hobby and investment.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Edsal-36-W-x-18-D-x-60-****-Ultra-Rack/23597968 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Edsal-48-W-x-24-D-x-72-****-5-Shelf-Steel-Shelving-Black/21685762 Cheapest I have seen them. Mods feel free to add affliate info. I bought (10) of the 48 x 72 x 24 deep. We shall see what condition they arrive in. After taxes 63.34/unit. 4.97 to get them shipped. Yeah I know I get what I paid for. Site said the shipping weight is over 100lbs a piece. No way I want to pick up 1/2 a ton of shelving units.

The best part is the gifting alert letting you know the item might arrive in the original packaging. Oh no, my surprise gift of shelving has been ruined! :-) Are there poor bastards at UPS who have to deliver these things to your house?

Son of a fudger! Why won't craigslist listen and put a warning on every single page not to wire (remit) money. If only they would link it to an entire page about how to avoid being scammed. JERKS!

it already did...

Buy and sort a few thousand pounds of bulk over three or four years and things start to pop out at you. Especially with the mini figures. I sell primarily on eBay.

This is a lego investing forum not a socialist propaganda chatroom.

If you can lay out some financial formulas and data that would be valuable to members so that we can incorporate it into the new Brickfolio, we will try to do so. I will be the first to tell you that we know very little about stock market equations and standards that financial investors and pros use. The CAGR was a member's idea and I think it gives people a fair way to evaluate sets, but there could be better ways. This offer goes to all of you financial gurus out there. Tell us what you want to see and how to come up with the data. With the new Brickfolio collecting bought and sold data from members, there are possible options that are unknown to Jeff and myself. We are willing to learn and try, so here is your chance. You can post ideas in this thread...

May be you are correct 18r4...its pretty dark in my dungeon where all lego stashed...) I will doulbe check correct numbers

I really like this set and will grab one for our city even though we have the last camper. Not sure why Lego thought they needed 2 instruction books for a 200 piece set. Thanks for the pictures.

In 07 I went into a Lego store to buy a 10179 and the clerk said I should wait about 4 years because a much smaller and completely inferior version was coming out.........so glad that they tried to downs ell me. It has made me much money!!

79010 - The Goblin King Battle is finally completed and what do you know, it's a set with play features that actually work! First instruction booklet has you build the three dwarves with a couple tiny bits of landscape as a sort of warm-up. Second booklet goes through the Goblin King's throne which is pretty darn big. There is a hollow area underneath with some treasure that slides outward and to the one side is a cage I guess you can spring outward. Neither feature makes sense to me but they are there and generally function at least. Last booklet is a goblin bridge which could have been a set in itself and my favorite area. You have a ladder that can be knocked over, a bridge that can get 'broken off' on one side, and a little bucket thingy for the goblin scribe to sit in and be spun around. I could have plenty of fun just with this last section. I've already placed the dwarves in The Unexpected Gathering set I built prior around the little table which is looking great of a scene. The three goblins may be fugly but they're the cool kind of butt ugly fugly. Haha. Each one features unique torso printing which is a major plus in my book and the detail is fantastic. Now I know I said the Cave Troll was fugly but, man, the Goblin King may be even fuglier. So much that I shall call him and all other fugly maxifigures as 'BUB' or "Butt Ugly Bastard". In all honesty, the detail of him is very good in matching the film material mixed with Lego's own sense of style. Another to note, the Goblin King seems to have an easier time standing up whereas the Cave Troll can be toppled over easily. Something about the balance is off I guess. In the end, the set doesn't feel like a $100 set and I would not have bought the one I just finished building unless it was at a heavy discount. However, all characters minus Gandalf are exclusive to the set, there is a wide assortment of pieces in brown, gray, & black, and this is one of the few sets with a more natural looking appearance in its rock formations and such. Well, that was the last Hobbit set I had left to put together until the new ones are released later in the year. I now just have one final item to build. It is the ultimate battle scene between good and evil. The very pinnacle of Lord of the Rings sets. Everything has lead up to this climatic ending. My hands shake with such eagerness and excitement I can practically feel my heartbeat through my eardrums. Oh, that's right. You know exactly what lies ahead. Wish me luck as I venture into the realm of supreme awesomeness as I may not be able to return....

Greater chance of me flipping a couple of these this X-mas if the Camper is indeed SOLD OUT/Retired before summer is over. Hold a couple long term.

Notice from SAH on my VW: backordered TWICE! Originally July 2nd... then 3rd... now 24th! That's a huge leap! I guess they're gearing up for the Mini Cooper August release... Volkswagen T1 Camper Van Item: 10220 Limit: 5 ? Ages:16+ VIP Points: 119 Pieces:1334 Out of stock, expected ship date 24 Jul 2014

Bought a Technic 42000 Grand Prix Racer (MISB) today. 25% off.

WOOT! Let's all make up production numbers Someone start a new thread please.................................

Production is likely up. TLG has been reporting growing sales for years. But if the market is bigger (which I think it is) then the demand for EOL sets should still be there. To steer the subject back to sharing advice ... I recommend keeping track of what you paid for each thing you buy when you buy it. I never did that and now I am having to go back through old order emails to find the purchase price of each thing to determine what the ROI is. Tracking your spending also keeps you more conscious of it and it's more likely to put the brakes on an addiction or just slow you down. I maintained a GDocs spreadsheet of what I was buying for a couple of months (June - August 2013) but I was buying faster than I had the time to update it. That was a clue something was wrong!

It's ok. You don't know people that aren't willing to pay up which is fair enough. Everyone has a different circle of friends and customers. Someone else can also say to you "I don't know anyone who plays with lego sets under the price of $200. This is a grown man's collection, not meant for kids. Only duplo is meant for you." As a matter of fact, those who I've sold to are mainly into bigger sets. Modulars, UCS, tower of Orthanc, TB, Eiffel Tower, etc...so the argument goes both ways. I find it really hard selling smaller sets than I do with big sets. Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

Nope.. They'll cancel it unless you can find a residential address to ship to. As soon as they see payment from a different country (and one with a store) they'll scrutinize your order. Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker

If you accept Paypal as payment then you agreed to a 45 day return policy when you signed up for your account. Next year Hassle Free Returns will be mandatory to sell on ebay USA so you will also be offering free returns to every customer then. 8 defects on ebay over 1 year (unless you sell 400 items every 3 months) and you are permanently banned from selling on ebay (so 4 returns and 4 people asking questions and accidentally opening cases over a 1 year period). Don't kid yourself thinking you have any control over your ebay business and remember it can be taken away at any point in time (same goes for Amazon). This is an EXTREMELY risky business (not mentioned on these boards very often), so never invest hard earned money into it unless you enjoy getting kicked in the teeth. If you are using your own funds you better be looking at very large returns every year to compensate for the very large risk.

If you're referring to me, I did actually run up that debt whilst still having sufficient savings to pay it off. The problem is that paying it off leaves me with very little savings unless I sell the Lego. Since I now have no job, I might start needing the savings. I suppose I have to decide if the work of selling all this for the revenue I am getting is preferable to the work of just getting and having a new job for the revenue that might give. I do think there's time to do steady selling and have a job again. Trouble is that my last job heavily deskilled me and I was depressed for 4 years and occasionally hypomanic (both of which fueled the overspending). I feel better being out of there, but I still don't feel like I have much to show for those 4 years and I don't think I could impress at an interview right now. I'm spending my days on my own software engineering projects now, trying to get my skills back up again. Some of those projects might become a business, but worst case I will have confidence in myself again and a portfolio to show off when I do go for another job. Anyway, I guess the point is that you need to stay conscious of where your most valuable resource (time) is going and try to spend it as wisely as possible.

Box 2 Box 2 has five bag 3's and three bag 4's for 8 total numbered bags Bag 3's contents add a ton of texture to the top and rear of the model. Bag 4's contents include the cover for the bridge scene, the stands, and the nameplate. Box 3 will take a bit longer to update, hopefully I will get it completed before the Holiday weekend..

LEGO usually waits until just before Comic-Con to announce their exclusives and giveaways, but sometimes it's a secret up until people show up at their booth on Preview night. Good luck because SDCC exclusives are a real bear to track down even if you are there in person and LEGO has had some of the hardest exclusives to get in my experience attending the last 4 years.

Try living in the middle east.

Two SSDs from Amazon arrived with minimal packing but survived the trip OK. Four TBs from Walmart also arrived today. Shipped two per case in Lego shipping boxes. Two were minty fresh. One was in good condition. One had some slight crushing on the end but hardly worth complaining about at the discounted price. I regret not ordering more. Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

That's a good one. Now tell that to your nearest Ferrari dealer. "I don't know anyone who spends $300,000 on a car so your dealership should be out of business soon." Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

As someone that is going to try and sell a couple of these down the road, I don't care why someone buys this. It's not my job to educate them on their purchase or what is or is not a "good" deal. I don't care if it's for their kids, themselves, of if they want to light it on fire.

Then you seriously need to rewatch it, because Vader spends most of the movie on the Executor. Here's its badass introduction:

The exclusive set only for vips isn't gonna be a lego ideas set. Its always been some sort of lego "exclusive". I don't see lego granting early access to VIP members for such small sets.

Three nights, three modulars. Not a lot of sleep but great fun!

Yeah I am with you. However, I do think it will be in high demand until then because of the potential for EOL.

Hmm. Well there is this one topic on Eurobricks where someone is building a vampire castle that is very....big. You can see more and better images in his Brickshelf gallery. Here is a nice castle on a mountain side called Kaldrfell Castle and there was a large vampire castle mountaintop MOC thingy I remember seeing on Eurobricks some months ago yet figures I can't seem to find it now no matter what search term I use. Anyway, here is a decent Halloween setup with a few sets and some MOCs to finish off the post with. Ooo, and some Steampunk Vampire Hunters!

Jumbofig, bigfig, colossalfig, gigafig? Or how about my personal favorite of BIG MOTHERF***ING FIG!!!!

I just finished sorting & building a 15 lb lot I got from Goodwill. 4441 Police Dog Van, 4440 Forest Police, 3367 Space Shuttle, 3368 Space Center, 7208 Fire Station, 7287 Police Boat, 7641 City Corner, 7498 Police Station and 12 extra minifigs. Most of the instructions were included and less than a dozen pieces were missing. I paid way more than I normally would for used Lego but it was well worth the $96.

To be honest, our site will protect the seller better than any I know. The Classifieds were designed with sellers in mind, with limited restrictions, regulations and fees. All we ask is one actual photo of the item with a little place card with the sellers name on it. That's it. Everyone will have a very short leash, especially to start, but the procedures will be basically the same as Bricklinks. PayPal, photos, feedback, approval from Admins/Mods of each listing is some ways to make deals happen smoothly, but it is really up to the sellers to make this work. If the majority of sellers abuse the system will poor service and prices, it will fail. Conversely, if the majority of sellers price and ship the items properly, the site will flourish. From a buyer's standpoint, the site will be very much "eBay-like," but we cannot guarantee anything...not at the low fees we will be charging. People will use PayPal and there will be feedback, but the A to Z guarantee that Amazon offers or eBay's known proclivity to side with buyers won't happen. Once again, Bricklink's model will be closer to ours than the other main online retailers. What we hope is that sellers take the savings from fees and commissions and pass them to the buyers, thus creating a marketplace of reasonably priced sets. What I can promise is that Jeff and I will be engaged in the listing approval process and any questionable listings or prices will be scrutinized and the seller will be questioned before the listing is approved. Although our site will work in similar fashion to Bricklink, we will not try to be Bricklink. They are about parts...mainly. We are about sets...mainly. We expect help from the community as well. Help in monitoring other members and listings. Peer pressure is a powerful tool. Time will tell...

@TheViralSmile, I really appreciate the thought and effort that went into your post. Maybe there are things there I can implement at a later time once we see the impact on the site and how people respond. The one thing I want to convey to people here is that the intention Ed and have always had was to make things very simple. Ideas, "gimmicks", etc can all come in later when we see the response. One thing is that this is not going to be or trying to be a site that is going on a feature comparison with Bricklink. I don't want it to be. I want to be known more like eBay where its hey, go buy/sell on Brick Classifieds because its fast, easy and its a site that people know something about buying and selling of LEGO. We will have things that will allow you to give yourself credibility from the start if you are a big time eBay, Bricklink, Brickowl seller. This is an issue that will plague every online merchant forever, including Amazon. While I love Amazon, I know people that have been "screwed" by them and they have sworn off Amazon forever, so even they can lose customers. There will always be idiots that ruin the party.

These will be investment winners...everyone passing on them = deep discounts later + highest selling action figure on the market today = great investment (IMO) Good luck!