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Hey Guys! So a couple months ago i started the long painful process of brickbuilding the 10179. I had many of the parts already from having a very large collection of light gray pieces, and i had been starting to really see the imperfections and scale issues with my 7965 Falcon on display (granted it's not a display model by any means, but it was better than spending thousands for the 10179). 7965 was also the set that brought me out of the dark ages. After trying for month to get a used one on CL or Kijiji, i caved and decided to start. Once finished i realized it was much larger than i thought, and had trouble finding a spot to display it. When i finally did find a spot to display it flat; it really didn't seem to do it justice and i began researching other ways to go about displaying it. Typically i'd use 2x4 clear bricks to prop ships up into more interesting angles, but 10179 would just be too heavy for that. Sure enough there were a couple search results of people mounting it on the wall, and one specifically on YouTube that had it mounted in a way that gave it mobility by using a TV wall mount. I decided this is what i was going to go for vs. a static mount as it allowed it to move into many angles, and the user had a YouTube video with great images of what i'd have to do. This took a good few weeks to complete as there were countless issues that arose. The YouTube video does not give exact details, and finding similar/like parts he used wasn't possible. In the end my mount construction resembles his, but is certainly a bit different. While the 10179 has a very strong inner frame; there are many parts i had to reinforce with more technic liftarms and even rubber bands (i'm looking at you rear underside section). I do believe i was able to find close to the exact same mount he used, but my brackets and the LEGO part of it have been constructed differently. I also added an RGB strip to the back engines to add some flare And no it has not fallen yet haha, but i do check it every so often to see if anything is bending/giving. The first night of it being up i was dreaded of being woken up by a terrifying crash I intend to paint the LED power cord the same colour as the wall to hide it. Anyways i thought some of you might be interested in seeing it. I think this really does the model justice (or at least saves some space!). ** Edit: forum upgrade seems to have lost the pictures... go to this post for new ones. **

Hello, Thank you for writing regarding your selling account. We have reviewed this situation, and decided to reactivate your account. You are now welcome to sell items on our site. Thank you for your business on Amazon.com. Regards, Seller Performance Team Amazon.com

Its Like I said every would be investor says that they can play the waiting game, but it boils down to around 75% of investors crack within a year or so.

I am just going to leave this here

A nice surprise: Hobbit Barrel Escape for $48 shipped

i swear to god if you don't greeble the wall to look like the back of a star destroyer bridge i'm going to come to your house and take your mancard and the 10179

I wait till the EOL because I'm a procrastinator. ..........I'm procrastinating work .....surfing the brickpicker forum....

Welcome to another Aussie, The consensus seems to be that the majority of sets appreicate most shortly after they go EOL. Purchasing as close to this as possible has a twofold benefit. #1 - Retailers are more likely to be clearing out discontinued lines to make room for the new sets, so you can often get some decent discounts. #2 - You don't have your money tied up for too long before sets are out of retail circulation.

crossed another big set off my out of the darkages brick bucket list . local like new grand carousel 10196 box opened, bags opened but never assembled, original sails still sealed in plastic, instructions mint , motor works, box is also in great shape for a box queen like me. bags have been sorted by color with piece of paper in each bag listing each specific part # and the # of parts and a check next to it. $1000 off cl - were asking $1500 on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-LEGO-CREATOR-GRAND-CAROUSEL-10196-MOTORIZED-3263-PIECES-/121429381704?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item1c45c15248 not the lowest price for a used set but this is in exceptional state especially the sealed sails and state of the instructions i'm pretty happy despite the profit draining... still this set even used will continue to rise in value so not necessarily a bad decision. selller had great reviews on ebay so i'm trusting all the parts are here - here's hoping. basically it looks like 3 stickers were put on then abandon ship. all the minifigures are here too. best part is we met in the parking lot of the greatest pie stand in the pioneer valley - Atkins Farm so besides getting a great lego set i got fresh raspberry pie.

I am glad you like the Brick Trader feature. Brick Classifieds will be a whole new site and not even be attached to Brickpicker or the forums at all. Over time elements of both sites will cross paths with information, but they will be their own platforms.

Here is another time lapse build for your viewing pleasure.....

We appreciate you wanting to take part in helping shape the future of Brick Classifieds. Ed and I want to try and get it right (well the best we can anyhow). We invite Brickpicker members that are currently active in listing their products in any of the online venues to talk to us about what works, what doesn't, etc. Some features you will have to go into with an open mind and trust that Ed and I want to try something new and not just duplicate what is already out there. Will we get it right 100% of the time, no, of course not, but it never hurts to try. We value your time and opinions. Don't be afraid to bring anything up, you never know if it will be a big factor in the growth of Brick Classifieds. Thanks Jeff and Ed Note: We made this discussion public due to so many requests of people that want to take part in this. Ed suggested it is better to get as much feedback as possible. If you have any other suggestions that you don't want to make public, feel free to send me a PM.

Before I get started, I'd like to thank Jaisonline for letting me use his review technique and for bringing us some fabulous reviews that I'm sure we all enjoy! In this review, I'll be building the 3828 Air Temple from the Avatar theme! I got this set rather unexpectedly at a yardsale for $10 dollars. It was in a box that also had a few other sets (incomplete and complete.) Thankfully, this set was mostly complete, and was just missing a few other pieces, the box, and the instructions. I've been able to complete the temple and I think that it is definately worth the thirty dollar retail price. There are 42 total steps for the temple. I'll start by building the temple, then the minifigures, and then the extras. (Thanks to Bricklink for the box image) If you would like to view the instructions, they're available on Brickset to download. Bricklink parts inventory Brickpicker price guide Exclusive pieces (minus minifigures): (Thanks to Brickset for the parts images) Exclusive minifigure: Sokka (Thanks to Brickset for the minifigure image)

I'm keeping every single one I have stashed for the the long term.

Actual photos are certainly preferable to stock photos. They will convey a sense of being more professional, which is especially important when you are trying to build buyer trust with a new purchasing site. Also, listings with actual photos outsell those with stock photos - so it is more than worth the time spent.

I thought so too. After sending the receipts Friday they emailed me back Sunday asking for one I was missing. I got it off my lego profile and sent it in, a day later I'm back. A special thanks to LEGO for keeping all my LEGO Shop at Home order history online

Congrats on getting unbanned! I'm really surprised on how fast Amazon reviewed you account and made a decision. I thought it would takes weeks before you heard a response from them.

triple like

Well it's a risk we may have to take. I am not going to hide the fact that we will be trying to do a few different things here and there. My goal was to never just go out and duplicate these other sites. There will be things you like and don't. The beauty is, we are allowed to make changes. But also, over time, maybe if you like what's going on here and things are working out, perhaps you will find a way to change the way you do things. It's like that commercial where the guy doesn't invest in Twitter because he says.. "who is going to use something with 140 characters". I bet a lot of people thought that was a bad idea. Will this be the next Twitter? Not exactly, but it will be a product that will show people what they are getting when they hit that purchase button.

This is a very nice comment and I'm sure many of us will appreciate that kind of personal feeling. Comradly

Jabba's palace is now $175 shipped on Amazon, and ebay is catching up as well. (just sold one for 155 shipped) These are iconic OT sets and will continue to rise. I could easily see Jabba's Palace at $250-300 in less than 12 months. once the Rancor disappears it will be $100 easy. As to those that say it has a low piece count, it also has a HUGE maxi figure. Imagine how many bricks that would add to the total if it were brick built. This is a clear case where set WEIGHT should be used in place of piece count.

Yes, Lego will produce a high number of these sets. I do think demand will exceed supply on this set though. It may be gone well before Xmas this year. I wouldn't want to be caught without it if it doesn't come back next year. I will buy 2-3 just to be safe.

Right. Let's get the main site operating. If it works and people use it and like it, then of course there will be a mobile app.

Won't surprise me at all if this is sold out before Christmas. I also have never seen it restocked once it sold out for the year either. History says that when it's gone for the year, it's gone.

I think a big factor thing hurting Rancor Pit's sales (and price) here in the US is that you can't buy Jabba's Palace anymore. I think once the Pit goes EOL, it should shoot right up to US$70 or $80. But, I'm new at investing so my forecasts should be ignored. (seriously) But speaking as a buyer, I can't imagine buying a Jabba's Palace without a Rancor Pit. My son wanted Jabba's Palace for his birthday (about 2 months after they completely disappeared... thanks again, son), so I went on ebay and ponied up about US$140 for one, and immediately thought, "How can I buy this without getting a Rancor Pit? You know he's going to have the Palace finished about 10 minutes, and then he's going to start asking for a Rancor Pit... What's going to happen when Jabba pulls the trap door? Luke is going to take 1 step down to the surface of the table below and just stand there?" So of course, we got them both. We built the Palace first, and it's great - no question. Then built the Rancor Pit, and I was surprised - it's quick but a fun build. As you're building it, it has a certain satisfying "sturdiness" about it. And the play features are great too.

The EU markets are running behind US markets. You will undoubtly also have seen on the local second hand sites the explosion of people dealing with Lego. I think we just need to be even more patient then our trans-oceanic neighbours.... but it will come As for the crazy deals. You're right that it also stuns me at what cheap price people from US can sometimes buy a set, but then again, I can not complain about certain prices I paid for some of my investments. It doesn't hurt looking at other countries like Germany. I order alot from sites like TRU and have also started with buying from Amazon.de and the price is cheaper than if I would buy it in Belgium. I think you state correctly not to buy too much. I have a 'rule' of buying 5 of the large sets (SSD,HH, DS, etc) and about 10 of the smaller sets and I'm confident I'll be able to sell them all. Basically.... I said it in the beginning and i'll say it again, you'll need to be patient. Try to sell via other channels instead of moneywolf Ebay. I'm sure there are some national selling sites you can use that are free. Granted ,you won't get the top price, but at least you won't have to pay x% of it to ebay and your customers will see a lower price then what they find on ebay.

I think that - for anyone who is not from the US - the Lego investing could be extremely challenging. This is something I often think about, but after reading Gondorian's posts, I thought to share my feelings with you all. As a foreword, I am a sales executive (I am in the wine business), and I travel abroad a lot. USA is one of my most frequent destinations. This to say that I have a deep knowledge of selling techniques (and I deal with Americans a lot ). Said so, whilst I think I am an experienced "seller", I still did not figure out how to make decent and constant profits with Lego in my country (Italy). Our market is infinitesimally smaller than US market in general, and for Lego in particular. We have a plethora of unsuccesful Ebay auctions, because the lack of demand is not driving prices down to more reasonable levels. Sellers are just asking A LOT of money for sets nobody is going to buy at that price. I am not talking about the iconic sets we all know, but even smaller or more recent sets are just too expensive. Furthermore, the only and unique source of reasonable discounts (30% or more) is Amazon.it. We are missing the "crazy" (for our standards) discounts the US fellows are having almost daily. We are missing Target, Walmart, and the other big and aggressive retailers. B&M clearances do happen, but it is totally random, so, the chances of getting profit from smart buys are fairly limited. The other point is that Lego Movie in Italy was not as succesful as in other countries, and we all know this helped US sales a lot. Finally, I think that European investors should look at US investors profits, resources, storage rooms and inventories in a detached way, otherwise we would just buy too much, and sell too little. We are not selling in the US, and we have to deal with it with no regrets...just a little bit of envy I know that there are other Italians and EU members here, and I would like to hearing their opinion too. Ciao!

In the beer game we got a name for this. Grandmule

I would think BP buyers will be more informed, but I think it would be nice for the basics to be included automatically in a listing for sets, at least when choosing "new - MISB" and "new - damaged box". I always include element count, number of minifigures and year released for all my set listings. I know year released isn't vital, but I like grandma to know there's a reason the set is three times more expensive than the ones she's seeing in the stores. Regarding checkout, I know you mentioned being like Etsy, so does that mean that shipping and everything related to it will all be done through BP? It's been a while since I had my store open on BrickLink so maybe it's changed and I don't know the process on Brick Owl, but I always found shipping to be cumbersome on BrickLink. I like how Etsy is like eBay in that you know when someone has paid, shipping labels can be printed directly from the site, marked as shipped and tracking numbers are automatically done. I hope that will be the case.

I live by the "if it's cheap enough buy it" strategy personally, when I wander through an isle at walgreens and see clearance sets for $5 that are normally 24.99, i buy them all, because even if they take years to EoL, I could always flip them for 20 and pocket the difference point is if you amass a collection of cheap sets if you ever have to liquidate or need cash fast, it's easier to get than waiting for a set that you bought for $150 to be worth 300 to sell but i also have a good holding of sets that are waiting for EoL that I buy because I'm sure they'll be worth it, point is, diversify, buy what you want, and remember if the bottom ever falls out of the "lego investing market" it's still fun to play with your stock

Because most people do not have an unlimited budget, there is nothing wrong with buying when ever you see a good deal, and if you have the additional money, who cares right? Any profit down the track is better than no profit at all. There is nothing wrong with this type of strategy if your willing to wait a while before seeing any profit. But obviously the idea is to make as much as possible in the shortest possible timeframe, to maximize your investments. So with a little bit of research and not much effort most people do just this by looking into near EOL sets. Why wait 4 years when you can wait 2? Edit: having said this, being in Australia, we don't really have the same type of luxury as our US counterparts by waiting right up to EOL to buy sets. It will be likely that there will be no suppliers left by that time. A good idea is to wait to the final estimated production year of a certain set and buy as much as you can afford in that year. As sets are constantly being retired, there will always be near EOL sets to purchase.

Oh boy - picked up a bunch of series 1 Mixels and a SM v. Lex Luthor Power Suit (impulse buy) Also, on clearance: Rancor Pit, 2x Batcave, 2 x Gorzan's Gorilla Mech, X-Wing.

I ordered some boxes from the usps site last week. They came in 2 days.

Unless I'm reading this comment wrong, I think you are missing the point. In order to be successful, you need to create tools to make it easier for sellers, not easier for Bricklink. Bricklink does not own my inventory, I do. This was debated quite a bit with the ownership change and the subsequent launch of BrickOwl. I'm hopeful that you have plans to create an API for inventory and order management. I'm willing to be a beta tester and manually manage inventory for a short period, but manual inventory management across 10,000 lots with 500 orders a month is not viable for a store my size. I do agree that that you shouldn't want to take any responsibility for syncing services. However creating the API and letting sellers do whatever they want with it is one of the reasons why BrickOwl has become a significant threat to BL.

A Lego technic 8053 mobile crane (2010) used, complete with box and instructions for 10

It's hard to beat 3% fees when items sell and then fees aren't due until fees are over $5. However I have total faith in the Mack Attack. I love competition. It's better for everybody

This is harder to classify than you might expect. The first reason is regional access. In Germany, BL stores have access to one or more gray sources (or at least sources they play close to the vest), and you have multiple stores competing with 1+ million parts. ChromeBricks has about 5.8m parts right now. Outside of Germany, there is no parts source available to sellers, so a large store is probably 500k+. The critical mass to sustain regular orders seems to be about 50-60k, so I'd say that 50k-500k are "medium" sized stores. 5k-50k are "small, but serious stores". Less than 5k are usually hobby sellers trying to unload excess parts from their collections or make a quick buck. The second issue is lot quality and lot diversity. Because there is no easy source (excluding Germany), medium and large stores build their inventories up in different ways. Some stores are aggressive parters, buying 20+ copies of a set at a time and parting them in. The best example of this is PBD which was "going out of business" for a year and liquidating but changed their mind recently. The challenge with this model is that the demand for specific parts such as basic 1x4 bricks does not match the distribution of those parts in sets. So your store ends up holding 20x lime wedges for years while the 20x blue 1x4's will sell within a week. Over time, this leads to huge inventories (PBD is 2.3m) but little of it is liquid. Other stores have old recycler stock that is lingering. An example of this is Lonely Brick which has 1.1m parts, but 20% of that number is in 4 lots. Anyone need 70,000 reddish brown 1x1 cones? Another band of sellers are PaB wall miners. The majority of their store inventory comes from buying PaB cases from LBR stores (although Lego is really trying to weed this out with changes to the policy this year). This allows them to build up decent inventory quantities, but the variety of lots available is the same across many stores, so the price competition on those lots can be fierce (read: no margin). Every store finds their niche, which makes it such a fascinating marketplace. We try to use a balance of methods that keeps our inventory diversified and attractive to buyers. We've found that its really hard for us to keep more than 1m parts in inventory because they turn over faster than we can restock. An alternate way of looking at BL store sizes is to analyze selling feedback volumes for the past month. You can see the sellers ranked by feedback here. "Large" stores are getting 200+ feedback per month, which equates to roughly about 300 orders per month. "Medium" would be 100-200. "Small" would be 20-100. "Hobby" would be less than 20. When you put the inventory number side by side with the order volume number, it sheds more light. For example, Sir Troy has 1m parts but only 50 feedbacks posted in the last month, meaning that his store is not very active despite the parts count. If you end up publishing data on this, I'd be very interested in reading the findings. -Jason

If I told my parents about it, they'd come home with Galaxy Squad out of spite. They'd say it was payback for one of the times I ran up the long-distance bill.

A lot of people "new to the game" have completely unrealistic expectations of returns/time. And a lot of folks overextend themselves for various reasons (can't pass up a deal, buying hysteria, poor financial planning) and are forced to sell sooner rather than later when bills come due. Also, I think there are some veterans who are used to being able to sell stuff faster because there were less resellers/people holding on to sets, so they are also used to seeing their sets appreciate faster - and they haven't quite adapted yet. It's a much different landscape than it was even 2 years ago for various reasons. Opinions are worth what it costs to give them, but I don't see any way this set isn't a $350 set by next holiday season. And will probably be $250ish THIS holiday season which is still a fine return, but waiting another year for full maturation is the play here. I have a nice little supply but I certainly wish I had been able to get more.

Lego posted this event on Facebook about building a mini Ghost ship. Looks like Ghost ship on 10/11 and Bat Signal on 10/18. Perhaps the Bat Signal can guide the Ghost Ship. https://www.facebook.com/events/275621232637987/

Thanks again Wal-Mart app! 6 x 75018 - Star Wars: JEK-14's Stealth Starfighter - $20 each 2 x 79007 - LOTR: Battle of Black Gate - $29 each 1 x 70006 - Chima: Cragger's Command Ship - $40 each 3 x 75000 - Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas - $5 each KMart.com 3 x 21107 - Minecraft Microworld - The End - $26 each (after $10 off $75 and points, also received $20 in points on $75 purchase with a stacked coupon)

Have to share this story. I may have created a monster. I told my parents (who are in their mid-70's) about the RI. They live in a different state than me, so I sort of half-jokingly told them they should start stalking the local legoland discovery center to see if they can get any. Well they did. My mom showed up the day the truck came in and they told her they had them but hadn't unloaded yet and try back later. So she has been calling and calling and called me to tell me today her and my dad showed up, in her scooter, with a packed store. She asked the cashier for the RI and he said they had some in back. She asked how many they had and he told her 8 but there is a limit of 2. She gave him a song and dance about how she has a ton of grandchildren and she has promised them this set and she will be damned if she disappoints her grandchildren. She told them she has been calling and calling and this is ridiculous and "I want all 8!". they told her there was a limit because people were reselling them to which she replied "Do I look like I am someone who is going to sell these? What am I going to do go on the corner and sell them from my scooter?" She walked out with all 8. The moral of the story? No more sympathy for grandma. Grandma > Reseller, especially when playing the look at me I am just a grandma card. Anyone know any quality makeup artists? Johnny Knoxville in Bad Grandpa can do it, so can I!

I finally pulled the trigger on the 10228 haunted house today through LEGO Shop at Home. Should get it just in time for Halloween. Spaceman promo too!

Are you sure you really want to do this!!! It starts with a few sorter trays and rack likes that. Then bigger trays and racks, bigger boxes and dividers, then bigger shelves. The 2x2 bricks then get put in different boxes from the the other bricks then all the different types of bricks get there own box then each colour gets its own box. Its a natural progression and time consuming. I have made use of hundreds of empty butter containers, washing capsule containers anything we use around the house, ice cream containers etc etc

Yes, you just have to look at the underside of each piece. They're clearly different. The point isn't that they look the same when built, the point is that they're not the same. Otherwise they wouldn't have different part numbers. These are collectible items and collectors are a very anal bunch when it comes to stuff like this. Most people who buy these with subbed parts won't care less or even notice, but it just takes one guy to check the inventory on BL and decide to be an ***hole about it. Especially if he's just paid $80 for $15 worth of parts. To a collector, 100% means just that. Not 99.5% or 98%, but 100%. I'm just sayin'...

Bought 2 x Ninjago 2505 Garmadon's Dark Fortress (NISB) for 58 euro each today.

I figured I'd post an update for those interested in my trials and tribulations ... Total sets sold now: 17 Purchase price:

at today's price for google shares vs. me getting to pick the sets i want, i'll take the legos. for a 3-5 year investment. but really, i'm doing both.. i own lego sets and a variety of stocks, including google. you don't just diversify the sets you own, you diversify your entire investment portfolio.

You speak of the stock market as though it can't drop. I really hope you are careful. Speculative stocks are not safe. Sure, the past year has been great and hindsight tells us all that shares in Apple would have been much smarter than investing in Lego since last July (it went from $400 to $650ish before the stock split) but you never know where the next crash is lurking. This whole market has been talked up way beyond where it should be and it will come crashing down, but only when the big boys are already out. I got into Lego because, to me, it felt safer than stocks. I could not take the anxiety of being in the stock market, with the investment value so far out of my control. I would watch the news every day, read MarketWatch.com, and my emotions would be aligned with whatever the market was doing that day. It was hell. Sure, it was great when I was winning, but surprises can come at any time. And, like Lego, you only realise the gains when you are out. You have to get out to confirm the win. I got out with

I can relate to what you write Gondorian. I also have spent alot of money (almost 18k) on lego the last six months. I have been selling a bit too and I made some profits (not even 1k). So not something to write home about. I have started a topic called "insecurities and doubts" some weeks ago cause I also was doubting if I was doing the right thing. I know constrain myself by not buying anymore everything like a chicken without a head. Some things that I keep to mind are: Yes, I am tempted to buy other 10 SSD's cause I know they will do good. I have only three of them and when going EOL I will loose money cause I did not buy more of them when I had the chance. But this thought is wrong. When the SSD goes EOL now. I will have three. And with this three I will make some profit. And then I am happy with that. I can miss some money but I am not Emazers. Also I have a family too, and a house to pay, etc. I am very sorry to hear what happened to you. I really think it can happen to any of us. I hope maybe with Brick Classifieds you can unload a fair part of your investment without to much hastle. I would call to out to all the brickpickers in your area to help you whenever possible. Cause I also think we all have some influence on people's buying habits. Good luck and I hope you can solve your problems.