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If you want to learn about the process of LEGO set EOL., go read the 100+ pages of the SSD and get back to me...

I'm guessing that anyone who bought into Prince of Persia as an investment jumped off a bridge long ago, which is why you don't see many listings for it.

This thread is crazy, it affirms to me two things. Most people in this game have absolutely no plan, and that secondly many people will inevitably loose money than make money. This affirms to me that if one has a well thought out plan, invests what they actually have to INVEST, not the food or rent money and are patient you will be justly rewarded. I had none of this set at the beginning of the year and decided that I wanted exposure to almost every exclusive (barring the newest ones of course) so i added 10, with a plan to get more in 2015 taking me up to 20. If Lego changes the game on me and retires this in 2014 with no additional opportunities to buy then so be it. I am at 13 or 14 PS and have the same strategy. The one I think I will break my 2014 no investment decision on is the TB. I am a few shy of my goal and may round that out. I would rather put money there than on more TH. The upside to the TB is pretty fantastic. I built the TH and it is awesome in design and build, I do hope they retire it this year, that would be great. The big hole in my exclusives plan is the Maersk Ship. Being banned has cost me on that one and I am rectifying that as we speak.

Don't worry, there are plenty of people in line ready to ridicule him.

I know my store has a bunch. I will have to see if they ship to people. I can drive down there.

For what it means, the "Monster fighters" theme has disappeared from the LEGO Shop at Home. This theme went in and out some weeks ago, it looks like this kind of scenario: (lego, 2 months ago) - Ok, the HH is nearly done, we will sell the rest of our stock for halloween and Xmas, that's great. (lego, few weeks later) - Well... it's already OoS ! Afterall it's a great set, bah, it's better than being stuck with. We do not want another kingdom joust. Ok, we have to ask for retailers to return their boxes, they will be glad to make some room. And since it's OoS, let's remove the Monster Fighters theme from the shop. (investors) - The Monster Fighter Theme has been retired ! What's going on ?! Let's buy some more HH ! (lego) - Damned ! It's already sold out ! A lot of people still want that set ! Let's make another production run ! (investors) - The Monster Fighters theme has returned ! Want does that mean ? The HH is still sold out ! (investors, few days later) - (investor A) It's back ! I want some ! (investor B ) I'll wait for double VIP points ! (investor C) No way it's retiring ! (October 1th, investors and AFOLs screaming together) - Heeeeeeeeee ! Double VIP points are here ! PANIIIIC BUUUY !!! (lego) - What the ??? We sold everything within 24h ! Well, we have no more now... let's remove the Monster Fighters Theme. (investors) - (investor A) I got my set ! Seals 38S4 ! (investor B ) My 5 sets have been canceled ! lego, burn in hell ! (investor C) I have plenty ! I told you ! (investor D) I have none ! Will it come back ? (investor E) I don't know ! I hope so ! To be continued...

Hey Guys! On Saturday morning i got an in-stock notification for the Huanted House at TRU.ca, but by the time i got the computer it was gone guessing they only had a couple, maybe even returns. With the States getting some in Target online though i thought this might be Canada's share of the most recent batch. So i was watching the listing all day just in case it popped back in or they allocated more of the stock they just received or whatever. Today i went to check and a link to the listing is gone again, but i did check the RI just for kicks. RI was in stock online and i grabbed a few! There were only 10 total, and i left 5. I also see that some stores have stock with the "pickup in store" option. Nothing close to me, but i did see some stores have stock. Some of you may have some luck! Cheers.

Still upset that that didn't work out, it would have been great haha

I just wanted to point out that I had a great experience with Star City Bricks recently on a Town Hall purchase. He was fair with the Best Offer bid and shipped quickly and properly, in a quality box and packaging. He goes by the name of Kshine on the site. Check out his eBay store...Thanks.

It's LEGO's secret plan to make us all buy Chima this Christmas because it will be the only thing left in stock.

Incredible ! An ugly set retired one year ago does not sell the same price as a cute set retired 6 years ago ?! I'm shocked ! Otherwise, yeah the new modulars will not reach the price of the cafe corner and the green grocer... We have few chances to see the potential of another cafe corner (it can happen though... HH for instance), but it's the same with other lego themes, like SW with the famouse UCS millenium falcon (I mean, 6x MSRP ! Come on !). You'll have to do an investors meeting, close doors and put fire on the building. Although I think that lego provides smaller sets with less bricks, which means some disappointing design, and there are some issues with some ABS bricks... so... the sets we already have in stock still have some nice potential IMO. Just a matter of time, as always.

I found a dol guldur ambush for $5 at Walmart

Fire Starter Set (60088) may be limited edition or at least a name change. I don't see many parents buying their kid a Fire Starter Set. Does it come with matches?

I FBA quite heavily. Any questions I'd be glad to answer and help. There are positives and negatives just as any other marketplace. For me the benefit of not dealing with customers directly and of managing my own shipping schedule is a good fit. That outweighs the higher cost and risk of customer returns. In the customer theft/returns department I've had success so far with amazon reimbursing me for any damage caused by themselves or customers (stolen items, figs, etc). Also keep in mind that amazon has more credit card #'s on file then anyone.. buyers ready to click the one-click button and buy. FBA sellers get a premium for the items due to prime shipping and worldwide reach. So far I'm happy. I do still ebay a bit as well but FBA gets the majority of my time and investment.

Eh I have about 100 of these. I am sticking with them. I don't think those new figures will have near as much effect as people fear. 6866 always have better potential, but in reality it has not suffered all that much from the release of the new set, though those figs are different. In reality, I expect this to be gone by Christmas, and then I hope to offlad them at 45-50$ each throughout next year. Thats absolutely fine with me. Maybe its too optimistic, but if you want to question it, look at that stupid Loki Truck set from Iron man. Its crap, all the figs are in other sets - still sells for $40 on Ebay. Ill take my chances.

Source: The Brick Fan

You're the one who wants to write a blog about it.

I knew we should have kept that black book a secret....

I hadn't considered if it was opened. I'd assume not. However, I just sent an email asking. Thanks for the tip.

I understand the SSD is a cautionary tale here, but there is also a (conflicting) precedent with the GE in late 2011. At that point the GE had been in production for about 20 months, and this was before the shenanigan days where sets retired on a regular cadence (Death Star and Fire Brigade had begun to buck the trends). Unexpectedly, the Grand Emporium showed up as Sold Out on LEGO Shop at Home due to high demand. It was already gone from TRU and Walmart, only Target had it in stock. Within one day the stock at Target was wiped out. Investors swarmed the Lego B&M stores and the set was gone. LEGO Shop at Home representatives over the phone said it was no longer orderable and told buyers that it was not coming back. Lego Store Employees told customers that it "looked like it was gone". This sold out panic lasted for about 10 days to 2 weeks...resellers/investors tore their hair out and prices started climbing on eBay and Amazon. Well, it ended up coming back on Lego's site in a backorder situation. Other retailers didn't get any new stock until after the new year, but it did come back. SSD - we expected this set to go in the timeframe it did. Many predicted it would not last through 2013, so there was anticipation out there that it was going to retired. HH - This set was accurately predicted to retire in 2014. No surprise except that it didn't make it to late October. Still, this was a forecasted retirement. TH - This isn't fitting in with expectations, and we are getting mixed messages from some "sources"...hard to tell if this is an out-of-order EOL (seems strange), or a panic buying situation (more likely?)

The Lego Group is definitely trying. I remember rolling my eyes when I heard about "Chima". They only changed one letter, for Pete's sake, and they only bumped it by one slot in the alphabet!

It is entertaining never the less

Speaking of it's happening....... "It's Happening Again." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2782540/Twin-Peaks-creator-David-Lynch-confirms-rumours-classic-set-return-cryptic-tweet.html Oh, Happy Day!

Lol congrats in bringing PS to 30 days backordered status at S @ H :D :D

When I look at the Grand emporium, Pet shop and Town hall, to me they look so oldish compared to the Palace cinema and the Parisian restaurant... When I read "the PS will retire in january with the GE" it didn't make sense because the TH was still here with it's brown and grey brick and old (lego) design. The inside is so poor, too. But when some guys said that, maybe, the three of them will retire at the same time, suddenly it made my mind blow. I still think the modulars will follow the classic 1 set / 1 year retirement model, but I don't know why... I also think it's possible to see those three suddenly disappear. Is the investor part of me who wishes it can be true ? Or is it the builder part, thinking that those sets look quite old fashionned ?

we have to assume he is. as you know, amazon doesn't take lightly "seller who cancels the order or who does not fulfil" his metrics will drop like a rock if he cancels them. i don't think he would take a chance being not allowed to sell during holiday season...

Love the snowplow also, and I know my 6 year old is going to have a field day with the little port-o-potty set. Can hear the laughing now.

So I guess LEGO is just going to retire the modular theme altogether?

Checked the TRU across the street and they had stock even though online said they had none. Be sure to check! This is a great way to get the bricktober set.

actually you are somewhat incorrect and somewhat correct. They charge you a monthly storage fee based on how much cubic feet of storage you take up.There is no difference between regular and oversized except that one takes up more cubic feet then the other. The difference between regular and oversized is in the handling fees that they charge you when they ship your item. A oversized item (every medium to large lego set is oversized even a 9462 is oversized )The storage fee is significantly significantly higher in the fourth quarter. The long term storage fee ( think about 22 dollars for a helms deep) is only after 12 months not 10. Also for every return they charge you a return processing fee (about 5 dollars except on a very low value item) plus they charge you to ship it back to you. Even if you ask they to destroy it they charge you a disposal fee. Smitty I used to send high value items but I got burned twice with pieces missing. I really tried hard to get reimbursed from amazon because they never should have excepted a return when the customer stole part of my item. It did not work for me and I tried multiple times with different customer service agents.If you somehow get them to reimburse you please let me know the trick.(through pm ) As for what smitty said about being careful in nov I second that through bitter experience. When Microsoft came out with the Kinect in nov.it was going for a 100 dollar profit(after factoring in all fees etc.). I sold 11 of them through fba. The return period on fba items is through the end of January. 8 of the 11 people returned it in January. Only 2 of the 8 returned the one that was sold them. (Every Kinect had a unique serial number and I recorded mine before sending to fba -there was no commingling on kinects every one had a individual sticker). Every retail store except amazon attached the serial number to your receipt so I got stuck with 6 kinects as they didn't match my receipts. I had to sell them at a loss because they were available everywhere in january. After factoring my initial cost to ship to amazon and the cost to ship to the customer plus amazons return fees adding the charge to ship back to me plus selling at a slight loss to undercut retail(then paying commission and shipping charges on top of the slight loss) my 1100 dollar initial profit turned into a 500 dollar loss all because I used fba and lost control of the return process. there can be extremely large drawbacks if you aren't careful.

Ok course. Let's all stop investing in Modulars. It's not worth it. Really. You can trust me. It's written right here, on the Internet.

Remember, "retired" is a specific term referring to product availability from LEGO itself. Once they officially retire a set, none will be sold online or made and shipped to retailers. You can get the retirement date from a site like brickset.com. However, any out in the wilds will still be there, and as HK mentioned, poor sellers can languish long after official "retirement". A good example of this is Lone Ranger Silver Mine Shootout, which has an official retirement date of Dec 2013, but is still available at many retailers, live and online - nearly a year later. Another "popular" example is Battle at Weathertop, which was retired from LEGO but was still found in stores for months after. I don't believe LEGO officially retires a product LINE in swoop, sometimes it takes forever for them to officially retire a set that's long gone. It just kind of happens when all the sets in a line eventually sell out/are stopped being produced. Monster Fighters trickled, Lone Ranger trickled, with a few sets still being produced after a few others retiring, and Galaxy Squad is working the same way. For example, Star Slicer (70703) is officially retired, but most of the Galaxy Squad line is not. Galaxy Squad seems to be following the pattern of Monster Fighters: They become TRU exclusives after other retailers stop selling them. And we "unofficially" declare a line retired when it becomes obvious they aren't creating more sets for it, which seems to be the case with GS. For example, if you go to Haunted House on SHOPLEGO, and click on the "Monster Fighters" tag, it will bring you to the main page, telling you Monster Fighters as a theme is no more. Same with Lone Ranger. However, doing the same with a Galaxy Squad set will bring you to 8 remaining sets, 2 of which are call for availability. So with a couple sets already retired, no new ones being released, it's safe to assume the line is being retired. If you look up Lone Ranger Train Chase, it still says "Retiring Soon" even though this set hasn't been avail for sale since December 2013. We all know it is "retired". Using Monster Fighters as an example, I suspect TRU will try to blow out the remaining Galaxy Squad stuff during this holiday season. they had a lot of sales on MF things during last years season, and very few sets made it through. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Castle theme will replace Galaxy Squad as the TRU "exclusive" line going into next year.

Just had an FBA mandated SSD return last week. The item is now in my inventory as defective. I just requested it be sent back to me and will probably be missing parts. I will have to call Amazon and fight with them to get a refund when I get it back. That is absolutely the worst part about FBA and it really makes me angry that they accept returns when items have clearly been ruined/broken/destroyed by the customer and also when the customer can pretty much steal whatever portion of the toy they want. The only thing to stop that is a Amazon limit of 50 returns per account before they actually ban you. That obviously never discourages anyone and the 2 month return window is the worst. Selling volatile items via FBA in Nov/December can really come back to bite you. Some of the unscrupulous/savvy persons will buy the item in January at retail and drop it right back on your account. Anyways, it is great for people with time constraints, but I wouldn't advise it for anyone with a heart condition .

Everytime I'm reading about dutch discounts I'm getting jealous...

But crying at the low U.S. prices still feels good ^.^ "What you bought XYZ for retail price at 99,99$??? I found it at target for 79,99$!" - "You're kidding right? Found some for 59,99$ at walmart clearance!" - "Haha, guess I'm lucky, got 10 for 30$ at a garage sale" - "I found 100 MINT boxes under the brooklyn bridge and some dudes helped me carry them and bought me free milk shakes and a diamond-studded watch and 10 georgeous ladies gave a me a foodmassage afterwards, did I mention that it was with happy ending?" At the same time European are like "Yeah found XYZ (note: the same set!) for 148,99

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Super-Star-Destroyer-10221?_requestid=1294473 So yes.

I was at a Lego Store today, the same Lego Store where I bought 2 on Friday, and not only were the two I had left on the shelf gone, but the spot was no longer there, disappearing into time and space. Take it with a grain of salt, but the employee there (not the manager I usually chat with) said that it was retiring. I said, "Before the Pet Shop?" and he said that the Pet Shop was retiring in January. For double points, I prioritized Town Hall and Pet Shop because I wasn't sure either would be around when the next double points rolled around. Town Hall was 1a for me because of the limit of 2 at SAH. Pet Shop was 1b. I have plenty of HH and T1. I am not buying SC, AA, or Orthanc. I would like to get 1 or 2 more WVM, but I don't like the set and I do think it will be around for a few more months. My next priority is R2. Now what do I do with 8 of those little elf sets. Sell now or hold?

I agree......to disagree

It seems LEGO has made many exclusive and hard to find sets a two set maximum in the US. If a set goes from 5 to 2, it is a stock issue...usually lack of stock, so it can be either a set near retirement or an underproduced set like the Tumbler. I look at a bunch of indicators and make an educated decision based them and the history of the set.

Thanks DNIM

I know I have a problem - but after reading of your efforts, I am thinking maybe not so much If it is getting you more TH's, they are very well deserved.

this GE photo would be a fine addition to the inappropriately titled "THREAD OF PACKAGING EXCELLENCE" http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/10190-thread-of-packaging-excellence/

The blue pigeon lands at midnight...I repeat...The blue pigeon lands at midnight.

On the one hand, I really like these for both investing and collecting. On the other hand, I hate them if it means Lego won't do a second mini-modular set to follow up with the first one.

Two stock brokers are in a bank, when, suddenly, armed robbers burst in, waving guns and yelling for everyone to freeze. While several of the robbers take the money from the tellers, others line the customers, including the two stock brokers, up against a wall, and proceed to take their wallets, watches, and other valuables. While this is going on, one of the stock brokers jams something into the other stockbroker's hand. Without looking down, the second stockbroker whispers: "What is this?" The first stockbroker : "It's the $100 I owe you!"

I disagree now sugar. You call me I'll tell you when GE, HH, SC any ol' set you wanna talk about gonna retire and how much it will be worth in 6 months baby.

Just as I pointed out that image uses someone's custom modular blurred in the background and is not official, here is my proof. >Pumpkin Factory by RedCoKid