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You need to get some polybags or mixels to get hits and raise your search results. If your auctions are getting ignored you are not getting good enough placement. Ebay's search placement relies heavily on amount of items sold, % of sell through, pricing, feedback & scores etc. Even if you have good feedback and scores but your items move slowly due to price or whatever the reason is you will not place higher in the search standings. While you're in this position you need to be cheaper by a decent amount to get any hits. If an item sells for $150 for everyone else it might be $135-140 for you. I know people will get that random sale that goes high and think it does not matter what you price at but for building up higher search placement it is very important to have a high sell through %. In future buy 10-20 of something that sells instantly like RR , Snowman Poly, Series 2 mixels , anything that will get more transactional sales for you and raise your search standings. Your purpose is not making money on those items so just put them at whatever the fastest selling rate is. Those are easy items that don't take any time to pack. If limits are an issue you need to be hitting them each month anyways so you can call each month and have them raised. So if your limits are 100 per month (just using that as an example) and you are only selling 30-40 items you need to sell 60 things to hit that number. Once you hit you call and they will usually go to 250 or so. Now you will have the extra listings to do these type of listings to keep raising your search status without taking away from your valuable listings. That will increase your sales each month. You'll eventually hit TRS just off the amount of transactions which will also increase your search tremendously. Free shipping also raises your search a lot. If you are doing fixed price anyways theres no point not to do free shipping. If you are selling an item at $90 and $10 free shipping you are way better off doing $100 with free shipping. You will sell more guaranteed in the long run. Ebay wants fast free shipping and ads that offer it will receive greater exposure. Now you may not have time or even want to do this but if you are planning on getting more hits and selling more product that is what needs to be done.

You'll definitely be wanting to offload your Lego by the time you hit college. After all you won't be getting your LEGOver with a room full of bricks.

great deals just today at walmart.ca on star-wars sets and few other

Yeah buying is the easiest process (not just LEGO but reselling in general). Selling and dealing with customers and keeping up scores is a whole other level. Then growing to the volume to make it a full time job (if that's your goal). Especially nowadays. There isn't much margin for error / human mistakes. You literally have to be close to perfect which is stressful in its own right. Even after 15 years I'm constantly adapting and changing every few months. Something is always changing on ebay and it will continue to. Preparation to handle volume sales is a topic a lot don't really put much thinking into. Box sizes, shipping supply quantities (if you have 100 of something you can possibly sell it in 1 day and not having enough supplies on hand for all the items in your store could crush your scores), the amount of time to pack to get the items out that day to keep your scores up and customers happy. There's so much more that goes into it in the big picture. Its a process and even to this day I am constantly changing and learning more. Just the set up of your packing station can save an hour or 2 a day. Having all your boxes lined up properly. Packing materials all in one place etc. When you start talking 200 packages a day 10-30 seconds per package of time saved ads up. The supplies you use can change your shipping rates. Just using one over the other can make an item go from from a different class or weight causing you $1-2 more in shipping costs. Add that up over 500 packages and you could be overspending $500-1000 a week. Maybe one day if I get the time I'll write something in depth. After the holidays LOL Anyways sorry for being off topic. Feel free to move to Ebay thread if need be.

Quinjets were avail AT LEGO.com through most of last holiday season, and avail in some retail stores in early 2014. There are a LOT of these out there (170 sellers on Amazon), this is a set people should be looking at selling holiday season 2016. I am not sure how folks have gotten so spoiled that they expect doubling their money on a set that hasn't been retired a year yet!

Way too early to be dumping Quinjets IMO. Happy with my sales overall. Only learning - don't book a vacation the first week of December. Vacation was great, but that was a whole week of not listing anything. :-) We just moved after being downsized in an apartment for 7 months, so next year I'm expecting a bigger year with a better plan.

If you are competing with dumpers, you are buying the wrong things or selling at the wrong time.

Cornering the market on concentrated orange juice?

Series 2 looks to be pushing $80 as a complete set on the last few sold listings. Even saw a flurr on there sold for +$17.

Well we can fix that too if we all get together and buys hundreds or even thousands of the same dolls and action figures and then list them all at the same time.

They don't want to go for the investor's jugular because LEGO enjoys having the LEGO secondary market strong and the values high. One affects the other, regardless of the bans. As I stated to another member recently, if LEGO destroys the secondary market, the perceived value of new sets will suffer greatly. The secondary market LEGO prices are the main reason LEGO can charge(and get it) $400.00 for a box of ABS plastic and Mega Bloks and Kreo-O cannot. The rise of LEGO to #1 stature in the world of toy making and profits walked hand in hand with eBay and the explosion of secondary market sales. As eBay became more popular, LEGO followed suit. Don't let anyone tell you different. Sure, there was a change to a more adult oriented style of set(UCS...Modular...Advanced Models), but did anyone ever really think why LEGO went that route? LEGO likes to ban certain VIP members because they want to make a point of not being excessive and to stop competing with them with currently available sets. As for a new Falcon, I guess the rumor is of a large Falcon playset that will replace the 10188. Even if it's a new 10179, could you blame LEGO for redoing the set? People have had plenty of time to make a profit from that set. Time for another generation of resellers to take advantage of a new version.

I am nearly sold out of my investments this year, and while I can't brag and boast about rificulous through the roof profits, I'd say my profits were decent. Havent tallied them up yet, but not bad for a working mom. Probably would have made a lot more if I could devote more time to it, but between work and the rest of my life, time is a premium right now.

I can't speak for non-US markets. I have no idea how they're performing. I do believe, though, that they are still readily available in southeast Asia and the Pacific (which makes sense for TheDarkness). I mentioned this in a different thread late last night. 9 sets of Series 1 Mixels @ RRP cost $404. 1 SSD cost $399.95. Both retired this past summer. Selling on eBay right now, $120 for Mixels. Sell all 9, get $1,080 for your $400 investment. Your SSD is going to get you between $600 and $700.

LEGO should make stickers available in high-res format so we can print them on sticker paper if they don't want to give us printed bricks. Actually that's what I will do if I open one of my sets with stickers, scan them and only apply the copies.

You guys should try Santa's Workshop on CL if you haven't already. and MC. I NEVER get any action on CL (or from my wife) involving lego but getting a lot of bites on SW and MC through craigs list as of late. Very nice not paying all those fees and shipping!

Ok I'll bite...can you share what this is?

I have 12 sets and was planning to list them when I thought I could restock after Christmas, but I won't take anything less than $250 now. Since eBay isn't close to this, I haven't bothered listing them. With these all retiring (almost for sure) and The End maybe only having a 6 month run (it's "sold out" in the UK), the sky is the limit. I figure retail is at $140 US, and they should easily hit double retail once they are gone for a year. I wouldn't be surprised if a set went over $300 by next Christmas. The minifigure sized sets will only help these, not hurt them. I will be watching both lines closely for signs of weakness, but have we seen any yet? The original 21102 has been out for 2 1/2 years, is still available at Amazon and Walmart for $33, and eBay listings are selling for $45. I wouldn't underestimate these.

Wouldn't call it a mess up. Hard to pass up a retired Train set at 20% off that has been performing well into early retirement.

I sold a set of 4 for $190 today. I've bumped up my listing to $275 and that might even be too low.

Sorry about that Frog!! Sometimes I get a little out of control with the exclamation points!! You must forgive me!!!

I think the set caught many off guard for some reason. I listened and bought as many using profits from about 20 HH. Many of the secondary retailers were done but it was "available now" at Lego. Then it poofed to "Sold Out" just like that. Now to stock up on MF, unexpected gathering (which I think is close to done) and Batcaves. UG is my sleeper of sorts. I know some have bought it but it's a must for me.

I agree and did follow up my statement with something similar: "....just money, space and a decent work ethic if you want to have some success." Again, my point is more that any Joe Shmoe can buy these products from the comfort of their home and join as competition. It's not a specialized growth industry like shale or something that takes training, specialized equipment plus lots of capital, time and work. Now that's not to say that those of us who study the hobby, PLUS have capital, time, space and are self motivated won't be more successful than the average Joe Investor, but just that unsuccessful (and successful) new competition will keep profits lower than they were in the past and to take solace in the fact that for every sale you make with lower profits, you are probably preventing future competition from deciding to join the ranks. Isn't that a nice consolation prize? Eh, maybe not.

10x 9464 vampire hearse for $385 shipped. Brick link sale. Same buyer. These were acquired during the big zoo / vampire hearse bonanza, so a nice little profit indeed. Sadly, I'm down to only nine left.

There will always be "new blood" in any endeavor involving money (or fame). In my former "hobby" life, I was a writer. I guess I "am" a writer because one never really quits and I have several stories forthcoming. I wrote for nearly a year before being paid for a story, and only $.01 a word at that--"semi-pro" rates. It took three years of 2-4 hours a day in the writing game, every day, to publish my first book with a small press... one which actually paid me for my work. After six years, I sold my third professional rate story and qualified as an active member of the Horror Writers Association, a long-time goal. What's my point? What does this have to do with LEGO? Everything takes time. The game often goes to the resilient--those willing to keep working even when everything looks bleak. I know this: I've made more in LEGO the last six months than the first six years of writing AND I'm having more fun doing it.

We generally sort our order sheets by part name, and then generally bag like parts together in the order they appear on the sheet. If you're looking at your order sheet in color order (I think that's the default BL will show you), try changing your settings to by name or by category and see if that makes more sense for what the seller has given you. So, if I have an order for 100 blue 1x1 bricks, those are all going to be in the one bag. An order for 3 each of blue, black, LBG, and green 1x1 bricks, all of those will be mixed in one bag. You shouldn't see the same part in more than one bag unless a) you bought a bunch of them and they won't all fit in the seller's largest sized bag or you bought over a certain number that the seller pre-packs in shipping bags of 50 or 100 or whatever or c) you had more than one batch to your order (i.e, you added to the order after you initially checked out, and repeated some additional parts that were already in there). It shouldn't be too difficult to compare the parts to your order sheet (if the seller didn't provide a detailed packing list you can view it under your orders tab). I can generally inventory what I order pretty quickly.

Today's haul Really good price for the Village Bakery, especially for being in one of the more expensive Lego counties (Sweden) at around $65, same price for the Ninjago 9450. Plus 2 hours of my time on buses and trains. Yes I should get a car. The Lego Serious play is not for investment, but I am really interested in the concept and using Lego in business. 10244 Mixer and 10235 Winter scene is from LEGO Shop at Home so bought during 5% Black friday weekend, plus 15% off all toy stores promo from my credit card, and the free 40107's of course.

I just contributed a blog entry to the site on Mixel investing, in case you haven't seen it yet. LEGO Mixels

New / sealed 10229 winter village cottage for $75. Craigslist. Merry Christmas to me.

Too funny the same thing happened to me just now! I found 2 of them at target plus I had the 20% off coupon and red card.

Or, based on the news, IF he paid for his inventory. With all the gloomin' and doomin' it looks to me like smart long-time investors should be liquidating, cutting their losses, and moving on to the next big thing... but they're mostly not. Now either they enjoy pain, or their psychiatrists haven't moved them past the "denial" stage, or there's still money to be made. The reality appears to be that the LEGO market is still big enough for the big dogs here to keep buying and selling. It's useful to keep in mind that almost everyone offering advice on this site has a vested interest in seeing demand outstrip supply - some may be nice enough, naive enough, crazy enough, dumb enough, to give their true best advice and opinion anyway. Some aren't. My advice from a nearby branch of the field but not in direct competition with many here: if you're an inexperienced investor keep your own records, make your own decisions, and DO look gift advice in the mouth, just in case it has big, sharp teeth.

Buy it, you won't regret it. There's a used one on bricklink for $105 from a US seller, and $115 from a Canadian - that's not too bad. I really like this set, it's recognizable for what it is, and is compact enough to display well for those of use where shelf space is at a premium.

Finally!!!! An AA!!!

Oh goody, I have a few of these tucked away. Sent from my iPod touch using Brickpicker

Agreed. I'm holding the last of my little spacemen with hopes of a future bump. They don't take up any space. And no, that wasn't a bad pun (on purpose).

The sticker issue can play a major role with this set later in the production runs and early retirement when people start to rail on the set if it is indeed an issue. I look at my UCS Rebel Blockade Runner everyday and hate how the older version stickers are peeling off. Will these new stickers peel off after 4-5 years as well? I look at the UCS Slave I and admire it for its accuracy, yet I have to wonder if LEGO could have used bricks in place of some stickers and a fewer printed bricks in important locations. These higher end sets should get higher end bricks. Charge me an extra $10 a set to permanently print bricks.

    If it is your last one, go for it! This set is magic. I had three. Sold them all. Wish I had more. Now they are all gone.

Not sure if this has been posted before, comparison pic of the 2 Slave 1's

I was browsing Amazon listings of Minecraft sets, and noticed that Jinx is selling the Nether for above MSRP. Hello, double standards! http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00EJOCB4G You should call back and ask for the same CSR and refer her to that page.

My holiday sales are through the roof. Leading the charge is a non-lego sku that I bought 667 of from walmart .com, with an average COGS of $12.96 and so far an average sell price of $75.04. I've already sold 425 units. I'll likely sell through before xmas.

Yeah Santa's Workshop is going up now that we got Trekgate to sell out at $148 I was looking at putting up a MISB Robie House as most listings are for damaged boxes and saw that most of those listings are BPers

I heard it has real rocket boosters and you use jet fuel to power it.

I've had some of my $1 start auctions go for $15+ more than a BIN I had listed at the same time, for the same exact item. Thought the low starting bid strategy was a good plan, until I had a few that ended up much lower, the following day. eBay buyers are impossible to figure out.

How can you miss it? It's reposted about every two months.

Things are down - its definitely more sellers. In Christmas last year I had 200 items throughout Christmas and about 10K of inventory. Dec was 20K ish in sales. This year I have just under 500 items, 30K of inventory and sales are on pace for about 24K. It will be like this more and more every year. Just how it is. You have a link to your store? You can PM it but I don't mind helping to sort out if its just how you list, etc. I have definitely figured a lot of things out in getting things to sell.

The problem is that most people don't have the 'investor' mindset. People are myopic, impatient, subjective perception of probabilities is heavily biased, fail to consider opportunity costs and expected rate of returns. For example the principle of optimal selling date: when the expected return on the current value of your asset is surpassed by another one after the transaction costs (if they have the same variance). Simply, if you have the option to switch for another asset with a higher expected return. The grave mistake people do here is taking into consideration the original price they bought the asset at. It doesn't matter! Even if you received it free! Only the expected growth rate matters! They like to tell themselves that 'Oh great! I made 100$ on it! It's enough!'. But if you reinvest that 100$+original price into an inferior asset you just made a wrong decision by selling. The issue here is how you calculate expected return and the corresponding risk. The investment valuation method most people use here, even without knowing its name, is the 'comparables' approach. However, since the LEGO market is not exactly consistent over time and largely volatile, predictions are mostly inaccurate and people have to rely on their instincts. But, the essence is still the same. When you want to make a decision about selling or not, you have to ask this question: if my asset has an expected return R, can I find another one with R'>R with transaction costs (shipping, fees, etc.) accounted for? If not, then just keep the set. Already realised return is irrevelant! For exclusives I found that 2-2,5 years is the sweet spot.

You're probably both right. $24.99 cdn. $19.99 us.

Well, they did it with super Heroes http://www.brickverse.com/2013/09/super-heroes-invade-death-star.html They should totally do the same with Friends

SSD, I wouldn't want to run the risk of going to the post office 81 times. :-)

I would welcome a Viking theme, but closer to Kingdoms in appeal. More historical, less big molds. A LEGO theme based on saxons vs vikings as an inspiration would be awesome.