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Plenty of times on the forum, we see members pointing out good and bad deals from Craigslist listings. Recently I started to spend a little more time on the site to see what is going on. Overall I find some pretty cool finds from time to time. All aren't in my area, but I do like to look and see what is around. I put together a simple feature that will allow you to select several Craigslist regions and be able to look at all of them at the same time. You can also filter the listings by region easily to make it a little easier to see what is available in your area. This is a work in progress, but here are some features that I will be adding to it real soon: Keyword alerts New posts in your selected region alerts A page to view all the available LEGO listings in ALL areas so you can get a quick glance at everything that is going on across Craigslist Need to add pagination for those that are looking for a lot of areas and it downloads a lot of listings. I will have a lot of these features in by tomorrow, I just wanted to get some eyes on it and to see how it does. Please try out the feature and see how it works for you. You will first be asked to select the regions you want to monitor, then you can view those listings. The listings are updated frequently, so you will be able to see updates throughout the day. http://www.brickpicker.com/craigslist/

A lot of guys I know on here are dads & know what a special & fortunate thing it is to be a dad. So to all of the fellow dads here on BP, Happy Fathers day!

Money laundering

Anyone seen the Batcave 6860 thread? I can't seem to find it.

Lego Shuttle Expedition. A very strange build experience. I took this one on a business trip and quickly realized that the bags were not numbered. I scoured my room for ANYTHING to sort the colors in to, the ice cup (did you know there is the cup and then also a liner cup? Bonus!), the tray for the ice cup, the coffee pot tray, the ice cup liner... the build itself is very different and jumps around a bit to keep the techniques fresh. The landing gear was tedious but works nicely. The bay of mine for some reason does not open and close smoothly, you kind of have to manipulate the edges a bit, but it's mostly for display anyways. I don't get how both astronauts are supposed to fit in the cockpit with the roof closed so if any of you can explain that one to me... Stickers were scary, mainly because they are transparent and fingerprints came in to play. I think they came out alright though and this set is not going away any time soon. End result is great. New conversation piece for the work desk and can fiddle with it while on long meeting calls! Trying to convince my son that this was an actual space ship. He is trying to figure out where the lasers are!

My wife and I went to the LEGO Store today where she bought me a TB and PC and also received 2 Winter Soldiers for Father's Day.

Sorry, but no. Lego does not operate on common sense (from a consumer perspective at least): Common sense would have had TH retire after PS. Common sense would have seen HH last through Halloween instead of petering out weeks prior. Common sense would have seen R2-D2 still going strong through Episode VII release instead of bleeping out after 2.5 years. Common sense would have released Elsa and Minecraft sets earlier during the peak holiday shopping season so Lego could reap the initial profits instead of astute QFLL's at the last minute. Common sense would have avoided all the shenanigans with Tumbler and Research Institute last year. All this is CHAOS, not common sense... and it is the way of things now until PROVEN otherwise. By the way, common sense says large sets DO have to retire to make room for new ones.

I think the history of this thread (among others) is a very interesting case study in the current Lego reselling climate, potential for a "bubble", and nature of basic economics. Toward the end of last year we were seeing virtually no new production of this set, and most critiques were fairly harsh, with uninspiring design and overpricing among the most popular complaints. Everyone seemed to agree it was a very poor seller, with speculation about early retirement. People had their different opinions but we all wondered: 1. Would it stick around much longer or join the then-blossoming list of "surprise" EOL exclusives? 2. Would the almost non-existent demand continue post-EOL, or would R5 become a real sleeper investment? Oh my, how times have changed! The answer to #1 is still unclear, but partially answered over half a year later. Question #2 is now growing moot, however, as the overall number of this set out there has seemingly increased quite dramatically in the same amount of time. After R2, AA, and HE blinked out, we have had months to stew over the next exclusive to be sold out, and the CONSTANT speculation / hype has really had an effect, in my mind. Sure, some of you still don't like this set, but people are buying it like crazy anyway. No one seems to think it will be a 10227 anymore (only worth investing at a major discount, so far). WHY? Well, I can come up with several theories, as usual. Some people have money to spend, and there is no doubt this set takes its share these days. It would seem both Slave I and TIE Fighter UCS sets are better loved, with high variance on appreciation for Ewok Village and less, but some disagreement on Sandcrawler. So why aren't any of those threads blowing up at all? Is the Episode VII hype highly responsible for the renewed interest in this set? Meaning end-consumers are a very high percentage of buyers? Or are resellers over-hoarding it now simply because it is generally "expected" to retire next (along with Pet Shop and ToO) and none of us know when it will sell out? If so, isn't this bubble-blowing behavior? Is the constant status uncertainty from SAH indicative only of the current high demand, or also of "low" supply (clever tactics) by Lego? Better yet, were they actually planning to retire R5 prior to this summer at any point in the past, or was the plan always to make room for it to shine alongside the UCS TIE once Episode VII hype started building? Does 7965 (MF) recent performance factor into this situation much at all, in terms of there being an "iconic trump card"? In other words, does being in the investment spotlight for a while make that much of a performance difference in today's marketplace? Food for thought, especially for newer investors. I personally have enough answers to make a judgement call, and believe there are much better options out there for my money.

Oh I don't know... go to your Toy-R-Us on a Thursday and get a 75919... retail $139.99 - 10 % TRUTH - 25% coupon - 12% gift card + 7% tax = about $89. Sell it in your ebay store for $128, pay 9% ebay fees, - paypal fee, - $13 shipping... end up with about $99. You make $10 and keep about $7.50 in TRU points. For some people that's good enough of a flip. Not what I like to do with my free time tho.

I am sure they have had this discussion before. If nothing ever retired then you are giving the customer an abundance of choice and the brand rep suffers as there is no longer the sensation of obtaining a rare item. Scarcity feeds demand and if this happened, Lego would be back in Megablocks territory in no time. For me they have a triple strategy - retire playsets after 2 years or whenever sales drop and remake them a couple of years later. This seems to be more profitable than keeping the original set available as the customer perceives they are getting something new - completists will also buy the old and the new version. Secondly, retire exclusive or UCS sets at random intervals and don´t remake them in order to maintain brand value among AFOLS and keep sales strong. Thirdly, keep back a few niche sets only for Lego shop to promote the web. If we were to compare Lego with Porsche it is very similar. The 911 series is CITY/SW and is always on sale and they will make as many as they can sell - they just change the lights, the engine or a few other details every few years. The Carrera GT would be the Exclusives as it is limited edition and is a one-off that won´t be remade or even made available through normal channels.

putting the QF in QFLL

Considering how heavily the Red 5 was discounted and included in free set promos, I would have to say opinions on the set have changed greatly. I guess it's one of the few major sets possibly near EOL, so it's getting all of the attention and added life. The Ewok Village was another set discounted when other exclusives were not, so will the added interest extend its shelf life? Maybe. It appears LEGO has a lot of these older exclusives on the OOS or 30-40 day list, so maybe they are trying to throw resellers off a bit. I find it highly unlikely that LEGO is constantly out of stock on these sorts of sets unless it's on purpose. Years ago, stock shortages were far less IMO. Sets do retire, this we found out recently with the HH, GE, SSD, R2, AA and others, so its possible one of these major sets will disappear quickly like the Town Hall did. The Tower Bridge is showing the signs and has gotten little attention lately. Maybe the SOH will jump the shark. Maybe the Palace Cinema. Maybe the Tumbler. Maybe none of them...

Lego is the most powerful toy brand in the world... They employ people specifically to design sets. The Cuusoo/Ideas was a way for them to engage the community and it's been pretty successful regardless of the sizing of the models produced. Lego is also out to make money. We might think some of those big sets are cool but Lego knows that just because 10k people voted for the firehouse for example, it's highly unlikely that more that a certain percentage would fork over that much cash... Way less risk and way more people will buy the small sets.

You need to search for both lego and legos. 95 percent of the general public does not know that the plural of Lego is Lego. If they see more than one brick, they list it as legos.

Of course. And Lego is pretty well always a good time. Am I right? Cool new feature Jeff, will be checking this out in future as I just scored a nice deal on CL 'the old fashioned way'. Easier and quicker is almost always better. Nice one!

Uhm, isn't this family friendly lego-oriented site?

I never used Craigslist in my life. I might now.

Awesome new feature!! It's working great for me so far!!

A typical LEGO catalog has 125-150 items for sale. LEGO has around 600-700 items for sale in total in any given year. There will be quite a few sets left out in any particular quarterly catalog.

I can only speak from personal experience, as both a relatively new AFOL and investor. I recently bought and built the UCS TIE Fighter, and my immediate thought afterward was, "I need an X-Wing to balance this thing off." So I bought one back on May the 4th. In general, I think that the hype surrounding Star Wars leading up to The Force Awakens is going to be like nothing we've ever seen before. This is a sequel to a 1983 movie that three generations of movie-goers and collectors have been waiting for. I think the next sets will sell well, but I think a lot of new collectors, who missed out on some of the OT sets will be willing to pay a pretty penny to get some of the older UCS sets. I know there is a new X-Wing set coming out in the fall (Poe Dameron's) but the new X-Wings are a slightly different model, and it won't be a UCS set. I thin the R5 is a good set, overall, but like many have stated before the biggest drawback is that stupid windshield sticker. I even knew about how difficult it was to apply going into it, and I still couldn't get it quite right and it looks like junk. Also, how there was no Luke figure included in the set is an oversight on par with the guy who thought an unprotected ventilation shaft on the first Death Star was a good idea. Other than that, I think it's a great set.

Used the TRU 25% off coupon, and a gift card, and bought a Battle of Five Armies set for 52.00 (retailed for 64.99). This copy was for the personal collection. It was the last one I needed for the hobbit collection, so now we "have all of them". Also cleared out a Jabbas Sail Barge at B&N. the 15% discount coupon did not work, but I had a coupon that I bought for 18.3% discount, and the with the added 10% it came to about 95.00 after tax. The sail barges are still in a few B&N in my area (I think there are 2 left out there), but they are diminishing.. Earlier this month, I also bought a Trex Tracker and Raptor Chase set using the 2xvip points. That's all for this month. I really am bored and waiting for some decent clearances or anything on the star wars 2014 summer wave...but other than b-wings, they are few and far between. Maybe next month will have some discounts...

Happy Father's Day! My wife got me a recently retired Coast Guard Helicopter 60013 to celebrate.

^ Like the Death Star missing in the summer if 2012

Have we seen any evidence that there is any relationship at all between catalog content and EOL schedule? I mean, it is a logical place to try and gather info, but it seems from a distance that meaningful results have yet to appear from such investigations.

Yeah, I remember that too. I was one of the doubters. I love the set, but after watching every other MF set but The Zombies disappoint, I was pessimistic on HH. I have 12 of these, and I'm happy to be wrong.

I believe that this may be the case. And it makes sense. Now that Max Max Fury Road is out, there has been huge interest in the original two films (These films are Australia's national treasure BTW, but forget MM3 lol) and collector's models of the Interceptor have gone up in price a lot. The new film has X wings, as we've seen in the trailers, so it could be on the way out to make way for the new design. Whether Mark Hamill will pilot the iconic Red 5 in Ep7 is yet to be seen, and that could mean that TLG will continue to churn them out. Furthermore, Ive been seeing a pattern as to which sets are being plucked clean from the shelves in Aussie store sales, and they are the ones that are 2013 or pre-2013 sets. It's a set that has past the two-year threshold and investors are stocking up because they don't wanna miss out. Perhaps it was a mega SW nerd that was making the Ep4 X wing hangar diorama for a LEGO show I doubt it though, it was obviously eaten up by scalpers.

Then where is r2? Why no TH? UCS Falcon would be an obvious set to fire up the production line for. Interesting theory, but no.

Sold mine for $35 shipped within 10 mins of listing it

Your patience has paid off. Rebels returns tonight with a must-watch movie event, Siege of Lothal. Tune in to Disney XD at 9pm/8C.

If this had been posted by a certain individual an underlying message of Detectives Office retiring would of come out of it.

no they do not stock these at walmart stores. They do sometimes ship large sets like that with a label slapped on. Most try to buy in case packs when buying the larger sets to try and get them shipped in a box. Some members refuse to buy large sets from walmart for this reason.

I'm tempted to take my 4 year old's gate and put it up when he forgets about it. That wouldn't make me a bad father, would it?

It's all about supply and demand. Red 5 found its demand, so the supply increased. Maybe I'm investing... maybe I'm just planning to build my own Rogue Squadron.

From my conversations with several lego store employees, this set has been an abysmal seller until recently. One of my local stores had their stock of red 5s rotting on the shelves for over a year until the recent run. Now they can't keep it in stock anymore. I think lego is finally making some profits on this set and will keep producing as we keep buying. Yes, I do believe that we are blowing our own bubble with this set, as well as the others that you mentioned.

I'm worried that as Halloween approaches, resellers with cash flow issues will dump their HH's to free up funds for pumpkins and giant inflatable lawn ghosts.

with GSP you are not responsible for shipping/packaging once the item arrives in Erlanger. Pitney Bowes packed it not you.

I think it makes sense that the prequel sets will be the ones to get hurt, and everything else will do fine. Every SW fan I know, including myself, does not actually consider the prequels to be SW movies. Seriously. We're always quoting lines from the OT, but the prequels might as well not exist. They are pure garbage. Goofy battle droids running around saying 'Roger, Roger'. A talking salamander with a speech impediment. Argh.

Like most people I'm sure, our space to display sets is limited... I really wanted the Slave I to be in one of our IKEA Detolf cabinets but it's just a touch too tall for a single space within it. So this was my solution .. I used some plates, tiles and support pieces in dark bluish gray to "drop" the glass shelf about 4" which is more than enough room to fit the Slave 1. I may have to replace the plates with bricks if they sag too much but all the weight is on the supports anyways. The plates and tiles just keep the supports from being knocked out of place. Sorry about the glare.. stupid phone. The pictures were dark and out of focus without the flash forced on. The Mini and T1 fit with just two supports, but it looked cramped. Three struck a good balance.

Just finished 10217 Diagon Alley - really excellent build especially Gringotts Bank

Oh that looks super cool. I need a Rent-A-Kid.

Every single time I see those modular displays I get the urge to go out and buy one to start my own collection..sadly that would be the beginning to a very expensive couple of months. I'll stick to SW UCS for now haha

Anybody else on the border of jumping into Modular building but haven't because of space issues? My (personal) problem is that once started, I'd have to DO IT ALL... including ones already retired. That would get expensive fast... I'd have to do retired set trades!

It's glorious.

Built the Detective's Office a couple of days ago. Sometimes I like to stare at all 10 modulars all in a row. Fits in very nicely. Birds is next.

Touche If possible I buy at a Lego store over box stores (unless better sales are going on elsewhere). A Lego store always makes you feel good. The bright lights and displays cry out to you to buy stuff. Plus the Pick-a-brick wall always has something to stock up on or elements to resell.