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Remember all.. while we are all reaping in the rewards from little Timmy's parents so they can please little timmy…. that we should also give a little back to those kids that don't have a little Timmy's parents. I'm planning on donating some sets to the local children's hospital. https://www.facebook.com/toysfortots/videos/2491777306066/?fref=nf

There ain't nothing nerdy about Penny...

Woke up to Dr. Who Got 2 BB and an Ecto -1 with today's reward at TRU after work and came home to an early Bday present

I grew up playing with LEGO bricks and watching Tom Baker's Doctor Who on Saturday afternoons. Without Doctor Who and Godzilla movies, my childhood would have been much less creative and fun. Doctor Who is an iconic figure to dorks like me in their 40s who were looking for Sci Fi programs. Doctor Who deserves a theme in my opinion. As a matter of fact, they should do versions of all the Doctors. On a side note....I just came back from the new LEGO store in Cherry Hill and bought....guess what...the new Ideas Doctor Who set. .

So I went a little old school. My credit card was screaming from Black Friday ( a dozen Wal-Mart cubes, 40% off in the Lego store, Target and Meijer (oh My)), my winter tax bill came in today and my wife needed money for a final loan payment on her part of the mortgage. So, who to the rescue - Lego With ebay $10 cap on Final Value Fees I listed 12 NIB sets with various BIN prices on Sunday Five sets sold (parenthesis is revenue after ebay fees, paypal fees and U.S. Mail fees (I was so happy everything shipped East from Michigan for the postal fees)) 8671 Ferrari F430 Spider - $115 ($86.27) - purchased from a Discovery store on the Atlantic City Boardwalk with some of my winnings from a second place finish in a poker tournament some years ago. 7097 - Troll's Mountain Fortress - $170 ($140.47) 7662 - MTT $400 ($357.70) - From a Target Black Friday deal years ago when they used to have a pallet load and I only bought single sets. 7627 - Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull $160 ($128.51) - Last of my Indiana Jones sets 8877 Vladeks Dark Fortress $180 ($146.88) Outside of the MTT the sets really did not have a place in the collection and the fact I saved $50 in ebay fees for these sets made it easier to move them out. I had put a number of these sets out at the garage sale last year (see the garage sale thread for that story) and these "collector sets" just had no interest so ebay was the only place I could take them and sell them to a broader market that would have interest. Happy with the results and the tax bill is paid.

That was useless. Basically don't trust any online ad that seems to good to be true. Maybe I should raise my prices to make parents feel more comfortable.

St. Jude and Muscular Dystrophy Association are also great organizations to donate to. We are closely tied with MDA and ALS, since we have nephews with MD and participate in fundraisers quite often. Coincidentally, we have the kids setup with a giving tree and they sent their charity allowance to MDA today. http://www.stjudechild.org/?gclid=CLCK3uWAvMkCFQkxaQodKV0NUg http://www.mda.org/givingtuesday

I had to see it to believe it but I just received my new with without a box creator Ferris wheel (10247) that I scored for $79 on eBay! It came from a liquidation company so i didn't know what to expect but it appears to be complete! Score!

Someone came up with this once:

As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week. Full disclosure, I have already built one of these previously, and I was not a fan. I found one at a significant discount, wanted a few more troops, and felt like writing a review because I had a joke in mind. I didn't think it was fair to write a review on a set that I built over 2 months ago, so I refreshed my familiarity with this set, and took plenty of pictures. I think my understanding of what works in these pictures is starting to get better, so hopefully you agree. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 75103 Name: First Order Transporter Theme: Star Wars Parts: 792 Price: $89.99 Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $89.99 the price per piece works out to a bit over $.11 each. This seems to be on the low/average side of pricing for a licensed set. There are 7 minifigures all of which are currently unique to this set. This set is mainly a troop builder with 2 unnamed Resistance fighters, 2 First Order Stormtroopers, 2 First Order Flametroopers, and Captain Phasma. BOX CONTENTS Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 6 numbered baggies, and a bag containing a sticker sheet, and an instruction book. There are 4 medium to small stickers, so not too bad THE BUILD AND EXECUTION Bag 1 introduces us to the First Order Stormtrooper, the helmet is a new mold, and the deco is nice and fairly accurate, with front of leg printing. The build itself is pretty basic, a platform with an action feature and a couple of long axles linked underneath. In addition, you get some brackets to attach stuff to the sides later. Turn the knob, the chair goes up Bag 2 is the part where I started to get irritated. you build a box. that's basically it, a box with a few decorative touches. Ask a 7 year old to build a space ship, you might get this same exact shape. I know, there's not a lot you can do with a ship designed to look like a WW2 troop transport, but surely they could have come up with something a little more complex, especially considering the next bag. Bag 3 you build some decorative panels and slap them on the side of the nondescript box. Ta-dah, you now have a space box. Oh yeah, you also attach the landing ramp and finish off the second play feature, the rod underneath that keeps the ramp closed. I guess it could dramatically open if you push it, but for me, its more important to keep the thing closed in flight. You are also introduced to the Resistance "soldiers." To me they look pretty bland. There's nothing really uniform about their clothes. They could be farmers for lack of anything truly distinguishing a martial aspect. Interestingly, their guns are the same Star Wars guns, but molded in the pewter color. Bag 4 is all about making your space box into a flying space box. Here, you add the engine and a decorative pair of struts to the ramp, as well as smoothing out the lines at the front of the ship. don't forget about the headlights too. flying space boxes need headlights. Bag 5 brings us the figure that will drive sales of this ship in the short term. Here we get Captain Phasma. I could not get her cape to drape over one shoulder properly, so I guess she's walking into a heavy wind. She comes with a unique silver blaster, a uniquely shaped and colored cape, and the same helmet as the Stormtroopers in silver. In this bag, you build the rear panel, which includes a trap door over the pop up chair. You also build a conning tower with a slide out platform, where your minifigure has to stand to use it. You also put on some clear wheels on the bottom so that it "hovers." Bag 6 you build 2 First Order Flametroopers. Their helmets are an entirely different new mold. You build them a massively oversized backpack using the new clear neck bracket and add a white round brick to a standard rifle to make their flamethrowers. You also make a panel to cover the troop compartment. This panel is designed to be removed and replaced easily with a modular type design. the stud shooters and spring shooters are poorly disguised. If stuck right on top and not modified at all could be called a disguise. There were a lot of small extra parts, including a lot of transparent neon green for the stud shooters. I also include the brick separator, because I have so many of these now, and they are not a part of the build. REACTION I dislike this build. I disliked it when I first built it 2 months ago, and my opinion has not changed. There will be those who say, "You think you could do better?" Well, of course I can't. I am not a master builder. I am not clever enough to figure out a better mouse trap, but I can see that this one is sad. Others will point out that LEGO didn't create the boring looking ship design, that it was the people working on Star Wars. To that I agree, I just wish that the designers had tried to make this build more fun. The minifigures are great, army builders are always welcome, unless they're space farmers. I love the fact that you get 3 different colors of the same old gun. It really added some variation to a bit of the sameness. I am also ecstatic that there wasn't a single stud shooter pistol. I hate those stupid things. The 2 different helmet molds was a pleasant surprise. Phasma's black, non-decorated head was not so much. FINAL THOUGHTS The main draw of this set is the minifigures, and that is where it is going to suffer long term. Captain Phasma is bound to be released in another set, and perhaps then she will have a decorated head piece. The $20 Captain Phasma figures from this set will tank when those future sets are released. I cannot imagine that they would ever consider leaving this character alone here. The First Order troops will definitely see release sooner than later. That leaves the Resistance Soldiers. I think we're going to see better looking Resistance troops in the upcoming battle pack. The vehicle, apart from my disdain, will more than likely see another release. If it is as prevalent as TIE Fighters in the new age of Star Wars, we'll see a better version for the next numbered Star Wars movie. By then, they will be working off finalized designs and figure out a way to make the build more complex, and probably figure out what they are doing with the back third. Short term, this vehicle will fly off the shelves in late December. It might even sell out before Christmas leaving a very short time frame to make some modest profits. There's still a ton of them out there in the wild, and the price point is high enough that they will move slower than sets with more ties to the original series. I am basing most of my valuation on my belief that this ship will make appearances in later films. If Phasma stays unique to this set, if it doesn't get a remake in a couple years, it could be a grower. Some fans love the utilitarian look of the finished product. With the accelerated movie release, LEGO will be inundated with new designs and a need to pump out products for each subsequent film. That rush to stay current could push back the reissue date, if I am wrong and this vessel is not as common as TIE Fighters. I almost forgot my joke. It's all about the build of this set. Just imagine Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg with ugly goatees singing it. "Step 1: Build a box. Step 2: put some stuff on the box. Step 3: Put your minifigure in the box. It's a fig in a box." Next time we'll be adding some holiday cheer by looking at Christmas sets. Go buy it on Amazon View full blog article

sotheby's http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2010/the-malcolm-forbes-toy-collection-n08706.html the super rich will then pay their brick servant to put it together for them.

Hey, go post that in the "what I bought today" thread. Get out of here with your deals that are for you alone.

Joke, right? The laziest, richest dudes are absolutely NOT going to bricklink anything. Can you image a guy worth $10 million ordering 3000+ pieces, inventorying them, and then putting it together with printed off instructions? No, ain't happening.

I'm working on my review of this set. Hopefully I can get it finished and posted by the time this thread gets back on topic.

Ill just say comparing Doctor Who and Big Bang is like comparing Star Trek and Full House....

I made this one up last night, my holiday gift to BP 20% off

The BBC have a bit of history with the merchandising on Doctor Who products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_merchandise And right now. http://www.bbcshop.com/doctor-who/icat/drwho Doctor Who Tardis Earrings anyone, perhaps a Doctor Who: The Colouring Book, or maybe you fancy the Doctor Who: Teapot Dalek Orange Incidentally, Doctor Who BBC Worldwide's biggest-selling TV show internationally. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/12/doctor-who-bbc-worldwide Hardly conclusive, I know. But just to give you an indication of the scale of Doctor Who Fans out there. Doctor Who launched in the UK in 1963 ran until 1989 and was re-launched in 2005. Viewing peaked in the late 70s at around 10 million (UK population being 56million at the time). When it came back in 2005 viewing figures initially averaged around 8 million. Original fans existed without the show on air for 15 years. I’m not a fan, but growing up with it in the 70’s/80’s I watch the show out of nostalgia. We pretty much have 3 generations of fans of the show now.

Please don't! No attention please, nothing to see here. move along, move along...

Here we go down this long and winding road....been there debated that.

Just read an article on the web. The troubling part was this: In the first incident on Nov. 16, a West Vancouver police officer stopped a vehicle speeding in a construction zone on Highway 99, and noticed something suspicious. "There was a large amount of Lego in the back of the vehicle in duffel bags and plastic containers," said Woods. I don't usually speed, but I do sometimes have a large amount of Lego in the back of my car. Is that cause for arrest?

All three of those shows are pretty freaking lame.

I don't blame folks who want to turn their $50-$75 profit around to buy more, if they have the resources.

I decided to give TRUTH tactics a whirl today. I normally order all of my stuff online and visit my LBR once or twice a year but thought it might be time to perfect TRUTH and Barnes and Noble to button up the brick and mortar side of things while I have time off work. Applied for the TRU mastercard online and headed out to one of my local TRU with the $5 off $25, 15% off Babies R US, and 20% off TRU coupon saved on my phone. Saving the 15% credit card first purchase coupon for later. Thought I would try to get the process down somewhat before attempting tomorrow with the extra 10% off as I generally f***k everything up the very first time I try something. Was looking for Dr Who Ideas sets but they had none so went for At-At 75054 instead. Was listed as $109.99 on the shelf. Got to cashier, scanned my rewards number, scanned the item, scanned the 20%, 15% and $5 off $25 in that order. Coupons would not stack so the manager came over. Manager said 15% and 20% cannot be used together but said $5 off $25 should work with 20% off. I also noticed the set rang up as $119.99 so I let the manager know it was $10 overpriced. She then whipped out a calculator, punched some buttons, had me rescan the 20% coupon and total was $70.39 which sounded ok to me (receipt pic is attached). I am sure I messed up something but for now as far as that store is concerned the 15% and 20% will not stack. The total on my receipt made no sense whatsoever but that seems like par for the course for these brick and mortar shenanigans. I will try again at another TRU tomorrow and see how I go.

I am not braggin, it just looks cool..........

Ha, no disguise necessary, comes down to the people but honestly have never had a problem. Guess could be the way going about it too. I buy a lot regardless during the year, mainly deals and sales stuff so that probably goes a long way towards other stuff. When you're helping out on stuff the stores need moved it goes a long way when you are purchasing in demand sets. Some only go after the in demand stuff and expect them to be sold to them and that will get you nowhere. No one else has been buying them of late around here so that could help as well. Its not a one day thing but building up relationships with the people you are going to be potentially dealing with for a few years.

Put together the Dr. Who set this morning. The build was more complex than I expected and really enjoyed building the phone booth. I would have preferred different versions of the doctor - my favorite Doctor was David Tennant and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler (if you have Netflix you can see them in the first seasons of 2005 the reboot of Dr. Who) - but I understand why they chose to go with the current Peter Capaldi version. My TRU had 20+ of the set in stock which is more than any other Ideas set I have seen them stock - while I was in line 2 mothers asked me where I had found it so perhaps this will be a popular set!

I felt like deleting it out of jealousy, but I moved it.

And making brick boxes is easier than trying to figure out on which day of the week December begins.

Ok thats enough non Dr. Who fun for this thread.

I don't know yet - spent an hour waiting, then had a guy named Vinh bumble around for 15 mins researching the issue, finally telling me I needed to call the TRU Marketplace phoneline, which by then was closed. Will call today. Calling is the ethical thing to do IMHO - I've had more of these situations and indeed, if you call often they tell you "just keep it" so likely I'll have two

I have posted several models I have built here on this site. Those that have read them know that one of my interests is pushing the limits of Lego Technic and even supplementing Lego elements with others at times to increase functionality. I understand that Lego is primarily for kids, but its versatility is unmatched for those interested in building things on their own and therefore I have no problem using it for more adult-like purposes (increasing its functionality). Here is my latest creation showing the strength and reliability of Lego Technic if built correctly. Check out my mocpages for the whole write-up; I will not repost the whole thing here. It is a little lengthy, but hopefully worth the read. http://mocpages.com/moc.php/422162

Asking for advice on which sets to buy and when isn't the approach you should be taking. Instead look to develop your own strategy that works for you. Everyone has different budgets, buy\sell timelines, interests, perspectives. What works for someone else might not work for you so advice is always subjective. For example Sandcrawler may be around for another 3-4 years but on the other hand it could become scarce over the next month or so and there may be short term flipping opportunities. With all due respect if you're buying to resell you're a competitor to my potential sales so giving you free strategy advice is counter productive. I would suggest looking through the forum, there is a wealth of information to digest and build your own strategy and conclusions.

A local wholesale had a buy one get one free on toys last Friday. They also happened to have the AT-AT marked down to €60, goes without saying that I scooped up the two they had in stock

Not in my neck of the woods. I got pulled over a few years back for expired tags. My car was so stuffed full of Lego that I couldn't get my glove box open to get my registration out for the police officer. He just laughed and gave me a warning.

TRU parking lot is the only real way to know.

Not to mention that the fans of The Doctor are part of the Nerds With Money collective. There's also a passion in the fandom that isn't present in BBT folks. I have a theory that a show that makes you cry is way more collectible than one that makes you laugh. It goes hand in hand with my theory that: more fanfic written = more collectible product.

Ladies and Gentlemen... we have found our new member for the brickpicker news team!

Probably the inverse, seriously, and also doesn't take into account the difference between casual viewership and engaged fandom.

Text from my wife while I was at work today "What did u order from target????" Surprisingly all of my exclusives arrived in great shape, no stickers, no gum. Almost mint. UPS mail innovations for the win.

Where's that swoopy guy when we need him?

Yes, I was disappointed once I opened this thread. From the title I thought I was in for an Ocean's 14-style heist where Benedict stumbled across BrickPicker and sent Danny and the boys to Billund to clean out the set vault so he could post his collection in the Collection/Stockroom thread.

There will likely ALWAYS be another AT-AT on the horizon, so it's not a great long term hold. You just have to roll the dice and hold until right before they announce a new one. The good news is, we follow that stuff incredibly close here, so even when the Falcon was hinted at for EP7, we heard rumors well in advance of the average customer and had time to dump. Of course the dump itself lowers the peak, so ideally, you need to have it on ebay or amazon at the exact moment BEFORE it's hinted or rumored to be coming back and sell then. If you have 10 or 50 of them,,,,,that's difficult. SO, sell on the rise up, hope to find the peak, and then get out as it comes back down. Rinse & Repeat.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/toys-games-lego-ideas-doctor-who-21304/28883183?ean=0673419243766

I wouldn't say I'm one of the nay-sayers but I've been cautious about this set. Just as I have been cautious about the DeLorean. I'm happy about the copies I bought but I don't regret not buying more (I have two, just as for the exosuit and research institute). I bought more copies of the DeLorean but still not going big on it. (As well as Ecto-1 as this one is giving mixed signals right now and I guess it's legit to wait some more if you already own some copies). Birds has got it's issues just as the DeLorean does. So it is only natural if you try to be aware of them as investor. After a set is rising in value it's always easy to rub it into the face of people who have argued differently. I'm happy for this set and for everyone who invested into it. And I know how ideas is different from other themes but keep in mind: There have been nay-sayers for LoneRanger and Prince of Persia as well. I always like to read the nay-sayers opinions, even though I don't always agree. See Ghostbusters Headquarters. I'm a big fan already! But reading a lot of nay-sayer comments I'm more cautious now. The opinions here also reflect opinions of potential buyers. What I am more afraid of are the YES!-sayers. Just as me with GBHQ they tend to be too optimistic. Sometimes it works out just fine like with HH, SSD... where everybody agrees (or at least most people) but sometimes you'll be sitting on SopwithCamel and MaerskEEE. That's something most people here have learned after being here for 6-12 months. And that's also one of the most important things as investor. Reading here will give you lots of great tipps and can help you a lot when making decissions. But it can also confuse you and lead to miscalculations. Especially when everybody is going crazy about sets that are about to go EOL. If you've bought TH or HH or SSD in the EOL craze you've done it right and everybody will be like "told you so!" (others will be like "I should have listened..."). If you've bought DS, PS, etc. during EOL craze and now you're sitting on 10 DS for what feels like 10 years by now you probably won't be that thrilled. (Even though it's a great set! But I'm getting more and more sceptical about it). In short: Birds is a nice set and I can only agree to that (personally prefer it to the DeLorean when it comes to the design but that's never been the strong side of the DeLorean has it? ;-) ). Nay-sayers might be better than yes-sayers ^.^ And (most) new investors shouldn't buy too many sets without being in this game longer than 6 months... (why most? because some just **** money and it doesn't hurt them even if they lose all of it ;-) ).

So what I have so far is that Dr. Who fans are rich geeks and BBT fan are poor trash........got it!

The last 24 hours in one post: Sales are soaring on holiday sets. (Frozen still a profit for now). JW returns are slowing for some. Star Wars advent calendars are better off returned to where you bought them. Super cheap finds may yield more profit than the Pet Shop (that is, until the day after you unload your last PS and the price sky rockets). The Lego Movie vs. The Lone Ranger - which one is a worse investment? Sea Cows are too big to ship safely (because it's a cow, after all). Back and forth about VW potential. Did I miss anything?

Sold a Star Wars Advent Calendar back to Walmart for $40. I just found it there a couple weeks ago... picked it up just in case things got "crazy". But they didn't. Listed it on craigslist for $49... (no calls)... decided to give it back so some kid can enjoy it this year at regular retail.

Mostly $10-$25 items. Lots of stocking stuffer-type items. If anyone wants anything for your kids, PM me for a coupon. Everything is priced cheaper on my site than on Amazon.