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Raptor Escape 75920 is retired in North America: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Raptor-Escape-75920

"The sky is falling!!" USPS to raise shipping rates as much as 25% Unless you are completely new to the selling side of Lego investing, you have probably heard that the United States Postal Service is increasing shipping rates. There are plenty of articles and news stories documenting why they are doing this, and that is not what this blog entry is for. There are even plenty of news articles that will help the eBay sellers navigate the new fee structure for shipping, a decent summary can be found HERE I had been meaning to make a post about this topic earlier in time for the Christmas rush, but I figured that with this news, it would fit in nicely with our new Blog/News series that Brickpicker has been developing. How to "win" at shipping The difference in a successful Lego investor/seller and one that is just scraping by with small margins can be as simple as understanding your shipping options, and ways to save money. If you use the USPS for your primary shipping option, use their free shipping supplies. Looking at their website, the USPS offers 73 different options of free shipping supplies It always makes me wonder when fellow brickpickers post their deals on Staples boxes if they are paying for their boxes and then turning them around and using the USPS services. The Game Board shipping box with outside dimensions: 24-1/16" x 11-7/8" x 3-1/8" is one of my stand by for those medium sized sets. Feel free to "make your own" size, just be sure to use the USPS service. These supplies can be delivered straight to your house at no charge and can be rather convenient. This goes with the first post, but know your box sizes and know your flat rate costs. Did you know that an entire set of 9 Mixels fit perfectly in a padded flat rate shipping envelope? These you can ship anywhere in the USA for around $6. Will that set you sell fit in a medium flat rate box? (did you know that there are two versions of this? a flat and a square one?) Know your dimensions, know your sets. You can be overpaying for your shipping without even knowing it. For loose Lego or anything in a polybag, the padded flat rate shipping option is amazing. There are probably options out there that you don't know exist. What is a regional rate box? Do a little of your own research and you may find better options than you are currently using. Make a shipping plan. This is mostly for the eBay sellers, but it's good to have a plan with any time you will be doing shipping. There is nothing more deflating than paying an extra $20 or more to ship to Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico (all in the US) or some other obscure territory that you didn't know existed and is suddenly hot after your Lego sets. I personally ask buyers living those states to ask for a shipping quote (include that in all your listings!!), I will also make a note that I will add an extra $10 or $20 to cover the extra expenses. I am 100% convinced that there are people living in all these remote places that do a lot of their online shopping to take advantage of those that don't know any better. Reuse shipping boxes. This doesn't work if Amazon is your primary selling venue, but if one isn't already doing this, they need to start. Your Tumblers just arrive in mint condition? Well, tape that box right back up (after you remove the invoice sheet) and put it into cold storage as is. If you do most of your buying online this should be a no brainer. For the larger sets that I end up building, I break down the large boxes and keep them in the garage. Chances are your local Staples or Walmart doesn't carry a decent box option in hand for exclusive sized sets, so start building your stash. Use cheaper options, but know their unique tricks too. I live in a small town that doesn't have a FedEx or a UPS store. Scheduling a pickup is an option, but I am a little concerned with theft, and it doesn't usually fit into my schedule. There is a Ma and Pop type shipping place in town that charges $3 to drop off a package. I think I probably left 20 packages there before the lady told me one of their little secrets. A lot of FedEx shipments use both the USPS and FedEx trucks. Look at your label. If there is both a USPS and FedEx barcode on the label, you can just drop off at your nearest post office and pocket your $3. Become the master bundler. If you don't know the maximum weight of your first class package, you probably don't dabble in the small stuff, or are just new to this. Well, it is 13oz. Did you know that a lot of polybags are so light you can fit 5-10 in one first class package? I have found that as my ebay presence has grown, and I have navigated the shipping challenges, I have been able to use that to make more money. For international buyers that are requesting a quote, I always let them know that I can add any small items for little or no extra charge. I have been pleasantly surprised how many will add a few polybags or loose minifigures. They are already paying shipping so they are saving quite a bit buy just adding on to their existing order. One of the things I like most about eBay is the ability to create your own bundle. You may be the only listing with Star Wars and Friends sets. By sending them to the same buyer you can save by shipping them together. Time your auctions accordingly. This is probably most important for the West and East coast sellers, but it is good to know, If I live on the West Coast, time your auctions to end at a decent time for West Coast people, when all the East Coast people and their expensive shipping rates are in bed. This is going to take some trial and error, and will greatly depend on your volume of sales. Once you get into a groove you may be surprised how much you save selling closer to home. This also works with the "or best offer" option. This lets you screen where you send your Lego and give priority to those that live close. I probably left out plenty of other tricks, but this is a good start I think. What did I leave out? What are your secrets? *photo credit is from the USPS website, I figure they won't mine if we send them some traffic* View full blog article

That's a great link right above, lets revive this forum a little BPs! if you got your money on bundle #5, you may just be getting my bricks too anyway, as cheap as I am, as lazy, as....as NOT-participating-in-SH.T as I am, I'm going to make a little version of Mos_Eisley $-4-likes idea, give this post 10 likes and I'll spend $10 on raffle ticket, up to 50 likes/$50! Let's go. (I'll pay on last day of the raffle Ed) And on the side, buy some tix too! Plus like Mos_Eisley post that I provided...

76039 Ant Man

51R5 for Sydney Opera House and Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement & Logistics Division Helicarrier too. 47R5 for Simpsons House. Catering to the anti-acronym crowd today obviously...

Resurrecting a 2.5 year old thread? It's alive!

A user on Reddit has posted an image gathered from an eBay auction. 30448 - Spider-Man vs. The Venom Symbiote

Good news for some, bad news for some and irrelevant news to others! Must be a BigBlueDogBricks post by yours truly, Veegs! "The True North Strong and (Almost?) Free - Loonie Slide to 59!" That phrase plays on the words to our National Anthem O Canada, and is possibly amusing to some? First, a link to the article - although most major Canadian papers had this or a variation on it today: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/macquarie-loonie-forecast-1.3401644 As the article states, the loonie (Canadian $1 dollar coin, for those unaware) is forecasted to continue its slide against the U.S. Greenback, perhaps to an (shudder) all time low. Grim things for some in the Canadian economy, but probably pretty good for Lego investors up north. The forecast also indicates this low rate might be the norm until 2018 although I hesitate to put much stock in a prediction that far off. So, my spin – feel free to disagree or grab pitchforks, or agree heartily and raise a toast to me in the comments. #1 Cheapest Lego Sets in the World? I'm no math-magician – I'm an English teacher, damnit, but if these forecasts are correct it will be cheaper to buy some (if not all) sets in Canada, especially a slew of sets that have a small current price gap compared to the US. Fairground Mixer, Slave 1, etc (the list is long). A 20 or 30% discount in Canada might now give Canadian buyers a buy-in on sets that would rival some of the greatest TRUTH Tactics deals I've seen or super-out-of-the-way-major-discount finds in the Daily Deals US/CAN thread (which are mostly US deals). For sellers close to the border, stock runs to Canada might be more common, or bulk buys from Brickpicker to Brickpicker across the border. I know some US 'pickers are already buying exclusives in Canada, but I'd expect that number to grow if the advantage continues to widen making it financially feasible/more enticing for our southern brothers/sisters to come north to buy. Right now Canadians are at a small advantage – another 10 cent drop pushes that advantage noticeably. #2 Ability to Undercut American Sellers For me, the U.S. Market sets Lego prices in Canada, and I use them as a baseline when pricing items. I assume a lot (if not almost everyone) does the same. In the last few weeks I've sold a few sets to US buyers after not selling much in the previous entire year. Coincidence? Perhaps. I do know that even with higher shipping costs (on average, based on BP threads and info) from Canada, the slide of the loonie more easily allows me to attract US buyers and opens up a new marketplace for me (and other Canadians) that earlier either couldn't or wouldn't be able to compete with US sellers. I think over the holiday season, over a hundred Sea Cows were sold to Canadians (likely mostly investors, including yours truly!) with many getting them for $175 or $180 CAD, tax in. That is insane! That is about $125 USD according to the currency exchange site I punched these numbers into. If Canadians can continue to get great deals in addition to a favorable exchange rate, US investors might find the marketplace even more crowded than before. I'd say buy in price and set choice becomes even more important in this environment. In addition, for those buying on credit or accruing debt, more potential sellers (Canadians) that are already good at listing, printing labels and being pretty efficient entering the market should breed more caution. The investor with the lowest buy in can undercut others (if necessary) either forcing competitors to take a loss or hold sets longer. I know the Sea Cow is 'hot' right now, but there was likely enough stock sold at rock bottom prices in Canada to effectively undercut most sellers on eBay for quite some time. Of course, there are plenty of other factors, but the Sea Cow seems to me to be an example of how a cheap loonie coupled with good Canadian deals could really affect the reselling marketplace in at least the short term. #3 Short Golden Age? Tough to imagine that The Lego Group will keep Canadian prices cheaper or even balanced relative to American prices if the loonie indeed loses value and stays low until 2018, as predicted. Future sets might get a new pricing structure. A worst case scenario would be a new pricing structure on all currently available sets, suddenly decreasing the pricing advantage in place now. For global users, I don't know if this will impact you much, but it could be a heads up that currency fluctuations should be part of your investing homework (I did mention I'm a teacher) as changes in your region/target markets will happen and you need to be able to adapt and try to make the situation work for you and your bottom line. Veegs (BigBlueDogBricks) View full blog article

wow, I completely disagree with most of this post, that's quite impressive. "The Sea Cow was a lazy average design." => Nope. "The only reason for the pop in price is that so few were purchased and it started at a $250 price point which was dumb" I bet it's more complicated than that. "...in and of itself when the movie is directed primarily towards kids." => It doesn't mean adults didn't like it. Or that some kids have parents that can buy a $250 set to them. "They could have done with a $100 ship set and spent time elsewhere." => I'm sure that if they produced a big cuckoo palace you would have say the same thing. "There's nothing special about this thing" => lol ? "they should have put the effort into making a few more better larger Pirate Ships and another Imperial Flagship with a different design when they re-released those few Pirate sets last year." => Investors are glad to buy ships but the queen anne's revenge, black pearl and now brick bounty weren't that popular back in the days. And the fact that the sea cow exists doesn't mean that Lego couldn't create a "serious" UCS ship (and they didn't). It's like saying that Lego can't create a motorcyle set just because the orange one in the movie does exist. "Some of the decisions made by the LEGO group are irrational." => I'm confident that these are rational... as a manufacturer point of view. You have to consider all the sets produced and factury capacities. All is about money and I dare say Lego do know what they do.

Incredible LEGO model of the Titanic breaking in half Ryan says the model uses around 120,000 pieces, and took over 250 hours to construct with the help of fellow builders Mitchell Kruik and Clay Mellington. It even lights up. For a sense of just how big this model is, here’s Ryan posing with it.

Hit the way back machine at an out of the way Walmart. $75 Vampyre Castle and damaged box 7965 MF $140

Out of all submissions, The Nautilus is the most unique and being from a classic tale in poetry far ahead of its time about a subject no one could even fathom back in the day aside from the pen of Jules Verne deserves to succeed. Also the 1954 film is still considered to be one of Disney's best live-action adventures.

Yes. Exactly. There are those of us that aren't Master Builders. As some one that isn't a MB, I could never design a ship as awesome as the Sea Cow. But, building it and displaying it makes me feel like I can. Those are your opinions and feelings. Not necessarily everyone else. There are other people that feel just the opposite; they don't like Star Wars, but they did like the LEGO Movie. I'm 43, and felt like that movie was aimed more at me than at my kids. Sure my kids enjoy it on a superficial level. But there's actually a lot of depth in that movie. There's quite a few characters the movie that I could either identify with. Much like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Bugs Bunny, there are many different levels this movie can be enjoyed on. From your point of view. Not from their point of view. LEGO is sitting on top of the toy world. I'm sure they have some confidence that the decisions they've made over the last 10 years, to get them from as low as they were to being on top, makes them feel they know what they are doing. Look, I'm not trying to change people's minds here. I couldn't care less whether you like or not. I'm very happy that people didn't horde this, as I think it will do well post EOL. I do get tired of the constant poo poo'ing on this set, instead of just letting it go. If you don't like it, just move on. Let those of us that like it, enjoy it, and want to discuss it merits do that. Just like with any other set.

Spoken like someone who hasn't seen or built it. There are plenty of pirate ships. There is only one sea cow

I thought everyone knew this one was different...

Looks like they are starting to roll in. So is Tower of Orthanc: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-Tower-of-Orthanc-10237 Lonely Mountain: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-Lonely-Mountain-79018

I'm not a fan of the USPS long boxes. Too thin and they bend, crush, & warp too easy. Maybe you haven't received complaints, so I must not be your customer. I know many folks here use them, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Man, better not to stack them like that if you want the boxes to remain neat. Put them o top of each other vertically 2x2 as they come in lego shipping cartons, the sides can take more weight.

I've stocked up on Changing Seasons more, kind of unintentionally. I do think it's a winner. It's sell through rate appears to be pretty great everywhere, so hopefully that equates to popularity. I like the medium size sets too. To me they are much much much easier to sell/ship and much less painful to endure when you have an occasional return. If you can get a $50 3 in 1 set for 40% off, I've seen many spring up to $100 - $125 in a couple years. That's a pretty good return right there. I think you'll have better ROI with those than you will with the $90 3 in 1 sets like Bike Shop. I unintentionally stocked up on Poe's X-Wing too.

Makes one wonder what your nick name is about than.

70404 WM $79

2014 SW sets are long gone from store shelves (and now on my shelves). In the US, AT-AT is in the lead out of the gate but the difference is still under $20. long term both will do well. i have my bases covered.

Alright, I'm selling likes! I've already bought some raffle tickets, but just for fun, for every "like" this post gets from members who joined before the time of this posting, I'll spend an equal amount on more tickets, up to $250. If it gets beyond that, I'll figure out how much more I'll spend. Let's set a like record!

A happy belated New Year to all my readers, all nine of you. May this coming year bring you discounted exclusives, 80% clearance finds in out of the way stores on long retired merchandise and superb buyer feedback in 2016. I'd also like to quickly take a sentence to remind readers that the Mack's, a.k.a. The Founders, a.k.a. The Collectors, a.k.a. The Guys Who Made Me Take the Blue Pill, are still raising money for St. Paul's and it would be a darn shame not to support such a great cause. I could cite a boatload of research that supports the notion that giving money away makes the giver undeniably happier, or could chastise those that read content (including this rubbish) but don't want to give back in any way, but I'd rather give a polite reminder that time is running out to buy tickets and the sets up for grabs could easily be the centerpiece of a budding collection. At the minimum, there should be lots of great stockroom photo sharing when these sets find new homes, and hopefully some education for little Macks. Back to business. What is BigBlueDogBricks targeting for 2016 in terms of exclusives? I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what Ol' Blue is favoring, but I'll give a little background in case you are new to my flow. This will be my fourth year dabbling in Brickvesting (yeah, I'm starting to feel a little bro-ish using that term...might have to coin something new) and I am now confident classifying myself as a solid middle tier investor. I see lots of new members posting in various forums and can only assume you might want to hear a little advice on what kind of buying someone who was once like you is preparing to do. Side anecdote: Just before Christmas I was contacted by a fellow in the Greater Toronto Area who wanted to buy a couple of large sets. We chatted back and forth and he correctly assumed that because I had so many listings I was doing this as more than a casual hobby (like someone 'accidentally' has hundreds of Lego sets for sale at the same time?) and he asked a few questions about Lego investing and such. Yeah, not much of an anecdote yet...Anyway, he tells me that along with his brother they are getting into Lego and think investing is cool. They opt not to buy any of my sets (although they were underpriced from ebay sales around 20-25%, and I sold a couple of the sets they were interested in within a week for more than what they thought was too steep) but he did end with an interesting question – so you're buying tons of Pet Shops and Tower Bridges now, right? I chuckled, because I think people often get drawn to Brickpicker and think the big shiny sets are the easiest way to get started. I am a prophet preaching Anything But Modulars now, though, as I believe there are quite a few better strategies to be successful that are faster and provide a greater overall return than simply picking the current oldest modular and throwing money at it. Worst. Strategy. Ever. So, if you are relatively new or just don't have a lot of capital to invest what should you buy from the exclusives? Well, I've ordered my 2016 picks chosen from all the sets under the 'Hard to Find' label on Shop at Home (Canada), along with a quick rundown of why it deserves that ranking. I'll be back soon to talk about large (but not exclusive) sets that are on my buy list, and finish up with a smaller sets hit list. Fun! BigBlueDogToys Anything But Modulars Buy List Order, Winter 2016, Exclusives Ewok Village 10236 Current Amazon.com sales rank: 149 in building sets I'm sure plenty of other investors have this at or near the top of their list. It is the oldest Star Wars large (not officially a UCS) set and, in case you don't know, Star Wars is totally a thing with people. They by and large seem to love it, if box office results indicate anything. It was listed as 'check back in February' for a few months (but was always available to buy at other retailers, at least in Canada) and is now listed as temporarily out of stock. Rumors have maybe three or four large Star Wars sets in the pipeline, so something seemingly has to give. I'm not advocating going crazy for a small to mid-sized investor (I have four from a flash sale from Walmart Canada) but it will probably be the first set I buy during the next double VIP + promo event. If you want to read a lot of Ewok love (or conversely a lot of Ewok hate) the dedicated thread is long and I can summarize: opinion seems divided, not much in the middle. I'm a lover, not a fighter, so these furballs are alright with me. Despite a good sales rank, it hasn't been around nearly as long as the modulars on my dishonorable mentions list so I'll let its current relative popularity slide. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier 76042 Current Amazon.com sales rank: 344 in Building Sets A couple of whispers from far off places (Singapore, if you don't care to read the retiring soon thread religiously) have this retiring sooner rather than later. Limit is 1 from Shop at Home. It is massive. Ewoks are running circles around it according to sales rank. So why buy? Unlikely to ever be remade, I'd say, or at least not anytime soon. Difficult for small and medium-sized investors to hoard a set this large and expensive. Marvel fatigue might be setting in a bit (perhaps more of a Superheroes malaise, really) although I think the core fan base will still buy. Hasn't been around that long, but I'd still rather use double VIP to get a couple in the spring and then reevaluate. The Fairground Mixer 10244 Current Amazon.com sales rank: 840 in Building Sets Overall the worst sales rank of the sets I've chosen to focus on today, which makes me happy. Almost swapped this with the Helicarrier...consider it a toss up for me. A poor seller in a crowded Lego release schedule seems very likely to get the axe sooner rather than later. I have a couple now but would actually be quite happy to aim for double digits here. I think it is a unique kind of set and is priced well for Canada! I was happy to grab Maersk EEEs when they were sitting with the retiring soon label for months and others were buying (presumably) modulars. I've sold some of those EEEs while those that invested in other large sets are potentially still sitting on them, and I've got cash profits to put into another hidden gem. It will be interesting to see if a third carnival type set gets released this summer, or if the Friends rollercoaster (heavily rumored) and other fairground sets are released in its stead. This summer the set will turn two, it isn't a great seller at the moment and doesn't get a ton of chatter on Brickpicker. I am going to throw a little money down on this one. Or a lot. The Simpsons House 71006 Current Amazon.com sales rank: 229 in Building Sets I loved this set a couple months ago, and still love it now. Solid seller, not as flashy in sales numbers as a few other very large sets. Read more here: Sandcrawler 75059 Current Amazon.com sales rank: 285 Second oldest Star Wars UCS-type set after Ewok Village. Reasoning is largely the same as Ewok Village, as I think this won't make it to 2017, comes from a hugely popular line and looks ballin'. I nod to EV first as I am afraid the Ewoks might not make it until Q4 (a.k.a. Retirement season) but I'm willing to gamble the Sandcrawler will. Also use some Helicarrier reasoning here: massive set, big price tag and big box keeps a lot of smaller and even mid-sized investors from going too deep on it (at least most of them). There you have it – this is a shopping list of what I'd like to nab during the spring double VIP. I'm not going to panic and grab them earlier as I am reasonably confident the sets on this list will not suddenly become unavailable permanently in February, and every percent discount or promo makes me more competitive in a crowded marketplace. I'm not going to order more than one or two of each, and not in quick succession or anything crazy that would merit a ban hammer, but will spread them over a week or two as I've done every promo period in the last couple years. Honorable Mentions Volkswagen T1 – Sales rank 385. Sales number indicates perhaps (finally) a little buyer fatigue? It has been out for seemingly forever and the new box design in 2015 virtually guaranteed (at least to me) that there would still be more time in 2016 to get more (not that I need more). I'll reevaluate in a few months. Those hoping The Lego Group wouldn't want three large car models on the shelves at the same time must be gutted. Mini Cooper – Sales rank 495. Slower than the T1, so an argument could be made that it might be retired ahead of the T1, which will become the new Death Star a.k.a. Live Star. Sydney Opera House – Sales rank 412. Tower Bridge is 183. Significant difference? As far as I know, the Opera House doesn't have a new box design, while the Tower Bridge does. I'd wager this goes in 2016 and the Tower Bridge stays. Just a hunch. That being said, I personally don't like the Opera House as much as a few of the others on this list, and I don't have enough money to go 5-10 deep on every set. I can't see myself wanting/getting more than 4-5 of these. It has also been discounted in other markets which has generally been linked to sets that are on the way out. If my sales stay strong this might get some love in the next few months. Dishonorable Mentions Pet Shop – Sales rank 89. 89! That is gross. I think modulars look like easy money and lots of folks are drawn in by them, but if it keeps selling this well I'm not convinced it will even retire this fall. If you are starting out, no problem grabbing one or two, but I think it is insane to tie up too much capital here. Plenty of other sets out there that should/could retire sooner and give a cash return faster. Palace Cinema – Sales rank 145. Also gross! If the Pet Shop didn't retire, then the Cinema HAS TO, right? AMITRITE? Perhaps not. Given sales numbers, why shouldn't the Lego Group have five modulars available at the same time? As long as investors keep stocking them away, I suspect they'll retire slowly. The difficulty for me is that in a perfect world, I would have piles and piles of each set, especially exclusives but that isn't realistic. I require stock turnover and sales to drive new investment, and my success (or failure) to move stock dictates approximately what I can spend. The spring double VIP event will be a good time to add a few large sets that I hope/expect/pray will retire at some point in 2016. When each set starts doing the in and out of stock dance, I'll probably squeeze some funds together to buy some from another large retailer, but I like to get at least a couple of each targeted set from Shop at Home in the mid to late cycle of its life. If you think I should be buying more Pet Shops, sound off in the comments section! Veegs (BigBlueDogBricks) View full blog article

Those were an easy double eventually, after getting them for $11.

How many times are we going to hear your opinion on the sea cow? If you don't like it move along.....it's pretty simple.

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-Brick-Bounty-70413

I bet just good old force throat choke

How many disguises did it take to get them all?

UAHQ BB 3 Ships in one day oh wait EEE? Yep so 4 and counting

Sea Cow retired along with most movie sets

All we need is the 2 headed dragon and the gang is complete

after ISD and AT-AT that is likely. same thing that happened to PS and PC last year, after all the hype around HH and TH. I suspect IST and many other OT sets will go earlier than traditional with the new movies, but also be heavily hoarded. best way to win is minimize your buy in on these.

Walmart clearance has been surprisingly accurate predictor of impending EOL in the last 6 months. I agree with you that it seems implausible given the brief production life so far.

In this crazy world with investors reading about Lego and immediately buying some, I tend to believe they are buying modulars first (terrible strategy imho for almost all of them) and the sales ranks back me up - or the Brick Bank spurred a run on modulars greater than the runs on several SW sets? PC isn't a terrible seller, in fact, since I posted an article about not investing in modualrs last week, its sales rank has jumped to 70 in building blocks and PS got a bump to 45. PR is 104 at the moment. With sales like these I no longer think it is a guarantee that any modular retires this year. If Ed and his #chaos are to be believed, sets that sell well will stay. Planning and expecting modulars to retire looks less and less likely. Last year everyone said PS would retire and I even I thought the odds were about 90% it would retire in Q4 2015. Now I'm only about 50% sure it will retire in Q4 2016, and I don't think PC or PR are more likely. Even IF you want to invest in modulars, it seems insane to do so in January, when all signs point to availability for all of 2016. I'd like to be wrong, believe me, as surprise retirements create profits (usually), but I think TLG might cut other slower selling large sets/exclusives and keep what is selling on the shelves. If investors stopped buying PS worldwide for about eight months, then I'd be more confident in a 2016 retirement. If new investors keep buying up stock like crazy sheep (check the 2015 winter/spring/summer threads) I'm not sold and I'm not tying up extra capital at this point. Blah, long post. So many sets that are sold out/retired on SAH are still available at retailers and will almost certainly offer a good return by Oct-Dec this year. Why new investors aren't grabbing these, I have no idea. I'm painstakingly hunting a few of these sets down in any and all retailers around me.

Lol @ lego "crossing the line from a legal standpoint".

Queue the song She's Gone

this gem was fun waiting on...

I think $200 is a little... optimistic. In reality, the buyer has time to contemplate what they're getting for those two bills. A weak-a$$ cage that's barely big enough to hold the two re-colored raptors that did absolutely nothing in the movie along with an ATV that belongs in a polybag. I think it'll peak at $120-$130. That's still really damn good.

We should be fine as long as Walmart does not pull a 8092 on all of us:

I personally say that this is awesome for reselling. It doesn't seem widely popular, but people who have built it seem to love it (seacow anyone?). Because of this, it doesn't seem too hoarded. This is a good thing. If they continue the fairground line, this will surely be a winner.

75042 Droid Gunship is also retired: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Droid-Gunship-75042 75038 Jedi Interceptor http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Jedi-Interceptor-75038

It is less unpopular in Europe.

Yes it is used for Large Flat Rate only which costs $18.75 and used to cost $16.85. Unless you are shipping coast to coast or HI or AK, I'm not sure this is such a good deal. I can buy boxes for medium sized sets for ~$1 or less in bulk from Staples.com and shipping via Priority Mail (non-flat rate) should be much cheaper than $18.75 in most cases. Having said that, I do stock up on non-flat rate Priority Mail boxes from USPS which come in very handy for smaller sets.

Nice group of sets with some great candidates for Ideas set. Jurassic Park Explorer - why the hell is somebody voting for it? Its not iconic vehicle at all + TLG has special Jurassic serie. Nautilus - beatifull steampunk issue, but probably too big for Ideas. My favourite. Toyota Landcruiser - very nice, but TLG has special serie for cars. Beatles Yellow Submarine - great set, but dont know the license issue, they probably need the acceptation from all members + crazy Yoko Ono. But ideal set in size and theme for Ideas. HMS Beagle - nice ship, but probably too big. Apollo 11 - nothing extra, but has big chance... Concorde - nice, but it will have same destiny as Titanic from last round ... National Park Service - nothing special, worthless ,redundant set. But has biggest chance, because is similar to Research Institute. Victorian London Christmas - really a joke. NO WAY to issue such big set within Ideas, extremly big, plus modular style conflicted with creator modulars serie. I still cannot understand, why people nominate and vote for sets, which have NO CHANCE to be a Ideas set, or are simple, with standard figs and parts, worthless to take a place in Ideas, which can be cover by something rare. Everybody, who is nominate and vote within Ideas, should know that: a) TLG will never make a big set. At least he cannot show that somebody is better designer than TLG employee. So forget all big MOCs, modulars, big buildings, etc. TLG will never make a set in theme, which has its own serie within TLG production - i.e. forget all LOTR MOCs, SW, jurassic items, heroes, but also advanced vehicles, etc - these set could be just an inspiration for TLG, as Ghostbusters HQ or Helicareer. c) its crazy and out of logic to nominate a set, which is simple, without special parts and figs, and which can be EASY built using classic parts. Why to spend the rare 2 Ideas places / per year by simple creator / city looked sets as Research Institute, Birds, etc. Ideas is ONE AND ONLY serie, when we can see special sets and rare figs, which have no chance to have their own serie within TLG production. Without Ideas we would never see for example Deloreen or Dr. Who. This is the only chance to see legendary movies / themes as lego.

Mytoys.de have 16% off Star Wars until the 25th. The Tie Fighter is already reduced, so the further reduction brings it down to just over €50.00. They deliver all over Europe.

You are certainly correct there.... the power of choice is lost with every private school that closes. That is why St. Paul's isn't about a Catholic school closing.... it is about losing the power of Choice....if every private school closed, you would have NO CHOICE but to send your child into public school-- almost being forced into it. The old Catholic Schools with mean nuns and scary priests are gone.... what is within the walls of Catholic Schools these days are computer labs, STEM programs, robotics clubs, Science clubs, academic competitons, honor societies and language clubs... and perhaps a lego club or 2 lol ----

I don't know why but I get a sense that the fairground mixer might just surprise some people after its gone. Definitely agree with your assessment