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This is an Assault on Hoth...

I think that was supposed to be ectoplasm, otherwise I would be a little grossed out...

Busted open one of my 10240 Red-5 X-Wing's last night. Wanted to build before it went up in value too much. :-) Loved the first 5 bags, the latter ones get a little repetitive with the wings/engines, but what can you do. The cockpit stickers are absolutely one of the cruelest things Lego has ever done. I can see why it came with two of the same sticker sheet. I absolutely love it though, it is a brilliant model.

99% complete ucs Batmobile 7784 for $30

The Shield Helicarrier is on sale, 20% off on Amazon (3rd party) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NHQFMKM/ref=amb_link_456130722_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=14RR0DNE439DFHCNQ2WR&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=2397452342&pf_rd_i=B00WHY4ADA

Nice build so far. I am not a GB fan so I wouldn't pay $350 for this. Mostly large elements with the bathroom being the most detailed area even has pee on the floor.

6X 10695 $7 each. Boxes are trashed, seals were all split. One box had a couple bags taped back together. Excellent score for parting out. They were just mixed in with 10702s on an end cap. The split bag one was very exciting for my girls to have a build competition with. They both won and received CMF figures that I bought yesterday.

Started working on 42043 Benz Arocs 3245:

Yes.

Saw this on the shelf of a local TRU. Little Mason didn't see the investment potential of the Arctic Helicrane.

Alright, I put together some notes. Bear in mind this is just my experience and by no means definitive (or even 100% accurate for that matter). Ebay currently uses a search engine called “Cassini”. This was a relatively substantial upgrade, occurring sometime around 2013, as Cassini is much more akin to Google in terms of being “smart”. This was a tetonic shift in Ebay's search engine, and really means any pre-Cassini "Tips" should be disregarded. Rather than just pulling results based on keywords spammed into a listing title, it curates results based on likelihood of a best match based on a plethora of data points, from the listing title, item specifics, and description, etc. Worth noting that Cassini’s algorithm is naturally a closely guarded secret, and nobody knows exactly how it works. The other major impact of Cassini is it factors in your conversion rate – the percentage of people who purchase an item in your listing compared against how many view the listing. As a result, you need to be ever vigilant to avoid a listing that may pull highly in search results (think “New Lego Smaug!!!” for an unrelated product) but doesn’t result in many sales. Aside from Cassini, you need to be aware that Google is a major driver to your Ebay listings. Search for a Lego product in Google, and a well crafted Ebay listing will appear in the results. Hence your SEO (‘Search Engine Optimization’) needs to consider equal parts Cassini and Google. The following are key considerations for a listing that will maximize the visibility (coming up high in search results) as well as sales (coming up high in results that are actually looking for a product like yours). All in all the impact of Cassini is that your Conversion Rate is now the end all be all metric that you should be tracking and targetting (sidenote: a 2% conversion rate seems par for Lego on Ebay, while anything north of 10% is extremely strong). Worth noting conversion rates inherently apply to listings with a quantity >1, but it's believed Cassini accounts for your Conversion Rate *on the whole* (as a seller account generally) as well, and rewards/punishes your single-quantity listings accordingly. 1. Listing Title. Use keywords such as “Lego”, set/part number, set/part name, quantity (i.e., “x32”) for items in bulk, and condition keyword (other than “New” or “Used”). Avoid the temptation to use CAPS or adjectives (“New”, “LOOK!”, etc); both Cassini & Google tend to punish listings with these elements. My template tends to be as follows:x[quantity] Lego [element/set name] [theme] [elementID/set number] [designID] [alternative element names] 2. Item Category. Use appropriate Lego subcategory as accurately as possible. Unless you have 4+ variations, listing a “You Pick” style (Other Wholesale Lots category) is inadvisable. 3. Item Specifics. When possible, use Ebay’s Product Catalogue. This can work for some complete sets, but rarely works for parted-out sets or bulk bricks. Add specifics for Element ID, Design ID, Color, Size, etc. (particularly for lots of bulk bricks). Cassini & Google will both draw from anything in your Item Specifics as keywords, so don’t short change things here (and be as accurate as possible to avoid the trap of high short-term views, poor conversion, low long-term search results). 4. Item Description. Use your keywords in the first 1-2 sentences. Set the general font size to no larger than 12-pt, and put the keywords (culled from your item specifics / listing title) in 14-pt, and bold or italicize them. Cassini & Google will both disregard font larger than 14-pt, but will identify as keywords anything in a larger-than-body font and/or in special font style (bold, italic, etc). Apply any generic terms & conditions that apply to your sales in a 2nd paragraph. 5. Photos. Enough emphasis cannot be placed on this one – take live photos with a high resolution camera, and spend 2-3 minutes editing them for color/cropping/etc. Good photos can make up for a lot of shortfalls elsewhere, or sabotage doing everything else perfectly. 6. Store Categories. Use them. Further, go into the keyword builder and appropriately apply (accurate) keywords. Ebay/Google will utilize these fields in curating their search results. Ebay’s default settings are atrocious, so take some time on this front to apply befitting keywords that are generic to the respective Store Category (i.e., if you sell Minifigures, keywords such as “Lego, New, Used, Minifigure, Minifig, Collectible”, etc.). 7. Listing Format / Price. Fixed price is preferable to Auction. You should set a reasonable pricetag though based on the competition (and having done some quick research there for the “sold” price on similar items). Avoid using GTC on items until they have sold. If the item has not sold, it inherently has a poor conversion rate, and the conversion rate follows with the item as long as it’s listed. For items that have sold (and have a decent conversion rate), feel free to use GTC. Otherwise, let it expire as 7-30 days, and relist the item (having reviewed your listing and updating it as necessary); this resets your conversion rate for the listing and gives it “new life” in terms of coming up higher in search results. 8. Shipping. Anything under $20 I’ve found to be a poor option for “free shipping”. Charging a flat USPS-actual rate encourages individuals to buy multiple low-cost items. Make sure you’re taking advantage of the “combined shipping” and/or “promotional shipping” settings. I’d also recommend applying a “same business day” shipping time, but using a cutoff time (i.e., same day if sale is before 11am). 9. Returns. You’ll want to ensure you’re using Ebay’s 14-day moneyback return policy by default; consider setting it for 30-days if you want to distinguish yourself as having the utmost confidence in the quality of your product.

I still have bags 10-14 (3-4 of each number) until I am done. Piece wise that's about the equivalent of a Millenium Falcon 75105 so I will wait to make my final judgement. I think for the amount of elements you get you are getting your value in Lego even with the use of approximately 20 1x5x6 panels. I think they cheapen the build of most sets in appearance and sturdiness like the Kwik E Mart. I would much prefer brick built but that would be 100 1x2 and 100 1x4 so 200 bricks in place of 20 panels so I can understand the cost saving. As far as value of the build so far i would say no but that is because the designer replicated the real building, e.g., the beds are small and inferior to what is found in the Simpsons House, also a recreation of a "real" building. Also, unlike the new modulars there is a lot of unused space, once again to replicate the original, so on the first floor where the Ecto -1 kinda goes if you move the desk you could fit a Corner Deli. A lot of the larger elements go into the build of the double wall so you have different colors on the exterior then the interior, but gain no size to the structure, so this becomes very repetitive and it is to the point where I know longer need to look at the instructions when building the exterior. I will update with final judgement when completed.

I just had a record weekend with my Ebay storefront (veritasbricks). Went from an average of 2% conversions, 5 listings sold to 21% conversion and ~45 listings sold. My single biggest piece of advice to anyone struggling in the current Ebay sales environment is to invest an hour into Google, particular "Ebay selling SEO" and "Ebay selling tips & tricks". I spent an hour on Friday doing that, then 2 hours Saturday updating my ~100 listings, and the results were instantly a 500%+ increase in sales. I don't have the time to delve into all the nuances, but feel free to check out my listing formats, and/or msg me with any particular questions. I'm selfishly not inclined to spend an hour sharing my "secret sauce" here, but if you're seriously interested in comparing notes I'd be happy to do so offline. Maybe we could at least share a link to one another's storefront on our respective Ebay sites so we can mutually benefit instead of direclty competing

Over at the Google+ Lego Community I made this quick poll to see how the Poe's X-Wing compares with the upcoming Resistance X-Wing. At 45 votes from Lego 'consumers' (mostly kids, teenagers and AFOLs who build Lego instead of investing in it) the preference looks quite clear: The message is clear: get those Orange coloured X-Wings whenever you can because that's the one the Lego fans want!

With a new star wars movie each year and other sources of material (Rebels & Freemaker Adventures) there will be constant need to go out with the old and come in with the new. Each wave is only going to have room for so many sets in each price range and if you are going from 6 movies to 12, with sets having a particular focus on that year's movie, vehicles and scenes from the OT are going to see bigger gaps before they are revisited. This vehicle is iconic to ROTJ, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last we see of it for at least 5 years, just because they have to get other vehicles and scenes into the rotation. We are seeing an A-wing and Darth Vader's TIE Fighter this year, not because of the OT, but because of the Rebels animated series. Otherwise how long would it have been? I totally agree with @redcellthat the Walmart clearance is looking like a good bellweather for sets that are not in TLG's long-term future.

Our nook is now being taken over again as a play area. We built 75135 - Obi-Wan's Jedi Interceptor today. We aren't original trilogy snobs in this house. My son still prefers "The Clone Wars" over "Rebels", but we do pick and choose story arcs.

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

I could've missed a mention of this, but the LEGO Shop at Home Valentines Cupid Dog is showing up as $7.98 when added to the cart. http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Valentines-Cupid-Dog-40201?fromListing=listing

I am surprised @exciter1 has not mentioned this: $1 hot dog at Sonic, today only https://www.sonicdrivein.com/

Amazon seems to have changed the way they do the buy box on Lego products. Many Lego sets won't show a buy box unless the price is very close to or under MSRP. You can call Amazon, but I went around and around with them back in November when the BB suddenly disappeared from an item I was selling and didn't get anywhere. They basically said that the item was listed correctly and I could lower my price if I wanted the buy box.

I went through SYW.com, but in the vendors selector chose "sears.com" as I had my coupons there ... Once checking out I chose "Apply your Shop Your Way(tm) coupons" which nicely showed my Sears coupons and allowed me to apply them (there was a $7 off $70 that I couldn't apply for some reason, but my $5 off $50 worked). Correctly showed the 10,000 points being added from the coupon. As per the promo, there is no indication that the 15,000 points apply, but they should show up on 2/22 (next week Monday).

Every Lego box I've gotten from a 3rd party Amazon seller has been beat to a pulp and has identification stickers all over it.

I have doubts ... Feedback is high 80s. Delivery date not till mid March .

Great advice. Just got off the phone with eBay - guy was not much help and I'm not even sure he understood what the problem was, but he was smart enough to tell me that this was a Paypal issue, and connected me to them. When I explained it to the Paypal rep, he seemed to immediately understand what I was talking about (must happen a lot). He said, if it is your first UPS shipment thru eBay, you sometimes will get regular "retail" pricing when you print the label. It takes UPS a few days to confirm your eBay account. Often, they will do this shortly after item item is scanned in and shipped, and you will receive an automatic credit to your account via Paypal... if you don't, just call Paypal a week or two later with all the info: what the buyer paid, what you were charged, tracking number, etc, and they will get you a credit somehow. Thanks for everyone's help... I probably wouldn't have arrived at this solution without your suggestions. To all you other eBay noobs like me... get your eBay account registered with UPS, so - if you ever use UPS someday - you won't have this trouble.

I didn't expect them to make a true replica of the base from the film, but I did hope for a cohesive structure. I think the simplest method would be to build a square snow structure on a large baseplate, with openings on each of the four sides (hangar, control room, wampa cave, etc.) sort of like a single floor of 10188, if you can picture that. Then add scattered figs and vehicles as necessary. No it's not accurate (I'm pretty sure the wampa cave was not on the side of the base) but it makes most of the base one big model that is suitable for both play and display, like the Ewok Village is. Even some sort of a hinged model would have worked for this set. I agree that it's something that's challenging to model perfectly but they still could've easily done better.

No, I do not view this as a displayable set, or I guess I should say at least one that would appreciate or command a higher price point. Why? Because the design is forgettable. I do not get emotional when I see it, and the average person would have no idea what it was. A lot of what causes a set to rise is the EMOTION you get when you see it. That emotion is what causes someone to want to spend a ridiculous amount of money to get it. That emotion is what causes the level irrationality in bidding wars. The Imperial Shuttle, Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, Super Star Destroyer, all give most sci fi people that emotion. The Delorean has that emotion. Ecto-1 has that emotion. This is a forgettable design that evokes no emotion. Despite AT-AT's being remade 3 times, each time it retires it quickly commands a higher price point. Why? Displayability and the emotion you get when you see an AT-AT. I do not foresee any of the TFA sets to ever appreciate to the heights of the Original Trilogy, simply because there is less emotional attachment than that of The Original Trilogy. Over 30 years, maybe the Sequel Trilogy will be able to evoke that emotion, but it will be a while before nostalgia sets in. Sadly, it only took me 30+ years and many missteps for me to finally develop a system of picking sets and collectibles in which I rarely miss. I still have an occasional miss, but it is very rare these days. I am highly selective on what collectibles I buy to resell, and often times it is based on past experience which allows some degree of future prediction. I first started to notice this trend when I noticed Harry Potter which was a very popular IP could never command the same prices of the Star Wars ships, and could definitely never command the same return as a UCS ship. A couple times I bought some Harry Potter sets on huge clearance, only to get home research the prices, and just end up returning them. (This was before the days of smart phones when you could research right in the clearance aisle). Eventually, I realized that not even all UCS sets were created equal, as I noticed that the Darth Maul bust and Yoda Statue would never command a good price like the UCS X-wing and Interceptor. As such I dumped all my money into UCS Snowspeeders and UCS Y-wings at the time. There was no way to predict the Millennium Falcon as it was the first time lego EVER made a set that big, and as such there was no previous precedent. It was huge, heavy, cost a ton to ship, and most people on the forums at the time (I believe the only place the I was aware of back then was fbtb.net) didn't think the market would tolerate a 500 dollar ship, and couldn't imagine it going up much more. It was CONSTANTLY on sale for 400 at LEGO Shop at Home. It was practically on permanent discount to 400. However, as we know now, the market will tolerate a ship that big. It has to be the right ship. It has to be a ship that evokes emotions and memories. It has to be ICONIC. There are few truly iconic vehicles, but that is one of them. I think a UCS Cinderella's Castle would do super well due to the Disney popularity along with a UCS Space ship earth (golf ball at disney). I question if a UCS titanic would do well simply because while iconic, it does not have a rabid following. It would probably due well with female AFOLs, but I question how well it would do aside from that. A Lego UCS Enterprise would do AMAZING in the after market. It would likely not be a top seller during it's lifespan, but the aftermarket would be ridiculous, but the problem there is that Mega Bloks has that license. A lego Original Cartoon version of Optimus Prime would do extremely well. It would have to be the original, and not the movie version however. In reality, there are very few truly ICONIC vehicles in movie history. When I think of Avatar, I cannot come up with one vehicle design. Same for Hunger Games, Indiana Jones, Matrix, and most movie franchises. There are few things that conjure true emotion when you see it. The fast and furious series has too many vehicles to count and nothing truly iconic. The Enterprise is probably the most iconic thing Lego has not made, and will not make due to licensing issues. I happen to have pretty good insight into who is buying these sets at such a high price, as quite honestly, I am one of them, and many of my friends are too. There is a very small select population that is ridiculous enough to pay the prices that can push a set to a UCS Falcon or Taj Mahal level. Lego has been in a bull market since the mid 2000's at least as that is when I was into this hard core. It was a bigger bull market then IMO as paypal and eBay fees were SO MUCH LOWER and USPS rates were also SO MUCH LOWER. I think if I remember right, I always viewed paypal and eBay fees as around the equivalent of sales tax, at least KY sales tax which was 6%. It was SO much easier to flip a set for a profit. I had a friend who was the Vice President of a large law firm in Columbus, OH who even started flipping legos as he saw just how easy it was to make a profit on them back in the mid 2000's. He would flip legos as a way of making extra cash to fund his sons lego habit. These days it can still be done, but it is so much harder due to constantly rising fees and shipping costs. Plus, as you said, the increase in resellers. Ultimately, there truly is no such thing as easy money, and as new investors will find, while Lego is a relatively safe bet, in today's climate, it takes a while to turn a reasonable profit, and if you don't have the capital to tie up for likely years, many people might jump ship pretty fast. This is no Video Game launch where you can make a 100-200 a system in a quick flip. There is money to be made for a patient investor.

I'd concede, and most of the discussion backs up the point, that most of the audience of the website doesn't need to have this point made. However, a certain percentage of the users, ones who signed up recently, are not doing the research and are asking to be spoon fed how to do this do need it. There's a certain population that needs to be faced with the hard reality that they need to be discerning and do the research.

I think that is a solid bet. I've been purchasing about one a month since last october, and I purchased this and a jedi duel just the other day. The latest seal code I have on the Tydirium is 47r5, but these haven't been out of stock in my area, even through the holiday sales season, it was one of the few sets you could usually find. Jedi Duel, on the other hand became fairly scarce after black friday, but about a week ago, a healthy restock hit my region, and the seal codes on that was 01r6, so I think it's safe to say these summer 2015 wave sets are going to be around for more than a year. But, I think you are right on your assessment, as I don't see them going into next year. I'm going to assume some Force Awakens sets could also start to get the cull, but not sure which ones. I do think we will see a large EOL purge around December of next year, with a majority of these becoming scarce from September - December. Until then, I think this one's a safe bet to obtain relatively easily, and at a discount. One of the reasons I like to buy these now, is because I can obtain sets that are extremely mint condition for about 25% off. At the tail end of the year, most of the remaining boxes may be cheaper, but the boxes will be beat to heck and back.

This sale is also in store. Goes through 2/20. If you buy two sets that are the same price it will equate to 20% off of each. Unfortunately, there is not a current $10 off $50 coupon to stack that would make this a little better.

First Technic set built...pretty intricately designed and I am quite impressed at all the moving parts. Especially how they all work in combination to both steer and raise/lower the bed of the truck.

Then people would still complain that Lego just combined a bunch more sets and in turn killed the AT-AT's value. And at that point, why not just release the AT-AT or keep the old one going. I have no idea why the AT-AT retired after a year and a half, but as someone that invested in a bunch of them, i'm AOK with that decision. Personally, I did a little mind fist-pump when I didn't see AT-AT in this set. I'd rather see a 500.00 UCS AT-AT down the line that can appease the elitist adult UCS collectors that don't want their legos to look like toys. And i'm sure eventually we will see that. Don't be shocked, if the new death star is also a 250.00 set for Rogue One. It's evident to me that EV and Hoth are the start of a new UCS branded playset theme that will sit around that 250.00 price point. I bet we start seeing one of these a year, and I say bring it! I'd rather buy a few of these, over 10 smaller sets. Plus it seems most of the non-playset UCS sets that aren't mainline ships are duds. Just look at B-wing, Obi Wan's Starfighter, all those bust sets like Maul, Yoda etc. Whereas, I guarantee sets like Death Star, EV, and this Hoth set will sell a lot more copies than those did. The adult lego collector market is just a small fraction compared to the kid market, which is Lego's target audience. I'm still buying this set. Do I think it's as good as EV? No, I don't. But, this is just a snowcave with a warehouse in it. Considering what this set is based off of, I think they did a decent job.

Iphones and almost all other smartphones are made in china.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Here's my MOC passion project (pun intended): My wife works for the University of Arizona Alumni Association. Her office had the idea two weeks ago to make a Valentine's Day video featuring the mascots (Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat) and the oldest and most iconic building on campus - Old Main - all made entirely out of Lego and photographed to create an animation video to post on the university website for Valentine's Day. My wife asked me ("since you're so obsessed with Lego") if I could recreate Old Main. She said her office had some Lego imitation-brand figures to use for Wilbur and Wilma. I accepted the challenge and started looking at photos. Overall it wasn't a complicated structure, but as always it wasn't without its challenges. The real miracle was that I built everything you're about to see without placing a single bricklink order (we didn't have time since I got the project on a Wednesday night and it was due Monday). I used an extra large baseplate and once I got into it, it was great fun and probably took around 25-30 hours over five days by the time it was all said and done. The roof probably took the longest to recreate. The second photo below is what it all looked like when my wife took it in to work this past Monday. The director of photography/multimedia for the University was the one who did all the real work, taking thousands of photos and then narrowing it down to 15/second for the video. This was my first "real" large-scale MOC and all it did was make me eager to start a new project. What you are about to see in the video has a lot of little changes and additions to suit the University's objectives in making their video. All I can really take credit for is the set (building, fountain, landscaping, etc). So... here's the video. We are up to 48,000 views on Facebook since Friday afternoon when it was officially posted. I'm amazed at the number of views and how many people have inquired about how they can build this themselves. I think YouTube has over 2,000 views. Thanks for watching and Happy Valentine's Day.

As a general rule of thumb in not just Lego Investing, but in collecting in general, in terms of what will appreciate in value, is that if it displays well, it will do well. In my 34 years of collecting that is ultimately what I have learned. As a child, I collected anything and everything of any theme. I was a huge trekkie in the 1990's and that was a total disaster, however, the only items that retained some value, and even potentially appreciated were the ships. Why did the ships appreciate, and not the endless amounts of action figures. Because it is DISPLAYABLE. People want to pay money for things they can display. Many people buy things to have a complete collection, but ultimately, the items that ALWAYS sell for the most are the ones that are the most displayable. My gobs of action figures Mint On Card don't matter because you can't put them up in an office and have them be acceptable from a display standpoint without looking bad or cheesy. Some of the nicer action figures these days do pretty well, but again, it must be displayable, not look cheap, and typically the more articulation points the better. But again IT IS DISPLAYABLE. I always use the CEO Rule. If you can imagine this in a CEO's office on a shelf or in a glass display case, then it will likely do well. If you can't it is not as good of a bet. The Lego playsets almost ALWAYS do worse than the vehicles and ships simply because most adults, who are the people can afford to pay 1,000's for a set, do not want to display Arkham Asylum or a Hoth Attack playset in their office. The Modulars do well because they are a series, and many people want to have a whole town, and to have a complete town, they have to buy the first ones, which no one stock piled at the time. As time goes on, people jump on in the middle and then need to buy the subsequent versions. Even a weak IP (intellectual property) or total lack of IP (Think Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower) will do well if it can be displayed. While a strong IP like LOTR and Harry Potter are not a bad thing, There were very few truly ICONIC sets made from those IP's. If there was a UCS Hogwarts, that would have had major potential, but sadly none was ever made. And while there is the ToO, it has not done well in retirement, again, because it is not something I would put in a CEO's office. It has a Goth feel to it, and a business Exec does not want to convey a "Goth" feel. However, Star Wars has a more "intellectual" feel about the property, and most of the vehicles are instantly more recognizable than the ToO. Lastly, an appreciating collectible CANNOT BE A FAD. No matter how displayable something is, if it is a FAD then EVERYONE and their mother will buy one. (Think Beanie Babies, Furbies, etc.) With a Fad eventually the market will shrink as the Fad dies. As with anything, pricing is based on supply and demand. When a fad dies, the supply is massive, and the demand miniscule causing the implosion in prices. Why is my Star Trek Collection worthless, cuz it was a fad. Why are my beanie babies worthless? Cuz it was a fad. While Franklin mint items are beautiful to display, they were again Fads, and people bought them in droves as they believed they would be worth something some day. Legos are NOT a fad. Even though Legovesting is more popular now, it is still not a FAD. There are not groves of people lining up outside stores so they can invest in Legos. People do not call every store in the area so they can buy legos. Not only are Lego's not a fad, but the number of Lego fans grow worldwide EVERY YEAR. Lego's are universal and loved in every country. Legos are displayable AND socially acceptable to have in your office. I have many toys and Lego's in my office and most people find them amusing and entertaining. The toys I keep in my office that are not legos are typically very well made Sci-Fi ships with nice display value such as the Art Asylum Star Trek Series, Bandai Star Trek Model Series, and Battlestar Galactica Moebius ships. The business executive professional market increases the market value tremendously, and is what allows the toys to sell for hundreds and thousands. Children are NOT likely to spend 2000 on a MF or Taj Mahal. Adults with expendable income will though. This is why the bigger the set, the more people are willing to spend for it. Most people willing to spend 3000 on a Taj Mahal do not want Minifig clone armies displayed in their office or their house. The professional DEFINITELY DOES NOT want Chima, Lone Ranger, Nexo Knights, Friends, or Prince of Persia in their office either. They wouldn't mind a UCS Imperial Shuttle or UCS Slave I though. While some of the sets might return a nice CAGR such as Friends, they will never hit the astronomical heights of the UCS Sets, simply because children do not have the cash to pay 1000 for a friends set. Lego's are like the Apple of the toy world, and as such are able to command higher prices than the average toy.

Thanks for sharing that here. I'm surprised it hadn't sold out by now. Perhaps the others hadn't lasted this long, and that kind of concerns me. I'll probably get banned over buying multiples of this dog of a set. Wakka wakka.

I'm thinking they weren't allowed to. Leaving some mystery and speculation. It's creating a huge buzz, so I think LEGO is happy about that.. I also think the model may be screwed down to it's platform. Since we don't see the undercarriage either.. I like how LEGO put the stickers on it, just like car companies do when they are testing their new vehicles.

LEGO Architecture White House 21006 $41.99 (16% off/save $8.00) Toys R Us (seems to be matching Amazon, good if you have rewards to burn) http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11329486&cp=&parentPage=search Amazon http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Architecture-White-House-21006/dp/B003U4A12U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455576914

prolly a chiness

Sorry, I didn't quote the thing I was questioning. I'm not sure why anyone would waste the effort to contact the person if they're looking to buy LEGO items. Either the seller is spamming "LEGO" or has no idea what they're doing. Either way, it's not going to be of interest to anyone looking to buy a LEGO Falcon.

You didn't get the reference so. Stop lumping us in with the UK, just left an Irish Smyths which had about a dozen Tumblers on their shelves still.

Only 17 offers on Amazon with the lowest at 129... Unopened versions of this set for long term value are looking up...that is if there is no more production runs. Judging from how long it's taking lego.com to complete fulfillment orders, I like those chances.

73% of the people have no taste, 98% of the time. At least I'm 65% sure on that one.

I have called ebay before when the price they charged the buyer was significantly less then what the actual shipping was. Didnt know what to expect and certainly didnt ask for it, but they told me to pay the higher shipping price and then refunded me the ebay fee, which was on the order of $80, so ended up with a net gain. They said there is sometimes a glitch in the payment rate calculator and they didnt know how to fix it, fwiw.

Found a Slave I at a non-local TRU. Picked it up using $40 worth of TRU points earned. I'm building up a stock pile of these...

For a set like this, WM clearance is like a canary in a coal mine. This set will definitely disappear by the end of 2016.

I bought my monthly ecto-1

Was there ever anyone anywhere who jumped into buying stuff to make money without doing research and just buying whatever was to hand? I'm looking at you pogs, baseball cards, beanie babies, comic books, etc. etc. etc.

I think they are more creative than ever. There is always a demand for certain types of sets and they are satisfying it with quality builds. If people want a 10188-like DS, then they will get one. Same with play set falcons.

The other day my cpa informed me there was a 20k discrepency in my books. So I set out to find out where it was. Come to find in may 2015 I deposited a check for 24931. They actually only deposited 4,931. So today they finally credited my account. So called cpa and he gave me even better news in that I overpaid for 2015 and that my first quarter 2016 taxes will almost be covered (was able to fully expense some large purchase)! Although it's money I worked hard for, it felt like I won the lotto.

*update* I got to digging around in the General Buying and Selling Forum and came up with this bit of info from justafrog: "2. If the package is "lost in space" (no recent scans to tell you where it is), you can get the current tracking at USPS.com and ASK FOR EMAIL UPDATES (there's a box to click). You can ask for updates just to you, or to you and your customer. I don't know if I've just been lucky, but EVERY time I've had a package that the post office just vanishes in a puff of smoke and is stalled on tracking somewhere for days and days and have used this service, the package miraculously re-enters the flow of packages within a few days. Like I said, could be luck, or maybe they have to explain "never arrived" packages in some kind of internal auditing that this track-trace function generates." So I gave this a try yesterday afternoon, and sure enough, I get an e-mail about 8 hours later. It's moved on the tracking page with a delayed status, but on its way to the customer. I never would have thought of this, and it's a great little tip that I want to pass on. Thanks to all who replied, and a big thanks to justafrog.