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Well...it was an expensive weekend...

That's probably a current flyer for you.

Sorry you can only get magic sorting baskets on the east coast of Canada... Smooshing is the process of feeling up polybags to determine the contents without opening it. You should know that by now. Smoothing is what you do with an iron to unwrinkle clothing. I bet polybags aren't the only thing that's so tiny in those hands.

I am a little confused. You feel cheated because something you don't want had limited availability? Or you had the chance to get one but you think it was poorly executed? If you have it, quit complaining. There are many of us who wish we had the chance to get this either for our collection or to sell on eBay for $250+ to fund other purchases. If you don't have it and don't like it, then move on. At least they didn't make a really awesome set with limited availability.

In for 3

I was rummaging through some storage today and found this blast from the past.

I only needed a few elements with stock on hand but for under $20 you can always buy a "Replica" http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?S=MayFourth-1#T=I

Just got this set online tonight-Star Wars 7611 :-) complete with instructions (no box) for a good price for NZ :-)

The growth over the last few years on the UCS class of sets is not likely to continue. While I agree that the SSD set has room to grow - to extend that general reasoning to other retired UCS sets is misleading. The graph (especially since most have been retired for more than 5 years) is based on circumstances that will not be happening again - ever. Investing in LEGO can be a safe, reliable, and profitable investing option - Adding unnecessary risk for what would likely be a very limited gain (and even a potential loss) seems foolish.

10221 will be refresh free for a while. i think we'll see a refreshed Vader Tie, refreshed MF, some Cloud City set, another HOTH UCS and an A-Wing before a TFS SSD.

This topic is for discussing the 2016 Lego VIP promo set given out on April 30th, 2016. Instructions to build the set. http://www.bouwsteentjes.info/bouwinstructies-van-de-lego-star-wars-escape-the-space-slug-may-the-4th-exclusive-te-downloaden-op-bouwsteentjes/

rebel.

I'll be getting one, $10 or bust.

@Kneel_Before_Zod Just get yourself a magic sorting basket and be done with it. At 2 seconds max per bag, you're looking at a total investment, time-wise, of about 6.7 minutes to sort them all. Or wait.... damn, sorting baskets only work for sets with 16 unique figures. Looks like you're on the hook for dinner and a movie if you can't figure out how to smoosh.

My son picked up this over the weekend. It's quite impressive when a Kindergartener is determined enough to save up months of chore money and garage sale money to get a specific toy. He wanted the UCS Slave 1, but I convinced him to go with this for playability reasons. Anyway, we opened it up and started on it last night, and we are both thoroughly impressed. The build will be complex, but at the same time entertaining enough to keep a little kid engrossed for quite some time. The ship will be quite hefty, but considering it comes with seven mini-figs and opens up, it will provide endless entertainment for him. I also plan to keep the box, just in case it is worth something when he is grown, which I think may be possible with the Han figure, especially considering what happened in the latest movie.

Voldemort?

Going out on a limb here but my guess is that the skeleton horse is from Monster Fighters since the minifig at the bottom of that far right bucket(same as the horse) is from this set. http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?S=9464-1#T=S&O={} He's even still holding his saber in the bin. For $200, you really can't go wrong here, especially if it's to keep. In that minifig pile at the bottom, there's a Bunny Suit guy, he's pretty $$$ when it comes to Collectible Minifigures. For flipping, you won't make a ton of money, but will be good experience if you haven't done it much. The drive would be the killer for me, not sure I'd want to drive a half day for a small lot, but that's completely up to you.

My son got his collection of 18.

Finally started venturing into MOC'ing. Started by using our extra Pet Shop (not a fan of it as a double) and our small collection of spare parts. It's pretty hollow but it kept the Bricklink costs to a minimum. We call it "Cloud High Rise".

Probably Lego fishing for resellers.

Isn't this how every thread in this forum goes? Phase 1 - Leaked pictured with poor jpeg artifacts is released online. You can barely tell the details - but the crowd bemoans "I HATE THAT - IT'S UGLY - SUCH A WASTE OF A SET" . 15 thread pages are quickly escalated bemoaning the fact that lego's glory days are over. Phase 2 - Lego announces the set - And the hostility ramps up at an even louder notch. Phase 3 - The first review hits online from a backwater site just trying to gain recognition. The review is negative - The crowd confirms their hatred. Phase 4 - The set is finally released, and it's in stores. People finally get to see it in person. Brickshow and Jang's reviews come online with more detail and insight. The crowd starts to wain in opinion. Phase 5 - The set is out for more than a month, some have bought it, others will claim they are waiting for a discount. Those that bought it are mostly happy. Those that didn't might still have some skepticism. The page threads are now over 50 with comments back and forth like it's a battle between the sith who hate it and the jedis that like it. Phase 6 - The longest phase - from 2 months out until the year and a half mark - the set is mostly forgotten, but there are those still buying it for investment in a mostly silent mode. Others may pick it up because they want it, but everyone has already moved on to throwing rotten tomatoes at the next set rumor and the grainy picture that was just released. This occupies most everyone's time. Phase 7 - Set goes out of stock for 30 days. THE HORDE ACTIVATES! "My gosh, this is going to be the best set ever as an investment - we MUST SACK EM' NOW!" Phase 8 - For the next six months everyone is sacking the set from stores as investments until it finally gets retired. Phase 9 - Half the people that invested blow their sets out when they can make 15.00 on it. Phase 10 - One year after the set was released, it is now almost double it's value. Everyone says "This new Cloud City set is crap! Nothing iconic, nor has the playability like Ewok Village or Hoth". Rinse and Repeat. Rinse and Repeat.

Like this? http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=115007

More often than not, the main question LEGO investors are trying to answer is “When is this set retiring?”. As we all know, once a set is retired is when it really has the potential to start growing in value, so it is not surprising that the EOL question is as common as it is in the forums. However, focusing entirely on currently available sets may be causing investors to miss on a potentially lucrative market: sets that have already been retired for quite some time. It is not the first time I write about this, and I know some of other members like fellow Mod Grolim used to bring up quite often in the earlier years of Brickpicker, but taking a look at my last article pushed me to write about a set that I see as a potential money maker even at its current market value. Before getting into that though, let’s take a look at some of the arguments in favor of investing in retired sets. Removes the uncertainty of retirement date and, in some cases, performance. Investing in retired sets allows you to reap the benefits of growth as soon as you acquire a set, removing the need to park your money waiting for a set to go EOL. Most of the already retired exclusives that are performing great are way more scarce than any of the newer exclusives will be once retired. It is pretty clear that the LEGO investing market has seen an influx of buyer over the past couple years, prompting LEGO to produce more and more of the popular sets and keeping them around longer; the older sets were not as massively produced or hoarded. Of course, there are also a couple of arguments against this practice, and it would not be responsible of me to simply omit them. The ones that come to mind are: Risk of remakes. We have seen the two sides of the coin related to this point, as the remake of the UCS X-Wing failed to completely depress the prices of the older version but the new Winter Village Toy shop completely destroyed 10199. Acquiring an already retired set increases the likelihood that investors will be holding a set at the time a remake is announced. High amounts of capital are usually required. While practically anyone can invest on sets that are currently available, it becomes harder when you are targeting sets that are worth upwards of $500. Also, it is important to mention that this article assumes readers are Buy and Hold type of investors. Flipping and selling other sets in the short term can more than likely generate the same or more returns by moving sets quicker. The case for investing in the UCS Super Star Destroyer Some of you may remember the good old times when we saw the Super Star Destroyer selling for $319 on Amazon. Clearly, those days are over, but that does not mean that it is too late to put some money into this impressive set with the idea of making some good money in a couple of years. Why do I even bring this up? Well, just take a look at the following chart showcasing the performance of some of the UCS sets in the past two years1: 1Actual values for December 2013 and 2015. 2014 Data is just an interpolation. Clearly, the performance of these sets has been outstanding over the past couple of years, and some of them were already extremely expensive back in December, 2013. We are talking about an average return of close to 93% in just 2 years over an average price of $750! (90% if we do a weighted average). Even more impressive, most of the sets shown in the graph above have been retired for more than 5 years at this point. Seeing these levels of growth over just two years indicates how solid most of the UCS models are in the long term. The UCS Super Star Destroyer is already selling for almost $1,000 based on the latest Brickpicker data. As mentioned before, investing in these expensive sets requires a certain amount of capital and a moderately high risk tolerance, but looking at how similarly valued sets have performed in the 2 years we have data for, it is a strategy with high reward potential. Back when the SSD was available for retail it already sold for $400 most of the time, making it one of those sets that are somewhat more difficult to hoard for most investors, reducing supply in the secondary market. Besides this, the set is probably one of the most impressive in both size and detail LEGO has ever released, and one that we are more than likely won’t be re-released for quite some time. LEGO has so many other sets to re-release before we ever see another SSD in stores (Imperial Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, Snowspeeder, etc.). Honestly, I see this set with the potential to reach $2,000 in a few years, much like its older sibling the Imperial Star Destroyer. This is only an opinion, but I figured I would bring the topic up for discussion and let each investors make up their own mind about it. Thanks for reading! View full blog article

Series 1 and 2. Way faster with an iPhone scanning the UPC...

ZING!!!!

All of the earliest listings for "Lego Space Slug" included the poster, polybag, etc. Looks like a little over half of current listings still include some or all of the extras. The "established standard" seems to lean towards including them over not including them. My guess is these buyers know you have (or had) these items and that most sellers are ready to part with them... they figure why not ask? But I wouldn't feel any obligation to do so... unless your listing implied it.

UCS or microfighter?

Found a MF Millenium Falcon at a Walgreens for $11

There, fixed it. But yes, I think all recent series except simpsons sold out at the start and came back. Let the panic hoarding begin!

Riiight... Haha, oops, apparently geography isn't my strength today.

Well I ordered enough parts on bricklink to make 5 sets. Came out to ~$30 cdn ea over 6 orders. Only had to place 1 order from the U.S.

4X (8%) eBay Bucks offer today...as always YMMV.

Picked up off eBay NIB 75103 First Order Transporter and 75104 Kylo Ren's Shuttle to almost finish off the complete Force Awakens collection... only missing the Snowspeeder I think. Got both together in one lot for $140 and ended up having an 8% eBay Rewards coupon so I got back $11.20 in bucks! I'll eventually try to modify the Shuttle to make the wings fold correctly and if I have the time, I also want to make it all black like Jangbricks did.

I guess the question is where you see this one topping out. If you think it's going to stagnate at 2000 to 2500, that will give you about a 800 to 900 profit. If you see it going higher, then you might do better. The advantage of buying just one set, holding it to get 900 vs buying 20 smaller sets, holding them for 6 months to a year and doubling your money is the amount of effort it takes to sell them and then ship them. But, many other star wars sets will easily double your money in a year or so. And, i'm sure there will be quite a few more this year that will retire and double your cash within a year to two. The real question is whether the SSD will go higher than 2000 so that you can more than double your money.

Just to add - I think the know production plants are: H = Nyíregyháza, Hungary R = Ciénega de Flores, Mexico S = Kladno, Czech Republic Q = Purkersdorf, Austria B = Shenzhen, China (Not Confirmed) M = Billund, Denmark (Not Confirmed) O = Billund, Denmark (Not Confirmed) Wonder if there's anyone out there hardcore enough to collect all the seal codes for a given year and week on there fave set???

I doubt it...odds are they fell off a truck Or you asking Craig's list? No app called OfferUp. I've picked lots of stuff off those type of apps

I think I am the big winner today! Lol got ALL of this for 400 dollars. I met him on offer up... (not sure where he gets his stuff but it's way below cost...don't ask don't tell) Some for personal collection some for resell. I think IST and MF will do well after being retired!

i purchased a bad conditioned boxed helicarrier with 500 VIP pts added. my box wasn't this bad though. good deal for a $250 set but it's still 2 Imperial Solders' ASSault on Hoth. honestly, i doubt this set will ever be in my collection unless it's on-sale for $150. i despise 75098 that much and ESB is my fav SW film

There is a department store that is just across the road from where I live, so I check the LEGO section quite regularly Five boxes of Disney figs got placed out yesterday morning and I grabbed a handful after some quick smooshing. Went back after a movie, grocery shop and lunch and there was one box left with about six bags. Sure it's possible that some guy cleaned the store out, but I think the Disney tie-in has created some major hype. Will be interesting to see how much supply we get down here in Australia.

Bought x4 Disney Princess Sleeping Beauty's Royal Bedroom # 41060 $1.39 each at Walgreens. Will look for more of these hidden gems along my 5-hr road trip to visit my parents in a week

Downtown Disney LEGO Store is presently a Minifigure party. I now know the sound of 50 people smooshing simultaneously. This place is packed with rabid Disney fig buyers. Outside fig trading is in full force. Fun stuff.

I disagree about "every"... There has been a large number of lackluster sets lately which have followed that pattern, but Brick Bank didn't go through that pattern, and as BA stated Porsche didn't go through that pattern just to name a couple of the recent larger sets. If you look at the 10 largest sets from this year... Ghostbusters HQ Bucket Wheel Excavator Porsche Classic Batcave Brick Bank Assault on Hoth Claas Xerion 5000 The Village Jestro's Volcano Lair Volvo EW Only the Batcave and AoH followed this pattern so far and AoH has been anecdotally the worst of the bunch.. but it's Star Wars. The other 8 have received more positive posts than negative posts and with the exception of The Village, by quite a large margin. And even The Village was in regards to "do we need a Minecraft Exclusive which has mostly plain old bricks?" rather than about the quality or accuracy of the set. From 2015... Helicarrier Arocs Ferris Wheel Detective Office Kwik-E Temple of Airjitsu Slave 1 Tie Fighter City Square Heartlake Grand Hotel I'm not sure any of those sets followed that pattern other than common complaints about stickers (Kwik), lack of power functions (Heli) or repetitive build (Tie) and that was from a minority of posters. Also, as with any open forum (in fact it's a known issue in all types of surveys .. negative people are more likely to complete them), the naysayers tend to be over represented. There is a small contingency of posters on BP who consistently slam any set or the investment potential of any set. Personally, I think as a single UCS set this one stinks because it had so much potential. As a conglomeration of decent HOTH sets, it has an audience including myself at the right price (I have very few HOTH sets).

well, apparently the MF spends some time again on " Ahch-To " and a cool new building set of some sort.

I met Jaisonline and another Brickpicker member at the early opening. I yelled "reseller" when Jaisonline was checking out! My son Max waiting to go in...

So my birthday was yesterday. My 10 y/o son got me this set for my birthday. It was really sweet of him to do it. He was really excited.

I wasn't aware of that at all. I just assumed it was abundant nationwide since there's so many at my Targets. I just checked eBay and it doesn't seem worth it to pick up for retail (either $3.99 or $4.89). My Target implements the TRU tax on some Lego items. How do you guys think this will do in the long haul? Let me know if you'd like me to pick up any for you. I'd be happy to help.

I just think it is off he is asking for stuff that was not in the listing and he bought mine without negotiating when there were several priced well below mine.

I agree folks should divest their Lego investment portfolio. Kinda like retirement investments. Buying new and used retired sets can be a comparable strategy to adding bonds and low-risk stocks to your 401k. Investment yields might not be as high a buying sets prior to retirement but risk is less plus less storage space is required during set ownership. Investors should setup requirements that must be met prior to investing in post-retirement sets (new or used). Mine are... 1) should be a good deal compared to current secondary market price 2) needs to be a popular set / part of a popular theme 3) the set has a slim chance at being refreshed during my ownership. I began buying used and new retired sets 3 years ago when I wanted to fund my "build a great retired set, flip and buy another great set to build" strategy. It all started with a 10185 UCS Vader Tie Advanced that was purchasd for $95 and sold 4 months later for $250. Then flipped a couple of Indiana Jones and Batman 1 sets. After that, I rolled my profits into a $550 used 10181 Eiffel Tower that sold for $800 6 months later. Then I managed to score a $1,425 used in box 10179 UCS MF when it was selling for. $1,900. After that I flipped a $750 10196 a Grand Carousel and sold it 1 year later for. $1,450. The 10179 hasn't been flipped yet but I should be able to clear $2,500 in less than 2 years of ownership. I have done the same with new (NISB) sets since 2013. In mid-2013, I purchased a 10 lot of new The Zombies sets for. $1050. I just sold the 8th one for over $210. All sales have been for over $200. Also picked up 2 new 10221 SSDs for $500 each and as you mentioned, they are selling for almost $1,000 now. Another good one was buying a new in opened box Emerald Night for $260 and it's nearing $400 two years later. Not all purchases have been without loss though. I purchased two new Winter Toy Shops two years ago for $300 total and won't be getting my money back. With the proper strategy and some luck, @Fcbarcelona101 (and @ed_mack 's) strategy of buying retired sets can be a low risk / medium reward strategy.

Stopped at Wal-Mart after the games today, my son saw the lone $35 75092 - Naboo Starfighter. He said, "Can we build one of those someday?" It came home with us.