Brickvesting
LEGO Investing Articles
108 blog articles in this category
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Good news for Lego Ideas completionists and set 21301 fans, the Birds set is being heavily discounted by Lego store and shop at home web sites. The latest US-based sale seems to be working as shop at home is now sold-out and inventory is drying up at their physical mall stores. This is also a good sign this set is near retirement. I like this set's investment potential compared to most sets since Birds doesn't seem to be heavily hoarded
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You called in sick to work, hang out in the room closest to the front door, you turn down the volume on the TV. What are you waiting for? You are waiting for that package to arrive one of the three big carriers, USPS(United States Postal Service), UPS(United Parcel Service) or FEDEX(Federal Express). What is in that package? The LEGO set that you ordered a few days ago. You have tracked it online at least 50 times since you placed the order so you know where it came from, where it has been and m
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"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." These are the immortal words of Gordon Gecko, a fictional maven from the movie "Wall Street" who made millions "parting out" struggling companies with asset-rich balance sheets. As I peruse Brickpicker on a daily basis, these words always echo in my head. For most members, BP is part of their Lego hobby: the Pricing Index, Discussion Forum, and blog articles provide outlets for members to share, enrich and supplement their Lego hobby. Yet Brickpicker
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It's well known by now, but I started a Lego business a while back in August and have been, like most of you, working to make it the best that it can be. I work in an industry where efficiency is not only the key, but it is expected to grow and thrive with every new iteration of a product or service. Without progress we have nothing, right? Well, I bring this same mindset to my business everyday. Anytime I do something, no matter if I have done it 100 times, I say "how could I have done this bet
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Over the years, Lego has released hundreds of 'mini' sets to the buying public. These mini sets usually were packed in small polybags and had approximately 25-75 pieces. Most major Lego themes usually had a mini set or two that related to their larger sets. Some sets had mini figures in them, but the majority(and the ones we are discussing here) are miniature versions of other larger Lego sets. They were and still are priced well below $10(US). These tiny sets were often used as "stocking s
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As mentioned in other blogs and some of my forum posts, I have begun a Lego business online using an Ebay Store. A large part of my business is from parting out sets; The practice of of selling the minifigures and certain desirable parts of a set (like a vehicle or building) separately to make money on the set. This is a very common (but time consuming) practice for many different people ranging from businesses to people like me. On the outside, it seems like a fairly understandable, and even he
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As I was sitting on my couch one day watching Robert Zemeckis's, The Polar Express, with my two-and-a-half-year-old son, I got to thinking about trains. The Polar Express is my son's favorite movie and he knew how to say “choo-choo” before he could say “Daddy.” What is it about trains that cause children(and some adults...LOL) to run around the house and yell, “choo-choo, choo-choo” before they can say their own name? And does this same passion for trains cross over into other hobbies and wor
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Welcome to a (maybe?) regular update on what I'm currently investing in. While some would prefer to read through threads to listen to various members' opinions about what they are buying – or not buying, as the case may be, I think some folks would rather save some time and get the real scoop on what Big Blue Dog Bricks (BBDBricks) is up to. In this case, putting my money where my mouth is and telling readers what I bought this week, and why. Big Blue Dog Bricks:
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So I wanted to write up another article about drop-shipping scams, specifically on Ebay, that looked more at the problems it causes to everyone, not just the people directly involved. I will spare you the long explanations of drop-shipping scams and how they work as they are covered in great detail in two articles shown below: Drop Shipping Lego: How to Avoid Being Scammed – By Talon http://blog.brickpicker.com/drop-shipping-lego-how-to-avoid-being-scammed/ Lego Larcency: Scams, Schemes, and Sha
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Amazing how much money people have! Seriously, this goes to show the amazing appreciation and love for the world of Lego Star Wars. Either the person here has too much money to blow, has no idea what they are looking for on eBay or is just plain crazy. Looking at the numbers the Brickpicker database, we know that the current going rate for a Used #10179 UCS Millennium Falcons is $1125.39 USD, which is way below what this fellow paid. Next month when we run our numbers, I will be very interested
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I recently wrote an article, LEGO Bubble...Fact or Fiction, in which I compared the recent Baseball Card collectible's market bubble and its subsequent bursting, to a potential LEGO investment bubble. The main point of the article was to show similarities between two comparable collectibles' markets and to question whether or not the LEGO collectible's market would crash and burn like the Baseball Card collectible's market did several years ago. While doing research for the article, I came acros
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Most of us here love when we sell a set online, no matter what it is. That sound of "cha-ching" comes and we are in Ecstasy. It brings a feeling like no other . But, unfortunately we are generally immediately brought down to earth by the fact that we now have to ship it. If you all are like me, you hate this part. You can never decide exactly how much shipping is going to be and whether you should add extra services. You always worry something will happen during the shipment. You ask yourself,
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"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." These are the words of Morpheus, a prophet in the sci-fi thriller The Matrix, and I think they accurately describe the choice many Brickpicker members face early in their investing career. Should I try to learn and understand the Lego secondary market, or take it for granted that it will exist as
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If you have used Ebay at all, you know how important Ebay's feedback and rating system is to the buying and selling process. As a buyer, when you buy an item from a seller on Ebay, you have a chance to leave feedback for that seller and rate their services. You can leave positive, negative, or neutral feedback for the item, along with a 100 word phrase to describe why you left the rating you did. You can also rate them from 1-5 stars in several areas: The item description, the seller's communica
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Building your eBay Profile There are a lot of sketchy sellers on eBay, and one of the best ways to avoid being lumped in with these types is to have a solid eBay profile. For all you new users/investors visiting the site every day, don’t forget that buying the Lego is the fun part, but selling is where you actually make the money. I too love the rush of getting a great deal or discount on a set, but until I’ve taken photos, made the listing, found a buyer, packed it up and shipped it, it is just
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In a time, not so long ago, in a place, not so far away, the STAR WARS theme ruled the LEGO investment world. Iconic LEGO sets like the 10179 Millennium Falcon, 7191 X-Wing Fighter and 10030 Star Destroyer yielded fantastic returns on investment. Almost every STAR WARS set had better annual returns than the standard LEGO set and were universally thought of by LEGO collectors and investors as “can't lose” investments. But over the last several months, the LEGO STAR WARS theme has slowly started t
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As a casual LEGO collector, I always keep an eye out for sets that are worth investing in. Obviously, the intention and goal of LEGO investing is ultimately to make a profit. Therefore, it is crucial for the casual investor to maximize their investment dollar which is usually achieved only after a set is retired, or in LEGO parlance, reached its end of life (EOL). It is no secret that the single biggest factor in LEGO investing and set appreciation is EOL. In simplest terms, no EOL, no profit. F
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A new category in our Brickvesting Blog, BRICK BRATS: The Teenage LEGO Investor's Blog, will share some of the thoughts and words of some of our younger BrickPicker members. It will be a feature that we will share from time to time with the entire community. LEGO investing is a growing phenomenon that crosses all walks of life and different generations as well. The younger crowd might be able to teach some of us old dogs, some new tricks... Our inaugural set of articles are combined into one big
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When doing some research on Ebay for another article I did, Should I throw away the box from the set I just opened? I noticed some outrageously high prices for used sets on Ebay - way over the Brickpicker pricing. At first I just figured these were just some Buy It Now (BIN) listings that one poor sap jumped on, but looking through them, more than half were auctions where tons of people bid. I became curious as to why – what makes these auctions so appealing that people spend extra money over th
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While I was writing a review for the 10174 AT-ST UCS set I came across a phenomenon that had me intrigued. It was quite evident that the set had experienced a recent surge in secondary market price growth. After finishing that review I have been researching other sets that seem to share this second wind renaissance. Firstly I’m going to repeat a bit of the information from the 10174 review to set the scene before moving onto a few other prominent examples of second wind growth. 10174 AT-ST Lo
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Aha! You likely supposed this thread was going to be about the much-derided but wildly successful (for investors) Delorean Ideas set. You couldn't be more wrong, even if you were wiping out polybag stocks across entire retail shelves. Granted, the example given might fall more under 'moral' wrongs, and doesn't fit this example well, but here we are. We might as well get used to tenuously related metaphors and similes, as I just used my best one above and it goes downhill from here. W
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This blog follows on from my previous blogs presenting the top 20 sets in terms of secondary market price growth according to the data we have available here on Brickpicker. This update will be based on values as at the end of Mar-14. This means comparisons in the “Last Rank” column of the tables will be comparing movements from the Feb-14 positions. Again, here are some notes on the scope before I begin: I have not restricted the qualifying sets by size or age or any other dimension Inform
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When I was a kid, I remember my younger brother wanted to be involved in everything I was. When I got a bike for my birthday, he wanted one. If I went to summer camp, he wanted to go, too. If I was hanging out with my buddies, he was tagging along behind us. As I’ve grown older and seen my kids behave similarly, I have come to understand that’s the nature of siblings. The younger ones look up to and emulate their elder siblings. In the wonderful world of Lego, the older brother is growing up: N
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Remakes, clones, variants, redo’s, copies, call them what you will but they play a big part in the savvy investors thinking. Especially in the most beloved Star Wars theme. There is almost always a remake or two, or more, in every new wave of Star Wars themed Lego sets that are released these days. In fact it has become one of the common criticisms of the theme across many Internet fan sites and discussion forums. So what impact do remakes really have on secondary market prices, both on the old
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In a scene from the gut-busting movie History of the World, Part 1, Mel Brooks, playing the role of Moses, brings 3 stone tablets received from the hand of God down Mt. Sinai to the people of ancient Israel. As he takes the final steps of his harrowing trip, Moses steps in front of an assembled throng and proclaims in a booming voice, “I PRESENT TO YOU THESE FIFTEEN…”, accidentally drops one of the three tablets he’s holding and quips, “Oy, ten…TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR ALL TO OBEY!” As God hi
