Community LEGO Blogs
LEGO Blog Articles Submitted by the Brickpicker Community
259 blog articles in this category
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This the seventh entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. I have done the Star Wars, Ninjago, LOTR/Hobbit, City, Super heroes, and Technic themes and this time it’s the turn of Friends! My aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly around averages for a few simple measures relating to set sizes and value for money metrics. I’m going to leave out investment return measures
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This the third entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. I have done the Star Wars and Ninjago themes and this time it’s the turn of Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit. Technically LOTR and the Hobbit are separate themes but many people lump them under one overall theme and consider each of the two branches a subtheme and that’s what I’ll be doing here. My aim is to provide some basic sta
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This the eighth entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. I have done the Star Wars, Ninjago, LOTR/Hobbit, City, Super heroes, Technic, and Friends themes and this time it’s a triple header! I’m going to put three retired popular movie based themes up at the same time – Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Pirates of the Caribbean. My aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly
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This the second entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. Last time I focused on the Star Wars theme and this time it’s the turn of Ninjago. My aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly around averages for a few simple measures relating to set sizes and value for money metrics. I’m going to leave out investment return measures such as CAGR and the various ROI time periods we
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I’d like to start a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. Focusing on one theme at a time my aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly around averages for a few simple measures relating to set sizes and value for money metrics. I’m going to leave out investment return measures such as CAGR and the various ROI time periods we have available as I think they should be a different discu
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This the fifth entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. I have done the Star Wars, Ninjago LOTR/Hobbit, and City themes and this time it’s the turn of Super Heroes! My aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly around averages for a few simple measures relating to set sizes and value for money metrics. I’m going to leave out investment return measures such as CAGR and the va
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Benchmarks: LEGO Technic This the sixth entry in a series of blogs that analyses some of the data we have available here on Brickpicker to provide some simple averages to use as benchmarks. I have done the Star Wars, Ninjago LOTR/Hobbit, City, and Super Heroes themes and this time it’s the turn of Technic! My aim is to provide some basic stats for the theme mainly around averages for a few simple measures relating to set sizes and value for money metrics. I’m going to leave out investment retu
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Even if you claim you don't care about box quality, you do. Presented the option, which box do you take? The crushed, creased, drawn on, over-stickered heap or the glossy, hot off the press from the factory work of art? Do you take milk that's about to expire, or do you pull from the back? Do you buy the candy bar that's been callously crushed into bits, or the perfectly whole one? The shampoo bottle that looks like it's filled more to the top than the next? I am the latter, in every case. If yo
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I tend to focus on bulk. Simple reason really. It's what I spend most of my investment resources on. While I do have a small and slowly growing pile of boxed sets stashed where the seven year old Sherlock can't find them I will continue to make way more money on bulk lots for the foreseeable future. While there are plenty of exceptions with most sets much of the value is tied to the minifigs. Bulk lots are no different, much of the value in any bulk lot is tied to whatever minifigs it happens
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I run into this issue through my Lego collecting and investing constantly. I really love the set I just got and want to open it, but am I making a mistake by popping open that seal and opening all the bags inside? What if it becomes a big time seller and I decide I don't want it anymore, am I going to lose money? An even tougher conundrum comes up when I get a set for way less than retail. And the set is MISB. I paid the same amount for it that I would for a used set, so does it make any differe
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Hey there Brickpickers! Here's my first blog post, thought I'd make it a doozy. Wanted to share some of the sights from Brickcon 2013 in Seattle. I went on Sunday, day two of the event. Took my nephew and my 5 year old son, so if I lack details it is likely due to the attention spans of a 10 and 5 year old. :-) Overall Impressions The event is really a must see for any Lego fan in the area. The venue is somewhat small - I would expect it to expand in future years with Lego's growth - but there
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In this entry of our BrickIndex Spotlight section we will be analyzing yet another set from the Ultimate Collector's Series, even if this one is a model that is not particularly talked about much in the forums. In the latest data update, the Imperial AT-ST place in the Top 5 of best performing sets over the past 6 months. First of all, the model included a little more than 1,000 pieces making it one of the smallest sets released under the UCS. This in and on itself is not necessarily a bad thin
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On this edition of the BrickIndex Spotlight we will be analyzing the latest SW UCS set to have been retired: the Imperial Shuttle 10212 This is the first appearance of this set since it was retired just a few months ago, and so far it has managed to secure the 12th position after this past data update with a growth of 51.4% over the past 6 months. The UCS Imperial Shuttle was one of those sets that for some reason were not especially talked about or liked by investors despite the fact that it
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In this entry of the BrickIndex Spotlight we will be focusing our attention in only the second set from the Architecture theme that has been retired so far (if you don't count the Sears Tower version as an actual retirement). Up to this point, we have really not had any significant amount of data to determine the secondary market success of sets in the Architecture line, and we have been using the only retired set, John Hancock Center, as our only guide. Thankfully, Sungnyemun can now be conside
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This entry of our regular BrickIndex spotlight features a set that some of you may be surprised to find in the list at this point: the 10189 Taj Mahal. The largest set (by piece count) that LEGO has ever produced has been retired for around three full years and has a current market value of almost $ 1,600 according to last month's data. It is quite amazing that an incredibly expensive set like this finds a place in the Top 20 (#19) fastest growing sets of the past 6 months, but with a growth of
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This entry of the BrickIndex Spotlight will focus its attention in a rather small set from one of the most popular themes of the past few years: The Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter. The Forbidden Forest was a set that originally retailed for $ 12 in the USA, and for that price you got 4 cool minifigs (Voldemort, Hagrid, Harry and Narcissa Malfoy) as well as 64 pieces. Of these minifigures, the only one that is really exclusive (but not really expensive) is Narcissa Malfoy. Despite the fact t
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This section of my personal blog will be dedicated to small posts about those sets that have performed the best over the past six months, namely those that are included in Brickpicker's own BrickIndex. As the Re-Make Impact Evaluation section, I hope to publish this one on a somewhat regular basis. I am not sure about how many of you out there make use of this interesting feature, but the way it works is using eBay's sold listings data in order to see which sets have been selling the most and f
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If you have been registered on BrickPicker for a while now and have been cruising though the site, you have probably seen some references to a site called “BrickLink”. You may also hear the phrase “BrickLink it”. This is referring to a site called BrickLink.com that sells everything Lego you could eve think of. For those of you who haven't visited the site or haven't explored all of it benefits, I wanted to make a quick blog about the things that you should look to BrickLink for and what benefit
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I will be reviewing the Brickmania M1A1 75MM Howitzer on M8 Carriage and the Heavy Mortar with Brickarms Shell. These sets are made by Brickmania.com and they are LEGO customs. They can be discontinued and re-released at anytime so I wouldn't invest in these kits. They are high quality and well-built in my opinion, but not great investments at all. M1A1 75MM Howitzer On M8 Carriage Name: M1A1 75MM Howitzer on M8 Carriage Number of Pieces: 41 LEGO elements Number of Minifigures: 0 Cost
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By popular demand, I moved the up to date stats and blog contest data to the Community Blog to simplify matters for members and contestants. Please feel free to add comments or correct mistakes that I have made. The Blog Contest will end August 1, 2013. As with the Review Contest, there will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner with some Honorable Mentions thrown in. The winning blogs/writers will be based on content quantity and quality...with an emphasis on creativity, accuracy and originality.
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Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending Saturday with my two kids and two of their friends at Brickworld Chicago 2013. Here are some of my observations from the weekend: 1. I was very impressed by how well organized the show was. The check-in line took less than five minutes, and we arrived at a peak time of the day, roughly 11 AM. There were hundreds of people (dare I say thousands?) all trying to get into the show, but because of the organization and troops of volunteers, everyone was ca
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If like me you’ve ever struggled with the temptation that having a closet or room stuffed with shiny new Lego sets for investment presents in terms of building and playing or displaying them, this short blog may help! Rarely have I succumbed to this temptation. I tend to try and keep my collecting hobby side of the Lego game separate from the investing side. There is occasion where I have dipped in to the investment pool to provide a last minute gift for a young lad or lass, or when I really j
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When I first got into LEGO as an AFOL I was looking at all of the Star Wars sets that I had missed and how much they cost. It became necessary to figure out a way to get the sets cheaper or make more money. I knew that some people must be making money buying bulk lots and taking out the stuff they wanted and selling the rest. That seemed like 2 birds with one stone. I looked at the bulk lots on Ebay, realizing that most of what I would get from these guys were common pieces. So I started
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While lurking in the shadows of this site I've read many differing takes on the ins and outs of investing in LEGO. The majority of those opinions center arround either long term investing or short term flipping and which sets are best suited for either. While those are both worthy endevours and I would not discourage anyone from either pursuit one angle of investing seems to be overlooked in most of the posts that I have seen. The missing strategy is buying LEGO in bulk. Where to get it, what to
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One day, while searching on eBay, I decided to have a little bit of fun and search the term “LEGO” and sort by Highest Price + Shipping. What I came across was mind blowing! The most interesting listing I came across was about a person selling their whole store, for about $30,000 including the stock of LEGO’s that they had. Now I wondered, was there a key to buying in bulk? Did you buy small lots, then sort them by color then send them off to some other person who would have to sort through them
