Community LEGO Blogs

Hello, my username is Comicblast, and I will be your guide today. Please click here to follow along as the tour progresses. Enjoy! 1. Forum Topics Once you go the the link above, you will come to the main BrickPicker Forums page. On this page are --- main categories of topics, and several other sub-categories. The first is the BrickPicker.com General Board. This category includes more general information, not so related to LEGO investing, but still important. If you intend on participating in th

One of the biggest draws of BrickPicker.com is the online Price Guide that is free to all registered members. In this tutorial/article, we will figure out how to search for a set, and interpret the data that is provided. Looking Up Sets On nearly ever page on BrickPicker is a search bar in the upper left corner. In this search bar reads “Enter LEGO Set Number...”. You do not have to enter the set number, and you can enter in a key word such as “truck” or “plane”. After you have typed more than

The 8068 Rescue Helicopter comes from the Technic theme. The set has 408 pieces. The set has a retail price of $39.99 USD. This means the set has a Price Per Piece (PPP) ratio of ten cents ($0.10 USD) per piece. There is another ratio that is called the Price Per Gram (PPG) ratio.The set has a weight of 0.65 kilograms, which is 650 grams. For this set it would be about six cents ($0.0615 USD) per gram. Unfortunately, the set does not come with any minifigures. The set was released in late 2010/e

Welcome to LEGO LOTR wave 1, re-evaluation of investing potential, of last, currently non-retired sets. I will be re-quoting myself for the new members! now lets lurk over these remaining unretired sets: 9470-1: Shelob Attacks -30.87% The set is still dropping in value and is not yet retired. My old words still stand. 25% below US retail is the price to chase... If you can get it on that entry price there is no fear of losing money for now. It will be to be held for longer than 2 years a

It is long known that United States of America has a relatively huge privilege when it comes to LEGO pricing and investment potentials. They get the best deals and the best retail prices. While I will mostly discuss Europe pricing compared to USA, I added ''world'' to the entry title simply because every country has the same problem. 1.00 U.S. dollar = 0.749625187 Euros (€) If we just look a couple of late price comparison: 9474-1: The Battle of Helm's Deep US price: 129.99 $ EU price: 139.99 €

When I first joined this site it seemed like there were a lot of people here talking about investing in Legos by buying sets and storing them until they are worth a lot more money. Basically a long-term investment. When I hear the word “investment” that is normally what I think of; buying or tying up capital in something and then waiting until it is worth more money than you paid for it. After a while though, I saw people who were mentioning how they make money on Lego by using the quick flip.

For my next voyage into the land of fantasy Lego themes we will probably never see, but I can still dream of, I wanted to do one of my favorite shows of all time: Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Yes, this is definitely a tougher theme because it is a bit of a cult show and is not really a Kid's show (though it appears on Cartoon Network). However, we can always dream and hopefully there are enough Aqua Teen Fans here to know how awesome these sets would be – and how broke I would be. As well, I do think

The 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer is a medium sized set from the Star Wars theme. The set has 1,367 pieces. The set retails for $99.99 USD. That means the Price Per Piece ratio is seven cents ($0.07 USD) per piece. There is another ratio that we use and that is the Price Per Gram Ratio (PPG). The set has a weight of 2.45 kilograms, or 2,450 grams. This means the PPG ratio is about four cents ($0.0408 USD) per gram. The set has nine minifigures, which are Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Imperial O

If you buy a lot of Lego sets, you know Amazon.om is a great place to get them. They usually have some of the best prices out there, they have excellent shipping terms with Amazon Prime and with their super saving shipping, and they price match everything (they actually price match everything, TRU, rather than just stating that they do…). But there is another way on Amazon to get some pretty good deals, and if you are not utilizing it, you are making a big mistake. It’s called the Amazon Gold B

For my next try at being a Lego design star, I wanted to tap into something that could be a massive theme for Lego. It has been mentioned many times and I think most of us are pretty flummoxed that it hasn't happened yet – though we all probably agree it eventually will. This theme is Video Games. Now there are hundreds of thousands of great video games to choose from, so in this article I only wanted to look at one. This is probably the most recognizable video game character of all time and pr

Looking at the world from the ground is a lot different than in a hot air balloon. On the ground, you see details, colors, and textures of everything in front of you. In the air, you see what the overall landscape looks like, and all of those small details combine to form a picture of the earth's terrain and landscape that we cannot see from ground level. These overhead views can provide a weath of information about the nature of the area's weather patterns, climate and even its inhabitants. As

I just wanted to remind members the Blog Article contest in ending at midnight on July 31, 2013. I also want to tell members to not forget about the SET REVIEWS as a way to earn BrickPoints. With the new BRICKPOINTS STORE feature now active, members can earn LEGO sets without spending a Penny or Pound of their money. I wanted to point out a wonderful review of the 10188 Death Star submitted idunno101. Reviews like that can earn 200 or more Brickpoints very easily. The review was an nice mix of p

Craigslist can be a really irritating place for anyone looking to buy or sell something. Whenever I set up a listing, I always dread getting the emails from people asking if I will take half my price or if I will trade for a “engine that don't work real good, but has a lot of good parts”. Is there any way to avoid this on Craigslist? We all know that selling locally is by far the best way to sell. As long as you don't have a store, you don't have to charge the person tax nor shipping at all so y

Return On Investment (ROI) is a common tool used to see how an investment did. Most of the members on Brickpicker know about the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). There is a formula that goes with CAGR to predict how a set will do for future investments. I always say that the CAGR formula is used before investing. Now here is a formula explaining how your investment did after you made your profit. The formula for ROI is very simple and each part of it will be explained. ROI = (Gain from Inve

I think the generally consensus on the Lord of the Rings theme among investors is that it will follow in the footsteps of the latest Harry Potter sets and be huge gainers. Though we haven't seen any of the theme's first line of set's retire, you can look at some of the prices currently for the sets and see a lot of them have barely lost any value before retirement. These don't have to go far to have a very positive CAGR (Like 9474 Helm's Deep) . One set in 9476 The Orc Forge is already doing inc

In the LEGO investing world, the CITY theme is one of the least talked about and somewhat ignored by most investors. Other than the trains, it seems a lot of people simply don’t pay enough attention to the theme, maybe because there are a lot of re-released sets, mostly targeted to kids or its very generic nature. Having said that, the theme is a pretty good performer overall, with a CAGR of around 13.00%, above the average LEGO set/theme, and is probably the only theme you can keep constantly e

Disclaimer: All references to tax law refer to US tax law under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Posts are my thoughts only and should not be taken as authoritative statements of the law. I once held a CPA certification, but it is no longer active. Please do your own research and consult a licensed professional for all legal, tax, and accounting matters. It's been said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. The tax implications from selling your LEGO can vary dependi

The talk of a Lego "bubble" has been discussed ad nauseum on this site, yet there is a side I thought about yesterday that hasn't been touched on yet. With thirty one themes (per Lego S@H list), TLG's product line is monstrous so it's plausible to foresee a certain segment of the Lego product line undergo significant devaluation sometime in the not-so-distant future. To figure out if any sectors are at risk, let's define what a bubble is first. The classic definition of an economic bubble condi

As I have said in the last two installments of this, I have really enjoyed doing these as I entertain the possibility of me being creative enough to come up with a good Lego idea. Today I decided to do another movie – in fact one of the most box-office popular movies of all time: independence Day. The reasons I chose this movie? Well, besides it being very popular and quotable, any movie with aliens and spaceships are going to have tons of good ideas for Lego sets. Everyone loves aliens and spa

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

Last day of work tomorrow. Making a Lego gift for a colleague. Lego out on living room floor. Wife is painting nails. I have to do toes because she's 35 weeks pregnant (yeah, I'm committed...). I'm clumsy. I knock the remover over. It pools around some Lego that I left on the floor. The Lego is damaged because Acetone eats Lego. Moral of the story: Don't spill nail polish remover on your Lego Lesson of the story: If you do want your Lego to be stuck together (I did the unthinkable and glued toge

The 7978 Angler Attack is a small set. The set has 200 pieces, with a retail price of $19.99 USD. This makes the Price Per Piece (PPP) ten cents per piece. Some times the PPP ratio is not accurate, so here is the Price Per Gram (PPG) ratio. The set has a weight of 0.32 kg, which is 320 grams. Since there is 200 pieces in the set, the PPG ratio is $0.0625 USD per gram. The set has two minifigures (Jeff Fisher and Barracuda Guardian), one of which is a rare minifigure, Jeff Fisher. The set also in

The Atlantis theme has twenty-three sets. These twenty-three sets were released over a period of two years: 2010-2011. Currently the Atlantis theme is retired. Out of the twenty-three sets, there are eight that have a positive CAGR. These eight sets will be ranked and explained. 1. 7978 Angler Attack The 7978 Angler Attack has the best CAGR out of all the Atlantis sets, which is 16.61%. I consider that a decent CAGR. The set is down 2.51% from the last month. The set has a retail price of $19.99

One of the reasons I decided to do the first set of planet articles was because I saw the lineup for the planet series 4 and was memorized at how awesome they were. I really felt they had some seriously higher investment value than the first three series, so I wrote down a note to myself to do a blog article about it. While doing some research for the article, I was looking through some data on BrickPicker and figured I could not do an article about the new planet series 4 sets without mentionin

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