Community LEGO Blogs

As LEGO investors, I think it would be pretty safe to say that most of the time we are more focused on getting sealed and big sets in order to secure higher profits on each sale, but there are some other aspects to LEGO investing that can also turn out very profitable with a significantly lower amount of capital. Polybags and promotional mini sets on each theme that is released usually perform extremely well, and given their lower or none existing retail price they tend to reach great ROI in a v

This will be my first entry in my new Blog category dedicated exclusively to polybags and minifigs.Even if sealed sets or sets overall usually get most of the attention in the forums, both minifigs and polybags also play an important role in the market, and it is good that we also keep them in mind when analyzing all of the aspects of LEGO investing. In this particular series named Minifig Corner, I will talk a little bit at some of the most expensive or interesting minifigs ever released by LEG

Welcome to the exciting world of Lego Investing! This primer is intended to provide you with as much information as possible to create a buying strategy for yourself as you buy Lego from Canada/USA/Europe. Buying and selling anything can be hard, but as with all commodities, if you can buy low and sell high you can make a lot of money doing this with Lego over time! This article is more Canadian focused as it was created with the Canadian shopper in mind, but it should have some tidbits that can

With the recent disappointment of Pirates of the Caribbean and Price of Persia LEGO themes, are we looking at another flop theme when seeing the Lone Ranger? Not to say that the POTC sets weren't well designed and put together, but the overall popularity of the fourth movie didn't have the same appeal as say the first movie. The Lone Ranger is out in theaters and with that we have seen the LEGO Lone Ranger sets out on the shelves. I personally have put together three of these sets and I am very

Bo and Luke Duke, the eponymous leads of the early 80's hit TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, were two rural Georgia “good ol’ boy” moonshiners that were always on the run from the show’s villain, Hazzard County Commissioner “Boss” Hogg. The show's story arc revolved around the efforts of Hogg and his sidekick, Roscoe P. Coltrane, to intimidate the Duke cousins into leaving them alone to hatch their nefarious, and often times illegal, schemes. Inevitably, Bo and Luke would wriggle out of Hogg’s gras

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

Happy 4th of July to everyone Stateside, and happy Thursday to everyone else! I wanted to update my blog with an admittedly overdue post. Today, I wanted to point everyone's attention to a very interesting recent trend I have been following: the deals on Technic that have recently been posted on Amazon UK. I have actually taken advantage of two of the recent sales and I couldn't be happier. Yet, the more I've picked through Lego listings on Amazon UK, the more Technic deals appear to have popped

For over a century the cowboy has been the iconic American image recognized around the world, and the American “Old West” has been celebrated in art, music, literature, and of course movies and television programs. Long after the short-lived era of open range and long cattle drives came to an end, we still continue to admire and celebrate the stories and characters born out of that time. Popular representations may be more romantic than realistic, but they never seem to lose their appeal. I gre

Bigger is always better. Some of you may agree or disagree with that statement to some extent, but there is no denying that when it comes to LEGO investing, the larger the set, the greatest its possibilities of becoming a great performer. In almost every aspect of life, people are usually very interested in figuring out what is the largest “anything”, as evidenced by the thousands and thousands of Top 10 or the like lists that have populated books and the internet over the course of history. Ta

For those of you who read my past review on the 10179 UCS Millenium Falcon, I will let you know upfront that this is mostly the same information I presented in the growth potential section. I decided to post it here because I believe it will get more exposure AND because in here you will be able to post your comments and feedback on my analysis. So, in summary, if you read my review you can go ahead and skip to go directly to the comments sections and let me know what you think, while if you did

This entry is about the values for the two different UCS X-Wing Fighters and how the remake is affecting the values. There is a good article about the First Impressions of the set. Here is the link: http://www.brickpicker.com/forum/index.php/blog/5/entry-188-first-impressions-10240-ucs-x-wing-remake/ After one month of being on the market, both UCS sets have risen in value. This is very surpirsing. My personal thoughts were that the new UCS set would rise in value and that the old UCS set would

The Ninjago theme is one that has proven to be one of the most successful themes in LEGO's recent history, as evidenced by its first place in the Top Themes when considered CAGR. The theme has been a hit ever since it hit the shelves for the first time a couple of years ago, product of a mix of sets and a popular TV show, a combination LEGO hopes brings the same results with the released of the somewhat recent Legends of Chima. Ninjago has been discussed and analyzed several times in this forum

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

Most often than not, we see people asking in the forums whether a particular currently available set is a worthwhile investment or not. Usually, that question is either preceded or just after the asking whether the set will be EOL soon or not. That is the strategy most of us follow in this site. Grab currently available sets at good discounts and hold them until retirement to start enjoying some growth in value. However, I think that we are underestimating the power of investing in already reti

Just a quick blog article for today. For those who haven't read my Chima Evaluation Corner article, I believe Chima has the potential to be successful for investors if the TV show continues its previous success. That said, I want to point you in the direction of what I believe can be a potential investment sleeper from the Chima line along the lines of Ninjago's Spinners, 70107 Skunk Attack (click the link for the Brickset review): <image courtesy of Brickset> This is the ONLY way to g

Modular buildings. Considered by some investors as the gold standard of LEGO investing along with the UCS line of Star Wars, have been around since 2007, when LEGO decided to release the first one of the line, the coveted 10182 Cafe Corner. The story of how this line of sets became a reality is a very interesting one, and very different to what usually happens when LEGO decides to produce a new theme. Let’s go back a few years and see how this really popular line was conceived. Most of you prob

If you have taken a look around BrickPicker's home page you have probably noticed a tab that reads Theme CAGR. What you will get by clicking it is a list of every major LEGO theme in order of highest to lowest CAGR, that unlike for individual sets encompasses the whole product line of a specific theme. We can use that list as a proxy for theme popularity and overall investment performance in a variety of ways. However, I want to take that list and twist it a little bit to get some different insi

"This is your Lego captain speaking...on behalf of the flight crew, I would like to welcome you to BrickpickerAir. During your flight, I invite you to enjoy our in-cabin service that includes free Brickpicker access, worldwide Lego discounts, and of course the option to purchase Lego's most exclusive sets, the Airline Exclusives, only sold here and in a few other airline magazines. Once again, welcome to the flight." Brickpickers, please be aware that while the Macks have no intention of starti

Like the ever classic tune performed by The Who playing during the intro of that TV show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, “Who are you?” except in this case, who am I? After a rather ridiculous amount of posts and topics starting with my very first one titled “Stargate in LEGO?”, I realized me of all people has yet to actually introduce himself whatsoever and figured what better way than to blog about it now? Perhaps this will get me better acquainted with everyone here as well as helping you un

The best of the best. The Millennium Falcon is the biggest Lego Star Wars set ever produced to this date. The set has 5,195 pieces in the set. The set has 5 minifigures with it. That is a rare feature. I have only seen a few UCS sets that have minifigures. This is my favorite set. I have built this set. It took me a really long time to build it and it was really fun. Here is the Lego.com description of the set: Build the ultimate Millennium Falcon™! This is it - the biggest, most spectacular LEG

Ever since this since was founded, the CAGR figure has been the go to number in order to determine relative performance as well as forecasting future set growth. The topics addressed previously about this matter are broad in range, but there is one in particular that so far has not been discussed. As you know, the CAGR of a set is the figure that averages year to year returns of an particular set, but as you probably know the growth trends of LEGO sets after retired do not follow a smooth patte

A couple of days ago, Brianl3 published a great Blog Article where he described a very simple process to calculate the Compounded Annual Growth rate we use so much on this set. As most of you already know, this figure represents the smoothed growth a set has had over its entire life since being released, and can be usually used to get a fell of how well it has done compared to some of the others. Now, below you will find an attached Excel spreadsheet with an incorporated CAGR calculator, where

I want to start a regular blog that will update the information I presented there along with an expansion to include the other time periods available and a little analysis/commentary. Firstly some notes on the scope before I begin: I have not restricted the qualifying sets by size or age or any other dimension Information is based on US prices only Not all themes are included as I have zero interest in Bionicle/Hero Factory for example. (I just didn’t have the willpower to gather the data f

Semper Paratus - the United States Coast Guard's official motto - should serve as a beacon to Brickpickers. Translated from Latin, it means "Always Ready", and while it's appropriate to the core mission of the US Coast Guard, it's doubly appropriate for savvy investors on the lookout for their next investment purchase. This summer, BP members should recognize a familiar sight: a new wave of Coast Guard sets will be sailing into brick and mortar retailers. Should Brickpickers keep an eye out for

Back in the summer of last year (2012) LEGO released its new and vastly improved version of one of the most iconic locations of the whole Star Wars universe: Jabba's Palace. The new version included several improved mini and maxi figs, and it was a very good recreation of the "actual" structure. What's more, LEGO apparently had planned to produce the compatible Rancor Pit for a while now, making this set even more unique. Nothing else was really out of the ordinary about this set. Sale numbers