Opening and Building Investment LEGO sets

[slobey]

Hi guys,

I've been building up a bit of a modest portfolio lately and I generally follow the rule of "invest in sets you like". The problem with that is a few of my sets over the holidays have been cracked open and built. I'm not at the point yet where I can buy one for me and one for later so my daughters were very happy with me for opening the only Daigon Alley I own :-). good news is it was a lot of fun to build and my daughters have had hours of play time out of it.

Maybe I should buy more Ninjago.......

Title edited by Ed Mack

[GeoSuperGuy]

I think that is one of the key issues when entering the world of Lego investments - where do you draw the line? When should you build and when should you save? I have problems with that myself, yet I am more of a collector than an investor. It would be interesting to begin properly investing though!

[Rich B]

This is an issue I have problems with. I love building and collecting, and it therefore makes investing that much harder. I'm always tempted to open and build investment sets. Remember Lego is all about the experience and fun of building so don't feel too guilty for opening sets. You have to have a little fun sometimes :)

[GeoSuperGuy]

Haha, the temptation is so great at times, so true! And yes, I completely agree, you must not neglect the reason why most of us here became associated with Lego in the first place. Its immersive playability.

[Veegs]

If no one opened up any sets, we'd all be in trouble! Don't feel guilty about ripping into a beautiful set and building it.

[GeoSuperGuy]

That's a very good point!

[Ed Mack]

That's a very good point!

One of the main issues of LEGO investing is that the majority of investors are also fans. This is not a good combination. LEGO sets are meant to be built. It takes a very disciplined person to invest in LEGO sets and not open them to build. ;-)

[GeoSuperGuy]

Is that not an endless 'evil circle'? Big investors tend to be large Lego fans themselves (though I'm sure this is not always the case). So basically speaking, the more involved in investing you become, the more painful it'll be to collect the sets. I agree, they are meant to be built - looks as if I have a rather painful hobby ahead of myself. Though fun, very fun. I'm sure I'll enjoy every minute of it.

[Mos_Eisley]

When I get sets that are meant for me, I now open them immediately, even if I don't have time to build them right away, and store them opened. I've had too many sets that I intended to build but never got around to doing it during their production life and I just can't bring myself to open a sealed Metroliner or anything else that is worth several times what I paid for it.

[GeoSuperGuy]

I do exactly the same, and generally speaking, I wouldn't consider saving a present that was intended for me to build. That's a very clever technique and a very interesting point though! It's amazing that you have the metroliner, I'd love to be the owner of that set someday.

[Mos_Eisley]

Well, I wouldn't say the sets I get are exactly presents, but that sounds good, I buy myself a lot of presents ;)

[Grolim]

I have struggled at little with this recently as well. I've only been an investor for 6 months and before that I was a collector of Star Wars sets. I bought two R2D2 and two SSD sets so I could open one myself. I am also now collecting the LOTR sets and have moved away from Star Wars. But since deciding to invest I've purchased some modular sets, monster fighters, trains, tower bridge, etc and have been itching to open some!