Hi, I've really enjoyed reading this forum over the last month and appreciated the insight.

I've certainly got carried away at times in the early days of investing having read some of the advice in the forums. However, I occassionally notice a post that says something doesn't really apply to Europe, e.g the popularity of a certain line, or where is good for selling, or the time it takes for items to increase in value.

So as a lot of the advice is written with north america in mind, I thought it would be really useful to hear from those based in the UK and Europe.

- What are the main differences for our market to the US

- What sort of discout and ROI do you usually aim for?

- Where do you prefer to buy and sell trom?

- What delivery companies do you recommend for the mid to large sizes?

- Any good cheaper 2nd hand selling sites for used sets we want to make ourselves?

- Are there any yearly sales in our region to look out for?

- Aside from xmas are there peak times to sell in the UK?

- any good tips on saving in the UK by buying from the EU while the Euro is down?

- Any recommended toy shops for picking up older stock?

Sorry if this has all been covered elsewhere but i couldn't find a thread that focused on it.

Cheers

B

To make it worth while with the Daily mail promotions, you need to do the following things:

1, Be able to pickup loads, most stores have a 5 per customer cap, but some stores just don't care and let you buy as many as you want. It's totally hit and miss.

2, You need to hold them for at least 12 months, ( I recently sold all my Spiderman glider polybags for £8.50 each on Amazon, which I bought last year for £1.00 each, the less popular sets will tend to sell for between £2.99 - £5.00 each ) until the market is no longer saturated with private sellers happy to make 20p per polybag. ( They are good loss leaders though, but that's something else entirely. )

3, If you can only get to the stores on certain days focus on the sets you think are going to do well, prime example this year the 'Joker bumper car' polybag.

4, You really need to either have an eBay/Amazon store and already selling dozens of items a day otherwise you just won't be setup for the workload, and your profit margins will suffer badly. You can most likely unload them at car-boots etc, but that's a lot of hassle I imagine.

Finally you can ignore all of the above and just say give them away when you sell large exclusive sets etc, but most people won't care, and in all likely hood it will not lead to repeat customers. Hope this helped.

 

I picked up about 60 last year various ones but I admit I waited till my local paper was doing this offer as they come under The Mail Group of Companies. I went around the city for a week to about 3 different newsagents, they were glad to offload them out the way. Some made me take the newspapers others said I could leave them but I always offered to take them.

At the end of the week I made sure they were all flattened out no creases as I would expect to receive them if I bought them privately. Then boxed them up and put to one side and stored, thinking maybe they will go up in value a bit after all I only paid 50p each for them (which they have). I may wait and put them up for sale till I am fully geared up with packaging materials etc or I may just put them up as a job lot sale but at the moment they are still creeping up in value. Some are up more than £5 others are struggling for £2.50 but hey its all profit at the moment lol

Off to Benidorm and Valencia for 2 weeks this wknd wondering if I get any chance of discovering some early mixels. Easy to put in suitcase for journey home!!

Anyone else get in on the Amazon.uk mistake this morning I picked up 3 x Darkseid Invasion 76028 for £20.34 each, they soon realised their mistake an put it back up to £53.99. Just got home from work checked my emails and they honoured it yay.

Good work!

I'd seen it mentioned this morning but unfortunately it happened a day after i promised the girlfriend I wouldn't take up any more space with Lego until we moved to a bigger place. Unfortunate timing.

Good work!

I'd seen it mentioned this morning but unfortunately it happened a day after i promised the girlfriend I wouldn't take up any more space with Lego until we moved to a bigger place. Unfortunate timing.

​Dumb her quick 

Lol

Off to Benidorm and Valencia for 2 weeks this wknd wondering if I get any chance of discovering some early mixels. Easy to put in suitcase for journey home!!

​Find anything rare?

Just been to Legoland Windsor today and saw these poly bags for £2.99 each

(+ extra 10% discount if you have an annual pass)

30197 Snowman

30280 The Piece of Resistance

Maybe of some interest for someone here.

Both good polybags, especially the Lego movie one, that one will be worth between 10-15 when the next movie hits.

 

Anyone else get in on the Amazon.uk mistake this morning I picked up 3 x Darkseid Invasion 76028 for £20.34 each, they soon realised their mistake an put it back up to £53.99. Just got home from work checked my emails and they honoured it yay.

​Spotted it like 30mins to late, otherwise would of been an instant 5 buy, good old pricing errors always spice things up.

Pretty new to all this but Asda Direct have got some sets at half price

79017 - Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies - £30

79016 - Hobbit - Attack on Lake Town - £17.50

76016 - Super Heroes - Spider Helicopter Rescue - £22.49 using code TOY50 

http://direct.asda.com/george/kids/lego-toys/D25M8G1C8,default,sc.html#http://direct.asda.com/george/kids/lego-toys/D25M8G1C8,default,sc.html

 

​Find anything rare?

​No nothing waste of a trip to Valencia never mind

Done my best to clean the place out

Both good polybags, especially the Lego movie one, that one will be worth between 10-15 when the next movie hits.

 

​Spotted it like 30mins to late, otherwise would of been an instant 5 buy, good old pricing errors always spice things up.

​When I got the alert off Hot UK Deals went straight on Amazon on my phone, I wanted 5 but would only allow max of 3. Cant be greedy though they have been dispatched so waiting to see if they are in mint condition, fingers crossed.

Yeah very good buy indeed, Amazons packaging is normally excellent, so you should be ok.

Right quick deal for uk shoppers tesco deal.

Lego DC Super Heroes Superman: Battle of Smallville 76003 50% off - @ £20

They are currently running the £60 spend on lego promo, get 1000 clubcard points, so if you order 3 you'll get these.

Points can be worth £20 on double points deals.

 

The list hasn't been updated on tesco  as of yet, but Ive called CS and confirmed that they will honor the points and put them on my account. Might be worth waiting for the offer to go "official" so you dont have to call.

Read more at http://www.tesco.com/direct/lego-dc-super-heroes-superman-battle-of-smallville-76003/691-7192.prd#3oKUG2LwfS2jXOEV.99

http://www.tesco.com/direct/lego-dc-super-heroes-superman-battle-of-smallville-76003/691-7192.prd?pageLevel=sku&skuId=691-7192

There's a fatal flaw with this deal and that's that the set isn't worth buying at any price.

Smyths have had this for €26 for months and they still can't move them.

The first set I bought when I started investing was 4 x Superman Black Zero Escape at €13 each. I know I won't lose money on these, but I'll never make much money either. Lesson learned, Superman just isn't that popular.

There's a fatal flaw with this deal and that's that the set isn't worth buying at any price.

Smyths have had this for €26 for months and they still can't move them.

The first set I bought when I started investing was 4 x Superman Black Zero Escape at €13 each. I know I won't lose money on these, but I'll never make much money either. Lesson learned, Superman just isn't that popular.

I agree with that, but I think I can shift them at £25 each, then get the points for nothing.

to be honest if you wait until around Jan-March next year to sell them, you will probably be able to sell them for around original retail of £40.00, make around £10 each profit, and like you said it's always worth accumulating loads of Tesco points, when double points hits they can often have some good deals on Lego.

Yeah and you never know, there may even be a renewed interest in these with the new movie superman batman

to be honest if you wait until around Jan-March next year to sell them, you will probably be able to sell them for around original retail of £40.00, make around £10 each profit, and like you said it's always worth accumulating loads of Tesco points, when double points hits they can often have some good deals on Lego.

.

Well if you guys don't fancy that one there this one too, although you've prob seen it LEGO® City Cargo Train - 60052. @ £84.99

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9150322.htm?cmpid=COJUN&catalogId=10001&cjsurferid=178202603496124493%3AYgVy.QjTBxWv&_%24ja=tsid%3A11674|prd%3A1546795&storeId=10151&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argos.co.uk%2Fstatic%2FProduct%2FpartNumber%2F9150322.htm&referrer=COJUN

I agree with that, but I think I can shift them at £25 each, then get the points for nothing.

But you'll have your fees to pay from that and a bit of work involved, are there no better sets in Tesco which you could buy to get the points instead?

 

 

But you'll have your fees to pay from that and a bit of work involved, are there no better sets in Tesco which you could buy to get the points instead?

 

 

I just cant resist half price

Nah not that much on there at the mo, front loader @ £127 but I picked up 4 @£98 earlier in the year price error.

Did manage to get 3 Ultra Agents UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter - 70170 half price this morning before they sold out

Also got two of the Cargo Train on c&c, but not too sure if its too early to be buying these to put away.

.

I just cant resist half price

Nah not that much on there at the mo, front loader @ £127 but I picked up 4 @£98 earlier in the year price error.

Did manage to get 3 Ultra Agents UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter - 70170 half price this morning before they sold out

Also got two of the Cargo Train on c&c, but not too sure if its too early to be buying these to put away.

.

I passed on the Ultra Copter, nice set, but I already have some Mission HQ's at half price, so have enough Agents for the moment.

Step away from the half price junk, if I offered you half price Chima would you take it, course not.

What's c&c?

 

Did manage to get 3 Ultra Agents UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter - 70170 half price this morning before they sold out

.

Yeah I grabbed one of these last night from Debenhams for 55% off. Hard to resist at that price.