The "I won't buy Investment Lego for X # of days starting now" Thread

[CNH1974]

Don't put yourself in the situation of absolutely having to sell by a certain point in time.  The lego market is not as predictable as you may think.  If the economy tanks, the secondary lego market is flooded by  ramped-up lego production/new investors or sets don't EOL when you think they are going to (if I invest 10K in Death Stars then I can double my money by Christmas b/c everybody says they are EOLing this summer!).  The good thing about legos is that their investing downside seems less than stocks (you still have a good product in your possession) but you may be put into the situation of having to sell at a loss or carry a significant amount of credit card debt if you start spending money you don't have).  By not going into debt while investing you free yourself up to time the resale market as you see fit to maximize your profit.

 

10188 Death Star EOLing this summer????? Haven't they been saying that since 2010?

It will be around until the next trilogy is done

[TheOrcKing]

The short of it, do not get in debt for any kind of investment ever. Period.

[CNH1974]

Plus, don't ever believe a credit card company that offers you anything for free. I've tried a few 0% interest deals in the past. Somehow it always cost me money, whether through ridiculous account maintenance fees or retroactive interest charges that accrue after the offer ends.

 

There ain't no such thing as free credit.

[stephen_rockefeller]

I have had an interest free CC for 5 years now and havent paid a dime in fees......maybe my CC company is doing it wrong lol

[CNH1974]

I have no idea what my CC rate is, I always pay it off monthly. I never understand how people live with maxed out cards and overdrafts. It must cost them a bomb.

[weakside]

yes, a lot of people get caught with a balance at the end of the promo period and have to pay the high (+18%) interest on the amount dated back to the initial purchase/charge!  Imagine 18%-28% interest accrued over 10months or whatever.  That would really suck.  Nothing is free and always read the fine print/clauses.  Available credit is one thing but I'm for sure not going to put pressure on myself trying to unload inventory by a certain date.  You can offer a good deal but if there's not enough buyers to flip sets than it'll just sit and sit. 

[Anakinisvader]

I have had an interest free CC for 5 years now and havent paid a dime in fees......maybe my CC company is doing it wrong lol

I have one that pays 1% to 5% cash back.  I have actually been making money on my CC company for around 7 years now.  I just pay the total balance every month so I NEVER pay any interest (no annual fees etc...)  I'm surprised they haven't cancelled my account yet.

[Studebricker]

 

Ok, May and the Grand Opening near my place has pretty much made me go way over budget with my Lego "investment" purchases so I'm going for a Lego "investment" purchase lockdown for 60 days starting now. Who's with me?

 

No "investment" lego purchase until Aug 3, 2013 12:05AM Eastern Time for me. I would've said ALL Lego purchases but I want that hog dog stand next month from Lego S&****. Oh man this is going to be hard.

Well, if there are no good Lego sales for the next two months, then yah, I could do that. I just don't think there will be no good sales for that long a time period...

[hollingsworthless]

I have one that pays 1% to 5% cash back.  I have actually been making money on my CC company for around 7 years now.  I just pay the total balance every month so I NEVER pay any interest (no annual fees etc...)  I'm surprised they haven't cancelled my account yet.

I LOVE my Amazon Rewards Visa. 3% on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas, restaurants, drug store, and office supply store purchases; 1% on everything else. No fees. I just use it for all my purchases I would be making anyway and pay it off several times a month. I've already got $52 in Amazon credit.

Plus when I signed up I got a $50 amazon gift card and used it for a promotion where you get 20% off one toy when using an Amazon Visa. Vampyre Castle for $26? Yes please!

[Guest ph4tb0i]

If all else fails...mnba has just sent me a $20,000 limit credit card with interest free/tranfers for 10months lol. 10 months would put me in around March 2014 of 0% interest (just one time 1% admin fee on balance) well past the holiday season. Tempted to go big on some sets to flip within 10months but risky Would be too stressful looking at credit card bill due with no cash to pay it off fully. I never carry a balance and pay my bills early. I'll just stick to Lego being a hobby and selling some sets to off set my purchases.

Cash flow is getting tight with recent purchases...but that just means I have to be extra selective or wait for better deals. Would be nice to clear some inventory too and get some cash back.

Weakside, check out ratesupermarket.ca from time to time. they give those cards out all the time and rate supermarket makes it sweeter by giving $100 gift cards as well. So far I've gotten $100 starbucks card, $100 future shop card, and a free Sony Google TV player by signing up... I usually keep the card for 6 months then cancel it off. hahaha.

The key to these interest free cards (it's really 1% since they charge a 1% for balance transfers) is to ensure that you ABSOLUTELY PAY ON TIME or they will kill you on the interest rate. Nevertheless if you can service the debt (e.***. you have enough assets to liquidate to cover the debt in a worst case scenario to pay it off in time) then imho there's no harm in using practically free money to invest. I've been using this card to put my student loans on and take my sweet time to pay it off (floating student loan rate here is 5%, versus the 1-2% i pay on my balance transfer cards) so I can use the capital to invest. Quite frankly if you can't make a 2% year over year gain in your investments you probably shouldn't be getting into the game anyways...

 

My wife lets me handle the finances, so it's always fun to show her the balance transfer CC bill with the humongous debt # without showing her our assets and she freaks out hard seeing the debt numbers without realizing our net worth.. hahahahahahahaha. 

[JoshTX]

The only CC I have active debt carrying over is my home depot card, and I allowed for that to occur because I got a 24 months no interest deal and completely re-did my kitchen. I started with a 6,000 dollar balance and have it paid down to 1,500 with 9 months remaining. As long as I pay in full before the 9 months ends, I'm all good. But where they get people on those deals is that if you don't pay in full by the deadline, they tack all of the interest back on from the date of purchase. So if I were to fail at paying it off by the deadline I'd be looking at paying back well over 1,000 dollars just in interest alone. Pretty brutal, but you have to be smart with this kind of thing. If done responsibly, it can work in your favor. I have two other credit cards which I have had for a couple years now. I have a Chase bank card with 5% cashback that I have paid on time every month, never paid interest, and have earned over 300 dollars in cashback. But you have to be disciplined. Don't buy what you can't pay back within 2 weeks. 

[Darth_Raichu]

Having a thread titled "not buying LEGO" in Brickpicker forums is like holding an AA meeting in Sam's bar in Cheers. Everybody knows your name and everybody drinks... lol

About the only way to stop buying is to swear off this forums until your cc debts are paid off :D

[redeemed763]

I won't be buying any lego for 180 days starting today, I need to close on a house soon and there will be all kinds of expenses when that happens, I don't ever see my wife or myself letting another purchase rampage through until we are all settled in to our new place and have a good sense of our monthly obligations. 

[sadowsk1]

I LOVE my Amazon Rewards Visa. 3% on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas, restaurants, drug store, and office supply store purchases; 1% on everything else. No fees. I just use it for all my purchases I would be making anyway and pay it off several times a month. I've already got $52 in Amazon credit.

Plus when I signed up I got a $50 amazon gift card and used it for a promotion where you get 20% off one toy when using an Amazon Visa. Vampyre Castle for $26? Yes please!

I agree.  This is an excellent credit card to have.  I guess when it comes to budgeting for more Lego once you work up a surplus you will be able to sell year round to free up some funds if it comes down to that.  I'm holding off until Fall this year to do any selling if I can help it.  Just buy until it hurts in the meantime.

 

Redeemed, I can't say how much a home is a better investment than Lego if you plan on living in your new home for a long time.  Making extra payments on a home goes a lot further than any investment in Lego ever could in my opinion.  As Benjamin Franklin once said, a penny saved is a penny earned, so true.  It's a lot less fun or interesting, but thems the breaks.

[CNH1974]

I won't be buying any lego for 180 days starting today, I need to close on a house soon and there will be all kinds of expenses when that happens, I don't ever see my wife or myself letting another purchase rampage through until we are all settled in to our new place and have a good sense of our monthly obligations.

You've got the sale then? I have been away for a week or two and you were contemplating on selling your collection. Did you have to make that hard decision?

[Grolim]

The short of it, do not get in debt for any kind of investment ever. Period.

Sorry man, I have to totally disagree with this.  Using debt to fund investment is extremely common, it's called 'leverage'.  As long as the rate of return from the investment is higher than the rate of interest on the debt then you are making money.  The most common example of this is borrowing money in one market or country with low interest rates and investing in a country or market with higher rates (exchange rate fluctuation is the risk factor here).  Trillions are invested this way.

 

I myself fund a portion of my investments, mainly quick flip purchases, on a credit card, and have had no trouble in the last 6 months beating the interest rate I'm being charged.

 

For people with limited investment capital, using debt to start you off can be a good option if you are confident enough.  You do need to be extra cautious though.

[TheOrcKing]

Sorry man, I have to totally disagree with this.  Using debt to fund investment is extremely common, it's called 'leverage'.  As long as the rate of return from the investment is higher than the rate of interest on the debt then you are making money.  The most common example of this is borrowing money in one market or country with low interest rates and investing in a country or market with higher rates (exchange rate fluctuation is the risk factor here).  Trillions are invested this way.

 

I myself fund a portion of my investments, mainly quick flip purchases, on a credit card, and have had no trouble in the last 6 months beating the interest rate I'm being charged.

 

For people with limited investment capital, using debt to start you off can be a good option if you are confident enough.  You do need to be extra cautious though.

If you have a good gameplan in the beginning and can roll with the punches along the way, then you'll be okay. Sometimes though even best laid plans go awry or what started as a small fee can end up becoming a sinkhole. I'm just saying in a general and broad spectrum of all things that intentionally getting into debt on a possibility isn't a good idea.

 

That reminds me, has anyone watched the TV series titled "Leverage"? I didn't think I would enjoy it at first but didn't take long for me to get into it.

[Darth_Raichu]

 That reminds me, has anyone watched the TV series titled "Leverage"? I didn't think I would enjoy it at first but didn't take long for me to get into it.

Leverage was one of the best show cut short way too soon imnho. I would love to see how the new team dynamic at the end of s5 had worked in s6. The chemistry among the cast was awesome, you could not help but root for them. Plus they evolved organically over time.

The show was basically mission imposible met the A team met modern robin hood. I liked it so much I watched season 1 dvd in 3 nights.

[Guest ph4tb0i]

Ok, about 1 week into it now. Had to avoid:

 

BOGO sale on EE

Helm's Deep on Amazon 

Super Cheap Chima Speedorz at Target (5.99/set)

Sopwith Camel on Amazon

 

Stuff I bought (to keep.. lol)

BNSF loco + a set of the TTX cars (somehow managed to get this for 202 flat on ebay with free shipping. )

7897 Passenger Train

 

For wife (we took a trip to a secondary market lego store.. lol):

Lego Farm 7637

Winter Village Bakery 

 

So somehow I think I spent about the same amount of money on myself as I would've on investing this week... lol...

[TheDarkness]

Hi! My name is TheDarkness. I am an addict. It has been 11 days since my last purchase. I only have 6 B-Wings in transit as orders outstanding.
My life just feels so...... incomplete

[sadowsk1]

Hi! My name is TheDarkness. I am an addict. It has been 11 days since my last purchase. I only have 6 B-Wings in transit as orders outstanding.

My life just feels so...... incomplete

I've got nothing on queue.  Nothing! Lol.

[Guest ph4tb0i]

Hi! My name is TheDarkness. I am an addict. It has been 11 days since my last purchase. I only have 6 B-Wings in transit as orders outstanding.

My life just feels so...... incomplete

lol.... I think we're both in the "I bought 10+ 7938 passenger trains from amazon uk" crowd....

[TheOrcKing]

Well, I haven't bought anything Lego since....three days ago....and will probably buy more in another week or so.

....Definately.

[JoshTX]

I'm on a good run right now...it's been about two weeks since I've bought any Lego. Not because I'm trying to do this "lego abstinence" thing, but more so because I just haven't found any deals I really want to participate in. Thought about 2 more HD's with the Entertainment Earth BOGO but I'm going to pass as I just got one from the YOYO memorial sale, in fact that was my last purchase.

[scottjs]

Haha my wife was looking over my shoulder as I read through this thread and she said "hey you should post, since you're not buying any Lego anytime soon". Well of course except the $85 I have to spend on Saturday at the Grand Opening of the Lego store in Edmonton, but she does know about that one. I feel like I'm going through withdrawal if I don't make a purchase every couple weeks. I do need to cut back though, last month I started restricting myself to $200 a month, $600+ later I can see that plan didn't work out.