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I wouldn't say that any of the people who have been doing this for a while are stupid, they were way ahead of the curve on this, afterall. And I haven't seen one person who has been doing this for years ever say that they are surprised that this is happening. All any of them has represented is more of a disappointment in what it has become. Also, none of them have stated they're done. Of course they are adapting, but it doesn't mean they can't be disappointed in the new market. They already know how to do this. I think people forget that when people started doing this 10 years ago there was no site to ask every day "what should I buy?!" or "when will xxxx retire?!" or "when should I sell this?!" They did it all on their own and they are plenty savvy. Don't mistake disappointment for unpreparedness.

but what if tru only gets large sets modulars exclusives and such then short term flippers will benefit and long term large set investors will be in the toilet because then you will be saying i should have bought small sets and not all the large sets since they are available with tru in the long run and will be around for a lot longer and people that hold for the long term will have to hold longer and the short term flippers will be flipping and making money faster (edited for run on sentence to help long term investors that read emazers posts understand better)

reason for the second one is just cannot pass that price which is $600 on ebay. Just finished building. enjoy~ Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

I heard it moved two items to the left on S@H, so that means something.

Just in case he does and doesn't invite you, don't feel bad. I'll sum up the topics for you now: Current strategies - buy at least one SSD, DS, GE, PS per month until said sets are no longer available 2015 strategy - continue buying from the previous year's list plus add a few newer large sets like TB. 2016 strategy - more of the same. Maybe start mixing in EV. FOR ALL YEARS - never exceed 200 transactions. That's about it ?

I guess any discussion about Chinese knockoffs doesn't mix well with a discussion about LEGO's new hot Chinese market. Speaking from experience, many interviewers are ill-prepared when discussing LEGO, especially a topic like fake Chinese parts.

you live in Hawaii!?!?! Do not complain about anything again ever.

I am happy to announce that we were able to work out a deal with Raise.com (a discount gift card) website. We noticed some of you have been using another service, but they really didn't reply to our messages. Raise.com was happy to work with us and looks to have many of the retail shops that we talk about here covered. Some of the deals will be e-codes that only work online and will be given to you quickly. Others will be physical cards that are shipped out to you. Regardless, this is a great way to shave another 5% or more off purchases. Obviously we would like to keep this partnership and that only works if you guys use the links here to show them you want to use it. The more that comes from us, the more opportunity there may be for us to get you deeper discounts or special offers. $5 off $75- New Customers Only Code: RAISE75AF Expires: 4/30 Exclusions: New customers only, cannot be used with additional coupons. Walmart gift cards: up to 3% off $89.11 for $91.73 (With new customer promo code, price drops to $84.11 for $91.73) Target gift cards: up to 5% off $95.04 for $100 $55.74 for $58.72 (With new customer promo code, price drops to $90.04 for $100) Sears gift cards: up to 6% off $28.29 for $30 $84.87 for $90 (With new customer promo code, price drops to $79.87 for $90) Barnes & Noble gift cards: up to 14% off $43 for $50 $86 for $100 (With new customer promo code, price drops to $81 for $100) Toys R Us gift cards: up to 7% off $46.78 for $50 $126.27 for $134.99 (With new customer promo code, price drops to $121.27 for $134.99) There are more stores to pick from for sure. All I ask is that you come here and find the banners that I wiill be posting to show them we appreciate their service and hopefully it will benefit you even more in the future.

Funny, I thought the discussion about changes in TRU's exclusives policies have a direct effect on any LEGO EOL/retirement discussion.

Came across 9 John Hancocks (21001) at TRU today. $7.79 each. I was shocked and did a double take when I saw them on the shelf, considering these have been retired for what, over two years? Easily the best random find I've come across so far!

There are way too many punctuations in that paragraph for it to make sense

Not yet. Let me finish selling mine first.

My gosh! The market is getting more and more competitive! Making profit is becoming harder! What a blasphemy! Who expected this? Oh wait... As long as there is profit and entry is easy and not limited, the market will attract new players and develop new, increasingly complex practices to exploit the opportunity. Some people are panicking here like they did not know this and believed that LEGO investing would be a piece of cake forever. The LEGO investing scene has arrived to its mature phase and is showing its sign very well. Major players (TRU, emazers, etc.) are developing with a competitive fringe (small investors). Making profits requires more and more strategy and insight. Inefficient players will drop out (panickers are afraid of this?), it can not be avoided. The key to survival is adaptation. This is the essence of Ed's post. Investors have to select sets more carefully while profits will become potentially smaller with the introduction of extra uncertainty through not knowing which set TRU will not resell which results in more sets invested in bought around MSRP and with the increasing participation. So will it be harder to make profits? Certainly. What you have to do? Adapt and be efficient! Will it require more effort and time? Absolutely! In a contestable market this can be considered as a law. Who thought otherwise, believing that profits and required effort will stay the same in the long term is -sorry for the expression- plainly stupid.

i would, in fact this thread has been very useful based on the original premise. Now it has way too much chatter. So far Lego has not followed any type of manageable retirement strategy. They retired quite a few sets randomly and in waves since thanksgiving. This thread brought it to the surface for me. If it becomes random talk it should be locked. People seem to forget what a specific thread is for. Investors on this site are really beginning to look like retail investors in the stock market. Most loose money and get creamed because they are emotional and ill planned.

I feel as though City could be better if they continue to spread their choices in designs across various venues like they have been in recent years. The Police stuff has been rather repetitive anymore and there is only so much that can be done with the Firefighters but all the pedestrian and work related vehicles such as the Logging Truck, Camper Van, Flatbed Truck, Grand Prix Truck, etcetera, are what I would like to see more of personally. Now I don't mind a copper or fireman every once in a while but a true city is comprised of houses with people living in them, streets to drive on, and jobs to go to. I guess though Creator has become the 'go to' theme for building homes but even then I wouldn't mind seeing another set like this once more.

Yes keep buying the Exclusives, just because Toys R US put Exclusive on the GE everybody is going to panic, there is no way Toys R US will have all the Exclusives that retire on Lego as there Exclusive for a long time. When it says retired on Lego they are not being made anymore. So I am going to keep getting more SSD,GE,Camper,etc. Ed

It would be awesome if you listed the set name, for those of us who haven't memorized every set. That's a good price. The T-Rex's would probably sell for $100/pair pretty easily.

This theme of warriors fighting against great beasts of legend featured great characters and monsters but unfortunately was limited in release back in 2005. Anyway, would you like to see the theme make a triumphant return and if so what fashion?

Here is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal I found on my Twitter feed this morning. Read the full interview here.

The mod team will not be watching over them unless you invite them. Only the Admins (Jeff and Ed) will be able to see into each group. If you make a group and no one shows up you should have perhaps made a more interesting group. The fact it costs a few points will stop people from randomly creating tons of groups that no one uses and hopefully steers them into making interesting, useful and fun groups. I'm not sure on the functionality of group owners being able to moderate their group, that's one for Jeff. I hope the members that cried out for this feature so vociferously in the past now use it.

I found this video of a Toys R Us rep showing off the Grand Emporium Special Edition:

File a case and pursue it. Ebay claims 100% buyer protection and this should be no different. You will get your money back.

That is an eternity in my market. If you don't respond in 15 minutes you are probably not first in line. I have all but stopped trolling CL for this reason, it's either "too late" or "sorry price went up 200% due to number of responses".

Nahh... just bring your parent and say you're a 11 year old that's just really tall for his age. Unless you're short, you could pull it off quite easily.

Oh, we're posting what we've spotted in stores now? When I called at the beginning of this week, the two closest LEGO stores to me both had the GE in stock, and the SSD out of stock. I spotted a decent amount of everything else in the store I went to too - Death Star seemed to have been just restocked (employees were eager to point this out), and I saw decent amounts of TB, R2D2, and most of the other pre-mentioned exclusives. Thanks waddamon, definitely seems like they're pushing these sets out of the limelight. Any of the experienced folk know if this correlates to the behaviour of past almost-EOL sets? LEGO's website shift, combined with the French May the 4th advertisement posted earlier, makes me think that perhaps May the 4th will be one last hurrah for the SSD for them to clear out stock. Meaning that, they have enough to last another month in May, but no plans for further down the year. Whether or not they put it on a big or small discount is the question, but it probably won't be like the B-wing, seeing as the SSD is much more recognizable from the movies. On a related unrelated note (since it seems the focus is on the larger sets, not the small fry), LEGO Movie Minifig polybags are probably heading out too, as the LEGO stores I called don't have them (or any of the Minifig polybags, for that matter) and I don't see it on any other major retailer websites...besides TRU. >____>;; Wish they were still in stock, I need to build up eBay ratings soon...

made more progress today after taking about a week off. (was building ninjago sets with my son) now on step 86.1 of 97. i prob have only 2-3lbs of elements left (set weighs about 22lbs) while impressive, it is just too big (measurements / weight) and delicate with all the greebling and plates. moving it is now nearly impossible. i did find another missing element, "Light Bluish Gray Hose, Rigid 3mm D. 12L / 9.6cm. since this color was released only in this set (2 come in this set), i'll buy the 20L version if really needed. both of these diff size hose elements are in the $6 range. my missing element count is now 5. not too bad considering the ones missing.

Dump all six sets into one pile and build them all at once

If you reveal all this information in one place, you will drive away new members. Oh, you already did.

I built an HTPC so that I could play absolutely everything, including just going on the various TV stations' websites and just streaming straight from there

I agree. Why does the random chatter really matter? So many of the topics are just the same stuff over and over when they are strictly on topic. And threads about retirement and such are mostly speculation anyway so what's the big deal?!

Certainly not a bad idea. I don't know how much I will use it, but mostly I think that some of the people who waste posts complaining about other people wasting posts will enjoy that just a bit more. As really that is what is wearing on me more than the random chatter. And spending brickpoints is good - as it will encourage people to earn more of them. Ha!

http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/5320-enhance-the-brickpicker-database-and-earn-brickpoints/ http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/8631-how-to-earn-brickpoints/?hl=brickpoints http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/5634-how-do-i-start-earning-brickpoints/?hl=brickpoints Overall its: 5 Points - Create a New Forum Topic 1 Point for each forum post 1 Point for blog comments Points for doing reviews, blogs (this is a big way to earn points) Points for updating the price guide database

I think this is a good option for some of members on here that like are worried about those spying eyes watching you. It's also good for the members that like to spew out a bunch of garbage and pollute the forum. I will be interested to find out later how many groups do get created over time. Maybe we will never find out.

have to figure out a way to start selling legos on alibaba... and shipping to china...

Speaking of something on fire: (the grammar nazis might not want to listen to this song though :D ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkyhvCdJ_vM

Many who post regularly here that seem to be "Major players" are actually small fish in a very big pond. Many of the major players don't even give BrickPicker the time of day, or even know what it is. There are other major players who are members of this site, but they don't post anything.

Break break break.........why are we talking about this (again) in this thread? Numerous members have asked to keep this on topic. Now I'm asking to get on topic or else another useful thread will have to be locked.

Things have gotten to the point nowadays, that there really is no EOL (with or without TRU).

I'll just keep being patient, and keep loading up. No reason to be worried, just be smart.

All right then, my QFLL hat is back on :-)

LEGO is just delaying the inevitable. Then we have to wait 1 more year until stocks dry up. So what? Yeah, I get it, without capital it will be harder to get in the game. But once you are in and the sales begin, you can have a steady cash flow allowing you to finance the business further.

Bottom line is that this new TRU "exclusives ploy" can change the entire dynamics of LEGO reselling. Will resellers like emazers be affected? Not really. He holds his sets for awhile. It won't affect me. But many short term flippers will be affected.

Here we go the TRU debate is about to start again.....let me get my popcorn.

Crap. Ok I'm unloading all my big exclusives and only focusing on $10-$30 sets.

I normally don't correct grammar in forums like that, but I chuckled to myself that the wrong spelling was used when calling someone out as dumb. Just some friendly banter. I keep waiting for the Pre-Vizla set to be marked down to $12.98 on S@H.

Sure would be. Sounds like premium information.

Just be polite with him an let him know that you shipped it Monday and it shouldn't take longer than a week to arrive. Ask him to touch base Monday if it hasn't arrived yet. Most likely it will show up tomorrow or Monday and you will have been a good communicator. It bothers me that eBay puts the estimates on there and people get angry of it's not accurate. I always ship within 24 hours of payment and don't have any control over the USPS speed. Most of the time, it is fast but there is the occasional stray that takes a full week.

It takes time, sadly this forum and the LEGO investing community in general has been invaded investors seeking quick profits. They expect every set to perform like Zombie weeks after retirement, thats just not going to happen. Honestly im happy with 50-100% returns in a 1-2 year time period, thats MANY times better than any stock could do, and an insane amount compared to the 1% CDs banks are offering or the 4% i could save in interest by paying off my mortgage early.

Less firefighters. Maybe an old school one room school house.

Same here Martin - I hope these are 50% clearance around me. It's a shame really the movie flopped - these are nicely done sets...very well designed and high playability. My son loves the LR sets!