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Here is my thought on the R2-D2 Droid, don't wait to the last minute like alot of you are doing, buy one now and then so when it does get ready to retire the panic buying starts, now I am pretty sure it will be around another year or so, and why would anybody think that this will not be a big winner, the guys who think it won't be and are not buying any now will be the panic buyers when it does get ready to retire. Now I have 24 now, and will have 30-40 by next year. On the 24 I have I paid $134 for 4 of them from Amazon, and the rest from Barnes and Noble for $127 with 30% Kids Coupons and 10% Membership. "And I will be boxing these up in a week or two. So don't wait to the last minute. Ed

Your "glass is half full" discussion depends upon LEGO releasing more of these sets...which is always possible. It's my opinion this set is done in the US and soon everywhere else from what I've heard and seen. For arguments sake, let's say it is retired. You have the perfect storm coming for STAR WARS LEGO sets with the new movies coming out. You will not see another Star Destroyer or Super Star Destroyer released for a long long time in UCS form...Why? Because you have the Slave I coming out in a few months, which will fill another UCS slot withe the R2-D2, X-Wing and Sandcrawler still in production. This should hold you over until late 2015 when the new SW movies hit the screens. Along with the new movie, you will get NEW ships, thus new UCS sets. Comparing the SSD to other "large" sets is not a fair one IMO. The SSD is an iconic set. Only the 10030 and 10179 matches it's size and display attributes. I see the future value of the SSD very similar to the 10030...and in a much shorter time. If the set retires now, $1500 is not out of the question Christmas of 2015. That is how special this set is, along with the added interest of the new STAR WARS movies thrown in as a multiplier. Am I bullish on this set...you're damn right. If things go right, there will be many happy people who took a chance. There will also be mad people who didn't, but that is a bonus to those who did. The $400 price tag weeded out the people with limited budgets, which could be a huge benefit to those with deeper pockets. Everyone needs to make their own investment decisions. Discussions here are just that...discussions. There is nothing guaranteed or written in stone. My vision of where this set is heading can be derailed if LEGO releases more SSDs or there is a worldwide economic meltdown for example. If a person cannot pay their mortgage and food bills, they should not buy any LEGO set as an investment. Not one. Pay your bills and feed your family first. This is a business/hobby for people with extra discretionary income. But for those who have some extra cash laying around, this set will reward you better than any available LEGO set on the market or recently retired. Just my 2 cents...

Obviously, it is now EOL - We might need to change the name of the topic

"F--- him! Now, you listen to me! I want trading reopened right now. Get those brokers back in here! Turn those machines back on!"

You should ask him what he paid for his house. Maybe he bought it in 1960 for 20 grand and now it is worth 250 grand. Tell him he should sell it to you for 50 grand. That's double what he paid plus a bunch more for closing costs, etc. Greedy jerk.

Well maybe Anthony used to work @ 2nd&Charles

Last year the Star Wars Advent Calendar sold out much quicker and clearance opportunities were few and far between. The 2 years prior they were readily available through December and many stores still had enough to clearance them after Christmas. It's a bit of a gamble because last year there was a good opportunity for resale but the previous years they didn't move because they were everywhere.

We discussed this yesterday. Gains can be evaluated multiple ways. For an individual accounting purposes, price paid (AKA cost of investment) not MSRP is used to calc ROI or gains. Our personal Brickfolio uses price paid. For general purposes and discussions, MSRP is used instead of cost of investment since not everyone pays the same amount. The BrickPicker price guide uses MSRP for this reason. Thus $99 10227s and 10221s (any price under MSRP) are both doing good depending on the conversation.

I had a BIN going for $62, but decided to end it today. I'm going to hold on to these for a little while after all. If the letter earlier in the thread is true, and this is it, then this could go bigger. I did have a question come from a buyer this morning - he did a best offer that was rejected. He wanted to know why I thought "100% profit ($40) + eBay fees wasn't enough for a greedy guy" like me. Block.

I wonder how many people on here weren't even born when that movie came out. "One Dollar!"

find out fast how much small packet parcel cost to ship to the continental US and take that amount and add it to your desired start of your auction ... for instance you want to start it at $30 with a shipping of $10 ... start that ebay auction at $40 free shipping and go from there ... list it for a one day auction buy it now ... if it sells fast list the other for $45 and so on ... good luck with your haul ... many of us here in the USA dont have that kind of luck at our B&M stores ...

BRB, plugging my Grand Emporium into my Laptop...

Yesterday- 10RI's and 6exos Today- 15RI's All from TrU B&M store

I may have learned nothing else from Trading Places, but I learned this.

Come on, let's be realistic, if you have kids they end up under the couch, behind the fridge, or in various places on bedroom floors.

How about the EOL of yet another Supraboy account?

So I went over the deep end today and bought three bins from a CL ad near Philly. To date I've been a lurker on here, and dabbled a little in buying & sorting LEGO with a couple of small lots in the $45 or lower range so far. This popped up last night, and I decided to take the plunge: I paid $300 and the gross weight (including the bins & Mega Block content) is 86 Lbs. There's a decent amount of Mega Blocks, hopefully under 25% by the time I sort it all out. So Far I can tell there is the City Freight ship, a Technic Crane, and at least one big airplane. I also saw some of what appears to be the Black Pearl in there as well.

Mortimer, we're back!

HA HA, Jeff is that you?

I guess it takes a Darth to know a Darth!

If anyone leaves this guy negative feedback......consider yourself a D-bag.

Can we have "hug" button?

Perhaps TLC had a little talk with Amazon. Maybe it was not supposed to be visible until Sept...

$39.99

I had just did the same thing either it wasn't posted yet or I thought it was an auction. I think this set has done well considering there are up to 73 BIN listings, not sure how many are for multiple units, and besides the one at $58 the above $60 price is holding. Since TRU eBay cancelled their orders all of the TRU online orders should be delivered by today so we shall see what the weekend brings. Edit. Not sure if it was there before but that seller is now away and not processing orders until 8/17.

A lot of the sets in both lines fall into the unfortunate trap of having to slot into different price points on the retail scale. Each wave had to have sets ranging right through each pricing bracket. As such most of the small or medium sized sets failed to truly capture the source material and appeal to collectors. The strength really is those minifigures. From a personal position I have collected every LotR, but only one Hobbit (UG). As a big fan of both the books and the movies (hey it's compulsory, I'm from NZ!) I feel that my own thoughts should somewhat mirror those of the secondary market collector, as I've said before, it's the AFOLs, not the kids providing the majority of growth for these themes. One thing I want in a set is display potential. "Playing" with sets holds zero interest. Flick fire missiles on Weathertop! Give me a break! My LotR rankings go like this: Tower of Orthanc - No contest. One of my favourite sets of all time. So damn impressive looking. Helm's Deep + Uruk Hai Army - It really needs the additional clip-on to make the Deeping Wall look semi-realistic, plus the extra minifigs to bulk out the army Pirate Ship - It always gets great comments from guests. Not Immediately recognizable as an LotR set but the minifigs (9! including King of the Dead!) pull it through. It's big and commands attention. Black Gate - another imposing looking set. Especially if 2 are joined together (I still need to get around to doing this!). Mouth of Sauron who only shows up in the extended cut movies/books as well. Shelob - Giant Spider, enough said Council of Elrond - small but looks really nice on display with it's minifigs. Nice colour schemes. Everything else - most of these have been put away back in the closet with only minifigs left out. They generally have nothing to warrant some of my limited display space.

TrU Langley.

Spent more than I wanted Paid $204 for a complete with box 10027 train engine station, manual is excellent. A couple of the element bags were still sealed. Now if only I could finish bricklinking my incomplete 10027 and find a cheap manual for selling it, I'll be into something. It is such a great set. Even uses the older non-Bley grays. http://brickset.com/sets/10027-1/Train-Engine-Shed

Well gang, I just received my shipment from Amazon with the Exo Suit yesterday and I feel awesome. To everyone who made a public reply or sent a private message offering me one of their Exo Suits in case my order did not pull through, I thank you. I don't think elsewhere on the net would I have seen so many willing to do something like that for me. Thank you. Now before somebody nags me with "What's the seal code? Give us the code! GIVE THE CODE!!!!" , it is "20S4" so I'm guessing that the one Amazon sent me was an original production run or something. I don't know. It's your guys' thing. Here we go again.... :crazypilot:

I will send the invoice within an hour or two of completed sell if the buyer does not pay immediately. After that I give them 2 days and then I send a polite reminder message. If they don't respond I let the unpaid item assistance open the case automatically. If they say they need more time I turn off the unpaid item assistant so a case is not automatically opened. After that I give them another 2-3 days and will send another message. If they don't respond within a day I open the unpaid item case and then it's another 3-4 days for that to close. It's a real hassle. Sent from my iPad using Brickpicker

I am pretty confident we will see them remaster the LOTR Trilogy in 3d.

We had a hot dog stand once...

Those wouldn't last long enough to even build a small polybag build. Haha. "Hey look! I built a...." *Chomp* "....Nevermind." :mosking:

I think this theme is doing rather well so far since you can buy most of the sets around 50% off except Orthanc and Helms Deep (25% to 30% off was the best I found). The MM is doing well if you only paid $40 a set. The latest wave of Hobbit sets does leave a lot to be desired, but again AFOLs can buy three or four of each set and make things in the kind of detail and according to the scale that they wish. As far as castles go Helms Deep was a nice departure from the previous paradigm. Yes, the Pirate Ship is not that great, but the minifigs are awesome. I hope they continue this theme since there is so much potential and room to make huge sets. I want to see the White Tower (Minas Tirith), an Oliphant (spelling?), and some Nazgul, a Balrog, and Treebeard as well as a set with cave and waterfall with Faramir and his woodsmen. Is that asking too much? Probably.

Or it's exactly why they live check to check. Buy legos you can't afford, preferably from me, and the debt keeps you living check to check. It's the American way!

I am happy with my LOTR collection. A lot of fear is born out of impatience and the lack of instant results. Not every investment works that way. I am not as convinced on the Hobbit side of things, though there are key figures that purists and completists will want. Elves, dwarves, trolls, wargs, orcs, wizards, Uruk-hai...

Now that I think of it: for every of mine too.

Jamie Lee Curtis, pretty smokin in that movie.

No problems or issues, discussing these types of statements or opinions is akin to chasing ones tail. To me these are investments. As such I must be able to ascertain strategy and price expectations into the future. Investment management, portfolio design, modeling, strategy, trading, planning, taxes etc. are all part of the process i go through every day. This is the approach I take and use in this "investment" game. To not do this would be a big mistake in my mind and usually leads to failure. The big picture is what I concern myself with. If something makes a little money this month or next month is not important to me in the big picture. As I said I classify these as "Investments". Illiquid investments at that. No one asked for investment advice, nor was any being provided. I was simply making an observation to why it is dangerous. To measure something now and other "somethings" in the future one must devise an unbiased approach to doing so. This allows someone to make educated decisions based on real data. I do not think it is worth debating on an anonymous forum though, best kept to oneself. In the future I may write a blog post addressing these issues so folks might be able to grasp the nature of investing and then applying that to this asset class. As an aside, B-wing is currently dragging the entire UCS sub-theme average down in terms of TROR (Total Rate of Return) due to its under performance. I consider this valuable information in making future UCS type investments. Hopefully I did not insult anyone by my remarks, carry on.

I think Mines of Moria is a solid set if you put 2 or 3 of them together. The crypt just wasn't big enough, or maybe it should have been a $120 set.

You both are correct. For an individual's accounting purposes, price paid (and fees, sold price) is used for ROI. Our personal Brickfolio uses price paid. For general purposes, retail price is used to calc ROI since not everyone pays the same. The BrickPicker price guide uses retail price. Thus both 10221 and 10227 are doing great from certain standpoints

With the possible exception of Black Manta/Aquaman, these sets should be Wolverine Chopper level gold. A Darkseid figure alone justifies buying any set. Especially if it's a maxi-fig (though I'm not sure if that will happen because he's not Rancor/Wampa/Hulk size vs humans. Gorilla Grodd and the Flash could have potential as well, especially if there's a decent 3rd figure. Poor Wonder Woman. Still just a sideshow without her own set. I wonder if any of her, Cyborg, Shazam, or Martian Manhunter will be third figures in any of these sets.

Sold my last Catwoman today...have one built and son playing with it already so didn't mind letting this final sealed box go. $35 after fees and shipping costs. Still relatively new to this hobby - bittersweet to see some of the sets I purchased for investing when I started disappearing for good from my closet. Make way for new sets/opportunities. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank-you to Catwoman, Hulk, Cap Am, Two Face, Wolverine, Kingdom Chess set, 41999, TC-14, etc. for helping me with ROI the past 6-10months. My inventory is 'small' but hope to see Superman vs Lex, Spiderman Cycle, Rovers, Uruk Army, and Grand Emporiums bring in some steady ROI the next 6-12months Maybe Funhouse and Arctic Batman will be a surprise with nice margins before 2016 too.

I almost replied to that post with: "Of course we'll take them... all of them... MUA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

I am 38 and still have trouble putting together sets that are more than a few hundred pieces (I must have close to the world's shortest attention spans) so kudos to your son. He sounds like master builder material. Make sure to take your kids down to Canby and visit my old mentor: https://www.facebook.com/bricksandminifigures He also host birthday parties. The owner has unsurpassed lego knowledge and the staff are all awesome.

In this case you say "Oh, I only brought enough cash for the original price we agreed upon, can you wait here while I go to the ATM?" Then you go grab a cup of coffee, check daily deals thread on BP, go to supermarket to get some groceries, watch a few movies at the theater, go on a vacation to Cancun, then come back and tell the guy it turns out you didn't have your debit card on you. Because screw people who don't stick to their price.

Wait, I'm confused. If I am understanding correctly... it's possible to buy less than $100 from LEGO Shop at Home?! How is this miracle achieved? I've never heard of such a thing.

Yeah, but for Aussies that just a few CMF's and a battle pack.