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It is getting more and more difficult to move up in the US in my opinion. The costs of basic necessities are going through the roof. Healthcare costs are insane. As a small business owner, it is just churning dollars and paying yourself with a salary that in many cases hasn't increased in years. It's a slow suck. Sure, people who choose the right profession or business at the right time can move up, but most Americans are just treading water, with stagnant wages and increased living costs. I used to be a lot more positive, but hard work and persistence doesn't always translate into success now. Even a quality education puts you in a huge hole financially before you get a decent job. Many Americans are in a daze, working harder for no status gain, more worried about managing their Facebook account than their bank account. Yet the stock market keeps chugging along, blowing off worldwide events and changing the rules to suit their needs. Maybe investing in LEGO makes sense in the new "bizarro" we all live in.

Just got back from my local Target (Greater Vancouver Area). This weekend only spend $50 in store and receive a $10 gift card free valid store wide. I bought $50 in groceries to get my free gift card. I also noticed my store had the new imperial Star Destroyer 75055 on sale for $105 (reg $149.99) 30% discount! I didn't see this sale in their flyer, so not sure if this is sale chain wide or not. So I bought my groceries, put them in my car, and went back in to buy the set. $105 less 5% using my Red Card: $99.75 plus 12% HST = $111.72, less $10 gift card: $101.72! PLUS THEY GAVE ME ANOTHER $10 GIFT CARD for my purchase! The fine print says one gift card per customer but they don't seem to enforce it. It was the same teller for the second purchase and she knew I had just got the gift card a few minutes earlier but was happy to give me another, I didn't even ask for it.. Pretty sweet deal I think. I wanted one for my collection and I doubt I'll ever get it cheaper than that. Might be worth checking your local Target store this weekend if you want one. Good luck!

This thread is now members only

Sold 8 RI today between 80-86 today @ amazon. Sweet $$

Prob because HH is unique and interesting. GE is kinda boring compared to it.

Found this on a link at YahooFinance, kind of neat http://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-dream-illustrated-with-legos-brookings-200611923.html

As long as my family is healthy, we have food on the table, a roof over our heads, and some money in the bank, I'm happy. I really have no desire to live any kind of extravagent life. So I would agree that not everyone is looking to get to that Q5 level, and the "American dream" differs quite a bit depending on who you ask. My parents keep nagging me to buy a bigger house because the kids have to share rooms in our current home. Oh no! lol. I think its funny, my parents were of a generation where they crammed 6-8 kids into a tiny house, and they always told me how much fun they had growing up. I think people get this idea in their head that if they aren't constantly upgrading then they aren't successful in life. The kids are perfectly happy sharing rooms, and we like our home the way it is for the time being. Honestly, the only time I ever thought about moving was to have more room for stashing Lego

i wouldn't go that far There are many sets that aren't boring when compared to the HH. POTC ships, Palace Cinema, new & old Tumbler, VW T1, 10188, Arkham, etc... just to name a few. When it comes to Lego sets based on houses and buildings, I think 10228 will be long remembered and has a chance to be considered as one of the more iconic sets of recent times. Thus, I think decent demand will still be there for this set even 5+ years after retirement (as long as it's not refreshed) and we can't say that for most of the sets produced every year,

KMart? They'll create a listing, everyone will order, and then receive Deloreans instead.

looks like some 39.99 exo's are going back to target next week. also I am a true believer on this set and all IDEAS/CUUSOO sets. have 29 on hand and ordered another 11 this morning. if this set is not available in November/December, there will be hay to be made, but still long term i think this set and all IDEAS sets will be cash money.

Just sold one on Amazon this morning for $100 Ship by: 08/26/2014 Item: LEGO Cuusoo 21110 Research Institute Condition: New Listing ID: 0823ODK***** SKU: 3Y-5O5I-ACN1 Quantity: 1 Order date: 08/23/2014 Price: $99.99 Amazon fees: -$16.54 Shipping: $5.49 Your earnings: $88.94

No wonder interest has waned, they only put out 2 episodes every 4 months.

It sure didn't look like Dusty Rhodes to me???

If you really wrote "gamboy" instead of "gameboy" or "game boy", you have the reason why you did a disappointing selling. (because of ebay's referencing and browsing)

pssst we still need him around to fight those pesky knockoff bricks/minifigs sellers from China

Can this thread be moved to members only? Otherwise we are going to see another kind of article...

I don't agree with this: "The company stirred excitement this month by offering a line aimed at girls called the

Lots of cool features in this set. The ship even includes a sleeping quarters. I love that the captain comes with a cup of coffee. Take a look.

Big risk...big reward.

You don't have to choose co-mingled option. If you opt out from it, and attach your label, then they will sell only what was sent by you

I sold. Mine at 70 two days ago and am now regretting it. I freaking *** tripled up after fees and am sour. Maybe I'm just being a greedy jerk

How would 80 dollars be the ceiling when they are selling for 100 right now?

Well you could say that... somebody didn't do their... Research. Punpunpunpun

That is correct... I could translate it to spanish for say... A couple of SSDs xD

The return policy for Walmart is 90 days. Here is a link for their policy.

People are lazy and Amazon is just a few easy clicks. I'm addicted to the site.

I have 3 EDB's I got at that price, plus a handful of 50% off Garmatrons. I'm hoping these sets sell out this xmas season so I can unload them to put that money into something else.

I think the jury is still out on these large Ninjago dragon sets. With EDB still available it's hard to judge how they'll do post EOL. I bought 4 at kmart for around $40 (50% off plus cashed in SYW points/surprise points). For whatever reason kmart was blowing these out back in March.

Imperial flagship 10210 for $600 plus shipping. Sealed. And I paid $125.00 for it. Beautiful.

Used Queen Anne

Inspired me to find some of my own. 5 by SPARKART!, on Flickr Lightcycle by Fine Clonier, on Flickr movie chronicle 03+ by LEGO suzuki, on Flickr Tron09 by - 2x4 -, on Flickr

exo-suit @ target limit 3 $39.99

dude you gotta stop being so negative all the time, youre harshin up my buzz

Why not pack RI with the orangutan poly from Friends ? The chemist can use a test subject, no ?

This....Maybe members only for all of the EOL threads too? What do you guys think?

ebay 58, don't be fooled

I've heard there is a bubble growing with the New York Stock Exchange though - not sure you would want a sculpture of that.

Sitting on four already and you guys make me think of buying even more... should i buy two more at

I think the DS battle pack quill sell better on its own then selling it with the actual DS. I remember selling on eBay a gamboy, 2 player connector cord, games, and a gamboy pouch. I sold it for like 17 dollars when a gamboy by itselfwould sell for 15. The 2player connector cord by itself sells for 10 and so on and so forth. It's that people are looking at the big product when you bundle and really only want to pay for the main attraction. I've never bundled anything ever again... The other things in the bundle are just freebies for the purchasers.

The think this NYT writer is a reseller trying to drive the price up.

Ok, special note to self. Make sure joyjoy and MartinP don't do any math things for the site

Sometimes google can be your friend... http://thebrickblogger.com/2011/02/lego-colors-introduction/ What's the real reason? Color is injected into the mold at the same time as the ABS pellets. They used to used pre-colored pellets. Some have criticized the QC in China but by all accounts they are using the same equipment over there... What is theorized is that Lego uses a China-sourced ABS in China which is lesser quality. Bromine is also added to the mix when molding a piece to reduce the flammability of the ABS but unfortunately that chemical is apparently quite susceptible to UV rays.

I wouldn't pay 70% over MSRP for any set one week after EOL (or 3 months after "practical" EOL, if you want to count from the day it was not widely available in stores). I would invest in other sets that are likely near EOL and have somewhat similar ROI potential but can still be bought at MSRP or below, such as Grand Emporium, T1 Camper Van, etc. But that's just me. I know I can be completely wrong. Good luck with your investment (and we are in the same boat).

If you read my post, you can see that I distinguish between real and nominal returns. My point is simply that the top, say, 20% of our economy (which I would imagine includes just about everyone who ever pays over MSRP for retired lego sets) will do fine regardles of overall economic conditions. For the middle and bottom, life will steadily get worse, but that is not relevant to Lego investing, since those folks are not buyers of 2 x MSRP retired multi-hundred dollar lego sets. I'm not disagreeing with your economic predictions for the future (US and worldwide), only pointing out that historically the upper-middle and upper classes (who are our customers) generally weather hard times pretty well.

Ahhh, I see now. At this point I am not rolling profits into other sets. I will add additional exclusives next year to top of the next run up of hopeful retirements and that will be it. I have specific plans for this investment course and it is not an ongoing year over year plan. When I exit my positions I will be allocating those total dollars into other areas. Down the road I may pick up some singular sets (tumbler in late 2016 as an example) 30-40 of these. Plans change though and you never really know what is coming down the road.

OK I now have a smarter system set up for capturing changes in the "retired product" Lego shop search results. I ran it a couple of times and found quite a few sets that I had missed off my list. I've filtered out any Duplo sets, or accessories like minifigures, motors, cables etc. This is a list of all the newly found ones. I've also added a column called "Status Updated" that records the date I ran the numbers and found the newly tagged Retired Product sets. And attached is an updated full list of all sets to date. As sets drop off the Lego "Retired Product" search page into oblivion this will soon be one of the only sources for that info. EOL dates table.xlsx

Well... I think it's time to post this again :

On the other side, if it's not true, there will be a urge for the 2012 Dinos sets and yours will gain even more value. (now you can click on "Like This" ^^ )

I am curious though, if Lego does do a Jurassic Park series, will The Brickqueen do a review? Sent from my iPhone using Brickpickeraaaaaaaswssssswssa

Hey folks, Just thought I'd share a small milestone with everybody and let everyone know that I just purchased my 50th set. I started this back in January of 2014 and I've enjoyed every moment of it. Thought I'd share my inventory with you in order of what I first purchased so you can see my strategy/progression, some of the rookie mistakes I have made, possible feedback from all of you, and so the people that are even greener than me can learn from. The only set I've purchased full price is the Architecture Studio. The others I've been able to get for between 30-40% off. Here they are: 70808-1: Super Cycle Chase 4 10225-1: R2-D2 18 21017-1: Imperial Hotel 1 21010-1: Robie House 3 6862-2: Superman/Armor Lex 4 21050-1: Architecture Studio 1 21005-1: Fallingwater 3