Leaderboard

Well - I had a similar experience yesterday: two HHs from Target arrived in one box, poorly packed and creased boxes (but still sealed). I called Target and explained the damage. After a couple of minutes on hold: guess what they did - they will refund one of the HHs, and I can keep both damaged ones. So in the end I got two HHs with box damage for 50% off. That's what I call a deal. Especially when I want to build one myself anyway. Target made my day today.

I gave my last worriz bike to a kid in the Lego store after I got my stuff and he about peed his pants.

I took my boys to the Richmond VA Lego Fest this last weekend. I was really impressed that Lego kept my boys excited about building 4.5 hours. Lots of builds and games to play with no lines. My wife and daughter were supposed to attend but had to attend a soccer tournament. Boys day out was awesome. Enjoy the video.

Let's not speak too irresponsibly of that presumptuous twit as they are most likely a member of this forum.

Maybe. Maybe not. I seriously doubt the rumors posted on BP alone is making this set sold-out. There seems to be something else going on. Here's my 2 cents. Regardless whether this set retires in 2014 or 2015, why take a chance? We have the largest set from a very popular theme and it's not discounted anymore. Worse case is you pick it up and hold for longer then desired. At least you won't get caught by surprised if it does indeed go EOL. I think the possible risk of not having the set is greater than holding onto it for extra time.

Sold a Police ATV polybag for $5. The time it took me to research market price, take photos, list, print label, find envelop, etc is worth much more than the set. Googled the recipient's address, saw the house and decided to include a Worriz fire bike as a small surprise for the kid.

You wouldn't be the guy that got carried out of my local tru, would you?

Not all sellers can do math, nor all sets acquired through honest means..

I value the opinions of Lego staff, that is until they all contradict each other. So we've had a store manager tell us PS is about to cease production, the spotty faced weekend boy tell us the TH is done and of course the dozens of other managers and store employees who predicted that the GE is on it's last legs. So what do you believe? Not the view of a Lego shop employee, that's for sure.

Thanks ! That's a more detailed spreadsheet than mine. Although market street is a bit "special", it's interesting to have it inside. Here is another. more visual I think. I'll incorporate market street and haunted house when GE (and PS ? and PS ?) will be retired for sure. I'll use yours for an update of mine if you're ok (edit: I take your "like this" for a "ok", so thanks ). Absolutely, but it's more a modular than the HH. It's interesting enough to incoporate it because, modular or not, it's a buillding designed for AFOLs. But it has to be put apart.

But do keep in mind that GE was some time ago in similar situation (end of 2012?) - it was showing all the right signs, yet came back eventually. PS and TH still feel like a gamble knowing GE history.

+10 likes to the fellow clerks nerds.

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!" :P

Why not have both?

Let me ask a simple question...If LEGO decides to change their long term philosophy of first released, first retired and started a more random retirement process...maybe poor sellers go first, how would that change the secondary market? I think people better start realizing that LEGO has a plan and it is being implemented as we type.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

I don't want to discourage anyone or be flamed, but I have learned to not just look at the price of old sets, but also the monthly volume sold. I decided to pass on these b/c the monthly sales volume seems low on the older ones. This is the reason I also don't invest in technic anymore. When it comes time to sell they just move too slow. Oh and btw can I interest anyone in my 9396s, 8110s, or 41999s? Perhaps I'll write a contrarian blog about this one, TB, and well I already did Friends.

Slave 1 up on LEGO Shop at Home as "Coming Soon" http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Slave-I-75060

I'm proud to finally share my model of the Geisel Library at UCSD, which is a lovely Brutalist-style building that I re-created in the tradition of the Architecture series. The final building in the style of the Architecture series sets. The finished model is probably about 800 pieces, and it's on display this weekend at Seattle BrickCon! If you aren't lucky enough to be in Seattle this weekend, I've prepared a collection of photos of the models, as well as a exploration of the creative process as I iterated on the design before reaching this final version. Before arriving at the final design, I did a bunch of explorations including this much smaller model. some photos of the real building that I've tried to re-create in LEGO. More photos and the "making of" at: http://tomalphin.com/2014/10/geisel-library.html I hope you enjoy my first serious MOC, and I'd love to hear your feedback!!! Sincerely, ---tom

The argument against modulars (too many people stocking up on them) is basically an argument against lego investing generally. It may be true, or become true at some point, but it is an argument against buying any lego for investment purposes, not just the modulars. I could also make the same argument against, for example, stocks (very, very pricey by historical standards using real, i.e. GAAP earnings, especially if cyclically adjusted), bonds (near record-low yields), or real estate (check out those home prices, once again way exceeding historical norms relative to median income). When central banks are flooding the world with currencies of all kinds, "cheap" investments are hard to find. Sadly, Lego does realize that, as evidenced by the new, 30% more expensive SSD, 50% more expensive B-Wing, and so on. The question becomes, just what do you buy for investment purposes in this sort of environment? Holding cash only guarantees a slow bleed to inflation.

Just got a Tumbler from my store .. Involved a load of stalking and hounding . People were lined up at opening. No TH (not even a shelf tag), no HH, no GE . Plenty of ToO

Was watching TV last night and this hit me... I looked it up online just now, and see that it has occurred to others already...

I never recall seeing piles of anything in a LEGO store. Everything is neatly on a shelf. Maybe it's just me.

i am confused by this policy. They do distribute to stores, but don't want to make it available online, at least periodically, combined with backorder queue? but i guess they know better. Here is an interesting version of Lego response to someone's question about RI: http://www.amazon.com/review/RJCWM8PMDOB4S/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00L2DL6N4&nodeID=165793011&store=toys-and-games Note "we normally start the development two to five years before the set comes out. We use this time to plan how best to distribute and allocate the set around the world" phrase. Fail Epic Fail, I guess, in case of Tumbler?

Thank you fuzzy_bricks!

Some argue that Market Street is not even a Modular and I can't say that I disagree. All things being equal, I would have expected the Town Hall to be around another year...the Pet Shop, maybe not. As of right now, I don't think all things are equal.

Snagged a HH from Target yesterday and just got a shipping notification.

Personally I would not stack more than 5 boxes of that size in that manner. The one on the very bottom will not hold the weight for too long. Also, NEVER slam that alarm clock ;)

i use usps priority express international 90% of the time and it wasn't flat rate. not sure if usps opened the shipping box.

Clerks 2 is one of my favorite movies ever.

How would they lose money if the poor sellers retire first? If the Town Hall or UCS B-Wing were poor sellers and not selling, how can replacing them with a potentially better and more popular product be bad for their bottom line?

Of the 15 or so they had Friday, my Lego store has 2 left now. Manager said the freaking panic buyers cleaned him out in a day. He said this set is years from retiring (I know, I know). He said he didn't understand why when a set is temporarily sold out online the vultures swoop in on the stores. But either way, the two they had left in the store were 38R4. He even pointed that out. Said they were brand new and they were definitely expecting more new ones in for the rest of the year normally, but says he really can't predict what the panic buyers are going to do to normal inventory this year, it is insane (his words). I know this will anger people, but it was just my experience. I took a picture of the seal code but it is in my camera at home.

I don't shop at TRU. Maybe that was the other Ed. LOL.

Hobbit - battle of the five armies set NISB - 90.00 + shipping international buyer on ebay Assorted series 1 mixels on Amazon - almost qualified for holiday status....

http://community.brickpicker.com/blog/4/entry-235-the-impact-of-box-condition-on-lego-investing/

No but he didn't say they were opened. However I sold a gunship awhile back the was new aside from seals broken. Got same price As I did for my others.

Lol imagine a 3xVIP event with promo when only Chima is in stock. That would be the end of all things.

It's LEGO's secret plan to make us all buy Chima this Christmas because it will be the only thing left in stock.

I understand the SSD is a cautionary tale here, but there is also a (conflicting) precedent with the GE in late 2011. At that point the GE had been in production for about 20 months, and this was before the shenanigan days where sets retired on a regular cadence (Death Star and Fire Brigade had begun to buck the trends). Unexpectedly, the Grand Emporium showed up as Sold Out on LEGO Shop at Home due to high demand. It was already gone from TRU and Walmart, only Target had it in stock. Within one day the stock at Target was wiped out. Investors swarmed the Lego B&M stores and the set was gone. LEGO Shop at Home representatives over the phone said it was no longer orderable and told buyers that it was not coming back. Lego Store Employees told customers that it "looked like it was gone". This sold out panic lasted for about 10 days to 2 weeks...resellers/investors tore their hair out and prices started climbing on eBay and Amazon. Well, it ended up coming back on Lego's site in a backorder situation. Other retailers didn't get any new stock until after the new year, but it did come back. SSD - we expected this set to go in the timeframe it did. Many predicted it would not last through 2013, so there was anticipation out there that it was going to retired. HH - This set was accurately predicted to retire in 2014. No surprise except that it didn't make it to late October. Still, this was a forecasted retirement. TH - This isn't fitting in with expectations, and we are getting mixed messages from some "sources"...hard to tell if this is an out-of-order EOL (seems strange), or a panic buying situation (more likely?)

If you want to learn about the process of LEGO set EOL., go read the 100+ pages of the SSD and get back to me...

Yes, jackass...I expect you to buy them, pack them up, pay for shipping, buy a pallet, organize with FedEx freight, throw in some freebies, oh, and let me use your mom for a night too! No, I'm legitimately asking for help in rounding up about a Pallets worth or more. Similar to this pallet that is currently in my warehouse: I couldn't make it over there last month to round them up myself, so I'm simply asking if anybody is so inclined to help and make a little extra on the side. I understand that they are starting to go out of stock at LEGO Shop at Home, but last time I came over there to collect sets I was able to find a lot of what I was looking for at the BM toy shops. Not sure if many will be carrying a larger set like this or not, but I figured it would be worth asking.

Buy something else if you feel that strongly about this set, plenty of other investment worthy sets out there.

Source: The Brick Fan

Honestly, what is the purpose of this post? Why do you keep throwing it in people's faces if they don't listen to you or question you ("For all you guys who thought there is no way Emazers has 60 haunted Houses."). Not everyone have your expenses (lack of), bankroll, space, etc... Personally, there are others like me who can challenge you in buying sets but we don't pound our chests publicly.

was hxckid with you there? it is hard for me to picture the dialog... [holleman walks into wendy's restaurant] holleman: I don't want to eat your food hardly speaking any english cashier with questionable immigration status: please no shoot! [holleman walks out with entire contents of the register, and finds some coupons there]

Well I did manage to gain a selection of realties all across Heartlake City like the Downtown Bakery, Pet Salon, Juice Bar, and so on. Unfortunately I missed the Beauty Shop opportunity by a mile. Darn it. Anyway, I've been pondering about the Heartlake Stables but not sure just how far in I should go. Ridiculously rare colors and good possibilities but seller is firm on price which makes considering a transaction difficult to swallow. As for a Malibu Mansion, I already acquired that residence months back for a decent deal. I could have done better perhaps but not worth the risk of missing out entirely. I have a potential buyer lined up but he is a bit eccentric and has a tendency to blow things up. Some name like....Stark I think it was.

Chin up! We'll get through another round! Slow-moving parents of young children despise faster-moving parents of small children who get there first. Fast-moving parents of small children despise adult collectors who buy the last box on the shelf when they SHOULD leave it "for the children!" Collectors despise the collector/casual investor who buys TWO of a set (shocking! Just shocking! Even if they are the LAST TWO!!) and don't leave any for the purist collector. Collector/Casual Investors despise the Mid-Level Investor/Collector who don't leave any for them. Mid-Level Investor/Collectors despise the High-Level Investor/Reseller (often those counting on Lego for a significant amount or all of their income) who don't leave any for them. It's not "sick" for someone to buy more Lego than another person, or for them not to leave Lego on the shelf for the children, the parents, the purist collectors, the casual investors, the lazy, the stupid, or the weak. We're not talking bottled water in a hurricane here, we're talking a luxury toy. I won't call you whiny if you don't call me sick. Or, better yet, keep calling me sick all you want instead of taking steps to make sure you can compete with me on the fair and level playing field called "Open Hours" at the store selling Lego.