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I've got a script (allinone.bat) setup that checks stock, orders, lists, boxes and ships. I also have a 2nd script setup that spends all the money (wife.bat)

To me 7938 looks more like this one. But what do I know about trains...

Everyone settle down. Listen, these same exact words were said last year. Everyone was freaking out about lack of sales. Black Friday was decent last year - couple of nice things, especially the Walmart deal. But Cyber Monday, none of us expected or knew about. Amazon has had some super deals and will continue to. I trust TRU will do some serious selling again. It is true they have had less sales as of late, but they just increased their points back for the TRU CC which is awesome, and they have had a lot of coupons, etc. I think you will see a lot from them during Christmas. Barnes and Noble has proved that though they aren't big on Lego coupons anymore (mine luckily still work at my store) but they already started the Toy and game BOGOs they had late last year (I destroyed my BN stock with these). Target and Walmart have been the exact same all year. You know why I trust all these places will have huge sales? Because Lego sells better than anything else. They have room and will sell insane amounts of it. No way Amazon looks at what was sold on Cyber Monday last year and says "lets not do that again". Like 30 sets went OOS. Im taking Cyber Monday off work BTW.

Here are some pics of my bricklink builds to date. My MF pics were taken to highlight the subs I used to keep the cost reasonable. I still have to finish the third floor on my second caf

Document everything. For Craigslist purchases, print out the ad, make notes on it as to date and time you met the person, where, what your mileage was, how much you paid in cash. If you can show cash withdrawals from your bank account in amounts that make sense against those purchases, that also helps. The IRS isn't unfamiliar with online or cash businesses - keep good records and if your documentation looks reasonable and is in good detail, they'll allow it. There are several ways to track cost of goods sold or cost basis -- if you're not familiar with them, talk to your accountant and/or hire a bookkeeper or take a bookkeeping class. There are expenses to running a business, and professional help or education so that you can learn to do it yourself, or hiring a professional to do it for you, are among these.

Punch tabs should be used on all Lego boxes. It would cure many issues that Lego fans face, whether they be collectors or sellers. Surely it can't be that much more expensive for Lego have a box with some perforations as opposed to a machine taping them.

Praise Jesus, praise the lord, he has returned!

FYI I've sold mine for 150

Sorry but this is not 100% true. At least, in europe... There are about two kinds of passenger trains: - some for long distance (to travel through the country - 300km / 1000km) - some for short distance (to travel through a region - 50km / 300km ) Long distance: Horizon express (vintage TGV), passenger trains 7897 and 60051 (ICE trains from DB)... You'll need two sets to see them longer and more accurate in size. But the 7938 is quite correct in size (you can even consider it's too long !) NB: the train above is a X-73X00 (73500/73800/73900...) model from Alstom, used by the SNCF (France, most of the time they are blue), and also at the frontier between France and Germany (the red model in picture is one of them, and belongs to the DB).

I was able to spend about 30 minutes at KMart and get all 16 in one go. It's the first time I've been able to do it without getting a few doubles.

Dentist's Office Doctor's Clinic Mobster Lobster food truck Kicken Chicken food truck

Jeff and the programmers are making good progress, so I hope so.

It can fly, the time elapsed in the air just depends on how strong you are.

I picked up my tumbler from the lego store today. They informed me that the household limit was 1. When I asked why, they explained to me that people buy these and resell them at a huge markup. I replied "Oh really, you mean people actually do that sort of thing??"

The soda you knew and loved growing up is for sale at Amazon.com. Welcome back to the 90's folks. http://www.amazon.com/SURGE-12-16-FL-Cans/dp/B00M2OGS08/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413233361&sr=8-1&keywords=surge

Yea I will! I think maybe in a week do it for my birthday. I rarely get to build a 300$+ lego set because I always feel bad about opening up the box. I prefer to always collect everything sealed but since I saved so much on this one it's perfect and my gf will buy me the same one for my bday and I can keep that sealed

Really, It retired the 29th of November 2013. Average price between Amazon and Ebay is about $140-145.00 Based on a retail purchase price that is an 11 month appreciation of 40-45% gross ROR. I am glad I am not any of your investment advisor as that is a pretty solid Rate of Return for an asset, and cannot really be beat for the risk that is taken. How many stock market investors have that kind of return had you stayed in over the same time period, I'll answer it, 3.82% over the same time period (with a ton of risk). I do think the expectations of investors or flippers here are pretty far out there. That is an awesome 11 month return. I think the problem for many people in evaluating the quality of these returns is that you are measuring a hundred dollars. This for many people won't even pay your gas or electric bill every month. That being said these sets should be looked at appropriately. Along those same time lines if you look at the Lion Chi Temple it is far outperforming this Vampyre Castle as the Lion Chi has not even officially retired yet.... I have twice as many castles as I do Chi sets. I had no Chi sets until the Target clearance. I am glad I picked them up.

We always have a mountain of receipts at the end of every week. We use shoeboxed.com and let them deal with it all. For $30 a month I just ship them all my documents in their prepaid envelopes, they scan and organize everything for us and then we have them shred everything although you can ask them to mail it back if you want. I highly recommend them.

Nothing else is included except the total listed as "payments received" under "sales activity". Refunds from purchases, gift payments, bank transfers etc are not reported.

after resisting chima, galaxy squad clearance, i became an accidental hobbit investor after picking up all the sets they had at 63% off msrp. i'm still not sure it was smartest spending but i'm only out $300 and could sell the minifigures to recoup the costs and have lots of new bricks to part out or build itchy's fun dungeon.

Just bought my first Lego after a 20 year hiatus. Volkswagen T1 Camper Van 10220. Gonna build it with the wife so I can convince her that A) Lego's are indeed awesome I get the green light to begin getting back into them as a hobby C) It's worth throwing some investment cash at a few sets ....long term D) I need to go audit my old Pirate, Castle, and Space sets from the 80's/90's and decide what I want to do with them. They are all still in the orginal boxes, with instructions, etc.

This castle isnt as nice as the previous Kingdoms castle. This castle theme right now is lack luster compared to previous castle themes as well as having to compete against the LOTR/Hobbit theme. The only set i bothered to grab a few of was dragon mountain and i did so only because it was 50% off. Unless you can get the castle at near 50% discount i wouldnt bother, there are much better investments for your money right now, you have numerous exclusives, modulars and other other sets which are nearing retirement that will be in high demand by AFOL who will be the ones paying top dollar for retired sets.

Disney owns Star Wars now. Canon? We don't need no stinking canon.

Hook Em

The punch tab boxes come on smaller sets. They have been doing that for as long as I've been in this game (1 year). Found at all different retailers if it's a smaller set like that.

Ever since I joined brickpicker I've been slacking off at work. I only give 20% of my time at work while the other 80% I'm occupied with LEGOs. A little more time off wouldn't hurt, I'm staying home on cyber Monday too. It'll be funny if all of us waited at home in front of the computer ready to hit the buy button and no deals show up.

This is pretty cool most exciting thing today. We should maybe ask for a Cyber Monday off work badge for those who will be off work to focus on buying deals on that Monday! Or maybe we don't want that as a badge of honor. We may have to get a thread in any event this is the most talked about subject on BP today I think. I think we have DNIM, BA, Alpinemaps, sroster and trekgate in so far.

I requested CM off back in March, folks around here thought it was nuts :)

DNIM your post gets a like from me. Know why? 46 years and I have never thought of taking off work for Cyber Monday. Turkey Day, yep, Days around it yep, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years, Yep but never Cyber Monday. Great Idea. I'll plan on it this year and then I can have my coffee and computer and BP threads refreshing constantly.

Diagon Alley is probably a good model for AA, a lot of parallels between those two.

Nope. Or the second episode, or the third... Please don't tell me someone landed an SSD on the surface of a planet, 'cause that just wouldn't make any sense, and I expect plausibility from my Star Wars. Just like you don't store a real-life EEE in your garage during the winter, you don't land a super star destroyer on the ground, anywhere. When you're done flying it, the pilot's manual suggests "docking" at the nearest death star...

I get ticked when my Green Grocer doesn't roll easy and won't stay on the train tracks.

I just picked my first used set off of CL today and other than taking a week to try and get the deal done, it was a good experience. I told the guy I would pay what he was asking, $350 for a 10188 DS, then he inexplicably dropped $30 off. It was his 13yo kid actually making the deal when we met up. He had seperated all the pieces into ziplocks and labeled them like the original bag numbers. And one of the last bags I came across was... The kid actually gave me the "extra" pieces from the set too. If I had realized this at the time of the deal I would have flipped him an extra $10 (and a couple chima worriz bikes). Very cool of him!

Yeah that was a pretty awful post! But I got a bunch of HH if he wants to pay through the nose for one. Give him a real nice deal on one!

As per Jeff I don't believe there is, thanks for posting as this makes craft paper cheap as he'll for packing. $14 for 1200'. http://m.staples.com/touch/product.html#18752

4 X 9465 ZOMBIES paid retail

There's a thread over on Eurobricks on this topic. A number of people do a breakdown of the set and their costs to put it together, piece by piece, along with documenting the substitutions that they make.

Not sure why people are comparing batman and boat / ship sets. Pretty much all theme sets are carried by the minifigs so the 1/3rd quote above doesn't concern me. For those who never built an Arkham Asylum, I suggest you do before investing in it. The build / design is just as cool as the end result. Additionally, if this set does half as good (ROI-wise) as the first AA set, that is a solid return. If there is one batman set to invest in, I'm putting my money in this one. The "exclusive" tag and higher price mean a lot. I have a feeling too many folks are ignoring this set for whatever reason and it when it becomes selling out, the increase (spike in selling price) will be fun to watch.

Every good Investor should either be buying the Batman Ayslum now and then when you have the money, or if you haven't started yet don't wait to the last minute like it seems like alot of would be investors do. The set has been out for about 2 years so avoid the panic buying and spending money you don't have buy charging big bucks on those Credit Cards. As this set will always bring big money, I got 4 more today so by the end of October I will have about 30 and still will be buying them each month. So as most waited to the last minute on the SSD and Haunted House and some got none to only a few, and some got a good deal of them. So please don't miss the boat on this set. Ed

Finished family builds of HH and VW this week. Well, mostly I just got to be piece hunter. My 4- and 7-year-old did the glamorous bits. But haunted house. Man. Best lego set ever.

Set of Mixels Series 1 - $114.95. Most I have got for a set so far, they are creeping up! Also sold Volectro solo for $23.95 x2 yesterday

Alpinemaps performs: "I've Smooshed Everywhere" I was totin' my pack along the dusty Carlsbad road, When along came a semi with a high an' Lego logo-covered load. "If you're goin' to Legoland, Mack, with me you can ride." And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside. He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand. And I said, "Listen, I've smooshed every road in this here land!" [Chorus:] I've smooshed everywhere, man. I've smooshed everywhere, man. CMFs are running bare, man. I've breathed that Mixel air, man. Of flipping I've had my share, man. I've smooshed everywhere. I've smooshed at: TRU Reno, Discovery Chicago, Wal-mart Fargo, Target Minnesota, Walgreens Buffalo, TRU ca Toronto, Mom & Pop at Winslow, CVS Sarasota, Jewel/Osco Wichita, dumpster in Tulsa (Quizno's), Craig's List Oklahoma, Series 1 in Tampa, 2 in Panama, 3 in Mattawa, 4 La Paloma, 5 Bangor, Emazers house in Baltimore, 7 in Salvador, Series 8 Amarillo, 9 in Tocapillo,, I'm a killer. [Chorus] I've been to: Lego store in Boston, Simpsons Figs in Charleston, skipped Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana, Monterey, Faraday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa, Tennessee to Tennesse Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake. [Chorus] I've been to: Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika, Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica, Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport, Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport, Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina, Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean-a. [Chorus] I've been to: Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado, Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado, Larimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chatanika, Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika, Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity. [Chorus] (I've smooshed everywhere) OK joke runs out of steam, too many damn places in that song.

I think the exterior is more important than the interior when it comes to modulars, and TH has a notable one with the sheer height of it, the columns, the bell/clock tower, and the large skylights. I don't think the dull nature of what goes on inside a town hall will have any negative effect on this set.

People who reply to thank you with No Worries.

The main reason for TLG to retire sets in order except in extreme cases (B-Wing) is that even non-investors like to be able to plan on things being around for a certain length of time. Modulars are big purchases, and lots of customers need to budget for them accordingly. Hypothetically, maybe CollectorDad most wants a Parisian Restaurant, but he does want to pick up a TH before it goes. A reliable pattern of modular retirements means that he can buy a PR now and be confident that TH will still be around next Spring, when he gets his annual performance bonus from Widget, Inc. All we actually know at this point is that out of order retirements of exclusives have been very rare up until now. Maybe that will change. If it does, I will have no problem admitting I was wrong. But a few days of TH being out of stock means very little in itself.

well, seems to be working with TH by some other members

Maybe Tabby thinks that if he says the Pet shop is going to retire next over and over and over and over and over and over that it will.

While it's nice to see this set appreciating quickly, I am unloading all of mine this Christmas. Themes like chima and ninjago are only popular when the kids are into them. Ninjago has all but disappeared with the increasing popularity of chima, and chima will do the same thing once the next hot thing comes along. I plan on using the quick profits from this set on safer investments.