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Short story, hopefully entertaining (and reminiscent of a Goodwill lot Alpinemaps found/lost earlier in the thread [sorry for bringing that up!])... These days, CL deals don't come as often/easy and finding a truly 'rare' set is even more difficult. That's why my eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when I saw this photo on a $50 listing for 8 lbs of bulk locally: Thankfully, no one else had contacted the seller almost four hours later (an eternity of time for a decent Lego lot listed in my area) and I made arrangements to pick it up as soon as I could. After 5-10 minutes of sifting through and grabbing most of the related pieces in the lot, I have this bin of pieces from 10190 Market Street: I'm pleasantly surprised by how much of the set I ended up with (even though many of the hard to find pieces are missing). As a collector who has bricklinked Cafe Corner and a Sand Blue Grocer, this is a very welcome 'head start' to wrapping up the last modular I needed to complete my street. Last week I found a Black Pearl & QAR (no minifigs) plus several other sets for $85, so I'm hoping this run of finding rare/valuable sets on CL continues!

2016 sets leaked by Italian site (mods please remove if not appropriate) http://www.pierantoni.it/Cms_Data/Contents/Webmarket/Folders/Campaigns/~contents/ZMC2HTHK98R42KGQ/Toy-Lego-Canvass-Gennaio-Marzo-Camp-T07_web.pdf I'm liking Creator 31050, City 60119 and the new architecture sets

I built the Black Seas Barracuda today. Well, over the past week. I bought this on CL along with about 8 other pirate sets from the same era, and some LOTR sets. I got them all for $45. Total score, I have the box to Barracuda, and instructions for the dozen or so sets. The build was pretty fun. The old skool techniques are a bit painful compared to newer sets. One major difference is the instructions. The entire set was just 28 steps in the manual. I feel like a set this size would easily be 2 big manuals by todays standards. They packed in a lot of changes into each step. I had to backtrack MANY times because I missed something. There is no highlighting or diagrams for which parts will be used in the step. The minifigures are pretty cool, I can picture some good imaginative play with the blue vs red capped pirates. The interior details are very poor. There is a whole roof section that is hinged, that just reveals a simple treasure box. Very lack-lustre compared to the BP or QAR interiors. But the colors are pretty cool. I need to flatten my sails for sure, but I wanted to snap a quick pic with the finished product. I'm missing a few pieces that I hope are fairly common. If there are any classic pirate system fans out there, shoot me a PM if you are interested, I'm going to put it up for sale as soon as I get the spare parts.

42009 also creeps quietly into SOLD OUT mode on a Sunday at US shop. Interesting for us Europeans to monitor how it sells in other places over the next month or so.

Wait that last friends set is a copy of my Emmet's Beach House MOC I want 1%

I think the actual user market this year has been saturated. your only hope for profiting this year is to bundle it with a WVM and a holiday promo close to xmas if target, amazon, walmart go out of stock. i think its a given shop at home will go out of stock before xmas, but that doesn't necessarily mean EOL. I am hoarding for post EOL which I pray for each night befor I go to sleep that when I wake up it will be SOLD OUT or SOLD OUT.

This one mostly fits into this topic. Here's an alternate take on the Sea Cow: I Think I Built My Sea Cow Wrong

This is fast approaching 400 sellers on Amazon . This is an jaw dropping number . Once folks realize there is little money to be made this year , the flippers will head to the exit all at once causing the price to crash . That is provided Amazon sells out ofc.

wait, is it blue or brown?

That creator sandwich/hamburger stand looks pretty sweet--I know the size is massively different, but the color scheme puts it in line with DO. I also like the City Ferry.

To me it's pretty closed-minded to assume Finn is Lando's son. Not beyond the realm of possibility with the lack of creativity in Hollywood, but really?

I want it to say Retired Product

The Elves dragons (especially the blue one) are pure winners. So is the Frozen set including Anna, Kristoff and Sven.

Star Wars

Elves

Disney Princess

Creator

Architecture

City

Larger images: Friends

Firstly, of course Finn is a non-clone storm trooper. As far as we know there has never even been a clone storm trooper. The clones got phased out when they got too old. They'd be ancient by this time. Secondly, kylo ren is not a female. He is Adam Driver. We have seen him without his mask. And finn's lightsaber IS Luke's lightsaber. Also, why the heck does Finn need to be lando's son? Because he was the only black man in the galaxy? He'd more likely be a relative of Mace Windu if he is force sensitive but even that would feel forced. I am sure Rey and Kylo are cousins or even siblings. Kylo's talking mask in toy stores indicates they know each other.

It is 2015, keep an open mind .

I bought 12 C3PO polybags via TRU. Score!!

A working PC case made from LEGO, far out.

Not I. That boat sailed last holiday season.

It's funny, I've sold tons of Star Wars sets, but don't have a single one on display, the only set I've ever bought new to build myself was Ecto 1. I will probably get GBHQ early on to build and/or flip if the opportunity presents itself, but I don't care much about this non confirmed Hoth maybe almost UCS set other than weather or not I can make money on it. Not many Palmetto Staters on here, nice to see another one.

The boy got some excellent grades so i let him open 2 sets and he picked my 2 scooby sets (tears). Got to rethink my incentive program.

For sure. In the past they used an end of shelf life model where they would produce right up until items were retired and put on sale on a specific date. During those times they had alot of stock on sale and they relied on resellers heavily to clean up the huge amounts of excess stock. During this time resellers had a great relationship with the lego store managers and got early access to sales and got to spend alot of money in the store. You could also call lego customer service and buy every remaining set in their stores (Green Grocer for example) across the country and have them shipped to you. Then about 3 years ago they changed to an end production date model where they had a specific date in advance where they would end production and that product would remain on shelves until it was sold out. This would help them be able to move stock at RRRP rather than massive amounts to resellers at 50% off. This is when they started the end of discounts on exclusives, and the banning of resellers both online and instore. With this model stock rarely lasted into the holiday shopping season for the retiring sets (FB, GE, SSD, TH, HH etc). This year the model changed again to "sets on demand". They want stock available to customers so there is no end production date planned in advance on the exclusives. They are doing more frequent smaller runs and as long as licensing is not an issue sets are continuing to be made as long as there is demand. I am expecting all of the retiring exclusives to be in production through the holidays and given to retailers and if there is any excess they should reappear on LEGO Shop at Home. This means you will see some sets listed as "sold out" or "retired" on LEGO Shop at Home but still being restocked at Amazon, Target, Walmart etc on a weekly basis, and the in some cases "sold out" or "retired" tags being changed back to "available now" on LEGO Shop at Home. Sets will retire, just not in the usual patterns we have seen in the past 3 years, and I am sure in 3 years or so it will all change again as ecommerce and consumer habits continue to evolve very quickly. I believe TLG has figured out the horse has already bolted as far as the secondary market is concerned so now they are all about capturing as much value as they can rather than trying a balancing act. Just MO.

This could have gone in about 5 different threads, but ultimately, it's an MOC, so it belongs here. Credit to PaddyBricksplitter

The Hive by Bart De Dobbelaer

Yes, they shouldn't be too much trouble. I picked up some decently priced lots to get me started and I've hit some good auctions since then. My son was having a blast with "Temple of Doom" and I only showed him that one scene. I still remember the whole PG-13 creation after it came out. I was about that age, 12 or so, when the controversy hit. I was a little shocked by the footage and wondered how that stuff made it's way into a PG movie.

This morning's Amazon ranking #2 in Building toys, #6 in Toys & Games. Buy box is at 68.99 with 5 in stock. 380 offers. 26 offers lower than the buy box. UPDATE: as I typed this, the current BB holder sold 5 units. EDIT: He sold through. New BB holder is at 57.99 + 2.98 shipping with 47 units. Have we seen the last of the people with hundreds of this set up for offer?

I would pay for that. I would also pay for a better box. "Collector" means it should be special. A sturdy, well designed and reusable box...similar to the Architecture boxes, would be a good start.

If there are too many familial links to these main characters I will be disappointed. This is a huge universe. And the siblings/twins separated has already been played out with Luke and Leia. Again, I will be disappointed if this same plot device is reused here.

I found the Sea Cow on Reddit

Prices should be reporting closer to what you were seeing before in the UK, EU, AUS. I am still going over it, but it definitely looks better than it did yesterday. I have been comparing to Bricklink and the 30+ sets that I checked looked to be much better..

75828 is a rumoured set to accompany the new movie and will have a price of $79.99 NZD

I have the same issue. But from what I've heared Jeff and Ed are busy fixing many issues. So we just have to be patient I guess. As a sidenote... many people rely on brickpicker values. Not only in the US. If the values in Europe, UK and Australia are below real street value it makes life difficult.

Word is the Farmer will be wearing the Scarecrow hat but in a lighter brown color.

Warning, if you don't want to know major parts of the TFA story, don't read no further. My colleagues and I, all scientists with doctoral degrees in either astronomy or physics and working at a large research institution, had a meeting this Friday to discuss the upcoming events of the force. That's what we found out, and thus I write it in really tiny font: The movie is a big family reunion. Rey is the daughter of Leia and Han, but grew up in the UK. She is fighting against Kylo. Maybe Kylo is female, as TheOrcKing logically suggested before, and I have the same observation in mind since the first trailer. It would make sense because it would fit the idea of two powerful but opposite women, Rey and Kylo. This will be revealed perhaps in episode 8 or 9. Kylo is Rey's cousin, because Kylo is the kid of Luke. Luke trained her/him as a Jedi. Luke and R2D2 live like hermits on the Dagobah swamp planet similar to Yoda before him; we saw them in trailer #2, just look at Luke's mechanical hand. Kylo's mother died early, perhaps during a brutal killing. So Kylo did experience a similar traumatic event like his grandfather, Anakin/Darth. As we know from the studies by Sigmund Freud et al., childhood traumas can have very damaging consequences. This is why Kylo--same as Anakin--could not resist the dark side, and no hope and no love can reach his/her mind and soul. Kylo constructed her/his self-made lightsaber and wants to finish what his/her grandfather started. Finn is a non-clone storm trooper, and he turns into a Jedi, with a regular blue (like Luke's) lightsaber. It could be that his father is Lando from Bespin, or maybe Finn is much closer related to Rey and Kylo. That's it for now, please don't hesitate to post your comments and suggestions and we can discuss them at the next meeting:)

Awesome find! Congrats that's really cool.

If all these rumors are true, this feels like Jokerland all over again but double the price.

You're welcome. "How would you begin to handle a BL order to get pieces to begin working on a project like a medieval village with surrounding scenery? How do you know what you need if you don't have the exact design?" As I told you before you should have a certain idea of what you want to build. For a medieval village with surrounding scenery the building strategy starting with single elements and connecting them later would be my take on it. Looking for ideas will lead you to with parts you will need. There are two ways to do this: 1. You build with what you got... depending on what you got your structures as well as building ideas will take on their own life. Because suddenly you have to come with an idea for this and that problem but it is impossible to make it the same as your antetype model. This is a fun way as you'll end up with something very different from what you intended to do at the beginning. That's what happend with my MOC so far ;-) (see the laboratory? I had lots of translucent pieces and knew I would run out of grey tiles eventually so I used the translucent pieces where I could. Afterwards I really liked it. The wall pattern as well as the intersections. 2. You know what you need and if you don't have the right parts anymore you order them ^.^ Depending on what you need ordering via LEGO Shop at home (pick-a-brick) or using ebay could be a good idea. I also like to go to the LEGO store to see what their pick-a-brick wall has got to offer since this is the cheapest way to get a lot of pieces (especially 1x1 or plants...). Sometimes I just buy pieces because I think I could need them eventually. At first I tried to put as much stuff into these cups as possible but by now I'm far too lazy to do that. It's just not worth my time only to safe maybe 2€... (or 5 or even 10!!! I'd rather buy a second cup than spending 3 hours there and later additional 3 hours to detach all these pieces again ^.^) Right now I have an okay stock of bricks and each time I see something and notice some bricks I probably don't have and need I order them. As I said in my post before: Starting with small to midsized models is a great way to start your brick collection as well as you will not only figure out how techniques work but also which parts you need. This approach also allows you to start a project like the medieval village for example. You could start with buildings, single trees or with the riverside. You name it. The best thing about these single structures is that you can easily remove and reattach them if you need to alter the ground for example. I'd advice you to start with a single building and each time you need certain parts get them. Some of the greatest MOC builders I've seen (MOCs of ^.^) do use this approach. Maybe not because they want, but because sometimes you just run out of a certain brick or need a brick you don't have in your inventory. "How do you know what you need if you don't have the exact design?" You don't. Also you don't know with which design you will end up with what you got ^.^ That's the beauty of it ;-) It's a try and error approach with lots of problemsolving involved. Sometimes you find your own solutions, sometimes you copy others. Mostly it'll be a mix I guess ;-) If you build MOCs for some time you'll have your own repertory but still might meet problems. In a way it's the same approach as children use. They want to build something and they have to use the bricks they have. Only difference is we don't just want to play with the result but we want the result to be displayable (best case scenario *g*). We long for a certain level of details. The smaller the bricks you use the more details you can add. Go ahead and try to copy some of the smaller works of others and alter them according to your taste.

This one was done in a slightly different manner about the same time. "Great minds think alike" and whatnot. 02 by oasisv JO

Nothing wrong with cashing out at (basically) buy-in so you can reinvest the money more smartly.

Someone tried stashing a couple behind the city advents at my TRU. I saved them.

The nice thing about advent calendars is that they fit neatly in FREE USPS priority mail boxes... if you have to send them yourself, that is.

Winter Village 2015 vista 5 by Sandro Damiano

hope this 'prequel' (of sorts) is better than the Star Wars one. that can't be too hard.