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Alright, I'm selling likes! I've already bought some raffle tickets, but just for fun, for every "like" this post gets from members who joined before the time of this posting, I'll spend an equal amount on more tickets, up to $250. If it gets beyond that, I'll figure out how much more I'll spend. Let's set a like record!

So I am brand new to this forum, but not brand new to the LEGO game. I was in it huge from 2004-2007, Had many UCS xwings, Tie Interceptors, ISD, CTT, Cloud Cities (I thought I did well when I sold my Boba Fett for 98 back then, Oh if I had only known) and then due to space constraints I had to sell of all my stock just because I did not have space. I now own a home, with a large basement, and have since gotten back into it in the last week, starting with the Tumbler. This set alone was enough to pull me out of retirement. And do you want to know why, despite all the disbelievers on this forum, this will be a grand slam. No doubt about it. And here are my reasons why, and I will try not to rehash some of the points that have been beaten to death. Who are the people that drive a price up? Like 1000% up? The average collector will drive the price of a collectible to the 200% range, but what makes one take off, like the Taj Mahal or the UCS Millenium Falcon (Shooting myself for not buying that. I got married on 2007, and just did not have the space. I remember the days of it being 400 on LEGO Shop at Home. Sigh). Why is it that some sets can hit the moon and not others? It's the people who the set attracts. While market can dictate a price, the bottom line is only a select few people will pay 5000k for a Falcon or 3000 for the Taj Mahal. For the most part these are the AFOLs that make a salary in which they don't care what they are paying. I am very blessed in that I make a very nice salary, and I know many other people who do too. I have a friend who bought a 3000 dollar Taj Mahal as an XMas present for her spouse. These are the people that can make a set go to the moon. An executive for a large company is the person who is likely to buy a 5k Falcon for his den, or office to display. The average consumer will not. Everyone complains about AA. Well, I'll tell you why it isn't taking off. No executive wants to display that in their office. I wouldn't. Ask yourself "Would I put this in a fortune 500 CEO's office?" And if the answer is yes, well that is likely to be a winner. To break into the upper echelon, you have to have not just a market, but have the appeal to the high end 1% market. The market that doesn't care about cost. The market that wants to own it so they can brag and show it off on there shelf and partly to brag they paid "X" dollars for it. My friend just likes to say she paid 3000 for the Taj Mahal. For this market, it's not just about owning it, it's also about how much you paid for it. It's about feeling special by owning it, and showing it off. This set has that potential. My generation (I am 34) is just hitting the sweet spot in life where they are making a great salary, have expendable income and have the space to own the toys that they couldn't afford when they were in the 20's. It is an ICONIC vehicle. When I first watch the Dark Knight and Batman Begins, I couldn't stop thinking how awesome that car was. Some argue it was in only 2 Movies. Well the Falcon was in 3 up until this December. It's in 4 now! The delorean was in 3 Movies! The interest is incredibly high for this item. Will it be a UCS Falcon? No. But will it be better than probably 95% of other lego sets. Definitely. Legos are a universal appealing item. They transcend borders. Hence why Lego's (UCS Lego's) never depreciate. Some might not go to the moon, but you won't lose money, unlike the stock market. The population of the world only grows, and with population growth, the fans of legos will only grow. Unlike a fad like pokemon, cabbage patch dolls, furby's, lego's have stood the test of time. Sorry for the long post, but I truly believe this was a no brainer. I bought 25 myself. I predict this to be 650-700 in 3 years. Amazon is already slowly creeping up on the lowest price available. Only one at 259 as of now, and the next is 279. It's only day #1. Ebay sold auctions running 250-280. Even higher in Europe. The future is bright.

Finished first 2 sections and about to add a third. It's modular so I can always add more as needed as I continue to get more figures. Room for Thanos at the top and my beloved Deadpool (coming soon) is going somewhere right in the middle! Saw an original design on youtube, then I tweaked it and made it 6 rows high as well as 3 studs deep on the top so the Maxi figures fit better. I also made it so there are 3 modular connections with the technic holes so it's sturdier and snaps together in place better.

It's like 2013-2014 but in reverse. In the past, i distinctly remember sets like SSD, HH, and many more were gone in the US, and our Euro friends were saying things like, "Well, i'll wait and see, or let me wait until double VIP, or clearance, etc" Then all of a sudden they were gone in Europe too, and everyone in the US was face-palming wishing they had been given a heads up like that, EVER. Now 2015 rolls around and the Tower of Orthanc, Red 5, Death Star, Tumbler, At-At, Birds, and many others were not only gone from Europe, but actually marked RETIRED on the Lego website all while being relatively available over here. I have not missed this opportunity.

Every day there is no rumour of an ISD or AT AT remake is a good day for me!

Worse than Batman and Robin?

My post on Google+ got 12 direct likes (plus 1s), 2 reshares and at least 1 person who said to also buy a raffle ticket. So that's a win.

St. Paul School kids "rallyup" to let people know that there is a choice! And that together, we can make change in a positive way!! One lego at a time :).........! stpaulbrl.org

Sorry, I am just a hobbyist a collector at best or so I am told by the BTPs. Those 10,000 sets wouldn't be hidden they would be bought up by all the reseller scum that now know they are worth more then gold. Just an assumed theory I read on here from a reliable source that a production run of a set is no less then 10,000 sets to make it worth Lego having to change over equipment.Of course there are exceptions like the Bat Pod. Remember when people thought seal codes were meaningless all things to ponder at the gym tomorrow.

I think you should charge everyone a fee to use the site if they don't donate at least $10.00.

Some good comments...A couple of points... Yes, St.Paul is a Catholic school. Jeff and I were raised Roman Catholic and by no means are we some religious quacks or pushing that on people. I am respectful of all religions and don't want that to affect this discussion and raffle. We are products of public schools and they were great. St. Paul is a great school. Period. It has kids from all religions and races in it. They teach respect and morals and if that is part of the religious aspect of it, then more schools should include it in my opinion. I am really the last person to preach about religion, so please don't let this deter you from giving. The chances of winning are pretty good, especially for a few of the sets. When I go to a charity event and a person asks me to buy a 50/50, I don't ask the odds, I just buy some tickets. That's how I roll. As for the "elite" section, I am going to be completely honest here. For years, we have discussed charging people to use this site. Many members have requested "elite" forums. I have always been the advocate to keep the site FREE. I have always wanted to give people MORE, for nothing. This site is not Brickset or Eurobricks. This site discusses LEGO bricks, but it has deep ties to MONEY. People MAKE MONEY from this site, yet we have kept it free. We ask for a few links to be clicked on to help support the site at no real cost to members. Nothing more. Go try to discuss these topics on the other sites and you will be banned from the site in time. They don't want to focus on such tacky topics. It's just the way that it is and I respect their views on the subject. Countless times I have defended the community here, saying that is was more than a bunch of hack resellers who took LEGO sets from Little Timmy, only to sell them for double the MSRP. I might be a sap for not making the site a pay site, but I am a giver. That being said, Jeff and I don't support ourselves with this site in any way, shape or form. We have real jobs. This site is a passion of ours and the thousands of hour we put into each year is not about money, because if it was, we would have shut it down years ago. The book we wrote was hundreds of hours of work for little return amounting to less than minimum wage returns. So what keeps the site going, growing and improving? Our loyalty and responsibility to YOU and the people that do support us, silly as it seems. I believe in Karma and Kismet (my two dead dogs) and believe that if I help people, it will come back to me. So far, I have been blessed by good fortune. So I ask the community of thousands to dig a little deeper to help some kids and teachers. I will add some more sets from our personal collections. I will also add some sets from generous members. I really appreciate those who have given so far and I look forward to thanking more people in the future....

There are a lot of sets that could or should be homeruns, right up until everyone else comes to the same conclusion.

Now we just need Batman The Animated Series Batcave with villains and we are done. That cartoon was just as dark as the Christopher Nolan movies LOL. True classic in its own right.

There's a popular Lego group on Google+ with more than 50,000 members, where I just now posted about the raffle too!

My prayers and gratitude to all who have and will supported this cause. I am teacher at SPS and have been teaching in Catholic School for many years....Catholic School changes lives and through your support, we will be able to continue this very important ministry. I BELIEVE

Modified battle figures, what a great improvement. Lego take note.

The character of Batman always had an overlaying serious overtone in comparison to other comic book heroes of the time which was some of the original draw to the series. Despite this interest was waning, sales were dropping, and other surrounding issues which eventually led into the creation of the now defunct Comics Code Authority forced DC to make The Bat 'sunnier' ergo the campiness of the TV serial that helped to revitalize not just Batman but the comics industry as a whole immensely. Unfortunately as the show was cancelled, popularity for Batman was lost once again but in a way with the show gone this allowed DC to return the dark knight to his serious roots. In regards to personal tastes, the 1960s Batman was ridiculously absurd well away from the edginess of the source therefore can be considered the worst interpretation of the grim detective by turning him into a silly ham. Historically though the show was the best thing to ever happen to Batman. For myself, I enjoy the 1960s series but in a different light than the actual character. It's good for a laugh and some kicks but certainly not to be taken serious in the slightest.

Yes, shark repellent and all.

some use tea leaves, some use seal codes. I just ask the seals myself. If they give me something that resembles a yes than I know its retiring. They can be pretty helpful though determining if a set has been selling or not. Seeing there is 1 exclusive out there that I have never seen a 2015 seal code on. Is it 100% , absolutely not but just another tool if you have enough areas of input on them.

Fixed

This is my first post, and I think the best place for it. Thank you for all you do for us and I hope we can come through for you and St. Paul School.

The cause has no bearing. I will be 100% honest. I made a donation to the school when it just started out under the idea that it was to help something that was supported by "the Macks". It was the idea of making it something as a Christmas present (holiday thank you, etc.) for everything this site has done for us. I don't really plan on buying a ticket -"sorry" because way at the start of this I went to the school's website and made a quick donation. not for the chance to win something, etc. but just to say thank you to you both. But I have read some posts out here and the point seems slightly lost. This is to help one school, as picked by the Mack's (sorry, I am grouping you both together - no offense) as our way of saying thank you to you both for this site and all it has done for us. You have turned this charitable idea into this great fundraiser with prizes, drawings and contributing your own items to make it a bigger success. If people focus on that simple point - It is a gift on behalf of "The Macks". Ask yourself how much money or value, did you make, save, secure, grow, etc from the knowledge you gained from BrickPicker.com, the site they host at no charge to you, and took a fraction of 1% of that money and donated it to the charity of their choice how much of an impact that would have on children's lives. It is not for them personally and it is a positive way that each of us can take just a little and pool it together to make a massive difference to a group of children. Regardless of Religion, ethnicity and anything else - this is still about saying thank you. The only thing I think is lost is that many folks think this was all started as a way for you to push a charity. It was started as an idea a BP member had to say thank you and you quickly redirected that into something for the school. That notion of saying thank you to you both seems to have gotten lost and I just wanted it to be brought back to the fore front. This raffle was something you came up with once the idea of contributing to a cause you have as a way of saying you started up on a forum back in December. If you are considering buying a raffle ticket - do so under the idea that you are doing it as a thank you to "The Macks". On second thought, now that I wrote this - I think I will buy a ticket and say "thank you" once again.

Congrats, you now have more likes in your 1st post than I've had in 1 1/2 years. Impressive!

No, it would just weed out the idiots. If end-user demand does not change investment should be still okay. Except some demand generated buy investor-to-investor sales.

Ed, don't forget the Dark Side of the Force ... it's called Procastination Keep hammering these messages at folks and more importantly, put up a "Only X days left" banner everywhere. I'm sure that will entice some ....

Pay the difference on the secondary market, consider the difference a fee for not paying attention in class.

been that way for a while with a few rare exceptions. when themes need to rely heavily on minifigures (to get buyers) that get refreshed every 12 to 24 months, it's great for kids and fans but bad for investors. when it comes to DC and Marvel superhero minifigures, lego is the modern kenner, hasbro, toybiz and playmates. heck, lego is even on their 7th batmobile (including both non-UCS Tumblers). that's 5 batmobiles since 2012. totally insane. i can't even count how many diff batman versions since 2012. i bet camo-batman (llooking at you hasbro / kenner) is being planned as you read this. honestly, i can't remember the last time reading a superhero post (other than Hulkbuster topic) where multiple said, hey, i bought this set because of the cool vehicle or play-set it comes with. this is what makes exclusives like the UCS Tumbler special. it seems the majority of AFOLs and fans bought that set for the vehicle. the 2 minifigures were like dessert.

CAGR aside I've made decent money at the right buy in price and with the right sets. As an overall theme Super Heroes may not have performed well, but the flipside of saying you can make better money elsewhere is that you can also make the wrong choice and make less money elsewhere. There are winners and losers in every theme. Not to get too far off topic but I also question the accuracy of the Brickfolio values being used to calculate CAGR. I've found many anomalies using these prices in the past after looking at all of the variables that aren't accounted for with eBay sales. Though I also understand that it would take a lot more work to get a more accurate secondary market value for these sets/themes. Personally I don't use the Brickfolio values and mine has not been updated in over a year.

It has a lot of play-ability for kids, my kids love it.

11 of 75078-1: Imperial Troop Transport for $9.00 each. On clearance at my local walmart

From what I have heard it used to be the popular sets (modulars etc) would get a 10k run at a time. They did much smaller runs for other sets. Those days are long gone however. Now I have heard they do more frequent small batches for all sets. Has not effect on the Tumbler tho, it is done. Walmart and Target will pop instock with returns over the next few weeks no doubt. Say goodbye to Dark Knight, say hello to:

just don't overdo it

Interesting that most of these sets are pre 2010. I don't think we will ever see prices like those again.

need I remind you this is a LEGO investing website. Proper form please... http://giphy.com/gifs/anymore-banderas-antonia-JT93bJOxY1pcs

Happiness once again!

This is a great and unique set. I don't think comparing it to any other of the Endor sets is reasonable; it's on a category of its own (Kind of like the Sandcrawler and the upcoming Hoth base)

It's not comparable. 6862 was out forever, clearanced forever and has these really rare minifigures: superman, wonder woman, and let luther (sarcasm). Nothing is really special about it. Final battle possibly only appearance of Hank Pym and yellow jacket, a cool ant, currently only ant man minifigure, short shelf life, not readily available throughout its production run, and clearanced and gone before we could blink. Not apples and oranges, it's comparing apples to dog poo

I agree about the comment regarding "the regulars" being the main contributors although I have seen several new members report donating which is fantastic. Quite honestly, you could have raffled off a Benny's spaceship, a Dolphin cruiser or something else...Meh and I still would have bought a ticket for it. I could care less if I win or not. I've donated and I like that I was able to help out the Macks. Not everyone shares this sentiment and that's ok, but it sure would be nice if they did. As Jeff said there's still time.

I have added a section on the top of the home page that is now for Featured listings. These are for sets that I come across or notified of that are REALLY good deals, deals like you would post here. Feel free to contact me of your great deal and it will then be put on the home page so that new visitors can see the really good deals that are out there.

Can't count the community out just yet, there's still time to go... I bought 7 tickets & I'm not even in the same country, have no school age children & have no direct interest in alternative schools at all... didn't even bother to ask for the little flag thingy, but more just to support the founders of this site who do have such interests & continue to provide us a common platform for our interests. I'm sure there others who just haven't gotten around to it yet or have it so very ingrained in us not to press the buy button till the last 30 seconds! will be interesting to find out what the final tally is. :-)

I hope you are wrong. I figure if they have money to buy a Tumbler, they should have money to buy a raffle ticket for top notch LEGO set. I am trying to remain positive. I will be adding a Tumbler & Arkham Asylum combo. I am really giving sets that I have, so every set is not an option, even though I have a lot.

Exactly, strike while the iron is hot, and it's blazing right now. The ship is prominent in the new movies just as it was in the OT, lending it to be popular to multiple demographics. It will also continue to be prominent in at least a couple more movies for sure in EpVIII and IX and possible in the stand alone movie if the Han Solo movie comes about. There will be those that are mad that a remake comes out, but the only ones saying it will be those holding 10179. There will be some backlash that other sets haven't been done yet like AT-AT. I don't blame them either, just saying that the negative vibes will be coming from a select few. The rest of the world that does not have 10179 will be jumping for joy. If they don't like the price they have plenty of smaller options to buy the Falcon.

Should I return my Tumblers? I loved the Tumbler. Now, not so much as an investment. All this extra time being marked as "Retiring Soon" and a ample supply available to purchase by resellers for weeks has put a damper on my expectations. How many of those thousands of sets sold on Target and Amazon over the past week went to end users.?

And even once it is officially retired on the LEGO Shop at Home website they can make more a year later like the Halloween Bat and Winter Snowman.

uhhh clearly you don't know the power of the thumb...

Is this a joke? That's what you think constructive criticism is? Telling someone they're being ridiculous? Well, then, sir, you are being ridiculous. "Constructive criticism is the process of offering valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others, usually involving both positive and negative comments, in a friendly manner rather than an oppositional one."

You are a nice person. Unfortunately, you would have to donate a lot more than that to get him back on the site. The stress he has caused me recently is worth a $1000.00 donation...minimum. I sure do miss those posts of his.