Leaderboard

You must be too new to remember Hxckid.

Most important purchase of the day, even more important than going to the LEGO store, was swinging by the Coach handbag store. I double stacked my VIP coupon with the in-store promo to pick the wife up 2 new purses and a wallet. Total RRP of the items $975. I paid $287, good for a 70% off discount. All paid for with proceeds from two LEGO set sales this week. For the newer members, purchases like this are key to keeping the spouse happy, and go a long way in reducing any friction over my LEGO expenditures.

While we were getting pounded with the white stuff, my wife and I decided to put together this magnificent set. We really didn't have much of a choice because Target had sent us this one with a nice little rip/hole on the side. It was weighed, so we were confident that everything was right here. Bag one was opened and I immediately went to put together the Joker. Legs. Check. Body. Check. Hair. Check. Head....... NOTHING!!! We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. As pissed as we were, we finished the set. Luckily nothing else was missing. I immediately went to the site and ordered a replacement part. And of course, it was OUT OF STOCK!!!!! After digging out, I decided to call Lego. I couldn't accept the OOS notice and an email stating they MAY have found one. I spoke to Mike at Lego and he located one immediately. The piece will be in mailbox in 5-7 days. On top of that, I was able to get 300 Lego points because the Tumblers SAH sent me were not all mint. WIN/WIN!!

I almost want to see Dinosaur suit guy, gorilla suit guy and wolfman climbing and smashing a skyscraper. RAMPAGE!

Today I built my first architecture set ever: Imperial Hotel. The amount of pieces (almost 1200) in unnumbered bags was overwhelming at first, especially given that I only encountered sets with numbered bags since my return to Lego. The build itself was nice despite being fiddly at times. It's this high amount of small pieces though that allows for amazing detail for a model of this scale. The manual with additional information was informative, too. All in all a highly recommended set I wouldn't want to miss in my collection.

Is giant batman menacing the UN or protecting it?

Built the UN HQ today and it looks great. Think I might build Brandenburg gate tomorrow...

Merry Christmas 2016, everybody! http://brickset.com/sets/40223-1/Christmas-Ornament

For decades, the problem with collectible toys has been degradation of the materials. For most toys made in the past 40 years or more the main component is ABS plastic. ABS plastic breaks down and changes color as it ages. This process can be accelerated via exposure to UV rays (sunlight or fluorescent bulbs), Heat, and chemical reaction to other plastics. Most collectors have fought a losing fight to prevent their lighter colored plastics from turning yellow (or green if there is a blue coloration to the piece.) For many years various solutions had been proposed to roll back the scourge of time. Solutions included (but were not limited to) a good scrub, bleach, Denture cleaner, fine grit sandpaper and oxy-clean. I personally tried many of these solutions to debunk their effectiveness. While a good scrub can clean away surface dirt or even yellowing caused by smoking, it is only a surface approach, and the Denture cleaner makes the item minty. I found bleach to be ineffective and potentially harmful to the plastic if left on for too long. I was experimenting with action figures, so sanding them was impractical for many reasons, not just the amount of time and effort involved. Oxy-clean appeared to have no greater effect than a good scrub until I came back to the figures months later and found that it had promoted yellowing making them worse than ever before. I also tried coating them in Baking Soda to no change. So far, I felt that I had done a good job disproving the myths about bringing toys back to their original brilliance. One day, someone posted about a Transformers collector in Britain using Hydrogen Peroxide and sunlight to de-yellow their toys. This sounded crazy to me, considering that the sun was the major enemy of this plastic. Common Hydrogen Peroxide, found in any health and beauty section of any grocery store in the world, was used inside a sealed glass container with the affected items. Hydrogen Peroxide can also be found at beauty supply stores in more concentrated formulation, and I even ordered a much stronger version from the internet one time. (I believe that they have since limited the potency that can be bought due to some terrorist bombings.) I attempted to test the theory first by leaving my figures inside in a jar full of H2o2 without direct exposure to light. After a couple days, I could see no difference. So, I followed the procedure of setting the jar outside on a sunny day. After 12 hours the whites were whiter. Stronger potency Peroxide is more effective in both time and brightening. I am not a chemist, so I cannot explain how the plastic breaks down or how the H2O2 breaks down, or why that would leach the bad chemicals out of the plastic. What I can tell you is that the experiment did not end there. Was this a permanent solution to the problem? Literally, only time would tell. So, I took my experimental figures and threw them into a closed box and stashed that in a temperature controlled room for several years. Every once in a while I would revisit them. What I found didn't necessarily shock me, but it did sadden me. The pieces had begun to yellow again. Not to their previous levels, but noticeably yellower than after their initial treatment. This treatment was a stop gap, not a solution. Why is this a topic for a reselling forum? Well, for people who resell LEGO pieces, they may have heard of the Peroxide solution previously. They may have even used it to make older pieces presentable. A yellowed piece is much less desirable than a clean white piece. What will happen though is that piece will continue degrading under the surface. That degradation will start to show again. Instead of decades of displayability for a new piece, you are going to give the end user only a few years. I guess it comes down to the morality of attempting to use this solution to gain an extra little bit vs providing your customers with a happy long term buying experience. One might liken it to a used car salesman putting something into the engine to deaden the sound of knocking. Others might think of it purely as restoration To view my original experiment and the subsequent discussion from 2008 You can look here. In short here are the pictures from my initial test with 3% H2o2: Before: During: After: 6 years after: (Note: If you are going to try this, watch out for it spilling on your skin. Especially if you get a stronger solution) View full blog article

Before everyone in my house got up today...

looks like santa is on display for a sacrifice, or throw wheels on it and it's like the popemobile.

You can disagree all you want.........there will Always be MORE people who want/can afford the cheaper remake.

The Rancor Pit has retired, a check on eBay sold listings will show that its performing nicely. I'd say it's a solid investment at the buy in price. The best advice I can offer is look through the forum, there's lots of great information which will help you to choose an investment strategy that will work for you. No one knows for sure which sets are retiring next but do your research and you'll make money.

My son's first question upon seeing Kanan take down the AT-AT was "why didn't Luke just do that?" I had to explain that, uh, maybe these AT-AT are smaller or something. This is probably already in the thread, but given Leia's age, if these are canon then it seems like pretty much everyone will die by the end, at least the Jedi will.

Lego 21010 Robie House. What an amazing and challenging build! I really like the fact that the instruction pages really make you work to build it correctly. You are scrutinizing placement based on the studs around it. Tons and tons of tiny red pieces and can be somewhat repetitive, but that is because the design emulates the brickwork beautifully. Catch this thing in the right light and just soak in the great details. The book is also awesome covering the history and sections of build. A great experience. This set does not really fit my normal display models, so if anybody is interested in owning a Robie, shoot me a PM and we'll chat.

As a 20 year target "employee"....TRU Dat. And auto correct still comes up with TRU, awesome.

How about some set names to make it easier for us to offer our opinions that you seek?

Queen Anne's Revenge and Black Pearl - $240 combined on CL. They are keepers. My husband and son are ecstatic. I saw the post an hour after it was posted originally for $155. People sent in higher offers. I told them I could not match the higher than $240 offers but could pick-up in 30 minutes. SOLD! My husband picked up. Young man wanted money for Star Wars Legos and was getting rid of his ships (keeping his Imperial Flagship). Wish I had known that and could have executed a good trade. Oh well...happy here. Picked up a 4842 HP Castle on eBay for $200 with ship. No box but manuals and all figures. Listing indicated a low completion % but the pic told a different story. Think it was a typo on the seller's part.

7962 Podracers $149.99 AMZ I swear I thought these would be stuck in my inventory for years. Good riddance.

My almost 4 year old son was dying to build something so we grabbed 30278 Poe's XWing polybag. I really liked it! So did he. I was pretty impressed that he built it pretty much with minimal help from me.

I only go 2 to 4 deep on exclusives. I'm only buying 2 EV and sticking with that. I'll more than likely invest in 3 slave 1s and probably 3 Sandcrawlers but won't go deeper than that. I only do those purchases during 2xVIP, so in march i'll buy a round of them, and more than likely another round in October. My hoarding for 2016 is set on 2 Poe's X-wings, Tydiriums and Jedi Duels. Basically over the last month, i've been hitting Poe's X-wings and Tydiriums (discount prices are decent at the moment). But this is nothing like 2015 when I was hitting many sets from 2014/2013. This year is just light, thanks to the lack of decent sets last year (force awakens excluded)..

I'm wishing that Dimensions is an epic failure. The Toys to Life genre is out of control. My boys have dozens and dozens of Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures that sit in baskets virtually un-played with. Even heavily discounted I don't want anything to do with Dimensions. We picked up a Wii U for Christmas and it was incredibly refreshing to play Smash Bros. and have access to all the characters without having to buy a separate figure.

This lot for $40 I saw a little bit of DC, SW, atlantis

Been wating all day for this and YEAH!!!!!!!! 42053 Volvo EW – £69.99 Pneumatic digger 42054 Class Xerion 5000 Trac – £119.99 Looks like it comes with new huge tires. 42055 Bucket Wheel Excavator – £179.99 Largest ever technic set at over 3000 pieces 42056 Confidential Technic Ultramotive – £249.99 Some front-engined confidential sportscar build similar to the mclaren (might be a Mclaren?)

Not even in the same ballpark.

Nice buy, i love set restoration.. thats my weakness.

I just found out today my membership gave me 10% off lego. I thought it only worked for books. I saved $20 off a temple of airjitzu with it today

Check at this link the current value for this set - or any other set, just type the set number on the box top of the screen: http://www.brickpicker.com/bpms/set.cfm?set=75005-1 With this information you can assess what is and what isn't a good investment. The value for a set indicated there is composed with the values from recent sold listings on ebay. For instance, try checking the value for this set: http://www.babymarket.lt/lt/parduotuve/zaislai-ir-mokymosi-priemones/konstruktoriai-kaladeles/lego-star-wars-konstruktorius-millennium-falcon-75030-5702015121019/p31168 Important: don't buy if you don't have a way of selling - what is your plan for that? Each selling market has its price ceilings - even a great promotion can be a loss if you can't sell it through the right channels.

Small Square by Vincent Kessels

Picked up a Creator Ferrari F40 at the LEGO store with bonus 500 VIP points because the corner of the box flap was bent. It straightened out just find but left maybe a 1.5-2" crease. Front and back of box are flawless. For a personal build, I'll take that all day long. Also picked up seven different Bionicles sets at half price from the same store. My youngest has an obsession with the Bionicles sets, so these make nice low price rewards for good behavior weeks at school. FYI if you're in the Atlanta area, this was the Northpoint Mall LEGO store. I spoke to the manager and he wants to start putting out "damaged" exclusives with bonus VIP points every Tuesday or Wednesday. I guess currently they're identifying them as the damage happens and keeping them in the back.

I will give you $20 for everything pictured.

If I spend X amount of hard earned money on any item, I expect said item to be deliver in a new and gift quality condition .

I saw TFA in the cinema this week, a big smile when the anthem started! Despite a high Disney level I really enjoyed this movie. Kylo Ren's shuttle looks good in this movie and MF is great to watch. And Han Solo....just epic and Rey the eye-catcher. Will watch it again soon!

Put together some more classics: 918 and 6872

You know, seeing a guy ecstatically giving the "thumbs up" in front of a sinking ship can send mixed messages.

Love this!

Incredible LEGO model of the Titanic breaking in half Ryan says the model uses around 120,000 pieces, and took over 250 hours to construct with the help of fellow builders Mitchell Kruik and Clay Mellington. It even lights up. For a sense of just how big this model is, here’s Ryan posing with it.

Castle-themed AT-AT build by Adam Dodge

I broke open the seals of this yesterday and built book 1 and today we built the rest of the set but I had to build the wings twice. It has been a long time since I opened a Lego set without numbered bags and it brought back fond memories. So beautiful!

Hello. My name is Elaine, and I am a Lego addict. I have often said this in jest, but I’ve started to realize that it is not a joke. I woke up this morning, and the first thing I did was check Brick Picker for the deals buzz. As soon as I had put the kids on the bus, I started planning my buy of the day. Since I went to see “The Force Awakens” (again) last night, I was feeling like I needed some more Star Wars sets. I took to the web, and made a plan to go to TRU (since it was Thursday) to buy a First Order Tie Fighter, using the Walmart price (20% off) plus another 10% through TRUTH and 8% back in rewards. It was only 9 am. I spent the next hour itching to buy as my local Toys R Us opens at 10 am. I even considered settling for price match plus 5% off using my Red Card at Target because they were already open. I didn't used to be like this… I am a collector. I still have 90% of the sets from my youth, and I started collecting again around 2010ish. For several years it was buying a modular for my birthday and lots of sets for the kids. It wasn't until a snafu with the Town Hall that things started to turn ugly. It was October 22nd, 2014. I had a lovely birthday dinner and decided that I would buy a Town Hall as my present. I already had a Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium, and a Pet Shop. I had briefly flirted with the idea of buying a Green Grocer long after it went EOL, but decided that $500 for NISB was too much to spend. (This was some time before the Town Hall incident, but it was what first enlightened me to the existence of the Lego reseller market.) Needless to say, when I went to my local Lego Store that day, I was dealt a crushing blow. I could not understand. I was buying each modular in order, I should have had plenty of time to buy the Town Hall, but it was gone. I was heartbroken. I was devastated. I was desperate. At first, I was ready to scrap the whole idea of my Lego city. It seemed pointless to not have all of them (or at least all of the ones released since I had started collecting modulars). I was still secretly pining for a Green Grocer, and to miss out on the Town Hall too was too much to bear. Within a couple of weeks of calling and searching stores and coming up empty, I bought one on eBay for 50% over RRP. I justified it saying that if I did find one in the wild for RRP, I could always resell that one to break even or better. For a little while, I was content, but it didn't last... Fast forward to March of 2015. It was my anniversary. There was an hour wait at the restaurant, so we went to the Lego Store. It was double VIP and I was determined not to let another modular pass me by, so I bought myself current, and had a lovely dinner. The next day, I was feeling guilty about spending so much, and I came up with the perfect plan. I would buy two of every Lego set I liked, build one, sell the other when it hit 2x RRP. Perfect! I immediately pulled $2k out of a never-touched savings account (because bank interest is a joke anyway) and had the most satisfying Lego spree I had ever experienced. I felt so powerful and successful with every package that arrived. It was incredible. I wish I could have stayed up there forever… Within a few months, (but just over 90 days), the reality of what I had done started to sink in. After that first $2k, I spent at least another $1k acquiring discontinued sets via eBay and craigslist, and probably $1k buying new releases because I was still flying high and I had 5,000+ VIP points to burn. For those of you who roll big, I will put this in perspective for you: $2000 is my entire monthly spending budget for utilities, food, etc. I spent 2 months of my household budget on toys. I panicked. I couldn't return anything. I couldn't break even through selling because everything was still readily available. I watched my stocks drop at sickening rates. I wanted to take it all back, but I had gone too far. All I could do was wait and see… It was the release of Lego Dimensions that brought me to the Brick Picker forums. My stocks were still junk (TB, ToO, EV, PS, PC, Simpson House…), but my buying had calmed down some. I started watching the Daily Deals. I started hiding purchases from my family. I started getting carried away again. I started bargaining with myself. If I didn't buy a coffee for a week or if I put off a haircut or if I returned some other nonessential item, how much could I spend on Lego instead? I started exchanging my “investment” sets for things I wanted to build. The lowest point was when I returned some sets that I had bought at discount, for full exchange value, to get my husband a Red Five for Christmas. I took a few weeks off after that... I used to have other interests. I used to have a modest savings account. I still have a roof over my head and my kids are well fed, but all I see are Lego. I want to know why I got this way. I can rationalize any purchase. “It helps me relax” “I had a coupon” “I had extra money this month” “But I need to have ALL of them!” (I tell my husband that I would have been a great Pokemon trainer). Sometimes I get mad at TLG. Sometimes I blame the QFLL. Sometimes I blame the AFOL trying to reclaim a happy childhood build. The truth is, I can only blame myself for getting so caught up in a hobby that I really can't afford… This morning, while I was planning my hunt, I came upon the “why did you start?” thread. The story is slightly different, but it's really all the same. “One time_____ and then I was hooked”. I can't decide if it's genius or predatory, either way, Lego is like a drug, and we are all pushers or addicts. I have 2 Tumblers in my trunk... View full blog article

Something just happened that prompted me to write this. It's not a negative thing, just a observation. I have recently got into parting out some sets, so I am having a go at 75902 Scooby Doo Mystery Machine RRP £30. I have all the figures, the Zombie Tree & the Van listed separately. Fred Jones is unique so I sold him for a BIN of £11. A few days later I sold the Van for £15. I'm writing the address, it seems familiar. I check my inbox and yes, its the person who bought Fred Jones from me a few days before. So over about a week they've spent £26 only £4 short of the full RRP of the entire set to get about 60% of it. WHY??!! I know we rely on these people but why? They could have gone to Toys R Us, could have ordered online from Lego ( no B&M stores where they are ). It struck me as odd. But HOORAY FOR THE ODD PEOPLE

Nice. Gotta keep the spouse happy. Thanks for reminding me too.....I gotta give the wife a couple bucks. I'm due. A trip to the local LV store always works.

I personal dont buy any bulk lots with out mini-figs.. I figure if the person knows enough about lego to part out the figures.. then they are going to be charging to much for the whole lot. (By to much i mean more then i want to pay)

check the inventory on bricklink follow the links on that site to see what other colors are available.

Not really a derailment as newer members might not have an idea about SW scale diff between reg and UCS sets. Here's a MF comparison pic from fbtb.com

I don't think we've seen anywhere near the ceiling for the Falcon. It will go down as one of the most sought after iconic sets of all time. Irrespective of re-releases it will always be the holy grail, the set that the collectors want to own. Go back a year and I can remember plenty of eBay sales for sealed boxes around £1300-£1800, now you'll be hard pushed to find one for less than £3000. When you consider that rare sealed toys from the eighties (G1 Transformers, Star Wars, GI Joe) can fetch in excess of 100 times it's retail price, is it really inconceivable to see 10179 Falcons selling for 20,000+ further down the line?

Awesome. Rare for a set like this to go on any type of sale. According to Camel (which I understand is not the authority of amazon) it hasn't. I have never seen it happen for a UCS / Modular set. Clearly I am wrong and I humbly beg forgiveness ...

I can say from personal experience that the H2O2 mix on a sunny day works really well. I grabbed a bunch of standard 16 oz bottles of peroxide from Walmart for about a $1 each and dumped my older castle sets into a foil turkey pan (or glass pan placed on top of a sheet of aluminum foil) and set out on my back porch one summer day for a couple of hours. Bright light and heat helps (slower process in winter). The classic gray colours all stabilized nicely and none of the printing was affected at all. It's definitely more noticeable on whites to be sure. Best of all, you can just re bottle the peroxide and use it again the next time. I hardly think you are crossing any ethical boundaries with using it on sets for yourself, or even on ones to sell. For older castle and space sets from the 80s for instance, those bricks in that specific colour just aren't easily found and anything that old will be subject to discoloration, even it you take good care of the sets. Unless you are swapping out pieces 1:1 as they age, you're always going to be a victim of the color degradation. In fact, some people might consider *not* using the original pieces to be unethical.....

Just got back from my Florida Legoland trip where I picked up a Tumbler (actually got it at Lego store in Downtown Disney) and also popped into a Walmart and found some Friends and one Merida on clearance. Pleased but... looking at the photo: the $62 investment on the left, or the $203 investment on the right... which do you think will give me more profit in the next year or so?

I hope getting a new young Leia and Bail Organa as part of a Rebels Blockade Runner is a possibility.