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Today, we are going back in time to almost three years ago (time flies!) and taking a look at one set that had the forums and the entire LEGO community talking almost non-stop: the LEGO Technic 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition. Unlike the majority of LEGO sets released throughout the years, the Limited Edition Crawler was designed through a fan base contest, with one of the conditions being that the creators utilized the chassis of the 9398 Crawler. The winner model was to be selected and produced as a limited edition of only 20,000 copies. Even since the winner was announced, investors and collectors were excited about the possibility of getting their hands in what many saw as a highly collectible set. Whether it was for resale, long term holding or just for personal collection reasons, the expectation was that such a unique set was bound to be extremely hard to acquire at retail price ($199.99). Months after the announcement, on August 1st 2013, the set was finally released to the public on LEGO Shop at Home and brick and mortar locations. As many expected, and worried about, 41999 sold out online the very same day, forcing customers to either hunt the set at retail location or source it from the secondary market. As one would expect, the hype surrounding the set meant that most brick and mortar locations sold out as soon as they put the set on the shelves. In turn, prices on eBay and other online platforms rose to close to $450, with sets selling within minutes of being listed as collectors worried about it becoming even more expensive, investors hoped for the next $1,000 set and, as some of you might remember, some even attempted to corner the market by acquiring dozens of copies a day. While I will not get into it, it is also worth mentioning that the circumstances surrounding the set generated a lot of controversy, and ethical/moral discussions popped up almost daily on some of the forum threads. In theory, it all made sense; LEGO released a set that was not designed by your traditional LEGO design team, limited it to 20,000 copies worldwide and, to top it off, included a number of rare and unique elements that increased collectability (first Technic set to use dark blue, chrome elements and a uniquely numbered license plate). Furthermore, the box and instruction manuals were both higher quality than average and added a little bit of value to the set. It had all the potential in the world to become an extremely sought after and expensive set in the long term, but as you can see from the chart below, in the end that was not the case. The set has almost completely stagnated at around $360, the price it finally settled at a couple months after the hype died down at the end of 2013. That’s a close to 0% gain for anyone who has been holding the set for the last 2 or so years! Clearly, the weeks after release were the most profitable times to sell the Limited Edition 41999. I sold some of these within this timeframe and took advantage of the hype surrounding it, but at the same time thought that the set had a lot of long term potential (as many others did!). Looking back though, the performance of the set has not been anything but a disappointment. While it is always hard to pinpoint the exact reasons a set is not as popular as expected, I think that there are some generally accepted factors that contributed to the Crawler not doing as well as expected. Technic has always been a niche market. While there is definitely a following to the theme, its popularity is nowhere near as close to some of the licensed themes, reducing the customer base. The set on which 41999 was based on, 9398 Crawler, was readily available until 2015. Given the similarities between the two sets, having a much cheaper version in the market could have definitely impacted the performance of the Limited Edition. The set simply grew too fast, reaching maturity shortly after its release. All the circumstances surrounding the set allowed it to reach its ceiling way faster than the average LEGO set, explaining the lack of growth since. So, knowing its past, what should we look forward to? Honestly, I don’t see how the trend can be reversed. I would not expect to see any significant growth out of this set, as I believe that if its unique characteristics have not generated any more interest in the past couple of years, there is no reason to believe they will in the future. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a cool model and a very interesting piece of LEGO history, so there is definitely a value in owning it. But if you are still holding it with the expectation of above average result, I would definitely take a few moments to reconsider and compare it with some of the better options currently available. Thanks for reading! View full blog article

Another building day with my daughter. We've built 60051. This is our first Lego train set, and we really love it! $103 might not be good enough for investment, but it definitely is a good deal for personal build.

Barnes and Noble clearance that a very nice employee went through and checked on a list for me to see what else they had on clearance. She found a bunch in the back, including 5 Mines. She was very happy to help me get a discount on Lego, and was asking me if I was going to build or if I was going to be selling them. 75% discount + 10% membership 2x MInecraft mines at $27 each 2x Chima Ice Mammoths at $22 each 1x Technic offroad racer at $16 1x Chima Icebite's Claw Drille at $12

Nothing like a national promotion that is YMMV by store

What the hell people? now everybody is finding out about it? Now, and I had 18 of them? Now, when I sold my last one last week?

Either way, someone will either have too many, or not enough. It will be fun to watch.

Picked up 7 40121 painting Easter eggs at my local Kmart today. I have no clue why they were there. I check monthly to see why they have and these appeared out of nowhere.

Kids' bday today - Got executive permission to build something too, so we built: 41122 Adventure Camp Treehouse (still unfinished), 30398 Adventure Bridge (both my daughter's projects), 75102 Poe's X-Wing (my son) and 21303 Wall-E (me, yay!). My son, ever the charmer, wanted to give his sister a present too so he bought the Rey constractible from me that I got during the May the 4th sale at LEGO.com for $6.50 (no, I did not upcharge ). She built it immediately (Rey is her favorite SW character). Here's our breakfast nook during these festivities:

Over here, we check all transparent parts from sealed sets, especially the larger parts. Anything with scratches or blemishes get flagged as "used". About 20% of large transparent parts (like 1x6x5 panels) end up being listed as used. Edit: And said transparent parts are packed to prevent scratches during storage and shipping, of course. That's one polybag per part in some cases.

30466 Batmobile by my 4 year old

Trench run. I would have preferred clear supports for the ships, but still an excellent build

Classic set...but it is a Technic set and not everyone is a fan.

Personally, as someone who did not pay close attention to the Lego market for many years, and just got back into the game in Jan. ,I had no idea this set existed until the reveal of the Porsche 911 set, and people started debating that sets investment value. If I as someone who reads the vast majority of threads and comments from Jan. to now on BP has only recently heard of this set, how is the average AFOL supposed to know about it? It isn't licensed and it is not part of a series or line. Truly only the Technic fans would have a good idea that the set exists, or if you were an AFOL when it hit the market. If that was the case, you likely tried to buy one when you had a chance at retail, or bought in at the initial surge at EOL, hence the stagnate growth. As stated above, being in the Technic line did not help the case for this set either.

Yes, they will post here soon. Keep an eye on this thread.

Just checked the ad for 5/8-5/14. Captain America poly free with LEGO purchase of $30+ in store only.

if you are doing 3-4 sales/week then i would say that's pretty good. you are active brick linker with about 30k to 50k parts. keep this in mind: total # of stores in brick link: 9943 average order/day : (approx.) 3500 with most of the orders going to high volume active stores and if you are netting over 10orders per-month then its good number for stores below 50k parts (of course i am not an expert here.. @Stragus or @DadsAFOL can comment/attest with authority and accuracy to what i am saying.

Not sure if my pics really do it justice but i got my final bricklink order in to complete a Helms deep and uruk hai army lot that I got 95% complete. Also added another Uruk hai army and went slightly overboard on eBay getting a few more elves, orcs and wargs to flesh it out. Massive LOTR fan and these make a great display piece IMO - just wish i had more room to fully do it justice

Here are the 10196 Grand Carousel early sketches. I like the end result better although the ticket window was an excellent idea and should have been kept. The designer , Steen Sig Andersen (Google him and you'll recognize his works) had a difficult time getting the rotation to work,

Depends a little on the seller (and you might want to make notes on sellers that don't adhere) but typically: - new is fresh from LEGO boxes, not used in any build - used without any lot comments means they have been built with, might have some minor scuffing or discoloration, but should typically not stand out when compared to other used bricks - used with comments for parts that have visible damage or strong discoloration. Some people allow stacking of bricks/assembly of minifigs and call it new, some people will have a generic note under all their used lots to illustrate the range of items they call "used". Broken or pieces with white fold lines are typically a toss and do not get listed in inventories, unless they are very rare pieces (e.g. the 6x24 train base used in the holiday train where you wouldn't really see a lot of damage since only the red side of the plate is visible).

http://www.kmart.com/lego-174-elves-skyra-s-mysterious-sky-castle-41078/p-004W007458737001P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3 Kmart - Store Pickup only LEGO ® Elves - Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle #41078 - $49.99 (*Hot Buy)

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=MayFourth-1 Just add to a wanted list and you're good to go.

I obtained my used 41999 with box through a trade here. I agree you about the projected appreciation of this set. Luckily it's a cool remote control vehicle to build and kids seem to love driving it.

My son built Battle of Takodana today. Now after seeing it, I like it and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Now they need to make a large scale version of this set and flush it with 16 aliens.

I remember it well. Argos had them online for £1.99 each with free postage. I ordered them in lots of 10 before i went on holiday ( sept 2013) and they posted them all individually. My Postman has never spoke to me since

Amazon.com SW 75140 : Resistance Troop Transporter : $55.99 ( 20% off ) SW 75139 Battle on Takodana : $47.99 (20% off)

I purchased my sealed case from Target. Use the target inventory tracker to see how much inventory your local stores have. If they show several hundred then odds are decent that they may have a sealed case in the back. Give the dcpi to an employee and they can dig one out of the back room for you. Being polite goes a long way in improving your chances. Good luck!

New Shopko coupon. Good through Saturday, May 21. $10 off $50 or $15 off $75.

then you are the best hustler in town who knows just what to sell and probably at the cheapest possible price around.

I probably have a small BL store in comparison to most of you. I avg 3-4 sales a week, that's probably because i accept small orders and international. Most of my profit actually comes from flipping poly bags. I started out as a piece by piece store, now that's more of a feedback generator, than a moneymaker. But I do enjoy helping people find what they're looking for. As for storing and fulfilling orders, I started out with used bulk, posted the most expensive and anything I thought people might want. Like basic colored bricks. Even with a small amount of Legos, ~10 lbs, it was time consuming and confusing. I wasn't organized enough, but didn't have the hours to separate, store and post online every little brick. It didn't seem worth the time to inventory used bricks only worth $0.01-3 a best. Then I started parting out new sets. I found this also time consuming, but at least more profitable and a little easier because i know what should be there. But figuring out whether to sort by brick type or color and where to keep them all was becoming a hassle. Plastic Storage cases get expensive. Now, I keep Legos together by set. Particularly new ones. When I part out a set on BL, I make a "remark" that automatically gets placed on each lot. I store the sets in bags. When I get an order I just pull directly from the set bag. I save a considerable amount of time sorting. True, I assume BL is accurate and that the new set is complete, 99% of the time. I usually confirm the best pieces, like minifigs. But other than that, this saves me a lot of time. I have a different method for used brick, particularly from bulk. But this is the easiest way to part out new sets that I keep in my home. Which basically, not part them out at all.

i have never had a sealed case differ from the distribution either. i have had 4 out of 5 sealed FACTORY cases match the standard 4:3 distribution. 1 out of 5 didn't match - missing a malef and got an extra cheshire. i checked this 5 times it was the second to last case. these were sealed cases in the carton. not hard to confuse - maleficient has large nonmovable leg base, spiky head and flat-end rod for confirmation.. ariel has nonmovable legs, largest hair piece i can fit the fat tip of my thumb into and the clam shells with the connector band for confirmation. the 36 packs i opened for my daughters were 100% correct and my mom was pleased with the complete sealed set i sent her. these are hands down the easiest minifigure series ever to smoosh. this is the first 18 minifigure series - not sure if this is making a difference but i do believe based on my limited observation and other reports in this thread that there are a fraction of these sealed cases that were packed by hand or somehow in a different manner such that there were inconsistencies.

Lazy

Thought I would test out the new GS7 Edge camera capabilities today and built a little stand to shoot this on for a min. I think the camera takes some pretty detailed shots for a phone. Figured a little ship could use a little company.

I haven't read this thread in awhile but what's up with these novels? I can't read more than like 2 or 3 sentences without nodding off...

Also this today:

from my limited experience its very hard to damage lego piece unless you have actually used it (assembled it) or stacked it for storage. if anyone is truly selling only parted items from new sets; % of damaged piece is probably less than 0.1% i.e. probably 1/1000 now if anyone is actually assembling/stacking bricks to store them or throwing bricks from one corner to another then probably can't say .. haven't performed those kind of stress tests

Early Cafe Corner sketches. .

Won't sitting on them make the boxes even worse?

Have they really fallen that low already?

Just got this yesterday and made it up tonight-Exploriens Space Android Base 6958. Missing a few small parts which I will get online :-)

Today one arrived with 15S6 seals from ToysRus

Always bugs me when I see sets selling for more than I have listed, suppose it would make a nice change if it was my own sets trumping me

Someone was complaining about missing Hoth Leia, but I think she was way hotHer in Jabba's barge... Can I get a hi-five for that?

I wouldn't bury yourself too deep because I don't think it's going to pan out like you think. I setup the listing last sunday so i've watched this like a hawk.... The number of sellers went from 3 to over 10 within a 4 hours time frame today, although prices rose this morning about 20.00 from last night, and they were selling at around 150 to 180 from saturday to tuesday. But then yesterday they went down to around 140 and danced to 150 before slowly climbing back up to 180ish this morning, but that didn't last long. In another two days these will be going from 80 to 90.00 profit to 20.00 at max. When too many jump in the pool, it's a quick race to the bottom and that's already beginning to happen. I'm down to one of my five complete sets I was able to land, so all is good. Made decent cash on these. I'm just hoping to blow the last one out around 150 and wash my hands and move on.. Once you get those guys that have feedback ratings of 71 or less, welcome to the race to the bottom! Because they won't get sellers, but they'll keep pushing the price down and as more people jump in they will match, and that guy will go lower and lower and lower. Heck, reminds me of how it went down with series 14 too.

I think that's the main reason prices have dropped is that lego is showing a release date in the near future, so it's a current race to the bottom until it hits RRP. For how long, and how much new stock is the unknown, but they'll probably be around the lego stores, lego shops, and trickle in and out of retailers through the digital release of the film, i'd suspect. I've already boxed up and sealed a majority of the extras I bought and placed them deep in my closet to let them sit for a few years. Simply, time to move on to scooby and episode 7 and forget about it. I'm convinced, while these could be very popular over christmas, that battling with the undercutters all looking to score 15.00 on a set isn't worth the hassle, as they will be worth a lot more in the future once these retire, which i'd suspect will have about a year run and by next year will be gone.