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This is how I spent my weekend.

So everyone buys 1/mo X 24 mo X 10,000 members .. Yeah that sounds like a great plan for the set to appreciate ...

sold $1100 of.lego at yard sale, $570 buy in, full report tomorrow

#donbee recently shared a "feel good" story in the Fruitcakes thread - I really enjoyed it, especially since I had a few recent experiences like it myself. Thought a thread highlighting positive might be worthwhile (perhaps even stickied?). Shipping SNAFU. Two weeks ago sold a small $3 PAB item to a buyer in Michigan. Timely, accurately, securely shipped. But in reviewing my "paid and shipped" queue, I noticed the tracking had stalled out at my local (Minnesota) USPS hub. Messaged the buyer to let him know I was unsure of the reason for the delay, but assumed responsibility for it, and would gladly refund his shipping costs (if it showed up late) or a full refund / replacement if it didn't show up in the next week. Buyer messages me back immediately and says how grateful he was for my attention to the status and offer, but was happy to wait a week or two to see what happens. After 8 days stalled out in MN, it starts moving again, and seller messages me saying it arrived in perfect condition, he refuses any partial refund, and sang my praises in positive feedback. The Moral: proactive follow up on shipping issues may cost you the occasional shipping refund, but buys you immense customer loyalty. Fellow Brickpicker Courtesies. Had a guy offer 67% my BIN OBO price on a Ninjago Enter the Serpent (no minifigs). Said up front he knows its a low offer but its for his kid and the most he has in his budget. I politely countered, letting him know 80% of the list price is my bottom "break even" dollar. He declined, but alerted me to a mistake I had in the listing (I had forgotten to enable combined shipping). Went on to mentioned he recognized my store name ("Veritas Bricks") from the BP forums and thought I might wanna make the correction to boost my chances of selling the listing to someone else. He never did mention his BP name, but I was so grateful for his heads up that I'm going to offer him the set at his price if I can make up for it in selling the parted out minifigs for an extra buck or two. The Moral: BPer's looking out for one another is a win-win for all of us. Anyone else have some recent good experiences? Where you start out with a grimace, sensing a headache is coming, only to be left feeling encouraged that there are some honest people out there who aren't just looking to screw you the first chance they get? I don't know about you, but a string of 2-3 fruitcake encounters leaves me wondering if eBay is even worth the trouble. But even 1 gem like these inspires me enough to outweigh the headaches of dozen fruitcakes, so lets hear about some more!

Best post of this thread so far!

No offense, but I have no clue what the **** a Val-E is....

I don't know much, but one thing that I do know is that when Emazers goes third person he means business. Heed his advice fellow Pickers!

Emazers did give his opion on this set, as I have 1 already, and the set will be out for about 2 yrs I will have 10-20 of these. and where did I come up with that the set will be out 2 yrs, on one of the videos the guy from Lego was asked is this set Limited he said no, the set will be out like most other Technic sets thats 2 yrs give or take. so I will be getting one every month or so. Ed

Star Wars microfighter clone turbo tank for $24.98 on amazon FBM. $5 buyin. less than $3 to ship - i'm lovin' it. Town Hall $570 amazon FBM. mother-in-law was visiting when it sold - the mother in law who likes to compare LEGO to beanie babies. silly old lady.

Target has a $10 off $50 LEGO City, Super Heroes and Friends sets. Text LEGO to Target (827438)

It seems finally went oos on Amazon.com

At first, you don't tell them. If you are lucky like me and have a secondary storage area, it helps. Eventually they will figure it out, but by then, it's too late. The final step is explaining how you spent $150.00 on a set that is now worth $400.00. That helps with acceptance.

I think one Val-E on the forum is more than enough.

Sounds pretty similar to most anyone who comes out of their dark ages. I dropped about $5k in my first 6-12 months. Trust me, eventually your wife WILL take notice. You're in a race against the clock, my friend. You need to start transitioning to selling just enough to give yourself a viable "I'm not just buying, I'm investing and reselling!" defense. Then you can downplay the 5 boxes a month that show up, and make a big show out of the 1 that you ship out. If my calculations are correct, that'll get you into Q1 2018 before she calls out your lopsided expense/income ledger. But thats future-cubfan78's problem to deal with, don't worry about that guy, he'll figure something out.

Hallelujah I really don't know what happen to all the investors on this one. For $38, everyone should have at lease 5+ Lets see how high this one will soar.

Funny thing is: My wife keeps buying furniture at estate sales, so my LEGO buying is just retaliation

You guys never fess up and explain the extra storage you guys are required to keep for your wife's payback shoe collection.

Fantasy Era Zoo by Paul Trach

Finally finished Defense of Hoth with my 5 year old. Displays nice with the rest of the Hoth sets.

I would just like to point out that you just told the owner of the most comprehensive database of privately-held death stars in the world, that there are too many hoarded.

Yeah, some parents don't discipline their kids at all...and the end result is usually an aggressive tornado of a little human being that causes too much chaos.

Just tried texting it, and doesn't work. Looks like your store might have put the sign out early- dates 6-12 - 6-18. Good to know for next week, though! Thanks!

Here's some of them. It might vary in-store too. http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?s=A-UnitRank&kw=060516lego&kwCatId=&keywords=060516lego&sr=1&origkw=060516lego&ppg=96&page=1&ab=TRU_FeaturedDeals:Building-Blocks:20-off-selected-LEGO-construction-sets These are the sets listed online.

It's been said elsewhere by others, but worth repeating: start out with sets you would be happy keeping for a personal collection. Ones that you'll be happy to keep if they never do reach a profitable value. Eventually you'll want to shift to a model of selling enough to cover the costs of personal collecting. Nowadays, I buy about $2k a month, keeping $250 worth for myself, putting the rest into my selling pipeline - bringing in $2k/mo through selling. That'll satisfy the wife that your expanding collection is at least "paying for itself" through reselling activities. If you're serious about making actual profits and treating LEGO as a bonafide investment - well - 95% of us haven't crossed that bridge (while many may buy strictly for resale and do so profitably, I'd wager their personal collection costs and time spent on it all cancels out the profits, and then some). You'll have to ask the handful of Ed Mack's of the world how they navigated it with their spouses!

I owned some smaller space sets before 6928, but the Uranium Search Vehicle was my favorite. There are some pretty sweet MOCs out there of beefier, modernized versions (see below). I rebuilt this not long ago and was really disappointed with the build. Lego has come a looooong way since the early '80s.

Camel Camel Camel

6080 kings castle in 1984 or 1985. Still have it along with the box and manual.

TRU ad: 20% off ALL LEGO Minecraft & Jurassic World construction sets & 20% off selected LEGO construction sets

I took delivery on all this today. The boxes came while I was coaching T-Ball. You should have seen the look on my Wife's face when I walked in the door and there were three big boxes sitting there for me! I was going to start building the modulars this weekend but am now on the fence. I am going to be moving in 17 months and not sure I want to start putting my City together to only have to tear apart next year. Plus I really don't have anywhere to put it at this point. However, I did start building The UCS Tie-Fighter!

Good ol’ 80s marketing. I remember begging my parents for the sets in these things.

Today I finally got around to building some frames to display some of my Minifig collection! Happy with the outcome, should look sweet on the wall!!

My first set I remember playing with was 392. I was 3 and zooming this around my grandparents house. Although what I consider my first big kid LEGO set and the one that got me hooked was 6270. I got this for Christmas 1990, I was 6. Classic Pirate sets will also be my favorite theme.

I was wondering what was the first set you gals and guys owned? When did it start? For me, as far as I can remember, it was 6363 Auto Repair Shop, set made in 1980. I was 3 that year plus I wouldn't remember anything so it had to be couple years later. no, no helicopter, but yes, stickers Plus I bought it again few years ago On eBay, but later again, I sold it lol

Built this today. Quick and easy. About 100 pieces left for an alternate layout.

I sold a Darth Revan Polybag and just put it in a padded envelope and dropped off in the outgoing mail slot. First class mail but printed through Ebay shipping labels so it had a tracking bar code to scan. A week goes by and the thing never got a single scan, just says "label created" or whatever it is on tracking. Guy says he never got it and I start to inquire suspiciously because I've never had a problem with that shipping method for polys ever before and knew with no tracking updates he could say whatever and win the case. I've had it before where my local post office doesn't scan and have seen cases where the only update ever was the final "delivered". I thought maybe it didn't get scanned then either and that he was trying to con me. I went to my local post office where it would have went through and gave the tracking number and the manager said it went through their facility the next day after "checking a computer in the back". I told the guy to just wait a little bit longer but he insisted he wanted a refund now after my helpless investigation so my hands were tied and I agreed. Sure enough, a couple days later (around 11-12 days total) the tracking magically scans in process at Phoenix, AZ after shipping first class from Maryland. He receives it eventually and agrees to ship it back if I purchased the return label for him. I just emailed the pdf to him, and he returned it and I was ecstatic considering I started coming off as a jerk a little bit in my emails, questioning his integrity and so forth, and also that he could have just kept it and screwed me for it.

I had a 42056 Porsche on eBay yesterday - one of the lower priced BINs - using a stock photo. A buyer inquired if I had actual photos. I was having a stressful day, and may have been a bit of a jerk in my response: told him (all true) I was " ... working, didn't have time for photos right now, but the box - as I recall - was nearly flawless... but if he was looking for a 'museum piece', he should shop elsewhere." Less than an hour later, he bought it. I thought that was cool of him, and the least I could do was go snap some quick photos to show him he made the right choice. I pulled the box out and thought, "uuggghh" ... saw lots of minor nicks, scratches, and a light (but long) crease on the back side I had not noticed before. The box was still very nice... a 9 out of 10... just less perfect than I thought. So I took the photos and sent them, telling him that I know box condition is important to him, and if he wanted to cancel, that'd be fine. That was Saturday and - still expecting the worst in people - when he didn't reply right away, I figured he'd hold out and not reply ... maybe cancel his order Monday at 2 AM, and I'd miss the chance to relist this weekend. But a few hours later he replied... said the minor flaws looked fine to him, and he's looking forward to getting his new Porsche soon. In general, people are good.

I can only concur with the whole "buying spree when coming out of your dark-ages". My awakening was somewhere in 2013-2014, but turned into full-on back-to-LEGO about 6 months ago. My collection now consists of a 10173 Holiday Train, a Maersk Train, several Build Your Own Train carriages (2x Oil tanker, 2x Log car, 1x Caboose), a PR, PC, PS and DO, Mini, F40, VW T1, Wall-E, Temple of Airjitzu and a full complement of 2014 and 2015 Bricktober mini modulars ... combined with tons of track and switches. But very little has been built so far. This site has helped me get good deals on most of it, combined with cashback rewards from buying LEGO sets for my part-out business.

Sold these last month (May) all on eBay Grand Emporium $285 + Shipping (I desperately needed to move something) Then out of nowhere I sold 3 King's Castles 70404 for $199.99 + shipping. Well still pretty deep on GE so i'll make it up on the next few.

#7 is Mr Good and Evil (CMF #9): http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?M=col142#T=S&O={"ss":"US","rpp":"500"} #9 is tricky, likely one of these castle-related minifigs, look at the ones with the black hips: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?itemType=P&itemNo=970c09&in=M&v=1&oV=Y&srt=2&srtAsc=A #12 is Bad Cop from TLM, one of these two minifigs: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=973pb1734c01&in=M #13 is the Pharaoh from CMF #2: http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?M=col032#T=S&O={"ss":"US","rpp":"500"} If I counted correctly, this completes all 20 minifigs

#19: Roman Emperor (CMF Series 9): http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?M=col133#T=S&O={"ss":"US","rpp":"500"} Just saw that #19 was already mentioned. #20 is Legolas - likely from LOTR (but potentially from a Dimensions fun pack): http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=970c00pb163&in=M

I bought a decent sized lot with a gallon bag of minifigs and then a quart bag of heads.. TBH it's weird. PS: yes, there is a bunch of Kreo garbage mixed in

Okay, not two...How about four? 20160603_233011 by Kevin Langenberg, on Flickr 20160603_233032 by Kevin Langenberg, on Flickr 20160603_233025-1 by Kevin Langenberg, on Flickr

Nicest display I've seen thus far. http://m.blog.naver.com/mazingaf/220725132714 use Google chrome to translate

New Brickton buildings by legoman34.geo

Amazon now funds not-received claims on orders shipped via Shipping Services May 25, 2016 Effective May 1, 2016, if you've shipped an order using a label purchased from Shipping Services and buyers claim they didn't receive their order and file an A-to-z claim, Amazon will cover that claim. In fact, you won't receive a notification about it, and your Order Defect Rate will not be affected. Learn more about Order Not Received Claims.

Should be grounds for ex-wife

Central station Mainview by Johan van den Heuvel

Park it next to your 41085 Vet Clinic. Sick animals go in, but has anyone ever seen one come out?