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Finished B model.

Today I Finished building the Tumbler, I've got to say what a fantastic set!! It displayed such fantastic skills from the design team, it just highlighted what a design let down some of the recent sets like the new DS and AOH really are. With Cinders castle the exception, maybe Lego should have a look through their back catalogue and remind themselves what they are really capable of as opposed rushing out sets. Or tell Disney to back off a bit and let them go at their own pace!? Nevertheless, enjoy the pics!!

Still have a couple minutes to post this...

Day 3 and it was a nice but tiring finale. Went down with my family and got there around 2:30 and there was a 10 minute wait to get in. Surprisingly there were minifigs available. If we got there an hour later I would have imagined that they would have been gone. These are not to be opened at all with individual numbering on the package and cool printing on the back of each minifigure. We spent a ton, but we got gifts and sets that my child will open and build in a few years. Here's a picture of my 3 day quest. It was a fun weekend and the staff at the San Francisco store were very nice.

I think absolutely all threads can now be merged into the doomsday thread.

In case you missed the "Make and Take" event at Toys R Us this past Saturday from 12 to 2, here's a video I quickly threw together. I'm very please with this free build. I was thinking it was going to make made of lego plates. The whole thing, minus the base plate, was made of standard bricks and the white plate, I believe, is a hard to find plate.

Yesterday was a cake walk compared to Saturday. The line wasn't half as bad and I was able to go back in around 1:30pm after lunch and get a few more. It's ironic about the line because yesterday's promo was the most exclusive of all three. I guess not every one out there were low life reselling scum like me. The exclusive back printing is simple but very cool considering SF is my hometown.

AT-TE 75019 for $146 on Amazon ...buy-in was $27.06

I shall hang my mop in shame and admit it was I that removed the "rumor" tag from the tag list, and added the UCS tag and made the title change. *sigh*

My son wanted a challenging build but doesn't like Technic sets, so I offered the heavily discounted UCS Tie that we got from Amazon to him. We built it and it turned out great. It's a really nice display set and pretty impressively sized. It's just slightly overpriced at $200 - I think it would sell much better at $150.

Missing the obligatory mention of TRU parking lot

The irony is thick, but there is one big difference between us and LEGO. > People on this site are selling 10188 (or were trying to) as a genuine 10188 Death Star. Sure they'd like to make a little extra counting on the fact that a product is retired, never to be made again but (aside from a few low lifes) we aren't misrepresenting what we're selling. > LEGO retired a product, slapped a few cosmetic changes into and on the box, threw in a few extra cheese slopes, and is inevitably going to market it as something new along with the $100 price increase. So they hustled their existing customers and fan base to buy out the remaining stock of 10188 as a "retiring soon" product... That new Death Star had to be in the works when the existing 10188 was marked as "retiring soon." They lied to their customers. When a reseller lies to their customers they are taken to task. We're simply taking LEGO to task for a real s**t head move

I know it is difficult to see... but you are obviously still in the denial phase. We will leave you alone for now so you can find time to mourn.

R.I.P.

Pulled one from my storage to sell to a friend and noticed the seal code.

LEGO fans should be "pissed" in general about the 75159. It is an old, tired set, with dated building techniques. LEGO had years to prepare for a remake of the Death Star. They have some talented people on staff and as fans that could have produced a stunning set which would have pleased collectors, dabblers, resellers, new fans, old fans hardcore fans and even non-fans. It is a HUGE wasted opportunity. If this set has a short production run, it will show that resellers propped up the 10188, especially near the end. If this is supposed to be their "signature" set, then it looks like a forgery to me...

I think that those of us who have been fans for years are underestimating the number of new fans being born every day. We have at least 4, if not 5-7 new star wars movies guaranteed over the next 7-10 years and a new Disney land devoted to star wars being built . There is a whole new generation that will be raised on star wars and never had a chance to want the previous death star while it was on shelves. I think this proves that we were right to think demand for the 10188 would be there in 2017-2021, but that Lego is smart enough to be the one collecting those profits instead of us. I doff my cap to you lego. Well played.

Here are some concrete numbers that I've pulled out of my butt but should give an idea of what you'll need to do in order for this strategy (liquidating your LEGO) to be effective. To sell a large lot like that quickly, what's the general consensus on the discount that will need to be applied? 20%-30%? I'm not sure if @diablo2112 would be willing to share the discount he gave to sell his lot quickly, but maybe just a rough estimate would suffice. He sold his collection pretty quickly, but what he was selling was also only a third of your value. Let's assume a fictional mortgage amount of $200,000 (the end number doesn't much matter). And go through two selling scenarios... Selling your sets in bulk... One closer to the 20% discount and the other to the 30% discount. ROUND 1 - NO SELLING OF LEGO Mortgage $200,000, Interest 3% Monthly, 25 Years YEARLY PAYMENTS: $11,381.07 MONTHLY PAYMENTS: $948.42 TOTAL PAYMENTS: $284,526.79 TOTAL INTEREST PAID: $84,526.79 ROUND 2 - SOLD ALL LEGO FOR $45,000 or approx 18.2% off total value Mortgage $155,000, Interest 3% Monthly, 25 Years YEARLY PAYMENTS: $8820.33 MONTHLY PAYMENTS: $735.03 TOTAL PAYMENTS: $220,508.26 TOTAL INTEREST PAID: $65,508.26 Investment Sold At $45,000 Total Loss $10,000 Total Savings On Mortgage Over 25 Years: $19,018.53 Effective Savings (mortgage savings - loss on value of sets): $9,018.53 Monthly Payments Are This Much Cheaper: $213.39 ROUND 3 - SOLD ALL LEGO FOR $40,000 or approx 27.3% off total value Mortgage $160,000, Interest 3% Monthly, 25 Years YEARLY PAYMENTS: $9104.86 MONTHLY PAYMENTS: $758.74 TOTAL PAYMENTS: $227,621.43 TOTAL INTEREST PAID: $67,621.43 Investment Sold At $40,000 Total Loss $15,000 Total Savings On Mortgage Over 25 Years: $16,905.36 Effective Savings (mortgage savings - loss on value of sets): $1,905.36 Monthly Payments Are This Much Cheaper: $189.68 My Conclusion ... I wouldn't liquidate your assets unless you can come close to that 20% discount. Intangibles: Your Buy-In: Of course we don't know your original buy-in so maybe the 55k is already 20-30% above your original investment and you're potentially breaking even. What the Bank Will Give You: If you need to sell some in order to get a loan, by all means this may be a good strategy. Reducing your debt load is never a bad idea. What You are Comfortable Paying: Some people only have so much tolerance for debt... And only so much money each month for the usual payments. Selling your LEGO will yield decent (not fantastic IMO) savings each month on your mortgage payments. Important Note - I used a calculator that does monthly payments. Couldn't quickly find one that does bi-weekly... To improve your savings, I always recommend people use bi-weekly payments for their loan/mortgage repayments if offered by the bank. The interest savings and reduction in overall months you're paying down debt are substantial!! (To the OP - I'm not assuming you haven't done this... I'm putting this out there for anyone who is reading your post and has never had a mortgage and is truly curious why opinions on this strategy and whether it may or may not work have been varied.)

Moving 55k worth of inventory on Amazon even without the gating issue is not a good advice . To move all that in a month on Amazon during the off season period will mean taking a aignif loss in all likelihood . ill bet your inbox is already bombarded with inquiries . Best thing to do is bundle it all up on BC , ebay or CL and try to shoot for a break even transaction . Some items you will make money one ( older 2013 ), other u will probably lose ( 2015/2016)

Just saw this on the German Toys R Us website. PICTURE REDACTED Every week there will be a new set of four limited edition minifigures. The price is 14.99€ per set. What do you guys think about these? It seems nice to collect if you're in to minifigures, but the price for the previous minifigure collections has not increased that much and there were 5 figures in those instead of 4 (see 5002146, 5002147 and 5002148). This week is the first set of four music related minifigures. PICTURES REDACTED

Eventually this "golden age" of amazon will erode. I would expect that to happen, then something else will pop up. Those of us that started at the foundation of the ebay era, saw it go through the same thing. Remember the days when people used to send you freaking checks in the mail before paypal? I remember when I was using ebay to support my beer money in college. My parents used to get a kick out of it when i'd receive 4 to 5 checks in the freaking mail every day. Those were the DAYS! Then ebay got all serious because too many scammers were afoot. Then paypal came in and boy things changed. Eventaully Amazon came in and that helped create a new sales platform with alot of eyeballs and traffic globally. But, I see even Amazon eventually eroding. Eventually they will collapse to something else. That's the way of the system.

Amazon returns are always fun, partially built modulars wrapped in paper and shoved back in boxes are all the rage.

You're better off keeping a bookmark of Brickwatch.net ... 75105 --> https://www.brickwatch.net/nl-NL/set/75105/Millennium-Falcon.html ... ~ €100 (excl. shipping) via Amazon UK. 75094 --> https://www.brickwatch.net/nl-NL/set/75094/Imperial-Shuttle-Tydirium.html ... ~ € 75 (excl. shipping) via Amazon UK. Create an account, add sets you want monitored into your personal list, and you get emails when there's a price-reduction on any of those sets.

too many unsold sets = angry wife happy wife = happy life last 2 weeks of sales (all new). 5 10188 at $500 avg 4 SW Desert Skiff $46 each 4 City Coast Guard Plane $55 each 2 Orc Forge $60 each donated a $21 Scooby-Doo van for a kid's b-day party present.

Come on. I just say I'm pulling down the pic and you post a video of the pic? Really?

Fixed that a bit for you

waiting for $199.95...

My kids each built one of these, from the TRU build this weekend: Dont know when I've seen all four of us fight over a set, but my son won out and built this tonight: just an outstanding set. Primed for the Halloween Town.

It probably won't hit Amazon too hard in the short term because many of the existing sellers appear to have satisfied whatever criteria they set for automatic approval when the new restrictions went into place this week. So, most of the folks who were already generating revenue for Amazon will continue to do so. This only screws the counterfeiters and anyone who is looking to get in on the Amazon action for the first time. Over time, it might actually work in Amazon's favor to some extent. Personally, I know that if I can get comfortable that I will be able to stay on the right side of the gate and the new restrictions limit the number of sellers, I will consider doubling or tripling the amount of inventory that I sell there each year. One way that Amazon has potentially screwed itself is in how it has rolled this out. Currently, I'm on the right side of the Lego gate, but I have nothing other than my ability to list and sell Lego products currently to definitively establish or confirm my approval. As a result, I am likely to significantly limit the amount of product that I buy for next year. Unless I can receive some type of official confirmation from Amazon that I am approved to sell in a particular brand, I am not going to put a lot of money into that brand because I don't want to get caught out like a number of people have been this week with a lot of inventory that I have no way to move as quickly or as easily as I can through Amazon.

Be good-fellas

Hotcakes, man, hotcakes.

You are a brick troller indeed.

The Bricktober mini-mods aren't worth $20 either. They want to encourage you to buy something else so they can give you these, so they jack up the price. If you buy them at the inflated price, cool. If you spend $XX to get them, cool. It makes sense for TRU.

Always happy to help out a fellow Brickpicker.

You just earned yourself some karma there, Haay!

Anyone with listings in the newly restricted brands that was not grandfathered in got the email on 8/23 giving them 1 week to either provide invoices or create removal orders. If you had listings in those brands but did not receive the letter you are good to go. If you had no listings then you were not grandfathered in and you won't be able to list now without getting approval. There were also some items that were gated on 8/23 at the ASIN level due to numerous complaints of fraud. By now we all know which ones those are. My advice is to avoid them but to each his own. There will be tinfoilers for the rest of all time claiming waves, server rotations, step 2 etc. It is what it is, there will be no official announcement, and Lego has forever joined the restricted brand list on Amazon. If you were grandfathered in you won;t have to show invoices UNLESS you mess up in the future. Plenty of unscrupulous sellers would commingle garbage. They would eventually get suspended, and then sign up for a new account the next day. Now they need invoices and $1k - $5k per turn. You now what the effect will be on them

I don't think it will be much different. You will still have auctions selling for less than BINs just like always. What's going to happen is people with no eBay/Amazon experience are gonna mess up, lose their accounts and then have to find some other way to move large amounts of product. Otherwise known as a buying opportunity. It's been said many times and ignored by almost everyone, "Buying is the easy part, Selling is difficult." Before you go all in on a buying spree test the waters a bit and try selling something online, not doing so is just asking for problems.

And then u can forget about even selling on Amazon ever again . Them folks don't mess around .

Time to have someone here act as the BrickPicker.com Amazon selling agent. We all send our inventory to that person, who sells it on Amazon, takes a 1% cut of the profits and funnels the rest back to whoever supplied the stock Sort of a FBBP.

I've enjoyed your posts over the last few days and your perspective, but I'm waiting until Sep 1 to order anything. I just want to make sure the "grandfathering" thing is legit. Amazon could change it's mind at any time, even November or December.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I'm a good shot, what do you want from me?

I think TLG has been having to much Frank's red hot....

Picked this up last January. Finally opened it up and built it last night and today. I have a bunch of similar colours in my parts bin, thinking I might MOC up a bit more of a scene and move it to a shelf. Love the style and colours, rather disappointed I missed on this theme when it was around at retail.