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These new Ninjago sets look impressive..the boxes are fabulous IMHO

Awesome! Though really, all in all, I'm just another brick in the wall

Hey y’all see “My order status” or “thread of packaging excellence”

Today it's nice to see that BrickPicker has achieved the milestone of hitting 100,000 registered users. Sure all of those members are not active, but regardless it's a nice achievement to hit, something Ed and I never would have thought would have hit years ago. New and better things are on the horizon, so stay tuned! Thank you for registering @lasloo!!!!!!!

Picked up our barn door, about a 50min drive Round trip to avoid $40 delivery charge. Now just need to add stain and hardware then install in the basement.

Finally sold my last star wars buildable figure, what a relief. Bought these when I first started investing in 2016 /2017, I just saw the 50% off plus sign and thought how could I lose money! Boy did I not take into account things like: - Set turnover rate (how many sell on ebay in a day) - Set appreciation (I just assumed all lego would appreciate forever, I didn't research at all if the buildable figures would be sought after in the future). Even though I managed to miss the real stinkers like rey / jyn erso, I still only barely sold over my buyin cost, most profit per set was a couple of pounds, not a loss but definitely one of the worst investments I've made. I did managed to make money on the general gracious / jango fett. The last wave of buildable figures proved to be very rare in UK, and I managed to buy some after they retired and the boba fett / darth maul sold for about 2x rrp. Lesson learned, now hoping I can shift some of my old minifigure series, which I also didn't really think about, and rey speedors...

My problem with common core is the lack of practice and repetition. Rote practice works for everyone and most everything. Most people don’t like it, but the same child that hates practicing math may grind through hours in a video game or on a court or in a field. If you want to achieve a high level of competency in anything, it takes practice. Our culture demands a high level of quality, but does little to recognize what it costs to get it. Even a cleaning lady only gets good at her job from doing it over and over again. “Fake it ‘til you make it” should be our national motto. It’s the way we run our schools; graduating unprepared children. Allowing them to move up when they don’t deserve, or worse when they’re not ready to. Kumon is good for a few things. For remedial students, it allows them to go back and fill in gaps. Kumon is concept based, rather than grade or age based. Students move up due to the merit of their own work, not their age or grade. Problem is, students who are behind often don’t have the study skills/habits necessary to succeed, and/or the support at home to provide accountability. Kumon provides the opportunity to build those skills and habits, but can only do so much. Opportunity to succeed is not the same as succeeding. For students with the support at home, Kumon allows a child to reach their full potential. Double edged sword, some children don’t have as much potential as others. But even for children with lower IQs, the study skills and habits, focus and concentration, and General knowledge gained from daily study will often help them develop the work ethic and “grit” needed to succeed. Kumon’s grand goal is to develop children into independent learners, not number crunchers. Though there’s a lot of that at the basic level. But developing a child to be an independent learner takes years, especially when elementary school teachers tend to train children to be dependent learners. But it takes a competent Kumon instructor too. And it takes parents’ dedication. My story, my daughter is pretty smart, she has a “gifted” IQ, and she has accomplished a lot, academically, in her 10 years of life. But we started her studies early, she was a natural reader and interested in books, she’s been doing Kumon formally since around 5. She has accomplished a lot, but she had to work hard every step of the way. Kumon helped develop the grit she needed to reach the goals we set out for her. And now that she’s entering 6th grade, she is well prepared for anything they throw at her. Kumon worked differently for my son. He’s 8, and has been ranked in the top 20 in the nation in math for a few years now. I expect him to be in the top 10 by the end of the year. We started him earlier because his big sister was doing it. Because of Kumon, we were able to identify early on that he was gifted. Years before the schools would’ve had a hint. So we’ve been able to optimize, tapping into his full potential early on. He’s years ahead of his peers in experience, a decade ahead of them in comprehension (literally). Kumon is designed for students like him, and implemented on kids like my daughter. No, they don’t get beat up or shunned for being nerds. My son is quite popular and athletic. He plays soccer and basketball (not well) and piano. Was going to get his black belt in tae kwon do at the end of March, but covid. Lots of coding, lego and these days... Minecraft. My daughter is quite beautiful, does piano, violin, art, archery and a green belt in tkd. We tried some sports with her, but she’s a girly girl. Though she enjoys swimming and a little tennis. We can do all of this because they study a little bit every day.

I hear you about the importance of a 12-month cycle. yeah the idea of a "summer vacation" is so archaic ...let's give all the kids 3 months to forget their schooling so we can all mutually take a step back after 2 steps forward. How many here still need their kids to do farm-work in the harvesting season? anyone?

Pretty cool stuff. Jeff and I have really been blessed over the years to meet so many intelligent and generous people through the site. Brickpickers have helped keep my sons' school open with their generosity and their participation in the annual LEGO raffle and have taught me a lot about business and reselling. Writing two books , writing for BLOCKS and being in the USA Today was really special and it was because of YOU that we had the chance to do it. I feel bad not being more active as of late, but we are moving in the middle of a pandemic and it has sucked all the time and life from me. Hopefully, I can back to my life again in a few weeks after packing, inspections and paperwork is over. I'm excited by what Jeff has shown me with his new changes that are coming to the site that will simplify and improve many of our main features. Thanks again everyone! Ed Mack

These are much better than the Hidden Side sets box art. HS is too busy. This feels like it tells a story a bit better. LEGO certainly has decided to go innovative with its box art lately. I’m glad to see them pushing themselves a bit.

Well, there is the summer clearance lego harvest... Nice, they're doing solid. $1200 a year is dirt cheap per child. Florida averages $1680-1800/subj. Still cheaper than a private tutor or most of the competition (Sylvan, Mathnasium, Huntington)

They attend a good Stem Charter. Kumon is about a semester to a year ahead so it tracks close enough not to mess things up.They get A's but have no illusions about being the smartest kids in their class. Personally, I'm not real big on ramming school down kids throat like I'm raising a show dog. This was more about letting them learn at their natural pace in a 12 month cycle that feeds them daily lessons and goes slow enough to stick. At the risk of sounding dogmatic, imo the reps matter most in acquisition, Like learning steps in dance school by dancing each day for 30 min.

2 kids. Oldest is 13 and is 1 year away from completing the curriculum (doing trig now, will finish through Calculus 1). Second is 9 and on same track. The only teaching I’ve done w/them has been making sure they finished their packets 5 days/week. So for $1200 a year they basically handled prep, correction, and methodology.

I learned that lesson too. Don’t show the wife... she won’t appreciate it, yet some how she’ll figure away to make it “better” which will just take away another x number of hours from my life.

UPDATE Post. Here is some updated prices. Price change period April 6th - June 29th. April 6th – Jun 29th Ninjago City 70620 – $300 - $500 / $500 - $600 Ninjago City Docks 70657 – $309 – $339 – / $350 - $400 Jokers Manor 70922 – $450 - $500 / $550 - $600 Silent Mary 71042 – $229 - $250 - / $340- $400 Brick Bank 10251 - $240 - $400 – / $425 - $450 Detectives Office 10246 - $300 - $400 – / $380 -$400 Old Fishing Store 21310 - $310 - $359 – / $350 - $390 Technic Porsche 911 42056 - $350 - $450 – / $525 - $600 MC Mountain Cave 21137 - $479 - $599 – / $650 - $670 SW Cloud City 75222 - $400 - $700 – / $500 - $600 Ninjago Dest Bounty 70618 $229 - $250 – / $260 - $290 Creator Ferris Wheel 10247 $350 - $400 - / $400 - $450 MC The Farm Cottage 21144 $109 – 149 – / $159 - $179 MC skeleton Attack 21146 $79 - $95 - / $100 - $130 MC Waterfall Base 21134 $92 – $120 - / $110 - $120 MC Ocean Monument 21136 $140 - $170 - / $150 - $190 Elves Healing Hideout 41187 $75 - $99 - / $100 Elves Tree Bat 41196 $74 - $90 - / $90 - $100 Elves Earth Fox 41194 $70 - $90 - / $130- $140 Elves Noctura SD 41195 $64 - $74 - / $100 - $110

I had 4 items supposedly stolen from my mailbox after I arranged house p/u. Had my PO investigate they confirmed my assumption. I refunded everyone's payment after I had them first initiate a "did not receive" on eBay. Well lo and behold over 3 weeks later, the items suddenly appear in tracking and are delivered. One customer has already reached out and offered to pay. Is there an easy way to direct them to do this since I've already refunded? For the remaining customers, I will give them the option to pay or return the item at my cost. Any other things to consider? Guess I'm chalking this up to a DC issue due to Covid or the packages were stashed in the truck and not offloaded? Thanks as always for advice.