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I've been a member here since November 1st (same day I started collecting) but figured now that I have 1 rack filled I'd introduce myself. This post could also go in the "how am I doing?" or the "stockroom pictures" thread. But I figure I would throw it here. I definitely consider myself small time and mainly use the profits from my sales to finance my own collection (keeping the wife off my back ). I have most of these sets on the rack built and in my personal collection as well. All of the ones on the rack are new in sealed box. I think I'm doing ok but open to criticism. Only bought 2 city sets, a high speed train for $100 and a coast guard plane for around 30% off retail. No Chima or any of the riskier stuff to sell. All of the Architecture sets were at 40% or more off. Got some CS as well not in the picture. I have 4 Sopwith Camels headed my way that I bought for $104.50 each. I also had pretty good success flipping 25 or so Minecraft sets during the holiday season. I'm trying to keep a decent mix of short, mid and long term holds. I've made 50 or so sales doing the QFLL thing and am averaging $29.82 profit per sale as of now. Although now that the Holidays are over I'll be holding a lot more. I'm a software developer/consultant by day and have used that to my advantage when buying sets after EOL. It's been hard not to read the daily deals thread and want to run all over town searching for those Walmart deals. It's exhilarating, but its not where my strengths are and I have to play to my strengths. So I've written some pretty advanced scripts that buy my LEGO during the F5 phase. As I'm not a big investor, I don't mind only having 3 or 4 of each set. Honing in on a few more Red5 now and will probably start picking off a few ToO over the next few weeks. I also need to order a new rack to store stuff in. Recently, a buddy at work also gave me around 35 pounds of LEGO to sort through, build, sell and split the profits. I love building so getting paid to build free LEGO is pretty awesome. So far I've found lots of old space sets and a market street (yea baby!) I'm 29, and originally from Atlanta. My wife is Romanian and we have lived all over the world but are currently in Jacksonville, Florida. We have an adorable 10 month old girl who goes nuts over Duplo. I'm also a sponsored (Starboard) stand up paddleboarder and enjoy surfing and racing in my free time. Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. Feel free to give advice on my buying or box stacking techniques as I'm open to suggestions.

This has been a great read today! You know, as a newer member to this forum I appreciate the advice of others and that is why these forums exist. I learn a ton going through threads but occasionally I may miss a nugget and ask an already asked question from time to time. When this happens, there is no harm in simply NOT RESPONDING if you are so irritated by it. By answering the question in a brash manner, it appears as if you would like to belittle the member publicly while seeking approval from others. It's otherwise known as bullying. But what do I know, my lego dude has a beanie on his head!

Here's another suggestion - don't base your investment strategy on when something is going EOL, and you won't care when it's gone.

Actually this argument makes sense and in economics it's called cannibalization. These cars are close substitutes in LEGO's palette, therefore it might be a reasonable assumption that the average consumer is almost indifferent between them. Imagine that T1 and F40 both sell very well, but most people only buy one of them. If the majority who face this choice would buy the F40 if there is no T1 (rather than not buying anything at all) then LEGO can do better with retiring the T1 so it could spare the production cost of multiple products (more parts). In this situation the T1 is devouring would-be sales of the F40, making it an in-house competitor. Cannibalization might also (partly) explain the retirement of TH and R2 as well. It is not in the interest of LEGO to fragment demand too much across its products since it inflates costs and the benefits of cancelling production can outweigh the loss of some marginal sales.

Actually nevermind I'd rather not derail this thread by arguing over business practices that neither one of us know about.

I firmly believe that Lego doesn't base retirements on sales of particular sets. I think there is a strict time line that they go by and when that date hits that's when they retire the set. I could be wrong but that's just my gut feeling

sorry im going to derail this thread... i had a weird dream last night where people were building massive human castles out of either kings castle or helms deep... then they added all these chima riders (spiders, eagles, wolves, what have you) and created a stupid huge battle scene... then everyone saw it and started buying up all the chima on the internet. wishful thinking huh? lol

The flipping method of reselling takes much more vigilance and effort but if done often and correctly it can be quite lucrative. If takes perfect timing for obtain maximum profit.

Interpretation: Employee: I am surprised you are not buying The Simpsons House. Me: Why Employee: We have a ton in the back and per my Manager who ever sells the most this month wins a Chima Polybag.

Martin

My belief is that Lego has a date for each set on which they retire it, but Lego checks the sales for the set before they make the decision. If the sales are exceeding the estimates, they keep the set in production. If not, it's retired. Just my theory.

I would take back all the wallmart discounted stuff and go for a red 5/ pet shop / palace cinema / ewok village / EEE. I see the porftolio as too narrowly based themewise and you definitely want some SW or modulars too.

i cant speak for anyone else, but i started in 2011 and i just now started selling. about half of my items its going to be hard to make retail back (bought for 50% to 70% off) and the rest im making a killing. my advice is if you cant afford to sit on sets for a long time you wont make good/great profits. this hobby or whatever you want to call it is absolutely NOT for the impatient.

I've been flirting with the idea of no longer buying new Lego stock, as I already have about $70k (at current eBay prices) to unload and I am deeply concerned about the Lego reseller-threatening illegal activity that must not be mentioned by name lest my post be deleted. So I stopped checking the daily deals thread. But I do follow the threads for sets I own, since I need to know when I should start selling them. I thought 10220 was set for retirement last fall when it was out of stock everywhere but LEGO Shop at Home and the MINI Cooper was coming out, so Lego would for the first time have two licensed automobile sets for sale at once, which had never happened before. I applied the same logic to AA (with the Tumbler coming out) and turned out to be right, but no such luck with the T1. So I check here every few days, hoping to read that it's sold out at LEGO Shop at Home or at least dropped to limit 2. If you're in the US, or even better live in Europe but have a PayPal account filled with US$ for some reason, you can get a pretty solid deal on this set from European BrickLink sellers. Even after shipping, it shouldn't be more than $100 from some of them. The strong dollar is your friend. Likewise if you invest in CMF cases. If you haven't searched BrickLink in awhile, it's worth doing. The euro has absolutely plunged over the past few months.

Fair enough.....I deal with scumbags on a daily basis and I do admit that at times my sarcasm and disdain for the human race that stems from my job probably shows here on the boards. Apologies if you were offended by shaking my head comment but it just grows old when members pander for info that usually be gathered by simply reading through the threads. Trust me I'm not the only one who feels this way but it appears that I'm the only one who wants to say it. Anyways I'm who I am and members just have to accept it and move on. Oh and unfortunately my undergraduate and graduate degrees are very real. I know this because of the 70,000 of student loans I'm stuck paying off and that's after over half has been forgiven because of the line of work I chose. Trust me I hear how over qualified I am for my job everyday considering only a GED is needed to pursue a career law enforcement. Also I wasn't broadcasting anything the other day, a member asked me to qualify one of my remarks and I stated my education as a reference, I'm hardly the one who boasts about my education since I'm not the only one here with a graduate degree.

Stephen, I don't hate you. I appreciate your opinion. Only if you could express it in a more civil way more often. That "masters degree in psychology" you were broadcasting the other day - is it real? was it a joke aka sarcasm aka your "style"? who knows? - should not only enable you to (quote) "[throw around] any big smart words" if you wanted to (which you of course do not), but they should also make you capable of anticipating that some of your comments put members of this forum in discomfort for no reason. Other comments meanwhile appear like you were talking to a dog or something, not to a human being. I mean, reactions consisting of one or two words that are not far from "Down!", "Give!" or "Sit!", that's just not a great way of communicating. The more I think about it that PsyM must indeed have been a hoax. Or it is some kind of weird study exploring "The effects of permanent grumpiness on members of an internet community". However, I don't think you are a POS - and honestly I don't quite get why I should send you a message to tell you about it if I did. I just think you are a POG (Piece Of Grumpiness), that's it. You know what: Had you answered with what you wrote above right here the first time (instead of your original answer, being "SMDH") I would have had close to no problem at all. Mainly because I would have known what you mean right away. Above you said "if you and some other members would make it a little less obvious when begging for EOL info that would be great." My question is: why? Everyone here is keen on EOL info and everyone knows it - in fact even the site's title reads "Lego price and investing GUIDE". Are you seriously po'ed of people taking that literally seeking plain GUIDANCE? Why should one sugarcoat asking for EOL info? What is your problem with people "begging" (as you expressed it) without putting lipstick on their questions? Is it because they, ok, say "we", don't "give anything back"? Being a regular user of this site clicking through all the info posted here fits the definition of giving something back quite well, don't you think? So, I don't really get what you mean - if it is a religious thing or so then please enlighten me. To me your argument of "It's OK to make money, but it's not OK to make easy money" sounds a bit contradictory or should I say pointless? Maybe it's even sarcastic. I don't know, you are the expert.

I have to like any reference to "The Jerk". Most of my life decisions are based on this movie.

...I know how to make money, and people keep bothering me! What's up wid tat?

Not only might Stephen not just have been referring to Ed's comments in the EEE thread - but who knows, since there is so much info to be interpreted into in his response consisting of an amazing four letters (wow!) - he also seems to have no hard time limiting his constant misanthropic undertone a bit. What is so hard in maintaining a minimum of respect even to people with questions he subjectively regards as stupid? I know he likes to refer to "sarcasm" in those cases. That's one way to see it and it wonderfully justifies rude behaviour all the time, how very comfortable. If he would just call it loudmouthed grumpiness I would have less of a problem with his way. In a nutshell: "Normal" members would long have been banned for manners like his, and of course I do not only mean this one comment to me but many of his comments to many users.

Found another 2 in a local toy store for around US$250, sometimes its good lo live in a pissant town.

You may as well open your PayPal case now.

Nice stash, if you ever find yourself in Charleston let me know, I'll happily lose a paddle board race to you.

Worked for me too... It seems the only sets its not working for are the trains otherwise it seems to work for just about everything else city and Star Wars. I ran into a strange scenario where the code wasn't working and had to use a different browser (chrome) no matter what I did in Firefox. The latest update of FF is a piece of garbage though.

It definitely does - I've placed ten orders thus far, and once they ship will place quite a few more. It doesn't work on everything, but plenty of the sale sets worked with the coupon for me.

I think this is the blue piece on the left.

I started buying LEGO for resale with the arrival of LEGO LOTR 1st wave..... and my total balance up until now is: Cash spent on LEGO (including my own collection): 3.800

once again show me the numbers you have to back your claim......you clearly state as fact that R2 was a poor seller, show us the numbers then, I'll wait ;)

Good spot. Doesn

Wow. The exterior has turned out exquisitely and the inside is robust too. I'm not sure anyone down below on the main floor eating that pizza will like the upper view when 'the john' is being used. Strange to say but I like your ....toilet. You really made the windows across the front stand out very nicely. Heck, the whole thing is nice and more importantly (in my opinion) unique. If this is just version two, I eagerly await the third.

Almost done with a 7676. This was actually the first set I started from my first bulk buy way back. I've moved since then. I put it off to do other smaller lots over the years. I've decided to finish it so I can sell it off. I have to get to the ISD's I've left hanging next. Purge.. Purge... I say. Too much to buy and hold. The bulk thing is fun to a point until it takes up a room with no end in sight...ever. No end as this is just some I have organized to deal with and plenty unsorted needing to be cleaned which have non lego bricks, crap, stale crackers, batteries, jewelry, money, rocks and more crap, ect.... You know what I mean.

I think you'll be looking at about US$80 for shipping... keep us posted though.

You have to have a fairly large amount of capital to do this properly which is buy and hold for 1-2 years. You are quick flipping for minimal profits which there is nothing wrong with but don't expect to get rich doing it. Maybe you should start of slow. Quick flip a few sets until you have enough to buy a large exclusive like ToO or Red 5. Rinse and repeat.

Actually a pretty cool build. Especially because the temple transforms into the Phoenix Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Brickpicker mobile app

Be sure to check out the very first post on this thread

I got my son the Tie Advanced proto for his bday next month. The Inquisitor fig is just too cool!

I say it too and I wouldn't mind it if folks would do some reading. These EOL topics are covered daily, hourly, and sometimes by the minute. There's plenty of discussion on here about almost every set, especially exclusives. I don't think anyone should expect an overly nice or ambitious member to provide sets, dates, times, future price speculation, etc. If you expect anyone to do this, all you'll get is a 90% guesstimate. The randomness of EOL has also been discussed to a great degree and LEGO has proven to be very good at keeping most of the real information close to their chest. Sit back do some reading, but please don't expect this valuable information to be spoon fed to you daily. These are general statements geared towards all members and not pointed at anyone specific.

Language language language If this wasn't a family site I would post the video clip of this, one of my favs, but it has the F word and I don't want to get smacked by a mod. There is a thread about this poke around and see if you can find it.

Welcome to the site!

That LEGO version does seem a bit fat particularly around the torso. Perhaps the camera angle and lighting added a few pounds. Ha. Well I still could not find any other physical builds of the Battlemaster. However there are the two digital renditions over at Brick Commander's Battletech page of downloads with LDraw files for the original "unseen" followed by the Project Phoenix "reseen" edition. Also to add a drastically different but super impressive one from the more recent Age of Destruction. Battletech Project Phoenix Age of Destruction

Point taken I shall see if I can get in touch with ebay regarding a possible scam. In the future I will be a lot more careful not to be taken in.

I'm not trying to bust your you know what but your attitude is precisely why scammers are so successful. Your logic is if it's a scam oh well ebay or paypal has got my back. Meanwhile the scammer got away Scott free with your money. Who do think reimburses you? The thief? It comes from PayPal or ebay who have to foot the bill, and then people wonder why the fees they charge keep going up and up.

Why reading it? Ummm because I still buy and sell ucs. You know, what this site is about?

I feel this set is a ripoff at full price...the structure is so small that you can't even fit the Bith in their performing area. This is clearly just an overpriced maxifig/minifig sale with a small, lame structure thrown in.

I would be very cautious about buying $240 GEs and I certainly wouldn't throw the word "bargain" around.

What am I missing here?

Outstanding