So again, maybe this will become a BF/CM piece for TRU...

I just sold an Ocean HQ for 129 plus shipping on Ebay to an international address. I think the set is awesome myself. If you can get these sets with TRUTH then I think certain sets in this theme will done fine.

TRU loves to take out Lego's trash. It looks like TRU can now apply their $10 tax and have it rot on their shelves for 2-3 years. I like this set but I knew that it would be a crap investment due to the lack of popularity of the Ultra Agents line. When have these sets ever appreciated much?

I've made money on some TRU exclusives. It just takes awhile...

Bought one 70173 set last night through a Dutch web-retailer who out of the blue happened to have 6 of them in stock. Really odd since this set was never even released in Europe! The question is how much this set will appreciate over time, given the fact that demand for Ultra Agents was apparently so abysmal that TLG axed the entire series!

But maybe 10 years from now this will be such an ultra rare set (especially here in Europe) that it will be worth a lot.  

32 minutes ago, Haay said:

Bought one 70173 set last night through a Dutch web-retailer who out of the blue happened to have 6 of them in stock. Really odd since this set was never even released in Europe! The question is how much this set will appreciate over time, given the fact that demand for Ultra Agents was apparently so abysmal that TLG axed the entire series!

But maybe 10 years from now this will be such an ultra rare set (especially here in Europe) that it will be worth a lot.  

Maybe...... but it tends to lean more to probably not :-/ I like the set. Looks cool, but it has so little going for it compared to other themes and sets.

COngrats, you are sitting on a real rarity provided you didn´t pay more than RRP! It will be hard to find a buyer but there are only 2 sellers on Ebay europe now and 1 seller on bricklink.

2- 2.5 RRP is easily achievable - I´d rather have it than BB or ice breaker any day.

Edited December 24, 20159 yr by valenciaeric

16 minutes ago, valenciaeric said:

COngrats, you are sitting on a real rarity provided you didn´t pay more than RRP! It will be hard to find a buyer but there are only 2 sellers on Ebay europe now and 1 seller on bricklink.

2- 2.5 RRP is easily achievable - I´d rather have it than BB or ice breaker any day.

Well, that's a bit hard to tell huh, what the EU (and especially Dutch) RRP for this set is, simply because it was never sold by Lego LEGO Shop at Home in Europe in the first place.  

Considering similar price-settings, I'd guess US RRP of $99.99 would translate to German RRP of €99,99 and Dutch RRP of €109,99. Which is what I paid for it (excluding €6 for s&h).

Knowing that our BP-friend @Ciglione recently sold one on eBay for €250, a 2x RRP should be achievable, though demand will be low and it may take a few times of relisting. Either that, or just saving it for long term hold and the fun of knowing I own a set that was never officially released in the EU.  

Edited December 24, 20159 yr by Haay

You´ll be OK at that price. Just advertise it at a really high amount with best offer accepted and wait and see. You only need to find one crazy person to buy it as there is almost no competition.

Still odd why this set was available at a Dutch online store...

Hard to tell. I have sold I think  a dozen (all over msrp), all but 2 outside the USA. Is it because it is a bloody nice set (it seems to be) or just because it wasn't sold worldwide? Perhaps like the Maersk EEE it is a set that just went under the radar. 

I have already sold 4 Ocean HQ for double what I paid (big discount with TRUTH) through the global shipping on Ebay (from the US) and two more in the US for double what I paid. I wish I had 20!

Received my 3 70173 Ocean HQ sets today...very nice looking set!

2 hours ago, Brenner said:

Received my 3 70173 Ocean HQ sets today...very nice looking set!

Sorry to be anal but were they US imports (number of parts on front of box and US seal codes)?

1 hour ago, valenciaeric said:

Sorry to be anal but were they US imports (number of parts on front of box and US seal codes)?

I checked the seal code on my one set just now. It's 11S5 which means it was produced in the 2nd week of March, in a European Lego factory. Number of parts is not listed on the front of the box. So TLG produced probably one batch of this set when the news came that the series was axed and this set was not to be sold through Lego stores in Europe. 

Very interesting. So there are likely to be a few more out there - but where and how many?

7 minutes ago, valenciaeric said:

Very interesting. So there are likely to be a few more out there - but where and how many?

There may also be some grey imports from the USA - I am relatively confident that at least 1-2 of the ones I had sold to European countries were to sellers, not individuals...

If there was only one batch produced, the questions are: 

- how large was this batch? 

- how were the boxes of this batch distributed?

I'm guessing this one batch was way too small to sell the set through B&M Lego stores in Europe. So it was most likely sold to a large (commercial) re-distributor, who in turn sold off smaller batches to (web) stores. I'm guessing at least this particular store where Brenner and I bought our sets from waited for the week before Christmas to put them up for sale, thinking that would be the best time to sell them. 

I wonder how many other boxes will still surface here and there...

It´s the type of set and price point that fits as a TRU or similar exclusive so you may be right.

Ok guys you puzzle me. I saw this set a few months ago on I believe wehkamp.nl but not sure for some ridiculous price (150+€) and never even considered it important enough to report here coz I was convinced that it was certainly a very small import batch from the US sold at high mark-up.

But I have never ever found it to anywhere close to projected RRP because I would definitely take one for me, not resell (it's a gorgeous set). So to stop the game of cache-cache, which online store was it? Did wehkamp marked it down?

5 minutes ago, valenciaeric said:

It´s the type of set and price point that fits as a TRU or similar exclusive so you may be right.

Does TRU have Lego exclusives here in Europe too, or is that only an American thingy? I haven't yet come across a TRU exclusive set here in Europe...

Yes they do, at least here. Some of the Arctic and SW sets plus value packs usually.

 

Quite a few 70173s sold at bricklink over the last 2 months a little over RRP but I can´t see where the sellers were from. I´d pretty much given up on this set but may look again now it seems there is hope.

Edited December 24, 20159 yr by valenciaeric

On 24-12-2015 at 9:06 PM, Vinetu said:

Ok guys you puzzle me. I saw this set a few months ago on I believe wehkamp.nl but not sure for some ridiculous price (150+€) and never even considered it important enough to report here coz I was convinced that it was certainly a very small import batch from the US sold at high mark-up.

But I have never ever found it to anywhere close to projected RRP because I would definitely take one for me, not resell (it's a gorgeous set). So to stop the game of cache-cache, which online store was it? Did wehkamp marked it down?

These were available for 109,99E. Gorgeous set indeed! And yes they did.

Two of these popped up at one of my local TRUs. I'm wondering if I should go grab them with the 20% off...