These are just my opinions but these are some rules I try to stick to when purchasing a set for investment. 1. Get the best deal and buy on sale. I think too many people (including myself when I first started) jump on sets at retail just because they think they will be more valuable later. Now there are some instances which this will work but in most cases you are cutting in to your potential profits. Why? Almost every set goes on sale at some point. If you think you have another year before EOL then you have another year to keep waiting and watching for the price to drop or the item to go on sale. Target, TRU and others will have a BOGO 50% off at some point. You will probably see a dozen of these offers throughout the year. The key is being patient. 2. Wait until the set is close to EOL. I have a lot of 2012 sets and I regret buying some of them. Sure I got a great deal on them and I am sure I will make money when they are EOL but the issue becomes space. My wife was very supportive when I had a closet filled with LEGO sets but now I have a full room and I am out of space and she has become less supportive (especially since that room is supposed to be a baby room eventually). If you buy a set closer to EOL then you can sell it sooner and free up some space. You can find indications of EOL on any set by watching LEGO LEGO Shop at Home and this forum. If you just keep up on things chances are you won

Some solid advice! I, too, jumped on a few 2011/2012 sets perhaps a little to early and that is contributing to a space issue. I need to target with extreme precision otherwise I end up with things I never intended to invest in!

Good sound advice whats your views on ships and boats?

Good sound advice whats your views on ships and boats?

I should have added this but ships are always a good investment in my opinion. I will edit my post to say ships and trains.

These are just my opinions but these are some rules I try to stick to when purchasing a set for investment.

1. Get the best deal and buy on sale. I think too many people (including myself when I first started) jump on sets at retail just because they think they will be more valuable later. Now there are some instances which this will work but in most cases you are cutting in to your potential profits. Why? Almost every set goes on sale at some point. If you think you have another year before EOL then you have another year to keep waiting and watching for the price to drop or the item to go on sale. Target, TRU and others will have a BOGO 50% off at some point. You will probably see a dozen of these offers throughout the year. The key is being patient.

2. Wait until the set is close to EOL. I have a lot of 2012 sets and I regret buying some of them. Sure I got a great deal on them and I am sure I will make money when they are EOL but the issue becomes space. My wife was very supportive when I had a closet filled with LEGO sets but now I have a full room and I am out of space and she has become less supportive (especially since that room is supposed to be a baby room eventually). If you buy a set closer to EOL then you can sell it sooner and free up some space. You can find indications of EOL on any set by watching LEGO LEGO Shop at Home and this forum. If you just keep up on things chances are you won

These are just my opinions but these are some rules I try to stick to when purchasing a set for investment.

2. Wait until the set is close to EOL. I have a lot of 2012 sets and I regret buying some of them. Sure I got a great deal on them and I am sure I will make money when they are EOL but the issue becomes space. My wife was very supportive when I had a closet filled with LEGO sets but now I have a full room and I am out of space and she has become less supportive (especially since that room is supposed to be a baby room eventually). If you buy a set closer to EOL then you can sell it sooner and free up some space. You can find indications of EOL on any set by watching LEGO LEGO Shop at Home and this forum. If you just keep up on things chances are you won

If I were to have posted an article on this topic, it would pretty much look about identical to this. Well done! :)

On second thought... one more thing I do that has made me money many times over... I know investing typically means buying and holding onto so you can sell later, but I use another technique that works. Buy a set when it is brand new and hard to find for a lot of people. You can either sell the whole set, or the mini figures separately. A lot of people just collect mini figures, and they will pay top dollar for them when they have just come out.

I look at a few factors. -If the theme popular or can get a cult following? -Any exclusive or 1st released minifigs included? -If the lego investment market tanked, would I care if the set sat in my house? Hence, I must like it while ignoring the investment aspect. -A big plus is if the set is a retailer exclusive (e.g. 6857 only sold at US based TRU and lego stores). Seasonal items would prob fall under this.

Solid post, thanks for taking the time to write this.

This post could also be titled "What to invest in if you don't want your wife to become unsupportive of your Lego".

This post could also be titled. What to invest in if you don

I agree with the points mentioned i OP by Legodog - because I've been burnt in the past investing into a hobby, this time I'm taking the more cautious route. If I buy anything that I don't really want to keep, it's only because I plan on flipping them quickly (as is the case for my recent sale of 2 LEGO Minecrafts on eBay), as a way of supplementing my hobby money to buy what I really want to keep. The sets I'd love to be "caught dead with": Tower Bridge. This is the very first set I bought, and proud of it! I dont' mind holding on this for a long time. I also recently scored Imperial Shuttle.. I was on the fence about this one but decided it'd be cool to display if the LEGO investing scene tanked. And seems I got lucky.. there hasn't been IS at retail anywhere for the last 5 days according to trackers that I follow. Need opinions - I really would love to own 10225 (R2D2) - I don't see many people mentioning this set? I happen to think it's one of the coolest set to have, and I wonder how close (theoretically) this one is to EOL as well? If it's still some way off, I'd wait to see if I can score a 10225 on sale..

10225 only just came out a fe months back so you have a ways to go until you need to start worrying about it going EOL. That said, I think it is a great set and is one of only 3 that I have bought that I opened and built. Tower Bridge is definitely on my list of keepers as well. I have one for building and a few for investments. Imperial Shuttle seems to be a generally overlooked set that just so happens to be really cool and it should do quite well in the secondary market. It is also an excellent example of a set that goes on sale shortly before the end of its life. If you can catch it just right you can make just that much more before selling it.