I haven't seen much discussion of the new IDEAS Birds set (Jan, '15) yet...obvioulsy we don't have "hands-on" time, but I'd like to know what people think. I mean, it's smart of LEGO to try to corner the ornithologist/AFOL demographic (who wouldn't?!?), but curious to hear the community's thoughts for short and long term investment.

 

Personally, I'll buy it because it's IDEAS and I enjoy that line...I'm less certain of hoarding it for investment though.

Wow, I didn't realize Trek had the power to bring a set out of retirement with one post!!!!!!

1 hour ago, valenciaeric said:

One word for all y´all who be doubting - 4002014-1

Well the one was limited to employees the other one was available to everyone who was able to pull the trigger for some months. How the heck should they sell at the same price?

4x MSRP would be nice, but I still doubt it.

I called the the Lego Store today and asked about the set. The employee told me that he can only see the orderable items for the next week and birds is not in it.

I don't know about us but In UK this gonna be big one

10 minutes ago, Sozial said:

Well the one was limited to employees the other one was available to everyone who was able to pull the trigger for some months. How the heck should they sell at the same price?

4x MSRP would be nice, but I still doubt it.

I called the the Lego Store today and asked about the set. The employee told me that he can only see the orderable items for the next week and birds is not in it.

??? And why i was able to order 10 via phone calling at 10 o'clock? Oh sorry you mentioned store and not s&h...

Edited November 24, 201510 yr by mauro23

4 minutes ago, mauro23 said:

??? And why i was able to order 10 via phone calling at 10 o'clock?

How could you order while it was sold out? And even 10?

I guess he called to check....

Also i was wondering.. a friend of mine called 30 minutes later and was able to order only two...

I dont believe that this set will rise extremly, because:

1) there is nothing special on this set - not licenced, no special figs, just bricks. OK, it can be nice for display, but how much will somebody pay just for this reason? If this set hit high price level, then most of the people say that they dont need this set + everybody can build this set using bricklinked bricks. If you are fan of Back to the future, you need the original set, because of figs. But you dont need Birds set to have birds from lego on the shelf...

2) after releasing this set, there was a silence about it, nobody was excited about it and the shelves in the lego store were always flooded by many Birds sets... no sign of big demand...

3) Some are arguing with the set 4002014-1  - but that set is extremly limited, and to be honest, everything limited is expansive in lego world, even if TLG makes a limited producton of set "****" consisting of several brown bricks :-)

Question is - is the Birds set really retiring - just after 1 year, or we will see another "exosuit" story and a 2.wave will come with thousands sets, which will sit on the store shelves for another year or two...

2 more words and a number to answer points 1 and 2. Burj Khalifa 21008.

Don't count your birds until they hatch!!

The set is still 'available' at US SAH and 'call to check' in EU.

Last call, or will it hang around longer?

I dunno if I would invest in this at retail price.

I have both this and the hub set and to me really no comparison. This set is the better of the 2 but the hub has the rarity factor.  Hard to compare the 2.  Employee sets have collectors of there own as well.

4 hours ago, ED-209 said:

Don't count your birds until they hatch!!

The set is still 'available' at US SAH and 'call to check' in EU.

Last call, or will it hang around longer?

I dunno if I would invest in this at retail price.

As far as I can see in EU it's Sold Out and not 'Call to check'.

3 hours ago, ravenb99 said:

I have both this and the hub set and to me really no comparison. This set is the better of the 2 but the hub has the rarity factor.  Hard to compare the 2.  Employee sets have collectors of there own as well.

I think the point is that the concept was accepted as some people are willing to pay 200 euros for a freebie set of inferior quality. In Europe, Birds will definitely have rarity value as it seems to have gone back to sold out status.

Is a large fanbase needed? No, because there are few enough of them in circulation to make demand exceed supply and the knock on effect is that the naysayers and CUUSO completists will now also think they missed out and want one.

No minifigures? The average buyer of this type of set couldn´t care less about that and most of the highest price Lego sets also don´t have minifigs.

No licence? Again, not a deal breaker as we could see from Mars Rovero or city logging truck,

This set also has a very fair PPC and a nice, mature box design so that allows ample room for appreciation.

 

13 minutes ago, valenciaeric said:

I think the point is that the concept was accepted as some people are willing to pay 200 euros for a freebie set of inferior quality. In Europe, Birds will definitely have rarity value as it seems to have gone back to sold out status.

Is a large fanbase needed? No, because there are few enough of them in circulation to make demand exceed supply and the knock on effect is that the naysayers and CUUSO completists will now also think they missed out and want one.

No minifigures? The average buyer of this type of set couldn´t care less about that and most of the highest price Lego sets also don´t have minifigs.

No licence? Again, not a deal breaker as we could see from Mars Rovero or city logging truck,

This set also has a very fair PPC and a nice, mature box design so that allows ample room for appreciation.

Good points. And considering that people pay easily €20 for the free Christmas Train freebie set, and even more for the equally free Gingerbread House freebie set, which are distributed widely as well, I think it's not far fetched to see this very presentable bird set do well post (official) retirement.

On 21/11/2015 20:53:32, mauro23 said:

Don't worry, this is not the end of this set - it will come back...

Despite this it will make its way as nobody has really horted this set so far due to S&H limit...

http://shop.lego.com/en-DE/Birds-21301

Officially retired.

11 minutes ago, valenciaeric said:

http://shop.lego.com/en-DE/Birds-21301

Officially retired.

haha! glad I have 20 now =D  love you European guys, a lot.

I have ordered ten yesterday from S&H and they are on teh way .-)

4 minutes ago, mauro23 said:

I have ordered ten yesterday from S&H and they are on teh way .-)

Yup, they say it is coming back too so I think we need to wait and see. Good flip for Xmas in any case.

Does not officially retired mean it will never come back?

Edited November 27, 201510 yr by mauro23

No, look at ISD - it´s call to check now.

 

I think in this instance it's just a case of obtaining some additional stock (possibly retailer returns) 

12 minutes ago, Crustybeaver said:

I think in this instance it's just a case of obtaining some additional stock (possibly retailer returns) 

You could be right... If that's the case, I'll pass on other retailers as box condition on this set is critical. I'd only order from SaH if they came back or Amazon non-reseller if less than RRP. I refuse to pay >RRP for anything and never have done.

4 minutes ago, TabbyBoy said:

I refuse to pay >RRP for anything and never have done.

A very big mistake in my eyes....

Which other shops actually stocked this in Europe? Here, none.

Edited November 27, 201510 yr by valenciaeric

In Germany no one..

In US there is a seller with 16 of them at $49.99 - would the $ be not such strong as it is at the moment it would make sense to buy them and pay also duties and shipping for them... Would be still a big gain afterwards...

(Actually I've done it similar way for 100 MRs ;-) 

 

@valenciaeric: I was three years ago on honeymoon for one day in Valencia - very nice city.

Edited November 27, 201510 yr by mauro23