58 minutes ago, Knightwing01 said:

LEGO is really killing its self lately

I disagree, they are attempting to take care of themselves the best way they can, it’s just not good for us. 

9 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Only goes to show that the market has shifted from selling big exclusives bought at minimal discount to selling small-to-medium sized sets bought at at least 50% off. I'm still averaging over 100% ROI, and I am very small potatoes.

Good point, shipping costs are significantly less with these sets as well, you can waive signature confirmation and insurance. These two additional costs have stung me personally. I was burned selling a few larger sets on eBay, and in order to force eBay to honor their seller protection, I require signature and insurance on all packages over $150 now. 

Only problem with smaller sets is they require more labor and thus opportunity cost from my real job. I considered this strategy, but not matter how I sliced it, I just could not justify the continued investment. 

The DOW gaining 3k+ over the last 6 months made decision easier. 

1 hour ago, Bat man said:

 

I disagree, they are attempting to take care of themselves the best way they can, it’s just not good for us. 

If they are attempting to take care of themselves by making these moves, they surely missed the heck out of that mark based on the latest financial data. LEGO's profits and outlook were much better years ago when LEGO investing was very profitable. 

Down to only DKK 14.9 billion? Must be rough. Are they not still the #1 toy company in the world? I'd swear they're next after TRU with what I read.

 

5 hours ago, Phil B said:

Only goes to show that the market has shifted from selling big exclusives bought at minimal discount to selling small-to-medium sized sets bought at at least 50% off. I'm still averaging over 100% ROI, and I am very small potatoes.

This. Only been investing for a short time but well picked smaller sets bought at discount is where I'm making my money.  I'm going to clip my big box stock down to 1 of each over Xmas and reinvest in smaller sets.

Of course if everyone does that then the profits on those sets go up but at the moment there are far too many happy to flip a big exclusive for 10% profit, if that. 

I have 'cracked' as well. 

Not only due to market circumstances but also because I need to free up the money to live for me and my family.

At its peak my investment collection was at 540 sets. Now I am down to about 220 sets. 

Selling the big exclusives is harder than I thought. Eventhough I mostly only offer pick-up. My prices are very competitive. But still the market for them big exclusives seems stuck. 

I will sell almost everything. Except some sets I want to build and use for my city lay-out. Star Wars and others will have to go.

Maybe in the future, when my situation has changed for the better I will start investing again. But on a much smaller scale and smarter. Depending the market situation at that time offcourse.   

11 minutes ago, Ciglione said:

I have 'cracked' as well. 

Not only due to market circumstances but also because I need to free up the money to live for me and my family.

At its peak my investment collection was at 540 sets. Now I am down to about 220 sets. 

Selling the big exclusives is harder than I thought. Eventhough I mostly only offer pick-up. My prices are very competitive. But still the market for them big exclusives seems stuck. 

I will sell almost everything. Except some sets I want to build and use for my city lay-out. Star Wars and others will have to go.

Maybe in the future, when my situation has changed for the better I will start investing again. But on a much smaller scale and smarter. Depending the market situation at that time offcourse.   

Have you moved to to Holland?

I have also reduced my collection from 900 to 800 sets and will reduce it further... In opposite to you I will keep my UCS and D2C Star Wars sets as these sets are the best thing ever done by LEGO together with Modular Buildings... Another problem for me are my all 300 City sets from 2004 onwards. I have no place to make such a great display with all of them, so I wil have also to reduce them.... Beside this HP, Archtecture, Hobbit etc.. What to do with all of them...?

 

Regarding investment, my last big deals were as well known the Mars Rovers and DFB minifigs, after this only quickflipping Saturn 5 was profitable. So I am also out of the game buying only maximum 2 same sets for colection purpose...

 

Edited September 21, 20178 yr by mauro23

26 minutes ago, Ciglione said:

Maybe in the future, when my situation has changed for the better I will start investing again. But on a much smaller scale and smarter. Depending the market situation at that time offcourse.   

Or you could do what I'm doing, which is smaller scale and not very smart. Anybody want 75150s?

I think it also really depends on what your intention was when you got into this 'game'. People who climbed on the "Lego Investing" wagon desiring > 100% profit (ROI) at the very least are now getting disappointed and turning away to other possibly more profitable endeavours. On the other hand for people who see Lego more as a hobby (for building and collecting), and selling some extra sets on the side to partly finance purchases for their own collections, have no reason to 'jump ship'. Sure, the days of "easy money" with Lego sets that automatically rose sharply in value over time are over. But it's still possible to find good discounted sets and sell them again at a 50% or better profit after a while. 

For me Lego itself is an investment to spent some of my bitcoin profit on (diversifying). I think the game just change from short term to long term and I'm ready for that.

Edited September 21, 20178 yr by Legojona

4 hours ago, mauro23 said:

Beside this HP, Archtecture, Hobbit etc.. What to do with all of them...?

I'll PM you my address.  We can negotiate the shipping.

Why couldn't the toilet paper cross the road?

It kept getting stuck in the cracks.

1 hour ago, KShine said:

Why couldn't the toilet paper cross the road?

It kept getting stuck in the cracks.

I have people in my family that use toilet paper, so I find this very offensive. Please refrain from jokes that can hurt people!

10 hours ago, emmers said:

If they are attempting to take care of themselves by making these moves, they surely missed the heck out of that mark based on the latest financial data. LEGO's profits and outlook were much better years ago when LEGO investing was very profitable. 

Changes take time to reflect in markets. They’ve been bleeding due to bogus bricks and other IP infringers, let’s wait and see their financials in 1qtr and 2qtr FY18

Edited September 21, 20178 yr by Bat man

6 hours ago, Ciglione said:

I have 'cracked' as well. 

Not only due to market circumstances but also because I need to free up the money to live for me and my family.

At its peak my investment collection was at 540 sets. Now I am down to about 220 sets. 

Selling the big exclusives is harder than I thought. Eventhough I mostly only offer pick-up. My prices are very competitive. But still the market for them big exclusives seems stuck. 

I will sell almost everything. Except some sets I want to build and use for my city lay-out. Star Wars and others will have to go.

Maybe in the future, when my situation has changed for the better I will start investing again. But on a much smaller scale and smarter. Depending the market situation at that time offcourse.   

A lot of opportunity for those big sets if you’re willing to ship to Mid East and USSR land. Just make sure you insure and don’t do direct ship, make them use intermediary. 

5 hours ago, Haay said:

I think it also really depends on what your intention was when you got into this 'game'. People who climbed on the "Lego Investing" wagon desiring > 100% profit (ROI) at the very least are now getting disappointed and turning away to other possibly more profitable endeavours. On the other hand for people who see Lego more as a hobby (for building and collecting), and selling some extra sets on the side to partly finance purchases for their own collections, have no reason to 'jump ship'. Sure, the days of "easy money" with Lego sets that automatically rose sharply in value over time are over. But it's still possible to find good discounted sets and sell them again at a 50% or better profit after a while. 

While I agree, I think it’s much easier being an enthusiast when I don’t have to worry about selling X number of sets Just to pay for one I just bought. It’s just not worth my time, I’ll buy the sets that I like and just roll it into my discretionary budget. 

16 hours ago, Phil B said:

That will be one epic estate sale .....

This is Elkkthunder outside Emazers gaff, waiting for the moment he can hit the estate sale

I'm also reducing the amount of sets in my collection. Haven't bought extras in some time now. Even if I wanted to keep some of them long-term they take up too much space. Mediocre and non-essential sets are getting weeded out as most stuff will come back in a similar set anyway.

I'm glad I saw the writing on the wall 10 months ago and stopped buying when I did. It really is game over and I made the right choice by moving onto other things. The killers for me in order were...

1. eBay fees and scams.

2. Big discounts at retailers devaluing the brand.

3. Too many crap and repeated sets and themes.

4. Lack of innovation and originality.

5. Buyers getting more savvy.

6. MASSIVE drop in quality of manufacturing (thanks to China!).

I don't think knock-offs are a factor at all as any genuine collector won't settle for anything less.

Will I buy a 75192? No way unless it's 50% off!

 

For those of you liquidating large amounts of sets very quickly, what method are you using?  eBay?  Craigslist?  I just don't have the time to package and ship everything these days but I have a storage unit I wouldn't mind freeing up a bit.

Large volume quickly only works with FBA or a fire sale. EBay volume will pick up during the holidays but that's a lot of time spent packing and shipping.

1 hour ago, TabbyBoy said:

I don't think knock-offs are a factor at all as any genuine collector won't settle for anything less.

 

 

Considering how many knock-off items have sold on eBay and Amazon, knock-offs are a factor.

2 hours ago, Jackson said:

Considering how many knock-off items have sold on eBay and Amazon, knock-offs are a factor.

There are lots of things that are wrong nowadays, but I still insist that knock-offs do not hurt the sellers of rare LEGO very much (true collectors have never accepted fakes, and they never will).

The fakes do hurt LEGO the company, and they also hurt the flippers of non rare minifigs.

Basically, if your customer is someone who considers their purchase to be a disposable item, then yes you might be affected by the fakes.

I stopped buying for investment purposes about 2 years ago.  I have been slowly selling since.  Selling is so much funner than buying, but it's just something you lack a lot of control over.  This season will be very telling for the resale market.  I do think the hold times on these sets are going to be more extended than I thought to make a decent profit.  I'm not in a rush though.  

We are divesting as well. Have only purchased a few hundred dollars in Lego sets in 2017 and not planning on anymore. Too small profits for too large a risk for us. Lego is losing relevancy (kids simply don't play with toys these days like they used to) and the brand is not collectible like it was 5 years ago for adults. Slowly selling off our 2013 - 2016 stash over the next 3-4 years. Actually thinking of going back to ebay, bricklink and brickowl to sell some of the stash as alot of our sets are now suppressed in search on the Amazon platform which is killing the sales rank (guessing the keywords are over the 250 character limit and good luck getting the retail team to change that within the next decade lol). Really enjoyed selling Lego and it did enable us to get where we are today selling online (it initially opened the door to Amazon and that has been life changing) but nothing lasts forever and we know when to fold them. It will be interesting to see where this brand lands in 10 years.