Hi guys, I stumbled across this website just recently and can't get off it. I had been sold on the idea of investing in Lego long ago but never really did anything about it. Since reading some of the articles and content, I am going to give it a go. My dream isn't to make millions but rather to finance my Lego Star Wars addiction by buying a few sets per month to squirrel away until they become profitable.

I was wondering if anyone else invests for this purpose and how they have found the experience?

 

Lego investing is such a misnomer. Lego reselling is what is really is. If you want to get into it there is money to be made. It's not easy though.  

Welcome to the site. 

Yep, you want to wait until just before retirement and buy at a discount, wait until the set starts to fizzle out and then sell. Use the profit’s to buy more sets.

your main limiting factor will be space to store it all. Expecially as you are from the uk. Our small houses aren’t the best for spare space.

The only scary thing I am thinking of right now is about the commissions from places like Bricklink, Amazon, Ebay etc. and I suppose trying to compete with the sellers from the US who seem to post cheaper prices. 

My plan is to be patient, buy nearly retired sets at the discounted prices of 20-30%+ where possible then sell them on some platform. It's the reselling that will be stepping into the unknown for me. 

The only scary thing I am thinking of right now is about the commissions from places like Bricklink, Amazon, Ebay etc. and I suppose trying to compete with the sellers from the US who seem to post cheaper prices. 
My plan is to be patient, buy nearly retired sets at the discounted prices of 20-30%+ where possible then sell them on some platform. It's the reselling that will be stepping into the unknown for me. 

Amazon is closed unless you already sold Lego there. Change 20-30% to 50-70% on sets you believe in and you'll do fine. But start selling for practice as soon as you can. Buy yourself something during the 60th promo and flip the promo on eBay to gain some experience (just an example, but start selling to practice and figure out first hand how shipping/fees work).

48 minutes ago, RonBurgundy45 said:

The only scary thing I am thinking of right now is about the commissions

You might want to increase the number of things that might be scary to think about. There are several key factors to this game many people overlook at the start: fees, shipping, storage space, time and effort spent, research and timing, etc... You might want to take some time to really define what you mean by "profitability" and make a plan that follows that path.  

Also, for anything you do end up building for pleasure and are willing to part with later, keep everything neat for optimal resale down the road.

I appreciate the advice thanks guys!

The fees and shipping are definite concerns of mine due to inexperience. I have never done it before. I love research and number crunching so coupled with Lego this is right up my street. My main aim initially would be profitable enough to buy the sets I want and break even. I like the idea of the 'business' being a hobby. 

I am a little fixated with the SW theme because I have collected the sets for many years (all kept with pristine boxes, all pieces and instructions) but are there any themes you would recommend for the purposes of reselling? I had been looking at Speed Champions and Marvel. Themes such as City scare me because it's so generic and the latest set may be more desirable to customers. 

Don't disregard City. Some of my best success stories have come from that theme. You just need to know what to look for, which you will develop a sense for over time. Good luck, and welcome to the site!

Welcome to the site, I've been at this a couple of months and trying to build up an inventory. I started with a budget of £1000 and ended up getting carried away in the sales and spending nearly £1500. 

I've been reselling (not Lego) on ebay for 6 months and just hit top seller and I've not sold a single set on ebay yet, all I've been able to do is to sell some quick flip sets on Facebook Market place. It's much tougher than I thought, I'm not a very patient person either so that doesn't help.

Good luck with it, you seem to be doing a lot of research so I'm sure you'll do well.

 

.

Welcome to the site, @RonBurgundy45. 

I myself started here late 2015 and my main motivation at that time was to get a better return on my savings than what the bank is giving me on interest. With a current interest rate of less than 0.1% it's not really hard to beat that, though you do have to take into account the extra effort it takes to store sets, keep track of price developments, list sets on sale-platforms, package and drop off at parcel stations, handle potential issues with damaged or lost parcels in the mail... 

In case you hadn't started yet: keep records in an Excel sheet (or something similar, whatever works for you) and note per set you bought the LEGO RRP, your purchase price (this shows discounts on RRP you've achieved), date (at the last the year) of purchase, your target selling price. I also keep track of the dates (month/year) when the set was first introduced and when the set was officially retired. And I note where I bought the set (which webshop, physical store, etc).

Good luck!  

Welcome fellow Brit ;-)

I've been doing this since 2013 and, for me, it seems to have moved on from investing to arbitrage. To be honest, you'll need huge discounts of over 50% if you want to compete these days. Also, make sure you have a lot of inexpensive and safe storage space as you're going to need a lot of it as I found storage more difficult than funding. The most important thing is to keep all receipts and keep records of what you buy/sell along with any expenses and mileage. Profit HAS to be declared unfortunately.

Try to build up a local network if you can as word-of-mouth spreads quickly and it's great to get all those emails and ohonecalls just before Xmas! ;-) and the best thing is not having to pay around 15% in fees!

Good luck!

Welcome !! I also sell to fund my collection/addiction/hobby. 

The storage issue begins to be a thing when the wife does not like seeing Lego sets being stored in every closet, under the bed, garage, attic, under kids train table, every nook and cranny and where ever else you can be creative in hiding it from her =)

 

 Welcome to the site.  I sold my old/used Star Wars sets back in 2012 when I decided I did not want to move them.  I ended up moving two times in a thirty day period, so it turned out to be a wise decision at the time.  I picked up collecting Lego sets again in May 2013 when a Lego Store in my area first opened and I had my wife and I standing in line to get the grand opening set.  Some themes do better than others and trying to get sets you think will do well at fifty percent off or greater is the way to go these days. In regards to storage you will want to have space to store sets. I lucked out in the house I live in and have a room in the basement that was a workbench area with built in storage shelves.  I use this for storing Lego sets I plan to sell in the future.  A good way to start collecting/investing would be to wait until January 28th to buy sets you want to collect and/or invest in and get the 60th Anniversary set as an additional investment set.

Again, thanks so much for all your replies. I am well prepared to be very patient and wouldn't be overly worried not being able to sell sets quickly or in a very short time frame. I see the value of waiting maybe 2/3 years for nice price rises on some sets judging by the Star Wars price data I have viewed on sites like Brick Link and Brick Picker. 

I regularly check the sales prices of all UK stores (daily atm) but I have found that 50%+ is a tricky one to come across at the minute for small, medium or large sets. I wasn't paying as much attention to prices around Black Friday and post Christmas, but i'm sure there were some good savings, but maybe not as much as 50% for sets I liked. 50% off is usually when I make an impulse buy for my building collection. I bought the MF from the Lego store using their sale and a cash back site which got me a deal that I thought was really good but it was closer to 30% off. 

At the minute I have nothing invested, my spare room primed for storage and I am poised to buy when the planets align... thanks for the heads up on the 60th anniversary. My last anniversary set (White Boba Fett Poly Bag 30th anniversary - still sealed ?) has appreciated very nicely since my paltry £5ish investment many years ago. 

 

Welcome to the site, RonBurgundy45.