Hi everyone! My name is Joe, and I am probably the noobs noob to lego investing/collecting. I recently got into this after introducing my 5 year old son to my love of Star Wars. I am 32, I am

a Sailor in the US Navy (12 years now), a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and originally from Orange, CA.

I bought a set here and there and it brought back all the childhood memories of building and admiring as a kid. Plus my son loves to watch me put them together, which is a huge plus.

As I said I am totally new to this world. Currently my paltry collection only includes the 2013 Millennium Falcon, a Tie fighter, the UCS R2D2, the whole microfighters series NIB, 3x fury class interceptors, 3x desert skiffs, 2x malevolences, and a slew of mini figures from various small sets I super glued for the boy to play with.

I'm very interested in making long term investments that will serve as a sort of supplementary income. Clearly I'm a Star Wars fan, so buying sets of the theme serve a duel purpose. The investment piece is me looking ahead and having the opportunity to secure some financial wiggle room for my three youngins down the line (Holden-5, Finley-3, and Arlo-5 months)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and highly valued as I am often overwhelmed and confused by a the acronyms and terms used. (Though I shouldn't be since the Navy has an acronym for just about everything!) again, thank you for welcoming me into this incredible community. I can't wait to get rolling and am eager to learn anything anyone is willing to teach me.

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Welcome to the site and thank you for your service. The blogs and forums have some sound advice. If you have any questions just let us know.

Welcome, and above all else, thank you for your 12 years of service, it is immensely appreciated by all of us who get to enjoy the freedoms that you fight for.

 

As for advice...  Well, I myself am a noob, as I've only been collecting/investing for a little over a year now, but for what it's worth, here it goes:

 

1. Read up on the many articles posted on this site.  There's a little bit of everything, ranging from where to sell (e.***. ebay vs. amazon), what themes are likely to be profitable, how to manage/organize your Legos, etc.

 

2. Familiarize yourself with Legos in general, so you know what's popular and what's not, and you can recognize a good deal when you see one.

 

3. Use common sense and healthy skepticism when seeing listings online (such as on craigslist) that seem too good to be true.

 

4. If you're going to buy any used sets and/or bulk, unsorted Legos, make sure you understand what you're getting yourself into.  Many sets will be incomplete, dirty, and a pain to go through.  If you don't enjoy spending hours sorting, building, and taking apart these sets, it may not be worth your time.  If that's the case, invest in NISB (New In Sealed Box) sets instead.

 

5. Don't take anyone's advice, no matter how experienced they may seem, as the ultimate truth.  We're all human, we make mistakes, and ultimately, investing is a gamble.

 

6. Remember that this hobby/investment can take a lot of time (and space) that you might want to use for something else.  In other words, don't get yourself in too deep unless you really enjoy this!

 

7. Include your family as much as you can (and as much as they'd like to be involved).  If you're married, your wife may be a great partner.  Even if she isn't interested in Legos right now, be transparent with her to avoid going the way of many of our fellow Brickpickers (I won't mention names) who receive shipments at a different address or try to sneak in boxes when their wives aren't looking.  Seriously, just avoid the headache: as much as I love Legos, they aren't worth it!  And of course, as your kids become developmentally ready, they will likely love "helping" (probably more like getting in the way, but hey, Legos are TOYS after all)!

 

(Can you tell I'm studying to become a psychologist?) =)

 

Obviously, these are just a few key points I thought off the top of my head right now, so for more info, go back to my #1 point.  Good luck!

Welcome, darkside2SIX, and thank you for your service. :pogranichnik:

Hey Joe,

 

Welcome to Brickpicker, I live in Washington as well (on the Eastside,) are you up at NS Everett or over on the peninsula?  I also want to say thank you very much for your service.  There are a lot of new people on here so welcome to the club.  Heres my 2 cents, when I first started I bought everything that was on sale and even paid retail for sets I though were really cool.  DONT DO THIS.  Finding deals is incredibly addictive and I wish I had held back on some of my early "investments" until I got a better idea of whats going on.  Sometimes the best investments are the ones you don't make.

There is a saying "never pay retail" and there is a lot of truth to that, you should be buying at discounts of at least 20% most of the time, if the set is close to retirement all the better. This is not set in stone however, my best investment set I paid retail because I had no other options but this is rare.  The aforementioned discounts will most often be found at Target, Toys R US (TRU), amazon, Walmart, lego shop at home (LEGO Shop at Home), Kmart, etc and here locally at Fred Meyer and sometimes Bartell's.

What is a good investment will depend on many factors that affect the sets potential (exclusive minifigures, production timeframe, theme popularity, piece count, etc.)  Some sets at 25% are a steal while others at 50% off are a money pit. This site contains a wealth of information and in time you will learn to see what are the right deals for you.  If you want sets to play with your kids, realize that opening them causes a serious hit on their investment value, in those cases buy complete used sets that you can sell later.  I could go on and on, if you ever have any questions feel free to send me a message. Above all have fun!

Ship

Hey Joe,

 

Welcome to Brickpicker, I live in Washington as well (on the Eastside,) are you up at NS Everett or over on the peninsula?  I also want to say thank you very much for your service.  There are a lot of new people on here so welcome to the club.  Heres my 2 cents, when I first started I bought everything that was on sale and even paid retail for sets I though were really cool.  DONT DO THIS.  Finding deals is incredibly addictive and I wish I had held back on some of my early "investments" until I got a better idea of whats going on.  Sometimes the best investments are the ones you don't make.

There is a saying "never pay retail" and there is a lot of truth to that, you should be buying at discounts of at least 20% most of the time, if the set is close to retirement all the better. This is not set in stone however, my best investment set I paid retail because I had no other options but this is rare.  The aforementioned discounts will most often be found at Target, Toys R US (TRU), amazon, Walmart, lego shop at home (LEGO Shop at Home), Kmart, etc and here locally at Fred Meyer and sometimes Bartell's.

What is a good investment will depend on many factors that affect the sets potential (exclusive minifigures, production timeframe, theme popularity, piece count, etc.)  Some sets at 25% are a steal while others at 50% off are a money pit. This site contains a wealth of information and in time you will learn to see what are the right deals for you.  If you want sets to play with your kids, realize that opening them causes a serious hit on their investment value, in those cases buy complete used sets that you can sell later.  I could go on and on, if you ever have any questions feel free to send me a message. Above all have fun!

Ship

Welcome Joe. I couldn't agree more with the advise from Ship. Have fun doing it. Either your up real late or starting your day real early.

Welcome to brickpicker! Go Seahawks!!

Welcome! Star Wars is indeed almost always a safe bet for investments

Welcome! Star Wars is indeed almost always a safe bet for investments

The original trilogy is a lot better. The newer one has some dogs that never go anywhere.

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The original trilogy is a lot better. The newer one has some dogs that never go anywhere.

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Truth!

Welcome to Brickpicker!!

Welcome! Where is this sunny part of Washington state you are speaking of. :-)

I was being facetious. Lol, the sun, when it comes out, is scary! Lol

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Really cool!

I signed up at Brickset and a couple others. Really excited to get started on this journey.

And I must agree, the original trilogy is far superior to the prequels. A fact my sons and daughter are becoming fully versed in. Though I must admit, the lego series movies are pretty entertaining.

And yes I am married, my wife shares my love of Star Wars and supports my new endeavor, though she is a little weary, reading your guys' posts elevate her interest and optimism while drawing out a few giggles as well. Good times.

And I am in the Silverdale area, and work out of the Bremerton base.

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Welcome to the site.

I'm a huge star wars fan as well and gravitate that way when I'm in the lego aisle. But as others have said be careful with investing in Star Wars sets. Some are huge winners, but the clone wars / new republic sets are often overpriced and don't appreciate anything like the original trilogy ones. One term which applies here and you should use when analyzing deals is ppp (price per part). Alot of star wars sets have a high ppp (13-15 cents is common), and most other themes fall in line of 10-12 cents ppp. 

 

General rule of thumb is if its 5 cents ppp or less buy it up, as even if it isn't a winner atleast the parts are probably worth what you paid pieced out. There are exceptions though (see chima and galaxy squad). 

This may be a noob question. In fact I know it is, how does one determine a set's PPP?

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My god my iphone is going all special on me. My apologies guys.

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Divide the cost of the lego set by the number of pieces in it.  For example batcave is $70 before tax and is 689 pieces. So just over 10 cents per brick. If you're paying tax make sure you add that to the price to get an accurate ppp. 

Welcome.

 

It is only sunny in this region when I am golfing.

Whereabouts are you Red?

I feel like some of these hole in the wall toy stores may be hiding some hidden gems. Especially in the less desirable side of Bremerton, I'm pretty sure the TRU over here is one of the first ones built.

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Welcome Darkside2SIX,

I am new too, with kids, and in Washington State, thou I live in the part down in the south eastern were it is sunny most of the time.  And thanks for your service (funny, how much more thankful we become as parents, for the sacrifices our young service people make, or maybe it's me, but as a father of daughters I am so thankful to be able to raise them in a free country).

 

A few things I have learned in the last 10 days:

 

1. people here will help you if you put in a little effort

2. Out of all the places I have gone to learn, I have learned the most by far here at brickpicker.

3. I am by far not even close to being able to give advice on what to buy, but these sets seem to get good feedback

A)  10220 T1Campervan

 10211 Grand Emporium
C)  10214 Tower Bridge
D)  10225 R2D2 
E)   Possibly 10237 Tower of Orthanic

4. With my kids I am finding that I am trading or selling my old stuff for ones that I can enjoy with my girls. (they like Trains, Mindstorm, Technics and friends( they are not really into the princess Lego, but love the Princesses))

5. I plan on parting out about 10-15 sets a month (selling the figures) to get free or low cost bricks to build with. They want to make a blue, pink, and yellow train next.

?6. After surviving baseball cards, beanie babies, pong and so many more. The biggest thing I have learned is to pick one. Be a collector or be a dealer/seller (just a personal observation)

 

I hope that at least some of this will be helpful, good luck and remember

 

"A kid without Lego's, is a future trouble maker! So make sure the kids your kids play with have Lego's at any cost, you are only as strong as your weakest link, and there is nothing weaker than a child with out Lego" 

 

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