We all know the benefits of large sets in our collections, large sets are winners, they are the most sought after, the most rare, the most memorable, and the ones most easily passed on because people may not have the money at a given point in time. They have the added benefit of increasing sale amounts which gets you more money for less time spent selling. 

 

In reviewing many of the members with large collections on here (~$50,000+) it seems that a lot of their inventories are in smaller sets (under $75 msrp) and many with really small sets (under $40 msrp). I am curious why there is such disparity between the sets we talk about and want to invest in, and the ones we actually wind up getting. If you went on here and said I want to invest in sets that average less than $50 retail, we would pretty universally try to advise them to look into more expensive sets if they had the funds. Looking at Ed's collection (not picking on him, just using an example as his about on par with a lot of the large collections I see) his average set size is 177 pieces, now, even if half of his sets are CFM's, that still puts his average set at about 350 pieces. Many others here talk of having thousands of sets in their inventory (and have the photos to back them up!) but it seems that like Ed, they hoard a lot of small ones as well.

 

Personally, my collection is microscopic, about $13k in total retail inventory, but I only have 110 sets. This comes to an average of about $120 per set, and each time I look at my collection, I groan and think, "why did I buy all these small sets!" I have to list and ship each of them someday and the thought of doing that is kind of tedious. At the same time, I wonder if I should be putting more money in the small ones since I may be missing something big by just getting the high dollar sets. However, it doesn't seem that there is a problem with getting enough diversity if you only bought expensive sets. Currently, we have...

 

$499 - Death Star

$399 - SSD

$320 - Opera House

$250 - Sea Cow

$250 - Ewok Village

$240 - Tower Bridge

$220 - Mobile Crane

$200 - X Wing

$200 - Orthanc

$200 - Simpsons

$200 - Town Hall 

$200 - Technic 4x4

$180 - Cargo Train

$180 - Haunted House

$180 - R2 D2

$160 - Parisian Restaurant

$160 - Arkham Asylum

$150 - Maersk Triple E

$150 - Palace Cinema

$150 - Pet Shop

$150 - Grand Emporium

$140 - Millennium Falcon

$140 - Logging Truck

$130 - Horizon Express

$130 - Passenger Train

$130 - Technic F1 Racer

$130 - Service Truck

$120 - Camper Van

$120 - Jabba's Sail Barge

$120 - Jabba's Palace

$120 - Republic Gun Ship

$120 - Malevolence 

$120 - Town Square

$120 - Technic Helicoptor

 

This sums up the sets that are over $120, buying just one of each costs over $6000, even if you bought just 2/3rds of these, it would cost $4,000. We all know that you can make money off any number the these large sets, people get 50+ sometimes. You can drop your minimum price down to $80 and probably double this list if you want too. All this to say, I don't know if you NEED to buy small sets to be diverse. 

 

So, why do we get small sets? They take a lot of time to inventory and sell, maybe I am missing something here, I'd like to know where the value in them lies. Please let me know, a lot of people who are wiser and more experienced than myself are buying them. 

There are a few on this site(that I know of) that have quite a bit more than me...and with much larger sets as well.

Whats bigger than 10189? I see that one is your collection.

Whats bigger than 10189? I see that one is your collection.

I mean my average set size is not as large as many on the site. I have many smaller sets mixed in. I buy many small sets because I'm an avid collector as well as investor, so I don't always think about ROI when making a purchase. A good example of this was my Atlantis collection. I knew they weren't great investments at the time, yet I wanted to build them, so I bought the whole theme.

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Ok got it, I was going to say, having 10189 and 10179, you aren't lacking in large sets, but your average set size is a bit small. I am ordering a bunch of barrel escapes here so that should bring down my average a bit as well.