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When the Saturn V rocket Lego set came out a few years ago, I decided to try this "Lego collector" market. I bought and built (and now proudly display) one set,
by mabbo 8y ago
When the Saturn V rocket Lego set came out a few years ago, I decided to try this "Lego collector" market. I bought and built (and now proudly display) one set, then bought and stored another in the back of a closet, inside the shipping box. Perfect condition, I figured, for when they stop selling it and it skyrockets in value.
They didn't stop selling it. I think they never will. I'm going to be storing this enormous box of Lego forever.
Still an amazing Lego set.
- fouronnes3 8y agoI have an unopened one as well. Currently I'm weighting the utility I would get from building it versus a 11% monetary gain...
- watmough 8y agoYes, I just built this from a set received for my birthday. It's a great set! Highly recommended. However, I already had one, as I like to try and 'hold' a copy of any sets that I think are special. I tend to collect what I like, mainly Lego Technic, but I think my most valuable set right now is the big Star Wars AT-AT walker, but I have one of the older Ferrari F1 cars, the big Technic crane 42009, etc.
- samastur 8y agoThey will, don't worry :P It just takes longer for some sets than others. It's not like Disney, where you'd get a year and then into a vault for 7.
- avar 8y agoI did the same. I think you're overly pessimistic so early on. It was released less than 2 years ago, and while I read somewhere (but may be wrong) that the regular production run of LEGO IDEAS sets is 1 year they'll likely stop manufacturing sooner than later, like their other sets. I bought a few with the idea of keeping them until 2069.
- pattle 8y agoI'm not sure if you're joking or not but 50 years is a long time to store them, how are you planning on keeping them in good condition?
- icebraining 8y agoLego doesn't seem hard to store, I have 40 year old pieces that were just left unused in a drawer, and they look as good as new.
- pattle 8y agoI was more thinking the box itself. For example just leaving it on a shelf will damage the box from rubbing caused by small vibrations
- loolatrix 8y agoJust keep it dry and away from sun light. I stored one set of each the current Millennium Falcon and the Saturn V inside their delivery boxes in two layers of pond liner, added several bags of drying granulate, put it all in wooden boxes, and keep them in the dry attic.
- williamdclt 8y ago> Just keep it dry and away from sun light > inside their delivery boxes [...] two layers of pond liner [...] several bags of drying granulate [...] wooden boxes [...] in the dry attic hackernews definition of "just" :)
- RugnirViking 8y agoTo be fair we are talking about a years-long investment. There's nothing 'get rich quick' about this.
- blattimwind 8y ago
- PurpleRamen 8y agoThey released it 18 Months ago, usually they sell those Ideas-Sets for 2 Years. Which means starting this summer the prices should starting to rise.
- ckdarby 8y agoThank you for clarifying the timeframe. I read original OP's question and thought he had been sitting on the lego for like +10 years.
- mabbo 8y agoAccording to my wife, it's been taking up closet space for at least a decade. Still, I'll be interested to see if you're right and it vanishes from the shelves in 6 months!
- unclebucknasty 8y ago>According to my wife, it's been taking up closet space for at least a decade. Our wives must use a shared Gmail calendar.
- rconti 8y agoIt may have already vanished from your shelf.
- ticmasta 8y agoYou can't "collect" something that has an artificial limit on production, like lego, beanie babies, disney movies, etc. If demand warrants the manufacturer will just start pumping out more identical sets, like Lego is doing with their Harry Potter sets. The only true collectible has to have some sort of natural limiting factor, like made in a specific year, or serial number sequence.
- gowld 8y agoThe collector's market is far smaller than the consumption market. If LEGO sells a million rocket models to kids and AFOLs, but 10K people are messing around in the collector's market, they aren't going to reissue the rocket. They are going to issue a new model for a current fad and sell a million more. Harry Potter LEGO sets have a long life because Harry Potter has sustained popularity -- but even so, LEGO would rather issue N different sets, so LEGO fans buy multiples, than try to see N times as many copies of one set, since most consumers won't buy duplicates.
- post_break 8y agoI should have done this with the Shuttle set. I just couldn't afford to buy two at the time.
- loolatrix 8y agoGive it a moment. The 2015 Doctor Who LEGO Ideas set for instance was retired after a bit less than 2 years and is rising in value already. I'm pretty sure, the Saturn V will be retired this year, after the Apollo 11 anniversary.
- bhouston 8y agoThe only issue is there are high fidelity clone sets available from China for all the great old sets. This reduces the market for old perserved sets. Look at AliExpress and Lego, there are 10s of thousands of sales across hundreds of vendors
- jedberg 8y agoSomeone gave me one of those. They aren’t as high fedlity as you think. They don’t stick as well because they don’t have the same precision.
- gowld 8y agoNo one who would consider paying 5x retail for a LEGO set would be happy with a junky knock-off.
- bena 8y agoNo there aren't any "high fidelity clone sets". Lepin, the Chinese Lego clone, isn't anywhere near Lego quality. Hell, even the American building brick competitors aren't as good. You can tell Lego from any of the competitors by feel. By the way they don't hold together as well, etc.
- kart23 8y agoJust wait on it. My mom bought me a lego ferrari f40 a couple years ago for 100$, it's now going for 200 sealed on ebay. All of the old lego ferrari and Lamborghini sets are going for insane prices now as well.
- gowld 8y agoIs it that hard to enjoy the toy (or give it to someone who will) and spend some time in the next few years to do something productive to earn $100?
- zachrose 8y agoLast time I checked eBay and did the math, a first gen iPhone new in box has appreciated something like 14% year over year for over a decade.
- irrational 8y agoYou would have better luck with the Christmas lego sets. Those really are only printed for 2 seasons (at least so far, Lego could always change it of course).
- CodeTheInternet 8y agoBeing originally from Chicago, I remember when the Sears Tower was in the process of the name change to Willis Tower. There was a Lego kit to make the Sears Tower (marked as such) and it was re-released with the Willis Tower naming. I believe we paid $19.99. We bought it purely for nostalgia purposes and keep it on the shelf unopened. This article caused me to look into the kit. According to BrickLink[0], the average selling price is $148.83 One sold this month for $193 [0]: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=21000-1#T=P https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=2100...
- vlaak 8y agoI didn't know this existed until I read your post. Now I have it on the way. I can't wait to build it! Thanks mabbo!
- T-A 8y agoIs it the one with 1969 (!) pieces? According to the article, "sets with a relatively few pieces, up to 113, returned 22 percent per year, almost 16 percentage points more than the group with about 860 bricks in each".
- uptown 8y agoJust finished building that set with my son. It was a really fun one to build. Printed lettering on the pieces versus the usual stickers was a nice touch.