5 ms·

You can't "collect" something that has an artificial limit on production, like lego, beanie babies, disney movies, etc. If demand warrants the manufacturer wil

You 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 ago
The 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.
- oska 8y ago
  > Harry Potter LEGO sets have a long life because Harry Potter has sustained popularity Really doubt it. JK Rowling is the Enid Blyton of our time. How many kids read Enid Blyton now?
  - gbear605 8y ago
    Harry Potter has already had a sustained popularity, compared with many other popular young adult/childrens series.
    - oska 8y ago
      Enid Blyton sustained an extremely high level of popularity [1] through three decades (the 40s, 50s and 60s) which only started to decline in the 70s. So 30 years against Rowling's 20 years so far. But again, very few children read Blyton's books now. I think it is too early to say that Rowling will enjoy a sustained popularity and it is my personal opinion that she won't. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton#Commercial_success https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton#Commercial_success
      - kuschku 8y ago
        Enid Blytons’s books are still so successful that in Germany, the publishers decided to have other authors continue her stories, and so far they’re still continuing and publishing new books, recording new audio books, and even filming new movies to this day. With unbroken popularity. "The Twins at St. Clare's", in Germany known as "Hanni und Nanni" is so popular, the movies in 2010, 2012 and 2013 were some of the most popular German movies at the time, and the reboot in 2017 also was extremely popular. And even in Britain, another author continued the "Twins at St. Clare’s" book series into the 2000s. So, if Rowling does equally well, and her works are also continued by other authors after her death, we’ll have decades of new Potter movies and books ahead of us. The Fantastic Beasts trilogy is already a taste of what’s to come.
pbhjpbhj 8y ago
>If demand warrants the manufacturer will just start pumping out more identical sets // Collectors often aren't that rational and will value otherwise [functionally] identical sets much higher simply because they were released previously.

gowld 8y ago

The 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.

oska 8y ago
> Harry Potter LEGO sets have a long life because Harry Potter has sustained popularity Really doubt it. JK Rowling is the Enid Blyton of our time. How many kids read Enid Blyton now?
- gbear605 8y ago
  Harry Potter has already had a sustained popularity, compared with many other popular young adult/childrens series.
  - oska 8y ago
    Enid Blyton sustained an extremely high level of popularity [1] through three decades (the 40s, 50s and 60s) which only started to decline in the 70s. So 30 years against Rowling's 20 years so far. But again, very few children read Blyton's books now. I think it is too early to say that Rowling will enjoy a sustained popularity and it is my personal opinion that she won't. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton#Commercial_success https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton#Commercial_success
    - kuschku 8y ago
      Enid Blytons’s books are still so successful that in Germany, the publishers decided to have other authors continue her stories, and so far they’re still continuing and publishing new books, recording new audio books, and even filming new movies to this day. With unbroken popularity. "The Twins at St. Clare's", in Germany known as "Hanni und Nanni" is so popular, the movies in 2010, 2012 and 2013 were some of the most popular German movies at the time, and the reboot in 2017 also was extremely popular. And even in Britain, another author continued the "Twins at St. Clare’s" book series into the 2000s. So, if Rowling does equally well, and her works are also continued by other authors after her death, we’ll have decades of new Potter movies and books ahead of us. The Fantastic Beasts trilogy is already a taste of what’s to come.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago

>If demand warrants the manufacturer will just start pumping out more identical sets // Collectors often aren't that rational and will value otherwise [functionally] identical sets much higher simply because they were released previously.