Investing and Reselling LEGO - A Guide

[muk]

I love Lego, but I’ve always been drawn more towards their oldschool original themes (Castle, Pirates, Space, Expedition, City, Bionicle) than the big franchise collaborations.

Lego Star Wars and Harry Potter ARE unquestionably awesome and absolutely a big part of my childhood, but the old pirate ships, castles, forestmen forts and space station railways with their simple mechanisms and minimalistic (at times clunky) aesthetics are what really give me that deeeep nostalgia kick.

The investment focus seems to be heavily on the modern franchise collab side right now, but for me personally, no Super Mario collab will ever come remotely close to the ingenuity of these original themes that made Lego what it is today.

[brendantheclayboy]

That and the classic police station. Absolutely love this, but hate E4 yet again for tempting me to go buy a box just for kicks and trips. This is why E4 sucks, in the same way that Primus sucks.

[thedude1990]

@youngbambino,very interesting read. I’m not really into LEGO but my wife is. Regardless, I always love learning about other collectables so I do have some questions for you.

What would you say is the holy grail for LEGO? And what are your thoughts on Nanoblock Pokémon sets?

[scarecrowman88]

@thedude1990

What would you say is the holy grail for LEGO?

There is not one unifying grail item in Lego like in Pokemon (Charizard) or MtG (Black lotus). Grail sets will be an individual preference based on age and nostalgia. For some it is classic space sets or the black sea barracuda, for me it is probably some of the castle sets from the 90’s. A modern contender is the UCS millennium falcon.

[zorloth]

@muk , oh man I wish they made more sets like that now. I love Lego Star Wars and City, but I would really also love to build some sets like those.

I have a related question about Lego (I built tons of Lego as a kid and I still build Lego sets on occasion, but I know next to nothing about the market or the hobby):

There are some really cool sets out there that aren’t in print and cost a lot to buy sealed on the secondary market. Is there a more cost-efficient way to build these sets than buying a sealed box off the secondary market and opening it? Like, if I want a 1st Ed. Gym Heroes Blaine’s Arcanine, I don’t open 1st Ed. Gym Heroes packs to get it. I just buy the card. I know there are many differences with Lego (i.e., non-randomized contents), but is there an easy and more cost-efficient way to build these older sets? Like, is it common for people to sell complete part sets or is there some other option I haven’t thought of? I don’t care about the box or anything like that.

[justmatt]

This just made me buy a lego fortress set for my bothers birthday at the end of the month. We used to play with it all day in 95/96

[pokemontrainerdutch]

Lego investing is quite interesting to me. Although the roi’s don’t seem as good as grading cards or am I wrong here?

[kpod]

@muk

I love Lego, but I’ve always been drawn more towards their oldschool original themes (Castle, Pirates, Space, Expedition, City, Bionicle) than the big franchise collaborations.

Lego Star Wars and Harry Potter ARE unquestionably awesome and absolutely a big part of my childhood, but the old pirate ships, castles, forestmen forts and space station railways with their simple mechanisms and minimalistic (at times clunky) aesthetics are what really give me that deeeep nostalgia kick.

The investment focus seems to be heavily on the modern franchise collab side right now, but for me personally, no Super Mario collab will ever come remotely close to the ingenuity of these original themes that made Lego what it is today.

This post really brought back the memories. My favorite sets were from the 80s/90s/early 2000s. Mainly castle, pirate, space, and the underwater sets. I may just need to head over to eBay and check out some pricing…

[zorloth]

So I’m confused about something: let’s say I wanted to build this (easy example since it has very few parts). If I wanted to buy it used, I’d be paying $2. But if I purchased all of the parts individually, it looks like it would only cost like 15 cents? I understand that I might have to buy parts from various sellers and purchase a bunch of other parts for other sets at the same time to meet minimum order prices, but am I understanding correctly that it would cost <25 cents to build it? I was under the impression from the OP that the aggregate value of the parts typically is higher than the complete set. But it looks like it might be potentially cheaper to buy all of the loose of parts for a bunch of different sets at once? Am I missing something? Sorry for the noob questions lol. I’m just trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to build a bunch of sets.

[youngbambino]

@justinmew, I personally am not a huge fan of those sets, I think that LEGO has overvalued integrating technology like that into their products in the past and this seems to be another example of that. I think the sets would be significantly more popular if they were to traditional minifigure scale and not the big figs. That being said it is hard to bet against the Nintendo/Mario IP and I wish the theme success so we get more crossover sets for years to come.

@muk, those are beautiful sets, and even though they are before my time I can still appreciate them for how innovative they were at the time. The monorail especially is a favorite of mine. If I were to purely collect a sealed set it would be something more classic like those because the built and displayed appearance is not nearly as stunning as some of the more modern sets but the box art is incredible. #graphicdesignismypassion

@brendantheclayboy, nothing wrong with inspiring a new hobby, glad you found it so cool you want to take a closer look!

@thedude1990, There are an amazing number of couples who use it as a way to spend quality time together. I think it is a little harder pinning down the 1st ed Charizard or Illustrator of the LEGO world like @scarecrowman88 said. Historically I would say the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon (Original from 2007) would be the holy grail because it was the most expensive set for a long time and appealed to such a large audience. For minifigures I would say it is a Mr. Gold from series 10. Only 5000 were produced so it is very rare. With that being said, I think you could consider a lot of things a holy grail. There are many other rare sets and minifigures such as those released at comic con, or even a sealed copy of any of the sets a couple of posts above yours might be considered a holy grail. But it really is an individual preference.

@justmatt, That’s awesome, you should post pictures of the unwrapping if you can!

@pokemontrainerdutch, There are many different factors so it’s hard to make a 1:1 comparison, yes there is a larger margin grading a $20 card for $10 and selling it for $200 but that is becoming far less replicable by the day. What LEGO investing does have is the ability to easily replicate. You can purchase multiple copies of a set for a large period of time and it is widely accessible so it may be attractive to many different kinds of people. I think the growth that cards have seen in the past year has been incredible and I have also benefitted greatly, but there is nothing wrong with diversifying.

@zorloth, It looks like you started to answer your own question before I could respond so good on you for that. You are right, buying used and “parting out” (or in this case piecing together) a set may be a more cost effective method. I see where your confusion lies and perhaps I will edit the main post later but let me do my best to explain here. A part out value does act like a glass ceiling for many sealed sets and it helps draw prices upward but that is mostly for new pieces. However, in more extreme cases such as your example, the uniqueness of the pieces in the set is so abysmal that they are hardly worth anything (the pieces appear in many different sets and therefore are more commonly obtained). The other major factor is buying used parts. Used pieces are a fraction of the price as new ones. When I enter that set number, 3219, into the part out value box and search for new pieces the last 6 months sales data is $4.73, when I do the same for used it is $.79. I think that price would be a more accurate one than the $.25 you had mentioned without factoring in things like shipping. You are definitely on the right path comparing used complete set prices to part out values. The other thing you can do on bricklink is click the part out button below “My Wanted List” on this page: www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=3219-1#T=P That will allow you to add all the parts you are needing to buy from a set and bricklink’s algorithm will check for sellers who have the majority of pieces on your list and try to optimize your orders. Let me know if there is more I can clear up or elaborate on.

[zorloth]

@youngbambino

@zorloth , It looks like you started to answer your own question before I could respond so good on you for that. You are right, buying used and “parting out” (or in this case piecing together) a set may be a more cost effective method. I see where your confusion lies and perhaps I will edit the main post later but let me do my best to explain here. A part out value does act like a glass ceiling for many sealed sets and it helps draw prices upward but that is mostly for new pieces. However, in more extreme cases such as your example, the uniqueness of the pieces in the set is so abysmal that they are hardly worth anything (the pieces appear in many different sets and therefore are more commonly obtained). The other major factor is buying used parts. Used pieces are a fraction of the price as new ones. When I enter that set number, 3219, into the part out value box and search for new pieces the last 6 months sales data is $4.73, when I do the same for used it is $.79. I think that price would be a more accurate one than the $.25 you had mentioned without factoring in things like shipping. You are definitely on the right path comparing used complete set prices to part out values. The other thing you can do on bricklink is click the part out button below “My Wanted List” on this page: www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=3219-1#T=P That will allow you to add all the parts you are needing to buy from a set and bricklink’s algorithm will check for sellers who have the majority of pieces on your list and try to optimize your orders. Let me know if there is more I can clear up or elaborate on.

Super helpful answer; thank you!

So as it relates to building some of these OOP Star Wars sets in the most cost-effective way, do you think it’s best to do the “piecing together” strategy? Basically: if you were personally going to do this, is that how you’d go about it? If not, what would be your approach?

And that want list feature sounds very useful; thanks! I’ll try that out.

One other question: does anyone actually buy the older sealed sets in order to open and build them? I ask because it seems so…expensive relative to what you get. For instance: Jabba’s Message #4475 (which is long OOP, it seems) had an MSRP of $7. Now, a sealed set of it is like $50. It seems like very poor “bang for your buck.” Are the people buying these sorts of things sealed collectors (or investors?) or people actually wanting to build the set?

[youngbambino]

@zorloth

@youngbambino

@zorloth , It looks like you started to answer your own question before I could respond so good on you for that. You are right, buying used and “parting out” (or in this case piecing together) a set may be a more cost effective method. I see where your confusion lies and perhaps I will edit the main post later but let me do my best to explain here. A part out value does act like a glass ceiling for many sealed sets and it helps draw prices upward but that is mostly for new pieces. However, in more extreme cases such as your example, the uniqueness of the pieces in the set is so abysmal that they are hardly worth anything (the pieces appear in many different sets and therefore are more commonly obtained). The other major factor is buying used parts. Used pieces are a fraction of the price as new ones. When I enter that set number, 3219, into the part out value box and search for new pieces the last 6 months sales data is $4.73, when I do the same for used it is $.79. I think that price would be a more accurate one than the $.25 you had mentioned without factoring in things like shipping. You are definitely on the right path comparing used complete set prices to part out values. The other thing you can do on bricklink is click the part out button below “My Wanted List” on this page: www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=3219-1#T=P That will allow you to add all the parts you are needing to buy from a set and bricklink’s algorithm will check for sellers who have the majority of pieces on your list and try to optimize your orders. Let me know if there is more I can clear up or elaborate on.

Super helpful answer; thank you!

So as it relates to building some of these OOP Star Wars sets in the most cost-effective way, do you think it’s best to do the “piecing together” strategy? Basically: if you were personally going to do this, is that how you’d go about it? If not, what would be your approach?

And that want list feature sounds very useful; thanks! I’ll try that out.

One other question: does anyone actually buy the older sealed sets in order to open and build them? I ask because it seems so…expensive relative to what you get. For instance: Jabba’s Message #4475 (which is long OOP, it seems) had an MSRP of $7. Now, a sealed set of it is like $50. It seems like very poor “bang for your buck.” Are the people buying these sorts of things sealed collectors (or investors?) or people actually wanting to build the set?

Yes, I would utilize BrickLinks want list feature and create 2 lists: one with complete used sets and the other other with an aggregate of all the pieces you would need to build those same sets. Then let it do its magic and see what your cost basis would be each way and compare them. I think that you will probably find it makes more sense to buy used complete once you factor in shipping and any other fees sellers decide to charge. Don’t forget to search the set numbers on eBay and see if people have lots with the sets you are after in them. You can always do the Pokemon classic of keeping what you want and selling off the rest to fund your collection.

Looking up that set it appears that it is the only set that particular minifigure “Bib Fortuna” came in and they sell for around $20 new and $15 used. Part out value is around $30 used, so that minifigure is half of the value. In that case I would say people are collecting one of each of the sealed sets from that series or they want an immaculate condition version of that minifigure for their collection and are willing to pay a premium. But you are right, I don’t think it makes sense to buy those sets new to build when they can be had for much cheaper used.

[enigma]

I built a decent amount of Lego growing up, for years I would get sets each birthday and Christmas. Only ever built Lego Star Wars, I’m a huge Star Wars fan and loved the sets. I don’t have anything crazy - I have a few from around 2004-2005, but the majority of sets I have range from 2008-2014, mostly Clone Wars era builds. I did some price research a few months ago and was surprised to learn that 99% of sets I built and still have are worth as much, if not more than the price it cost to buy them new back when they released, and that’s without the minifigures. The prices of some figures I own surprised me.

Not really sure what to do with my sets though. They take up a lot of space, which is one of the reasons I stopped buying them or asking for them (the other being, Lego is expensive and even now as an adult with disposable income, the price tag is a huge turn-off). Space issues seems to be the largest issue with buying or investing in Lego. I considered selling them and putting the money into this hobby or elsewhere, but these sets made up significant portions of my childhood and I’m hesitant to get rid of them. So for now, they will remain in storage.

[pierce]

Nice guide, I didn’t read all the replies and I’m sure it’s been said but the main thing with Lego investing is space. I don’t invest in Lego anymore because the space requirements are absolutely insane, especially with the large sets which is where you make the most cash. I bought tons of LEGO 10221 Star Wars Super Star Destroyers when they were in stores, taking advantage of Lego VIP double points, store sales etc and ended up getting most for like $300 AUD each and sealed sets new sell regularly for $1500 AUD on eBay. The problem is those boxes are massive, you need literally a room dedicated to storage if you’re seriously ‘investing’.

Aside from space issues I’m also not big into Lego investing anymore because they’ve started ‘reprinting’ sets or making ‘better’ versions of old sets, eg. Millenium Falcon, Taj Mahal etc. which hurts secondary value of affected sets … that and a few years ago Lego hoarding became pretty popular and mainstream and I think there’s just tons of supply for the sets out there now and the gains aren’t as good as something like TCGs that take up less space, are more liquid and perform better. You also need to hold the sets until they retire, which you need to guess on and could take years.

But yeah, definitely money to be made in Lego. Things to target IMO are always large sets, especially modular buildings that are unique like the town hall, or corner buildings are they’re more limited like the grand emporium. That and things that are licensed and ‘cool’ with a good fan base like the star wars SSD I mentioned already.

[Dizzle]

@youngbambino

@Dizzle24

I have a love/hate relationship with this post because ironically yesterday I was in Target looking at the Ninja type sets and seconds from buying one.

Might be getting back in my car soon to go pick it up now lol. But for really, this is such a cool write up and thank you for the work into all this information!

Which ones did you have your eye on? I like a lot of the new Dragons and Mechs. The Ninjago theme has actually has some of the best sets in recent years, I highlight Ninjago City in my article, but here are some other personal favorites:

70618 Destiny’s Bounty

There have been several iterations of this ship over the years but this one is by far the best. MSRP was $160 but it was widely available around the $100 price point. The multiple iterations and the fact there is a new version currently available has stunted the growth of this particular version but it is still selling at around $300.

70751 Temple of Airjitzu

This one is a little older and was more exclusive but the style of the set is very unique. MSRP was $200 but was available at $160 for a couple of weeks. Currently selling for somewhere in the $400 range.

It’s worth noting too that many sets hold their value even when used, so even if you open and build a set you can often sell it for what you paid for it, especially if it has good fundamentals

Whoa, those are cool! See as a kid I had a lot of the old ninja type sets, so those ones there really caught my eye. The one I saw in store was this dragon looking thing for around 80 bucks, but it just looked really cool lol. I have to see if i can find it on google to link a pic

[trevcatchem]

@pierce

Nice guide, I didn’t read all the replies and I’m sure it’s been said but the main thing with Lego investing is space. I don’t invest in Lego anymore because the space requirements are absolutely insane, especially with the large sets which is where you make the most cash. I bought tons of LEGO 10221 Star Wars Super Star Destroyers when they were in stores, taking advantage of Lego VIP double points, store sales etc and ended up getting most for like $300 AUD each and sealed sets new sell regularly for $1500 AUD on eBay. The problem is those boxes are massive, you need literally a room dedicated to storage if you’re seriously ‘investing’.

Aside from space issues I’m also not big into Lego investing anymore because they’ve started ‘reprinting’ sets or making ‘better’ versions of old sets, eg. Millenium Falcon, Taj Mahal etc. which hurts secondary value of affected sets … that and a few years ago Lego hoarding became pretty popular and mainstream and I think there’s just tons of supply for the sets out there now and the gains aren’t as good as something like TCGs that take up less space, are more liquid and perform better. You also need to hold the sets until they retire, which you need to guess on and could take years.

But yeah, definitely money to be made in Lego. Things to target IMO are always large sets, especially modular buildings that are unique like the town hall, or corner buildings are they’re more limited like the grand emporium. That and things that are licensed and ‘cool’ with a good fan base like the star wars SSD I mentioned already.

Very good point, thats one thing people leave out about lego. You need a large climate controlled environment with low humidity. You also need to properly stack boxes to preserve condition. It’s not like a slab you can keep at pwcc or a safe.

Good pickup on the SSDs, that’s a great set and has gone up ~50% in just the last year. But like you said, it’s massive.

[smpratte]

This is a S-tier article! Unreal quality an information!

I enjoy legos and still do them on the side. Mainly vintage castles and modular buildings. The space is the real struggle! I can fit like 1m worth of pokemon cards in one lego castle set.

[pokemontrainerdutch]

@youngbambino

@justinmew , I personally am not a huge fan of those sets, I think that LEGO has overvalued integrating technology like that into their products in the past and this seems to be another example of that. I think the sets would be significantly more popular if they were to traditional minifigure scale and not the big figs. That being said it is hard to bet against the Nintendo/Mario IP and I wish the theme success so we get more crossover sets for years to come.

@muk , those are beautiful sets, and even though they are before my time I can still appreciate them for how innovative they were at the time. The monorail especially is a favorite of mine. If I were to purely collect a sealed set it would be something more classic like those because the built and displayed appearance is not nearly as stunning as some of the more modern sets but the box art is incredible. #graphicdesignismypassion

@brendantheclayboy , nothing wrong with inspiring a new hobby, glad you found it so cool you want to take a closer look!

@thedude1990 , There are an amazing number of couples who use it as a way to spend quality time together. I think it is a little harder pinning down the 1st ed Charizard or Illustrator of the LEGO world like @scarecrowman88 said. Historically I would say the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon (Original from 2007) would be the holy grail because it was the most expensive set for a long time and appealed to such a large audience. For minifigures I would say it is a Mr. Gold from series 10. Only 5000 were produced so it is very rare. With that being said, I think you could consider a lot of things a holy grail. There are many other rare sets and minifigures such as those released at comic con, or even a sealed copy of any of the sets a couple of posts above yours might be considered a holy grail. But it really is an individual preference.

@justmatt , That’s awesome, you should post pictures of the unwrapping if you can!

@pokemontrainerdutch , There are many different factors so it’s hard to make a 1:1 comparison, yes there is a larger margin grading a $20 card for $10 and selling it for $200 but that is becoming far less replicable by the day. What LEGO investing does have is the ability to easily replicate. You can purchase multiple copies of a set for a large period of time and it is widely accessible so it may be attractive to many different kinds of people. I think the growth that cards have seen in the past year has been incredible and I have also benefitted greatly, but there is nothing wrong with diversifying.

@zorloth , It looks like you started to answer your own question before I could respond so good on you for that. You are right, buying used and “parting out” (or in this case piecing together) a set may be a more cost effective method. I see where your confusion lies and perhaps I will edit the main post later but let me do my best to explain here. A part out value does act like a glass ceiling for many sealed sets and it helps draw prices upward but that is mostly for new pieces. However, in more extreme cases such as your example, the uniqueness of the pieces in the set is so abysmal that they are hardly worth anything (the pieces appear in many different sets and therefore are more commonly obtained). The other major factor is buying used parts. Used pieces are a fraction of the price as new ones. When I enter that set number, 3219, into the part out value box and search for new pieces the last 6 months sales data is $4.73, when I do the same for used it is $.79. I think that price would be a more accurate one than the $.25 you had mentioned without factoring in things like shipping. You are definitely on the right path comparing used complete set prices to part out values. The other thing you can do on bricklink is click the part out button below “My Wanted List” on this page: www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=3219-1#T=P That will allow you to add all the parts you are needing to buy from a set and bricklink’s algorithm will check for sellers who have the majority of pieces on your list and try to optimize your orders. Let me know if there is more I can clear up or elaborate on.

Yeah that’s what I like with Lego that you can just buy lots of the sets on discount. It’s a shame that there aren’t many Pokemon products on discount anymore .

[elshod]

Great article! The Old Fishing Store is my absolute favorite kit; very personal to my life. I’ve had it for a while but have never convinced myself to open and build it. Someday I will, but man is it hard to cut those seals sometimes! Just about with any Lego kit, the first time you cut open the bags is a tough feeling to recreate.

[taizokai]

I also want to applaud this terrific guide! Nice work, @youngbambino ! I’m into collecting old toys and things, and Lego is no exception.
I purchased the set below over the winter. It was the first big one I had as a kid. I received my original all the way back in 1990, and some of my earliest memories are associated with it. (You know I’m all about the memories.)
For better or worse, I only have a small handful of my original pieces (like the bridge, a single palm leaf, and a monkey arm). I let my mother take in my tubs to her classroom years ago for the kindergarten students to play with. Apparently, the children learned about the potential value of certain alternative assets long before I did.

Not sure if I’ll continue to collect a few more sets or not. They do take up a lot of space. This pic was taken months ago as I had to eventually put the pieces away.