Opening sealed antique sets - wonderful or painful ?

[LEGO Historian]

Hi Dr. Dave! First of all any century that starts with a "2" is not an antique... if it were then I'd be a dinosaur.... I can vaguely remember when President Kennedy was assassinated, but fortunately the QE2 coronation was before my time!

I had a virus on my computer and it wiped out my passwords... so I can't get back on Brickset where we met... I sent a password reset request to the Admins but never got a reply... I can only get onto the main page... although I can read the forum... but I usually don't because I can't post... so I've been here for a while. I finally found my London Bus items... so I need to get them distributed over there...

Cheers,

Gary

[Hey Joe]

Maybe listen to the wife on this one, build up some VIP points with her for the next time you screw up or want to go over budget (on Lego)?

Edited November 21, 2012 by bjtpro

[Chri5kng]

Thanks - some excellent responses already ! I think I will probably build my X-wing, just like I recently bought a MISB Imperial Star Destroyer off eBay, unsealed it and built it. Opening the ISD caused me less pain because it's a newer and less rare set.

Incidentally, is MMV "Medieval Market Villiage" ? That's a great set, but I just started to build "Green Grocer", and then it's "Cafe Corner" next..... Maybe MMV later in the year.

Cheers,

Dr. D.

Open it unless you can make a good profit on it. I mean life is short mate, I been in 4 different car accidents, 2 of them I was on my bike. You never know what could happen to you tomorrow.

[Hive]

I still haven't opened the MMV, 1 year after buying it. A terrible shame, really, but I currently don't have room to display it.

[LEGO Historian]

LEGO sets were more fun for MISB sets in the early days... 1949-65. All the basic and most of the model sets had a box top that came off to show a shrinkwrapped lower box. This way you saw EXACTLY what was inside... shown here is a 1960 Austrian 700/0 (largest basic set)... (from Chapter 5 of my LEGO DVD).....

[Evil Porkchop]

I say open it, unless you are specifically collecting MISB sets.

[LEGO Historian]

I say open it, unless you are specifically collecting MISB sets.

You know who I feel sorry for... the ones who bought what they thought was MISB on Ebay.... only to find out 20 years later that the seal had been tampered with, and the contents were random (semi-worthless) parts from other LEGO sets in sealed bags!

[drdavewatford]

You know who I feel sorry for... the ones who bought what they thought was MISB on Ebay.... only to find out 20 years later that the seal had been tampered with, and the contents were random (semi-worthless) parts from other LEGO sets in sealed bags!

Please don't - you're giving me indigestion !

I've sent you a PM through the Eurobricks messaging system, Gary, so keep an eye out for it.

Cheers,

D.

[Hey Joe]

You know who I feel sorry for... the ones who bought what they thought was MISB on Ebay.... only to find out 20 years later that the seal had been tampered with, and the contents were random (semi-worthless) parts from other LEGO sets in sealed bags!

Does that happen alot? Joe

[moschino]

You know who I feel sorry for... the ones who bought what they thought was MISB on Ebay.... only to find out 20 years later that the seal had been tampered with, and the contents were random (semi-worthless) parts from other LEGO sets in sealed bags!

Yes, this is indeed a bad situation.

I'd buy a MISB from eBay, but I'll definitely not keep it as it was described because rarely the description is 100% accurate.

I would feel extremely bad to pay a lot of money for a MISB and discover 10-20 years later that I've been waiting for nothing because the set wasn't MISB.

Does that happen alot? Joe

You have to read carefully Seller's feedback and communicate with him/her a lot before you buy so you'll have a hint if you should put your trust in Seller's description.

These kind of scams use to happen in 2-3 cases out of 10.

[draganb]

A man is truly a funny specimen. We have a habit of adding fictional value to products, and even entire industries revolving around it (branding, marketing, auctioning...)

We create artificial sparsity so we could market stuff to people too vain to use/wear the same stuff as everyone else.

In my opinion, a toys value is equal to amount of happiness it brings to you, and a sealed box of legos brings infinitely less happiness to me than an open box of legos which i can build, play with and display.

I can somewhat understand the higher price on REALLY old sets, as i can justify it as wanting to own a part of history. But the prices on sets as recent as few years ago (imperial flagship, or sw ucs's) being as high as they are, is truly baffling and saddening at the same time. (especialy since you can build them from regular lego parts available from other sets or bricklink)

I almost feel as tho the people that are collecting and reselling MISB legos are ruining the fun for the rest of us, because they're making people feel guilty opening sealed sets (as with the OP).

It's similar to the online gaming, where a number of people incapable of enjoying the game the way it's supposed to, just play for the sake of collecting an hoarding valuables, often destroying in game economy and ruining the fun for other people (see diablo 3 :D )

[TheRedGuy]

I usually hide this, but I personally look down on people who sell their Lego. If you bought it for money, why buy it in the first place? To earn what, a few bucks which can easily make up for the entertainment that you could've gotten like above said? That's just wrong.