Lego Set Budgeting

[WesternOutlaw]

So you've got your eye on the Death Star, but you'd love to pick up that Imperial Flagship; but then again, the Grand Emporium would cap off your Modular City nicely. Limited financial resources? you don't say.

I think all of us can certainly appreciate the woes of too many great LEGO sets to choose from. LEGO is loving it, but your pocket books and significant others are saying, "STOP"!

How do you manage your LEGO budget? Are your credit cards maxed or are you borrowing from Peter to pay Paul? Share your thoughts on LEGO Budgeting here.

[just2good]

I chose:

"Purchase all AFOL sets without any regard to what they cost (Richie Rich method)"

as I do that with most themes (excluding Star Wars)

[Spyder]

I chose "Refuse to buy the big sets."

It is super rare that I ever can afford one of the bigger sets, seeing as I spend all my money on the smaller ones. The $10-$50 range is what I usually buy. Besides, there's not many big sets that come with figures that you can't get from the smaller ones. (The exception is Licensed Themes, those are a whole other story. A very expensive story.)

[WesternOutlaw]

Oh, I'm probably between limiting sets to one-two themes and purchasing only a few times a year (maybe one every few months).

What hit me hard was waiting until three of the modulars were out before deciding I would start collecting them - ouch!

[lightningtiger]

Yeah, well I've had to back off on my buying - you know the old story - that word 'debt' I know it too well !

I have stopped buying odd themes and sticking with selected Star Wars and city sets - which I can afford - well sometimes !

I'm a conformist! !

[dr_spock]

I usually wait for the sales. Saving a few dollars here and there can help towards an extra set or two.

[the_green_avenger]

I havn't bought a single LARGE Lego set EVER!* I either get them from Christmas/Birthdays or I buy a bunch of Pieces off PAB or BL. (AND even then I'm still usually using visa gift cards, etc., from Christmas/Birthdays)

*I've personnally only bought a few small sets, which goes to show Option #5 really applies to me...

Edited March 7, 2010 by the_green_avenger

[blueandwhite]

I'm a bit discerning when it comes to my purchases. While I do buy the exclusives I want, I find that I don't want all of them (if you know what I'm getting at). Simply put; I don't have the money, time or space to purchase exclusives that don't genuinely appeal to me. I would rather put my LEGO budget towards proper Bricklink purchases instead.

I know that there are AFOLs who are flat-out rich so this isn't an issue, but for fiscal mortals like myself discretion has never really been bad thing.

[RileyC]

I limit myself to just one theme, Star Wars. I dont really have a criteria for buying sets but I try to stay away from the AFOL sets. The AFOL sets while they are fabulous are really expensive here in New Zealand and they dont really get to the shops that well and S@H shipping prices are through the roof. I buy the sets that have really iconic minifigs in them before I contemplate whether to buy any other sets like I knew I was going to buy the Battle of Endor and Mon Calamari playset last year before I thought about what other sets I should get. My budget varies quite a bit. Usually I get a few sets for my birthday and Christmas which is helpful considering sets are really dear down here. I try and buy the sets with discounts like a 20% off sale or something but if I know the set is going to popular (like Luke's Landspeeder) then I will buy it straight away and Im happy to pay full price for those types of sets. When I buy all the sets that I want from that wave Im usually facing withdrawal effects from not building sets and thats when I buy sets that are cheap and seem quirky and interesting which those prices add up.

[ZO6]

I buy a handful of large sets in a year. I don't find the price of the modular houses particularly overwhelming, and I've ventured into Taj Mahal territory, but the Death Star playset and UCS Falcon are simply too much (it's more a matter of knowing what other sets I could purchase for the price of one of them that turns me off the most).

I often try to stick to a bit of a list of sets that I'll buy, but sometimes I find myself distracted by sales and end up spending my budget elsewhere. I also go through phases - "I want to collect sets with great price to part ratios", "I want to collect sets with lots of minifigures", "Now I want to collect sets with lots of play functions".

The joys of collecting LEGO...

[ILikePi]

Interesting topic!

I myself limit my large set purchases to only one or two themes. This year, it's probably going to be Star Wars and Harry Potter (I'm extremely excited that it's returned! ).

I personally count any set above $20 as a "big set purchase", because of my limited budget (I tend to spend about $400-$500 per year on LEGO). With all the other themes, I usually only buy the impulse sets and possibly the $10 or $20 sets (I'll probably be doing that with Prince of Persia).

Edited March 7, 2010 by ILikePi

[Batbrick]

I didn't vote because I follow several reasoning. I was pretty poor with my budgeting for a while but now have found a great little niche that allows me to spend an adequate amount of money without going overboard. AFOL sets are very rare for me to purchase since I prefer mocing anyway and other sets offer me a greater range of parts normally.

My process is usually in myp lanning, as I have a thorough list of things I plan to build alongside their importance. I'm currently working on Wayne Manor, which means that the Aqua, Space and Castle sets are pretty useless to me, so I'll likely not spend much this year unless I think some figs will go towards my Batman world. However the Harry Potter Castle looks wonderful for that moc, so I'll adjust my budget for it by only allowing very small purchases while on sale.

Sounds ridiculous, but ultimately my method boils down to a simple "But do I NEED this set?" question.

Batbrick Away!

[vexorian]

Well, regarding the AFOL targetted sets I don't really have that problem as my country is far away from any lego shop, big retailer or s@h's blessed countries list. I guess I could use certain services that can allow me to remotedly buy s@h stuff, but my prediction is that it would easily double the price...

But as for big sets, I have not really bought any big set so far. "Small" sets already kill my wallet well enough. However, I can't seem to get over a certain urge to get the large SP3 ship one day.

[peterab]

Sounds ridiculous, but ultimately my method boils down to a simple "But do I NEED this set?" question.

I'm with batbrick on this, I mostly build train and town, so I purchase sets which I like in those themes, picking up the modulars if I can on sale, or importing them from the US to keep the price down. I also buy other sets that may be useful such as space truck getaway (awesome container, truck and greeble parts) some of the licenced lines like IJ.

Since my budget is limited I will buy what I can on sale and miss out on other stuff, since I can get more that way. If I really need something for a Moc Bricklink is my freind.

[def]

I'm at about $100 a month, no specific theme, and when it's on sale.

I've been saving in other places a bit and hope to raise that to $150. That's less than 5% of my paycheck, which seems reasonable, kind of.

I mostly buy either one large set (Brickbeard's Bounty is next, then the Endor playset), or a mid and a small (City Corner and a Freeco speeder last month).

I can't wait for sales, they're too undependable around here.

[prateek]

I picked "Refuse to buy the "big boys"; no AFOL sets for me!" because I don't own a set that's MSRP is more than $20.

[lisqr]

I try to buy everything ... when they are on sale.

The cheap richie rich method.

[David Thomsen]

I'm a combination of several of those things - I limit myself to a few themes, but at the same time my credit card is pretty much permanently maxed out, and if I see something I need, I HAVE to have it regardless of the price. (One notable exception being the large Millennium Falcon).

Fortunately for me two of the themes I was collecting were Pirates and Indiana Jones, and I already have the Imperial Flagship, so 2010 is going to be a (relatively) cheap year for me. Just the two latest modular buildings and a couple of city sets.

Depending on how my finances go, I may add Kingdoms to the list of ranges I collect. Unfortunately I'm still behind on my Transformers collection... hardly any of the ones I want come out in New Zealand.

Edited March 7, 2010 by David Thomsen

[dr_spock]

For those with children, how do you budget in your kids' Lego? My kids get $20/mth. They can spend $20 each month on Lego or save up several months for a bigger set. Do you find they bite into your available Lego funds?

[CP5670]

I'm only into a couple of current themes (City, SP3, Technic and Creator) and for quality reasons I only get the sets that I really think are exceptional these days. The time needed to enjoy the sets is more of an issue for me than the money.

I used to buy old sets on ebay and Bricklink frequently around 2000-2004 and the bulk of my collection still consists of those, but I have cut back on that a lot in recent years after I got most of the stuff I wanted. I spend about as much on Bricklink part orders today as on sets. As far as the large, $100+ sets go, the only such sets I get these days are usually the Technic flagships. I think I'll get the Grand Emporium this year though. It's the first modular building that really appeals to me. One thing I've done in the last few years is to make all my bigger purchases at a Lego event and take advantage of the store discounts. At Brickfair in the past, the nearby Lego stores have given a 20% discount to attendees (separate from the damaged box sales), which can be substantial for a $300+ order.

[Rufus]

I tried budgeting £100 a month, but found it wasn't for me. Having missed out on some wonderful sets from 2006 (Jabba's sail barge springs to mind), I now try to get everything SW and City while it's available. The problem is, my main limit is space so it means the larger sets are still sitting MISB in the loft. Oh for a bigger house!

[ChefAgf]

luckily im not a star wars fan but for the rest i try to buy every AFOL set that comes out ASAP.

[Rick]

I limit myself in terms of themes. I buy mostly Town (City, Modular, and Creator houses) and Pirates.

The modular exclusives, I order straight from S@H on the day they release them. For example, I ordered my 10211 Grand Emporium last Thursday, only a few hours after becoming available to The Netherlands. With regular retail sets, I wait until I can get them for a good price somewhere (unlike the US, Lego never really goes on clearance here) or combine stuff for a bigger webshop order (they are typically 20-25% cheaper than retail here) to economize on shipping.

[Fugazi]

The only reason I don't buy everything I would like and get into debt is my wife, who makes sure I feel guilty of buying more LEGO again! Left to my own devices I would probably have a hard time limiting myself to only the sets I really want and need -- and can afford! So I have a short list of sets I really want, with prices and due dates, and I try to limit myself to that. Sometimes when I'm in bad need of a LEGO fix I will buy an impulse or other small set, but only if the parts look like they would be useful for my MOCing. And I only buy from City and Creator (including Exclusives) unless I'm after some specific parts.

[gratefulnat]

Well, I budget about 1'000 Swiss francs per year based on my income and the family's needs. I'm into star wars, and would love to diversify into other themes like pirates, castle, AFOL sets, technics but my budget won't allow it. It's tight enough as is just with star wars. I have hit on my friends who have kids whose interests have changed from LEGO to other things, and have picked up quite a bit of second hand LEGO very cheaply like this (although it's a limited source). I also put up flyers at universities/schools once a year, offering to buy students' LEGO. Nearly everyone has some, and sometimes I get quite lucky. The time it takes to sort, clean, etc is immense, but the money I make selling sets I put together allows me to be able to spend about Sfr 1'000 more per year than I otherwise could. So in total about Sfr 2'000 per year. And that pretty much covers the cost of a years worth of star wars sets here in Switzerland, with a little extra left over.

As for my son's LEGO, he gets about two or three smaller sets per year and usually a big one at Chritsmas. This comes out of my LEGO funds, but his interest is slowly dwindling , but that means I'll probably be able to get it back for myself .

If it wasn't for my son, though, I'd probably be a lot less responsible with the amount of money I spend on LEGO.