Out of the Loop: Did the Collectible Minifigure Economy Crash?

[paulmaglev]

I tried to clear out non-essentials in my closet this evening and stumbled across some beanie babies, which harbored only faint sentimental values, but then I wondered what happened to collectible minifigures from Lego. Did they crash like the beanie babies or are they still going strong in the Lego Community?  I haven't bothered to check on the minifigures for eons (there's too many to keep track of for my taste).

[MAB]

Still (very) strong for the sought after ones.

Still weak for the less sought after ones.

[KevinMD]

Lego repop'ing some of the older figs for promos (bunny suit, gingerbread man, caveman & cavewoman) have definitely hurt value a little bit but I agree with @MAB 

[MAB]

I will add though that the very popular figures from early series (Zombie, Spartan, Elf, etc) have hardly increased in value in the past 4 years. They had an initial rapid increase in value but have barely increased since then. Whereas some of the lesser valued ones from the early series have slowly increased in price.

[Legochaek]

Yeah series 1, one minifig, is 30-40 pound now 

Edited October 24, 2017 by Lego-fire

[MAB]

Yeah, the nurse is expensive now.

[Markalus]

Like any collectible it's all supply & demand. A 'rare' and desirable CMF is always going to hold more value. But all the recent series' are widely available, hence there is an oversupply. You can usually pick them up for less than rrp. The fact that TLG are releasing new series at a faster rate now also saturates demand. Like you said there are "too many to keep track". 

[Blondie-Wan]

Wait, what? The nurse is now the most sought-after S1 minifigure, and it's going for that much?? Huh. I would not have guessed.

[MAB]

47 minutes ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Wait, what? The nurse is now the most sought-after S1 minifigure, and it's going for that much?? Huh. I would not have guessed.

Yeah, she overtook the zombie about 3-4 years ago.

 

[K_Tiger]

1 hour ago, Blondie-Wan said:

Wait, what? The nurse is now the most sought-after S1 minifigure, and it's going for that much?? Huh. I would not have guessed.

Most of her price is that medical chart. I'm not paying $12.50 for a damn tile, so my Nurse will stay incomplete.

[Blondie-Wan]

10 hours ago, MAB said:

Yeah, she overtook the zombie about 3-4 years ago.

 

And here I am, collecting all these things, blissfully unaware of what they're doing on the secondary market. I suppose I should look into selling or trading off a few duplicates I thought I'd "need" that I've since come to realize I really don't.

10 hours ago, K_Tiger said:

Most of her price is that medical chart. I'm not paying $12.50 for a damn tile, so my Nurse will stay incomplete.

Wow. I picked up three when they came out, all at MSRP or thereabouts; it's amazing to remember they used to be just $1.99 apiece in the US when they first came out! I certainly wish I could still get a complete new series for $31.84 plus tax, but those days are long behind us...

Had I known that tile alone might one day fetch such a price (!), I might have stocked up on them from the BAM kiosks in LEGO Stores, but it's been a while since I saw any there...

Edited October 28, 2017 by Blondie-Wan
Assorted edits

[22kane]

Im a collector first and foremost. I have what I like to call an addiction to Lego. I don't to collect to make money but occasionally I do sell off some older sets or minifigures to purchase newer items that I want. You really never know what the value will be and it changes from time to time, sometimes dramatically. I sold a couple bunny suit figures sealed earlier this year and they auctioned a little over $40 a piece. Ive also auctioned off random figures all the way back to series 2 that didn't fetch more than $8. There is still a market and its strong but it fluctuates often. Markalus brings up a good point in that the more recent series are very plentiful and the market is saturated. Usually once a new series was released the previous series would rise in price immeditely but that isn't the case anymore. They typically get cheaper on sites like eBay whereas upon release people pay over MSRP especially on the pre-orders. Ive been hunting the minifigures since series 1 (back when they were $1.99 a piece) and it is much easier to obtain them in the last couple years because they are everywhere now. I don't have a problem with it because regardless of value I still want them. If you want to make money off of Lego it will be a costly endeavor and its much like the stock market. You have to know when to buy and when to sell which isn't the easiest thing to do.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

We have to remember that some of the oldest minifigures can be completed via BAM in LEGO Stores. Egypitan Queen from Series 5 or Artist from Series 4 can be easily reproduced this way.

[MAB]

On 28/10/2017 at 5:40 AM, 22kane said:

Markalus brings up a good point in that the more recent series are very plentiful and the market is saturated. Usually once a new series was released the previous series would rise in price immeditely but that isn't the case anymore.

3

Earlier series (at least in the UK) were fairly plentiful back in the day as well though. And the market was also saturated. I bought loads of Elves from S3, Roman Soldiers from S6, etc on eBay for little more than RRP during their retail shelf life.

 

Also, I don't recall the prices jumping immediately once a new series was released. For many of the figures, there was only a very slow rise. Ones in huge supply with low demand (and there were many in the first few series) didn't go up immediately. A lot of the higher supply older ones didn't really increase in value until probably about series  10 or 11 came out, when new collectors came in and wanted to go back and collect what they had missed. Ones like the traffic cop from S2, I bought 80 or so packets of him in 2014 for about 60p each (30% of / 70% off RRP). Even now, some of them are not worth much more than RRP.