Posted December 21, 200816 yr So, I've been a bit bored recently and I thought of this. If you are considering how to maximize the value of the money you spend on LEGO there are many things to consider. First, what is value? The play-value, the potential of the bricks in each purchase, or the average cost per brick? Because the first two are ephemeral and up to the individual, we can only calculate the cost per brick with accuracy. I used my copy of the LEGO Holiday 2008 Catalog to gather my data. I found myself wondering how much it would cost if I bought every LEGO System set in it. And how much each brick would cost individually in the total purchase price. Let's consider the cost per brick of a small, medium and large set. 5620 Street Cleaner $3.49 22 Pieces $3.49/22 pieces = $0.159/piece --- 7726 Coast Guard Truck with Speed Boat $39.99 361 Pieces $39.99/361 pieces = $0.110/piece --- 10179 Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon $499.99 5,195 Pieces $499.99/5,195 pieces = $0.096/piece --- It quickly becomes obvious that, in general, the larger the set you buy, the more cost-efficient it is. So, I added up the price and piece count of of every non-bionicle, non-technic set in the catalog. This is what I got. TOTALS $6,469.27 76,599 Pieces $6,469.27/76,599 pieces = $0.0845/piece 76,599/$6,469.27 pieces = 11.483 pieces/$1 --- There are of course, outliers and sets that do not follow the norm. Here's a graph of the data. [i excluded the sets above $200 because they severely stretched the graph horizontally.] Any sets above the black line represent good value in their price range, and vice versa. The set with the highest Brick/Dollar ratio is 4997 Transport Ferry $69.99 1,279 Pieces $69.99/1,279 pieces = $0.0547/piece --- The set with the lowest Brick/Dollar Ratio is 7723 Police Pontoon Plane $39.99 215 Pieces $39.99/215 Pieces = $0.186/piece --- This could also be done by weight, and I suspect that data factors more in the the LEGO Company's bottom line, but that information is not listed in LEGO catalogs. It would be interesting to add up the total prices and piece counts in past and future catalogs to see if the average cost per brick increases or decreases with time. Also, in case you're wondering, you could purchase all the sets included in the calculation by saving about $130 per week for 50 weeks (I assumed you wanted some vacation). That's $3.2 per hour if you're working the American standard 40 hours/week. Download the spreadsheet and take a look.
December 21, 200816 yr Interesting article. This is something I've noticed over the years too. The big sets may seem expensive, but in most cases you get more for your money than with the small sets. This trend becomes even more pronounced with old 80s/90s sets on ebay and BL, especially unopened ones. The small sets appreciate in value much faster and can often reach 10 or more times their original prices while larger sets from the same era, although more expensive, are more like 3-4 times the original prices.
December 21, 200816 yr Wow you did your research!(must have been really bored to do math ) Yeah, impulse sets do seem very overpriced.
December 21, 200816 yr Here are Lego Indiana Jones $:Brick Rates Temple Escape 0.10828519855595667870036101083032$:Brick Approx 0.108$:Brick Temple of the Crystal Skull 0.086103336921420882669537136706136$:Brick Approx 0.086$:Brick Jugle Cutter 0.078258317025440313111545988258317$:Brick Approx 0.078$:Brick Race for the Stolen Treasure 0.14702205882352941176470588235294$:Brick Approx 0.147$:Brick The Lost Tomb 0.072166064981949458483754512635379$:Brick Approx 0.072$:Brick River Chase 0.08542735042735042735042735042735$:Brick Approx 0.085$:Brick Jungle Duel 0.111$:Brick Motorcycle Chase 0.12645569620253164556962025316456$:Brick Approx 0.127 The Flying Wing 0.13189973614775725593667546174142$:Brick Approx 0.0132$:Brick Peril in Peru 0.079984$:Brick Approx 0.079$:Brick Shanghai Chase 0.12290983606557377049180327868852$:Brick Approx 0.123$:Brick As you can see the best Lego Indiana Jones Set, value wise, isss..... The Lost Tomb!!! It has even more pieces than Race for the Stolen Treasure, and at 10$ less!
December 21, 200816 yr I love what you've done here Icarus. I know a lot of people try to do the brick per piece count but it's not really calibrated with a standard measurement of sets that are currently released- so thank you for this. It would be nice if Eurobricks could incorporate this into a feature on the site, and constantly update and each set is released in order to show consumers here what is the wisest purchase. However, part of me thinks that some people on this site have the insider scoop with Lego and something like that may not happen? I don't know. In either case, I am surprised that that big ferry boat thing has the best price per piece count, makes me want to get it actually : ) ! So there is a positive in figuring it all out. As with the police plane, I think everyone above a child's age can sort of tell lego just threw that one together without too much thinking. However, to see that it is about 20 cents per piece is OMG.... that's like three times the price of an expensive bricklink piece (love you bricklink). Some people really claim to buy all lego sets, which is quite amazing. I don't think it's necessarily smart for the consumer to purchase everything, since affluence is deadly in this current day and age. We're driving up the prices of things as we consume more and more now, instead of having those prices go down when we had abundance resources. At this rate of consumption, and the population of consumers tripling in the next 12 years, Lego costs won't go down - not until plastic becomes really hard to get. I hope Lego can also jump onto the bandwagon of making toys with biodegrable plastics : ) you know, plastic made of corn.
December 21, 200816 yr Of course, bricks per dollar/euro is not a perfect measure. Many sets now have a lot of little detail added by bucket-loads of tiny pieces, but then again, some sets have more than their share of large parts (in some cases, *as well as* a decent truckload of ordinary brick/plate). I rely on some intuition as well as the brick/price ratio, but the only way to know for sure is how satisfied you are after a) opening the set, and b) building it and having the finished model. Some seem way better value when you build them, others less so! Box art can be deceptive both ways! Edited December 21, 200816 yr by brickzone
December 25, 200816 yr now do one by lego weight and one by lego minifigs! the analysis by lego pieces help those who mocs and would heavily favor the creator series which have no mfs. but analyzing by lego pieces help strip out those large largely useless parts like that police sea plane. nice work! wow...the creator ferry seems like a good deal for parts. going to see if there's any on sale today!
December 25, 200816 yr WOW You sure did put a lot of work into that, WarnIcarus. Looks like we should be buying a lot of 4997 Transport Ferry's!
December 26, 200816 yr a 2 stud brick counts as 1 piece, half of a skeleton ship body counts as 1 piece it doesn't work by simply divide the price by the number of pieces in a set. it is the overall usefulness of the pieces and their size. which makes set reviews very important, so we know what kind of bricks are in a set. I tend to favor the weight per $$ ratio.
December 26, 200816 yr Problem with your system: Some sets contain parts that are worth more money than most parts. Large, "<insert that tiresome argument>" pieces will cost more money to make than smaller parts. Larger sets tend to contain more small pieces than smaller sets (though not always). So it depends on your opinion. You're paying more money for fewer parts, but these parts are more valuable than most. Worth it? Depends on the value you place upon big parts.
January 8, 200916 yr Great job on your analysis of "value" of the various sets. I really like to see these kind of numerical breakdowns, but don't have the patience to do them myself. I agree with those who said that price-per-piece doesn't tell us everything, but it's still a great indicator of value and a usefull stat to know. What constitutes a "great value" certainly varies from person to person. For example, I almost purchased the Ferry set, but looking closer at the set, I realized that with the exception of the inverse-angled windsheilds, I already had plenty of all the pieces in the set. Thus, it wasn't a great deal for me, but for someone with a smaller collection it would be (as most creator sets are) a great addition to their collection and a great "value". Some sets are a great value from almost any perspective. I just recieved the Medieval Market village, and at $100 and 1600 pieces, it is one of the best price-per-piece deals, at .0625 a piece. Moreover, in terms of it's high content of special, rare, and minifig pieces, it may be the best values of the season! This is one of the reasons that I have purchased each of the Cafe Corner series of buildings. They are a remarkable combination of a great price-per-piece ratio and a good selection of highly usefull, and often relatively uncommon or expensive, pieces.
January 8, 200916 yr Amazing analysis. With most sets I try to pay 10 cents a brick. I hope to see this again at the end of '09.
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