Lego Set Budgeting

[Peppermint_M]

I don't buy the big ones. I have no space anyway.

I prefer to make my own big MOCs than have huge sets.

[FilmGirl27]

I usually skip the big AFOL sets completely, and just hope I get one for my Birthday or Christmas.

[Matn]

When I was a few year youngers I bought almost every set I liked. Now I contemplate a bit whether to buy a set or not. I try to get my hands on bigger sets when there are sales or something alike. There are only a few themes (like LEGO Harry Potter probably) for which I won't wait until they are priced lower.

I usually try to buy all the sets of the theme I like most: LEGO Harry Potter. LEGO City also gets interest from me, but only the really nice sets (and most of the times not the biggest sets). In other interesting themes, like LEGO Atlantis or LEGO Castle, I usually buy the smaller sets up to +-15 euro. Sometimes, when it's a really nice set, I go up to 30 euro. It happens rarely I buy the bigger sets (around 80 euro) of themes, although I would love to.

I would love to buy some more of the AFOL exclusives, especially the modular houses. I only have the Café Corner, but I would love to buy the Green Grocer and the newer ones. Oh, and the Medieval Market Village is also a must buy, but lately parts for MOCs have priority. Luckily I was able to find the Town Plan for a reasonable 120 euro, but I hadn't planned at all to buy it.

[BearHeart]

I was actually thinking about this a few days ago. I just got married and bought a new house so I'm gonna have to fit my LEGO spending into my new budget (Previously, I used the richie rich method ) I decided that I'm just gonna stick to two or three themes: Castle for sure and then a combo of licensed themes depending on whats available that year. I calculated I can spend $100 - $150 per month

[k_peek_2000]

I am a broke lego fan because of my overpriced school. My entire collection currently consists of the Mid-Scale Falcon and Droid Tri-fighter. I am open to donations XD

[samurai-turtle]

I am the wait for a sale/clearance type. Unless I do not think I will find the set on sale/clearance (like the Star Wars Battle-Packs) then I would just get it for full price.

[Sergiu]

I used to buy the biggest sets available that year, 1 or 2 for my birthday and one for Christmas, although now I think I'll buy just one set per year because I made a lot of expensive Bricklink orders for my MOC.

[Etzel]

This far I have only bought 1 real AFOL set, the 10193 Medieval Market Village (I got the 10197 Fire Brigade too, but I didn't bought that myself). I don't really have the economy to get all the great sets that TLG makes these days but I try to save money for those I really, really want.

I'm planning on buying a second exclusive set this year but I'm not sure which one, the 10210 Imperial Flagship is tempting but so expensive here. I'm leaning more to get me a second MMV which has a much better price for the pieces you get.

[Perterz]

I used to just buy whatever set that appealed to me + had usefull parts to MOC with afterwards.

But now I have my own appartement and discovered BrickLink things changed.

I only buy the AFOL sets as I collect the modular houses, also sets like the Medieval Market Village, Winter Toy Shop are sets I buy. I limit myself to 2-3 per year.

I like to MOC so I'd rather buy the needed parts on BL than multiples of a certain set to end up with unwanted pieces anyway.

[Big Cam]

I save for every set I have since my wife thinks I spend too much on LEGO.

[puddleglum]

The only sets I consider “must buys” are the modular building sets. If I only had $150 to spend on LEGO per year, that’s what I’d do. I buy sets for parts and they are all chock-full of great parts, and offer an incredible value for what you get. But I can understand if someone only wanted to build spaceships, why those sets would not interest them. But for me, those are the only AFOL sets I own, since most of the others don’t seem to be nearly as good of a value. Besides those, I mostly buy whatever I can get on sale. I’m not really big into having a huge minifig collection, so sometimes I buy sets on sale (20-30% off deals at TRU come along often enough), sell the minifigs, and end up with the parts for free or almost free. For example, I recently bought two copies of Woody’s Roundup for $40 each at TRU. I sold the figs for a total of $60, and ended up paying about $24 total for nearly 1000 very nice parts, after you figure in taxes, PayPal & BL fees, etc. In my experience, buying sets & selling the figs will get you more LEGO bang for your buck even than buying Creator sets. (Even though I love the Creator line) Occasionally I find clearance-type stuff (50%+ off), for those I buy several copies, enough so I can sell some, keep some, and end up breaking even.

All that said, I find it important to budget my spending, and make proactive choices about which sets I really don’t want to miss, and which sets I am willing to pass on. Buying discontinued sets is too expensive, and once you start doing it, it takes away from your money to buy current sets, which leads to missing those and then having to buy them second-hand as well. It’s a nasty cycle. Most of us can’t have it all, so it seems better to me to get the best value out of what money we do spend on LEGO.

[gunm]

I only buy sets and such on sale or clearance. My one exception thus far has been Green Grocer because I missed this past holiday's sales, and didn't want to chance waiting and missing out for this year's sales. Regardless of sale, I won't spend more than $180 on any one set.

Edited March 8, 2010 by gunm

[Alex the Great]

I try to buy most of the sets of the themes I like, Castle and Pirates. Then a few other sets from other themes that I want, like I think I'm going to get the Grand Emporium. I've recently bought the MMV, and I want to get the Imperial Flagship too. So with the new line of Castle and PoP, it will be an expensive year.

[Remy!!!!]

I use exel for all my financial stuff. And I use a couple of formulas to calculate how much I can spend on certain stuff. At the moment my budget for lego is 15% of my income. Due to some job switching lately, it can vary from €50,- to €150,- a month.

[gotoAndLego]

I'm primarily into the SW sets, but really will get which ever sets turn my dial or seem to be a good value. For example...

I'm not a train collector, but got the Emerald Night for V Day because its cool.

I don't buy city sets, but am collecting the modular houses because they are cool and have a great range of parts. Even though they aren't modulars I bought two creator houses because with the TRU sale they were a good deal on parts packs.

I git the VW because it was on sale, and a cool set.

I don't collect castle stuff, but the Troll wheel is cool.

While not wealthy, I earn enough, and don't have kids or a car payment, so I don't have to worry about budgeting sets. That being said, I'm not dropping 500 ion the USC Falcon until its on sale.

[Fumoffu]

I'm mainly into Star Wars and with that theme I aim to get every set but I do tend to hold out for sales/clearance. In NZ we seem to get a 20% off sale once a month but mind you our prices are a bit higher than many other places in the world to start with.

[Brick & Mortimer]

I try to save up to buy the sets I want, once or twice a year.

I've been saving (in chronological order ) for the Fire Brigade, Imperial Flagship and now Grand Emporium. I mean, Lego kept adding wonderful sets to my wish list (or is it the other way around )

My estimate is that I will (finally) be able to buy these sets by the end of april.

This way, I will be finally "up to date" with the release of the modulars, so hopefully, next year I wont have to spend that much.

Off course, if I find a set on sale I really want I'll go for it. I mean, if you find City Corner for 36 euro, you're not going to skip on it. I believe the price on S@H is about 50 euro

[Klaus-Dieter]

That's a great and very interesting topic, TheBrickster!

I voted for:

Limit big LEGO sets to one-two themes only

For me these themes are firstly City (no CC-styled sets or other Creator sets) and secondly Star Wars (only the old triology and no UCS sets).

My preferences might change - depending on the quality and quantity of those large Exclusives. E. g. if we get some good Western Exclusives I would kick out Star Wars.

I think the reason is very simple: mainly the lack of money - but even the lack of space.

E. g. I would like to buy the awesome Imperial Flagship, too, but I simply have absolutely no money left. And I wouldn't know where to display it - but this set would have the right to be displayed. Apart from that it wouldn't make nuch sense to buy it anyway since I do not collect Pirates sets.

Klaus-Dieter

[Modulex Guy]

I had to choose "Buy now, Pay later"

Usually I buy all the sets I want either right when they come out or a month or so afterwards... max the cards empty the wallet, and bang my head on the counter when the bill comes at the end of the month.

Although lately I've not been buying the big sets, I still want the Imperial flagship, Fire Brigade, 2 Grand Emporiums, Taj Mahal, pretty much all the big Star Wars sets...I'll get them eventually though.

Edited March 23, 2010 by Polish Guy

[CMP]

I normally get 'em around Christmas or my birthday, usually collecting most sets of a single theme each time. Christmas of '08 I got the Castle theme and the Mountain Fortress for my b-day of '09. Christmas of '09 was Space Police. I'm getting Prince of Persia this b-day, still unsure of this christmas.