Buy a set simply to sell it for profit?

[legotrader]

Hi guys, I know this thread is quite old, but I just came across it when searching for investing in Legos. This is something I have been doing for quite a while. I am in my mid 40s and I have had my fair share of buying and building. Like some of you have stated, I bought alot of sets, got stuck in family/career life and those sets have sat there for years. It wasn't until I started searching for sets on eBay to finish a collection, that I noticed the value of what sets were going for. Quite a few of them I had unopened including the awesome 10179 UCS Millenium Falcon. That is my pride and joy. I am lucky enough to have purchased two when they were available at retail. One is built and displayed in my office, the other is sitting in the closet. Its even one of the early numbered ones which is nice (I would love to know what number it is :)).

Anyhow, i found myself having fun, looking for good deals on MISB Legos and holding on to them. Some people say you can't make money on sets that cost $20-$30. That isn't true. There are numerous ones that have made great returns. For example, the Batman collection (http://www.brickpicker.com/bpms/sets.cfm?theme=13). Many of these sets have gone up 200-400%. And if you look here (http://www.brickpicker.com/bpms/brickindex.cfm) it will show you sets that have performed well in the past six months.

I am sure my love for Legos will last until the day I die. I will always buys sets to build. I love some of the sets coming out in 2012, I love what Lego is doing. But I will always keep in tune for what might be retiring and looking for good deals that might come in handy in the future. Over the next few years as the kids get old enough to be on their own, that will give me the extra room to store and build what i want. I will be able to enjoy both sides of the story.

Thanks.

Edited December 23, 2011 by legotrader

[Pingles]

A friend of mine made a lot of money in the stock market, even as it was falling.

He spent WAY more time researching that stuff than I ever would and loved every minute of it.

If it's something you enjoy just go for it. If you enjoy playing the markets with Lego, stocks, comics, whatever, just do it.

As long as you're not repackaging fake Lego or screwing people over with vague descriptions then you're fine.

You're providing a service and they will pay what they think is fair.

No harm, no foul.

[Henchmen4Hire]

Still don't have a definite opinion on this.

It's scalping if you buy a set just to resell it later for profit, because you know the price will go up due to it being a popular set or whatever.

By that definition though, many other things that we do that seem honest and harmless are also scalping.

For example, say your grandfather leaves you a box full of very old silver dollars. Instead of spending them you decide to keep them for a while, because the longer you keep them the rarer they become and the more you can sell them for later. You want to use that money to fund your kid's college or buy your family the house they've always wanted.

Is that scalping? Is that "wrong"? Or is scalping only wrong when people do it to items others, and especially you, really want?

[Legoist]

I'm not sure if this should have been in the "what set should I buy next" thread, but I wanted to hear from a bunch of you on this.

I bought Green Grocer and had a great time building it. It is my first modular building and I was completely impressed.

That said, I know there is talk of it going away for good at some point (soon?). It is on back order until mid-June here in the US. I have been tempted to get another Green Grocer to put away for awhile and resell, but honestly, that doesn't sit well with me.

I'm not sure I'd feel right reselling the set for higher than retail as I've often been the person who wanted set X, but couldn't swing the after market prices.

So, what are your thoughts? Would you buy a set and put it away for resell purposes? As tempting as it is from a financial stand-point, I'd also be tempted to just get another modular building while they are still available (Fire Brigade may be next :D).

Thanks, everyone!

I have never done this, but sometimes I've though about it. My thoughts on the topic:

- I would never do it as a serious investment, I would never see it as making money but rather as a way to grant myself a discount on all the Lego I'm going to keep instead

- I would always buy sets I wouldn't mind to keep, that way if I never find a buyer it won't bother me at all

- I would keep it on a small scale, i.e. just keep maybe a couple dozen sets for reselling but not more at the same time: it seems to me that having a BrickLink shop with a lot of stuff on sale would start to require a lot of time to manage your "store", and be always there to respond to orders quickly. I don't want to spend my free time doing this, or going daily back and forth the post office to send stuff. Furthermore, if it becomes a significant business you may actually have to comply with laws and pay taxes.

- I would keep track of all the profit I made since the start of reselling, so that whenever I feel guilty of spending too much on Lego, I could lessen the guilt by taking out the profit record and take a good look at it!

Bottom line: you have to know your Lego well. I see some BrickLink shops and I don't understand why they are full of City sets or tiny old sets... the only reason why I would think someone would spend 3 times their original prices is the nostalgia factor (maybe they had those sets when they were kids, and they're fine spending a lot to have a couple of them back). But the big money is spent on highly collectable themes, such as Star Wars, modular buildings, trains or pirate ships.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Legoist

[Trent]

Still don't have a definite opinion on this.

It's scalping if you buy a set just to resell it later for profit, because you know the price will go up due to it being a popular set or whatever.

By that definition though, many other things that we do that seem honest and harmless are also scalping.

For example, say your grandfather leaves you a box full of very old silver dollars. Instead of spending them you decide to keep them for a while, because the longer you keep them the rarer they become and the more you can sell them for later. You want to use that money to fund your kid's college or buy your family the house they've always wanted.

Is that scalping? Is that "wrong"? Or is scalping only wrong when people do it to items others, and especially you, really want?

I think scalping is when there's a limited supply of something, and you're buying it not for the enjoyment of the item but to sell it on. A good example of this would be concert tickets - if there's only 500 seats in an exclusive acoustic concert by a big name star, and you buy up 100 of them with the intention to sell them on at double the price, then you've ripped off a bunch of fans who could've bought them at the original price if you'd given them the chance.

If Lego continues to produce sets, and you want to buy 100 of them to invest, I don't see a problem...because as long as someone else can still buy the set after you've hoarded a bunch of them, that's no big deal - your action hasn't harmed anyone else.

Where I get uneasy is when people greedily grab a tonne of polybags during "free" promotions with newspapers, or take 10 sale items off the shelf. With the newspapers, I think it's pretty outrageous when you know of other people who miss out. I can sort of understand someone taking advantage of a good sale offer, but it seems a bit sad that someone might really want to build a set and a reduction puts it in their price range...but they miss out because an investor came along 5 minutes earlier and bought the whole shelf because it would return them a good profit. But then, we live in a capitalist society, I suppose...

[happymark]

I read from another sites which talked about 'LEGO bubble'.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/2371/speculation-in-the-lego-market-akin-to-tulip-mania-the-housing-bubble

and

http://www.toysnbricks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4804&sid=b4ed48d19777adb531fc2a2a0b95169a&start=100

Many people noticed the increasing number of LEGO "hoarders" especially after 10179 UCS MF and 10182 Cafe Corner phenomenon.

(yes. you can also count Batman/Spiderman or old HP sets)

However, will current sets price increase as well? (I doubt FB/GE will, thinking many people already have dozen of FB for resale later.

even MMV and EN are kept being produced. they are very nice sets by no means)

I do agree there are some bubble about LEGO resale market. maybe will keep for a while. (one thing I noticed about China, the biggest market

which is still in VERY initial state of LEGO collections/playing)

sad is that if you want to invest on LEGO, you have to keep MISB. which means you cannot play with it (not even look into it!)

or you can play and resell the used one which will be only half or less as MISB.

another down side is that the LEGO box is big! it occupied space :(

oh well, we all hope we can get profit from LEGO to support our Hobby! and if we can make a fortune. that would be better :D

Hi guys, I know this thread is quite old, but I just came across it when searching for investing in Legos. This is something I have been doing for quite a while. I am in my mid 40s and I have had my fair share of buying and building. Like some of you have stated, I bought alot of sets, got stuck in family/career life and those sets have sat there for years. It wasn't until I started searching for sets on eBay to finish a collection, that I noticed the value of what sets were going for. Quite a few of them I had unopened including the awesome 10179 UCS Millenium Falcon. That is my pride and joy. I am lucky enough to have purchased two when they were available at retail. One is built and displayed in my office, the other is sitting in the closet. Its even one of the early numbered ones which is nice (I would love to know what number it is :)).

Anyhow, i found myself having fun, looking for good deals on MISB Legos and holding on to them. Some people say you can't make money on sets that cost $20-$30. That isn't true. There are numerous ones that have made great returns. For example, the Batman collection (http://www.brickpicker.com/bpms/sets.cfm?theme=13). Many of these sets have gone up 200-400%. And if you look here (http://www.brickpicker.com/bpms/brickindex.cfm) it will show you sets that have performed well in the past six months.

I am sure my love for Legos will last until the day I die. I will always buys sets to build. I love some of the sets coming out in 2012, I love what Lego is doing. But I will always keep in tune for what might be retiring and looking for good deals that might come in handy in the future. Over the next few years as the kids get old enough to be on their own, that will give me the extra room to store and build what i want. I will be able to enjoy both sides of the story.

Thanks.

[BrickPicker]

I read from another sites which talked about 'LEGO bubble'.

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/2371/speculation-in-the-lego-market-akin-to-tulip-mania-the-housing-bubble

and

http://www.toysnbricks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4804&sid=b4ed48d19777adb531fc2a2a0b95169a&start=100

Many people noticed the increasing number of LEGO "hoarders" especially after 10179 UCS MF and 10182 Cafe Corner phenomenon.

(yes. you can also count Batman/Spiderman or old HP sets)

However, will current sets price increase as well? (I doubt FB/GE will, thinking many people already have dozen of FB for resale later.

even MMV and EN are kept being produced. they are very nice sets by no means)

I do agree there are some bubble about LEGO resale market. maybe will keep for a while. (one thing I noticed about China, the biggest market

which is still in VERY initial state of LEGO collections/playing)

sad is that if you want to invest on LEGO, you have to keep MISB. which means you cannot play with it (not even look into it!)

or you can play and resell the used one which will be only half or less as MISB.

another down side is that the LEGO box is big! it occupied space :(

oh well, we all hope we can get profit from LEGO to support our Hobby! and if we can make a fortune. that would be better :D

A good article on Lego investing...

http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/blog/view/making_money_from_legos

[Legoist]

I think scalping is when there's a limited supply of something, and you're buying it not for the enjoyment of the item but to sell it on. A good example of this would be concert tickets - if there's only 500 seats in an exclusive acoustic concert by a big name star, and you buy up 100 of them with the intention to sell them on at double the price, then you've ripped off a bunch of fans who could've bought them at the original price if you'd given them the chance.

If Lego continues to produce sets, and you want to buy 100 of them to invest, I don't see a problem...because as long as someone else can still buy the set after you've hoarded a bunch of them, that's no big deal - your action hasn't harmed anyone else.

Where I get uneasy is when people greedily grab a tonne of polybags during "free" promotions with newspapers, or take 10 sale items off the shelf. With the newspapers, I think it's pretty outrageous when you know of other people who miss out. I can sort of understand someone taking advantage of a good sale offer, but it seems a bit sad that someone might really want to build a set and a reduction puts it in their price range...but they miss out because an investor came along 5 minutes earlier and bought the whole shelf because it would return them a good profit. But then, we live in a capitalist society, I suppose...

Good points indeed.