Building a brand new Cafe Corner

[fred67]

Long story short... decided to do a family build of the Cafe Corner today. It's been in my closet for some time now; I bought it new from the LEGO Store for MSRP. I checked bricklink and, in North America, the current MINIMUM for a new set is $779.00. I feel like I must be crazy, but I did buy it to build it, and I'm a sucker for my kids.

[Mrlegoninja]

Go ahead and build it. Honestly, I hate people that hoard sets to sell them later for a higher price.

[Edmond Dantes]

I say go for it! I've been thinking about doing the exact same thing with my MISB UCS Falcon. I bought it to build it and since we finally are settled into a house, why not go for it?

[Hinckley]

If you can afford to not sell it, then you should use it for what makes you happiest. Letting it appreciate to the highest value may be smart, but every time your kids look longingly at it, you'd be kicking yourself for not giving them a memorable childhood experience. When it comes down to, it a LEGO set is just a thing. Family is what's important. Good for you. I bet your kids are having a blast with it! Great set. And it gives you an excuse to buy all of the other ones too. They're much less than $780!

[Siegfried]

I like your style.

[fred67]

Thanks.

I'd never built it simply because I didn't have room. Although I've collected all the modular buildings since Cafe Corner, I ended up keeping this one the longest for various reasons... my wife and kids got me the Pet Shop for Father's Day, for example, and we built it right away. Last Thanksgiving we took the Grand Emporium to Grandma's to build. Finally I added some new shelves... one dedicated to modular, so here we go. I actually spent the time between my first post and this one digging it out of my closet

[L@go]

I bought one from a reseller on eBay before I really got back out of my dark ages, about three years ago, before the prices skyrocketed, and built it straight away. It still ranks as one of my best Lego building experiences ever. If it had been unopened today, sitting in a cupboard somewhere, I still think I would have ended up building it. It's just too awesome not to build - after all, it's already become a legendary Lego set, and given the choice between experiencing that build or not, I know what I would do.

I envy you the experience that lies ahead... so come on! Build it! :)

[lightningtiger]

Go for it 'fred67' and why not design an interior for you and your family to work on building....designed by the family, built by the family !

Brick On !

[fred67]

Go for it 'fred67' and why not design an interior for you and your family to work on building....designed by the family, built by the family !

Brick On !

After having build the others I was wondering why it was so short on interior details (*); I'll chalk it up to being one of the first sets when TLG didn't know how popular they'd be.

In my copious spare time, not only will I make an interior, I'm going to light everything. Would be cool to have it for Christmas, but I doubt I'll get that far.

* EDIT: Obviously meaning that we successfully finished... my wife did quite a bit, which is unusual, surprising, and more than a little bit interesting - all in a good way.

Edited September 5, 2011 by fred67

[Locutis]

Long story short... decided to do a family build of the Cafe Corner today. It's been in my closet for some time now; I bought it new from the LEGO Store for MSRP. I checked bricklink and, in North America, the current MINIMUM for a new set is $779.00. I feel like I must be crazy, but I did buy it to build it, and I'm a sucker for my kids.

Good for you for building it!

Enjoy it!

Locutis

[peterab]

I sold my second one when prices started to rise, but had it been my only one I'd have kept and built it too.

After having build the others I was wondering why it was so short on interior details (*); I'll chalk it up to being one of the first sets when TLG didn't know how popular they'd be.

Jamie Berard made a talk about the design process of CC at BrickExpo a few weeks ago. You are pretty much correct. There was no interior because the marketing people didn't want to scare boys away by making it too much like a dolls house. The whole concept of the modulars was a difficult sell because TLG had no idea about who such an expensive set might appeal to. The success of CC gave the designers a bit more freedom in the later sets.

[ryanfitton]

LEGO is meant to be seen, built and played with. Go ahead and build it!

Hope you have fun building it ..

[toorayay]

Go ahead and build it. Honestly, I hate people that hoard sets to sell them later for a higher price.

Really? Hate? Hate?

I mean, that's your prerogative, but that sounds awfully negative.

When I see sets on clearance, I usually pick them up if they look to be something I can use later. Sometimes, I need to part something out and open up a box and sort it (the creator Beach House has been a wonderful world of parts for the stuff I build, and I grabbed a dozen or so from Target when they were 50% off) but sometimes, I wind up purging it - especially if I notice an unusually high aftermarket value. This helps pay for an otherwise expensive hobby. I'm not "profiting" per se, just managing my available space and helping fuel the hobby I love so much. If it doesn't inflate in value, then so be it - that's just more parts I can use later.

I did recently sell my second Cafe Corner. I bought it at the LEGO store at 10% off, due to it having a slightly damaged box. My closet was teeming with sets and I was running out of room, so I sold off a few. I got almost $900 for the Cafe Corner on eBay, so I managed to turn a $125 set into a 600% profit, but that's just money I can spend on LEGO - thus helping them, thus helping us all.

Oh, it also went to someone in Norway, who was perfectly willing to pay that much (as well as another $60 in shipping) for an item that he couldn't get locally. In other words, I helped a fellow fan of LEGO. There's a reason why prices inflate, and it's not because of greed; it's simply based on what the market will bear.

[fred67]

Don't want to turn this thread into something it's not, but I do agree with toorayay; I bought two Green Grocers because one was a damaged box, so I bought both and saved the pristine version to sell later on, which eventually about doubled what I paid. I have no regrets about it... it was only two, and a lot of people who missed out back then because they were still in dark ages, or for whatever reason, are quite happy to get those sets. I've never complained about paying inflated prices for sets I missed, I just have a limit beyond which I won't go and will live without - but some people have a much higher limit.

[Joebot]

I think a lot of people object to "speculators." It's the seedy underbelly of any collectible -- people who buy low / sell high, with no intent of ever actually ENJOYING the thing itself. Those sorts of people can eventually take over and ruin an entire hobby (see comics in the '90s as Exhibit A).

People who snag an extra set because they got a good deal on it are not nearly the same thing as a speculator. That's just a hobbyist trying to fund his own hobby. True speculators don't care about the hobby at all, beyond it's ability to generate profit.

To get back to Fred67's point, I think it's great that you decided to build the Cafe Corner with your family. I'm actually in a very similar situation. My mom called me a few weeks ago to tell me that she discovered an unopened UCS X-Wing Fighter and UCS TIE Fighter in her attic. She'd bought them ELEVEN YEARS AGO to give to me for Christmas, then forgot about them! I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them -- build them for display, part them out, or sell them ... Not sure yet what to do. It's a good problem to have though, you know?