Lego should be a hobby and not an investors. It is not fair for an investor to stack up, thereby creating demand and the inflating prices for future new collectors.

I just became an AFOL a few days ago and have already spent a huge amount of money buying sets such as the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Cafe Corner and other modular houses. I don't think it is fair.

I have to say that I completely agree with the other comment - if you can afford to buy all of those sets in one go then you're in a very small minority of AFOLs and should think yourself lucky. I loved Cafe Corner the first time I saw it, but couldn't afford to buy it at that point. By the time I could afford it, it was discontinued. I could whinge about it and say 'it's not fair that they didn't keep making it long enough for me to get a copy!' but I don't - it's just unfortunate that I couldn't afford to buy it when I originally saw it.

In the vast majority of cases, Lego don't produce limited numbers of sets - they'll carry on making batches of them for a certain amount of time, but you can't possibly expect them to keep making sets forever. As someone else pointed out, how do you think you would now acquired a set that was discontinued two years ago unless someone else had the foresight to buy more than one copy of it? It means that those who can afford it can buy a boxed set on the second hand market and those who can't can at least get the rarer parts through Bricklink from sellers who bought the set and parted it out. We're fortunate to be fans of something which can be made easily from (mostly) readily available parts if we want to recreate rare sets. Just be grateful you're not a fan of Ming vases or something!

Everybody has been making very strong points. I for one am glad that some people purchase multiples of particular sets. My kids and I are entering our 3rd year of LEGO and there are so many sets that we missed out on. The fun thing for us is trying to find the older/discontinued sets we want at a reasonable price. It's a long process but the bottom line, we set a price for a particular set that we really want and won't spend a penny more for it. If we happen to come across the set at a great price, we pull the trigger and purchase it. We understand that we may never get some of the sets that we want. IBut you know what the great thing is? LEGO is always making new sets so there's always something to buy.

With all the Lego outlets available, no one has the time or energy to constantly buy every copy of specific sets at every location (not to mention Lego Stores or S@H).

It's not "one guy" doing this, it's a bunch of guys. Everywhere. Though to be fair, Los Angeles is particularly full of these guys so my shopping experiences may not be common.

Another thing, that often gets overlooked, is that the more people go out and hoard such sets for future sale, the less their resale value will actually be.

Right, except that's not true, as all those expensive Star Wars sets for resale show

And those high secondary market prices are determined solely by what people are willing to actually pay for something that is a discretionary luxury at the end of the day.

Do I want to pay 500+ usd for a used Green Grocer, or a 300+ for a used Metroliner? No, not really. Will I? Not sure... ask me In December :P

You guys are right, I should stop blaming the scalpers when clearly it's you crazy guys who are responsible for the insane prices.

Right, except that's not true, as all those expensive Star Wars sets for resale show

You have to remember one thing, though: Even though some sets are for sale at ridiculous prices, it doesn't necessarily mean that they actually sell at those prices :)

The more people that buy sets with the intention of reselling them for a huge profit, the bigger the competition in the market will be, and the prices will have to fall (or at least rise less)... that's the way the market works. And thus the prices of the sets available today probably won't ever rise as much as, say, 3450, 10181 or 10182, because the 'hoarding' was much less widespread then than it is today.

Edited February 7, 201213 yr by L@go

You have to remember one thing, though: Even though some sets are for sale at ridiculous prices, it doesn't necessarily mean that they actually sell at those prices :)

Indeed. And even some of the "sales" may just be Bricklink sellers trading sets between themselves by "selling" at raised prices to try to help keep the value inflated.

I think the overall value is increasing. I remember buying my 8862 set in the early 90's for about the same price as the unimog now 8110. The unimog has motors/pneumatics & is larger with a bigger parts count.

As there was a bit debate on the grand emporiums etc. being grabbed for later profit...

I'm a fresh AFOL and I really want to start picking up the five numbered legos (not avaible in Finland at all). I don't even want to build them, I wan't to own them, and definately not for resale.

Is there a list of sets that have been released?

Or much better, that list with release/discontinue times?

Would really help out a starting collector to know what sets to start buying as there's no way i'm gonna afford several sets per month.

As there was a bit debate on the grand emporiums etc. being grabbed for later profit...

I'm a fresh AFOL and I really want to start picking up the five numbered legos (not avaible in Finland at all). I don't even want to build them, I wan't to own them, and definately not for resale.

Is there a list of sets that have been released?

Or much better, that list with release/discontinue times?

Would really help out a starting collector to know what sets to start buying as there's no way i'm gonna afford several sets per month.

You want the sets, but not to build them? You just want them to sit in the box? whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

As for your question. You could start at brickset. I don't know that they have a dedicated list to five digit sets. This is going to be a rather expensive endeavor.

The way I see it those who hoard sets to resell them later for a profit are actually decreasing the future prices of discontinued sets. Just think about it, what if nobody hoarded Café Corners, Green Grocers or Star Wars sets? Prices would be even higher now for the latecomers.

These traders are channelling future demand into the present and if enough people do this that might even have an effect on the number of sets produced before a set is discontinued. The more people buy sets to resell later the better for me as that increases the chance that I can pick up a set in the future for a reasonable price that I missed or couldn't afford when it was in production.