Value of CMF collection and certain minifigures

[Lightning Dragon]

Well, I've been doing some research, and I found out that complete collections of Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are worth about $500-600 or even more!

Not only that, but some specific minifigure I have doubles or triples (or even more) of are also worth more than I imagined.

Examples:

S2 Spartan, S1 Zombie, S6 Roman, S3 Elf are around $15

Most of Series 1 (Spaceman, forestman, cheerleader, robot) is worth around $10, and some from the "middle series" are worth around that (musketeer, hazmat suit guy)

The more liked minfigs from more recent series are around $5-$10. (gladiator, bagpiper, Aztec, galaxy patrol, dwarf)

Of course, complete series are worth a lot of money.

Series 1- almost $200

Series 2-$80

Series 3-$60

How much is your CMF collection worth???

Edited July 28, 2012 by Lightning Dragon

[Wardancer]

Oh, then my 60 elves make me a rich man. Plus 10 dark knights and 10 valkyries.

But things are just 'worth' something if someone pays for it. If I put some old set on amazon.de for 499 Euro, it is not automatically worth this amount. LEGO is sometimes offered for ridiculous prices.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Wardancer

[Zeya]

I agree with Wardancer. People can ask the stars and moon for their stuff, but whether it will actually sell is something else entirely.

And the best way to find out something's worth is to go to eBay, do your search with "auctions only" and sort by "time ending soonest" and go into each individual listing you're interested in assessing and do "watch this item" on it (or just bookmark it in your browser might work too). Then when the item ends, you check what it actually sold for, and that should be a decent estimate of what it's worth. Of course even that has some error (e.g. someone bid it up but won't actually pay or just a bad day and nobody bought the item for what it's normally worth). Usual disclaimers apply etc.

[Dunjohn]

I armied the zombies when they came out. I think I have about 50 of them. I've full sets of all the serieseses plus a few spares, mainly Spartans to trade for zombies should the opportunity ever arise. But value doesn't come into it for me, this is my personal collection.

Edited July 23, 2012 by Dunjohn

[HawkLord]

Series 1- almost $200

Series 2-$80

Series 3-$60

Series 1, I would agree is worth something, but I don't feel confident in saying it's worth that much. I'd say closer to $100-150.

Every other Series can't be worth all that much. You can still get cases (60 minifigures) off of Ebay in the range of $140-180 depending on the Series and that would easily net you a few complete sets, since each figure is usually 5-6 per box.

[Phyre]

I'm an army builder (not an extremely serious one - currently my largest army is 11 elves), and so I've been keeping eyes on the prices of many of the more desired figures on eBay and Bricklink. Zombies are easily the most valuable figure. I have yet to acquire any besides the original three I got in 2010. I am kicking myself for not buying a bunch from a guy on Bricklink who had them for like $3.40 apiece back when they first came out. He had ten if I remember correctly, and if I'd have known then how much they'd skyrocket in value, I would have bought them all. Currently they seem to go for around $20 apiece. Rarely will you find them less than that. Ebay auctions for them typically end around $20. I saw a couple pop up on Bricklink a couple weeks ago for $12 apiece, but they were gone the next time I checked.

Spartans are probably the next most valuable, but they seem to have stabilized at a more manageable price than the zombies. I've won three on eBay this year for around $8-10 apiece, and you can generally find them for less than $12. Elves seem to be at similar rates, maybe slightly cheaper, although I haven't bought any recently since they currently are my largest army. Romans surprisingly are already at a rate close to the Spartan as well (surprising because they were out much more recently than the Spartan). Evil Dwarves and Musketeers seem to hover around $4-$7, and Minotaurs maybe about $3-$6. Evil Knights I'm not sure on, as I've gotten all nine of mine so far in stores, and haven't really checked eBay or Bricklink for them. Those are the only figures I really have interest in army building. The non-army builder figures can generally be found for between $2 and $5. Sometimes you might get lucky on eBay and win one for less than $2.

My entire collection, consisting of all 7 complete series, several extras, and a few small armies, is probably worth quite a bit. I just did a quick calculation of just my army builders (zombies, Spartans, elves, mukseteers, dwarves, minotaurs, Romans, and evil knights), and came up with a total of $337 using the lowest rates I listed above. My three zombies are worth $60 alone.

Collectible minifigures - especially the army builder ones - definitely seem to be a good investment.

[Blondie-Wan]

I armied the zombies when they came out. I think I have about 50 of them. I've full sets of all the serieseses plus a few spares, mainly Spartans to trade for zombies should the opportunity ever arise. But value doesn't come into it for me, this is my personal collection.

Same here. I've gotten hundreds of the blasted little wallet-bleeders, and not one of them is intended as an investment in anything besides my resources for MOCs and whatnot.

I'm an army builder (not an extremely serious one - currently my largest army is 11 elves), and so I've been keeping eyes on the prices of many of the more desired figures on eBay and Bricklink. Zombies are easily the most valuable figure. I have yet to acquire any besides the original three I got in 2010. I am kicking myself for not buying a bunch from a guy on Bricklink who had them for like $3.40 apiece back when they first came out. He had ten if I remember correctly, and if I'd have known then how much they'd skyrocket in value, I would have bought them all. Currently they seem to go for around $20 apiece. Rarely will you find them less than that. Ebay auctions for them typically end around $20. I saw a couple pop up on Bricklink a couple weeks ago for $12 apiece, but they were gone the next time I checked.

Spartans are probably the next most valuable, but they seem to have stabilized at a more manageable price than the zombies. I've won three on eBay this year for around $8-10 apiece, and you can generally find them for less than $12. Elves seem to be at similar rates, maybe slightly cheaper, although I haven't bought any recently since they currently are my largest army. Romans surprisingly are already at a rate close to the Spartan as well (surprising because they were out much more recently than the Spartan). Evil Dwarves and Musketeers seem to hover around $4-$7, and Minotaurs maybe about $3-$6. Evil Knights I'm not sure on, as I've gotten all nine of mine so far in stores, and haven't really checked eBay or Bricklink for them. Those are the only figures I really have interest in army building. The non-army builder figures can generally be found for between $2 and $5. Sometimes you might get lucky on eBay and win one for less than $2.

Yow, $20 for a S1 zombie?! I'm kind of amazed. I wouldn't even have thought of that as an army-builder, exactly - I mean, sure, plenty of us want armies of zombies, but not identical ones; I'd want as much variety among them as among regular Cityfolk.

Based on my personal experience, I'm not at all surprised to hear Roman soldiers are already commanding those sorts of prices. For some reason, Series 6 seems to have disappeared from the stores a lot more quickly, at least in my local area. There are actually some stores here that either didn't put out all their stock of S6 on the floor, or withdrew it back into their stockrooms, and none of the stores seem to have gotten as much stock to begin with as they had of previous series. One independent store here actually skipped over S6 entirely, when they'd gotten every previous series from 1 through 5, and have since gotten S7. There are also a number of Walmarts that have scads of S5 left, but nary a single S6 in sight. It's frustrating to me; I'd really like to get a bunch more Roman soldiers (around 30, say), but I've been able to snag "only" 17 (which I realize is a lot more than many other people, and I shouldn't complain ). I've found it a lot tougher to get a bunch of them than I ever did of S2 Spartans, say.

I keep hearing about the premiums commanded by S3 elves. It's kind of bizarre to me - there's a store near me that actually still has abundant S3 (it's the same store that never got S6, actually). I keep thinking I should go get more elves, though I already have several; when going back to that store to get more S3 figures lately it's actually been mainly to get more aliens (to use as an additional soldier variety with the Alien Conquest stuff).

The other figure I most want to army-build isn't actually a military figure at all, but rather the S5 graduate. I'd love to get as many as I can to fill out commencement ceremony MOCs. Fortunately for me, there are still scads of S5 locally. Money is a bigger barrier than availability to getting all the S5 I want, at least for the moment.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Blondie-Wan

[Hammerstein NWC]

where I live you can still pick up series 5 and 6 aswell as 7. only a month ago I managed to pick up 7 series 4 from a local post office. We have the olympic figs at a £2.50 each in WHS smith but our John Lewis hasn't received any yet!!

I've been trading romans with a friend. I think they are well worth buying as there will always be people who want to build a unit for their Centurion. I believe they will become as popular as the zombie in the long run. Now TLG is bringing out more zombies I think demand for the series one will eventually decline a bit.

The aftermarket companies like Eclipsegrafx and Citizen brick to name a few are bringing out quality alternative heads and whole designs in some places which must be helping the zombie MOC makers out there.

Personally I have mutliple complete sets of all the series except series 1 and two where I might need the odd figure, as for value I have no idea. I have an unopened box of series 6 and the olympic minifigures aswell and a near complete box of series 7. I bought them as in investment. I think I must have at least 4 sets of series 7 on top. when I came out of my dark age my early focus was on minifigs so I have plenty to trade. :)

I recently picked up a number of series 2 figs off a friend on FLickr with the Spartan being the most expensive at $8.

Onw good way of picking up CMF's cheap is to watch Ebay and buy job lots of CMF mixed with regular minifigs. I've picked up some total bargains that way! :)

[Blondie-Wan]

where I live you can still pick up series 5 and 6 aswell as 7. only a month ago I managed to pick up 7 series 4 from a local post office. We have the olympic figs at a £2.50 each in WHS smith but our John Lewis hasn't received any yet!!

I've been trading romans with a friend. I think they are well worth buying as there will always be people who want to build a unit for their Centurion. I believe they will become as popular as the zombie in the long run. Now TLG is bringing out more zombies I think demand for the series one will eventually decline a bit.

I think you're right about that. The Monster Fighters line is a real shot in the arm, as far as bringing new zombie parts goes. It offers new heads, torsos, etc. for zombies, and with mixing and matching and using "non-zombie" parts to fill in, there's now an opportunity to create a much more varied zombie horde, for those of us inclined to do so.

I can still get S6 around here, but in more limited quantities than either S7, S5 or S3 (!), and I've already personally cleaned out most of the remaining Roman soldiers around here. I do hope to be able to find a few more, though.

[Wardancer]

With Legolas and Haldir being available already and more Elves to come, it would be interesting to know if the CMF elves drop in value soon.

[ticktockclock]

I'm not much into army building, but that's mainly due to money (getting ready to move across town and the gf has been getting on me to slow down on the lego purchases haha). I've also only recently gotten back into lego (~6 months ago) so i've been scrambling to catch up on the CMFs as best I can. This has basically limited me to 1 of each that I specifically want. All my packets are open so I know that hurts the value, but looking at early series' prices, I'm fairly confident that I'll at least make my money back when the CMF series are discontinued and these become more desirable. At least that's what I tell my woman to keep her calm when I drag her out to TRU to watch me feel through packets (though she was impressed when we walked out with a S6 Roman the other day for $3.19 and I showed her how they can go for $15 on ebay). This really is one of the few hobbies/collectables that have good enough resale for me not to feel bad spending so much, but my "one of each" current collection will probably keep me from selling any of them! My only doubles are the Highlander and Clockwork Robot and those will probably fetch a decent price in a year or so.

[fred67]

With Legolas and Haldir being available already and more Elves to come, it would be interesting to know if the CMF elves drop in value soon.

I wonder about a lot of stuff like that... I was collecting elves and dwarfs (aside from the one each of every figure I have on display, I have a sealed one, too; on top of that, I have maybe 15 elves and dwarfs), but figured that LOTR would eventually make it pointless and give me much more of a variety, eventually.

Not to go too far off topic, but I feel the same way about sets from other themes - specifically Star Wars when, for example, a new Millennium Falcon (4504) on Bricklink starts at $200 (in the US, and there's only one... the next lowest is over $400), but a new ship comes out (7961), is (subjectively, but almost universally so) better, and can be had for MSRP. Only for some kind of purist collector who needs every version of everything could 4504 possibly be worth that much. Luckily, I'm not one - so when a new version comes out and I can get it for MSRP (or less) then I don't care that I don't have every version.

Back on topic, though, my CMF collection is thus: 1 of every figured opened and in a display case, 1 of every figure sealed (yes, I'm that confident in the "feel" method when given enough time), and extras of the interesting ones that sparked some MOC ideas - elves, dwarfs, musketeers (3, of course), and many of the Hollywood B-Movie figures (Ape suit guy, lizard suit guy, robots, etc.). Some figures I just liked even though I didn't have a purpose for them at the time - I have a number of space patrol guys, for example, and evil knights...

In fact, around this time last year I was ready to give up on most of the other themes and just collect CMFs. I didn't like non-fantasy castle; I would continue to buy OT Star Wars sets (only of things I didn't have, though), so that wasn't much... I was a fan of architecture, but when they started going from $20 sets to $50, $70, $100 - even $200, I said to myself that I just can't keep up with that. The point being that I really love CMFs, and I think that, for me, all the MOC ideas they spark when a new series is released makes them the the best thing LEGO could have done for me.

What will I do with those sealed series? I don't know... my kids collect, too, but only specific ones they like; perhaps grandkids someday. Who knows what they'll be worth by then, though. Last year I had a hard time building my Cafe Corner, which was brand new, still sealed in the box - the lowest BL value was over $800 (I bought it new for MSRP - $140), but I didn't buy it to save - it only took me so long because I didn't have the space to display it once built until I added some new shelves.

[Shushen]

Heh i got spares of elf, muskeeteer, graduate and a few others thats supposed to be hot. I just want to get hold of series 4 monster, scientist and the new galaxy patrol guy. Just reminding folks that there is a trade post in the buy/sell forum for minifigs.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Shushen

[tazosaure]

S3 Elf are around $15

Most of Series 1 (Spaceman, forestman, cheerleader, robot) is worth around $10

One can snatch an elf up for $15 in the lego store VIP exclusive pack:

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-VIP-Top-5-Boxed-Minifigures-850458

But for that price one also gets 4 more figs!!! Did I miss something here?

And how can the cheerleader be $10 when you can get it for $15 in the calendar set along with the S1 skater and some bricks?!?!

Is there a difference between the 2? They look pretty much the same to me...

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Brick-Calendar-853195

Anyways I don't think CMF despite their names will hit truly crazy collectible prices, they've been produced too widely and TLC has shown it will not shy away from bringing back the past CMF figs on the market again, diluting "collectible" value (see above 2 examples, as well as the beach pack: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Minifigure-Accessory-Pack-850449)

Even the zombie is not that unique anymore with the Monster Fighters "the zombies" set (zombie "bride", "groom" and "chauffeur") as well as the "haunted mansion" (zombie "chef", multiple zombie heads in the pillars)

[Lightning Dragon]

One can snatch an elf up for $15 in the lego store VIP exclusive pack:

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-VIP-Top-5-Boxed-Minifigures-850458

But for that price one also gets 4 more figs!!! Did I miss something here?

I examined them closely: the fisherman's fish seems to be a different color, and the same is with the scorpion. There are some differences in all the figures, but not too obvious.

Most minifigs have not been produced as a theme: the Spartan, Elf (well, sort of), Galaxy Patrol, etc.

[S.I]

You can get complete sets of S1 for 100-120 euros on ebay, don't know where you are getting 500$ from.

[Scrib]

With Legolas and Haldir being available already and more Elves to come, it would be interesting to know if the CMF elves drop in value soon.

True, but there are those who dislike fleshies and the Legolas/Haldir hairpiece has flesh ears. The S3 Elf hairpiece will always be useful for those who only work with yellow.

[Lightning Dragon]

You can get complete sets of S1 for 100-120 euros on ebay, don't know where you are getting 500$ from.

I meant Series 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Lightning Dragon