The oldest set you have ever found in a toy shop?

[legotrainfan]

What's the oldest set you have ever found in an ordinary toy shop/store? So Bricklink, eBay, etc. do not count!

What I'm interested in: When was the old set you found released? What set was it? And in what year did you find/buy it?

I'm just curious to find out whether some people still find sets from the 80s or 90s - or sets that are even older than that - in toy shops. Feel free to mention sets that were produced after the 90s! My question is: Is it still possible to coincidentally find any precious gems in such shops or not?

I can just remember buying a Santa Fe waggon 10022 quite a while after it went out of production. However, I cannot remember the year when I bought it. I just know that prices for one copy of that waggon went up like crazy on eBay. And I got that waggon in a toy shop for the price it was originally sold.

[Cwetqo]

Last year I found some 9v straight rails and switches in old "system box" (newer had "world city boxes"), which probaly means that they are pre year 2000. Price was a bit on the high side, but regular for those time (its an expensive store).

This store stil holds large life on mars set from 2001.

So, there is still hope, but not in well visited or cheap stores.

[Peppermint_M]

Howel's Department Store in Cardiff has quite a mixed bag of older and new sets, mostly the big box sets from popular themes from a long time ago. The mark-up makes them too pricey to shift.

As for oldest: Two years ago in Slough I found Subzero from the old Xalax Racers theme in an independant pharmacy when I was nipping in to pick up some paracetamol or somesuch. Quite a surprising find, but then early 2000's impulse sized sets were strangely well stocked in unusual places, I found Basket Ball sets in my local newsagents from a similartime period.

[coffeeandcake]

just a couple of weeks ago i walked into a shop specialising in lego in the mall and they had a selection of vintage sets for sale (very expensive mind you).

they included some aquanauts, some pirates sets like 6268 and a couple of my own train sets and a few others.

[JopieK]

those speciality stores occasionally have old sets indeed... I found an old town set in a regular toy store nearby (10041 set)

[Grimmbeard]

Yeah, there's a shop like that near me. Lots of old castle sets and minifigures. Very expensive though.

[Brickington]

I have seen the original LEGO yellow castle on display in an old timey hobby/toy store. I believe that is the oldest one I have seen.

[davee123]

Oldest one I personally found was a set from 1992 (8826) in a store in 2006 (14 years old).

DaveE

[LegoDad]

I'll tell you in a few years when all the Cars 2 sets are still sitting in TRU.

[1974]

I saw this 1975 set a couple of weeks ago at a really nice shop in Berlin, https://www.sadk-berlin.de/

[Electricsteam]

I found set 111 in a newly open thrift shop! Only paid 2$

Edited May 7, 2013 by Electricsteam

[Palathadric]

I believe there may still be some Western sets floating around my city back from the day when a couple of the supermarkets actually had LEGO sets in them. Yeah, I guess people in my city are not big fans. The prices are outrageous though, which is odd, because one would imagine that if the supermarkets couldn't sell them at their former prices, they would dump the price instead of increasing it.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Sometime in 2009 our local Kid Country Toy store closed near my house closed. I stopped in to look around one last time and found a marked down 6518 Baja Buggy from 1996. It has had a new home since that day

[Galaxy Explorer]

I suppose it would depend on the type of store, too. Second hand stores and thrift shops can have any merchandise regardless of age, while major chain stores usually only have recent items. However, I do remember seeing a Galaxy Commander at Sears in 1988, which was five years after it had been released. I thought "Wow this has been out a long time!" but back then sets had longer life spans. But the Galaxy Commander had been replaced by the Cosmic Fleet Voyager in 1986, so this was clearly something that had lingered around. It was $40, so I passed. I was hoping it would have been marked down by then, but no luck.

There is a small toy store a short distance from me that had some Studio sets as late as 2005, but they were so expensive I couldn't imagine anyone buying them.

[meyerc13]

When I got back into LEGO a few years ago, I found some of the 1978 vintage road plates at a small local store, still with the original $5 price. I bought some, but I foolishly didn't buy all of them (money was tight that day), and the next time I stopped back they were gone. I suspect that someone had been keeping an eye on them, and when they saw some of them had been sold they decided to grab the rest. Oh well...

That store still had a 1349 Steven Spielberg Moviemaker set the last time I was there, but at the original $180 price so it isn't selling. They have a mix of other older sets, some Bionicle, Jack Stone, Galidor... a few Creator sets, Space Police III, all sorts of old themes. Now I'm itching to take a trip there again to dig through the aisle of LEGO... every time I leave with some small find.

[WhiteFang]

Just recently, I stepped in a toy shop known as Simply Toys in Singapore at Plaza Singapura Shopping Centre. Saw the set 7707 Striking Venom in the same SRP back in 2006. It is probably one of the older recent LEGO sets that I have encoutered that I could find in the original former pricing without taking inflation into consideration.

I do wish I could actually encounter some of those classic sets somewhere in the lost of time. It will just be a child's dream coming true.

[CMP]

Last year I found the Space Police Central on sale at Toys 'R' Us, two years after it'd been released, and a year after I last saw SPIII in stores. Couldn't help myself and picked one up.

Edited May 9, 2013 by CallMePie

[legotrainfan]

I do wish I could actually encounter some of those classic sets somewhere in the lost of time. It will just be a child's dream coming true.

This thought made me begin a new thread! Would be wonderful to get some of the old sets for their original prices! ...I'm daydreaming!

[TheLegoDr]

It must have been this thread in my sub-conscious creating dreams for me. I had a dream last night that I was in some store (I think Wal-Mart) and they had this random display stand of old sets and tons of discounted sets, and sets that don't exist other than in my mind. But everything was really low prices. It was awesome. There was the new Sopwith Camel out of the box, they had TMNT sets of individual figures. It was really weird. But fun nonetheless.

As far as official sets in stores...I've seen some Toy Story sets at TRU one time long after the license was over. But other than that, I don't recall. I'm sure there were some good deals sometime in the past, but I never paid attention to LEGO until the last few years.

[Sid Sidious]

My TRU still has one PoP set, at the original marked up price. I've never found older sets at big stores, but I found a set from the 70s at a flea market once.

[BlueberryWaffles]

My TRU still has the entire PoP line and a few 2010 hogwarts castles.

[Brickity]

When I went to visit the Neuschwanstein castle back in 2008, there was a supermarket nearby. There was a huge basket full of Johnny thunder sets (and other themes which weren't of my interest) with huge discounts, almost like if they wanted to kick that box out of the supermarket already.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Otherworld

[RaincloudDustbin]

Howel's Department Store in Cardiff has quite a mixed bag of older and new sets, mostly the big box sets from popular themes from a long time ago. The mark-up makes them too pricey to shift.

As for oldest: Two years ago in Slough I found Subzero from the old Xalax Racers theme in an independant pharmacy when I was nipping in to pick up some paracetamol or somesuch. Quite a surprising find, but then early 2000's impulse sized sets were strangely well stocked in unusual places, I found Basket Ball sets in my local newsagents from a similartime period.

Where abouts is that? Anywhere near Cardiff Bay or the St.Davids centre?

Found a large Indiana Jones set for 20 in a shop... wish I'd nabbed it now.

[Peppermint_M]

It's David Evans on The Hayes, so a short walk across from the Dewi Sant or virtually directly opposite the St David's Hall. Next to the Market.

You know, they filmed that episode of Doctor Who there? Eleven worked in that exact toy department while trying to track down the Cybermen.

[RaincloudDustbin]

It's David Evans on The Hayes, so a short walk across from the Dewi Sant or virtually directly opposite the St David's Hall. Next to the Market.

You know, they filmed that episode of Doctor Who there? Eleven worked in that exact toy department while trying to track down the Cybermen.

Thanks.

That's an interesting fact!