advertisement


The pfm Lego Investment Challenge

I picked up this Lambo Countach (76908) in Sainsbury's earlier, looks great!

717l1xQB5XL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
... I keep thinking about buying a second one to keep mint in box for when it retires. I reckon that set, along with the UCS Millennium Falcon, will shoot up in value down the line.
I have observed that future value increase is inversely proportional to the length of time a set is production. Case in point, the relative value of Creator Expert modular buildings 10251 Brick Bank (under three years and more than doubled in value) compared with 10232 Palace Cinema (almost five years and increased only about 50% in value, despite being a newer set. The Volkswagen T1 Camper Van (10220) was available for over nine years, and despite being retired now is barely worth more than its original retail price.

The trouble is, of course, we don't know how long Lego will keep sets in production. Some of my better buys have been the Ideas theme. Short-lived sets like 21303 Wall-E and 21310 Old Fishing Store have rocketed in value.
 
Interesting; however I think you also have to factor in the 'Star Wars' factor (sets with tie-ins to major franchises will usually always do well) and the fact it's one of the few 'Ultimate Collector Series'. You'd also probably need to have had multiples of the Wall-e or other sets stashed to make it worth it in cash terms - ie. if the Wall-e set doubles in value it's worth an additional £70. If the UCS Destroyer does the same that's an additional £600.

That being said, you could probably store 20 Wall-e sets in the same space you can store one UCS Destroyer so it probably all evens out in the mix... :D

I'll also admit I don't quite get why something like the Brick Bank is worth quite as much as it is.
 
Any ideas as to optimal hold times? Is there a point after which prices start to drop? I’ve got some good stuff, e.g. Brick Bank and 2x Wall.E mentioned above, but I’m tempted to just keep the money invested in Lego as my stock ISAs really are all over the place at present. I’ve got a lot of the Star Wars stuff too, e.g. UCS Slave and Tie Fighter, though none of the crazy big stuff.
 
I can give you a buyer's perspective Tony as I've only got back into Lego since the start of the pandemic in 2020. There are a lot of older sets I'd like but I won't buy because the prices have gotten too silly - Wall-e being a good example. New ones sold on eBay for between £125-170ish recently, it's a set I'd like but I won't pay £170 for it (even though I could).

If you want to sell one of your Wall-e sets let me know and perhaps we can land on a figure that works for us both.
 
Judging by how much the very first Creator Expert buildings are going for now, I'd say desirable sets keep appreciating in value. Looking at it another way, there will be getting rarer over time as MISB boxed sets change hands and some get opened and built. If you think the Wall-E set is fetching silly money now, wait another five years and see what happens. I really wish I bought another one when it was still in circulation. The one I have is built (but now disassembled and put back into its box. Yet, it is worth far more used than when new.

I'm tempted to sell some of my sets that I don't think will appreciate for a long time e.g Creator Expert Tower Bridge, which was in production for far too long.
 
The question is - What is the age range of LEGO set collectors?
You don't ant to be invested when a significant proportion start falling off the perch

Yes, that is a good point. I don’t want to hold too long. To be honest I really want to downsize my collection as it just takes up way too much space. The sheer size of the boxes is something I didn’t factor at the start at all. I’d certainly like to shift all the Star Wars stuff, in fact I’d like to narrow it down to the things I really like myself which are the NASA sets, Wall.E, Yellow Submarine, Vespa, Steamboat Willie, Sonic, Wahol etc, which would save me a lot of space and cash-in a lot that have actually done pretty well. Packing for shipping is a problem, I’d have to buy boxes as this stuff just doesn’t fit in record or CD packaging! I’d really like to halve what I’m holding.
 
I can see that being added to the collection. I suspect it is quite big looking at it.
So much for halving your collection! I've been thinking about selling some of my sets to lock in the gains, but I find it far simpler to buy than sell.
 


advertisement


Back
Top