The Lego Kombi 10220 was $130 new, just a couple of years ago. Now it sells for around the $200 mark.
available from Myer for $135..... http://www.myer.com.au/shop/mystore/creator-volkswagen-t1-camper-van-109664650
Dunno - something I've been looking at myself. I've got some Guardians of the Galaxy LEGO in the Silver Stackers office - Rocket and Groot are the unofficial office mascots, but I'm pretty sure that opening and building the sets is the LEGO equivalent of cleaning numismatics This might be a starting point: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Hard-to-Find-Items-ByTheme I think it would have to be anything that isn't available by the normal retail channels that results in a low availability - if you see it on the shelf at Target, it's not likely to be a set that appreciates in value. There's an absolutely awesome LEGO store in Leipzig that I visited in 2014 - it had some huge box sets like a Sopwith Camels with 50cm wingspan - just checking the LEGO online store and they're sold out - on eBay they're fetching $140-180 USD when they originally retailed for $99. Same set looks to be available on Australian eBay even cheaper. So that's an example of a potential set that would appreciate - large desirable model with a limited run and slightly harder to source initially. Things like planes, trains and automobiles would likely do better than a model of a building. http://shop.lego.com/en-US/MINI-Cooper-10242?fromListing=listing is an interesting one - popular car, and of particular interest is that the LEGO store limits you to only buying 5 sets - so they're already looking to prevent mass hoarding by speculators (I'm sure you would get people trying to buy 100 sets if they thought it was going to pay off in future). Must be LEGO forums out there that have Lunar-like hype on them about new releases
BB, This new hobby is on trial..... You can go to the lego site and look on hash tag "hard to find" http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Hard-To-Find (or go to aussie site) Now what have been most popular and HIGHLY appreciated are Lego modular sets. You will be very surprised to see $$$ on previous modular sets. go for Batman Tumbler. It appears that it has fetching a good premi and the lego set itself is very very nice If you decide to build it yourself. not sure about the van and minicopper..... And the last thing but not the least ....... should you want to flip these, you need to keep the box in mint. So the storage wise poses a much bigger headache than the PM numis :lol:
One thing I noticed if you want to flip this on ebay, the postage cost is high and the packaging set is very difficult. In addition to that, although you get 25%off from the retail price (the disc is quiet common), it is hard to beat other ebay sellers' prices (note ebay fee). You will make money out of it if you can resell it at this type of forum.............
Worst you can do with lego is get your $ back As long as it's complete with it's boxes & instructions , you'll get your $ back Older kits like the original Star Wars kits are getting huge $$$$$ I have about 16 Lego Bionicles kits I need to sell Just too much to separate them all & take pics
They have been arriving in Myer store recently though. I grabbed 2 during their Buy 1 Get 1 50% off sale. Brings the price down to $125~ each.
This is a big drawback. The better sellers and the sets that appreciate the most are the larger ones. Boxes can be up to around the 60cm x 40cm x 15cm mark, and around 3-5kg. With our exorbitant postage rates, it gets expensive.
I think in years to come people will only be paying for the nostalgia value for the Lego sets, or whatever current film franchises Lego manage to secure. There are already much cheaper versions on the market, people who were brought up on Lego turn their noses up at them because they are cheap knock-offs, the quality isn't that high, the sets aren't as good etc. I think that people with kids who aren't that bothered with brand names and just want cheapness will prefer to buy half a dozen knock-offs rather than a single Lego set. These kids will grow up with Mega-Blocks and probably won't 'upgrade' to Lego. Lego does have a good following though, there is a pretty strong modification market, the company will let you design your own kit online and they will actually box it up for you and post it out. They are actively encouraging people to design new types of bricks so their community involvement is high. People can also 3D print bricks that don't exist but that they would like to complete their projects. I can't see home 3D printing being cheaper than a factory in China mass producing the bricks but for custom bricks I can see home 3D printing being a bonus. Or if you can buy the plans for a set off the internet and then print the parts yourself. Lego will probably produce the printer and the plastics for printing, do the software etc. and then you don't have to wait for new sets to hit the shelves, don't have to leave your house and you can have multiple copies of each set. I would have an army of Lego Stormtroopers (Star Wars type) T
It really is. Lego CUUSOO (now Ideas) is a great concept. The creator of the item they end up producing receives royalties from Lego!
They stopped that a few years back. http://ldd.lego.com/en-us/subpages/designbyme/?domainredir=designbyme.lego.com
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v==mQ8_MrH6dDE[/youtube] Apparently it was quite expensive as well, I never used it myself, I only just heard about it from the video above (which I now see was uploaded in 2010, I like to keep up with what the kids are doing these days)
Nope go check out the toy section of any shop and see how much shelf space there is for lego compared to mega-blocks kids are not that stupid - they want the good stuff!
People who buy mega-blocks don't pay retail prices!!! They go to the markets! I picked up a fake Han Solo mini-fig last weekend and had a look at the table of other offerings, they weren't even mega-blocks, mega-block knock-offs! But lots of them, including some pirates! Which I didn't get because apparently I have enough cr@p in the house already.
Must... Not... Build... Oh okay, you can open one of them. Just one. Hope these work out better than clownfish
Might be waiting a while for the Mini to appreciate. The VW Combi released in 2011 and is still being produced. Only once retired do the prices have a chance of going up.