Redisplay Messages: Compact | Brief | All | Full Show Messages: All | Without Replies| Author: | spacecadet0289  | | Posted: | Jan 16, 2022 07:12 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 62 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | | |
I recently sold a sealed Star Wars set for 5 times what I originally paid. That's
nice, but to put it in perspective, I bought that set in 2012, and it had been
taking up space in a closet until the price got high enough for me to put up
for sale. That is a long time tying up your cash (and storage space) waiting
to realize the significant return. There are many sets that will never increase
so much in value.
|
And there were far fewer people investing in LEGO back then. I doubt very many
sets bought today will be easy to sell for 5x their RRP. There might be demand,
but there will also be supply.
|
For sure I understand that, and I wasn’t going to buy a brand new set in store
and expect to sell it for a profit immediately after. I am new to this but I’m
aware of sets soon to be retired or that have been retired that are doing well
on eBay, in fact I’ve just managed to get a sort after set at a very good price,
and hoping to make a good ROI on eBay for its actual collector market value.
Otherwise yes I’ll invest in sets that I believe will do well in the future.
I appreciate it’s a gamble, and may not work out, but I’m a fan of Lego, and
a fan of Star Wars, so I’m not going in completely blind. I appreciate your words
of warning, and to be honest, this set I’ve just got hold of will my tester,
if it dosent work out, I doubt I have the knack for this, but if it does, I’ll
continue.
|
 |
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 16, 2022 07:05 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 42 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, Adjour writes:
| | | | Ok so would you say then that rarity is more important than condition then?
|
I'm going to try to put this politely, forgive me if its not.
Instead of buying a LEGO let, buy some books on basic business and investing
basics off ebay (used) for like $40.
These are very novice questions. I'd suggest you do some reading beyond internet
forums.
Sets new have to sit a minimum of 1-2 year in storage before you can even
think about reselling them for more than you paid for them, at all. Exceptions
are rare. That's not even considering the ROI, that's just making a profit
of more than .01
Best of Luck
Crystal
|
No I appreciate sets still in stores won’t get anything back on them (why would
you pay more for second hand instead of getting brand new untouched for a store?).
I’ve recently come into possession of a set that is no longer stocked and has
been off the shelves for about 8-9 years, so I’m expecting a fairly good ROI.
But understand your comments, and thanks for the advise.
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 15, 2022 11:08 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 64 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, TBS writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
|
It can´t hurt, but doesn´t solve your other problems.
1st. You need to have sets which are sold x1 from LEGO. - Meaning most Sets are
packed by 2 or 3 the smaller ones even by 8 or 12 into that boxes.
That helps for storing, but you can´t ship them that way anyway. (unless you
sell the whole box at once.)
2nd. You can´t ship them like this. First the postal service can still damage
the boxes as there are no reserves for safety. You would have to pack the brown
box inside a bigger brown box adding airpillows or bubble wrap.
Using them as is, might be an invitation for the postal carriers to lose them
somehow, because they know what value is made at sealed sets as well. Additionally,
the Lego Box has a sticker on the side showing its content - aka "SET 10XXX Tantive
IV Quantity 1x "
3rd. It´s not waterproof. In both ways. I have a friend who had a sealed collection
stored in a cellar. At one time he went there to add more sets and found, the
water pipe of the upper flat was broken unnoticed and all his sets were "drown".
The insurance said, we don´t care about the collectors value, you get the original
purchase price from us at best!
So all his potential book-gains in value vanished completely.
On the other side, i had shipments to Worldwide and it happened that some arrived
completely watered. They didn´t have place to store properly, so they left it
in the rain for half an hour or so. That´s especially in the countries who have
monsoon seasons.
So i advice to wrap all shipments of that kind of goods to these areas into shrinkwrap.
So in the end, except having better boxes including no signs of wear and easier
storage/hauling there is no further advantages in the brown boxes.
Have a nice weekend.
Tom
PS: Invest some cents into a small box/letter opener or similar, i had many sets
from local stores or online sales which were not investment material anymore
because their employers were unable to open those brown boxes properly and thereby
cut into the sets itself.
That even in a LEGO Brand Store. (But i didn´t check in the store, just noticed
at home.)
|
Thanks for the advice! Sounds like it’s more faff than it’s worth. I’ll bare
in mind the smaller cheaper sets. I guess if you want to invest it’s going in
how the market has done in the past on certain models and generally a gut feeling.
Did you find it easy to sell sought after sets or was even that quite hard?
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 15, 2022 01:36 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 60 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, Adjour writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | In Help, Adjour writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | Hello!
I’m keen to get into the selling business of sort after sets, and had a question
to maximise returns and what is sort after. For me the main point is packaging
and presentation.
Obviously buyers want the best, and a mint condition box is perfect. However
I know that if you buy direct from Lego, some of the bigger or more expansive
sets come in a Lego branded shipping box. Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
I’m sure I’ll have more questions overtime, but thanks in advance for those who
reply!
|
Is you goal to only sell new/sealed sets?
|
That was my intention, to maximise returns/profit, but of course open to suggestions
or alternative ideas. My main focus was going to be Star Wars.
|
Sealed sets is not the way to maximize returns, IME. However if that's the
only route you want to go, then yes maintaining pristine boxes will def help
with some buyers (many discard boxes too, but it also doesn't hurt anything
to keep them nice).
You may also find that some of those picky buyers that pay more, are really hard
to please, ask lots of questions, take up tons of time and then will often vanish
I sell lots of vintage and retired boxes ( most in storage at the moment, not
in store, just moved) and the level of nonsense I deal with selling boxes is
so high I usually dread it. I specialized in it for a while but now that I'm
busier I'll probably stop.
|
Ok so would you say then that rarity is more important than condition then?
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 16:29 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 74 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, Adjour writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | Hello!
I’m keen to get into the selling business of sort after sets, and had a question
to maximise returns and what is sort after. For me the main point is packaging
and presentation.
Obviously buyers want the best, and a mint condition box is perfect. However
I know that if you buy direct from Lego, some of the bigger or more expansive
sets come in a Lego branded shipping box. Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
I’m sure I’ll have more questions overtime, but thanks in advance for those who
reply!
|
Is you goal to only sell new/sealed sets?
|
That was my intention, to maximise returns/profit, but of course open to suggestions
or alternative ideas. My main focus was going to be Star Wars.
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 14:54 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 66 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, enig writes:
| | In Help, enig writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
|
Not really. Will you have taken it out of the box, or leave the shipping box
sealed? If you can convince the buyer it is worth more, you might get a higher
price but it is still just a sealed set whether it is in a LEGO branded shipping
box or not and will appear as new(sealed).
|
I would have left it in the box, but if there is little value added then ill
probably look elsewhere. It determines where I get certain items from; direct
from Lego or cheaper outlets. Thanks!
|
If you can get them 10% or 20% cheaper than LEGO elsewhere, then the price
difference on purchase is likely to be much more than the price difference when
you sell, comparing when you have the original shipping box and when you don't.
Some other retailers also ship them in the original LEGO shipping boxes too.
|
So the saving made by purchasing elsewhere could be greater than the gain made
by having it in that Lego shipping box?
|
If there are several sets up for sale and all other things being equal (shipping
cost etc), the seller who still has it inside the Original LEGO Shipping Box
will sell his set easier and faster. Maybe not strictly speaking, and there will
always be buyers who just could not care less. But, especially when it comes
to very high-value sets, there are also buyers who will pay a bit more if the
set is still in the original shipping box. If I am already paying $1000 for a
set then yes, for sure I will drop an additional $20. For one - this is just
the way it is with collectibles - every additional bit of authenticity counts.
On top of that - even though a perfect box is never guaranteed even buying directly
from LEGO - the fact that a set has never been removed from the original shipping
box also means that it had more chances of preserving the MINT condition of the
set box. As opposed to a set which has been pushed around on the shelves somewhere
in the warehouse, got additional dings and scratches from handling and re-packaging
etc. For high-end sets the condition of the set box has a very big affect on
the price.
But at the same time - just go with whatever source gives you a better price.
You will not get 10% more from a buyer just because you have the original box.
Once again there are always exceptions and there are buyers who would be very
happy to pay for that, but it may take a long time for such a buyer to show up.
|
P.S. I was speaking more from the point of view of rare sets that became collectibles.
If you are just re-selling current production sets then none of the above matters.
|
Great thanks for the advice! Do you invest at all?
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 08:43 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 66 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | In Help, spacecadet0289 writes:
| | In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
|
Not really. Will you have taken it out of the box, or leave the shipping box
sealed? If you can convince the buyer it is worth more, you might get a higher
price but it is still just a sealed set whether it is in a LEGO branded shipping
box or not and will appear as new(sealed).
|
I would have left it in the box, but if there is little value added then ill
probably look elsewhere. It determines where I get certain items from; direct
from Lego or cheaper outlets. Thanks!
|
If you can get them 10% or 20% cheaper than LEGO elsewhere, then the price
difference on purchase is likely to be much more than the price difference when
you sell, comparing when you have the original shipping box and when you don't.
Some other retailers also ship them in the original LEGO shipping boxes too.
|
So the saving made by purchasing elsewhere could be greater than the gain made
by having it in that Lego shipping box?
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 07:05 | | Subject: | Re: Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 80 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| In Help, yorbrick writes:
| | | | Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
|
Not really. Will you have taken it out of the box, or leave the shipping box
sealed? If you can convince the buyer it is worth more, you might get a higher
price but it is still just a sealed set whether it is in a LEGO branded shipping
box or not and will appear as new(sealed).
|
I would have left it in the box, but if there is little value added then ill
probably look elsewhere. It determines where I get certain items from; direct
from Lego or cheaper outlets. Thanks!
|
|
| Author: | spacecadet0289 | | Posted: | Jan 14, 2022 03:23 | | Subject: | Newcomer, what brings biggest returns? | | Viewed: | 205 times | | Topic: | Help | |
|
| Hello!
I’m keen to get into the selling business of sort after sets, and had a question
to maximise returns and what is sort after. For me the main point is packaging
and presentation.
Obviously buyers want the best, and a mint condition box is perfect. However
I know that if you buy direct from Lego, some of the bigger or more expansive
sets come in a Lego branded shipping box. Does this bring extra value when the
set is sold if it is still in its original Lego branded shipping box?
I’m sure I’ll have more questions overtime, but thanks in advance for those who
reply!
|
|
|
United Kingdom, England
