Brickset forum
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
You must be 16 or over to participate in the Brickset forum. Please read the announcements and rules before you join.
Comments
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •@Farmer_John But how many people out there are going to be looking for rock monsters? Imo, not enough to justify "investing" in them.
As brickupdate pointed out, I think army building is the one exception. Anything else could/will be reproduced. And you can't buy enough gold C3PO's to make a profitable venture either.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I tend to focus on the rare figures I know are in popular demand and I can get rid of fast if I need to, such as Jango fett, Cloud City Boba, Chrome C-3PO, and of course the clones. It's more of a matter of space for me, since I don't have the room for massive amounts of NIB sets, I go with the figures which take up very little space and make me a nice amount of money.
Cheers,
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I do enjoy the minifigs, but I have little interest in them by themselves so I don't invest in them.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •That said...I hope for an updated Cloud City.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •"May the Fourth be with you..."
It is a Star Wars thing. :)
There is talk of a "Revenge of the Fifth" on the 5th of either May, or another month as well.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I have one set aside to build, otherwise that's it. It is not a set that is time to buy, in my opinion. I see it staying past the end of HP, for no good reason perhaps other than the fact that Lego may have the specific parts for this already made in qty in their bulk storage and this is a good way to move them.
It is possible it will just up and disappear, but the risk also is that once HP Lego goes away, future demand for it will also go away. Without "new" HP sets on the shelves to let new people in the hobby even know HP Lego ever existed, most people won't search out for it.
Time will tell... If I can ever find them on offer for 25% or more off, then I'd pick some up.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I actually picked up 2 diagon alleys today for $250 free shipping. Not an absolutely amazing deal, but for someone looking to stay small with my LEGO NIB inventory, it wasn't bad.
Cheers,
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •Another problem with selling minifigs, however, is there are tons of flaky bidders -- both new and seasoned bidders. I file several times a week on non-payers.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •Am currently clearing my 8014s then it'll be onto the stashes of 8083/4 & 7913.
Not making UCS falcon profits but its nice and steady
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •To try to stay somewhat on-thread, I note that I picked up a Battle of Endor playset (just missed this one as I really started focusing on star wars in the last couple of months) for $115. That was definitely a steal -- average price seemed to be up around $150. Currently debating whether the Hoth sets are worth a gander -- aren't they out of production or close to it? And I, too, keep going back and forth on the Death Star. I just can't seem to justify $400 -- or even $360 -- to myself (or my wife).
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •The size, detail, and part count, are justified here.
Building it was indeed fun, it was worth every penny...
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •To be honest, Death Star is great at $400, it would still be pretty amazing at $800.
At $1,829, it would not quite be such the deal, which is where the price would be if the per part price was similar to UCS Falcon.
If you care to sell me your used UCS Falcon for what you originally paid for it, I'm game. :O
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •:D
You should get in on the round robin exchange.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •Most of the Hoth sets should be bought when you see them if you're interested in them, as at least the 10 year anniversary Echo Base, AT-AT and Wampa cave are out of production, and 7989 will probably be discontinued in not too long.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •Cantina (would be amazing for minifigs, but would LEGO really create a $400 set of a cocktail bar?!)
Dagobah (with only 4 characters really interacting here, I can't see this being the choice)
Hoth they have done to death already
Jabba's Palace they are already doing in 2012 - a pretty cool looking set too.
Maybe Jabba's Sail Barge? Likely not $400 though.
Endor - please no. I just don't think a forest set at $400 would fly off the shelves.
Cloud City - you know, a LOT happened here, tons of characters on all sides, including every major character. Plus many scenes, including the most classic scene from the entire series - one of the more classic scenes in cinema. Two actually.
So, cloud city gets my vote too.
-Dan
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •All kidding aside, no matter how cool it is, is it $2,500 cool?
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •The only things I can see getting similar treatment to the Death Star are Cloud City or an Ewok Village. Then again I can't see either of them selling as well as the Death Star, so maybe there won't be another 400 dollar play set anymore.
Btw, if I would have to come up for an idea for a huge prequel play set, I would suggest the Jedi temple.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I have a bit of a Hoth theme going in my sons room right now (AT-AT, Wampa Cave and Battle Packs) and I just snagged the smaller Echo Base (7749) for $30 shipped on ebay. They all look great displayed together. Especially with the snowspeeder and speederbikes on stands so it looks as though they are in flight.
The bigger Hoth Echo Base set doesn't really seem like it would fit in with the 'outdoor' look of the set up I have going right now. But who knows, I'll probably kick myself down the road for not grabbing it when I could for retail. The Hoth sets
I did just pick up Battle Of Endor for $115 tax in from a friend of mine. Would like to grab Ewok Attack and the Endor Battle Pack to round out the scene....And eventually have 10212 Imperial Shuttle landing somewhere in the display somewhere.
The Death Star just doesn't interest me as much as it seems interest most everybody else. For $400 my $$$ is going to the SSD. I'm a display more than play guy though. My 4 yr old may think differently once he's seen the movies in a few years though.
The first UCS set on my list is the Imperial Shuttle. Really hoping something happens with this on May 4.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •Hmm, kinda silly really. :) But then I'm not a kid anymore either.
I do like playing with the trains with my son, because they actually "do" something, and they remind me of the model trains I had as a kid. Never had all these fancy sets when I was a kid, just a few boxes of basic bricks.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •840 Death Star's left now, slowly working down. If the numbers are accurate, they are selling a few an hour. Not bad for a $360 item, but honestly slower than I would have expected. I guess it isn't Christmas, but it is on sale, so that should help.
If Lego does 80% of their sales during Christmas... That would mean this should sell between 50K and 100K units on Amazon each year. Add to that what Lego sells direct, what TRU sells, and the other retailers around the world.
Anyone want to place bets on 10188 moving about 1 million units a year worldwide? Too many? Too few?
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I don't know, the jury is still out with me on the DS for now. I'll probably be kicking myself once it's no longer available....If I don't purchase it soon.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •At the current sales rate, Amazon would move 35K units a year of DS, but this is March, not December. I watched DS go in and out of stock during Christmas, they were moving up to 100 an hour the two weeks before Christmas.
If a big, complex set like DS could only sell 60K units over 4 years, that would be 15K per year, I do not believe that makes any sense whatsoever. It means that Amazon would be moving, at most, perhaps 3-5K units per year, to give enough units for everyone else to sell.
Amazon will sell 3K of them this month, much less all year.
Maybe they have made a million of them, maybe not... I don't believe 60K for a second.
Another way to look at it... Lego did about $3.5 Billion in sales last year (most of it wholesale sales, so discounted 30% off retail prices), 250K Death Star sets for the year would be $70 Million wholesale... That is not hard to believe out of that gross sales figure. It works out to 2% of their total sales, for a product that sells for $400 (compared to all the $20 sets), that seems possible.
If they are only selling 15K of them a year, that would be $4.2 Million. It sounds like a lot, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to $3.5 Billion in sales, it is about 1/10 of 1%. For a big, complex set like that, licensed no less, I just don't see it.
Just my opinion of course. :)
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I thought about trying to calculate the amount of sets they could sell by their sales, but I also didn't know those numbers. I'm sure if I took the time to research and got an old pencil and piece of paper out, I could get a much more accurate number, but I guess I'm just too lazy for that right now.
I can see 250-500k of these sets being sold total if amazon really does sell that much. I guess I wasn't considering that this set is going to a lot of kids instead of mostly AFOLs. Now that I am doing my math again, I definitely miscalculated. There are just so many factors to consider. Over 100,000 just seemed like too many sets for AFOLs, but this set is meant for kids.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I sell the battlepacks individually - it takes no time at all to pack and post. I have been reselling for 6+ years and these are a constant stream of profit. I sometimes sell 3 or 4 discontinued ones together as a lot and they make good £ as well.
I suppose its all relative to personal circumstances - I do have a full time job but I live 50yds from a post office so its convenient.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •But only Lego really knows. :)
The next question is, over 4 years, how many SSD sets can they sell?
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •From what I read over all the forums, everyone just sees it as a gray mass of bricks. Personally, since I have the set, I think it looks fantastic and it's aftermarket value will be extremely high. Because the piece count to price ratio is decently off (Not that off in the SW market though), they won't be selling as many right now to the regular consumer. However, once it's retired and there are hardly any on the market, it will steadily increase in price. Let's just hope, for those that own one, they don't re-release it like they did the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Cheers,
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •A LEGO employee mentioned in another thread that sets like Emerald Night sell in the tens of thousands, while sets like a mid-range Ninjago sell over a million units.
If the mid-range Ninjagos are what are seen as "million unit" sellers, then I doubt any of the modulars are in that sales class.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •So, you never can tell. :)
If it hasn't sold a million, I would not be surprised. I'd fall over shocked if it hasn't moved 250K units in 4 years however.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I've personally seen multiple parents buy DS in the Lego store for their kids, the manager there also tells me most of the sales of that set go to parents for kids, unlike the modulars which mostly go to adults.
I would not be surprised if DS outsold FB during the same period of time.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •I agree with @LegoFanTexas about the unique appeal of Death Star as an expensive set: this is not just a pretty model, it is a set that both boys and girls actively play with.
- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •- Spam
- Abuse
0 • Like •