In the past few years investing in LEGO has become a trend and hot topic amongst LEGO fans. Previously people bought LEGO for their children or their own enjoyment, and only considered selling their collection when they wanted to move on from the hobby or had to sell their collection due to financial or other issues. However especially since the use of the Internet it has become quite apparent that LEGO sets, minifigures and parts (especially the discontinued or rare ones) are in fact a hot commodity that can bring significant gains. 🙂
LEGO fans realized that by selling LEGO they no longer want or need they can fund the hobby (LEGO is an expensive toy after all – and more LEGO is always better), or make extra money for other expenses. This trend has progressed so far in fact that there are now those who look at LEGO exclusively (or almost exclusively) as an investment; they buy new LEGO sets in multiples with immediate or future gain in mind, or scout for old LEGO sets they know are still in high demand.
Personally I don’t consider myself a LEGO investor, however I do sell LEGO (especially minifigures) to fund my hobby. In fact I own all my LEGO free and clear just buy investing a little time and effort of doing a few sales a month. Whatever comes in from these sales is what I use to buy new LEGO. I have also talked with some long-time LEGO investors who shared with me that their LEGO investments far outperformed their gains on the stock-market or other, more traditional lines of investment vehicles.
Whether you just want to fund your LEGO obsession, or you are considering LEGO as a serious investment vehicle, one challenge you will run into, and where you spend most of your time at, is price-research. This is the heart-and-soul of investing in LEGO (or in anything else for that matter); you want to buy low and sell high. Today I would like to introduce you to a website that will help you in your price-research and your LEGO portfolio management, so read on! 😉
BrickPicker.com is an online LEGO Price and Investing Guide that was created by two brothers, Jeff and Ed Maciorowski. Jeff is a professional website engineer, while Ed is a professional LEGO fanatic. Together, they realized there was a need for a unique online LEGO destination that would help provide pricing information for LEGO in the secondary markets. Ed grew tired of physically jotting down hundreds of eBay auctions by hand which he used to come up with average LEGO set prices and aid him in finding great deals for his budding LEGO investment hobby. The brothers set out on a quest to provide fair market value of LEGO sets to millions of LEGO fans all over the world. That quest was the creation of BrickPicker.com.
The mission of BrickPicker.com is to educate the LEGO enthusiast, collector and investor of the most up to date and current prices of new and used LEGO sets. Through a partnership with eBay, BrickPicker.com has access to countless current and past auction results from the thousands of various LEGO sets sold on eBay each day. By utilizing this information and putting it into easy to understand charts and graphs, BrickPicker members can make intelligent and cost effective choices when making their next LEGO purchase.
Various tools and data are at the BrickPicker member’s fingertips. Tools such as a LEGO Comparator will allow users to match several LEGO sets next to one another with key information elements such as piece count and pricing trends. This information can help gauge what set may be a better value for their money.
Another tool, the Bulk LEGO Price Guide is available to help answer that question that is seen so very often on forums, “How much is 100 pounds of LEGO worth?” Just move the weight slider to your desired setting, select filters such as theme or specific colors of pieces and find out what past eBay listings sold for.
The core tool for BrickPicker.com is its BrickFolio. This is an investment tool, much like you would see on any financial website that will allow collectors input or import their entire collection of LEGO sets from other sites and get up to date values while giving some key insight into their collection.
A few remaining and notable features for the site are it’s Blog & News Aggregator that constantly grabs the latest news (including our news here at TBB) from all your favorite LEGO sites and display them in a fun and easy to read way, reports about Top Selling LEGO Sets, links to find the best prices on LEGO and a very active Forum with members that talk about the great deals they found.
Another thing that is quite unique about BrickPicker is its content. Their blog, known as the BrickVesting Blog covers areas of content that discuss topics tailored to the collecting and investing of LEGO. Article topics such as “Shipping Wars” talk about issues of trying to get that pristine LEGO box for better resale value in the future. One of the most read blog articles is “LEGO Investment Bubble: Fact or Fiction?” looks at some data and other collectable markets to forecast whether an investing bubble does exist.
While the BrickPicker has key information about the multitude of LEGO sets in existence, their focus is about the value of these sets and their place in the LEGO investment world. So take some time, visit BrickPicker.com and use it to make intelligent and cost effective LEGO purchases in the future. I’m also adding a direct link to BrickPicker in the left-hand side-bar so you can quickly get to the site when you need it.
If you have any questions or comments about BrickPicker’s features, feel free to share them below. You might also want to check out the LEGO Shopping Tips section for related articles, or choose from the posts below:
