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Logo Loving Mum

Lego Elves Dragon Sanctuary.

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Hi, my daughter loves collecting Lego Elves.(it's one of her hobbies I quite enjoy too, and am only too happy to indulge!) So far she has almost all of the available sets including the green,blue,white and orange dragon sets and I have the new Goblin sets hidden away for her birthday. 

BUT I don't seem to be able to find the pink dragon set available to buy at a reasonable price? Amazon selling it for nearly £100! And all other shops and retailers sold out. RRP is £35. 

Can anyone shed any light on why this set is so hard to come by? I have been looking since beginning of December 2016. And will it become available again at a reasonable price?

thanks any info would be appreciated.

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Hi, and welcome to EB!  That set was retired (discontinued) in Nov '16 in the EU and Dec '16 in the US, so you started looking for it right when it the last of the stock would have been selling out.  The prices you see now are simply because it's no a supply/demand issue for a discontinued product.  The price you're seeing on Amazon is from a 3rd party seller that still has stock and is looking to make some extra profit.

You best bets now would be either eBay (looks like some have sold there in the last couple weeks for as low as £59), or Bricklink (going prices around £70-75 for new, sealed copies).  You also might find it leftover on a small toy seller's shelf if you're game for calling or visiting smaller shops, but the more time that goes by, the less likely that is to happen.

Good hunting, and happy building!  :classic:

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Sadly, it seems to be a general rule that when a Lego set retires it's price trebles due to the rarity. Elves especially, given how beautiful all the dragons are.

Aside from searching for shops with old stock, you could also try buying the parts individually through bricklink. You can get the list of parts in the set from bricklink by clicking part out on the set description, and then you can pick stores to order from.  The site offers an "Auto-finder" search tool to identify the best/cheapest combination of stores, and a quick check suggests the cheapest option is three orders totalling £70 + P&P.

However, a lot of these parts are rare or unusual colours which increase the bricklink price.  You can buy bricks direct from Lego customer service (bricks and pieces), and some parts are often cheaper from here - e.g brick 1x2 in trans light blue is £0.47 from my bricklink check, but £0.13 from Lego customer service.

It can be a bit tricky making sure you actually make a saving on all your orders (make sure you don't order from outside the EU, or you'll get hit hard with import duties), but it might be an interesting project for you and your daughter.

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Yeah, and the Wind Dragon is lavender (in the purples section of the rainbow), actually --- not pink.  But there's a problem in trying to order the pieces from Lego's Bricks & Pieces, since parts like the Wind Dragon's head, the baby Water Dragon, and the baby Water Dragon's Egg (top and bottom), and Tidus Stormsurfer --- aren't available from there.   The only true way to get them is to buy the complete set, which Amazon.com, eBay, and other online 'stores' are now about the best source, unless some local stores still happen to have the Dragon Sanctuary set still in stock. 

I know, as I'm also surprised at how soon they 'retired' that set last year, ahead of retiring the Water Dragon Adventure set, The Fire Dragon's Lava Cave, and Starlight Inn sets. Especially since it had just came out in June (in Europe)/August (in USA and other countries), where as those other 3 had been half of the first 6 sets for 2016.  I had thought originally that one has to collect the earlier wave before getting the newest one completed.

Hopefully, we'll both have some good luck getting our collections completed soon!

 

 

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Thank you for your help. I'm shocked it was retired so quickly! I just assumed I'd be able to pick it up in due course. Anyhow, thanks for your advise. Looks like I'll have to hunt harder/hit eBay or pay more.

 

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Yeah, my sister's in kind of the same situation with that set for my niece.   Had a chance to get it before Christmas [which my sister had asked me to do], but since she and my niece were along shopping that day, she made a big deal not to get it since my niece was along; and it just had to be the last copy of that set that store had, too.   And then it was gone from all of our local stores not long after.

And it was surprising also since my sister usually says it's best to get stuff when it's on sale.   I knew that my sister should have just let me get it then for my niece, and not make a big deal about my niece seeing it early.  [[ Is it really my fault if my niece insisted on walking with me to the toy aisle? ]]   

I know I'm just as puzzled as to why they retired that set so soon, compared to the ones that had came out earlier in the year.   Almost need a friend that's either right in Denmark, or has lots of money, lol, right?  Or be able to buy up the sets you want super early and fast --- even if you think they might have a longer 'shelf-life' or not, right?

I still don't have Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle yet for my own set.   At least my sister was able to find a good deal on it on Amazon.com for my niece's collection.

After my niece had asked me a few times in 2015 to build [and later rebuild] some of her Lego Elves sets, it got me really interested in starting my own collection, and watching the webisodes online.   As well as into looking up the artwork and scenes from the webisodes --- which got me to thinking that, in order to make the buildings look a bit more like how they look in the webisodes, scenes, and artwork, one almost would have to buy at least two of each set (plus figuring out the additional extra pieces needed --- good thing there's the Bricks & Pieces service, as well as the option of buying Lego Friends sets and others for parts).

A fun challenge in itself, isn't it?

 

 

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I have had the same problem, both for the Dragon Sanctuary and the Secret Marketplace-seems like I can't find either for much less than 2x the price, even used!

All of the Elves sets I have (I have skipped a few that interested me less), I have managed to pick up for less than RRP, either by waiting for clearance or sales or just scoring big on eBay, but with those two that never happened; one day they were just gone from shelves and that was that.

I'm still keeping my hopes high and my eyes open. :wink: Thanks @NathanR for the B&P suggestion, I have never used them and I'll have to check it out.

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Bricks and Pieces might work for the building at least; however, the Dragons and Elves are another matter, unfortunately.   I would have gotten my sets sooner, had I known that those ones would be retired so soon.

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What happened with the Dragon Sanctuary is "the perfect storm" for high secondary market prices:

1. Set contains unique material needed for a collection (the one egg and the building that acts as a collection display).

2. Set retired unexpectedly without warning.

3. Set never had a big distribution (it wasn't "in your face" everywhere).

4. Set only had a 4 month lifespan, which is very rare.

and

5. Set contains a dragon (dragons are _ALWAYS_ in demand)

That's why prices on EBay and Amazon are crazy.

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The prices for the dragon sanctuary have gone up a lot in the last week too! I don't have that one and refuse to pay more than double MSRP for ANY set.  

As far as the secret market place I got mine from here: https://store.bricklink.com/TheBrickHutt&itemID=112931325#/shop?o={"invID":"112931325"}

as far as the newest wave, I'm not wasting any time!!!

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