Collectible minifigures. Keep them or sell them ?

[Eisenaffe]

Hi everyone.

It´s my first post here, so first let me introduce me. I´m a lego fan since my early childhood, and came out of my dark ages with 26 and the Troll Warship. My favourite themes are Futuron, Blacktron, Classic Castle and Pirates. I still have lots of sets and bricks from my childhood in my garage and I´m looking forward to handle them over to my little son, as sonon he´s old enough. He will be a very lucky kid, I think ;)

I hope i´ts not to impolite to have a question in my first post. I ordered a whole box of the collectible minifigiures series 3 today. I wanted to keep a complete line up and sell the rest on ebay. I´m wondering if it´s better to sell them as soon as possible or to keep them an few years, hoping they will become rarer and more expensive. What do you think and how do you handle this.

many greetings,

Eisenaffe

[richthelegodude]

I guess given enough time any LEGO set or LEGO item will become valuable, as things get broken or lost. Like some sets even from 1990 (such as the airport shuttle, 6399) are already getting valuable - monorail sets was expensive ($140 in 1990!) so I do not think that many people got them, hence their value is rising quicker than some other sets.

I think what governs your decision is how long you are willing to wait and the rarity/abundance of the series 3 minifigs

[blueandwhite]

I would imagine that some figures will see a significant increase in value over the years while others will not. The Spartan, Elf and Cheerleader for example will probably fetch a pretty high price in a couple of years when they become extremely difficult to find. Figures like the race car driver, sumo wrestler or crash test dummy probably won't as they aren't really in high demand.

[Joebot]

That's a really, really hard thing to predict. All those people who bought super-rare, holofoil-stamped comic books back in the 90's, or Beanie Babies, or even WebKinz, thought their collections were going to make them rich. Then the bottom fell out of those markets, and their collection isn't worth what they paid for it.

My guess -- some of the Series 1, and maybe Series 2, figs will evetually be somewhat valuable. Especially Series 1, which was ridiculously hard to find here in the U.S. Starting with Series 2, availability and distribution has improved a lot, so the figs aren't as hard to find.

Generally speaking, it seems like it's the licensed figs that get the highest prices, especially Star Wars and the Batman villians. There are HUGE established fanbases well beyond the typical Lego fan who are interested in those figs. I don't think the collectible mini-figs will have that sort of broad appeal. It's really just the AFOLs who are going to be interested, and that's a fairly small market.

I agree with blueandwhite, that maybe a few of the figs (Spartan and elf especially) will always be valuable because they represent themes that AFOLs have long been interested in. Beyond that ... who knows!!

[Big Cam]

The answer to your question is simple.

Supply and demand.

Everything becomes more valuable once production stops, if there is a demand for it.

Even though current prices may not reflect this yet series 1 fig's are more valuable now than 6 months ago. If you only want to make money off of them and can absorb the cost of holding on to all of your duplicates then do so.

I can almost guarantee in time even the unpopular collectable fig's like the crash test dummy will go up in price. Once the supply ends prices are sure to go up, maybe slowly but if theirs demand I guarantee you they will.

I personally am keeping one completed set of each series as well as all the does of fig's I like, such as the zombie our mummy, then I'm selling the rest.

Generally speaking, it seems like it's the licensed figs that get the highest prices, especially Star Wars and the Batman villians. There are HUGE established fanbases well beyond the typical Lego fan who are interested in those figs. I don't think the collectible mini-figs will have that sort of broad appeal. It's really just the AFOLs who are going to be interested, and that's a fairly small market.

I somewhat agree with you, the licensed themes do appeal to more than just LEGO dan's, but remember its the AFOl's that drive up the price of licensed fig's, not the regular LEGO consumer, and again its the AFOL's that are driving up the collectable fig prices, so to me the collectable fig's seem to have the same appeal as most licensed sets.

[AndyC]

I agree with blueandwhite, that maybe a few of the figs (Spartan and elf especially) will always be valuable because they represent themes that AFOLs have long been interested in. Beyond that ... who knows!!

Unless, of course, TLG release a theme which contains elves or spartans, at which point the one from the collectible figures loses a lot of appeal except to those people still hoping to finish a collection. If anything the more obscure figures like the crash test dummy might end up being more valuable, since they are unlikely to ever be in a theme and weren't the ones being hoarded.

The series three figs probably have more immediate value, due to the blind packing improvements, but whether or not that value increases or decreases with time is basically pot luck.

[MinifigFreak2010]

I say go for ebay now. I doubt these things will be worth much in the future.

They're made of CHINESE PLASTIC. I doubt anyone could not see the poor quality. Assembling them together is difficult and i can't even add them into my collection b/c i fear that i will damage them due to the cheap quality.

I am now tracking a few series 3 on ebay and the amount i'm willing to pay for the ones I want isn't very much above MSRP level. The only reason i'm even attempting now is b/c I really want a couple figures.

Just don't jack the price up to much on ebay. The #1 Problem on eBay is price gourgers. And just make sure to ship themproperly packed in the shipping package. For me, the #2 problem i've encountered a few times is items not packed well.

[Peppermint_M]

Moving to Special Themes, the new home of Collectable Minifigures!

[rakky]

Again with the cheap plastic Minifigfreak2010, I seriously doubt that will influence how much people buy them, also I have noticed no difference and when it comes to assembling them togetehr its very easy, I struggle to grasp how a person could find them hard to put together.

[Stiel]

Supply-demand is key. The best figures are those which are not available in established themes AND people will want many of them for army-building. Most notably the zombie, the Spartan and the elf. For everything else, the price will go up too, but slower, so investment-wise, they are not so good.

I would hang on to that three for now (or in case of CM3, only the elf), and sell everything else. This way, you can make most of your money back right now (maybe even a little bit more) and earn a pretty good sum in a year or two.

[MinifigFreak2010]

They ARE harder to put together. I went to put them together. First attempt and I set them down. There was a gap between the torso and legs. Even though I used the same amount of gentle force that i normally would use to assemble the other types of figures(including the crew of 4 I got from the lego PAB store) for the first try, there was a gap that I see happen almost never with normal figures. The instances I had of stubborn assembling is a miniscule amount. I'm not sure of how many I have exactly but I have at least i'd say an easy few dozen(I should take inventory soon) and I can only think of a couple cases(not counting the series 3) of diffculty assembling pieces.

Edited January 21, 2011 by MinifigFreak2010

[WesternOutlaw]

Personally, I buy LEGO that I want, and sometimes to complete a set, as with the Minifigures. While market or sales value later can be a consideration, I don't like to think of LEGO as an investment. If I wanted something that may bring me value later, I'd invest in stock, gold, etc. I think "investing in LEGO" takes the fun out of it. Sure, you can certainly do both, but I don't consider things like "this set will really be worth a lot of money in 10 years". I've never sold a LEGO set, but maybe some trade value later could help you obtain something else that you might be looking for. Buy what you like and enjoy it.

[Dunjohn]

Be the plastic quality as it may, I don't think it's going to affect their prices in the future. If there were chinese and Danish versions, yeah, but there's not, so it's irrelevant.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Dunjohn

[willybob]

Well I have a theory about those minifigs, like it happened in the past or some small sets with high playability :

- People (not AFOLs) buy those minifigs for their kid one at a time, occasionally.

- Kids play with them and start to claim for other pieces in their collection

- Parents buy more bags

- Kids will loose/destroy some of them

- Kids then will start to grow and search to complete their collection

- Kids will buy them on eBay for a lot of money

IMHO, sets with high playability will grow in value quicker because of the risk to loose/destroy part or figs

A complete series of those minifigs will be sellable for good cash in a year or two, some people will discover

series 5 or 6 at this time, and they will try to complete all the range no matter what price to pay for that

Well after all, I might be really wrong about that, but as me personnally, i discovered those at series 2, and I acquired series 1 afterwards for some good money

[dr_spock]

Maybe in 10 to 20 years when the little kids playing with them now might become AFOLs and want those figs again from their childhood.

Then again, as Yoda said, "The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is."

[Henchmen4Hire]

Buy what you want for your collection, I don't see the point in buying toys to scalp later when you don't even get that much profit anyway. Seriously, there a dudes who camp at TRU to get a million elves so they can sell them for $10 on ebay.

Think about how dumb that is, to waste an hour feeling the bags to find only 3 elves/fisherman/whatever, to pay about $3.50 each (after tax), then drive home (gas money both ways), list it for sale (auction fees), hopefully have it sell (ending fee), and then pay the paypal fee, ROFL! You're back where you started.

You're better off getting a normal job and not having to risk getting beat up by an irate little kid because you keep taking all the elves

Sorry, I forgot the topic... xD

Anyway, if you want to sell stuff, use Ecrater.com, no fees, no auctions, you list your stuff, set the price, and get paid with Paypal (only pay paypal's usual fee). I only use ebay for advertising for my ecrater store.

Edited January 22, 2011 by DrNightmare