I did some calculations to figure out the "real" price per part over the years

[linusbohman]

Hey everyone! I've done another deep dive into LEGO set data and would like to share some fun findings. (Side note: I wanted to embed images of some graphs in this post, but I'm only allowed to upload 4kb large files, so you'll have to visit the links below for live updated data  )

TL; DR: It was pointed out to me that it's difficult to compare price per part over different LEGO categories, so I attempted to group categories in order to get better comparisons. Here's the result: Price Per Part over the years. Some fun findings:

• The last couple of years system sets have averaged $0.11 - $0.14 per part
• And $13.88 - $17.47 per minifig, but there are cheaper categories if you're just interested in the 'figs!
• Technic parts are roughly the same price as system

Longer story: So, the last couple of years I've been doing some deep dives into LEGO set data. It started with me wanting to figure out what sets I should buy, which led me down a small rabbit hole where I began indexing set reviews and tried to figure out the average rating. As part of that I also began calculating Price Per Part, and compared that between sets. However, this is about as easy as you would expect: what happens when you compare a Duplo set to a System set? The system set is, of course, cheaper.

Jared from Rebrickable pointed this out, which led me to do another deep dive. I mapped the average price per part of all set categories (as categorised by Brickset), grouped the different categories roughly by part type, and then tracked the average over all years. If you like graphs it's pretty interesting! I created a page detailing the results, and an additional one with the results for each category (as well as the average price per minifig).

This is all just for fun and done by a happy amateur, so feel free to point out ways I can improve the data, or ask anything if you want clarifications. It will all be automatically updated whenever new data is found (with imports being done daily).

[62Bricks]

Love the data.

The spikes in the 70s on System pieces look suspect. $3.31 per piece in 1975? My parents were buying me 300-piece universal sets in the 70s and I'm sure they were not paying $1000 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

[TheLegoDr]

The data is interesting, but since I'm not a statistician, I am having a hard time understanding the graphs. It shows most are similar enough with a few spikes, but since everything is overlapping and the color coded chart down below isn't 100% easy for me to distinguish, none of this is of value to me, unfortunately.

Thanks for the hard work. I think long term this is an interesting endeavor!

[koalayummies]

Where is the data coming from for those $13-$17 per minifigure prices? Is that for all sets across every theme so the licensed sets (generally much poorer PPP) are pushing the average (forgive me if I missed that explanation)? Also surprising to see a comparison between Duplo and System but it makes sense that Duplo is more expensive.

As an MOCer though I am always looking at the PPP of everything, standing in store aisles calculating to see if whatever current sale is worth it, so this was an interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

[fred67]

It's just really difficult to try to gauge the value of LEGO sets; PPP is not adequate because of the variance in parts themselves; weight might be interesting, but when they bulk up sets by giving you two 2x2 instead of one 2x4, they are adding extra weight to the set while PPP figure goes down.

While PPP values seem to have stagnated, on the whole, the fact is you get a lot more small greebles and small bits for aesthetics than we used to get.

It's interesting, but really only passingly so, and still doesn't explain why, for example, a 3-in-1 building has a PPP nearly half that of a city set, neither are licensed.