Do you buy old sets

[that_lego_builder]

....................

[Mandalorianknight]

4 hours ago, 1974 said:

Now, we meet at dawn with our secret DUPLO contraptions

*loads ammo into my duplo tank*

4 hours ago, that_lego_builder said:

Plus I dont "play" with my sets they go on a self displayed.

You're missing out if you've never swooshed a ship around or anything, that's part of the fun!

 

I think it depends on what you mean by "old". The oldest set I've purchased is the 1999 x-wing, and I wouldn't consider that old even though it released before I was born. 

[Kit Figsto]

5 hours ago, 1974 said:

Then I sell the box and instructions in hope to make at least some of the outrageous money back I paid paying for said sets . rinse and repeat ..

You know, I've never thought about that, but that's quite a good idea.  I'm at the age where anything from the 90s is considered "old" to me, but I never had a "dark ages" so essentially anything from the past 20 years that I have wanted, I've had a chance to get, with the exception of some things that I just wasn't into at the time or it was too expensive for me at the time.  Anyway, my point being, most of the stuff that I look into buying on Bricklink or eBay is stuff from the 90s or before, which is obviously very expensive MISB, and I don't buy any used sets.  Seems like a great way to offset the cost!  

[Grover]

5 hours ago, that_lego_builder said:

So if 8632 isnt old then what is?

I have purchased copies of 6390, 375, and 580.  I would consider these to be fairly old.  They are also not the oldest sets that I have in my collection (those are from 1965).  Anything from 1990-present I don't consider to be all that old.

[caiman0637]

19 hours ago, that_lego_builder said:

I did also brought 601. So if 8632 isn't old then what is?

700/1

[ShaydDeGrai]

I've got sets from 25 years ago I haven't gotten around to opening yet so I don't really go out of my way to buy "old" sets.  And even when I do pick up something that is out of production, I don't pay extra for it (i.e. set speculators/scalpers don't make any money off of me, for all my Lego spending, I'm a cheapskate at heart).  Quite the opposite really, when I do buy out of production sets, it's usually because I've stumbled upon them in some out of the way store where the price has been lowered because they've been taking up shelf-space for so long / used to be in the front window and box has faded / etc.

Back when there was a KB Toys chain, they used to be a great resource for picking up (reasonably long, 2-3 years) discontinued sets at dirt cheap prices.  Sometimes I could even get "make me an offer" discounts from the store manager by asking if they had anything gathering dust in the back room.  I remember finding a cache of old 7194 Yoda statue kits  (many with ripped, punctured and/or water damaged boxes but intact with unopened bags inside) for a small fraction of the original $100 price tag.  At the time, tan and sand green bricks were still something of a rarity (at least in quantity and variety) so I bought them all just for the parts.  

Just before COVID shut everything down, I happened to be slightly of the beaten track in upstate Maine and came across a store with half dozen copies of 31070 Turbo Track Racer, discounted to $35 (about 40% below MSRP) .  I bought the lot.  You might be thinking "what's the big deal, it's just a Creator 3-in-1 set?" but the windscreen from that car only ever appeared in one other set ( 10248 Ferrari F40, though that version has red printing on it) and, currently, Bricklink only has has 16 vendors selling that particular _part_, and they are all asking over $50 for it - not the SET, just the windscreen part.

I don't know if either example really qualifies as buying "old sets" in the way you were thinking as I don't think of these kits as rare collector's items.  They are just discount parts to me that started off as kits (and often kits I already own because I bought them up when they were new)   I _do_ have a few items I've picked up on my discontinued, discount Lego shopping sprees  that I just don't have the heart to part out (like 10194 Emerald Night  ) and have left MISB because I liked the original model so much.

 

[ShaydDeGrai]

1 hour ago, caiman0637 said:

700/1

As in the old brickplate?  10x20, height of a brick but no tubes on the underside, just a couple ribs to keep the surface from deflecting in the middle?  

I've got a bunch of those around here somewhere, mostly green, white and blue (though I think mine were the Samsonite versions)...  Haven't seen them in years but I know I wouldn't have gotten rid of them.

Boy this takes me back to the days when all set numbers only had three digits and it was considered "legal" to wedge a plate on edge between studs to make SNOT builds (or headlights and pony ears).

Now _I_ feel old.  

[Toastie]

17 minutes ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

it was considered "legal" to wedge a plate on edge between studs to make SNOT builds

Hey hey hey: When was this declared illegal - and more importantly by whom?

Well, it was not only legal to do that - it was and is a simple but very nice and effective building technique. Around here that is. In my room. Full of hordes of virtual lawyers (MY lawyers) ready to sue the hell out of folks showing up here and telling me that this is considered illegal. There are no guns in the house and not in this room but plenty of books of considerable weight and content (phy-si-cal-che-mis-try), which are readily turned into >very< good arguments for the legality of such joints, when accelerated to some speed in relative short time. These arguments have impact.   

Illegal . I personally leave that judgement to the after-burnerboomer generations.

Well, the good thing about being that old certainly is: We have seen it all. Well at least the sets with 3-digit numbers - back then all made in Denmark. I believe. And that when some building technique is called "illegal" to reply with: "Yeah. Dude. How's life on the other side? Still waiting for that part to be made? Watch out though - time is running!

All the best - and here is to feeling good being old (Just picked up a small crate of Bockbier ... )

Cheers!

Thorsten

[Vindicare]

Nowadays, it’s rare that I buy older stuff(have a hard enough time keeping up with current). Plus, I prefer buying new LEGO, so that’s another Mark against old, since it’s generally used. When I got back into LEGO in ‘07 I headed to eBay & bought all the old Ninja & most of the Forestmen sets. 

[Alexandrina]

I buy plenty of old sets - too many, to be honest, if I think about my bank account. Often I find it's better value to buy a whole set than just a single out of production piece - for example, picking up the old Maiden's Cart for a tenner when I wanted the hennin; yes, I'd have saved money just Bricklinking a hennin, but a lot of the other parts are useful to have too.

Never new though, and if the box comes with that's a nice aside. I want the bricks, not the cellophane.

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

Back when there was a KB Toys chain, they used to be a great resource for picking up (reasonably long, 2-3 years) discontinued sets at dirt cheap prices.

Oh my. Sorry for all these long "back then" stories ...

... but back then in 2000, they had 4 boxes of the Mindstorms Discovery sets at Fry's close to Irvine/CA ... Sh*t - I just found out when composing this post that they got out of business due to COVID in February 2021 - oh my. Sh*t. I loved that place. I can't recount how often I visited ...

Well. The story is now much less a story. But they really made my day (for weeks, months, years, decades ...): These boxes were sitting at first within a bizarre "toy" section they had. No one - really no one in this store cared about LEGO. Laser guns, mechas, and what not - yes. But LEGO robotics ... the price tag for an assistant professor at UCI was not within range. Well. Far out of range. Then the boxes attracted some dust. And moved "up" in the shelves to a level, where you couldn't even reach. When I was asking a Fry's representative about the price, he said: Don't know. I'll find out. Came back and said: 25$(?). At that point  I was losing my physical balance, things in front of me faded ... I remember saying: Sounds good, I take all 4 ...

One of the best days in my life ... and 4 SCOUT PBricks at hand ...

Phew.

Out of business. Time to get another drink, I guess.

Here is to Fry's - and all the folks who worked there:

You made a big, very big difference to my life. Not because of the LEGOs, because of your attitude and care.  

 

[TeriXeri]

I had a period from 2001-2016 where I didn't buy any sets at all.

I did buy some bricklink parts back in 2015 to try and partially restore 20-30 year old sets, but eventually I just decided to do a "reset" and just collect current sets since 2016.

Old LEGO is still seperate from the newer.

I did buy a few Creator 3-in-1 2015-2017 buildings sets when I started to collect themes other then Nexo Knights (around 2018), before they retired, but now I move forward.

Edited March 26, 2021 by TeriXeri

[Thomas_w]

Around 10 years ago I went through a phase of buying a few older sets, Blacktron II, M-tron and Forestmen. Basically some sets I wanted as a child and never got. I had just started my PhD and finally had a bit of ££ to spend with my stipend. At this time buying older sets on Bricklink was actually pretty cheap (definitely relative to now) especially if you didn't mind about the box or instructions. I remember buying a lot of sets from EU countries because shipping them to the UK was cheaper than buying them domestically. Having looked recently for some older sets they seem to be astronomically priced relative to back when I was buying them. Things like Adventurers, Ice Planet, older Star Wars sets are all just too much for me to justify buying them for nostalgia, especially in context of all the amazing intricate and diverse sets Lego release now. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Thomas_w

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

36 minutes ago, Thomas_w said:

Around 10 years ago I went through a phase of buying a few older sets, Blacktron II, M-tron and Forestmen. Basically some sets I wanted as a child and never got. I had just started my PhD and finally had a bit of ££ to spend with my stipend.

That sounds like a well-funded program, if you were able to buy retired sets (even opened ones) with your stipend!

[Thomas_w]

10 minutes ago, BrickHat said:

That sounds like a well-funded program, if you were able to buy retired sets (even opened ones) with your stipend!

Haha, it was relative to an undergraduate funded by the basic student loan here in the UK. I felt like an absolute king because I lived in College accommodation which was quite cheap. 

[Lego David]

For me personally, "older LEGO" means everything that isn't currently available directly from TLG. Personally, I never had any problem with used sets, so I tend to buy a lot of used LEGO from the aftermarket. Whether that would be sets from the past decade that I never got, or sets that came out before I was even born, It doesn't matter to me. If I find a LEGO set cool, there is a high chance I will eventually get it, even if I don't have any nostalgic connection to it.

I always keep an eye open on eBay and Bricklink for any good LEGO deals, and I encourage other people to do the same. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Lego David

[Johnny1360]

Nope

[SD100]

I've bought quite a few sets that I couldn't get my hands on for various reasons when they came out, especially the good City sets I missed from the early 2000s. Unless it's really special though I only buy things up to about 150% of their original value, and if it's not cheaper to just get a few of the parts. My setup is a play setup though with my kids using it daily. I'm with @1974... Lol.

SD

[richthelegodude]

I brought a few sets I wanted as a child but never got (predominantly old System) during my first real job and PhD. Prices were expensive but not absurd back then, prices are now insane.

I still buy old technic occasionally as studless technic makes me itch. 

[Henry Bricklider]

I don't really buy old sets. Old parts and minifigure pieces (especially from the 90s/00s), absolutely (old brickfilms make me nostalgic for that stuff). But, the build quality of many old sets, and the content is never worth the massive price tag. If there was an old set I absolutely wanted, I'd probably just make an upscaled MOC of it at some point.

[Pato Sentado]

I bought some classic vintage (studded) Technic sets, I still feel more comfortable on them than on the "new system"

[Lyichir]

Mostly I tend to buy new sets. Generally, I tend to find newer sets to be more rewarding and find older sets, even ones I initially regretted not getting, to feel less and less essential as newer additions to my wishlist take their place. And of course, with newer sets getting them at MSRP (or below, when I'm lucky enough to find a sale) helps to avoid regrets down the line once they start to rise in value after retirement.

That's not to say I'm totally opposed to getting older sets or parts—I'm always happy to give old Lego a home if I see something desirable for cheap at a yard sale or thrift store, or if a friend or relative is parting with their collection—but I don't really seek them out.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Lyichir

[AmperZand]

To answer the OP, no, I don’t buy ‘old’ sets. I have been an AFOL since the early ‘90s when LEGO started doing fantasy in System, so for the most part have been able to get the sets that have interested me since then as they came out. 
 

The closest I have come to getting an old set is when I re-created 6927 All-Terrain Vehicle in 2014. It’s a set from 1981 for which I didn’t already have all the parts, so had to source some on the secondary market.

Edited April 21, 2021 by AmperZand