Edmond Dantes

His building time could also be extremely limited. Some of us only have an hour or two a week in which to build.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160765525060?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

What's the piece count?

I'm heading to the Mall of America this weekend, as I'll be in the cities, so I'll check and see if anyone there knows.

I am very confused - are you continually buying online and opening all the packages? Why don't you feel for a gladiator at the store?

I FINALLY found a Target with these in stock. For some reason, in my area of MN the Targets weren't stocking these. I just had to drive to a larger city for a conference and check one out. Anyway, three untouched boxes were emptied into a display case - had my pick of whatever I wanted.

As A.S. speculated, Bricklink was the offload site. I ship worldwide, and my minifig prices are always the lowest on Bricklink, but I only buy select sets and then only when they are on sale (I usually calculate beforehand if I can sell the figs to offset the cost of the sets). TRU's B1G1 50% off, Walmart and Target 50% clearance, Lego S@H clearance, etc.** As has been pointed out, I live in the US, so this strategy probably won't work for most others. As for selling your unwanted sets, there is a Buy/Sell section on this site. Bricklink, eBay, and TnB are other options. ** I would like to point out I do buy a lot of sets for personal enjoyment (modulars, Castle, Star Wars) and sometimes these aren't available via discount. So, I do pay retail, but not for collection expansion purposes - usually only for set display purposes (I don't disassemble my modulars, etc).

I have used this quite often in the last couple months. However, I have noticed sometimes sets don't show up correctly, if they aren't listed with a set # (by the retailer). For example: http://www.target.com/p/LEGO-Pirates-Of-The-Caribbean-The-London-Escape-4193/-/A-13354016 Does not show as a result here: http://www.bricksalefinder.com/ when 4193 (or The London Escape) is typed into the search box, even though it's currently the lowest price online. There are many other examples of the same problem, usually associated when, as I said before, the retailer doesn't list the set # in the description (go to the Lego section at Target.com and you'll notice The London Escape (and others) doesn't have the set # listed in the preview pane (because the title is too long), even though it is listed in the individual set webpage). Does this make sense?

I bought ~40 PoTC sets (Cannibal Escape, Isla de la Muerta, Fountain of Youth, The Mill) on sale and sold all the minifigs, thus paying for the sets. This provided me with thousands of nice Castle parts, landscaping and otherwise. Another nice SW set for Castle (not necessarily for landscaping) is 7957 Sith Nightspeeder. Not too expensive, sell the figs and pay for most of the set (or all the set if you can get it on sale), with lots of Dark Bley and brown. A very nice HP set is 4865 The Forbidden Forest (especially in quantity and on sale). Sell the figs, free pieces = TONS of nice landscaping pieces. You'll need to buy many of these however. I wholeheartedly agree with the other recommendations.

Not only did you make the $1500 (subtract a little for inflation), the Batman line you kept was effectively free. I do this all the time as well - except I buy many copies of minifig heavy licensed sets and sell the figs - the pieces are then in effect free.

None have the box, most of the sets are incomplete, all are used and most don't have minifigs. The prices listed really don't reflect reality imo.

I'm slightly confused. You said the sets are 100% complete, but you don't sell minifigs. Does this mean you don't sell the figs separately (my understanding), or the figs don't come with the sets (so, not actually 100% complete).

Hah - almost exactly the same for me, but it was more like 1993-2009. When I was 13 I discovered computers and when I was 29 I discovered Lego Star Wars.

This is not possible with Lego and it really bugs me when people suggest this is actually what's happening. With all the Lego outlets available, no one has the time or energy to constantly buy every copy of specific sets at every location (not to mention Lego Stores or S@H). While some do hoard, extremes such as above just aren't possible. Secondary market prices are merely supply and demand. Lego is much more popular now than it was even a few years ago (more and more AFOLs, better products, more licensed themes, etc). I'm not saying Lego should be more popular due to this, only that in reality, it is. Thus the older sets command higher prices, especially if they were limited runs or top notch sets (Market Street, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Cafe Corner, even Green Grocer spring immediately to mind).

I found the Alien Mothership, Whitecap Bay, The London Escape and the T-6 shuttle at one Walmart and all the rest at a second Walmart. The two Walmarts did NOT have the same sets on clearance. It was very odd, but I did very well at the second.

Check your Walmart: Found these at 50% off: 4181-1: Isla de la Muerta 4182-1: The Cannibal Escape 4183-1: The Mill 4193-1: The London Escape 4195-1: Queen Anne's Revenge 4842-1: Hogwarts Castle 4866-1: The Knight Bus 7065-1: Alien Mothership 7931-1: T-6 Jedi Shuttle 7964-1: Republic Frigate 7965-1: Millennium Falcon And many, many more (Whitecap Bay, tons of city sets, more copies of the Mill, lots of Duplo, Creator sets, etc - those above are just the ones I purchased).

+1 for Lego12 for fast payment.

This entire response is absurd. I wasn't posting regarding the secondary market value whatsoever - I was merely pointing out the release window was not small, nor was the price never reduced. Thus, there were plenty of opportunities to obtain this set at a reasonable cost. The MSRP was below the $0.10 / piece breakpoint and while on sale it was closer to $0.07 / piece. For a Star Wars UCS, this is excellent. See above.

And the Kingdoms Joust just came out, even though the theme itself was discontinued. The same with the MMV... In fact, in the last three years, Lego has a decent track record of releasing a final "send-off" set for different themes. I could ssee the FD being one of these for PoTC.

One more rumor to add: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64878&view=findpost&p=1184299 Angeli knows what the figs are...

I second this - it would go very well with the upcoming series 7 Aztec fig!

I wouldn't exactly call it a small release window. The UCS Falcon went on sale starting in Oct. 2007 for an MSRP of 500 USD. It went on sale for $350 on May 4, 2009 (I believe) and then again for $375 on May 4, 2010 (this last I am sure of, since it's when I purchased it). That's a 2.5 year release window - plenty long, imo.

Sold almost every sealed set available - added a couple minifigs. Thanks all!

Hah, I see that now! I didn't realize it was the same username on both sites. In any case, thanks for asking that question and I agree - it definitely is great news!

http://brickset.com/news/article/?ID=2396 Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 24 Jan 2012 14:43 The Orcs looked fab and have olive green head/hands. Boromir appears to have dark blue torso and dark red arms. So, yes, CGI oversight indeed.