jamtf

Why would the seller do that? I would say that it is easier and moneywise better to leave the set as is. I guess you probably ended up searching all the other auctions from that seller for the substituted pieces that were taken out of the original sets in order to get the best parts of the set also.

How's this to be considered a crazy price? The

Yes, why would they be replacements? I think they were not but the thing got sold on eBay long time ago so I can not check it any longer. I think it went for over $500 if memory recalls. I think it was offered in the eBay stores section by one of those high price sellers. This eBay stores section is to be found beneath the running weekly auctions. To replace the 6 x 4 flags you would need to open up the previously sealed box first by cutting or pulling the seal, then pull out the cardboard tray with all the pieces, subesequently tear off and remove the thin plastic cover from the extra plastic inlay tray situated in the middle (since that is where they are in) and glue it back on. A lot of work if you need 2 unused jolly roger flags. :-D It is easier to get them off BL for a few dollars. 8-(

Some of the sailors on the ships in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Horacio Hornblower series wear them (the black top hat) too. That is where I got the idea from. X-D

Due to the scarcity of the item I decided to fit some of my soldiers with the plain old black top hat. Not the real thing but it works... a little. Or give them a hairpiece or a bicorne / tricorne instead. A conquistador or morion helmet works also but these are getting more expensive too.

I too contributed to the thread. And yes I definitely have seen unprinted white square 6 x 4 flags underneath the top flap of a sealed 6285 on eBay some time ago. Seller was asking a lot of money and considering the set had to be shipped from the US to Europe, I did not think it was wise to buy the set. I would not have been upset. This fellow could have asked the seller for a solution in normal writing. Under the circumstances I might have settled for a partial refund to buy the items elsewhere or replacement flags that fit the order that was placed. I think the buyer was actually threatening the seller, notwithstanding the fact that he clearly did not speak perfect English. I have seen this a lot from Asian bidders, usually Koreans. Anyway, the buyer seemed to have lost his nerves completely over the problem and immediately brought up the possibility of a PayPal claim and leaving a negative. That is what I call overreacting and putting the seller under a lot of pressure. I am sure the seller did not do this on purpose. Whatever the situation, the buyer did not consider the impact of his writing and the seller has certainly felt a serious threat of receiving negative feedback over such a futility. I too have dealt with Asians and I must say that especially the Koreans are hard to deal with. They usually forget to read the store policies, claim that they are unbearable (PayPal fee) and tend to take over control and terms of the sale.

For someone with so much experience on pirate Lego this question surprises me. A newbie would be asking this sort of questions. In my opinion a set with a box is always worth more, especially if you plan to build the set according to building instructions and tend to keep the original set together as a collectible item with matching contemporary bricks. The set will always remain its value and is worth looking after. It would be a different story if you plan to put all bricks and pieces in a big tub to be used as brick fodder for MOC purposes. Then the box does not make any difference and the set will merge with the rest of the bricks. If you plan to buy sets only to make own designs forget about the box and buy he set as cheap as you can.

The 10131 Tie Collection (another set with the 10000 number) set has some figures also.

I give it a 5 as well. It is a great ship. I used to have 3 of this set but recently sold a copy. Keeping 2 of this is enough for me since I decided to gradually downsize my Lego pirate collection. Within a week I sold a 6285 BSB, a 6278 Enchanted Island and a 6262 Kahuka's Throne. Last mentioned sets were sealed copies. Besides, from the big hull ships I also still own 3x 6286 (1 used), 3x 6289 (1 used) en 2x 6290 (2x MISB). |-/

At least Darth Maul, until now only available through 7101 Lightsaber Duel, 7151 Sith Infiltrator and 3340 Sith Miniifig Pack which were all released in the early Lego SW years 1999 and 2000, will return in a new 7663 Sith Infiltrator set. There is a picture on the German amazon.de website. Again, a re-release just like the Naboo Fighter and the Trade Federation MTT. :-|

Great looking set. Real question is... where did he get this so soon? Release of the set is planned for the upcoming Summer and Fall and as far as I know it is still April 2007... 8-|

Well, well, what a surprise, 10000 pieces of US only minifigs. Thanks a lot TLC. You did it again. >:-( And the 10000 won't all survive, some will be found by little kids and get playwear, scratching, etc. consider those gone. And there is a whole bunch of MISB collectors out there who store away boxes and keep them closed. I reckon a few will be in there as well, so we are lucky if a considerable amount is being found by AFOLs. :-/ I do not know the exact nature of all new SW sets to be introduced this year (and if the pearl gold C-3PO will appear as a minifig in one of those) but I think the piece will also be randomly included as an extra item with sets that do not have a C-3PO being an inventoried part of the set, correct? 8-|

It has not been in any of the European (i.e. Dutch and German) catalogues I have seen and I think I have all catalogues that were issued since 2005 so the Batman line should have been covered. The set has been available in The Netherlands in limited quantities at certain stores and my guess is that it has been in production for only 1 year or so at the most. The set is becoming somewhat scarce already. Prices are certainly rising. ... who will be re-issued in the 2007 line in Batman set 7787 "The Bat Tank - The Riddler and Bane's Hideout" for those who missed out on set 7785.

Good things happen to those who wait. I will lay my hands on a 10182 sooner or later... eventually. I am not in such a hurry to get it. Perhaps I will order it from S@H or drive to Oberhausen to pick one up in the Lego store instead. It just got out so it should stay in production for at least another year and perhaps even longer if this is a huge success. It is now on top of the "What is hot now" top 25 sellers so this is really "in demand". Lego would make a big mistake if this is a short production run. But they are smart enough to figure that out by themselves. Sales figures do not lie... |-/

Depends on where you live actually. I have been to very small towns and found a couple and also, I have been to bigger towns and cities with more stores just to find empty shelves. I guess it more or less depends on the number of the crowd that is likely to visit the stores. Inner cities are always crowded with lots of people shopping around and chances are that those nicely priced sets sell out rather quickly. It is also getting harder to find the smaller Viking sets such as 7015 and 7016 and the 7779 Batman Catwoman Pursuit set since they recently went out of production. These are also the most affordable sets of the 2 lines so it is quite obvious that stores ran out of stock easily unless they managed to locate extra sets from different sources. I know a small toy store who stocked up extra 7015 Viking Warrior & Fenris Wolf sets as soon as they found out that the set went out of production.

Last year, I picked up some old sets in a store. The oldest one was a 366 Universal Building Set from 1981 but the best ones of the older sets I got there were 2x 6370 Weekend Home (1985) and 2x 6380 Emergency Treatment Center (1987). And there was a whole bunch of sets from the 1990 - 1995 era included in the sale as well. Of course, everything sealed and the 6370 sets still had the original undamaged cellophane wrapping. Had been lying around in the attic of the store for over 20 years. Basically, forgotten merchandise that was discovered when they cleared out the attic.

That's what I call collecting. I check out biddings by other members all the time just to find out what's there, what has been sold and etc. except I do not share that knowledge with others. And yes, I bid fairly high or extremely high if I want something badly. Last couple days, I did not have that much success since I got outbid numerous times... must have been sets that I did not need that much. For me, classic sets are always worth a little more. New sets fresh from the store are sometimes quite expensive too. What seems expensive today might be priceless in 10 years from now. It is a great set and a US only so for us Europeans it is a treasure to own. :'-) Besides, that, I have 2 more used copies in great shape with their original boxes so the sealed one stays that way.

Check out www.lugnet.com and get to see sets such as 1060, 1062, 1063, 1064, 1065, 1066, 1067, 9354, 9355, 9356, 9364, 9365, 9376, 9377, etc. and you get the idea. Also, sets such as 1053 and 1056 are related to the Dacta theme I think. Dacta sets are usually seen and found in plain white colored boxes rather than the more fancy Legoland or System style boxes. Basically, these were educational Lego sets that have never been for sale in regular toy stores nor through wholesalers. These were exclusively sold to companies who earned a living by providing school material and educational supplies. The way I see things, Dacta is known for making children understand about things in real life. Some Dacta sets were mainly made to learn about inventing and constructing things and understand about building and technical aspects (how things are made to work), other Dacta sets are more or less based on environmental themes such as the local community, people who are part of it, vehicles and their purposes, space exploration, middle ages, ancient Egypt, etc.

Apparently someone bothered to check my biddings and eBay winnings over the last couple weeks / months! And yes, I happen to be a Eurobricks member! Some of these sets are hard to acquire in untouched condition though and they get older and rarer as I speak. At least I am happy with my purchases!

Seems like the original 5988 Pharao's Forbidden Ruins, 5978 Sphynx Secret Surprise and 5938 Secret of the Tomb displayed together.

I got lucky this past week. I had ordered a 1060 set. This is a Dacta set with road plates. When it arrived the box appeared to be in very bad condition. It was taped together (in a particularly bad way) and some of the pine trees and fruit trees (loose parts that did not come in sealbags) already came sticking out of the holes in the top of the box. At first sight it was a messed up set to begin with and a major disappointment since the box was quite damaged, something that I did not expect since the picture of the set that I purchased did not reveal the damage. When I opened the box I discovered all sorts of pieces and sealbags that did not look too familiar. At least, they were not pictured on top of the box. What appeared to be the case? The dumb (or should I say generous?) seller had included all parts including the instruction cards / jigsaw puzzle of a 1062 set inside the 1060 box! It all seems to be complete and all extra parts included appeared to be still sealed inside the original bags! As some of you might know, the 1062 is a rare early 1980s set with a white pigtail hairpiece included. What a find. Suddenly, I felt that the purchase price of the set was not that bad after all! And I even learned to live with the 1060 box and the shape it is in! :-)

The European box does not hold the "Discover Treasure Chest of Adventure! tag on front. Other than that it is quite similar. I think it was somewhere around 1995 - 1997 or so, can not recall since I did not collect Lego back then. I have been told about it, that's all. I do not know this from personal experiences.

The seller claims that the set was only available as a promotional set in the US in 1995. I happen to have a European copy of the set of the same era. He is right that this used to be a promotional set. I was told that these sets had been available through a cookie factory or cookie distributor in The Netherlands. You had to collect stamps or bar codes or whatever and pay a small extra amount to get this set. I think the name of the company was Konkinklijke Peijnenburg B.V. and they sold a certain line of cookies under the brand name "Kapitein Koek" (Dutch for Captain Cookie). See following link: http://www.kapiteinkoek.nl/

My finances would - if I planned things first - but fact is that this set is located in the US and that importing the set will probably result in me paying huge importing duties and additional VAT since it is coming from outside the European Union. Our customs knows how to handle this and they tend to raise extra taxes which makes buying expensive sets in the US somewhat risky. You could end up paying more than 1/5 extra (besides the higher shipping fee) because of that. Quite annoying to say the least. :( It will not be easy to find an affordable copy of this set in MISB condition though so you might want to reconsider your thoughts... Usually, eBay is the place to buy, you can forget about finding this for cheap on BL. There is one on BL for $65.00 but it has some questionable comments about a replaced boat for an excellent one (why would that be necessary in case of a sealed set?).

[ I think maybe Legoland in Germany or Denmark or some place else might have had a mass of these where they were picked up. Especially, German and Dutch BL sellers seemed to have had loads of these. I happen to have quite a few of this torso myself. They were either sold as torso's or complete hunchback minifigs with the retard face.