Why be upset at the mass production of rare parts?

[Yegos]

I don't think this is a real issue for builders, collectors, or sellers. Each will still do what they do and most are probably happy with the additions, the rest ambivalent.

For the rare "collector seller" however, this is a real letdown. LEGO just took some of their priciest pieces and halved or quartered their value. A builder isn't going to care what kind of Forestwoman he has as long as he has a Forestwoman for his MOC. A collector will buy the new Forestwoman to have that version compliment the older version they have. To the seller it's just another piece in their inventory.

Now I have some highly collectible figs including the 4 of the ones in the new vintage fig set. Some of those figs I was hanging onto to sell at some future date to fund future LEGO purchases. So why am I not upset with LEGO?

Comic books.

Anyone who collects things to sell them at some future point runs the risk of those items losing value just like any other investment. I learned that with my comic book collection. Once valued at $900 dollars it now sits around $20. It's a heady high to know that something you own could be worth 10-20x the value you paid for it. On the reverse it's a real bummer when you find that value evaporate over night.

I've collected a lot of things over the years (Smurfs!) and nothing has held its value like LEGO. I have never lost money selling LEGO. I can't make that claim with any other investment that I have ever owned. That doesn't mean that tomorrow morning my entire collection's value won't drop to zero. Anything can happen. The difference is in how you deal with it. After a brief period of disbelief and anguish I packed up my comics and let them sit for decades before I brought them out for my kids to read. That's when I remembered why I bought them in the first place.

LEGO is going to do anything and everything within reason to make money. They really have no interest in how much you make selling their product only how much you give them for buying their product. And frankly, in my opinion, that's a good thing.