Money

Sir Smittens · Post by **Sir Smittens** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 3:36 am

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but where do you guys get money to buy all the pieces you need? Every time I think I've saved up and have a bunch, it gets depleted almost instantly! It's so frusturating! :evil:

Jedipawn · Post by **Jedipawn** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 3:44 am

Welcome to lego collecting... I know what you mean, I suffer from the same thing every month. What I do is budget a small amount and when I use it, its gone.

thats the idea anyway, doesn't always work.

Jedipawn

Sir Smittens · Post by **Sir Smittens** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 4:11 am

That's a good idea. I tried it a long time ago, and it worked pretty well, but I was saving up for an anual convention. I imagine it won't work as well with regular spending.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:38 am

It all depends - if you are in school, money is most likely dear, and watching adults with a job sling money around can be disheartening (but cheer up, that's why you are in school).

I originally put myself on a budget - X amount per month. Then I found out that if I stock up during the really big sales and hold the items long enough, I can double to quadruple my money by reselling them. I often buy two of the same item on deep discount, keep one and eventually sell the other for the price that both cost me - essentially, I got my copy for free. Once I bought 20 Adventurer Zeppelins for $5 each, and sold them for between $20 and $35 each. The catch is that it isn't instantaneous - you really need to sit on sets a while to let them clear off the shelves and demand build back up.

Sometimes you end up building a set you meant to sell (Mars rover is my latest), and sometimes sets you meant to keep sell for so much you don't build it (Crossbones Clipper $15 to buy, and I really questioned the sense in spending that much for it, and sold it for $60, which is just a sick amount for the worst Lego Pirate ship).

At this point, with a constant cycle of buying and selling, I'd say my Lego habit pretty much pays for itself.

LEGOFREAK · Post by **LEGOFREAK** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:42 am

Money?

Oh yeah - that's the stuff Stephen said they give me for working that I buy Lego with. I tried to get paid in bricks, but my wife wouldn't stand for it. She said something about eating or car payments or something.... to be honest I wasn't really listening, as the new shop at home catalog had just come out and I was busy looking through it.

freak

Sir Smittens · Post by **Sir Smittens** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:12 am

To TwoTonic Knight,

Do the sets really sell eventually? It sounds like another good idea, but I'm afraid of getting something and it never selling. What are the chances that will happen? And also, besides low prices, are there any other tricks to getting your shop noticed?

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 7:52 am

Sir Smittens wrote:To TwoTonic Knight,

Do the sets really sell eventually? It sounds like another good idea, but I'm afraid of getting something and it never selling. What are the chances that will happen? And also, besides low prices, are there any other tricks to getting your shop noticed?

Everything sells eventually (though I suspect I'm inaccurate in that Galidor went the route of landfills). You can go the bricklink "shop" route and sit around forever with a high price, or move it faster for less. I just use eBay. Some items I know will get bid up and I just throw it out for some minimal starting bid, and others have just a few but dedicated bidders and I set a fairly high opening bid, but usually get that bid - I always check past sales for that item to get a better idea of what opening price to set. I never set a reserve. Only rarely does a set not sell. If I feel the market is strong but it was just a bad week, I'll list it for the same price again and it will sell. Other times I figure that I really was asking too much and move down the minimum bid befor the auction ends. But everything I put up has sold eventually. Sometimes I waited and let the item become scarcer - you just have to familiarize yourself with the market.

wlister · Post by **wlister** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:24 pm

If you are going to go the reseller route, remember that sets like the the ugly NHL ones from 2003 and a lot of the sports line really never recover their value.

Jack Stone is another line that despite being deeply discounted will rarely ever increase in price. You may have to sit on it for 10 years to get some of the poorer lines to net you a profit.

Star Wars, Harry Potter and licenses can be profitable, but make sure the sets you pick to hold for resale are worth buying in the first place. With Licenses, you can always wait a few years and just sell the figs too. Especially with the color change some figs may eventually become much more valuable.

The rest of the line, Designers, Adventurers, World City Etc... will all likely turn a profit in the 1 - 2 year time period after they disappear from the shelves. If you wait longer and keep them MISB then the value will increase even more as time goes by. I'd be stocking up on sets with a lot of the old grays, in a few years old grays will have big value.

Just a few hints so you don't get hammered when you load up on 75% off Jack Stone only to find out no one will buy it even at 75% off.

Will

JPinoy · Post by **JPinoy** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:31 pm

What I do is make a weekly budget for getting Lego. I set the limit at around $50 per week. If I need to make a huge order, I just save up the weekly budget until I can buy whatever Lego parts/minifigs it is I need get.

For example, if Im going to buy stuff that adds up to $80, I just save up 2 weeks worth of that Lego budget, and then pay for my purchase. I rarely buy from stores anymore, unless its REALLY cheap. My source for Lego now is BrickLink.com and sometimes I buy from AuctionBrick.com.

Oh, and Im also a college student.

David Girard · Post by **David Girard** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 2:49 am

I can't suggest you much more than making a budget. Me and my girlfriend allow us a amount each for our personnal depenses. So we can do what we want.

My problem, is that I have to separate my budget in two part. Lego and Music. The second is really costy. So I have about 60$can by 2 week for Lego, and 160$can for music.

Budget and discipline is the best solution.

wlister · Post by **wlister** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 8:10 am

You pay for music?! I will only pay for albums that are really great. I have to like well over half the songs to bother buying the cd. If there is only one song I like after hearing the whole album, I delete all the songs I don't like and just keep that one. If the album is great, I'll buy it and keep the files I downloaded. More money for Lego and less money for one hit wonders.

Back to Lego, I don't budget, I sit and wait for sales and then go to town until I'm busted.

If I see a great deal on bricklink for parts that I want, I will buy as much as my CC can handle. Needless to say, I spend waaay to much and I am broke far too often. But I am happy with what I buy. Full retail makes me grumpy.

Will

David Girard · Post by **David Girard** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 12:45 pm

:evil: Yes I pay for music. It's because I'm composing music myself, and I understand very well how it could be frustrating to be downloaded for what hard work I done in composing music. I will not do that to other artists. It's a question of respect.

At least you buy the good albums.

My 160$ is because I have many depenses for my music career. I don't live by my music, as you could guess, but I hope one day I will.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 4:14 pm

wlister wrote:You pay for music?! I will only pay for albums that are really great. I have to like well over half the songs to bother buying the cd. If there is only one song I like after hearing the whole album, I delete all the songs I don't like and just keep that one. If the album is great, I'll buy it and keep the files I downloaded. More money for Lego and less money for one hit wonders.

So, do you steal a Lego set, not like it, keep the parts you like (without paying for them), and return the rest? Aren't there download services available now where you can purchase just the song you want?

kaloo · Post by **kaloo** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 4:35 pm

To get back on topic I just use my allowance and gifts from relatives, and whatever else I saved up over the years. Somehow I only loose 4 or 5 dollars a month. And then I get a ton of stuff for free on my b-day and Christmas.