The ten commandments of Lego investing
Table of Contents
Lego investing is a great way to grow your money. The process is simple you buy Lego, wait until it retires, hold it until the price goes up and sell. With the right buys you can more than double your money within 12 months of purchase, it is not as difficult as it sounds follow my commandments and you will be well on your way to doubling your investments after all fees.
Although it is an easy way to grow your money there are rules to follow to ensure you continue the snowball effect of Lego investing and don’t hit any ‘brick’ walls.
So let’s run through ten commandments to follow in your Lego investing journey to reach the hallowed land of 100% return on investments.
Thou shalt not pay full price
It is one of the cardinal sins to pay full price for Lego – it is one of my core principles of investing. Lego is often discounted. As an investment, you will be competing with sellers who bought at different prices.
A rough rule of thumb is you want your Lego buy to treble to get a clear 100% PLUS return, so if a set is £20 and you pay £20 – you will require the price to increase to £60 to reach your return. But if you bought it for £15 you only need the price to get to £45.
So always look out for what discounts have been seen on certain sets, as well as looking at how previous sets have performed in the past to see if it is likely to get to your price point.
Thou Shalt only buy retiring Lego
This is vitally important – yes there is an element of patience with Lego investing but you are still trying to turn that investment over as much as possible and in this asset class it is easy to do that.
All Lego sets retire, this is why it is such a lucrative investment.
But you will not be seeing any return on these investments until after it has retired, likely 6 -18 months post-retirement.
So if you buy a set that doesn’t retire for another 2 years that ‘cash’ is basically sat on your shelf for three years whereas if you buy 6 months before retirement you can realise a 100% return on that set within a year or less of buying it.
There is an element of unknown for many on which sets are retiring, and although the lists can change, it is vital to check the retiring lists that are available, before you make that purchase.
The database is kept up to date regularly so give it a quick search before you buy, and check the various retiring lists that are available as well.
Also because there is always a small risk of Lego changing these dates – a small amount overall I would say, but still ensure that you diversify these investments.
Thou shalt be patient
Patience is key for Lego investing – in other reselling businesses the best way to keep the money churning over is to keep buying and selling buying and selling. 
That is why I always call this an investment as opposed to reselling or anything similar. You don’t want to buy for the sake of it, wait until the discounts come and then go big.
You don’t want to sell as soon as it retires for a 20% profit, where you can wait it out for another 6 months and take a 100% return.
Follow thy head, not thy heart and buy popular
I have certainly been guilty of breaking this commandment in the past. I often look at a Lego set and think ‘That is awesome surely everyone will want that, what a great investment.’ But I haven’t done my due diligence to check that this is a set worthwhile and one that will make a solid return on retirement.
Another core principle of Lego investing, the set must be popular. If the set is a popular one, then this popularity will continue when the set retires, when the supply runs low people will be paying more. If it is not popular it will be a slow seller, then it is very unlikely to see a jump in price as the aftermarket is flooded.
It is easy to tell which sets are popular, amazon always has the sales rank on its listings page, and for any serious investors Keepa is needed, this will show you the average sales rank of any set. As well as showing you the historic prices and how this affects the sales rank of these sets and how they perform by other sellers if Amazon is out of stock.
All vital information, it is rare that I would entertain a set that has less than 10,000 sales rank for toys and games (although there are exceptions) and the best investments are going to be those sets that are in the top 1 – 2k of sales rank in toys and games, again information you will find if you search for that Lego set on this website.
Remember thy cashback and stack discounts
When making your Lego purchases you want to be able to get the best discounts and save as much money as possible. There are always a tonne of discount vouchers that can be stacked when you’re making your purchases to bring those prices down even further and increase your margin.
Then of course the hallowed ground of cashback, when you make your purchases you can earn money with very little work. You can either use your cashback from credit cards for your purchases. You can also earn through normal cashback retailers. Complete savings offers 10% off many different retailers, top cashback and quidco aswell can earn mountains of cashback just by clicking on the retailer link before you make a purchase.
Also, the use of gifts with purchase, on the Lego buys you buy direct from Lego shop can then be sold on as free money to boost your earnings as well.
Thou shalt seek Popular Themes
Popular sets is one thing but as well as this you also need to think about the themes that are the best ones to consider. This is because they are collectable and often popular with both grown ups and children. Making them more likely to do well post retirement.
My favourite themes for this reason are the following, where you can check out the 2024 investment guides for them as well
Star Wars 2024 investment guide
Speed Champions investment guide
The logic here is that there are popular sets all across the Lego range, however some popular sets will do better than others because of the theme.
Lets look at a Lego city police car, 60312 – a hugely popular set, in the top 100 on Amazon. However when this set retires, there will likely be another city police car, that will look slightly different, this will cap how much the set will go up by. As fans will only be prepared to pay so much before they don’t consider it worth while.
However we look at the other themes, and popular sets, will be unique and therefore hugely collectable, the cars and other products in speed champs and technic, are all based on specific models, making them more likely to be collectable.
Equally with Star wars and potter, you see a new star wars Vader helmet – it is very unlikely to see another one. You will see other helmets but there is only one Vader.
Plus that adult factor in these themes as opposed to say city and friends, see the price more likely to rise as fans want to get their hands on specific sets and prepared to pay a premium.
Thou shalt look at past similar sets
If you are looking at investments and potential buys, the best way to look at how they are going to perform is look at past sets, with this you need two things, Keepa which have already said is vital, and secondly brickset, a free website with all of the past Lego sets ever on the market.
So if your looking at a theme or set, you can go back in time, and look at how similar have performed, assess the popularity of them, are they similar to what is now on the market?, did you see a similar discount?, and most importantly how did it perform on the aftermarket?. All these metrics are great to look at to assess your investments.
Something I did alot of when first starting and still do now often, this analysis can take time to do over many sets, but this is the analysis I put into to any Lead or investment guide.
Thou shalt sell on Amazon
Now it is certainly possible to sell on eBay and make good money with your Lego investments, and it may seem tempting as the fees are less, particularly on boosted weekends, of 70 – 80%. But the bottom line is if your serious about this an Amazon seller account is required.
Your items will sell for more money on Amazon, despite the fees it is nearly always more profitable to sell on Amazon, and the reason is convenience. By sending your retired Lego into Amazon you can take advantage of their prime functions, free super fast delivery that we all know and love.
People rarely know they are buying from a reseller or Amazon direct, people don’t care as long as the quality is good.
So by selling on Amazon you are taking advantage of the huge customer base.
Plus eBay or other places are fine when doing a few items, but as you scale up, that is alot of work you need to do, you need to sort out postage for each item set the price, send on time, deal with any returns etc.
With Amazon you just simply lump all your sets in a big box, label if you choose, send to an amazon fulfillment centre once created your listings and shipping, then they will add to the Amazon inventory and sort out all the delivery, returns etc. While you sit back and look for more Lego to buy.
Thou shalt buy from reputable retailers
If you are selling on Amazon and something goes wrong, such as it goes missing, or somebody puts in a claim against you, you will want to show that the set was bought as new. To do this you only want to buy from a reputable retailer where you can provide a receipt to show your purchase, you will need this reciept if rare circumstance a box goes missing.
Otherwise if there is a problem, not only could you find yourself out of pocket, but you could also find yourself with your precious Amazon account at risk.
It is not worth trying to make a quick buck by buying off ebay or through another second hand seller – and putting all of your hard work at risk with Amazon.
Protect thy Lego
One of the few risks with Lego is the security of your Lego, if it all goes up in flames or gets damaged your inventory is taking a hit, so make sure you re looking after your prized stock.
This can hurt if they are too knocked about you will struggle to be able to sell them as new.
So a few things to consider. Store them somewhere secure and dry. Damp could destroy your investments, I also always protect mine from sunlight as well as this can degrade the clolouring of the box.
Don’t stack them in an unwise manner that sees them go in on each other be smart with your stacking of your Lego.
You may also want to consider business insurance, Policy Bee is a great insurance provider for any online retailers. You can protect against any public or private liability as well as protecting your stock as well in case anything goes awry.
I would appreciate using my referral link if anyone is interested in policy bee – link
The eleventh commandment: Level up your Lego investing journey.
It is no doubt that when I started my Lego investing journey I broke many of these rules, and this cost my growth, sure I made some good buys, but some not so good that either tied up my cash or could have been spent elsewhere.
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