Investing in Legos

A few years back, I was into selling on ebay big time. Since I am collector of old computer games, I found a market for like-minded collectors on ebay, reselling some of my $1 floppy disk software for as much as $50. It was a sweet deal.

But I also learned a little bit about how the collector’s market works on ebay, and I began looking out for retail products that would eventually become collector’s items.

My son used to build Star Wars Lego sets, and one of his sets was a several-hundred piece Millenium Falcon. I think the set originally sold for $99.00. Lego quit making the set (though they have recently revived it) and people were paying $200-$300 for a set still in the box. When Zach tired of owning it, he gathered the pieces (no box) and we ended up selling it for $170.00. He was glad to have the profits.

Anyhow, seeing this trend, I decided to purchase four sets of the Star Wars AT-AT Lego. You know, it is the Imperial Walker made famous in The Empire Strikes Back. I bought them for $69/each on ebay and put them in my attic.

After two years, Lego finally stopped making them and they have become collector’s items, bringing as much as $200 on ebay.

I’m probably going to hold on to them a little longer and see if the price goes up even more before unloading them. And here is the problem with speculating. Will Lego re-release the AT-AT? Or will it stay off the market and continue to increase in value? Only time will tell.