This Lego Death Star sold for $1499 on Trade Me. Could you have a goldmine in the bottom of your toybox?There has been much discussion over recent years about the strength of growth in house prices and share markets. But could the real investment all this time have been Lego?There has been a resurgence in interest in the small plastic blocks - much cursed by parents who find them underfoot - and some collectors are getting megabucks for their pieces. This Lego Star Wars Star Destroyer sold for $1004 on Trade Me. While Auckland house prices are up 68 per cent on their 2007 peak and the NZX50 has grown more than 130 per cent since 2009, some canny Lego buyers have seen their collections increase in value by more than 500 per cent over that time.Trade Me spokesman Logan Mudge said: "Lego has done a magnificent job of reigniting its relevance and extended its plastic tentacles not only from offline into online but collaborating with a vast array of brands to ensure it is embedded in a huge range of popular culture.
it is an extraordinary example of a brand that is loved across generations."There are more than 1000 Lego items sold on Trade Me each week and last year there were more than a million searches for the blocks. Michelle Smith runs Trade Me Lego business John3.16. The three most expensive Lego listings sold in the past six weeks were all Star Wars-related: A Lego Death Star, which sold for $1499, a Lego motorised walking AT-AT for $1199 and a Lego Imperial Star Destroyer, which went for $1004.Some of the priciest Lego listings on the site at the moment are a Taj Mahal replica for $3199, a Cafe Corner set for $4300, a modular building collection for $3995 and a Star Wars rebel blockade runner for $33000. The Lego Cafe Corner set was US$139.99 when it was first released in 2007. This Lego AT-AT sold for $1199 on Trade Me. She said it was optimistic but possible the Cafe Corner set could sell for $4300, which would represent a price increase of almost 1500 per cent. She said similar sets were selling for about $2000 plus shipping and customs overseas, a value lift of about 640 per cent.
She developed an interest in Lego after listing a piece for $1 on Trade Me, which "went crazy". She had noticed people taking an investment approach to their Lego, buying key pieces and putting them aside. "A little while ago, people started realising if you saved sets and did not open them, certain sets would go up in value. People see it like stocks and shares."Collectible Minifigures were particularly sought-after, she said, and could sell for hundreds of dollars.Smith recommended anyone who wondered about the value of their Lego collection check sites such as eBay and Lego collector websites to judge the prices their pieces might command.Lego And FriendsLego Friends CharactersBirthday CharactersLego Friends Party IdeasLego Party IdeasNo FriendsParty LegoFriends YahooKiki'S PartyForwardLEGO Friends Characters - because Hayden asks me every two minute what their names are and I cannot remember to save me!! Charm MontmartreMontmartre ParisSource WanderlusteuropeEurope ParisParis FranceAdore EuropeParis ExtraApostrophe PhotoPhoto LilyForwardThis used to be a bakery (boulangerie) for years and years.
It's down the street from my friend's apartment in Montmartre.Is YOUR old Lego worth a fortune? Old models could be more valuable than GOLD LEGO is now a better investment than gold after its value shot up. GETTYThe popular children’s toy has soared in worth by 12 per cent each year since 2000.Now homeowners are being urged to hunt through their lofts and cash in on the bonanza.Some sets are so in-demand that they are now selling for almost £3,000 on sites like eBay.The Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon set, which contains more than 5,000 bricks, was sold for £342.49 when it was released in 2007.Now the Star Wars toy sells for nearly eight times as much, with winning bids of up to £2,712 on auction sites.Another popular Lego set, Cafe Corner, has seen its price soar by a whopping 2,230 per cent from £89.99 in 2007 to £2,096 now.And the 2008 Taj Mahal - which has almost 6,000 pieces - has gone from £199.99 to £1,848.Prices also rocket for second-hand Lego as soon as it goes out of production, with modern sets released in the last year already selling for 36 per cent more than its original value.
With the soar in popularity of Lego with both adults and children, the effect on the values of both rare, hard to find sets and new releases has been incredible The huge hikes mean Lego provides a better return than traditional investments like the stock market with the value of the FTSE 100 no higher than it was in 2000.People who have invested in gold have also only received a 9.6 per cent gain over the past 15 years.Parents have now been urged to search through their children’s forgotten toys to see if a fortune could be hidden away in their loft.Bev Channell, event director for Lego show BRICK 2015, said: “With the soar in popularity of Lego with both adults and children, the effect on the values of both rare, hard to find sets and new releases has been incredible.“It’s well worth searching through your old sets to see what treasures are hiding there.”Last week Lego warned it may run out of bricks before Christmas due to the soaring demand.GETTYThe Danish company admitted some children may not get their presents as factories are unable to make enough plastic bricks to keep up with requests from toy stores.
The rising price of Lego means keen collectors have even managed to turn their hobbies into a profitable business.David Kirkham, who runs the world’s smallest Lego shop, Minifigs & Bricks, in York, said: “We look for sets and mini figures that are a little bit different such as a battery-operated light up Star Wars Darth Vadar.“It was part of a set of three, with a standard figure and a small vehicle, that retailed when new for £15.“Now we sell the light-up Darth Vadar on its own for £70.“Lego has produced between 7,000 and 8,000 licenced and rare minifigures to date and I own around 3,000 of them so my own collection continues to grow as well.”BRICK 2015, a celebration of all things Lego, is running at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) from today until Sunday.MOST EXPENSIVE LEGO SETS:Set - release date - pieces - retail price - current value1 - Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon - 2007 - 5,195 - £342.49 - £2,7122 - Cafe Corner - 2007 - 2,056 - £89.99 - £2,0963 - Taj Mahal - 2008 - 5,922 - £199.99 - £1,8484 - Death Star II - 2005 - 3,441 - £249.99 - £1,5245 - Imperial Star Destroyer - 2002 - 3,096 - £249.99 - £1,467LEGO SETS WITH BIGGEST INCREASES IN VALUE