A series of MISB castle/pirates/islanders auctions from 1990s recently ended on eBay.

Odindusk

I'm not sure if you have to be logged into eBay to see the completed auctions of a seller, but here you are:

http://www.ebay.com/csc/adamjonb/m.html?rt=nc&LH_Complete=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3911.c0.m283

This seller had 20+ auctions the past couple of weeks, all MISB stuff. Some expected, and some remarkable results. Here are a few:

6079 (Dark Forest Fortress): $308.03
1788 (Treasure Chest): $195.53
6278 (Enchanted Island): $185.53
6267 (Lagoon Lock-Up): $152.50
6289 (Red Beard's Runner): $201.00
6286 (Skull's Eye Schooner): $761.00 (!)
6277 (Imperial Trading Post): $843.03 (!!)

So these are some real-world sales in an auction-style format, not sets listed for a ton in hopes of nabbing a buyer. I find tracking Lego MISB sales to be interesting to me.

prof1515

MISB on eBay means little to nothing. While it ought to mean "Mint in Sealed Box", not everyone has the same idea as to what constitutes "mint" to say nothing of those who believe MISB means "Mint in Sealed Bags" or even that "sealed" means taped up after opening.

That said, there are many other factors to take into consideration with eBay such as the time of year.

LegoFanTexas

No kidding...

Thankfully most sellers are reasonable. I recently purchased a 4481Hailfire Droid from eBay, paid about $100 for it...

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4481-1

It was sold as MISB, but it was stuffed into a flat rate Priority Mail box that was actually SMALLER than the Lego Retail box, it was crushed flat by the box, even before it was put in the mail.

I wrote the seller a polite but firm e-mail saying how unacceptable this was and who in their right might would do this to a MISB set?

The seller sent me a 50% refund and told me to keep the set, and if I really wanted a full refund, offered a return shipping label and a 100% refund. Since the Lego bricks themselves were fine, I accepted that offer, but now I just opened it and built it, since it no longer had any other use.

Ma1234

The thing is, one day a set goes for $750, the next day the same set. In the same condition, goes for $250. There is no formula. In 2000, I bought an opened Metro Park and Service Tower for $150. In 2009, I bought one MISB for $210.

Supersympa

whouah! that was some nice sales! The seller must be happy with the prices!

And yes, you have to be carefull with what people say "new" or "MISB"
I had some bad experience....Like most of us i guess when you buy on ebay.

Eric

Would it be a fair comment to say that your 'safer' (for lack of a better term) to buy from Bricklink, condition wise?

andhe

Slight tangent but yes, generally condition and descriptions are better on bricklink, though that comes at an extra cost!

Those are some seriously hefty prices, and obviously coming from an adult collector to be shifting that many MISB sets. Be interesting to see what the same sets are going for on bricklink.

Redbullgivesuwind

huh i got some of those sets mint in box for half of what he sold them at on ebay. i guess if people are willing to pay the price

Odindusk

@LegoFanTexas, I'd probably rage if I found that in the mail. Luckily the seller tossed you a reasonable offer in response.

@Ma1234, I agree completely. There is no formula for the price of older/vintage sealed sets. Bidding seems random, and the winning bid fluctuates erratically from one instance to the next. For this reason, I'm inclined to sell my sets at a fixed cost if I were to ever part with anything. Auction-style format guarantees a sale, but at what cost? 50% less than what I was certain it should have sold for?