To sell or not to sell: sealed Bionicle 8734

77ncaachamps

I stumbled upon a yard sale and was able to pick up a Bionicle #8734 set with original seals intact.

I'm not a Bionicle fan so selling it would seem like a natural course of action, but is this an important Bionicle set?
Could I hold onto it for the next couple of years and realize a greater value?

Thoughts?

samiam391

77ncaachamps said:

I stumbled upon a yard sale and was able to pick up a Bionicle #8734 set with original seals intact.

I'm not a Bionicle fan so selling it would seem like a natural course of action, but is this an important Bionicle set?
Could I hold onto it for the next couple of years and realize a greater value?

Thoughts?

I'm not a Bionicle fan so selling it would seem like a natural course of action, but is this an important Bionicle set? It's Bionicle, so no.

Could I hold onto it for the next couple of years and realize a greater value? It's Bionicle, so no.

Thoughts? It's Bionicle, so no.

Seriously though, your best bet would be to look through eBay's completed listings:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=lego 8734&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

Looks like it's a more important bionicle (compared to most), however as a long term investment I wouldn't put my stock in bionicle. Even "rarer" ones. 

Phonebooth

^listen to this guy!

77ncaachamps

I saw the eBay sold results.

There are some crazy Bionicle collectors out there!

Thank you for your advice!

Aanchir

While it's definitely an impressive set, it's not a particularly rare or important one, and to be honest I don't know how many BIONICLE collectors there are out there who care about whether the set is sealed (at least, not with boxed sets — with a set that comes in a plastic canister it might be a different story). A lot of BIONICLE buyers these days seem to be chiefly interested in either having the characters for display or the parts for MOCing.

The set being sealed at least assures buyers that the parts aren't damaged, but that would be more of an issue with the incredibly brittle joints of the 2007–2010 sets than with a 2006 set like this one.

I have no idea whether the set is likely to accrue in value. You have to remember that BIONICLE was an incredibly popular brand during its heyday, so sets were produced in fairly massive quantities. And as kids grew out of them, a lot of classic BIONICLE sets and loose parts have flooded the aftermarket, which causes older sets like that to depreciate in value.

BIONICLE's return this year seems to have generated a lot of renewed interest in the brand, but old-school fans buying out of nostalgia might be just as happy to buy the sets used, and new fans might not be interested in those older sets since the parts are more specialized and the new story is not connected with the old story.

According to Bricklink, at least, new copies of that set have sold for some pretty substantial sums in just the past six months (considering it was originally just a $20 set). But I wouldn't count on the set continuing to rise in value, what with how many new and used copies are being listed for prices lower than those recently sold.

Sorry I don't have any more definitive answers for you! But hopefully you can make an informed decision based on some of these factors I've mentioned.

77ncaachamps

@Aanchir Thank you for sharing the BL sales. I totally forgot about that feature!