Old(er) Harry Potter sets

Odindusk

In the past week I've been noticing a lot of retired HP sales on eBay and some of the amounts are fairly impressive. I was in a dark ages from about 2000-2009, so I missed the HP craze. Not that I think I would have bought much of the early stuff because the set designs leave something to be desired, for me at least.

4756 Shrieking Shack ($355)
4730 Chamber of Secrets ($275)
4767 Harry and the Hungarian Horntail ($204)

What mainly drives the cost of old HP sets like this? Rare minifigs (I don't know if there are any, I'm just assuming this is the case)? The brand, in general? Low production? Just trying to get the pulse of this era of sets.

tamamahm

I know several parents of obsessed HP kiddos that have looked into buying older sets for their kids, because the kids have done the current sets. Having had a child completely obsessed with everything HP, I can understand this.

I do not know if this is the only reason, though.

Tammy

mr_benn

I think also that the Lego Harry Potter book has highlighted some of the old sets that used to be available - rather than forgetting about sets when they are retired like most kids, this is just the same as looking through a catalogue of currently available stuff - which sadly isn't the case. I suspect that the Star Wars Visual Dictionary and Minifig guide have had a similar effect on some people that are only now getting into the Lego SW sets!

richo

They are all over priced, lol, although Shrieking Shack does command a good price.

You can still get the Chamber of Secrets in UK MISB for £50-£75 every now and again, so that one is way over priced.

Odindusk

@richo

You calling them overpriced probably isn't a fair label in this case, as these are auction sales. People are bidding up to these costs. I just wanted to make that distinction in case you assumed that these were buy-it-now sales. Overpaying perhaps, but the sellers aren't overpricing anything here.

richo

@ Odindusk,

you're absolutely right. thats market price I guess if these are finished auctions. Still surprised on Chamber of Secrets, as that tends to be a lowish set in terms of price in the UK.

richo

avoiceoreason

Well, my son will be getting a whole lot of older HP sets for his birthday as he has been making his way through the books and has all of the newer sets. I think I have almost all of them at this point ex the castles.

Some definitely command a steep price, but if you are patient most can be had for semi-reasonable prices.

Coolsplash

I have some old HP sets I want to sell, but they are in Used condition and still very good. Not asking much for them. Never was into HP so thinking about selling them to make some cash and room for the themes I do like.

BlueTaylor

Actually I think old Harry sets are quite reasonably priced! :D I owned the Shrieking Shack but stupidly sold it a few years ago and the price has gone up heaps since -_- It was a really great set and I hope to find it cheapish again someday soon!

You've definitely chosen three sets that are quite rare as far as Harry goes, especially the Hungarian Horntail.

Zathras

It seems this term (at least in the US)

had for semi-reasonable prices.

and

...the Hungarian Horntail.

don't mix because the exclusive Moody figure plus the dragon the set includes.

I was recently able to secure about 95% of the Durmstrang ship from a split lot of mixed lego I purchased from ebay though. I was very lucky that all the required Sand Blue/Dark Red pieces were present. Those would of been a tidy sum to source from Bricklink versus the few dollars it cost to replace the missing rigging pieces.