Fine tuning your collection, who has done it and why?

EGRoberts

Hello all! Just wanted to get some input on collecting and explain the pitfall I have fallen into with my collection and get advice from others in the community on how they get around it. My wife got me out of my dark age about 7 years ago with lego Castle #70404 which instantly ignited my old passion as a child.. Castle and all of it's sub themes have always held a special place for me and tends to be my favorite. 

What i want to know is have any of you just had tons of all different themes but then gotten rid of a lot of it to focus on specific themes to complete and if so did you regret it or was it better for you? I have so much lego that I can build basically anything now but always look back at all the forestman sets, kings mountain fortress, and black monarchs castle and just really want them back!

I always side with keep it all and start collecting the old sets anyways but fall into the trap of new sets which give me more parts for far cheaper and then kick myself because now I have more lego I will not let go of but not the lego I should have bought to make me happier as a collector.

How do you all do it? 

Astrobricks

Why not just ask yourself if a purchase will actually make you happier before you buy it? Don’t just buy lego because it’s lego.

EGRoberts

Astrobricks said:

Why not just ask yourself if a purchase will actually make you happier before you buy it? Don’t just buy lego because it’s lego.

Well that happens in every purchase, I only buy lego for the sake of it being lego when its clearance at 50% or more (thanks lego movies and friends!). The problem is I am a star wars fan, so I do buy a lot of star wars sets. The problem is they do bring a little joy and that little joy in that moment is a boost! I struggle to skip the small frequent boosts to my day for that 1 prolonged big boost of buying old sets which leads to my lego budgets being busted weekly where as if I just left it for a month or two I could start tackling the old stuff. But then I worry Ill feel ripped off as the part/price ratios.. I need a lego phycologist... Is there such a thing?? lol

560Heliport

Astrobricks said:

Why not just ask yourself if a purchase will actually make you happier before you buy it? Don’t just buy lego because it’s lego.

That's crazy talk.

truck730

Any hobby where accumulation is possible this dilemma will prevail, I've too much and I only buy 30euro max. price and don't want to get rid of anything. Embrace the hobby and build a massive structure with great detail to use as many bricks as possible to reduce brick storage. My long game plan is ;win a lottery and have a dedicated lego room. The old lego is going to be more valuable but bricklink a set ...as I'm led to believe it'll work out cheaper. Join a local LUG and they might provide psychiatric assistance, otherwise like the rest of us you're doomed

EGRoberts

truck730 said:

Any hobby where accumulation is possible this dilemma will prevail, I've too much and I only buy 30euro max. price and don't want to get rid of anything. Embrace the hobby and build a massive structure with great detail to use as many bricks as possible to reduce brick storage. My long game plan is ;win a lottery and have a dedicated lego room. The old lego is going to be more valuable but bricklink a set ...as I'm led to believe it'll work out cheaper. Join a local LUG and they might provide psychiatric assistance, otherwise like the rest of us you're doomed

Ya I have a lego room with many large creations but the space for displays disappears as the need for more storage grows..... That would be another issue I have is the balance of storage vs display lol. The one good thing I can say is every set bought has been built at least once, but like anything else there are favorite themes that get blown up into large mocs and suck up all my display space (harry potter and a city currently)... I also keep a full rebel and imperial fleet ready to go at any given time as my 9 year son requires ships for his wars...

oldtodd33

I would say you love Lego as much as the rest of us, too much. I am getting rid of a lot of my sets primarily because of storage room. At one point I had over $100,000 worth of Lego in my basement and had to walk sideways to get around. Now the shelves are much more empty and the basement looks less cluttered but I do have a lot more to go. I have resigned myself to large expensive sets only as they are the sets much more likely to increase in value and I can sell them for a good profit later. That's how I keep myself in check. I have also limited myself to just a few themes, mainly modulars and cmf's. After that I like my vintage sets better than the new ones. 

NateMN2020

I too realized I was running out of space. I have the old sets that bring me lots of joy from my childhood - monorails, pirate ships, castles, classic town - and I have the newer Modulars, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and superheroes. I’ve weeded out the prequel and sequel trilogy sets because I can’t stand the movies, and as a result I realized I was only collecting the sets for the sake of collecting them. So I sold them. And the Hobbit sets. And POtC sets. I don’t miss them and they gave me more money to buy some of the newer Creator and Ideas sets that I actually really enjoyed building and displaying.

Astrobricks

I too used to buy discount Lego because I was on the hunt for best price/part ratio and was building up a parts collection. But after a few years I realized I wasn’t using the parts as much as I’d hoped and storage space is now at a premium. So I’ve mostly quit buying just for the momentary rush of getting it cheap. I too am mostly buying big sets that are too cool to resist. And Target and Walmart are cooperating by hardly having any good clearance prices any more :)

EGRoberts

@Astrobricks I think I am getting to that point but there are always certain groups of parts that I wish I had more of in bulk but bricklink fills that void not sets.. I think the hard part for me now going forward will be balancing the cool big sets as you put it which lego seems to be releasing more and more now that they target adults with old sets that I really just have to suck it up and start buying them...

CCC

I've got rid of a lot of my old sets too. It started small with CMFs. I realised I didn't like a lot of the newer ones coming out, especially the repeated characters, and as I was no longer going to be complete then there was no reason to hold on to old ones that I didn't really care about too much and only had them originally to be complete. Plus a lot were valuable so that was a second bonus.

Then I started looking at other themes. I kept only what I wanted to keep on display. I think I had eight different Luke Skywalkers dressed as an X-wing pilot, now all gone except one. I've trimmed down to keep one of each character in a particular outfit. I kept all the Atlantis fish, but got rid of the sets and the divers. Similar with PQ, keeping some of the nicer figures.

Astrobricks

I had to go digging to figure out PQ is Pharaoh’s Quest :)

CCC

https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/2798/abbreviation-acronym-list-collectors-edition/p1

Has a list of commonly used theme abbreviations. 

andhe

This has been my thought lately...

Whisper it but... Most AFOLs have too much lego. More sets than they can display, more parts than they can build with. 

As much as people talk about things increasing in value (to justify the next purchase) how many of us are actually selling stuff off? Wondering if this is mainly a current dilemma as the AFOL business has rapidly increased in recent years and with most AFOLs in the 30-40s range it seems (?) we haven't really hit that era where we all start dying and our large collections are sold off. Does make me wonder whether stuff will truly be worth what we think, as by then there'll be another 30 years of newer sets and the AFOLs of the future will all be buying up ninjago sets rather than our old 1980s classic collections or 2000 era star wars stuff.

I have a smaller collection than a lot on here, but the current value of some of it still stresses me out (mainly all those cmfs just sitting in storage) so makes more sense to me to sell stuff now, while prices and people's interest is still high. So just need to take the plunge and do that.

I found collecting much more enjoyable at the start when I was focussed on one theme (80s/90s castle from childhood) so keep convincing myself to go back to that.

TLDR - Buy what you enjoy, not what you feel you don't want to miss out on because lego/afols/pop culture have told you that's what you should enjoy. 

CCC

andhe said:

This has been my thought lately...

Whisper it but... Most AFOLs have too much lego. More sets than they can display, more parts than they can build with. 

As much as people talk about things increasing in value (to justify the next purchase) how many of us are actually selling stuff off? Wondering if this is mainly a current dilemma as the AFOL business has rapidly increased in recent years and with most AFOLs in the 30-40s range it seems (?) we haven't really hit that era where we all start dying and our large collections are sold off. Does make me wonder whether stuff will truly be worth what we think, as by then there'll be another 30 years of newer sets and the AFOLs of the future will all be buying up ninjago sets rather than our old 1980s classic collections or 2000 era star wars stuff.

I have a smaller collection than a lot on here, but the current value of some of it still stresses me out (mainly all those cmfs just sitting in storage) so makes more sense to me to sell stuff now, while prices and people's interest is still high. So just need to take the plunge and do that.

I found collecting much more enjoyable at the start when I was focussed on one theme (80s/90s castle from childhood) so keep convincing myself to go back to that.

TLDR - Buy what you enjoy, not what you feel you don't want to miss out on because lego/afols/pop culture have told you that's what you should enjoy. 

I sell stuff off once I'm bored with it, only really applies to sets not parts for me. I got rid of loads of both unused and also displayed CMFs that were just taking up space in drawers or I no longer cared to display. Same with older sets, if I can get back what I paid for a set (or often more) that I no longer want i don't see the point of storing it. They might go up in value more, but then what I buy in their place will probably also go up and I don't have to worry about any better new sets killing their value. Prices for a lot of things plateau anyway.

Spidrax

Here's my approach after many years of buying a little of everything and ending up with way too many sets.

My favorite themes are Classic Space and Futuron, so that's my focus. About five years ago I loaded all the set inventories into BrickStock, sorted by part number, and deleted all but the largest number of each part. That became a Wanted List in BrickLink. Dozens of orders later, I now have enough parts to build any official set from these two themes (but not all at the same time). I still buy new parts now and then when I find nice deals, but that collection is basically complete.

I've sold off almost everything else. I still have some Creator/Designer sets I've been holding on to, but I think I'll unload those eventually.

I will buy a new set now and then when something catches my eye, but after I've built it and maybe displayed it for a while, I sell it on eBay for cheap. I figure if I buy a new $50 set and sell it for $30 a month later, someone else is happy to get a good deal, and I got my $20 dollars worth by being able to build it.

EGRoberts

andhe said:

TLDR - Buy what you enjoy, not what you feel you don't want to miss out on 

That is I think the heart of my dilemma.. Seriously though seeing other collectors views and experiences is helping. One thing I can honestly say is I don't buy sets to see value increase, I buy them because I love lego and there was parts in the set I felt could be used. I know I will not likely sell off any lego as I just still get to much joy when I sit in my lego room surrounded by it all but going forward I think andhe hit the nail on the head. I need to focus on the sets that mean the most which has always even since I was kid been the full castle line.  Thanks all for your feedback though, it helps to see others that have gone through the same problems and know there outcomes.

Speedman29

Apart from the odd polybag or duplicate GWP, I've never sold any LEGO! When I came out of my dark ages I was terrible for buying anything and everything. Mainly Star Wars with a a few City and Ideas sets (why did I ever buy the Minecraft Ideas set!) Then I gradually settled on the modular buildings I liked and the City sets that fitted in. Now I buy what I really like and will enjoy building. I'm lucky to have one room of the house to keep it all in, but I am running out of space, so maybe the great sell off will come one day!

mr_benn

Great question, great responses.

Like everyone else - I have too much too.  So many MISB sets that I'd picked up because I fancied them at the time/they were a bargain etc.  I think it's important to finally decide what you do - and don't - want, and then you have a choice of what to do with everything else.  You can use the bricks for building if you're so inclined, or get rid of it - don't just keep it!

My solution has, over the last 2 years, to give a considerable donation of the smaller and less valuable sets away to Fairybricks (who do amazing work and the recipients will have gotten far more value and enjoyment than I ever would), and then over the last 6 months I've been selling off a lot of the bigger sets - mostly on Ebay because despite the fees it gets the most views - was delighted to see a MISB Emerald Night go a few weeks ago!  The satisfaction of having the space freed up is absolutely brilliant, and will enable me to focus on what I really enjoy (mainly putting together a nice little model town and Star Wars stuff).  

1265

I've been collecting for many years and the older I get the more I've become selective with what I purchase.  Granted....I only felt this way because I've pretty much reached my space limitations and figured that I need to focus on what I truly like vice buying just because afraid I'll miss out on a deal.