When is the best time of year to sell LEGO?

darkesoldier

Hello there fellow Lego enthusiasts, I recently got a hold a motherload of Star Wars sets and minifigs. Most- if not all are discontinued and I've known in the past to be quite valuable. But when I check on prices they seem to be lower than I figured, I'm making the assumption that's partially due to the economy and partially due to the time of year.

I'm also making the assumption that Christmas is the best time to sell, but my question is when SPECIFICALLY should I start selling things off? December? Around Black Friday? I found some people saying (for other toys) to sell starting around mid-October! Can you really cash in on the xmas rush before Halloween?!

I'm willing to wait until the right time to sell these off, but I have nearly $1,000 tied up in this lot, so I'm not willing to wait as long if the value only goes up by a few percent. So what are we talking here, does xmas make Lego's go up 30%? 50%? (As opposed to now, the summer.) What are we talking about on average- Ebay specifically?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

-Kevin

Renny

Part of the reason prices have gone done on older sets is because of the new 10 year extension. People know that many sets will be re-released (except UCS) so they aren't willing to pay as much.

In regards to the holidays I personally think it's easier to sell since almost everyone is shopping for gifts but I don't believe you will make 25% to 50% more on your products. In fact I think the opposite. Lots of sellers wait for the holidays and when they all dump their inventory on ebay the market gets flooded. As a buyer I think it's a great time to buy since their is so much seller competition, that you can actually get a better deal than throughout the year. Some sets are the exception of course like older UCS sets or modulars (sets that are always in demand).

Brick_Obsession

As a owner of a lot of discontinued SW Lego I can tell you that you will be waiting awhile.

There are lots of sets that are still way overpriced. They have been for sale for a long time and will continue to be available because of the ridiculist prices against them.

I continue to sell mine off much lower than what people have theirs listed for. I find a get a few more sales this way.

These sets are so old people are forgetting about them and more interested in collecting the new lines.

These old sets cater to people who suffer from OCD and AFOL's mostly in my opinion. A lot of the AFOLer's have these items, therefore it is the younger generation that would want them but cannot afford them because of there overpricing.

My opinion, sell them for what you can otherwise you best have a good dust prevention and shelf ware plan in place.

UKtsumi

Personally I've found that Christmas time is really only good to sell new lego. The older/opened sets before October or Feb onwards when peoples wallets have recovered.
good luck .
Its mostly a game of hit and miss really.

WeezyCupcake

The other thing to consider is that many of the older sets are great builds and don't look good aesthetically. Many of the old sets are only worthwhile because of the minifigs in them. Watto’s Junkyard is popular because of Watto. The most expensive part of Mos Eisley Cantina is Greedo. Get the idea. If your looking to sell put up a list maybe I'll buy something.

Crowkillers

The best day of the week to start/end auctions is Saturday... And make sure that you do it around 3 P.M. (E.S.T. in the United States) because it isn't too late in Europe and not too early if you live on the West coast of the U.S.

y2josh

Crowkillers said:

The best day of the week to start/end auctions is Saturday... And make sure that you do it around 3 P.M. (E.S.T. in the United States) because it isn't too late in Europe and not too early if you live on the West coast of the U.S.

I disagree with this completely. 99% of the time, I get a lot more bidders and a lot higher sale if I end my auctions on Sunday evening. Between 8 and 9 EST.

gmpirate

^ tend to agree

UKtsumi

^ yep end it sunday or thursday evening.

Crowkillers

y2josh said:

Crowkillers said:

The best day of the week to start/end auctions is Saturday... And make sure that you do it around 3 P.M. (E.S.T. in the United States) because it isn't too late in Europe and not too early if you live on the West coast of the U.S.

I disagree with this completely. 99% of the time, I get a lot more bidders and a lot higher sale if I end my auctions on Sunday evening. Between 8 and 9 EST.

Then I supposed that you only sell to the U.S. ? Because 9 P.M. here is like 2 A.M. or later in Europe.... I guess that if your target is only U.S. buyers, then you have to do what you think works best... I have made far more money since I switched selling my custom stuff from Sunday to Saturday...

A lot of what I sell goes outside of the United States, so I try and be flexible with most times zones, I think European buyers appreciate that...

Then you have NFL Football season coming into full effect from September through January and that most definitely hurt your Sunday auctions... This was one of the main reason why I switched up to Saturdays...

Plus if you end your auctions on Saturday afternoon, then you have an entire following day to get all of you stuff packed up, labeled, and customs slips filled out(If needed) rather than cramming to get everything done Sunday night so you can ship it out first thing Monday morning...

I guess we'll all have our differences in opinion on this subject though..

y2josh

Crowkillers said:

y2josh said:

Crowkillers said:

The best day of the week to start/end auctions is Saturday... And make sure that you do it around 3 P.M. (E.S.T. in the United States) because it isn't too late in Europe and not too early if you live on the West coast of the U.S.

I disagree with this completely. 99% of the time, I get a lot more bidders and a lot higher sale if I end my auctions on Sunday evening. Between 8 and 9 EST.

Then I supposed that you only sell to the U.S. ?

Nope. Worldwide. I'm sure I'm isolating some UK bidders in this manner, but 9pm here is 11am in Australia, which is a better region to target for LEGO sales, especially on current sets. Ending an auction at 3pm on a Saturday is pretty much going to cut out most of my US audience, as well, as most people are not even thinking about hanging out on eBay on a Saturday afternoon.

Now, if eBay puts anything in place to discourage 'sniping' (which I don't mind, but I know a lot of sellers hate), I think you'd see the lines between 'best' ending days start to blur, but I don't see them doing anything about that anytime soon.

LegoFanTexas

Sniping is easy to fix, just add 5 min to the end of an auction if a bid is received less than 5 min to end, then for each extra bid, add another 5 min.

y2josh

^That's what's been proposed, but eBay doesn't seem interested. Back in the day, sniping wasn't nearly as rampant as it is now. People didn't "forget to bid" at the last minute because they simply put in the maximum they were willing to pay upfront and let the auction go. I suspect that sniping is more prevalent now because, from the buyer's standpoint, it decreases the chances of shill bidding. As a seller, I don't mind sniping, though. It's when I'm trying to buy something that it really gets on my nerves.

Brick_Obsession

^Personally I like the idea of the auction randomly ending within the last hour of the auction. This in my mind would put an end to sniping and make it more fair.

UKtsumi

^randomly ending???? ^^^5 minutes added?? I regularly buy at the last minute, I dont think I would bother if it were just a lottery, or the end time kept getting moved back.

peterlinddk

I usally buy from a local auction-site rather than eBay, and they extend the auctions with 5 minutes, everytime a bid is placed less than five minutes before the end time. As a buyer I actually like that, both because it prevents 'sniping' and it also makes it quite exciting to place bids, and you continually have to think about if you want to pay a little more and win, or just stop now.
For sellers it also helps, since buyers tend to bid (a little) more than they would upfront, just to win.

y2josh

UKtsumi said:

^randomly ending???? ^^^5 minutes added?? I regularly buy at the last minute, I dont think I would bother if it were just a lottery, or the end time kept getting moved back.

Closing five minutes after the final bid is pretty standard for any online auction that isn't run through eBay. I can see where the randomly ending idea would be annoying, but I'm not sure why discouraging sniping would be.

Pacific493

darkesoldier said:

Hello there fellow Lego enthusiasts, I recently got a hold a motherload of Star Wars sets and minifigs. Most- if not all are discontinued and I've known in the past to be quite valuable. But when I check on prices they seem to be lower than I figured, I'm making the assumption that's partially due to the economy and partially due to the time of year.

I'm also making the assumption that Christmas is the best time to sell, but my question is when SPECIFICALLY should I start selling things off? December? Around Black Friday? I found some people saying (for other toys) to sell starting around mid-October! Can you really cash in on the xmas rush before Halloween?!

I'm willing to wait until the right time to sell these off, but I have nearly $1,000 tied up in this lot, so I'm not willing to wait as long if the value only goes up by a few percent. So what are we talking here, does xmas make Lego's go up 30%? 50%? (As opposed to now, the summer.) What are we talking about on average- Ebay specifically?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

-Kevin

Are the sets that you bought used or still in sealed boxes? If they are used, then I would say that there is really no time of year when you're likely to sell any given set for more than some other time during the year. Around the holidays, you will likely be able to sell the sets at a faster pace, but pricewise I have never seen a spike on used sets at any given time during the year.

gmpirate

Imo, the holidays are more about volume rather than getting your best price.

madforLEGO

y2josh said:

UKtsumi said:

^randomly ending???? ^^^5 minutes added?? I regularly buy at the last minute, I dont think I would bother if it were just a lottery, or the end time kept getting moved back.

Closing five minutes after the final bid is pretty standard for any online auction that isn't run through eBay. I can see where the randomly ending idea would be annoying, but I'm not sure why discouraging sniping would be.

They should just make it so anyone that wants to bid within a 1-2 minutes of an auction end must bid at least once before that time but really you will never stop sniping.. and I'm sure there is a reason for eBay not extending auctions, however good or bad it may be.

It can be bad for sellers and bidders alike which is one reason why most of my items on eBay are now 'Buy it now'.
Really, most auctions on eBay take about 1 hr with all the sniping, maybe even 15 minutes.. all you are doing for the rest of the auction time is advertising the item, hoping enough people see it to put a snipe bid in IMO

As for selling, it depends on what you are looking for, I can say that Summer time is a bad time.. you have to remember the market. It is primarily an indoor toy.

sadowsk1

What is the advantage of sniping an auction exactly as opposed to just bidding at the max your willing to pay when you see the auction?

richo

^ no difference in terms of your limit, but less chance for people to re-act to your limit.

sadowsk1

I have heard that there sites that will do this for you but it seems like its easier to just throw down your max and hope for the best. Oh well, I was on this thread to find info on when to sell, very helpful, thanks all!

LegoFanTexas

richo said:

^ no difference in terms of your limit, but less chance for people to re-act to your limit.

Yes, but that implies that people bid less than their limit, then bid again, then bid again.

Why? For a real auction, that starts and stops within minutes, I get the point, but for an auction that runs a week? Bid and move on...

If you bid your limit and someone else wants to outbid you because they want to overpay, more power to them. :)

CCC

LegoFanTexas said:

Yes, but that implies that people bid less than their limit, then bid again, then bid again.

It is because they don't know what they will pay for it. They base that partly on what other people are willing to pay.

richo

I have occasionally got a few real bargains on ebay bidding at the last minute. I have no doubt that I would have not won these at the low amount I did if I had bid several days before the auction ended. its all human behavior!

LegoFanTexas

:). That is why I don't run auctions, buy it now is all I do.

oldtodd33

If Ebay stops sniping I will stop buying, period. I don't want to deal with shills ( I have had them used on me before ) and I will not deal with newbies who will pay any amount to win. As for buy it now auctions, I only do them if the item is underpriced as in a steal, or is so hard to find that it is my only option.

But, by the way. The best time to sell is between Halloween and Christmas or after January until about March.

LegoFanTexas

^ Where would you buy then? Bricklink and Amazon don't do auctions...

Just like normal auctions, it would make sense to add time to the end of the auction whenever a bid is received in the final 5 minutes. This is how all the other auction web sites usually do it, and how it works in the real world auctions, they take bids until everyone is done bidding.

oldtodd33

^ I wouldn't be buying old sets at all. I would have to change my buying habits to new sets only. Which is fine too, it's all Lego anyway.

UKtsumi

As a buyer I have used sniping. Its convenient for me as I can put my maximum bid on and walk away , and not have to remember to bid at the last minute. (on these I win 5/10-mainly because my maximum bid is never very high))
On auctions where I dont use a snipe, and just put my max bid on I win 1/10.

As a seller I dont mind if people snipe or not , they are all bids as far as Im concerned. I start the auction at the lowest price I will accept so as long as it sells I'm happy.

CCC

I also normally use a snipe robot if I really want something. It doesn't draw as much attention to the item, and it does partially help to stop shilling. And of course, you don't get the nibblers keep biting at you until they beat your maximum. It also means that I do not have to be at the computer near the end of the auction.

Different auction formats require different tactics. eBay have chosen this way, and it works. Snipes are just as valid as any bid, and in the eBay model it is the highest bid at a set time that wins it. There are loads of other formats they could use, but they need to stick with probably the simplest one.

cheshirecat

I will almost always snipe my ebay purchases - often putting an initial minimum bid in if the item has zero bids when I find it.

Unquestionably it saves me money - particularly on auctions with few bidders. Not only does it not give other people time to out bid me or even just push my bid higher, it also prevents me from up bidding over my maximum. How successful the technique is almost certainly relates to how popular the item for sale is.

On the downside its riskier, i may not bid high enough to become the high bidder let alone win (but then thats not always a bad thing, you set your own maximum after all) and more importantly you might just forget or loose internet access (thats happened) or the battery on your laptop dies with less than a minute to go (I've had that too) but hey you win some you loose some.

I can see why sellers don't like it - if you assume sniping saves the buyer money (and I do) then it must cost the seller. But hey, thats the ebay game so suck it up. IMO adding time at the end would just encourage shilling and be a terrible idea - it may more closely replicate a real auction, but online auctions aren't real auctions so they need to behave differently to maintain the balance.

Unaki

I am a relatively new seller, having sold various random things in the past on the site but recently I dove into LEGOs again and managed to get a lot of great deals on sets that I would rather sell than put together. I may end up making it exclusively LEGO.

Anyone have any advice on how to make sure my auctions would get a lot of attention and fetch a decent price? As of right now I am really only interested in selling the big NIB sets like the Republic Frigate, Attack on Weathertop and even some old polybags. I already know how to price the auctions so I am looking more for things like auction timing and really anything that would attract more bidders.

mrtonytj

Just sell them here instead :-)

mrtonytj

Also, it depends on how many days you are auctioning for. For myself, i seem to find that doing a 99c one day auction works great for most sets due to the fact it starts well up the list and people see its cheap and start watching it. I always get over what i want. Trying to end at around 6:30-7pm is good too. I know people say to end on certain days but in my experience, any days work fine.

Joseph

This should help: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/8270/ebay-pricing-strategies/p1
There's also some helpful advice here: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/5891/when-is-the-best-time-of-year-to-sell-lego

monkeyhanger

You might luck out on a one-off, but if you're selling a number of items, it'll even out. When you're selling internationally, finish time is an odd one, you want to appeal to all but when you're open to USA/Canada and Europe, what time is best? It depends what specific country you think your taget audience is. When selling to all of the above, but aiming for USA I try to end 11pm to midnight GMT which is still doable for the dedicated UK buyer, but at 6-7pm for USA east coast (although it may be a bit early for west coast, unless you're talking weekends). I just sold 3 identical sets lately, £61, £40, £63. In my experience Sat/Sun/Thurs/Fri/Mon have been best, in that descending order. Give yourself either 3 or 5 days for bids if your item is in demand and pay heed to your competition. What are they selling for in "buy it now". Give an item long enough to be seen and starting out at 99p is no bad thing, it will be galloping up in bids in no time.

Sniping is good (from a buyers point of view) for auctions that have been set up with little thought for ending time, or have been poorly written descriptions, making them hard to find in a search, or if the item isn't that popular to raise much of a bidding interest. Do what you can to raise the profile of your item and make sure as many interested parties see it as possible.

Shilling happens a lot. Someone on ebay selling same items as me right now seems to be a serial shiller, with very suspicious bidding patterns happening on their items. Same bidder keeps bidding intially on the very high starting bid to "break the ice", but never buys it. The last few things he's sold have gone to the winning bidder for £1 more than the initial bid because it is so close to the low end of the "buy it now" range of pricing. A few things of his have gone to the first bidder and been relisted immediately or pulled a few hours before finish.

Zacherano

I personally tend to place a maximum bid early in an eBay auction and then go back later and possibly snipe, but only if I think it is necessary. It's easy to get into a bidding war with someone even in the last minute if you don't time it right. Concerning Lego minifigs on eBay, my experience is that most bidders arrive at the end to snipe, but I have noticed that plenty of them place early max bids like I do.

mrtonytj

Zacherano said:

I personally tend to place a maximum bid early in an eBay auction and then go back later and possibly snipe, but only if I think it is necessary. It's easy to get into a bidding war with someone even in the last minute if you don't time it right. Concerning Lego minifigs on eBay, my experience is that most bidders arrive at the end to snipe, but I have noticed that plenty of them place early max bids like I do.

I usually put in a snipe bid at 10 seconds to go and that gives me just enough time to put in a second if someone else tries to snipe me.. I usually get it in literally the last second. Get's my heart pumping!!