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Comments
Granted it was built during an era of none of the specialty parts that were introduced over the last 20 years that everyone loves.... but it is one of the crown jewels of 20th Century LEGO sets.
The Hobby sets of 1975-80 were not good sellers back in their day, perhaps they were too much like just display items, rather than playable LEGO sets. But these were wildly popular about 15 years ago (fair warning about the future popularity of current LEGO sets).
In 2003 TLG came out with a remake of the #398 set... although there were a lot of parts that were substitutions.... such as hollow 1x1 round gray bricks (versus the rare gray solid stud ones back in 1978), and also the 16 1x1x1 rare yellow classic windows were replaced in the 10021 set with the back of headlight bricks.... that embarrassing part that even the Ole Kirk House has to use because TLG never got back to making a decent window system.
But the Hobby sets (390-391-392-393-394-395-396-398) are among the best of the older LEGO sets (my favorite is the #398 Thatcher Perkins locomotive).
The $100 price you were offered (assuming that the box is in great shape, along with the instructions and hopefully includes the large poster that came with the set)... is a bargain. And if you are not interested in it... please PM me.... I know a dozen old time collectors that would be interested in such a bargain!
You can even tell from the LEGO built display stand that this nearly 1000 piece set was meant to be displayed, and not played with! :)
Besides the replacement windows, I noticed some very slight differences between the original and the reissue, because I was using the parts from the reissue but using the scanned instructions for the original since they were higher resolution. For example, for the rigging at the front of the ship, the original uses these, whereas the reissue just has you leave a gap in the plates.
1000 pieces / $100 comes out to $.10 a part, not $.01
But, still a good deal I'd say, assuming they're all the original parts.
That's a classic, and it isn't to often there is someone local selling one where you can personally inspect everything. I'd rather buy one local where I can look at it for $100, then buy one for $85 on eBay where I don't know what I'm getting. Especially, with an old set like this, where condition is everything.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-398-USS-Constellation-NIB-NEW-OVP-with-Poster-Advertising-/171757436677?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item27fd8a7f05&nma=true&si=MMINdYXdwvfZD2K%2Bjrd91f5Sniw%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557