Brickset users spend $27 million on LEGO in a year

 

  • Brickset users spend $27 million on LEGO in a year

    Posted by Huw, 25 Jan 2012 17:41. Filed under Brickset.

    This time last year I published some figures for the size and value of our collective collections. Between us we had 1,992,000 sets and just over 500,000,000 parts worth $52,000,000.

    This year the numbers are, as you can see from the sidebar, 2,900,000 sets, 750,000,000 parts and worth just under $79,000,000

    36,205 people have registered their collections which is just under 10,000 more than had done so this time last year. The average size of people's collections has risen from 74 to 81 sets.

    So while the headline no doubt grabbed your attention, it's not entirely accurate because the 10,000 new users may have added sets purchased in previous years. If I get time, I'll devise some algorithms to come up with more accurate numbers.

    Still, they are impressive statistics and if nothing else, go to show that collectively we own a lot of LEGO and spend a lot of money on it.

    If the growth continues as it has, this time next year we'll own 1 billion pieces!


    44 comments, latest one posted 16 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Thomson & Thompson in Canada, 25 Jan 2012 18:03

That's really amazing. Last year when I saw the stats, I never would have thought that they would be this big now. Like, $27 million dollars in LEGO? That's 1.8 million $15 sets. Just amazing.

Let's make it our goal to get to 1 billion pieces in a year from now!

Posted by legofanatic2414 in United States, 25 Jan 2012 18:09

Yay?

Posted by Stacy in Australia, 25 Jan 2012 18:23

That shows just how much money Lego must make. And that's only the 20% of Lego fans that register on Brickset. And only using US/UK prices? That's a huge turnover.

Posted by BlueDragonLego in United States, 25 Jan 2012 18:38

I tell people about this site all the time, it is great. With the release of LOTR and Marvel sets Im sure we will hit that billion mark right quick.

Posted by brankell5566 in Canada, 25 Jan 2012 18:42

Like Stacy mentioned, this goes to show how much profit LEGO has made from us fans.

Posted by Zrath in United States, 25 Jan 2012 18:49

Yeah, that was me, sorry. I had money in 2011 and I went a little crazy. XD
I'll try to exercise some self-control this year. :)

Posted by CharlieTheFunEngine in Australia, 25 Jan 2012 19:33

One word. Wow.

Posted by Margot in United States, 25 Jan 2012 19:54

ouch... I do spend way too much money on Lego

Posted by Gandalf1 in United States, 25 Jan 2012 20:07

I think I alone could make it 2 billion next year, because of LOTR. ;D

Posted by rocao in United States, 25 Jan 2012 20:14

if you're willing and able, you could filter out the newly registered users over the past year, and see how much the collection has grown for the ~26,000 previous members. Then we'd have a more accurate idea of the average spent this year, albeit from a smaller sample.

Posted by Odeinoichus in Canada, 25 Jan 2012 20:19

Now what could you build with a billion pieces of LEGO? I certainly haven't thought of anything specific, but the possibilities are endless, personally I think a human sized scale model of the Planet Cybertron might be a fun idea, complete with twin moons, Unicron and a veritable army of Transformers.

Posted by itsaturkey in United States, 25 Jan 2012 20:23

That's crazy! And that's just from Brickset! I wonder how much Lego gets in revenue every year?

Posted by Ypres in Canada, 25 Jan 2012 20:59

Between this account and the one I use to log my Starwars collection I'm upwards of 200 sets. When you spend that kind of money on the product you'd think you should get more of an opinion... ah, I'm just a sucker for Lego.

Posted by LinkBrick in United States, 25 Jan 2012 21:36

they probably earn................................................................ 1000000000 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR

Posted by labrat in United States, 25 Jan 2012 22:20

Actually, Huw, I think a more accurate figure can be determined simply from the data already provided. 2011 $52,000,000 26,205 users makes the average value of the collection $1,984.35 in 2011. 2012 $79,000,000 36,205 users makes the average value of a collection $2,182.02 in 2012. This is an increase of $197.67 per user. For 36,205 users that means the dollar amount spent this year was closer to $7.1 million.

The average user spent $197.67 on five or six new LEGO sets this year. I guess I'm a pretty average AFOL, which of strange because everyone I know thinks I'm eccentric.

This year's going to break the bank. I hope StarWars ends before Lego releases a Blacktron 3.

Posted by legomaniac in United States, 25 Jan 2012 23:12

I know I spent around $400 last year. The Unimog was most of the cost.

Posted by vwong19 in United States, 26 Jan 2012 00:07

I don't know about everyone else, but I am very bad at indicating that I have multiplies of a set that I own so my collection is under reported...

Posted by AETerry in United States, 26 Jan 2012 00:11

Well, there's no way I can be the average user and spend only $197.67 on LEGO and get only 5-6 sets.

Posted by roar15 in United States, 26 Jan 2012 00:28

The scariest day ever on brickset was the day HUW started showing the retail price of our sets on the "my sets" page..... shudder. I knew it was alot, but I kinda felt better NOT knowing. :) That was also the day I informed my son that we could never allow his mother to see that page if he wanted to continue to get Lego.

Posted by Aquapolis in United States, 26 Jan 2012 01:44

I was surprise i collected that much lego(in terms of money spent). It felt like nothing!!!

Posted by ChicoCheco in Norway, 26 Jan 2012 03:21

Huw, it would be nice if there will be (anonymous maybe?) the chart of the TOP 10 biggest collections of the brickset users ;-) Just for us to know how CRAZY we are :-D

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 26 Jan 2012 03:25

@rocao, that's what I intend to do. I could also see how many 2011 sets have been added, and their value, which would give another angle on it although not necessarily exactly aligned with the calendar year's spending.

Posted by richselby in United Kingdom, 26 Jan 2012 03:30

Be careful about drawing the wrong conclusions. Lots of the sets I own I bought 2nd hand, so that's not money going to TLG. And although I am a regular user of this site, I own far more Lego than I have entered here, mostly mixeds lots for building.

Posted by lukehankenobi in United Kingdom, 26 Jan 2012 04:08

1 Billion pieces? I feel an evil laugh coming on.....Muhahahahahahahahaha........Muhahahahahahahahaha

Posted by Markey in Belgium, 26 Jan 2012 04:09

^^^ Great idea, I'd like to see a top 10, or perhaps even a chart that shows the amount of sets of every user that has chosen to share their collection.

Posted by Si_Dorking_Surrey in United Kingdom, 26 Jan 2012 04:44

I'm not sure that the people who are in the top ten would necessarily like everyone to know who they are. I guess so long as there's an opt out.

I also wonder if it might encourage people to fake it to get in the 'charts'.

In fact the more I think about it the more it seems problematic.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 26 Jan 2012 07:53

^ Agreed. It won't happen...

Posted by Farmer_John in United States, 26 Jan 2012 08:54

I was buying sets so fast, I wasn't able to put them all into Brickset. The actual numbers are higher...

:-)

Posted by eric.pedersen in United States, 26 Jan 2012 08:54

Im newly back into Lego myself. I started as a kid around 20 yeas ago and now that my nephew is of age and loves his Lego he got me back into it. Just in the last 3 Months alone I have spent $1,200 USD on my new Lego Star wars collection. I check my local Wal-mart and Target daily for the new sets, nothing yet. This year I plan on the collection growing very large and of course being very expensive. The Wife says its an obsession not a hobby.

Posted by shootvolio in United States, 26 Jan 2012 10:40

2031 pieces was added to my collection from sets last year, not counting a LEGO store Build A Mini purchase. I personally spent $109.58 USD and my family spent around $140 for me as gifts (I love my family) so about $250 USD was added to my collection in the 2011 calendar year. Oh yeah 37 sets were added to my collection to get the above numbers.

Posted by roar15 in United States, 26 Jan 2012 11:10

@dixondog: See.... sometimes to much information is trouble. :)

Posted by AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz in United States, 26 Jan 2012 11:49

We've been into Lego just about 2-1/2 years and have spent in excess of 10K not counting what we've spent on bulk and used Lego. Our family would tell you we never do any hobby half way. These figures don't really surprise me when I see some of the amazing MOCs some of you build.

Posted by Nerd in United States, 26 Jan 2012 12:14

If we spend that much, I'm going to submit a few sets to that LEGO site and get 1%.

Posted by Xiaolong in Belgium, 26 Jan 2012 14:06

I keep all my 500+ Legosets in an Excell file with number, year relased, number of pieces, date and place of purchase and ofcourse price paid. In my account here there are only about ten.
So, if there would be a very easy way how I can import them the number would raise easily as many of us seem not yet have imported there complete list.

Posted by EliteLeader99/brickboy2 in United States, 26 Jan 2012 16:22

If you think about it, that's a waste of money... not to be a sourpuss, but 27 million dollars on plastic? But it is a fun hobby. Don't listen to me... :D

Posted by voypro in United States, 26 Jan 2012 17:23

This is a fraction of what brickset members actually have. I have over 400 lbs of bricks and around 1700 minifigs give or take a few hundred. I buy collections far faster than i could ever possibly inventory it all. Think I have one set listed as "I own"

Posted by blomper in United States, 26 Jan 2012 19:20

No doubt we will hit 1B in 2012. Like many others, I have many loose legos from family members or friends. I love building and can't wait for all the new stuff in 2012. It is not a waste of money to me. I and my boys love and live it.

Posted by roar15 in United States, 26 Jan 2012 19:25

Hey Huw, voypro's comment made me think.... I have around 1100 minifigs... Collectively, how big of a population of minifigures do the members own (at least the ones that are accounted for in their collections)? It would be fun to see how it compares to the populations of some countries.

Posted by voypro in United States, 26 Jan 2012 20:38

mini figs as a population... great idea. would be fun to equate the brickset mini fig population to cities in various countries.

Posted by roar15 in United States, 27 Jan 2012 11:34

Ok, it could be much better. But in my head this is what I see, with a running tally next to the Population. :)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7pL4YIFF8mJZDBiMjNmMWQtZjg4Mi00MTU3LThjZDEtNmJmMTBjNjc3NmM2
(jpeg of a sign)

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 27 Jan 2012 19:19

@ Stacy, brankell5566, itsaturkey, linkbrick, and HUW, et al.

Is LEGO a publicly-traded company on the stock market? Can you get their profit info in their glossy Annual Report? I remember seeing it online. They should also give a breakdown of the stats for different demos, e.g., kids versus AFOLs.

Fortune and Glory!

Indy Out

Posted by The Reviewer in United States, 28 Jan 2012 12:31

If I had 1 billion pieces, I would build a miniland of Disneyland and Knotts Berry farm. (That would be very hard) (Does anyone know exactly how many Brickset users there are?)

Posted by lotsofspareparts in United States, 28 Jan 2012 20:56

I am working on it!! ;-)

Posted by kenhew in Malaysia, 30 Jan 2012 05:18

These are big, serious numbers. If anyone thinks LEGO is 'just kids toy', they'd better think again ;) Now that I think about it, I wonder is there any other toy manufacturer with comparable numbers...hmmm.

Commenting has ended on this article.