We own 100 million dollars worth of LEGO!

 

  • We own 100 million dollars worth of LEGO!

    Posted by Huw, 29 Aug 2012 07:48. Filed under Brickset.

    Another statistical milestone was reached overnight when the value of our collective collections -- all 3.6 million sets -- passed $100,000,000 dollars.

    The last time I published news about this was in January, when the figure was $79 million. Since then, 7,000 people have started to record their collection at Brickset, to bring the total number of people doing so to 43,100.

    So doing the sums, that's an average collection size of 85 sets, worth $2300. This is up from January when it was 81.

    The next milestone to be passed will be the 1 billion parts mark. We are currently on 952 million so I think we will pass that before the end of the year.

    If I have time this afternoon I will dig through the database and see what other statistical nuggets I can uncover.


    33 comments, latest one posted 10 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by flump in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 08:12

Just by adding my Thor polybag last night? Who'd have thought we'd reach $100m worth of bricks using my polybag!. :o)

Congratulations Brickset.

Will be interesting to see when the 'number of bricks' counter overtakes the monetary value.

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 08:17

I noticed this earlier today down the side panel. What a milestone! I love these little snippets of information so keep them coming! I wonder who actually went over the threshold? I added three Planet sets at about midnight last night, but given that we made it overnight, I imagine it will not be somebody in the UK.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 08:34

^ The data in the panel is cached and only updates a couple of times a day: it isn't real-time. I don't think I could tell who exactly did so.

Posted by piratemania7 in United States, 29 Aug 2012 08:44

Wow, this is awesome! Congratulations everyone! Keep it up. I only have about 45 sets on here, I usually load up in the fall so I fully expect as well we can pass the next milestone for parts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by cwhitehe in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 08:46

Is this only for the sets you know the retail price for? I have 147 sets on Brickset but you only know the retail price for 28 of them. I'd love to know the price of all my lego but guess the older sets would just be guesses.

Posted by Redbullgivesuwind in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 08:48

Whose up for buying Greece with that money?

Posted by shaase in Canada, 29 Aug 2012 09:11

^^ I agree cwhitehe I'm sure a most of us have sets without original sticker prices (I have almost 100 without prices)

^ Redbullgivesuwind...I don't know Greece or our Lego collections, thats a tough call as our Legos are worth more (don't get me wrong I like Greece been there twice). It would be more interesting to use all our collective pieces to build a country...but where to put it?

the $100,000,000 is based on original sale price, most sets in even decent used condition sell for more than their original sticker price.

Though the stats are nice to know, it makes me feel like kind of a hoarder

Posted by DarthZared in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 09:12

I scrolled down the blog a couple of days ago and saw the milestones were close, and knew I should add some more of my many sets to my collection to get it closer!

Posted by DarthZared in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 09:16

This year we have had 587 sets, so with only about 600 or so sets before there are 10000 sets on the database, that could be hit in the next year!

Posted by caperberry in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 09:57

Lovin' today's news. It's all satisfying the OCD in me.

Posted by Kliq in United States, 29 Aug 2012 10:26

Congrats to the Brickset Lego Community.

We would have much more than that amount, though, if it was possible to record resale value.

Posted by Markey in Belgium, 29 Aug 2012 10:57

What a great milestone.

Posted by roar15 in United States, 29 Aug 2012 12:46

Huw, How about the total # of minifigs? I'm always curious what our minifig population is. :)

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 29 Aug 2012 13:53

^^^^^^^^ @shaase, et al.,

Simply put, if you buy things that *increase* in value, you are an investor.
If you buy things that retain *most* of their resale value, or that your kids will want, then you're a collector for fun.
If you keep things that have *no* resale value, *then* you are a hoarder!

I am sure we could all sell out for near 80% value, so there you go!

Posted by BeardedCastleGuy in United States, 29 Aug 2012 15:17

Interesting fact Huw, thanks for sharing it. I've been doing my part by counting what I have and entering it this summer as I already had to shift most of it around anyways.... Just don't ask me to sort it! Off to add a few more sets....

Posted by the_real_indy in United States, 29 Aug 2012 15:28

^^ At this point, I have 213 official sets stored in 40 banker's boxes... But there's also a lot of extra things that are unaccounted for on my official BrickSet List that might actually increase the real total. Lots on unaccounted-for stuff, including:

- exactly 100 Collectible Minifigs that I just marked as loose individual figs, and not as sets on my official set list,
- a few hundred other loose minifigs from various themes,
- about 10 medium-sized MOCs,
- plus about 1,000 extra weapons and accessories and spare parts from BrickLink orders.

I am sure all that would oomph up the real total! Perhaps we have already reached those milestones already?

*****

So from here on out, I will just get the coolest sets each year, so that my future-born-kids do not have to pay a premium price for them many years from now!

Oh, *AND* I will get the coolest collectible minifigs from each new series...
*AND* I will just get the coolest loose figs from various sets on BrickLink...
Oh, *AND* I will get some cool items on BrickForge, etc...
*AND* I will do a few cool MOCs here and there...
Oh, *AND* I will just get, etc, etc, etc......! =D

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 15:51

I am contributing 709 sets to our total (541 different ones).

Posted by Town in United States, 29 Aug 2012 16:09

That's a crazy amount of average # of sets in my opinion. Think about how much space that takes up if you had it all laid out...

Posted by The Sly Fox in United States, 29 Aug 2012 16:25

My two pennies worth is 265 sets, all different, and all Star Wars :-)

Posted by Loganajordan in United States, 29 Aug 2012 16:38

^^Yeah, Town, I have way over that average, and it does take up A LOT of space. However, I consider my lack of living space to be completely worth it. :)

Posted by Town in United States, 29 Aug 2012 16:51

The answer to me, clearly, is to make more money to afford a Lego room. Priorities...

Posted by NeilJam in United States, 29 Aug 2012 17:43

The total went from 79 million to 952 million in just 7 months? That's a 1200% increase. Have there been a lot of older retail prices added recently?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 29 Aug 2012 17:53

No, value went from $79,000,000 to $100,000,000, while parts went from 750,000,000 to 952,000,000

Posted by ecmo47 in United States, 29 Aug 2012 18:34

If I actually updated my collection, I think the total would be 101,000,000! It's been a pricy year!

Posted by Lego Lord Mayorca in United States, 29 Aug 2012 19:42

And to think that on Sunday, I bought two more sets on clearance at Wal-Mart that I promptly added to my collection on Brickset when I got home!

In terms of Lego, we are the One Percent!!! Hahaha.

Posted by Namanbricks in United States, 29 Aug 2012 22:01

Eow I knew that was coming soon because I kept reading the side thing and was like come on 1,000,000 congrats!!!!!

Posted by that guy from that show in United States, 30 Aug 2012 00:27

Hum, it's interesting knowing the average is 85. I was under the assumption that more peaple had more then that. I suppose I'm way above average with 446.

Something I've wondered about is what is brickset's most wanted set. We have the data on how many peaple have a particular set but there is no way to organize it. On that note, what would be the set that the most of us own? This sight soul find a way to organize those aspects like they do ratings.

Congratulations everyone, it's clear a lot of us have dedicated our lives to oir collection and it's thrw our passion that we made this number happen.

Posted by TC in Australia, 30 Aug 2012 01:32

Wow, this is a bit scary!
Thanks for the update Huw.
To think that some years I have spent half of the average collection (approx $1100) on sets in 1 year alone!
I know it pales in comparison to some of the big collectors out there, but with new set designs improving all the time I can see my annual spend increasing......
I am quit happy to say my name is TC and I am a Lego addict! :)

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 30 Aug 2012 03:05

^^ The answers to those questions, and many more, can be asertained here: http://www.brickset.com/search/advanced/featured/

Posted by dragon_teenager in United States, 30 Aug 2012 12:55

I'm sure the actual number varies a bit, since a lot of AFOLs buy sets from the aftermarket (vintage set prices tend to be quite a bit higher), but that's still impressive. Maybe LEGO will start trying harder to satisfy the AFOLs!

Posted by DXninja9000 in United States, 31 Aug 2012 17:29

Well, we own 100 Million dollars of LEGO, and now we're all broke. :P

~DX ninja
Owner of... umm... a lot of Ninjago. :P

Posted by Steez in United Kingdom, 31 Aug 2012 18:41

Its nice to know that I participated to get to that figure.

Just got to keep buying lego to get to the next mile stone then I spose. O what a shame. Haha.

Congratulations brickset users

Posted by The Beast in United States, 31 Aug 2012 21:11

Technically a set is worth more than you bought for under these circumstances:
-It has been discontinued for a few years
-It has not been played with
-It is complete
-There is demand for the item

A lot of my sets are the collectible minifig packets, but other than that I have collected mostly large expensive sets which puts a 372 (370 different) sets at almost $8,000. I didn't buy much this year because I thought it looked boring but I notice that the larger sets sell for more in the long because my $8,000 collection could sell for $12,000 but I also have mint boxes and instruction which will drag up the value more and more. I will sell these sets a while from now and hope to make a big buck

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