14ct gold 2x4 brick at Catawiki
Posted by Huw,
One of the lots in this week's LEGO auction at Catawiki is a 14ct gold 2x4 brick. The current highest bid is €8000.
The auctioneer states that "These Golden Bricks are extremely rare. To our knowledge, there are about seven or eight in the world. And they were all given to employees of Lego who did something very special for the Lego company when they tried to expand their business in Europe during the early seventies. For instance, we auctioned only one before. That brick was given to an Italian representative of Lego for his efforts to get Lego distributed in that country.
"This current one on auction from today is given to a German representative for doing the same in Germany. It even includes the original Thank you note to the recipient of the Lego brick. It's a fantastic piece of Lego History and a must-have for the collector. "
The seller adds "My father was presented with one of these rare Lego bricks for an improvement proposal in December 1971 with a certificate of award from the management of Lego System, Germany, which is available to me in digital form. I was told by a family friend that these bricks are so rare and so valuable. Your chance to get to one of these rare golden Lego bricks."
Employee Gift - 14k Solid Gold LEGO Employee Brick. This brick is 25.65g of 14K gold (0.8246 troy oz). The brick is the same size and shape as the original 2x4 LEGO brick. This brick comes in its original display box which features the LEGO logo of the time that it was given out. The box itself is plastic and is in good condition. Incredibly rare!
You can view every lot in the auction on our Catawiki page and if you have items to sell, take a look at the guide to selling at Catawiki to find out how to get your items listed.
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62 comments on this article
If my father was given one of these, I'd bloody well keep it!
I’d love to meet the person who’s selling this. Just ask why you’d sell an insanely rare gold item that was never available to even be purchased.
Before I place my bid, could anyone please tell me if this is compatible with regular bricks? Otherwise, it would be of less use.
I need about 42,000 of these for the giant C-3PO I am building.
I would not sell something so special and rare, especially if it's related to something my father did. But I'm not the seller, so it's not my problem
@Henry_D said:
"“Must have for collector”
Guests are coming in , they see this thing.
-Whar do you have here?
-A brick made of gold that cost 8k
-Wow , what a smart investment! (no)
Then they leave laughing ar you . 25g of 14karat gold cost roughly 900$"
You are off by a factor of 100 ;)
^ ?
25g of 14ct gold is worth roughly 900$ at the moment but you're not just buying the weight of the gold.
@Huw said:
"^ ?
25g of 14ct gold is worth roughly 900$ at the moment but you're not just buying the weight of the gold."
Yes, I thought @Henry_D typed .25g as in 0.25g. My mistake.
@MisterBrickster said:
"If my father was given one of these, I'd bloody well keep it!"
Even if he was never there for you because he was always travelling around Europe selling LEGO?
Even if he had died without a will and you were legally obliged to liquidate his assets?
Even if your own child was dying of a horrible cancer and its sale would help fund treatment?
There are plenty of good reasons to sell something like this - it's only a thing.
Like all Lego I would be worried about counterfeits flooding the market. It would be interesting to see the original thank you letter, as this is what gives it its value, but I guess worried that this would also be counterfeited.
The reason to sell it is because it's worth a heck of a lot of money to many people. That's a good enough reason as any.
nice. I only saw the picture on bricklink before. Didn't expect the underside to be that detailed. I wonder if they would trade my car with it ;D
@Wrecknbuild said:
"Before I place my bid, could anyone please tell me if this is compatible with regular bricks? Otherwise, it would be of less use."
I would tend to think not, given the fact that it is metal and does not have the flexibility of plastic. But if you’ve got a spare $10,000 lying around, don’t let that stop you!
Beautiful to see, and fascinating to hear the history behind it. I hope it ends up in the hands of someone who will truly appreciate it.
I would sell it in an instant. No need for such a thing. But I would make a lot more fuzz about it, to get a higher price. :D
I suppose to some it would have sentimental value when to others this would constitute a collector's item. To others this would be just a waste of money as for the value of it one can get plenty of boxes of Lego. I would say all opinions are valid and it is for the individual to decide what's more important/useful.
Wonder if u can us it with real lego ? Not like i would at the Price Tag
why this brick does not have any LEGO logo on studs ? Its genuine LEGO then? Because any company can do gold brick without LEGO logo.
@ALFIE22 said:
"I’d love to meet the person who’s selling this. Just ask why you’d sell an insanely rare gold item that was never available to even be purchased."
I mean, yes, I'd feel very bad selling something like this... But €8000 is €8000.
€8000 (plus the 9% auction buyer fee so €8720)and it hasn't hit reserve price yet !!!
So this sounds like one of those... I don't really want to sell but will at right price
@ambr said:
"Like all Lego I would be worried about counterfeits flooding the market. It would be interesting to see the original thank you letter, as this is what gives it its value, but I guess worried that this would also be counterfeited."
With the supporting evidence (box, letter) and any additional evidence the seller can uncover (that the seller’s father worked for LEGO at the time, photos of the award ceremony, confirmation by LEGO that the brick is genuine etc), I doubt the provenance will be in question. Much more valuable works of art are auctioned all the time as genuine with far flimsier provenance.
That will be fun to watch. I hope it takes off.
I would sell it and buy Lego sets with the money! More fun with the sets than a chunk of metal :)
@SpaceCadet said:
" @Wrecknbuild said:
"Before I place my bid, could anyone please tell me if this is compatible with regular bricks? Otherwise, it would be of less use."
I would tend to think not, given the fact that it is metal and does not have the flexibility of plastic. But if you’ve got a spare $10,000 lying around, don’t let that stop you!"
Thanks. I'll consider it. But I wonder where that ten grand is that's usually lying on the corner of my desk...
Fortunately the brick should fit in an envelope, keeping the shipping costs low.
Surprised Lego don't bid to buy it back...... re issue it to another worthy employee or auction it off for charity
Can this be used for immunity in Brickmasters??
Like some people have mentioned before, the biggest question is why would someone sell such a rare, not for sale, sentimental item? If it could be sold for like $100k + then maybe it makes more sense. Then there's the counterfeit problem and how do they verify that before they pay for it. And lastly, this is certainly not for 99.99% of the Lego community consider it is already going for around $10k for just one brick.
I have some silver Lego bricks, which were cast from a real Lego brick by a craftsman. Unfortunately they don't have any clutch power but they can be built into a wall with real bricks around them. If I had the cash I would perhaps buy the gold brick to go with the silver ones but it will have to wait until I win the lottery or something.
If I were in this same position I would keep it in the family, unless I absolutely needed the money or if it could be sold for $20,000+. If I did sell it I would for sure keep the letter or a copy of the letter and maybe take some photos of the brick before I sold it away.
Currently at €8,500.
One was sold on Catawiki in 2017 for £12,000 so there's still a bit of bidding left.
That has to be the worst price per piece I've seen in awhile!
There are only 7 of these in the whole world? And it’s 14ct gold? Best I can do is $15 bucks and I’m taking a big risk
I would have set the price at $100,000 and waited for an ultra-wealthy LEGO collector to buy it.
What innovation did the employee accomplish? That's what I'm most curious about.
At 10K with reserve met
That would give the seller enough money to buy a nice Osprey set.
I find it interesting that so many people seem to be judging the seller for actually selling. We have no idea what it meant to their father and no idea what it means to the seller but who are we to judge??? Just because you see something as precious doesn't mean that the seller (or his father for that matter) found it in the least precious or sentimental.
A bit of stick someone's father whittled into a shape might be more precious than a 14kt gold brick from his old employer ;-)
Anyway, it's the internet and people like to judge I suppose. ;-)
@asherkobin said:
"What innovation did the employee accomplish? That's what I'm most curious about."
My guess would be that it wasn’t an innovation but an extremely high sales target. The smart people in most organisations are not the ones who are rewarded; the charismatic ones are.
@asherkobin said:
"What innovation did the employee accomplish? That's what I'm most curious about."
Apparently these bricks were awarded for 25 years' service with the company
2 years ago one of these sold for $20,000 by a Belgian Bricklink seller. I don't think he put it onto Bricklink to sell though. Fees would have been quite high!
Sent Catawiki a message and confirmed the letter is actually a scanned copy. It is not the original hard copy of the letter. Which is an absolute shame, but still a great piece!
Fascinating. Between the alignment marks & seams I'm seeing, it appears the whole thing was constructed, not cast. The underside tubes were clearly made from separate flat stock formed into cylinders and then soldered into place. It looks like the sides were likely built from the same flat stock as well. I can't tell if the studs and top were cast as one or similarly soldered. It's a shame it's been so aggressively polished down over the years. Awesome piece no matter what.
@ambr:
Sure, casting a gold brick wouldn't be too hard, and quite a few people have actually produced cast metal replicas of LEGO elements in the past. I haven't seen anyone pull off a counterfeit/recreation of the special jewelry box, though.
@Baldarek:
€8000 (currently €10,000) is "keep the house from being foreclosed" money, if you've been out of work due to the pandemic and you've burned through all your liquid assets.
@Kazashimo:
I haven't, yet. No, I don't have one of these, but I do have what may still be the only complete set of Bionicle Krana in private hands, including a complete set of old light-grey, pre-chromed ABS "blanks", a complete set of chromed ABS Krana, a "white-metal" Krana (with a certificate of authenticity), and a sterling silver Krana (without the certificate of authenticity). I've had a few people track me down and try to make offers, usually on behalf of someone else (probably the guy who started the Bionicle museum), but I've never had any dollar amounts thrown out for consideration.
@Wrecknbuild:
Not if you want that fancy jewelry box to arrive without being crushed. Insurance on this would also probably impose restrictions on how cheap you can go on the packaging, specifically to eliminate the risk of someone committing insurance fraud by shipping something that's already damaged in packaging that offers zero protection and claiming the damaged was incurred during shipment. I know UPS requires at least 1" (maybe 2"?) of padding on all six sides before they'll validate a claim. But, shipping is free, according to the auction page. Customs, on the other hand, is the buyer's responsibility.
@Wellspring:
Possibly, but it's already running over half the purse for the US show, and still hasn't met the reserve. And it wouldn't guarantee that you'd even win.
@theJANG:
It might not have been polished at all. The page says this was contracted out to a jeweler, so any "evidence" you're seeing that this happened may predate delivery to the recipient. Gold doesn't tarnish, but it does build up a patina, which can be seen between the studs, while repeated handling would keep the tops of the studs bright and shiny. My curiosity is about that massive blemish along the bottom edge. It's visible in every photo that shows the side, so we have no idea what the opposite side even looks like. Is it pure coincidence that we never see the back, is the damaged side intentionally shown in every side shot so the buyer can't claim to have been duped, or is there an even bigger blemish that's being hidden from view on the side that's always hidden?
I see the "fake" gold chrome bricks from some of the 50th sets are under a dollar each on Bricklink. Nowhere near it, but close enough for my use, and definitely NOT the cost of a new pickup truck. I can get a cheap jewelry box from my jeweler if so desired.
@Snazzy101 said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"If my father was given one of these, I'd bloody well keep it!"
Even if he was never there for you because he was always travelling around Europe selling LEGO?
Even if he had died without a will and you were legally obliged to liquidate his assets?
Even if your own child was dying of a horrible cancer and its sale would help fund treatment?
There are plenty of good reasons to sell something like this - it's only a thing."
That got dark fast....
@Edemontes said:
"I find it interesting that so many people seem to be judging the seller for actually selling. We have no idea what it meant to their father and no idea what it means to the seller but who are we to judge??? Just because you see something as precious doesn't mean that the seller (or his father for that matter) found it in the least precious or sentimental.
A bit of stick someone's father whittled into a shape might be more precious than a 14kt gold brick from his old employer ;-)
Anyway, it's the internet and people like to judge I suppose. ;-) "
You are doing the same thing by judging those people. That is called freedom of speech and you should feel glad that you have it. That's the internet since day 1 whether people realize it or not.
@MisterBrickster said:
"If my father was given one of these, I'd bloody well keep it!"
For a second I thought that you said you'r father got one one of these.
I wish I could afford one of these...¯\_(?)_/¯
PurpleDave - I don't think that mark is a blemish, but rather a proof mark of the type commonly stamped on gold/silver items to show they're genuine. Up close it probably says "14K" or something like that, the last such brick I saw had a similar mark (but slightly closer to the corner). Ideally it should've been placed somewhere on the inside, but maybe the punch used was too short/thick for that, or the jeweler thought it would be too hard to see. Also, the pic shown here does not show the mark, so I don't think there are any worse defects on the other side.
AFAIK, troy oz (31.1g) should only be used for the net gold content of an item, not the gross weight as done in this listing - 25.65g of 14K gold equals 14.96g of pure gold, or 0.48 ozt. To nitpick further, the heading of this page says "14ct gold 2x4 brick at Catawiki" - carat (with C) means the weight of diamonds (1ct=0.2g), while karat (with K) means the purity of gold as parts of 24.
Correction - it seems like using "carat" (with C) for gold purity actually IS valid spelling in UK English.
Judgemental inception ??
@vader11 said:
" @Edemontes said:
"I find it interesting that so many people seem to be judging the seller for actually selling. We have no idea what it meant to their father and no idea what it means to the seller but who are we to judge??? Just because you see something as precious doesn't mean that the seller (or his father for that matter) found it in the least precious or sentimental.
A bit of stick someone's father whittled into a shape might be more precious than a 14kt gold brick from his old employer ;-)
Anyway, it's the internet and people like to judge I suppose. ;-) "
You are doing the same thing by judging those people. That is called freedom of speech and you should feel glad that you have it. That's the internet since day 1 whether people realize it or not."
It's a shame the studs don't feature the LEGO logo. Good luck to the seller, though I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy such a thing, unless one had some family connection. Perhaps some people just run out of things to spend money on.
On the subject of logos, I once sand-cast some LEGO out of aluminium, and the logos came out surprisingly well. Would that be classed as counterfeiting...?
@ALFIE22 said:
"I’d love to meet the person who’s selling this. Just ask why you’d sell an insanely rare gold item that was never available to even be purchased."
I guess they need the cash
@Reinier said:
"I need about 42,000 of these for the giant C-3PO I am building."
YES !!! magnifique !!
IDEM !!
@axeleng:
If it is a proof mark, it would have been very easy to place it on the interior if, as Jang theorized, this is fabricated rather than cast. All you'd have to do is stamp one of the plates used to form the shell, and make sure it's oriented with the mark facing inward. As it is, even if it is a proof mark, it's still absolutely a blemish, like if Da Vinci signed the Mona Lisa right across her face.
And it appears that karat is the US spelling, while carat is the UK spelling. I'd assume that Commonwealth nations would follow suit with the UK, but the rest of the world may vary based on which they do more business with.
@bananaworld:
That depends. Are you trying to market it as authentic LEGO product, or as original artwork? Are you even trying to market it at all, or is it just for personal enjoyment? How you answer those questions will inform the answer to your own.
@Snazzy101 said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"If my father was given one of these, I'd bloody well keep it!"
Even if he was never there for you because he was always travelling around Europe selling LEGO?
Even if he had died without a will and you were legally obliged to liquidate his assets?
Even if your own child was dying of a horrible cancer and its sale would help fund treatment?
There are plenty of good reasons to sell something like this - it's only a thing."
Woah hold on there you don't have to always think that way dude it's worth selling if you have one and don't want to keep it because it has sentential value.
PurpleDave - I was thinking about that, and was wondering if jewelers didn't place the proof mark until the item was completed (or just before the final polishing) - either due to tradition or possibly even a legal requirement (a bit like not signing off a half-finished job). If so it wouldn't be possible to place it during assembly, but I agree that it doesn't look very good.
@Edemontes said:
"Judgemental inception ??
@vader11 said:
" @Edemontes said:
"I find it interesting that so many people seem to be judging the seller for actually selling. We have no idea what it meant to their father and no idea what it means to the seller but who are we to judge??? Just because you see something as precious doesn't mean that the seller (or his father for that matter) found it in the least precious or sentimental.
A bit of stick someone's father whittled into a shape might be more precious than a 14kt gold brick from his old employer ;-)
Anyway, it's the internet and people like to judge I suppose. ;-) "
You are doing the same thing by judging those people. That is called freedom of speech and you should feel glad that you have it. That's the internet since day 1 whether people realize it or not."
"
Just saying, it's just like people "judging" on the price of Legos these days. It's completely normal. They are free to do so and is nothing wrong or strange, and should be expected on articles like this. People are going to comment on it.
Sold for €15,000. I think that's a new record for one of these.
@axeleng:
I can think of one way it could be added to the inside of the sidewalls after assembly was completed, but it might require a special stamp be created just for this project. To do it, you'd need a straight shaft with a hook at one end. The stamp would be formed into the tip of the hook, facing perpendicular to the shaft. On the opposite side of the shaft, a little farther from the hooked tip, have a flat pad. At the other end, you could even add a bar to form a T so the shaft wouldn't roll. You'd stick the hooked tip inside the brick, with the stamp oriented down at the sidewall of the brick and the pad facing up. Then hit the pad with a hammer. You'd need to rest the brick on a very hard, very flat surface like a slab of polished granite, so you don't deform the surface when you stamp the design on the inside, though.
PurpleDave - I was thinking about that too, but I don't know why it wasn't done that way. Initially I thought it would be too much hassle to make a special stamp for that one job, but then I'd imagine that jewelers WOULD have such stamps to mark the inside of rings etc. Maybe he only had an angled 18K stamp but not a 14K one, or maybe it was still too large to fit inside the brick?
@axeleng:
Given the age of this item, it's doubtful we'll ever get a true answer, since whoever crafted this has probably died of old age by now, if nothing else.