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Have you noticed how once a set retires, almost immediately there are numerous listings from third-party sellers? These listings are put up by LEGO investors, people who purchase LEGO sets at their cheapest, who then sell them for higher prices when stock runs dry. Investing in LEGO sets can be a rewarding, exciting and profitable venture if done correctly. And it turns out, there's a community in Australia with over 100 members that's continuing to grow and evolve.
LEGO Investing Australia is a very new community which started just two months ago. With a Discord server that tracks over 34 different retailers across the country and friendly staff who are experienced in investing, this is a great resource for both novice and expert investors, and everyone in-between. The bots are capable of looking up thousands of LEGO sets and tracking them across all retailers, allowing you to find which retailers have stock, and which of those retailers have the best price.
I spoke with Harrison, the founder of LEGO Investing Australia, and asked him some questions to get a better understanding of both the community and investing in LEGO products in general.
Frase:
What led you to starting LEGO Investing Australia?
Harrison:
I have been collecting/investing in LEGO for a while and I started LEGO Investing Australia because I saw that there was a lack of resources and communities for LEGO investing in Australia, and I really wanted to create a community for like-minded individuals to share their knowledge and the deals they come across, particularly for people like myself. I have developed some custom bots using Discord to give users the ability to monitor particular LEGO sets for price changes/availability that I was using privately but I thought it would be best to share these with other users and since then I have created a few different bots that you can use to search sets for the lowest prices across all of the big retailers in Australia, all designed to make finding the best deals on LEGO sets in Australia as easy as possible.
Frase:
Do you think people who aren't fans of LEGO and don't know much about the different themes should be investing right away, or do you think that it's important to know the products well first prior to starting off?
Harrison:
I don’t think you need to be much of a fan of LEGO to start investing (although it does definitely help) but you do need a good understanding on the factors that might lead to a particular set increasing in value. A basic criterion I follow when investing in sets is:
1. It should be a popular theme
2. Minifigures in the set (are they exclusive etc)
3. Is the set a part of a collection (e.g Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Series, Star Wars helmets etc)
4. Is the set popular/sought after
Not all sets are going to make good investments and picking the right theme is one of the most important factors. If you are purchasing your sets for under retail when they retire (as long as you have followed the above criteria) you should be able to sell the set for retail.
Frase:
Being in Australia, do you think it's harder to get your hands on certain sets compared to other countries?
Harrison:
Yes definitely, Australia is a smaller market so we are going to have a lot less stock sent our way, so it does make getting sets difficult and often times there will be sets sold out in Australia but readily available at US and UK retailers. For example, the LEGO Star Wars 501st battle packs were readily available overseas, but the sets were always sold out here and even when it was restocked it would be sold out within a few minutes. Even before they retired they were re-selling for more than double their retail price here.
Frase:
Following on from the previous question, the LEGO 75294 Star Wars: Bespin Duel was only available in the US, and over the years there have been a plethora of other sets only released overseas with very few sets being limited to Australia-only. Do you believe this makes it more expensive to be an investor in Australia as opposed to living in the US and the UK (factoring in import costs and competition from rival investors)?
Harrison:
I think there are still plenty of opportunities in Australia as a LEGO investor, we might not be able to affordably purchase limited edition sets from overseas but there are still plenty of sets we can purchase in Australia that have great investment opportunity.
Frase:
You're doing a great service to fellow investors with your Discord bots tracking great deals on LEGO sales and discounts between over thirty different retailers. Do you think it would be beneficial for even regular LEGO fans that don't plan on investing to jump into the LEGO Investing Australia Discord and join the community?
Harrison:
Yes definitely! Anyone interested in LEGO that lives in Australia can benefit from the services we offer, whether you are an investor or just a LEGO Fan!
On behalf of Brick News, we'd like to thank Harrison for his time allowing us to interview him. If you'd like to check out the LEGO Investing Australia Discord, you can click the link here to join.
Disclaimer: Harrison and his team are not financial advisors, and all advice provided in the LEGO Investing Australia Discord is to be used at your own discretion. This is a third party community not authorized or endorsed by LEGO.
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