Lego a “better investment than shares and gold” | Hacker News Reader

Lego a “better investment than shares and gold”

telegraph.co.uk

9 pointsDanBC8 comments

Every day someone will stand up that's willing to pay huge sums for something that has an intrinsic value that's way lower. Rarity isn't enough, there also needs to be an demand.

The hard part is guessing what people will want (now: legos, old cars) and what people won't want anymore (antique furniture and stamps are dropping in price right now)

In the end it's just gambling.

Its stuff that was cool when today's 60 yr olds were kids. Lego is for rich old people now, so its not going to sell in 2065. I guarantee that "transformers" from the 80s will sell pretty well in 2035, for example. Note that prices melt up on volume collapse.

I don't think we're going to see a resurgence of Beanie Babies, or Cabbage Patch kids.

And LEGO has been very popular for a while now - I don't think it's being bought mostly by rich 60 year olds.

It is gambling, but if you can justify your odds being higher than mere chance, then it's a gamble you want to make ;)

I do agree that on a long-term basis it is quite unpredictable if Lego would still appreciate in value. But I guess it would be quite reasonable to make a good guestimate for the next 3 years and popular Lego appreciating in price. I do assume that I'd be able to research and understand when a Lego model goes out of production.

In other words, I believe that the reality is a lot more subtle than "In the end it's just gambling." I don't think it's just gambling.

Back in the days my sister enjoyed playing Tetris on the Game Boy. A couple of weeks ago I decided to buy her a Game Boy and Tetris and make it part of this year's Christmas present.

As I am usually not interested in (vintage) gaming I initially thought that game boys should be cheap. Sure, there are many people who'd like to purchase one for nostalgic reasons. But then again, the supply is probably not small.

As it turned out I noticed an interesting, at first sight, paradox pattern: The newer the Game Boy model, the cheaper it was on Ebay. If you think about it it makes perfect sense for the original Game Boy is the most iconic one. Yet it is somewhat counterintuitive that the technically best Game Boy is the cheapest one. [0]

While the classic Game Boy usually ends up at 40-50 €, the Game Boy Advanced tends to cost around 17 € (+/- 5€). I was lucky and scored a GBA+Tetris DX for 14 €.

[0] That is Game Boy < Game Boy Color < Game Boy Advacend; the SP wasn't that cheap I think.

Perhaps it's not demand but supply? I imagine there are probably significantly more GBAs (as the market grew) out there than original gameboys... Especially considering the original is older so fewer are likely functional.

Intersting point! I haven't considered that.

Had a friend that collected legos and put them all in his basement. Unfortunately, the basement had moisture problems and all his lego boxes got mildewed. Last I was him, he was cleaning them and putting them into a covered trailer. Make sure you have a clean dry place to store them.

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