I have already talked in the past in my blog, about another little side hustle that I have ventured into this year... LEGO Investing. Although side hustle may not be the best term, more an investment. But an investment that within no more than 2 -3 years. I can safely make 80-100% on my money with very low risk, and with a limited amount of work. Sounds too good to be true?, well that is what I thought as well I looked into it.

Lego investing was something that I found at the beginning of 2021, had been on the lookout for something to do with my money, more in the long term as saving for a house was a few years away, and wanted to do something else with the money left over from LISA.

I have already talked about, my principles for Lego investing and my logic about it. These are the cold hard facts of what I sold in Q4 2021

I started buying in February 2021, and to be honest, didn’t really expect to sell any at all this year, but I did in fact sell over £800 worth of LEGO at the back end of this year. With a profit of £384. This was a very nice feeling, again similar to KDP was nice to see it come to fruition, see it work.

Although I had faith in the system, sometimes until you see returns, it is difficult to be confident in it. There is definitely more improvements to be made, and arguably sold some pieces a bit too early, but it was important to raise a bit more capital. I am very glad I did the sets that I then bought in December. I am very confident in them doing well for the coming year.

We have purchased about just under £4,000 of Lego from February 2021 – December 2021. So the items we made money from last year are a drop in the ocean. But was nice to see things that we had bought in the same year being turned around in 6 months to make a very nice profit.

These are my sales from 2021, later we may look into more detail of all the sets I bought in 2021, and look back how wisely or otherwise we were.

£800 in 2021 in sales which were great to go straight back into the lego business to snap up some more discounted lego. We sold a few sets from a variety of different themes and sold from a variety of different places.

Vat refund incoming

One of the things I didn't realise for selling on Amazon FBA was that it defaults that you pay VAT at source from amazon and they deduct it from the fees. Took me a while to grasp this, so the fees are a bit more than they would be.

Hoping to get a refund from Amazon, now that my final disbursement is paid, and hopefully, this does not take too long.

This will help the return a little bit on the items sold as well. But for now, the profit is based on the fees I actually paid.

All other fees are included within the items spread evenly across the items, for storage fees and packing and supplies etc.

The sales: Lego Ninjago

I had 5 Lego 71711 Ninjago sets, that I bought in march of 2021. Which retired in July 2021

RRP was £44.99 and we bought them in a wide range of prices, but basically at a really big discount. The lowest for £18.80 and the highest for £26.79.

I didn't realise at the time, when I bought these they were so close to retirement, and Ninjago was one of the themes was a bit unsure about the returns.

We made a small boo boo, with this set as it was one of the first we sent into amazon, and I didn't adjust my settings to prevent sending sets to EU and Ireland, so a tax for selling to Ireland was put on.

We sold them all for £52.00 before fees so after fees, we made a return on investment of 72% on average.

As I write this the price is £59.99. so in hindsight could have held longer and made more money.

Lego star wars

We had 5 of the 75266 Star wars set, bought for £7.05 on the 2 for 15 at Argos. Sold all of them in the lead up to Christmas. (RRP £12.99)

Selling for £19.50 each on amazon, we made a clear profit on each one of £4.86 or 69%. Could probably have held out for a little more but wanted to sell it before Christmas to ensure profit was made. To get to that magic 100% mark would likely have had to hold out for longer. Probably next year. But happy with the return.

Lego speed champions

The first speed champions set is 75890, the other half of the 2 for 15 offer on argos, so 5 bought for £7.05, sold for £20, post fees was 72% profit.

The second set again was arguably sold too early. In July I picked up a fair few 76898 on a cracking deal from a Tesco whilst on holiday. The family were chuffed. Buying a couple for £14 (RRP £34.99)

So in the hunt for capital, we sold then at just under RRP on eBay when fees were at the lowest. Made a nice 88% profit on each item. Definitely hold the rest until the end of 2022. But still happy with the sale.

Lego spiderman

The spiderman sets were the first ones that I sold.

4 x 76150

2 x 76163

Bought the 76150 sets in Sainsburys, for 50% off (3 out of the 4), with the 76163 we bought them for £16.50 or a third off. So Q4 was the prime time to sell them. So it was almost impossible to not make money, after about 3 months they retired, We sold 3 of the 76150 on eBay for over 100% ROI.

The others we sold on Amazon for just over 90% ROI with the last one just hitting 60% as I miscalculated my spend originally. Still a fantastic return.

We sold a few more sets as well

Lego city sold on FBM 60243 for 60% ROI

Lego avengers set (some of which have done very well I can tell). Sold one of the 76143 truck takedown sets for £20 profit (87%)

Plans for 2022

My next step is to see out of the £4,000 worth of stock we have, what has retired and what to keep on their price. There were definitely wiser buys that could have been made last year. But we have certainly grown, the £800 of sales that we made this year although arguably could have made more if we sold later on. Has gone straight back into more Lego.

With lessons from the past behind me as well, we have accrued quite a nice supply of retired lego. In the month leading up to retirement taking the guesswork out of it.

Everyone is different in this game, just because somebody sees 200% ROI in 2 years and buys tonnes of it, doesn't mean it is right for you. You may have a lot less capital like me last year and need to be a lot more selective, may want to continuously flip for smaller margins to grow your capital further. Look at the deals and see what works for you

Hence why I don't regret selling any sets early as it validated the process as well as, ensuring more capital in November and December to boost our holdings.

I have really enjoyed this last year of Lego investing, it appeals to my spreadsheet mind, as well as to that love and excitement of a bargain. Where when I started this at the beginning of 2021, I was still wary and worried that what if this didn't work.

Remembering the glares from my partner each time the delivery man came with more lego, she thought I had gone mad, she probably still does, but much more on board now, so I am afraid for her sake there is much more to come in the next year.

Selling will have to go on hold a little bit for now as I need to sort out my amazon account and get my VAT refund. Then after that, we will be scouring our list to see what has happened to our brick investments.

On to 2022....

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