Lego Investing
December 31st, 2012I found this hilarious because I actually do this in a small way. I buy Lego sets for my sons that they won’t be ready to use for years; sets that I know will be discontinued, and that I wouldn’t want to have to acquire later on the auction sites. I’m guessing that I’m not the only old nerd dad who does this.
Via: USA Today:
Just as stock investors have portfolios of all different sorts of stocks, Lego investors hold massive collections of Lego sets and can make annual profits that beat stocks.
Investors understand the value of stocks and bonds. But Lego bricks?
Those ubiquitous interlocking bricks, usually seen stuffed in closets, tucked under toy boxes and scattered across playrooms, aren’t what most people typically think of as an investment. But to some, like David Schooley, Lego bricks are serious money, and buying them and selling them, just as some investors trade stocks, is turning into a way to turn a profit, brick by brick.
Schooley, a 49-year-old information technology professional in Memphis and father of six, is one of small but growing niche of people who buy and hold Lego bricks, not as toys, but investments that will appreciate when sold later.
Just as stock investors have portfolios of all different sorts of stocks, Lego investors hold massive collections of Lego sets. Schooley, for instance, has more than 3,000 Lego sets piled high in a climate-controlled storage facility. Most of the sets he bought years ago, with the plan of selling them a year from now for a profit. Doing this again and again generates Schooley a tidy 10% to 15% annual profit, he says. That tops even the 10% long-term average return of stocks.
“You start to realize these are worth a lot of money,” he says. “It’s more of an investment.”
