Subject:
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Too much Lego?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 22 Mar 2004 15:36:11 GMT
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The recent discussions about the color change and people's buying habits got me
thinking about how much we as individuals spend on Lego. In particular, at
least a couple of people in this thread
(http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=46284) admitted to spending between
$2,000-$5,000 or more per year on Lego. Frankly, this struck me as a HUGE
amount of money to spend on Lego.
It got me thinking about what a typical adult might spend on Lego, what a
typical family with children who play with Lego spends, and what might be the
minimum amount of money needed to enjoy Lego as a primary hobby for an adult or
a child.
For myself, I currently have a collection totalling 53,171 parts. At .10/part,
my collection would be worth approximately $5,000. Taking into account how much
of my collection is bulk bricks, how much is sets, its condition, etc., I would
put the real value at around $3,500. I've been out of my dark ages, actively
buying and selling and collecting Lego since 1996. That works out to a little
less than $500/year if the net result is taken as the bottom line. Most of the
general public would agree that I have a MASSIVE Lego collection. Most AFOLs
would probably consider it an average collection. Is it average? How much do
you spend on Lego AND, more importantly, what's your bottom line - how much Lego
do you keep and what is the value of your collection? What's the real average?
Considering families, how much would you spend on the primary hobby for your
child? Is $500/year excessive? How many parts/sets does a child need to start
experiencing the hobby as more than playing with single toys, but rather as a
system of play? My guess (pure speculation) is that most families (with
children who have Lego as their primary toy/hobby) spend less than $500/year on
Lego. With Christmas, Birthdays, and incidental buying, I would guess $300/year
for affluent families and maybe $100/year for middle-class families. If there
is a four-year window (5-9 years old) that system sets hold sway over a child's
interest, that would mean that the typical "Lego Maniac" child might have a
collection worth $1200 or probably close to 10,000 parts. Again, this is all
pure speculation, but I thought it was interesting to think about.
So, what is the minimum amount of money/parts required to really fully enjoy
this hobby? For me, I've decided that 50,000 parts is nice. But I could make
do with less, I'm sure. In fact, the parts that I've actually been using to
build with for the last few years total 35,000 (others are in sets - yikes!
that's a lot of parts in sets!!) and almost half that number is in basic bricks.
Is it easier to reduce the number of parts required if you concentrate on one
type of building? (say, eliminate Technic and trains if you build mainly System
stuff) In the end, how many parts could you comfortably build with? I'd like
to say 10,000. That seems like such a nice, round figure. It would be neat to
me to see if someone could build an element collection for around $1000 that
contained about 10,000 parts and have that become a standard element collection.
People would build from only those parts in those quantities and see where that
would take the hobby. Certain decisions would have to be made of course. How
many of the 10,000 would be basic bricks, what colors would be used (using all
would be too expensive), which specialty elements would be chosen (not many
SPUDs, I imagine). Does this idea have wings? What are some alternate thoughts
about minimal, full collections?
--
Thomas Main
thomasmain@myrealbox.com
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Message has 11 Replies:
 | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) To each their own. Even the most extravagant Lego train hobbiest can't hold a candel to the modle train guys spending $300+ for a single locomotive.-Ken (21 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| "Thomas Main" <thomasmain@myrealbox.com> wrote in message news:HuzI0B.1xIB@lugnet.com... (...) got me (...) at (...) Since I have only been out of my dark age for a little over two years, I would say my spending on Lego for that short time has been (...) (21 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) In the words of U2, "you can never get enough of what you don't really need." I think for many, the answer "how much is too much" depends on what kind of stuff you build and on what you do with your finished constructions. Personally, I do not (...) (21 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| What is this phrase, "too much LEGO"? I read the words but don't understand them in that order... ;) (...) I've been on a buying spree for the last six months and have approximately 75,000 pieces. Before that, it was about 50,000. (...) I keep it (...) (21 years ago, 22-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) According to Peeron, I've dumped about $150 a month into my collection in the short time since emerging from my dark age a very short time ago, so I'm sort of playing catch up. A big "ditto" on the issues of personal taste dictating what would (...) (21 years ago, 23-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| According to my LUGNET set list, I have 112,000 pieces, which I consider to be a pretty large collection. I haven't kept track of the quantities of pieces I've bought from Bricklink and ebay, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's anywhere from 20 to (...) (21 years ago, 24-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) For me that's about right, I average about 4000 Euro's a year (for the last 2-3 years) not counting stuff I resell. (...) I keep about 90% of the stuff I buy these days, the sales are only to partially cover costs of expanding my own (...) (21 years ago, 24-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) The number heavyly depends on certain factors. One is the size and type of model. Some people build small houses, or accessories, and some build large installations ans scenarios. Another is the way how they deal with the completed MOC. Some (...) (21 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| According to my Lugnet setlist I have close to 60,000 bricks. Which, by Swedish standards, is a lot. This has been acquierd in the last four years. I already had a decent collection as a kid and have bought some larger lots used. But if I find (...) (21 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| (...) I spend £200/month, that's about $320/month or $3840/year. This is mostly on new Lego. I divided my purchasing into three: 1. Urgent Needs. 2. General Needs. 3. Nice to Haves. Urgent needs get bought at any price RRP or below. If I'm that keen (...) (21 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Too much Lego?
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| Initially, I was allotting a maximum of $60 a month. Later, I just decided on a general "entertainment" amount and figured from there. Then I kinda threw out the whole monthly thing once I got to a certain point since I either buy specific parts at (...) (21 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.general)
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