Want to build up your investments? Buy Lego!
FORGET stocks, shares or even gold – investors may find more profit in Lego sets, limited edition trainers, handbags and vintage comic books.
An ‘eBay stock exchange’ has developed in rare and sought-after modern day products which attract remarkable prices.
In the past investors might have pored over building society rates or the movements of the FTSE 100 share index to see where best to stash their money.
But today the key to building a nest egg might be fluctuations in the price of an original Lego set version of one of the space ships from Star Wars.
A Millennium Falcon Ultimate Collectors First Edition cost £342.49 when it first went on sale in the High Street in 2007. Today, it is listed at £5,365 – a staggering increase of some 1,466 per cent.
Similarly, a Lego Taj Mahal – one of the rarest items the company has made – fetches around £2,100 today, compared with the original price of £199.99 in 2008.
Investors might also usefully spend their time monitoring the number of people ‘watching’ and bidding on a pair of Adidas Yeezy 750 Boost trainers or a Hermes Kelly handbag.
The Yeezy trainers are the result of a recent collaboration between Adidas and Kanye West. They had an original price of £268, but are now selling for £1,188.
‘Heirloom’ handbags are a huge money spinner. A rare Kelly from Hermes sold for £21,465 in September on eBay in the US. The
‘Consumers could be sitting on hundreds’
bags – named for Princess Grace of Monaco – are effectively rationed and only available to selected buyers who pay around £9,000 for a new one.
In the past, few books other than rare first editions of classic novels such as FScott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, or Ulysses by James Joyce generated huge prices. Today, a mint condition Marvel comic book from 1963 featuring the ‘Amazing Spider-man’ is selling for £37,500 on eBay. And a first edition hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which originally cost £10.99, sold recently on the site for £1,104.
Many people dream of rooting through their attic to find a teapot formerly used by granny, which turns out to be a treasure from China, or a painting by Lowry hidden behind a cheap print. Now it is possible to make a fortune out of junk box retro clothes, shoes, toys and technology, particularly anything associated with Apple. For example, an original Apple iPod Classic 1st Generation in its box sold for £916 – three times the original recommended price of £305.
A Luke Skywalker action figure, which sold for £7.66 in 1977, is now worth £871, based on eBay sales data. And a set of three first edition Pokemon cards, which originally sold for £1.95 each, went for £622. Director of UK Trading at eBay, Murray Lambell, said: ‘2016 has seen the emergence of a new stock exchange of modern collectibles, with limited edition trainers, Lego and Marvel comics among the most popular items for consumers.
‘The trend bodes well for magpie consumers across the country, who could be sitting on hundreds of pounds of most-wanted vintage products currently gathering dust.
‘Just like a retail Stock Exchange, through our data we can see minute by minute information on what British consumers are spending. In 2016 many are placing value in rare comics, hard to get Lego and limited edition trainers – products that inspire a lot of brand love and highlight opportunities for new sellers to understand the value of the items they have at home.’
The company is releasing the data in its first ever UK Retail Report to mark its 21st birthday this month. The report provides a snapshot of the way UK consumers bid, buy and sell. In a similar way to round-the-clock trading on international stock markets, eBay says it has seen an increase in purchases through the evening and into the small hours.