Smalls, do you invest or flip them?

mcortez · 2014-02-26T15:46:07.000Z

Being a long time collector and new to investing, I've traditionally picked up the small sets (those under $12 USD) for personal use by simply counting the number of minifigsand figuring out if it would be cheaper to buy the set new or buy the minifigs from the secondary markets (brinklink/ebay.) Now that I've started collecting with an aim to flip and/or invest some sets long term (2-4yrs) -- I'm trying to decide if it's worth buying these when they're sufficiently discounted. Conventional wisdom on larger sets, from any of the core themes would say if you can get it for 50% off retail, there's room for profit on nearly every set since you can usually sell at least at MSRP. But with smalls, that's still only $3-$6 profit if bought at 50% off. I know answers to this will probably be divided a lot between those that are happy with small profits because they enjoy the thrill of flipping versus those that prefer to see an hourly wage after costs comparable to their day jobs ($10,$20,$30 or more per hour of effort.) Do you buy smalls for investments? Is it just too much hassle? Do you resell by themselves, or only bundled with larger sets? Do you only buy smalls if they have hard-to-find or particularly popular minifigs? For those that flip: What's the liquidity like on flipping smalls? Do you have to keep them listed for months on at a time, or can you usually flip for MSRP with the first listing? When flipping do you chance auctions, or do you just use BIN? What prompted the question today, was LEGO City 60011 Surfer Rescue showing in my goldbox for 48% off. I've already got a pair of these in my personal collection so I'm all set there. I was just going to pass on it, but I hadn't recalled seeing any recent threads on the forum specifically on smalls -- although I do remember them being mentioned in other contexts as an aside to other purchases people were deciding on. Thoughts? Comments? Heckles?