Classic-Castle.com

I'm trying to find Lego in alot of different places, and sometimes I find pieces that i havent really seen before, and the question arises in my mind, is this piece rare or even valuable?! My own knowledge only knows if the piece is usefull or not!
But now im wondering, Do I have any rare pieces in my collection?
So to all colectors out there, what are the rarest and most valuable pieces/minifigs in the castle era? (rare and valuable might be totally different, i don't know.)
Are there pieces out there which people would give an arm or a leg to get their hands on? (quite difficult to put your hands on something you recently traided your arms for...)
Am I a millonaire without knowing it

sirJacob wrote:Am I a millonaire without knowing it

no, you would know !

As for the rarest castle piece interesting question, i would search bricklink for most expensive:

this is what I found:

http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=MA ... D=14493193

This minifig would have to be rare:


http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=sp ... D=16217563

mario

Here's a thread from years ago asking people which rare castle pieces they had:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=732

That won't cover some of the most expensive elements that AREN'T castle related, but it's a start.

DaveE

I think the value of a LEGO collection in dollars only counts as your relations sell it off to cover your burial expenses. Or if you are selling parts already, but to me the value is in what I use and how I use it. There is also that emotional value you get from certain pieces or elements that just defy the laws of nature.

Are you looking for rare retail release pieces (i.e. pieces that came in only one large or special-release set)? Or are you looking for non-retail parts (i.e. parts that were made by Lego that never made it into a set)?

Steve

The rarest/most valuable pieces currently are the 5 golden C-3P0 figures, which came randomly in Star Wars sets. Back up a couple years ago, and there was a solid gold Bionicle Vahi mask, (more commonly known as the mask of time), but stories say it was either sold to a private collector or melted down. Moving on to something you might actually have, Lego company will sometimes make test pieces, the product of testing the dies before they make the pieces for selling. The common test color is red (they also use other colors, but that's less common). The test ghosts came in all colors from red, yellow (shown above), black, clear, and orange. Red train tracks are a common test piece, and a pair of red trees was recently sold on ebay. (A person at CC might actually use the red trees in a forest...that would make for a great scene in the fall.) I hope this helps!

MarioDAlessio wrote:

sirJacob wrote:Am I a millonaire without knowing it

this is what I found:

http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=MA ... D=14493193

This minifig would have to be rare:


http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=sp ... D=16217563

mario

Thats insane!! Never knew one single piece were worth that much...
Thanks alot for the heads up!

Athos wrote:Are you looking for rare retail release pieces (i.e. pieces that came in only one large or special-release set)? Or are you looking for non-retail parts (i.e. parts that were made by Lego that never made it into a set)?

Steve

I was thinking of rare retail release pieces, but it doesn't really mather, im just curious!!
The info Mario shared was great fun!

Thanks for the info and the links!
Thanks Rouge Shadow for the info!

Rogue Shadow wrote:The rarest/most valuable pieces currently are the 5 golden C-3P0 figures, which came randomly in Star Wars sets.

This was an unfortunately VERY common misconception that REALLY killed it for LEGO. There WERE several actual gold C-3P0's, but they did NOT appear randomly in boxes. The ones that were in boxes were chromed plastic, and there were roughly 10,000 of them released in sets, plus an extra bunch that LEGO released NOT in boxes.

Unfortunately, according to Steve Witt, a LOT of people out there misinterpreted things and assumed that the actual gold C-3P0's were in boxes, resulting in a world-wide rummage-fest in retail stores. People would go into retail stores, open up all the Star Wars sets, and then leave when they didn't find any, because they thought there was several hundred dollars worth of gold in there, which, combined with rarity, might have been worth somewhere in the thousands of dollars. Of course, it turns out the rarity of the chrome C-3P0 is in the several-hundred-dollar ballpark, so it's not much different. But regardless, it made for trashed sets in stores all over the world.

That's supposedly why there was less promotion for chrome Vader, and why he wasn't made in a gold-colored chrome.

But what about those few genuinely gold C-3P0's? They were released by LEGO to specific individuals, including one that was given away in a contest for kids (IIRC). So there's no way your MISB Star Wars set will have an actual gold C-3P0 in there.

Rogue Shadow wrote:Back up a couple years ago, and there was a solid gold Bionicle Vahi mask, (more commonly known as the mask of time), but stories say it was either sold to a private collector or melted down.

As I recall, it was given as a personal gift to the administrator of BZPower.com, who auctioned it off on eBay. I might be wrong about the eBay part, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a discussion of it, and thinking to myself "gee, I have to remember to watch this auction to see how high it goes".

DaveE

davee123 wrote:

Rogue Shadow wrote:The rarest/most valuable pieces currently are the 5 golden C-3P0 figures, which came randomly in Star Wars sets.

This was an unfortunately VERY common misconception that REALLY killed it for LEGO. There WERE several actual gold C-3P0's, but they did NOT appear randomly in boxes. The ones that were in boxes were chromed plastic, and there were roughly 10,000 of them released in sets, plus an extra bunch that LEGO released NOT in boxes.

Unfortunately, according to Steve Witt, a LOT of people out there misinterpreted things and assumed that the actual gold C-3P0's were in boxes, resulting in a world-wide rummage-fest in retail stores. People would go into retail stores, open up all the Star Wars sets, and then leave when they didn't find any, because they thought there was several hundred dollars worth of gold in there, which, combined with rarity, might have been worth somewhere in the thousands of dollars. Of course, it turns out the rarity of the chrome C-3P0 is in the several-hundred-dollar ballpark, so it's not much different. But regardless, it made for trashed sets in stores all over the world.

That's supposedly why there was less promotion for chrome Vader, and why he wasn't made in a gold-colored chrome.

But what about those few genuinely gold C-3P0's? They were released by LEGO to specific individuals, including one that was given away in a contest for kids (IIRC). So there's no way your MISB Star Wars set will have an actual gold C-3P0 in there.

Rogue Shadow wrote:Back up a couple years ago, and there was a solid gold Bionicle Vahi mask, (more commonly known as the mask of time), but stories say it was either sold to a private collector or melted down.

As I recall, it was given as a personal gift to the administrator of BZPower.com, who auctioned it off on eBay. I might be wrong about the eBay part, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a discussion of it, and thinking to myself "gee, I have to remember to watch this auction to see how high it goes".

DaveE

Thanks for clearing that up!

davee123 wrote:

Rogue Shadow wrote:Back up a couple years ago, and there was a solid gold Bionicle Vahi mask, (more commonly known as the mask of time), but stories say it was either sold to a private collector or melted down.

As I recall, it was given as a personal gift to the administrator of BZPower.com, who auctioned it off on eBay. I might be wrong about the eBay part, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a discussion of it, and thinking to myself "gee, I have to remember to watch this auction to see how high it goes".

Acha! I was a bit wrong on the Bionicle mask, see below:

http://news.lugnet.com/market/auction/?n=9618

Sounds like there were a small amount of gold masks also made, presumably for other contests and/or other prizes in the same contest? Anyway, Kelly tried to sell it on eBay, but I don't know if the sale went through or for how much. That was back in 2002, so there's not much chance of finding out what the results of the auction were-- unless you ask Kelly, of course . The funny part being that it sounds like Kelly won the mask for designing the BZPower website, but then some years later, he went on to work for LEGO in Billund, I believe in the web group! Not sure if he's still working there or not.

DaveE

sirJacob wrote: Thats insane!! Never knew one single piece were worth that much...
Thanks alot for the heads up!

Just because someone puts that price on it does not make it worth that much. It's only worth that if someone actually buys it for that amount.

The price someone is willing to pay for it is the price it's worth.

Cm2

Porschecm2 has a good point. Once I did a search on ebay for the most expensive LEGO things for sale, and there was some Indiana Jones minifig for sale for thousands of dollars, and I couldn't believe it. I always wondered whether it actually sold. I wondered if it was a scam, but don't know anything about it. My husband was just worried that I'd accidentally hit the "buy it now" button.

eilonwy77 wrote:Porschecm2 has a good point. Once I did a search on ebay for the most expensive LEGO things for sale, and there was some Indiana Jones minifig for sale for thousands of dollars, and I couldn't believe it. I always wondered whether it actually sold. I wondered if it was a scam, but don't know anything about it. My husband was just worried that I'd accidentally hit the "buy it now" button.

Ah, yes! I remember now! We had a topic about that in February. Here's the link: LINK. The Indiana Jones minifig isn't even that rare...

Chris has a very good point. Listed price does not equal value. Jojo had his red ghost (one the earliest found test pieces) listed on Bricklink at $23,000, if I remember correctly. He didn't want to sell it, it was there as a joke. Once he dropped the price to next to nothing but raised his store minimum to an exorbitant (literally) amount.

By the way, I think many of these non-production items aren't truly test pieces. While I hate to spread rumors, they have suspiciously become more easy to find. It would not surprise me if some individuals have access to molds for testing and run off a short run for their own profit. I've bought a lot of non-prod. items and I've asked sellers how they get them. None of them are talking.

I have no proof, but I have been suspicious for some time.

Lastly, none of the rare pieces are truly rare. Lego can create more whenever they want to, in whatever colors they want. If you collect "rare" pieces, which I do, you will find some of your "rare" pieces becoming very common production items at some point. Its the way it works.

Just my 2 cents,
Josh

Hello!

sirJacob wrote:(rare and valuable might be totally different, i don't know.)

You are right. Quite often it's a matter of hype. Speaking about parts that were actually in sets rather than parts that never were officially released, there are i.e. black 2×2 windows with glued-in panes (old style) that came in pairs in four different Train sets from the early 80s. According to the price guide on BrickLink people are willing to pay up to about $40 for them. On the other hand there are (for example) red 1×3 arches, that exclusively came in our own Knight's Castle 6073, also 25 years ago already, yet the price guide shows the Max Price for actually sold parts at €1.10, even though 42 BL members have them on their wanted lists. However, those arches are somewhat unconspicious so it seems, sellers never even assumed them to be rare and "valuable", other than those aforementioned black windows that have always been quite famous amongst Train builders.

JoshWedin wrote:Jojo had his red ghost (one the earliest found test pieces) listed on Bricklink at $23,000, if I remember correctly. He didn't want to sell it, it was there as a joke. Once he dropped the price to next to nothing but raised his store minimum to an exorbitant (literally) amount.

Hehe, I remember that. The minimum amount wasn't even that exorbitant high, I think it was only $3 while the red ghost was $0.1. I got several e-mails from potential buyers who asked me to kindly lower that minimum so that they were able to buy the piece. Not one of them asked me to raise the price of the red ghost. (Obviously it wasn't worth even $3 to them. There you have it!)


Bye
Jojo