Is LEGO investing limited to America? from Youtuber- Brick Bucks
Does LEGO Investing Only Work In America?
What is up everybody, welcome back to the Brick Business Show, my favorite part of the week where we get to talk to Lego investors, Lego business owners, Lego e-commerce owners, and people who are building a business doing this crazy thing that we all love. And today, I’m joined by Walter from Steenbricks, and I’m so excited about this one because it’s Lego investing related. You know, I try to take these conversations in all sorts of different directions in the world of Lego business. We talk to Bricklink owners, we talk to people who have brick and mortar Lego stores, we talk to people who build websites related to Lego. But my personal favorite is talking to Lego investors because that, of course, is what I do – holding Lego sets while values go up. So, I’m so excited to have you here. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I’m doing fine. And you?
I’m good man, I’m good. I’m pumped. I’m pumped. So, you reached out to me on Instagram firstly and, you know, I’ve, by the way, put out a feeler to anybody who wants to come and talk shop with me about Lego investing. And a new message and you said, you know, “Let’s do it, let’s talk shop.” I checked out what you’re doing and some of the stuff is phenomenal there in terms of, you know, putting up return on investments and analyzing the markets and different things like that. So, I’m excited to get into this. And could you just get us started, so we kind of get a little bit of context on who you are, where you’re from, and different things? You’re in the Netherlands, is that right?
That’s right, yeah.
Great, so I think we’re gonna be able to talk about, you know, some really interesting differences between the markets and different things because it’s a topic that comes up a lot in our community of, you know, showcasing U.S. prices, how different is it in Europe and everything. So, I’m excited to jump into that. But can you share a little bit of your background and, you know, how did Lego investing start for you?
Yeah, sure. So, I’m from the Netherlands. I’m 30 years old. I’ve been having side hustles since I could walk, sort of, but, yeah, let’s say since I was around 15, 16. It started with simple businesses like a hustle on eBay. So, that’s the Dutch eBay, that’s called Marktplaats. And, yeah, one thing led to another and I heard about Lego investing and, yeah, I never looked back sort of.
Wow, that’s awesome. And what were you selling on eBay?
Oh man, where did that even start? So, I started with picking up free listed stuff. So, if somebody had, probably some big thing like a couch or something, I had a big car, so I was able to fit that. And then later on, I just put it on the exact same platform and whatever remains, whatever I got for it, was all profit. Then, I sold all kinds of electronics, televisions, espresso coffee cups. I don’t know if you know that in the U.S. as well, I think so. And, yeah, so when I finished my studies, I think I was actually thinking of, hey, you know what, I made some money here. I could put it in a stock or an S&P 500 kind of thing and just never look back and we’ll see it when I retire at something or when I’m 100 years old. But I thought, nah, it’s too boring. So, I split it up in 50/50. I put half of it in, I think, Bitcoin or something like that 10 years ago or something, and the other half was Lego investing. And that’s basically how I started there.
Wow, so you’ve been in Lego investing for how long?
That was around, let’s say, five and a half, six years ago or something.
Great. In our world, that’s quite seasoned. That’s quite experienced. It moves very fast, this Lego investing market. And, you know, I see new faces popping up, you know, and getting quick success. I see other people who’ve been around for a long time and then winding it down after a certain period of time. And it changes quite a lot in terms of the landscape in the communities. So, when you were, so you mentioned that you studied. You were flipping while studying, is that right? You were running an e-commerce business while studying for something else?
Yeah, yeah. So, I originally studied entrepreneurship. So, it’s called, it’s tough to translate, but let’s call it entrepreneurship. So, just the basics, like bookkeeping and that kind of stuff and marketing and whatever you need for starting a business. And, yeah, once I was done with that, I wanted to move into the world of IT because there’s a lot of opportunity there for just starting an online business or a buyer or whatever you want to do, right?
Yep.
So, that was always my main course. But, yeah, Lego investing, way more fun. And now I’m actually thinking of doing it full time as well in the next year. So, way more fun indeed.
And what is it about it, do you think, that makes it so much more fun? Because when you have an education in entrepreneurship, you’re trained to look at business opportunities and identify things that other people maybe can’t see. You know, you have the skill set to start a variety of different businesses in different interests that you may have or gaps in the market that you see. Yeah, why did you gravitate towards Lego investing?
Yeah, good question. So, mainly… So, let me put it like this. I had a side hustle on eBay, right, for 15 years and counting, by the way. So, before I was doing Lego, I was, I think, doing TVs. So, I had like 30 or 40 TVs in my living room when I was a student and I didn’t have a living room, so it was all tight. But the main part for me from there to Lego was one, you don’t have to… It’s easier to buy a lot. So, if you have an eBay, also you have to find that one specific person that sells that one specific item for that specific price. But where you can probably still search for as well, right? If Amazon has the right discount, you just order hundreds or thousands or however many you want to have and that’s just so much easier to scale. Number two, the value of the Lego sets are enormous, definitely the older ones, right? So, you could have a box sitting in storage that could be worth 500 dollars or euros, whatever you want to see that. But, yeah, so then you don’t need to have 40 TVs in your living room or 40 little boxes of Lego in your living room. I’ll take the Lego as well, right?
Love it.
Check out this video from Brick Bucks here
