From simple children's toys to highly profitable investment instruments. The Lego market continues to thrive, knows no crisis and even yields more than gold, a safe haven par excellence, and shares. This was stated by a study carried out by the Moscow Higher School of Economics which reviewed the prices of 2.322 Lego sets sold between 1987 and 2015. According to the analyzes carried out by the researchers, the value of the famous bricks rose by 12% per annum: a higher return than that guaranteed by precious metals, but also by shares, stamps and wines.
The study by the Muscovite institute focused in particular on the price trend of the products most in demand by collectors, highlighting the strong gains that could be obtained investing in “unusual assets” – such as Lego sets, but also out-of-print Barbie dolls, figurines or models of cars and trains. Purchases that at first glance "might seem less serious" than the classic safe haven assets, but which in the long term prove to be real business. Moving from theory to practice, the study by the Moscow institute analyzed the sales made every day on eBay, where thousands of sets are marketed every day at prices that can guarantee earnings of up to 600% per year. From 2000 to 2015 the average yield of a Lego set collection was equal to +12% per year, against the +4,1% earned by those who invested on the London Stock Exchange and the +9,6% collected by those who bet on gold.
“We are used to thinking that people buy assets such as jewellery, antiques or works of art as forms of investment,” explains Victoria Dobrynskaya, associate professor at the HSE's Faculty of Economics. “Instead there are many other options, such as collectible toys. Tens of thousands of deals are done on the secondary market for Lego, a huge market that is not well known by traditional investors”.
Some examples? Among the most sought after (and therefore expensive) Lego sets are the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star II and the Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars, but also reproductions of buildings such as the Taj Mahal. But – reads the study – even a simple character like Mr. Gold, sold in 2013 for about 3 dollars, can become an object of desire and be traded today at a price close to 2 thousand dollars.
