Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up
Lots of content posted this week plus a new Tip of the Week series.
Hey friends,
Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. We are finally in NOVEMBER — 28 days away from official Black Friday.
I say official because Walmart will be having their usual Black Friday spiels starting November 11.
I have to imagine other retailers may follow suit with early sales, including some price matching or even undercutting!
It remains to be seen what will be getting discounted, but I have to imagine we will see some lovely, investment-worthy toys hitting some newfound low prices.
Tip of the Week #1
I wanted to add something new to the Weekly Wrap-Up that will come in the form of a weekly tip. Could be applicable to Amazon, Walmart, eBay, or just toys in general. We’ll be kicking off the first tip of the week with this LEGO tip:
See that code that says ‘324R3’? This is a manufacturing code that tells us some crucial information as investors.
These codes can vary in length, usually between 4 and 6 characters. Sometimes it can be found in the rectangle like above, sometimes it is found on the tape seal on the box.
In this particular 5 digit code, the first digit tells us the day of the week, the next two digits tell us the week of the year, ‘R’ tells us the location, and the final digit tells us the year of when it was manufactured.
So to break it down:
3: Day 3
24: Week 24
R: Facility it was manufactured at (I believe ‘R’ is Mexico?)
3: 2023
From this code, we can determine that this specific set I am physically holding in my hand was produced on the 3rd day of the 24th week of 2023 in Mexico.
If the code is only four digits, that means just remove the day portion of the code, and just assume the first two digits are the week.
Why is this important?
Let’s say it’s December and there’s a popular LEGO set that has been out of stock on Amazon for a month. You are tracking this set on Keepa Product Alerts. You get a notification that Amazon has it in stock, you rush to buy it and you’re able to get a few units before it sells out again.
When you receive the product, you can determine if it’s a new production run, or an old one.
If the numbers indicate that the production run is from November, it’s likely Amazon will be having a large restock and you may not want to order more quite yet.
If the code indicates the production run is from the summer, it’s likely Amazon just found some leftover stock in the warehouse and you’re safe to keep ordering as they come in and out of stock.
What’s new this week?
Okay, let’s dive into what was added to the site:
Three new LEGO deep dives!
One of these analyses is making me pivot a bit this Q4, as the performance of the theme has been very unexpected and profitable. Another analysis put some stuff on my radar that I typically haven’t paid attention to. Definitely some eye-opening stuff in the deep dive videos this week.
My most important article yet?
If you haven’t checked out my ‘Product Life Cycles’ article, it is sure to change the way you view toys. Your understanding of this topic can vastly impact your profits and help you better plan your exit strategies. ‘Product Life Cycles’ would definitely be a chapter in your toy investing bible.
Got an inauthentic complaint…
Got my first inauthentic complaint this year for a Miles Morales Action Figure. The interesting part? Look at what they’re asking for in my invoices:
Notice how it doesn’t mention the invoices needing to be within the last 365 days? Also, they only want to see the combined purchase of 10 units, not necessarily all my sales volume.
Strange right? Here’s to hoping that we made enough noise on the forums to get them to quickly fix their arbitrary rule.
I submitted an invoice that is older than a year and an invoice that is within the 365 days (sorry, didn’t want to experiment with just the old invoice). Will keep you guys updated on if it gets approved.
Toy Investing Inspirations
I’m starting a new series on Instagram (@thetoyinvestor) where I will be posting toys that have jumped in price after retirement. I didn’t necessarily partake in the buying or selling of said toys, but I think they serve as great inspiration of what is possible if you were a ‘perfect’ toy investor.
I’m not putting these in the Hall of Fame since they’re just raw data and not analysis, but if this sort of thing interests you, definitely follow me on IG.
Alright guys that about wraps it up. Hope everyone has a great start to their November — Christmas shopping season is here!
