People all over the internet have been re-posting and talking about a recent analysis done by The Telegraph that found Lego® sets have been a better investment over the past 10 years than savings accounts, stock and even gold! So should savers start hoarding the Danish construction toys to preserve their wealth, instead of gold coins? We will explore this question as well as a more interesting point the article indirectly makes about fiat money and wealth preservation.
Plastic Bricks vs. Gold Bricks
To be clear, the article notes that when talking about Lego sets over the past 15 years increasing an average of 12% per year, they are talking about sets in pristine condition, almost exclusively those bought as collector’s items and kept unopened in the original box.
The numbers come from their analysis of data from Lego price-tracking website brickpicker.com, which in turn gets its data from ebay sales of Lego sets. I have not crunched any numbers myself on this, but I have no reason to disbelieve their analysis. Further, 12% per year is a very impressive number, so are Legos going to become the new retirement savings vehicle?