Lego auction: Yellow castle sold for well below estimated value

Since Uster’s bankruptcy office, together with curator Manfred Fuchs, discovered hundreds of boxes in the basement of a deceased man in October, the Swiss AfoL (adult fan of Lego) scene has been in turmoil. The find concerns a huge Lego collection with 600 unopened Lego sets. Lego retailer Pascal Schafflützel from Gallusbrick.ch even calls it a “find of the century”.

And indeed: the first auction, in which 150 sets were auctioned, raised record amounts. The “garage with automatic gate” from 1956 sold for the highest price at exactly 7,000 francs. According to Watson’s calculations, the total proceeds from the first auction amount to 72,871 francs.

Today, December 11, 2023, saw the next batch of Lego sets auctioned online. This time there were again 150 sets, which according to liqwerk.ch “mainly come from the 70s – 90s and from the current program”. They are largely new and in the original packaging.

Lego fans could look forward to these absolute rarities:

The “Yellow Castle” from 1978 was certainly the highlight of this auction. It is the most valuable set ever for sale. Since 2017, only 19 sales of the yellow castle are known. In 2019, one of the castles was sold for 9,800 francs. The current estimated value for examples in good condition is 9,981 euros (9,450 francs).

In the morning, the bid still stood at CHF 3,520 after 55 bids. Ultimately the castle was sold for 4,280 francs. For Brixpo and Brick Bazaar organizer Michael Strasser, this price is surprisingly low; he would have guessed around 6,000 francs.

The packaging does have minor defects, but curator Fuchs estimated the condition of the box at around 90 percent – but he is “not an expert”. Since the box is still sealed for 45 years, you can definitely turn a blind eye.

At this auction they took even more photos of the packaging than the first time, “while we only received good feedback,” Fuchs emphasizes.

Set number 7730, which contains an electric freight train, is also among the top 10 most valuable sets with an estimated price of 4,438 francs. On December 11, the steam locomotive was auctioned for 4,520 francs. For Strasser, this was the first surprise of the day after two and a half hours of auctioning, because he would have estimated the price to be lower.

Michael Strasser draws a conclusion from the second Lego auction for Watson:

In addition, the sets from the 1980s “from the areas of knights, space, pirates and railways” are again the “bestsellers”.

For the Lego expert, there were fewer big surprises this time compared to the previous auction – “even if the exhibits this time are just as attractive, and in some cases even more attractive, than the previous wave,” says Strasser. “At least for me.”

According to liqwerk.ch, the next Lego auction should take place before Christmas. So one or two Lego fans can definitely give themselves a present at Christmas.