I’ve heard a few times in recent years that LEGO is a better investment than gold. Well, a former LEGO employee recently found that to be true out when he sold a single LEGO Minifigure for over $60,000 NZD.
For reference, a pound of gold is valued at around $49,000 NZD.
Marcos Bessa, a former LEGO Designer who now works for Pandora, was recently going through his LEGO collection when he stumbled upon a LEGO Minifigure of none other than New Zealand’s own Sir Peter Jackson.
At first, he had no idea if the minifigure was real! He didn’t recall ever receiving it or how it ended up in his possession, but after digging through his notes, he realised he’s struck (plastic) gold.
It turns out this minifigure is incredibly rare. LEGO produced a mere 20 of these around 2011 during the production of 'The Hobbit' trilogy to bring with them on their first meeting with Peter Jackson - presumably to discuss a partnership between LEGO and 'The Hobbit'.
It’s unknown where the remaining 19 of these Peter Jackson minifigures are. It’s pretty safe to guess that Jackson has at least one for himself, and most likely some of the LEGO Designers who worked on the sets from 'The Hobbit' theme, but whoever else has the others is going to want to dig them out ASAP.
At the end of June, Marcos put the rare minifigure up for a private auction on Instagram, where he said people had 24 hours to get their highest offers in. At the time, the highest bid was already sitting at USD 15,000.
It’s been a few weeks of silence, presumably while the offer was settled, payments were made, and minifigures were shipped, but we now know a popular LEGO Collector named Samuel who runs the (fittingly named) Instagram account @rarest_lego_minifigures won the auction, paying $40,000 USD - more than $60,000 NZD!
He made a post earlier this morning highlighting the LEGO Peter Jackson minifigure in all its glory.
Marcos Bessa also posted a story, declaring Samuel the “fittest of buyers" to hold this “precious” little one in his collection.
While it isn’t confirmed yet, it’s believed that this sale marks the most expensive LEGO Minifigure ever sold on the second-hand market.
There are a number of different LEGO minifigures from different themes, particularly 'Star Wars', which hold great value, the most expensive being a $38,000 NZD C3-P0 made entirely of sterling silver.
But now with the sale of the LEGO Peter Jackson minifigure almost doubling that price, who knows how much more money there is to be made off our old LEGO collections?
