It’s Boxing Day, when the meaning of Christmas is promptly forgotten to make way for the scourge of the Boxing Day Sales. So what better time is there to focus on the money associated with our favourite building toy, which has been picked up by the major newspapers this week for being a better investment than gold. And property. And stocks…

This is of course something that the online Lego community has known for ages, and that’s been mentioned here at TLCB a few times too. Prices for some discontinued LEGO sets are ridiculous; the most valuable set in the current listings is the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon set shown below, released in 2007 for £342, and now worth a staggering £2,712!

Even the Millennium Falcon doesn’t offer the highest return though. That honour goes to the Cafe Corner modular Town set, which sold 8 years ago for £89.99. Today the Cafe Corner sells for an average of £2,096, meaning it’s currently making a return on investment of 2,230%!

So, how can you maximise your investment in LEGO? According to Ed Maciorowski of BrickPicker, sets released after 1999 are generating the highest returns, whether they are big or small, but they must be kept unopened in their box, away from sunlight and moisture. Once the set is out of production its value to collectors could start to skyrocket.

However, The Lego Car Blog would like offer some different Lego investment advice; 1. Open the box, empty the contents, and then put it in the recycling. 2. Build the set. 3. Play with the completed set, as often as you can, and in as much direct sunlight as possible. Because that is when a LEGO set is at its most valuable.

You can read the full Daily Telegraph article on how LEGO has become the investment of choice by clicking here, but whatever investors claim their sets are worth, we’ll still be taking ours out of the box…