Sean McConville is madly packing 200 bags of Lego bricks. It’s a big week: he’s preparing to open a second venue for his four-month-old store this weekend.
As McConville explains, Lego is hot property. The 49-year-old’s unique Kensington shop, Brickville, trades and sells second-hand and discontinued Lego. It’s been a success, drawing people from across Melbourne keen to purchase rare figures or to offload or swap their old haul.
Lego can be a lucrative, albeit unusual, investment. One 2021 study found that the value of retired Lego sets grew an average of 11 per cent a year – faster than gold, stocks and bonds.
McConville had always loved Lego, but it was in times of crisis that he and his family found comfort in the familiar bricks.