Are LEGO Gift with Purchases (GWPs) Worth the Spend?

31st May 2022

We all love getting something for free, and when that something is LEGO, it’s even better. LEGO offers this opportunity through its Gift with Purchases (GWP), which are small builds given away with orders from LEGO.com of certain sets, or orders above a certain value. These LEGO.com exclusives can be an attractive incentive to purchase that set you’ve been wanting through the official channel, rather than through another retailer.

The value of the order needed to obtain a GWP can vary. Sometimes it’s as low as £40 / $40 / 40€, while other times it can be £200 / $200 / 200€. With GWPs tied to the early purchases of a particular set, you can end up spending considerably more. An example is the 6346109 Roman Chariot that was included in your basket if you bought the 10276 Colosseum upon its release, which is one of the largest and most expensive sets LEGO have ever produced, coming in at a colossal £439.99 / / $549.99 / 499.99€.

Thankfully this isn’t the norm, and so it often feels like you are getting a good deal. But with other retailers offering significant discounts on the RPP of many LEGO sets, even sometimes at the pre-order stage, it’s worth taking a minute to step back and consider how much of a favour LEGO is really doing you. That’s exactly what we’re done in this article. We take a look at the value of GWPs from the past few years, and the amount you had to spend to get them, to see if they make financial sense.

To do this, we took the qualifying basket price or RRP of the qualifying set in GBP and compared this to the average sale price on Bricklink over the past 6 months, to calculate the percentage the current value of the GWP is of the amount that needed to be spent.

Looking at all the GWPs from the beginning of 2019, on average their current value sits at 21% of their qualifying spend. This can be likened to a 21% discount on the set, or sets, that were in your basket for the GWP, if you decided to then sell the GWP. This is a significant reduction, and when you factor in the VIP Points earnt with any purchase, you would be hard pushed to find a better deal elsewhere.

Some performed considerably better than this, with 8 GWPs now having a value greater than 40% of their qualifying spend. The 40414 Monty Mole & Super Mushroom Expansion, which was given away with purchases of 71360 Adventures with Mario, was the best of this bunch and now has an asking price 86% of its qualifying spend. That means buyers of 71360 were, in effect, almost getting that set for free. Beaten to the top spot was 6346098 Yoda’s Lightsaber, which was given away with the 75290 Mos Eisley Cantina, although many people reported it missing from their orders.

Set	Qualifying Spend	Current Value	Percentage of Qualifying Spend
40414 Monty Mole & Super Mushroom Expansion	Free with 71360 (£54.99)	£47.31	86.03%
6346098 Yoda’s Lightsaber	Free with 75290 (£309.99)	£173.05	55.82%
40338 Christmas Tree	£120 / $120 / €120	£66.88	55.73%
40433 1989 Batmobile – Limited Edition	Free with 76139 (£219.99)	£112.38	51.08%
40362 Battle of Endor	£75 / $75 / €75	£35.20	46.93%
6324146 Great Wall of China	1088¥ (£129 / $163 / €152) (only available at Beijing LEGO store)	£57.82	44.82%
30628 Monster Book of Monsters	£75 / $75 / €75	£32.83	43.77%
40333 Battle of Hoth - 20th Anniversary Edition	£75 / $75 / €75	£32.64	43.52%
40528 LEGO Brand Retail Store	£125 / $125 / €125 (only available in-store)	£46.54	37.23%
40452 Hogwart's Gryffindor Dorms	£100 / $100 / €100	£29.75	29.75%

As a general trend, the GWPs given away with the higher spends are the ones that now sell for the most relative to their required spend. This is expected as the builds supplied with the lower spends tend to be small and simplistic, and therefore have limited appeal, unless they include a rare exclusive minifigure. The best performing GWPs also tended to be those that tied into the release of a new set from a licensed theme, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Super Mario, or DC. Therefore, on this basis, if there’s a large, licensed theme you’ve been wanting to get your hands on, it might be a good time to splash out when an accompanying GWP offer comes along,

The impressive price of GWPs is not surprising, as many of them are nicely thought-out builds, often with exclusive minifigures. Not everyone is going to be willing to fork out the required amount to acquire them, and therefore they’re going to be less common than conventional sets. Many have a limited stock, although it is not clear what that number is, but it will certainly put GWPs amongst the rarer sets. While this article has assumed you’d be willing to sell your GWP, if you’re a collector, this might be hard. Many are a nice complement to any collection, or can make for unusual and interesting display pieces if assembled.

Disclaimer: This article or any others on brickranker.com should not be considered financial advice and investing in LEGO is risky.

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