LEGO price per part over the years

Can we really compare Price Per Part (PPP) between sets?

A couple of weeks ago I received this question by Jared Hinton:

"Just a quick question on the PPP data. Most years have a average PPP of 20c+ per part. This sounds very high, especially when most sets come way under that (which are then marked as good value). Do Duplo sets get included in the years average PPP figure? Because they tend to be alot higher than LEGO sets. This is the only thing I could think of why the year average is almost double what I'd expect it to be."

This is a very good observation, and something I hadn't really thought about. I built the PPP comparison when Brick Insights first launched in 2018, almost as an afterthought. I wanted to see if a set was worth buying from a MOCing point of view, and threw it in to help guide me. It was definitely time to take another look at those calculations.

All numbers in this article are adjusted according to inflation to make them comparable over the years. This isn't something we did before this investigation, so thank you for that too, Jared! Check the FAQ to learn the details about this. All categories referenced in this article are collected from Brickset, where we get most of our set data. That's also in the FAQ.

150 set categories with average PPP and example sets

4 Juniors ($0.48)

Action Wheelers ($1.58)

Advanced models ($0.09)

Adventurers ($0.19)

Agents ($0.12)

Alpha Team ($0.21)

Aqua Raiders ($0.10)

Aquazone ($0.20)

Architecture ($0.13)

Art ($0.05)

Assorted ($0.15)

Atlantis ($0.14)

Avatar ($0.12)

Avatar The Last Airbender ($0.10)

Baby ($2.47)

Basic ($0.21)

Batman ($0.12)

Belville ($0.37)

Ben 10: Alien Force ($0.95)

Bionicle ($0.25)

Boats ($0.34)

Books ($2.67)

Boost ($0.20)

Brick Sketches ($0.11)

BrickHeadz ($0.08)

Bricklink ($0.09)

Bricks and More ($0.09)

Building Set with People ($0.52)

Bulk Bricks ($0.23)

Cars ($0.14)

Castle ($0.21)

City ($0.18)

Classic ($0.07)

Clikits ($0.23)

Collectable Minifigures ($0.45)

Creator ($0.09)

Creator Expert ($0.09)

Dacta ($2.62)

DC Comics Super Heroes ($0.14)

DC Super Hero Girls ($0.12)

Dimensions ($0.31)

Dino ($0.17)

Dino Attack ($0.14)

Dinosaurs ($0.17)

Discovery ($0.12)

Disney ($0.16)

Dots ($0.09)

Dreamzzz ($0.10)

Duplo ($0.97)

Education ($0.94)

Elves ($0.11)

Exo-Force ($0.10)

Explore ($2.15)

Fabuland ($0.86)

Factory ($0.11)

Freestyle ($0.11)

Friends ($0.13)

Fusion ($0.16)

Gabby's Dollhouse ($0.21)

Galidor ($2.37)

Games ($0.14)

Gear ($0.24)

Ghostbusters ($0.11)

Harry Potter ($0.12)

HERO Factory ($0.26)

Hidden Side ($0.10)

Hobby Set ($0.08)

Homemaker ($0.21)

Icons ($0.08)

Ideas ($0.09)

Indiana Jones ($0.12)

Island Xtreme Stunts ($0.30)

Jack Stone ($0.64)

Juniors ($0.19)

Jurassic World ($0.16)

Legends of Chima ($0.16)

LEGOLAND ($1.09)

Life of George ($0.24)

Make and Create ($0.08)

Marvel Super Heroes ($0.13)

Master Builder Academy ($0.15)

Mickey Mouse ($0.39)

Mindstorms ($0.78)

Minecraft ($0.12)

Minions: The Rise of Gru ($0.17)

Miscellaneous ($0.27)

Mixels ($0.09)

Model Team ($0.16)

Monkie Kid ($0.10)

Monster Fighters ($0.11)

Nexo Knights ($0.15)

Ninjago ($0.18)

Overwatch ($0.10)

Pharaoh's Quest ($0.21)

Pirates ($0.20)

Pirates of the Caribbean ($0.18)

Power Functions ($2.57)

Power Miners ($0.16)

Powered Up ($2.00)

Primo ($1.78)

Prince of Persia ($0.15)

Promotional ($0.08)

Quatro ($0.76)

Racers ($0.13)

Rock Raiders ($0.35)

Samsonite ($0.32)

Scala ($1.34)

Scooby-Doo ($0.13)

Seasonal ($0.13)

Serious Play ($2.52)

Service Packs ($0.77)

Sonic The Hedgehog ($0.12)

Space ($0.14)

Speed Champions ($0.08)

Spider-Man ($0.16)

SpongeBob SquarePants ($0.13)

Sports ($0.23)

Spybotics ($0.43)

Star Wars ($0.14)

Stranger Things ($0.09)

Studios ($0.40)

Super Mario ($0.22)

System ($0.09)

Technic ($0.12)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($0.12)

The Angry Birds Movie ($0.13)

The Hobbit ($0.12)

The LEGO Batman Movie ($0.13)

The LEGO Movie ($0.10)

The LEGO Movie 2 ($0.14)

The LEGO Ninjago Movie ($0.09)

The Lone Ranger ($0.14)

The Lord of the Rings ($0.12)

The Powerpuff Girls ($0.14)

The Simpsons ($0.10)

Time Cruisers ($0.21)

Town ($0.20)

Toy Story ($0.17)

Trains ($3.11)

Trolls World Tour ($0.13)

Ultra Agents ($0.12)

Unikitty ($0.13)

Universal Building Set ($0.18)

Vidiyo ($0.19)

Vikings ($0.10)

Western ($0.28)

World City ($0.16)

World Racers ($0.14)

Xtra ($0.28)

Znap ($0.19)

Finding comparable categories

Alright, Jared's suspicion is definitely correct - some categories sway the PPP comparison. The best way to solve this is by grouping the categories into comparable chunks. We want to ensure we compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges, so to speak. Here's the breakdown I came up with. It roughly groups categories together by part types.

Now, armed with this data, we can compare a set with other sets that are similar. You can see the grouping below, along with the average PPP of all times. But stick around - we can also see how prices have changed over the years!