#10185 • Modular Buildings
Green Grocer
Released 2008 • 2,352 pcs • MSRP $149.99
Sealed copies now $1,500+.
Retirement Year Archive
LEGO sets retired in 2011.
Cafe Corner and Green Grocer retire — the Modular curse goes mainstream.
3
Notable retirements
$390
Combined MSRP
6,009
Total pieces
The 2011 retirement landscape
What was leaving shelves.
2011 was a watershed year for LEGO collectors. Both 10182 Cafe Corner and 10185 Green Grocer retired, kicking off the long appreciation curves that would take Cafe Corner to ~17× MSRP and Green Grocer to ~10× over the following decade. The Modular Buildings line was now confirmed as the most reliable LEGO investment category. 10218 Pet Shop launched as the next entry. 10221 Super Star Destroyer also released — at 3,152 pieces and $399.99, it would retire in 2014 and become a strong appreciator in its own right.
For collectors, the 2011 retirements are the defining moment when "I should buy two and store one sealed" became conventional wisdom for Modular Buildings.
Notable 2011 retirements
3 sets that left.
#10182 • Modular Buildings
Cafe Corner
Released 2007 • 2,056 pcs • MSRP $139.99
The set that started the Modular Buildings line. Sealed copies now $2,500+, ~17× MSRP — the highest-appreciation Modular ever.
#10193 • Castle
Medieval Market Village
Released 2009 • 1,601 pcs • MSRP $99.99
A note on retirement dates
LEGO does not always announce retirements publicly, and many sets retire region-by-region (US first, EU later, sometimes years apart). The years here are a best-effort consolidation from public Brickset data, AFOL community tracking, and verified post-EOL listings. Every entry links to its Brickset reference page so readers can verify against the canonical source. If you have specific knowledge that corrects an entry, drop us a note.