Subject:
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About the "European Bulk Order" (was: Re: Chat with Jake - Transcript)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Mon, 19 Jan 2004 10:41:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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1350 times
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Pawel Nazarewicz wrote:
> What bulk ordering is being experimented with in Europe?
(Deep Breath...) Weeeeellll.
Executive Summary:
+ Availability of (rare) pieces in quantities
+/- Prices (Good for the rare stuff, not so good for even large
quantities of more common bricks)
- Handling (Took ages, is not yet finished)
Considering that this order was a test balloon, it was quite satisfying
in the outcome, although handling could be improved.
Long Version:
I've been among those who had the chance to bulk order stuff from LEGO.
The ordering started in April 2003 (IIRC). No prices, no availability,
just state how much you would want of which piece (yes, without knowing
any prices!). We were told that the pricetag should be about the same as
with the PaB walls. One important thing was that one had to order large
quantities of each - but there were no real specs ("hundreds for larger
pieces, thousands for the smaller stuff" as a rule of thumb) for it.
Another important rule was: No resale! Don't even think about it!
Rene Hoffmeister of 1000steine.de bundled the requests (and did all the
organisational stuff for free, many, many thanks!). The order was only
available for members of the 1000steine.de community.
I asked for clear-trans plates 1x1 and 1x2 in the thousands (they were
not available in the Legoland PaBs at that time), and waited. And waited.
Then in August I got the information that the parts I requested were not
available (not much lost, they were available in Günzburg by that time).
Then, on August 26th, Rene published the list of requested items that
were actually available. Prices ranged from 5 Euro-Cents for small
plates, over 10ct for bricks upto 1 Euro for a 6x16 plate. I ordered a
lot of pieces from that selection, and paid upfront for them (LEGO
wanted the money quite fast, so Rene, who did all this organisational
stuff for free, asked for a timely payment).
Somewhere in November/December the first parts rolled in at Rene's and
he started to sort and count them (>200000 pcs) for us. More pieces came
later, some pieces were mis-identified (The peeron part number sometimes
differs from the LEGO internal number, so they had to match the numbers
at LEGO, a money- and timeconsuming process), and had to be returned.
Rene just got another batch, and is almost done with the order.
All in all, this ordering was a quite complicated, time-consuming
affair. Some people were disappointed about the prices (a 1x1 or 1x2
plate had a 5ct price tag, compared to about 1.5 to 2 ct when bought in
the Legoland PaB stores), but it is just a question of what one is
hoping for (and what one did order). I am quite happy with the way the
order went - I got a large bag of 2417 and hundreds of 30044 for a
reasonable (not "cheap") price.
The whole thing was a test balloon to check wether such orders could be
made available for a larger audience. LEGO and the community learned a
lot about the issues involved, and I hope LEGO will draw a positive
conclusion from this affair.
Maybe the next bulk order - whenever and whereever it may happen - will
look differently. I sincerely hope that LEGO will continue this special
service, but I think they might organize this differently. One
suggestion for future actions like this would be to deliver the bricks
in certain (large, fixed) quantities only. The PaB stores and the
Legoland designers get their deliveries in cardboard boxes that contain
set quantities of bricks, i.e. the box I've seen in Cologne labeled
"300102" (Brick 2x4 = 3001, colour grey = 02) contained ~1000 bricks in
grey, and the other boxes have similar sizes (and therefor varying
quantities for different brick types). Maybe they should sell bricks in
future orders in boxed quantities only (so they save a lot of time and
therefor effort). The simple moving of boxes (that are already
available) instead of opening and counting off some bricks from the
boxes would make it way easier for them and therefor more enticing (I hope).
All in all, this chance to bulk order stuff was a fantastic opportunity.
I thank LEGO for offering that chance, and hope for improvement in
handling for the future. Well, being a guineapig has to have some
drawbacks, so I (and others) are still waiting for (parts of) their
delivery...
If I misstated something, or left something out, please correct me.
I hope this answered your and other AFOLs questions about the "European
Bulk Order".
Yours, Christian Treczoks
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Chat with Jake - Transcript
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| (...) (Thanks for organizing this) I have a question regarding this statement: "[julespitt] I'm wondering if there is a definite plan to do a trial of the bulk ordering that is being experimented with in Europe currently." What bulk ordering is (...) (20 years ago, 18-Jan-04, to lugnet.castle)
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