Subject:
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Re: Castle accessories arrived
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Thu, 24 May 2001 16:59:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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755 times
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Mr L F Braun wrote:
>
> In lugnet.castle, James Brown writes:
> > In lugnet.castle, Frank Filz writes:
> > > James Brown wrote:
> > > > So whoever it is that did manage to score these, confess!
> > > >
> > > > I want to know who to be jealous of. ;)
> > >
> > > Who me? I only got 10 (I mostly went for Pirate service packs, though I
> > > did get quite a handful of Castle service packs also [mostly 10 of each,
> > > compared to the 20 each of the Pirate ones], plus a smattering of other
> > > stuff). I didn't hog the shooting cannon though. I only got one of each
> > > pack (of course I've got 50 or 70 or something like that Shooting Cannon
> > > service packs which I got a couple years ago - I was only getting these
> > > packs for completeness).
> > >
> > > There must not have been many of the 5138s.
> >
> > Nope, not many at all. If you've got 10, I'm fairly positive (though still
> > guessing) that you've snagged about a quarter of the total supply.
>
> I think the total number available was around 50 for all of
> Europe. I now have only a couple--but in retrospect I'm shocked
> that I got any. But that's what happens when one has little else
> to do for a week, and happens to land on a lucky week. (I suppose
> that if one must have only one kind of luck in one's life, LEGO
> luck is one of the better sorts to have!) I'm glad I got a few,
> because that cool armour piece fell completely within my own personal
> Dark Ages. Most of the available packs did, in fact.
>
> > (wishing he'd heard about this soon enough to get some himself, instead of
> > having to corner the second-hand market)
One thing that I think is kind of neat here is that the lack of a 2nd
hand market in most of these packs says that they actually mostly went
to people who wanted them for themselves instead of to resell. I'm sure
we will see some on eBay and whatnot, but for the most part, it looks
like these went directly to the people who wanted them. I certainly
don't have anything against reselling, but I do think it's nice when the
people who want an item get it directly (or more directly). I can't
imagine any Lugnetter is sitting on 5138s figuring they can get more if
they hold onto them longer.
> I don't know how much your own LEGO collecting habits are like
> this, but I know that most "primary" buyers of rare or limited
> quantity items spend a great deal of time, energy, and sometimes
> money to reconnoiter and to position themselves. I know that when
> I go out buying items on deep clearance, I've sometimes spent dozens
> of hours sitting online or shopping around in a given week, making
> lists and notes and cultivating contacts with retail staff and
> management. So it's not just a matter of luck in general, IMHO--
> But in the case of the 5138s, my timing was completely 100% dumb
> luck, so there may be something to it. Just the week before I'd
> been dreaming about more shako hats for my Red Imperials. :)
It can also pay to be known to those who take the time to hunt these
things down. I am well connected electronically, but I don't have the
time to hunt all these deals down. But when a deal comes up, and someone
snags a few extras or offers to pick up stuff for folks, I'm ready to
offer a good finders fee. And it pays off. I have to admit that as I
cruise my local stores, I often wish I could match Lindsay's negotiating
skills because I've seen huge stacks of clearanced items which weren't
priced to move just sit there.
In one of my first buys of out of production stock, I ended up
negotiating with the finder to directly buy the stuff but still send him
a finders fee. It turned out he was about to go on vacation and it was
going to be a pain for him to get back to the store after I sent him
payment, so I asked him if he would check if the store would ship. Sure
enough, they were willing. It was kind of interesting placing a mail
order to North Carolina from a True Value Hardware store in Alaska, but
I have to say, the manager was very nice and cooperative.
Unfortunately for James, he was about a day too late in his offer. It
wouldn't surprise me if many of the buyers asked about 5138 realizing
that if James was offering what he did, even if they over bought and
James wasn't interested in them all, they would find someone else
willing to pay.
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Castle accessories arrived
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| (...) I guess you haven't been out to Brickbay today. (URL) person must have bought at least 50 of the castle sets and who knows how many pirate... BK> (24 years ago, 24-May-01, to lugnet.castle)
| | | Re: Castle accessories arrived
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| (...) Yeah, I figured right away that most people would be keeping theirs. I mean, I'm willing to buy these for $20, but I wouldn't sell them for that low. ;) I had hoped that either there were more of them or that one of the resellers had snagged (...) (24 years ago, 24-May-01, to lugnet.castle)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Castle accessories arrived
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| (...) I think the total number available was around 50 for all of Europe. I now have only a couple--but in retrospect I'm shocked that I got any. But that's what happens when one has little else to do for a week, and happens to land on a lucky week. (...) (24 years ago, 24-May-01, to lugnet.castle)
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