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 Dear LEGO / 1898
1897  |  1899
Subject: 
Re: Lego Direct (was Re: Georgia LEGO Outlet is Cool!)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.dear-lego
Date: 
Mon, 27 Mar 2000 00:21:15 GMT
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Richard:

I am sorry, but you just don't get it.

#1 - These are not "Rare, expensive sets" in Lego's eyes.  These are sets that
nobody wants to buy.  That is why they are old.  It is not TLC's job to watch
ebay and Lugnet to find out how to "most fairly" move these sets.  They were
for sale to the entire marketing area for a number of years.  From their
standpoint, a skid (one pallet) of MISB Metroliners is the same as a skid of
Witch's Windships or Adventurers Blimps.

#2 - When it comes to products, stores try to sell them.  If you want to sell
more product quicker, then you do that, so most stores try to promote sales,
not limit them, which is what you suggest.  I don't think Lego knows how much
money I, Frank Filz, Tom Stangl or Larry make.  I think they just know how
much we spend.  At that point, they are not playing favorites with the
wealthy.  They are just giving their best customers first opportunity on some
items.

#3 - If you want access to that "deal," could you do anything with it?  Could
you buy 100 SES sets?  If you have done that in the past, then they would
probably call you.  (Of couse, I DID that with the Garden Playmates, but they
didn't call me when more came in)

#4 - Often times, people who spend the most on an item are not the richest
ones in the group.  They are just the ones who want it the most.  I can prove
this up by saying that there will be richer people than I who spend LESS on
Lego.

I was not called, and I have spent an incredible amount of money on Lego
lately.  In the last 2 months, I have purchased over a half-million bricks.  I
wish I was in on a deal, but I am not angry.  I really don't care.  Some deals
I get, some I don't.  That's life.

You do sound bitter with the "overly-satisfied deep-pockets [group]" comment.
If you can't accept it, you are going to have a hard life, because it isn't
just with Lego sets that this happens - it is the Capitalist system.  There
was a better way than our system.  If you are interested, you can read about
it.  It is the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx.  I am sure in Russia, as in
China, everyone has equal opportunity to buy their Lego sets.

Sorry to sound rude here, but I get very annoyed over these types of
comments.  I spend a tremendous amount of money on Lego, but I AM NOT RICH!  I
just have different priorities than others.  I want bricks more than you, I
would venture to say.  I am willing to sacrifice more to get them.

To not allow me to so that somebody else who doesn't want them as much is very
much like finding 2 USS Constellation Sets and only be allowed to buy one so
another kid can get the other for use as a BB gun target.  You want the 2nd
one more than he would want the first one.  To not allow you to buy more than
one is inherently unfair, wrong and not what this country is about.

Mike Poindexter

In lugnet.dear-lego, Richard Marchetti writes:
I don't begrudge anyone finding a good deal.  But it would bother me to think
that some few of us are favored by TLC because of their purchasing power.
This is why I have and will continue to favor a Lego Direct arrangement in
which TLC, or perhaps a very specific and singular business partner, is the
ONLY entity to have direct interactions with the public.

In lugnet.dear-lego, Mike Stanley writes:
I don't know.  I'm not a businessman or an economist, but I'd say if
you have a chance to move a product _right now_ you should take it.

I think the problem is neither with our somewhat overly self-satisfied, deep-
pockets set or necessarily with the outlet store (presuming its not actually
TLC owned -- which I don't know).  The problem is with TLC.  If there is a
small cache of older sets that could be made available to the public, it
should be made available in an even manner, and not in a manner which
satisfies only the needs of deep-pockets people.  I think of it as bad public
relations in the extreme!

Would everyone find it "merely" amusing to know that some one person was
offered 100 MISB SES (or another very desirable set of your choice) sets for
50% off original retail from an outlet shop and that s/he was the only person
called?  Or that s/he was one of five people called?  I would want access to
that deal too and not have to pay someone else's eBay redistribution auction
price of $250 USD.

The point is: that's not how this kind of situation should be handled.  Lego
Direct (a much rumored about "future" TLC venture) should handle these
overstock matters by making rarer items available to everyone at the same time
by either printed catalogue or website listing; and then perhaps even control
distribution to the most people by limiting sales to one to a household.
Something like that sounds fairer to me.

I understand that wealthy people have greater disposable income than others,
but its obnoxious to me to think that they are so pointedly favored by TLC by
their current manner of unloading older sets.  Isn't it enough that the
wealthy could so easily afford to just pay the eBay prices instead?  I am not
suggesting penalizing the wealthy either, though.  I just fail to understand
the absence of fair access to the same goods, regardless of one's standing as
pertains to personal wealth.  Everyone should be receiving the same fair and
timely notice of the sets currently available!

Does TLC own the outlet shops itself, or are they privately owned shops?  It
certainly makes a difference to me to discover this fact.

-- Richard



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Lego Direct (was Re: Georgia LEGO Outlet is Cool!)
 
(...) Then they should catch a clue -- or is Brad Justus just a troll here? Is he just a plant to stem the tide of our venom as I already half suspect? I'm sorry, but I think it is very much TLC's job to pay attention to what we fans want, and not (...) (24 years ago, 27-Mar-00, to lugnet.dear-lego) ! 

Message is in Reply To:
  Lego Direct (was Re: Georgia LEGO Outlet is Cool!)
 
I don't begrudge anyone finding a good deal. But it would bother me to think that some few of us are favored by TLC because of their purchasing power. This is why I have and will continue to favor a Lego Direct arrangement in which TLC, or perhaps a (...) (24 years ago, 26-Mar-00, to lugnet.dear-lego) !! 

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