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In lugnet.dear-lego, Steve Bliss writes:
> In lugnet.dear-lego, David Schilling wrote:
>
> > I just received the latest catalog in an order from LS@H ("Galaxy of
> > ADVENTURE!", Spring 2000) and noticed that the "Limited Quantities" is still
> > mentioned on the accessories pages.
> >
> > The catalog is shorter, so perhaps this explains the other thing I noticed:
> > the train and technic accessory pages had fewer items on them than in the Jan
> > 2000 catalog.
>
> The spring S@H catalog is usually smaller than the others. And the Holiday
> edition is usually larger. That's at least part of the reason for missing
> items. Accessory pages are often squeezed down or omitted in the Spring
> edition. Ditto for Trains, Duplo and Technic.
>
> Steve
This is true. The Spring Catalog for North American Shop At Home (formerly
just USA) traditionally has fewer pages and far fewer items listed than other
catalog issues. This has been true for at least the last four years or so.
The abreviated Spring catalog does not represent the complete availability of
items by any means. For best product available product selection, the January
catalog is the one to use until you receive the Summer catalog.
Very few, if any, new items are ever presented in the Spring catalog. In my
opinion, the Spring catalog is generally useless unless some items are listed
at reduced prices. However, last call availability for some items is often
advertised in this catalog and is generally a pretty good guide of which sets
will soon be stock-outs without much chance of resupply.
As a general guide for ordering from Lego Shop @ Home, you can select items
from the most recent catalog and the two or three previous editions for sets;
accessory items have longer life and it may be a good idea to look back at
catalogs from a year or more to find the accessory items wanted. Just because
an item is no longer pictured does not mean that S@H does not have any more.
Catalogs are printed weeks in advance of actual release and distribution and
the level of inventory available is simply either a guess, estimate, or the
result of some calculation.
Anyone who has ordered from S@H more than a few times likely knows that it can
be very fruitful to ask for items that are no longer shown in the
catalogs--even sets from two or three years ago that you might consider to be
sold out long ago. This may have been more true in the past before weekly
phone specials, but sometimes inventory or sets is ~found~ that was not known
to exist. I won't attempt to explain the sources or reasons for that just now.
An example:
In April 1998 I made a list of all of the Lego Pirate sets I wanted. I then
called S@H. Most were not avialable, but I did get lucky and was able to order
some 6262 King Kahukas Throne sets. This is a 1994 set and I was able to get
it in 1998 and it had not been listed in a catalog for nearly a year. I was
told this was due to recently ~found~ inventory.
Around the same time I was able to order a copy of Freestyle set 4162 and was
told that the remaining inventory was in the single digits (7 I think). If I
had had the funds, I would have bought them all. Well, a few weeks later I
called and was able to order another and was told that the inventory number was
now much greater than a single digit (40 something I think) which indicates
that in this case also, inventory was ~found~.
When I received my Spring 2000 catalog this week I noticed two key features
missing:
No preview of upcoming sets to be released later in the year. Not one mention
of upcoming Star Wars sets releases, for example. Odd how this form of
esentially free advertising was not used.
No multi-set offers. Specifically, I mean offers where you can order four or
five sets as one item number--like item K6479 for the Res-Q multi set offer.
These multi-set offers are the ones that typically have one or two smaller sets
advertised as ~free~ when you order this offer. A current example would be an
offer for all five of the Arctic sets ordered as K6575 with set 6579 Ice Surfer
~free~ since the total price is reduced to reflect that this set is free
[note: I fabricated this offer and has not actually been offered by S@H].
So, essentially, Do Not be alarmed by the lack of items offered in the Spring
catalogs. Just refer to older catalogs as I mentioned previously.
__Kevin Salm__
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Brad Justus...
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| (...) The spring S@H catalog is usually smaller than the others. And the Holiday edition is usually larger. That's at least part of the reason for missing items. Accessory pages are often squeezed down or omitted in the Spring edition. Ditto for (...) (25 years ago, 25-Feb-00, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.technic)
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