Subject:
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Re: Story about Lego on NPR's Morning Edition
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 24 Jan 1999 23:12:48 GMT
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Reply-To:
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{sgore@superonline.}antispam{com}
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Viewed:
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896 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> "Selçuk " wrote:
> >
> > Alex Wetmore wrote:
> > >
> > > Today's episode of Morning Edition had a story about Lego laying off folks
> > > during the business news part of the show. It should be available via
> > > RealAudio at http://www.npr.org this afternoon.
> > >
> > > I didn't hear all of it, but they were mentioning that Lego wanted to expand
> > > into the Asian market, but analysts didn't know if this would work too well
> > > because Lego knockoffs are available there for less money.
> > >
> > > alex
> >
> > Maybe the way to go is pricing them considering the "purchasing power" of the
> > individual countries. Software companies done that in turkey, and works well
> > againist piracy. It's awful paying 10-20% more for the same lego set while
> > earning 1/5 of a US wage, for the same carrier.
>
> That probably won't happen, because if it did, a grey market would
> quickly spring up. I certainly would have no qualms about making a
> certain Turk (1) very rich if it meant I could get sets for far less
> than retail with a little "smuggling". (2)
>
> 1 - that would be you, Sel.
You could have been pretty right about that, considering I'm the only Turk here,
but wrong about me. I'm not a "trader" type of man. I never wanted to face the
hassle of the whole thing for an additional amount(1). I had some occasions
during the recent past(2) and I only offered to send them to who wanted, for
only the retail+shipment, i.e. the amount spent by me. I had some very nice
people from US and UK, who sent me the sets that I wanted without profit, they
even trusted to me such that they sent the sets before the money arrived,
starting from the very first.
Things will go like this on my side till to the end. Lego is a "toy" and not a
trade(3) item for me, and will be forever, providing that I would not be a toy
seller in my future life. If that would have been the case, It could not go the
way as you presume. I'm sure they would be marketed as "not for export" or "for
use in Turkey only" so you could not sell them to the foreign countries, and I
assume you also couldn't sent too much(4) packages by marking them as
"gift"(5).
(1) Although I could withstand all that hassle for a friendly
"thanks!"..:-).
(2) Found some discontinued sets, regular Turkish price - approx. 10-20%
higher than regular US prices.
(3) i.e. something to make profit in cash. I don't mean exchanging lego
material with other fans.
(4) Enough to make a considerable profit as a toy store owner.
(5) Turkish postal service regulations don't require a "green label"
like many other countries have. Only regulation is you have to
package the contents at the postal office, I mean the officer MUST
see the contents before they are packaged..:-) Sounds stupid?..
I know..:-).
> 2 - and let us face it, marking a set as "gift" when you mail it if the
> recepient paid you for it is smuggling. (3)
Call it smuggling if you want, but we have our own living conditions. As being a
hired worker (i.e. not having own job, but having a boss) more than 30% of our
wages directly cut by government monthly as tax, even before I received it. At
the end of the year it can go sa high as 45%. And this not includes the other
additional stupid taxes, from VAT (15% to 25%, depends on the good type) to
"cleaning tax", "TV tax", "car tax", and the like. A rough estimate shows that
more than 70% percent of my sallary goes to government as tax. And I must still
pay tremendous amounts for health, education, any state service, highways,
utilities, municipality services and much much more. And still I didn't add the
obligatory "donations" charged by the same government whenever you need a state
service, from celular phone bills to passport application.
They always take and never give. Worse, I'm paying much more than the "job
owners", not in percentage, in quantity. An average jewellery seller or a
private doctor paid less than half of mine last year. As long as the government
won't make a tax revolution to prevent this inconsistency, I don't care if
anybody calls it snuggling or not.
Selçuk
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Story about Lego on NPR's Morning Edition
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| (...) Hrmmm, while I admire your convictions on this subject, I have to admit that I am rather pleased that my toy habit is almost self-sufficient, given enough time. Well, maybe not almost, but I bet my sales and auctions have paid for at least (...) (26 years ago, 25-Jan-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Story about Lego on NPR's Morning Edition
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| (...) government (...) I won't call it snuggling if you won't... but the ladies might have a different opinion. As a U.S. citizin, I won't even get into the topic of government & snuggling :-) -- Steven | svore at mindspring .com | kf4fbk | (...) (26 years ago, 25-Jan-99, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Story about Lego on NPR's Morning Edition
|
| (...) That probably won't happen, because if it did, a grey market would quickly spring up. I certainly would have no qualms about making a certain Turk (1) very rich if it meant I could get sets for far less than retail with a little "smuggling". (...) (26 years ago, 24-Jan-99, to lugnet.general)
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