| |
In lugnet.general, Leonard Hoffman wrote:
> > There are two other explanations; one, the cost per brick when parting is
> > lower regardless of any hidden costs,
>
> i dont understand what you mean here.. cost of brick, as i understand it is
> Cost to Manufacture, then part out into sets (which should be saved since
> its bulk), then cost of shipping. "Hidden" means there something else in
> this mix im not aware of (customs might fall into this batch)
There's slews of costs. The biggest one is overhead. Something has to pay for
your free S@H catalogs, the nice woman on the phone you phone your order in to,
the OTHER people who work there to make sure you talked to that woman quickly
instead of getting stuck in a queue, the phone line itself, the warehouse space
in case you had never bought the set, the phone line/website you use to make the
order, the people who ok'd the sets, etc, etc.
The cost to just manufacture pieces, plop them into a baggie, and send it is
virtually nil. I'd be suprised if a baggie of 100 2x4 bricks actually COSTS TLC
more than $0.02. But it's all the stuff that doesn't directly affect that
particular little baggie that raises the price, so that it's "in line" with
everything else.
Plus there's "fair" markups. What's the market willing to pay? Why do the prices
of movie tickets and baseball games keep going up? The corporate philosophy is
as long as they're filling the stadiums, theatres, etc, the price is fine, and
you MIGHT even be able to go higher. Marketing demons aren't concerned with
making sure you don't overpay because it wouldn't be "fair" to you or anything.
> But if you're right, and the BL seller automatically lowers his price to
> compete with TLG.. wouldn't s/he be then run out of business? Troy can't
> continually take a loss in order to move product just to be competetive -
> eventually he'll go bankrupt! No, BL sellers (bulk sellers, not used lego
> sellers) must be making a profit, simply for the logic of it!
In the case of Troy, you're absolutely right. BL sellers who are in the business
of selling can't undercut the prices-- they get their brick cheaper than "market
price" by either getting them wholesale or severely marked down or whatnot. To
the point at which IF Lego had been the one to DIRECTLY sell to Troy, they
wouldn't be making nearly the profit that they would be had they sold it to
their average customer.
BUT, it is the case that some sellers are in the business to make back the money
on the sets they buy. If I wanted (say) those new 3x3 radar dishes in grey,
there's only one set that comes with them-- that Surveillance Truck set. Now, if
I don't want anything else that comes with the set, but I just want to make SOME
money back that I spent on the set, I can undercut all I want. If I'm not
concerned with making a profit, and instead all I wanted was to not spent quite
so much on the pieces I DID want (IE $30 for 1 radar dish), I can cut by
whatever margin I feel comfortable with, since I wouldn't be in it for the
money.
DaveE
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
28 Messages in This Thread:
  
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
