Subject:
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Re: Lego man
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 28 Aug 1999 18:18:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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1212 times
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Adam -
You have nothing to be ashamed of. Unless you are one of those manical
Beanie Baby people as well! ;-)
Everyone I work with knows that I have a LEGO hobby/addiction and most of
them enjoy talking about it. I don't think it hurts that I work with a
bunch of engineers. Everyone always wants to check out what the latest and
greatest thing I have. I usually have LEGO shipped to the office so I don't
have to worry about it be left out in the rain (which happened once).
Yesterday my hobby may have helped one of my co-workers out! He was at one
of our customers and met a key new individual. This guy had a bunch of
toys in his office that his design group uses during brain storming
sessions. Among the toys are a bunch of LEGO. My co-worker ended up
telling the customer about me and all of the stuff available on the web. My
co-worker promised the guy a bunch of links for the web which I have already
delivered. The guy was estatic. Will it help us generate more business?
Who knows, only time will tell. But it certainly didn't hurt. It would
have probably taken two or three meetings for my co-worker and the customer
to achieve the same relationship had they not had LEGO to talk about.
What's my point? LEGO as a hobby is no different than any other hobby. The
same people who gave you odd looks for buying LEGO would probably give
another adult odd looks for buying a bunch of Barbie stuff. It really
doesn't matter what people think of you. Walk through TRU with your held
high.
Most of the time I find that engaging in dialog with the people who work in
stores (although hard to do at TRU and other large stores) leads to some
interesting conversations. I had an interesting conversation with a woman
stocking the shelves at our local Target where she told me that other than
after Christmas, they never put LEGO on clearance because they move so much
of it. She saved me a ton of time. I don't have to go in there everytime
someone on LUGNET mentions that Target is discounting!
Most of my friends and family now help me out. I recently had a co-worker
pick up a couple of the SAS promo sets on a flight for me. Another of my
co-workers in Sweden helped me obtain some hard to find European service
packs. With my being proud and open about my hobby I have increased my
ability to obtain LEGO because I have what is effectively, more feet on the
street.
My $0.02 FWIW ....
Mike - mike_walsh@mindspring.com
http://members.tripod.com/mike_walsh
Adam Howard wrote in message ...
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm one of those 'closeted Lego shoppers' too. I hate going into TRU or
> Wal-mart and buying out half their Lego stock. Kind-of embarrassing -all
> the strange looks people give you. But I just ignore it, look them in the
> face (expression- 'What the H*** are you looking at') and go on. Sometimes
> it is difficult though. Just last year I was buying a lot of Legos from
> TRU's in the Chicago area. I had visited one about three days in a row and
> the last time I checked out, the cashier (some 19 year old) looked over his
> shoulder and pointed to me. At that point another cashier down the line
> looked at me and started to giggle. Then my cashier gave me a goofy look
> and started ringing me up. I've never been so ticked off in my life. Why
> the heck should they care what I spend my money on? And they certainly
> shouldn't do this to a regular customer who spends several thousand dollars
> a year at TRU's, regardless of what they buy.
>
> I never went back to that TRU, but now everytime I go to check out with a
> basket full of Lego bricks I feel nervous like everyone is looking at me.
> I'd prefer to do all my shopping through TLG, but it's usually more
> expensive (even counting taxes) and sometimes you have to wait a month
> before the set is back in stock before they can ship it to you.
>
> Lately I've been buying only a few items at a time. It doesn't feel as
> embarassing as it used too, but I still get that 'everyone is watching you'
> feeling.
>
> Socially I never try to hide my hobby, but I don't ever just blurt out 'Hey
> I play with Lego bricks'. Usually my friends only find out when they come
> over to my house, then they say things like 'Cool. Look at all these
> Legos.' or 'Wow. I can't believe you have so many.' Then that's that and
> they go back and tell all their friends about it, who then want to talk to
> me about how cool they think it is, and then they want to talk about their
> hobbies, etc. Then I start receiving email like 'I saw this set at a garage
> sale.' to which I reply 'Where?' But I've never bought Lego bricks while
> I've been out with my friends, except one. She and I were very close
> friends for a long time before she moved away. In high scool all of my
> close friends knew about my hobby too, but they were always mature and
> intelligent about it and none of them ever let it slip at school. I imagine
> if they had I would have been a laughing stock for half of our class,
> because that's just the way teenagers are.
>
> Maybee I need to join a Legoholics Anonymous group for support. Of course
> that's what this group is :)
>
> Thanks everyone, for making me feel normal about still enjoying Lego as an
> adult.
>
> Adam
>
>
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Message has 1 Reply: | | Re: Lego man
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| I can sympathize, but if I ever start getting flak, I'll just wear my leather motorcycle jacket. There is something about a 6ft, huge dude with a fuzzy face staring at you that just....causes one to .... wilt. Of course, it can be fun to have the (...) (25 years ago, 30-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego man
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| Hi Everyone, I'm one of those 'closeted Lego shoppers' too. I hate going into TRU or Wal-mart and buying out half their Lego stock. Kind-of embarrassing -all the strange looks people give you. But I just ignore it, look them in the face (expression- (...) (25 years ago, 28-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
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