Subject:
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Re: Sticker Shock...Lego Direct?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Tue, 6 Jun 2000 18:47:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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1184 times
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In lugnet.lego, Richard Marchetti writes:
> I had to call the Consumer Affairs people to replace some old black wheels as
> found in Technic set #8246 and old Blacktron I set #6941 (almost the same
> element except for minor details). I had recently purchased several of these
> from a fellow Lugnut and when I took the big tires off of the little wheels,
> the little wheels fell apart from stress and age -- these would be the bigger
> tires as found on Blacktron I set #6941, BTW. Point being: they charged me
> $0.40 USD an element which I was happy to pay. But, I think this may stand as
> a measure of what Lego Direct prices may be like for specialty parts (not
> common bricks and such, hopefully!)-- they will not be sold for $0.05 and
> $0.10 each as some people seem to believe even if they are sold in bulk. I
> guess this may present us with the problem of say Cypress Trees being $1 each • -
> - I am not sure I can or want to buy 1000 of these in bulk at such a price.
>
> Just (virtually) thinking out loud,
>
> Richard
Well, I believe there were probably all kinds of overhead with fulfilling your
order that could be reduced or eliminated with the kind of plan proposed for
Lego Direct. For example, your request probably resulted in a search for the
item in existing stock, rather than a production run specifically designed to
produce an element for direct sale.
One factor in favor of lower costs than one might have to pay today for
specialty items is that the production runs of parts by Lego Direct will only
be performed if the orders are actually there (for the non-"evergreen"
elements). This known demand means that LD can carefully weigh their production
costs against orders, and maximize their revenue by giving us a cost that may
be a bit higher than we would like, but one that we would be willing to pay.
For example, you might like cypress trees for US$0.25, but in the end be
willing to pay $0.50. LD will probably not charge a dollar each, because they
would then lose sales.
Also, they have the opportunity to fine-tune their cost structure on a
month-to-month basis, again to maximize profit. If they offer a production run
of cypress trees at a dollar each one month, and not enough people order them
to do a run, they could set up another offer the following month for say $0.80
each. The people with outstanding orders could either have their current orders
cancelled at the end of each month, or have their orders adjusted to reflect
the new prices. This would give us the elements we want at a price we will pay,
and maximize the number of pieces LD can sell at the highest practical price
per item (kind of like a reverse auction).
I honestly think Lego Direct, if they notice my page at all, will probably use
it more as a floor for their pricing structure, than a ceiling, reasoning that
our maximum offered prices are a low bid, and they can get more from a very
grateful AFOL community when they actually offer elements for production.
Jason
Lego Direct wants page: http://home.xnet.com/~catena/ld_want.shtml
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Sticker Shock...Lego Direct?
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| (...) I just hope we can get what we want overall. I'd like to replace lots of old stuff, obtain stuff I never had, obtain stuff they never made in certain colors, and have lots of greenery elements besides. I hope they will facilitate these (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Sticker Shock...Lego Direct?
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| I had to call the Consumer Affairs people to replace some old black wheels as found in Technic set #8246 and old Blacktron I set #6941 (almost the same element except for minor details). I had recently purchased several of these from a fellow Lugnut (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jun-00, to lugnet.lego)
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