Subject:
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Re: Guess who paid for those eToy Lego bargains?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Tue, 6 Feb 2001 23:37:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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429 times
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In lugnet.lego.direct, John Neal writes:
> richard marchetti wrote:
> > Which leads me to a general comment on Lego Direct bulk items -- if we are
> > buying directly from TLC why should we be paying more, rather than less,
> > than retail per brick? I sure don't want to be charged the overhead for
> > their silly and WAY overblown website. Just sell me bulk and cheaply too...
>
> Let's *really* define bulk here. True bulk bricks would be bricks by the
> thousands, and it is in those numbers where I would expect discounts.
> Calling their services "bulk" is just TLC using a convenient term. TLC
> bulk is a service. They are making it easier to acquire bricks which you
> would have had to purchase X amount of sets to get that element.
Hmm, not necessarily -- the secondary market changes the whole equation.
True, someone has to go and buy X amount of sets and sort through and
organize the elements, but I've seen people get very close to true bulk
from many sources, for much less than retail and much less than what LD
sells the elements for.
I don't mean that to sound I'm bashing LD for how it set its prices, I'm
just pointing out that the perception that it's overpriced is rooted in
reality, relative to other options. (Everything is relative, right? :-)
> For example, I would have gladly paid $.25 per brick for 400 black 4x3 low
> slopes which I used in one of my MOCs. Instead, I purchased 40 3225s,
> which contained 10 of them, for $66 each. Then I had to sell off a bunch
> of stuff to get my money back. It's a big hassle, even *if* you have
> $2640 to blow on 1 MOC....
That's a great example, and I totally know what you mean. I think Richard
was talking about less-specialized pieces, though. You can go out and buy
1200-pc tubs on clearance and it isn't very much work to go through them.
I personally wouldn't buy 1xN's and 2xN's from LD in traditional colors, but
maybe some people would. Or maybe LD doesn't expect them to sell -- just the
"hard-to-find" colors like Gray and Brown and Green. (Do they sell Brown yet?
Oh well, you get the idea.)
> Just compare 2x2 tile prices on Brickbay to the available colors from LD.
> Or window prices. For most people, the bulk service *is* a good deal.
It's funny you should mention 2x2 tiles. I've seen them go for as much as
$1 each in auctions -- but that was a long time ago. I know that I'd like
to see them as low as $.01 each before I could really buy them from LD. I
do think LD's price of $.069 per 2x2 tile is perfectly fair -- compared to
alternatives -- but at that price I just can't afford them in bulk for the
sort of thing I'd like to do...
http://news.lugnet.com/build/?n=4447 (see the price calculations)
So, as far as I'm concerned, for my project(s), it's no better than if LD
didn't sell 2x2 tiles at all. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not knocking LD for
the price -- just saying that it's above my personal purchasing threshold.
Mega kudos to LD for selling them at all. Bummer that they don't cost less,
but that's life, I guess. Maybe after LD takes off and really gets rolling,
maybe the prices will begin to fall someday.
> > And the eToys model suggests to me that we don't have to pay more, that
> > there is a way to get you, TLC, to sell this stuff to us AFOL at a smaller
> > cost...
Well, somebody probably lost a lot of money there.
> > The closer we get to $0.25 a brick, the more likely I am to just spend most
> > of my money on eBay where paying a premium for older and better sets makes
> > more sense than paying the same for new and less well designed sets. And
> > if bulk nears this price, well -- then I just don't see the point of it.
>
> See above.
I can see both viewpoints...depends on the element and color, eh? Depends on
personal experiences with buying in semi-bulk or hearing about deals.
> [...]
> > And "bulk" should always have meant a deep discount.
>
> Fine. If you want to order 50,000 elements of one color and element type,
> I'm sure you could get a deep discounted price.
Yeah, give it time, I think. Remember that LD is *juuuust* getting started
still. When Brad first posted in December of 1999, there wasn't even an NYC
office -- he was working out of his home. There weren't even other LD
employees yet.
I'm willing to bet (as in predict and wait) that after it all gets rolling and
production runs are good and solid, the price point that ends up being the
most profitable for LEGO will be lower than the prices they currently have
for the more common types of elements.
$.25 for a 1x4x3 window panel is an incredibly great price, IMHO!
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Guess who paid for those eToy Lego bargains?
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| (...) Exactly. *Somebody* has to do it. (...) But remember, for most parts suppliers to make it worth their while, they are buying sets in bulk at deep discounts-- 50%-70% off, which has got to be approaching TLC's profit margin. Think of what (...) (23 years ago, 7-Feb-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Guess who paid for those eToy Lego bargains?
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| richard marchetti wrote: <snip> (...) Let's *really* define bulk here. True bulk bricks would be bricks by the thousands, and it is in those numbers where I would expect discounts. Calling their services "bulk" is just TLC using a convenient term. (...) (23 years ago, 6-Feb-01, to lugnet.lego.direct)
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