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Subject: 
Re: LD's Auctions (Re: Going once, going twice, sold!)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego.direct
Date: 
Sun, 7 Apr 2002 14:13:37 GMT
Viewed: 
705 times
  
In lugnet.lego.direct, Rick Clark writes:
Suzanne D. Rich wrote:

In lugnet.lego.direct, Jake McKee writes:
All,
It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I announce the new LEGO
Auctions! Check out the new area of the online LEGO Shop at
http://shop.LEGO.com/eBay.
[snip]
- We will be auctioning Santa Fe Super Chief locomotive sets #0001-
0010 over the next few weeks, starting with #0001.[snip]

(!!!) whoah. This strikes me icky.

Didn't the top response to polling on this at lego.com suggest the same?

I'm pretty sure it indicated a negative response as the top overall opinion.
This in itself is disappointing as it makes you wonder who's getting and
reading the data coming in from the polls.

I don't know much about limited editions, but, it seems kinda broken to
have held those sets back from real customers when they were advertised
as 10,000 available.

Here's another spin on that very thought.

The auctioned sets now come with the very cool display setting.  Couldn't
the company have offered that item as a separate set?  Isn't is feasible
that they might have sold a display stand to 25% or maybe even 30% of those
folks who bought one of the locomotives?  Wouldn't that have made them more
money than whatever amount will be brought in on eBay?

As it is now, the other Santa Fe sets now seem almost incomplete without the
possibility of even ordering the background for them.  I'm sure the eventual
10 owners of the eBay sets will really enjoy displaying (or storing for
later resale) their Santa Fe's.  But wouldn't it have been better to open up
an item like this to the entire market, thereby making thousands of LEGO
fans happy.... not just 10?

I've probably just
been in the dark - I'm not a collector - but it disturbs me to see LD
generating their own collecting interest.

If it were truly a 'Limited Edition' product, wherein the materials,
resources or time needed to make it were in short supply, then I can see
some sense in auctioning them off.  As it stands, this is purely a marketing
gimic.  The perceived collectability is entirely artificial.

Not sure I see what you find disturbing. My take on it is that it's a
more fair way to distribute a one-of-a-kind, collectible model. The
alternative is that some Joe Schmo randomly receives number 0001. He
either gives it to his 7 year old, who promptly loses the numbered tile;
or he never opens the box, and we never find out who has #0001; or he
opens it, destroying the collectible value of it. I don't really like
any of those options.

Then the easiest option was the one that LEGO didn't use.  Don't number
sets.  Don't create artificial demand for what was already an amazing set.
They didn't need to pretend that these were limited, they just need to make
sure that they follow up the Santa Fe with an equally well designed set.

All the best,
Allan B.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: LD's Auctions (Re: Going once, going twice, sold!)
 
Allan Bedford wrote (...) First, as has been said, it's unlikely that the eBay offering is about money. Second, I'm not sure LEGO does production runs of anything for less than 10,000. Your suggested production run of 3,000 is way too small, I'd (...) (23 years ago, 9-Apr-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: LD's Auctions (Re: Going once, going twice, sold!)
 
(...) Icky that a company would auction their own products? How so? (...) Why wouldn't they? (...) Is that a bad thing? (...) My catalogs don't seem to mention anything about how many were produced, nor how many will be available. (...) You've never (...) (23 years ago, 3-Apr-02, to lugnet.lego.direct)

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