Subject:
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Re: anyone out there?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral
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Date:
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Thu, 25 Mar 1999 15:52:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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1590 times
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Mike, very nice assesment of the Cary area... I've a couple comments:
Mike Walsh wrote:
> Wal-Mart (corner of Kildair Farm Road and Tryon Road)
> Decent selection of current sets especially Space Port and Ninja.
> No older sets at all and very little (like Res-Q) that was new in 1998.
> This Wal-Mart is close to my house so I end up there about once a
> week for something or another. Nothing LEGO ever made it into the
> clearance aisle as far as I can tell. They have a couple of the large
> Time Cruisers sets for regular price. I am surprised these haven't
> gone on clearance. They are really shelf worn so obviously they
> have been there for a while.
I managed to get 2 copies of the Flying Ninha Fortress for $69.95 there
the other day. They were marked so on the shelf (or at least thats what
I thought). I also picked up a 2nd Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins for $69.97.
When ring up time came, the sets all rang up as $79.95. I first noticed
on the Ninja sets, then I noticed the Pharaoh's set (which had a price
sticker for $69.97 on it). After a long while (poor customers behind me)
of "hmmm, somethings wrong here" from the cashier, he finally said
"well, I don't feel like going back there so I'll give you the $69.95
price" (he wins the slow cashier of the week award, but recovers with
the good customer service award). I don't know, I might have misread the
price, but its not like it was a total ripoff price (the other night
when I was at K-Mart, I removed a $4.99 sticker from a $19.99 set, the
set had a $19.99 sticker on the bottom, and the $4.99 sticker was cocked
at an angle and sticking out past the edge of the box - probably a
sticker which fell off another box and happened to stick).
Yea, I saw those Time Cruisers sets, but had already picked up a 2nd for
$50 or so (still not cheap, but it looks like a good parts source).
> K-Mart (Maynard Road and Kildaire Farm Road)
> I have only been in here a few times, it is one of the stores I just seem
> to forget about. Their LEGO selection was never real impressive but
> after Christmas they did have a few very large FreeStyle sets (a big
> box, 18"x30") that I have only seen at K-Mart. Price was about $40 as
> I recall.
This is where I found Star Wars... Those FreeStyle sets are not on
clearance for $24.99. They are an 850 piece set with a 3 tray storage
box with 3 yellow baseplates for covers (I want to guess the baseplates
as 16x32). A niece per piece price, but more expensive per piece than
the 1000+ piece set TRU and a couple other places have. Also more
expensive per peice than a $4.99/$5.99 400 piece bucket (but you do get
some specialty peices and a decent lookuing storage container). I'm
waffling on picking one up.
> The Toy Chest (Corner of High House Road and Cary Parkway in Preston)
> This is a small toy store that I used to go into a lot. ... The LEGO
> selection is okay, mostly sets from 1997 and 1998 although nothing of
> any real interest.
I'll have to check them out sometime...
> The Flea Market at the NC Fairgrounds has also been
> void
> of LEGO my only purchase being an empty bulk brick bucket for $0.25 to use
> as
> additional storage.
One of the indoor vendors had some Lego sets. Didn't look at the prices
though. He was busy and they were on the top shelf, and were mostly Time
Cruisers sets I already have.
> My overall assessment: I think the Cary area is too afluent to yield any
> real finds.
> Most of the stores seem to move product pretty regularly to have anything
> remain
> on the shelves for any length of time. The abundance of kids and the
> phenomonal
> growth of Cary (when I moved to Cary in 1988 there were less than 40K people
> in
> Cary, now there are more than 80K) leads me to believe that this trend will
> continue.
> For deals, us Cary-ites will have to expand our frame of reference to areas
> of the
> Triangle that one does not frequently travel in/from/to.
A good assesement. Also, I fear that this area doesn't really have
enough competition to drive prices down, and the only real large density
of people are in very wealthy areas. I think post Christmas trips to
Asheboro and Wilson may lead to some decent close out sales. The Big K
on New Bern Ave east of Raleigh also bears watching.
One thing which would be worthwhile is to find out where all the small
independant toy stores are in the state. If there are any decent ones
outside the major cities, there might be a good source of older sets
(the toy store in University Mall in Chapel Hill had some nice older
sets for example).
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: anyone out there?
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| Todd Lehman wrote in message ... (...) Small world - hopefully you were here on Saturday when the weather was nice. Sunday was kind of nasty ... ;-) Here is my assessment of the LEGO market in the Cary, NC area where I also live. If you are familiar (...) (26 years ago, 25-Mar-99, to lugnet.loc.us.nc.ral)
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