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In lugnet.lego, Justin Pankey wrote:
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So no set should should ever be sold above it’s MSRP??
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No. I’ve never said that. In fact I myself have sold sets above MSRP. Just not
while they were still on sale from S@H, while hiding that fact from my ebay
buyers, or while trying to corner the market, or while giving the false
impression that I already have actually cornered it and there are not any to be
had elsewhere.
In fact I am a strong advocate of selling above MSRP when conditions warrant
it... for example, my view on the primary reason for the gasoline shortages in
FL after the many hurricanes it suffered this season is FL’s asinine law that
requires gas stations (or chain saw sellers or ice vendors, or generator
suppliers) not to raise prices as a way to allocate scarce resources.
As if you could repeal the law of supply and demand! These might as well be the
same bunch of legislators that wanted to legislate pi == 3.00 (they weren’t but
they might as well be...)
But that’s a topic for .debate, please FUT there if you want to take it up.
for another example, when LEGO UK had a stash of blue hoppers they were going to
crush or dump, or sell to a discounter instead of to a toy retailer, I convinced
that retailer (via LD phone calls at my expense) to buy them all up and assured
him I would take all he wanted to sell me... that was a risk for him and for me.
It turned out people DID want them, and I charged over MSRP as a way to
efficiently allocate to those that wanted them badly enough. I explained exactly
how I came to have them, where they came from and why I was charging over MSRP,
and none of my bidders balked.
That said:
I see no reason for LEGO to make things easier for people who want to benefit
from artificial scarcity by reselling stuff that they don’t really care about,
at the expense of those that want the sets to give to their kids, or for their
innate set-neatness or for the parts.
LEGO can do that if they want to, the way that (Hot Wheels, call your office!!!)
some (Kenner, call your office!!!) toy (Barbie, call your office!!) companies
(HASBRO, call your office!!!) pander to collectors and sellers by bringing out
endless limited editions, special rare assortment components, booster packs with
rare cards, and so forth, but if they don’t, or if they change the rules
midstream (Bionicle Masks, call your office!!!) to undermine collectibility, no
one ought to complain.
I made this argument when LEGO re-released the Metroliner, you will recall there
were people complaining about how the re-release destroyed the value of their
original Metroliners. I made the argument then that I got 400 USD of value from
the MISB metroliner I bought for 400 USD, and I was happy as pie that LEGO
re-released them, even if it meant I’d never see 400 if I ever wanted to resell
it. I didn’t buy it to have it for resale, I bought it to have.
I subsequently got over a dozen new Metroliners at one point or another during
the run, some at MSRP, some discounted, which I am very happy to have been able
to purchase (now if I could only find time to build the big project I have in
mind for them, that would be nice...)
I XFUT to market.theory ... prolly veering a bit off .lego already, but I may be
wrong.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: 10152 Update
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| (...) Larry I can recall only one...Precious Princess in particular, and having more than the limit of 5 is what I find disturbing about that. I think Johannes is right...many people probably WERE hooked by the prospect of getting a Rare and Limited (...) (20 years ago, 19-Dec-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
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