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Subject: 
Re: VP of lego direct Q&A Transcript
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 22 Feb 2002 05:41:33 GMT
Viewed: 
244 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richie Dulin writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Allan Bedford writes:
In lugnet.technic, Richie Dulin writes:
So you do think LEGO's got it right?

If this is what they're doing, then I believe they're doing a good thing.

So do you think that is what they're doing?

I honestly don't know.  You'd have to ask someone who works for LEGO.  I
*think* they are, but I have no proof, no data, no substance to back up that
thought.... it's just a feeling I have.

Do you think this is what they're doing?

The original thread of this discussion however had nothing to do with
whether or not they are actually doing this.  It was about them releasing
products to try and undercut similar items being sold on eBay.  I believe
that this is a good practice.  Someone else disagreed and suggested that it
represented an insignificant portion of their sales.  So I'm not really sure
why this has gone off on this particular tangent.

Did my comments lead you to believe that I felt otherwise?

Are you serious? "...if it were my company I would use it...and try to
remedy" implies fairly strongly that what you suggest is (in your mind)
different to what's happening now.

No.  They imply exactly what I said.  Again, if you go back in the thread, I
think you'll find that the comments noted above aren't directly related to
the main jist of the conversation.  I implied that this would be my
direction IF it were my company.  This was in response to someone else
suggesting that they didn't feel the eBay sales were anything that LEGO was
worrying about.

I think there are seperate issues here:

1. That eBay sales can be useful for determining what sets and pieces to
rerelease.

I totally agree.

2. That eBay sales are insignificant in terms of total LEGO sales

I totally agree.

And you can extrapolate 2 to

3 eBay sales do not represent lost sales/profits of any significance to LEGO.

I totally agree.

Do you agree with the above?

See above.

However, on the last point, let me add that I believe the company does loose
some (little tiny piddly amounts of) potential sales because of eBay.
Simply, there are products there that people want and people buy them.  Some
of these the company can't or won't ever release.... nothing to be done
here, move on.  However, some things (such as black technic beams) represent
an area where I personally believe (with no data to back up this claim) the
company could do something to undercut these sales.  With the biggest
overall profit being customers gained, not dollars.  This is really my
point, nothing more.

I would rather spend my LEGO dollars buying product from the LEGO company
than some unknown seller on eBay, but I'm loyal to a fault, so you'll have
to forgive me.

And the overwhelmingly sarcastic tone of the sentence "Maybe...*consider*
reissuing" similarly implies a contrast between what you'd do and what LEGO
does.

Not meant to be sarcastic in any way.  Meant, in fact, to demean my own
comments and suggest that my course of action would result in only the
smallest possibility of success.  In other words, there is a great chance
that following my suggestion (of harvesting data from eBay) would not result
in anything useful at all.  Reread what I wrote, from this point of view,
and perhaps it will make more sense.

[snip]
I think it's an excellent tool for all kinds of market data.
What kinds of market data?

Market data such as which sets sell most often and for what prices?  What
types of bulk lots sell and for what prices.  Again, not rocket science,
just simple numbers.  I'm a simpleton.  I don't try to make things any more
complicated than they need to be.  This is just the way I see it.  But
remember that I don't fit into any target market for the company, so there's
really no reason they should worry about my concerns.

How do you feel about this?  Is LEGO using eBay for gathering sales/product
information?  Should they be?  Is there a better way?

Best regards,
Allan B.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: VP of lego direct Q&A Transcript
 
(...) So do you think that is what they're doing? (...) I think there are seperate issues here: 1. That eBay sales can be useful for determining what sets and pieces to rerelease. 2. That eBay sales are insignificant in terms of total LEGO sales And (...) (23 years ago, 22-Feb-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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