Subject:
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Re: Lego Bulk-- a solution
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 12 Sep 2000 18:31:55 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.AVOIDSPAMnet>
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Reply-To:
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{sjbaker1@airmail.net}spamcake{}
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Viewed:
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808 times
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Tina M Fanetti wrote:
> I have been reading this thread with great interest and I think I have
> come up with a possibel solution to some of the problem. What if we held
> swaps or had a board for trading? I know I have pieces that I dont want
> such as the bug wings and the dragon wings but I would like more long
> flat pieces.... If someone gets the pnuematic kit and decides they arent
> going to use the little pieces maybe they could trade with someone who
> wants them and doesnt want the big pieces.
The trouble with that (I think) is that we all tend to want the same
things. I'll bet that NOBODY wants even the bug wings they already
have - let alone getting more of them! Similarly, I can't think of
anything that would make me part with my long flat pieces...they are
like gold dust.
From what I've heard over the past few days, the entire problem with
the new pnuematic kit is that EVERYONE likes the idea of getting the
pnuematics - but NOBODY wants to spend money on a bunch of parts that
you get dozens and dozens of with every Technics set.
Perhaps the answer is to re-box and re-price. So, someone buys a hundred
of these pneumatic kits at $X each, sells the pneumatics at $Y each and the
remaining parts at $(X-Y)*100, make Y small enough and people will buy the
leftovers - saving the pneumatics guys at least *some* money and letting
people get the remaining parts at bargin basement prices.
The big question is, would the reduction in price from $X to $(X-Y) be
enough to entice people to go for this deal? I think that would be a
hard sell.
I think the only answer is to get enough people together with the same
needs to go to Lego and make them an offer they can't refuse. If we gave
them the opportunity to dump 100 pneumatic tanks, 200 pneumatic valves
and 200 pneumatic actuators into a Fed-Ex carton with no instruction books,
no fancy boxes - and ship it all to a single address for $1000, I think
they would be interested. Then someone could spend an evening splitting
that up into 100 $10 kits containing a tank, two valves and two actuators
(or whatever the right mix is)...placing them into pre-stamped/addressed
containers that people sent with their $10 cheques.
We could set up some kind of a web page that accumulated requests for
certain parts - when the count of requests for that part hit some
predetermined limit (100 of them or something), ma volunteer
organizer to posts a message to this list saying "I think there are
enough people who want part XXXX to make a bulk order - send money
NOW if you want them!"
OK, there are nastier details to take care of - but I think it's do-able
if Lego would play ball.
There is the issue of not being able to get the parts you want when you
need them - but I don't see a way to avoid that without someone with a
lot of nerve and a lot of capital ordering in bulk up-front and taking
the risk that they'll get stuck with unwanted parts...if you are taking
a risk, you need to make a profit - and you need a way to get rid of the
parts you got that were not popular...take that to a big enough extreme
and you are back with 'kits' containing parts we don't need - and higher
prices to boot.
--
Steve Baker HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Lego Bulk-- a solution
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| Hi I have been reading this thread with great interest and I think I have come up with a possibel solution to some of the problem. What if we held swaps or had a board for trading? I know I have pieces that I dont want such as the bug wings and the (...) (24 years ago, 11-Sep-00, to lugnet.robotics)
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