The official LOOT topic

[OneEye589]

I think it's just Lego's thing to make the boxes sized by price. I don't think it raises the price much, and it really makes sense to have them that way. Looking at a shelf someone can just look at the correctly sized boxes if they have a budget instead of checking every price.

[Strana]

Pfft. They've probably run the numbers and figured that bigger boxes equals more sales from people who aren't smart enough to check its weight and part count before buying. I don't fall for the box trick myself, since I mostly buy sets that I've researched and read reviews for, but unfortunately us more intelligent people mustn't make the majority of Lego's customer base.

Actually i think it has more to do with the idiots in corporate marketing jobs, I've seen and herd too much crap come out of maketing especially when some one has a brilliant idea for some gimick.

I think it's just Lego's thing to make the boxes sized by price. I don't think it raises the price much, and it really makes sense to have them that way. Looking at a shelf someone can just look at the correctly sized boxes if they have a budget instead of checking every price.

this is logically fail. Shipping is costed at weight and size. if you have ever tried to ship some light but large item through mail then you know just how much it costs. 2 poeple especially now are going to be looking closely at what things are more so then in recent times, especially price comparison. thier not going to be swayed by some big box. also its more costly o store larger units if that unit could be smaller usually they make it so. if you remember the article a fiew years back an air line saved several tens of millions of dollars just by reducing the olives of thier salads from 4 to 3

[Rayhawk]

Nope, turns out Professor Ken's right on this one. If you drop below a certain size-to-price ratio, sales dry up completely. People like to think they're rational about their purchasing decisions, but they're just not, and Lego has decades of real-life data about buying patterns to prove it. If they think it's worth the extra shipping expense, it's because they've sat down and done the math with real numbers to see which way loses them more money.

Re: baseplates -- if you've ever bought a pack of just baseplates off the shelf, you know that baseplates are way, way more expensive than bricks. This isn't because Lego's trying to gouge you, it's because the manufacturing process for baseplates is a lot more expensive; the only reason they have to be made that way is because trying to injection-mold something that size (at Lego quality) is more expensive still.

For every set at a certain price, Lego set designers have to hit a certain production cost to produce the set (including manufacturing, distribution, testing, etc), which is measured down to the hundredth of a cent. They don't get to add or remove a couple of dozen parts and call it "close enough," the tiny profit margins and the demanding customer base leave no room for error. They have to hit that production-cost target.

What it means is that every baseplate you put in a set equals 50 bricks you don't get to put in. So if you do want to include a baseplate, you need a really big set to hide the diminished piece count.

That's my Lego economics lesson for the day.

[Strana]

Nope, turns out Professor Ken's right on this one. If you drop below a certain size-to-price ratio, sales dry up completely. People like to think they're rational about their purchasing decisions, but they're just not, and Lego has decades of real-life data about buying patterns to prove it. If they think it's worth the extra shipping expense, it's because they've sat down and done the math with real numbers to see which way loses them more money.

thanks for the info, it actually reminds me of a study done in electronics, were brand's that were well known and had top selection ie placing had most sales. and certain companys from other countries didnt understand why more people werent buying there prduct the quailty was just as good, if not better but since they were not known thier product eventually got pulled due to little or no revenue generation for the store. and the foriegn firm just couldnt get why

It might just be that since im looking only at local facets, and be that end facets. that im not seeing the whole picture, im very much a hunter of deals, which isn't necessarily what the trend HAS been. Its why i can turn out frigates that cost $60. its very careful observation, and thats buying it from the lego store to boot.

just watch for changes in the wind i'd rather see lego as a operating company far into the future. than failing to pick up a new trend in its consumer base

[pesgores]

Nope, turns out Professor Ken's right on this one. If you drop below a certain size-to-price ratio, sales dry up completely. People like to think they're rational about their purchasing decisions, but they're just not, and Lego has decades of real-life data about buying patterns to prove it. If they think it's worth the extra shipping expense, it's because they've sat down and done the math with real numbers to see which way loses them more money.

Re: baseplates -- if you've ever bought a pack of just baseplates off the shelf, you know that baseplates are way, way more expensive than bricks. This isn't because Lego's trying to gouge you, it's because the manufacturing process for baseplates is a lot more expensive; the only reason they have to be made that way is because trying to injection-mold something that size (at Lego quality) is more expensive still.

For every set at a certain price, Lego set designers have to hit a certain production cost to produce the set (including manufacturing, distribution, testing, etc), which is measured down to the hundredth of a cent. They don't get to add or remove a couple of dozen parts and call it "close enough," the tiny profit margins and the demanding customer base leave no room for error. They have to hit that production-cost target.

What it means is that every baseplate you put in a set equals 50 bricks you don't get to put in. So if you do want to include a baseplate, you need a really big set to hide the diminished piece count.

That's my Lego economics lesson for the day.

What about old times, when (for example, Pirate sets) brought baseplates almost every time? Has the cost for producing baseplates risen since then? Why?

[zombpie]

3 days ago my neighbor had a garage sale, i got tahu(the one from the first series) i got the entire toa nuva line, i completed my rahski line, i got jaller and gukko ,tahnok and kohrak, and finnaly i got a 25th years of bulding box along with <a href='http://tinyurl.com/y42zurt'>alot</a> of nice minifigs, for like 35 bucks!

[pesgores]

Sell the Bionicles. Keep 1 or 2. Sell all the rest. These you are keeping will serve as monters to attack your LEGO City.

[benkim123]

I think the Barraki would be better. Oh and don't sell them they are valuable and you can show off and play bionicle brikwars(though it would suck).

[Zahru II]

Bionicles are good for "superadvanced" alien-cyborg robot MOC-s. The figures are mediocre though.

[Professor Ken]

I bought a set of 3 Bionicles at a flea market for like $3 a couple years back. After spending about four hours building them all, I decided they looked lousy and scrapped them for parts. Using the leg joints, I was able to make a pretty nice Crab Droid, though.

[Cpt. Zipps]

I got 3 bionicle cases filled with bionicle parts for 1.50 but there was a "Scanner" piece in there so it was worth it.

Also some Knights kingdom leg joints.

[benkim123]

Also some Knights kingdom leg joints.

I think leg joints come in handy when making turrets.

[Apollyon]

From a second hand toy shop i got two grey base plates (48x48 and 50x50), six motorcycles, five deadly spacemen armed with buzzsaws, two somewhat awesome looking minifigs who are potential heroes, a couple of civilian/victim minifigs and two kilograms of random bricks including many useful pieces for me (technic stuff, a windshield, wings, minifig equipment...).
Getting this stuff was more satisfying rather than buying discounted Aquaraiders base/King's Castle Siege/Dwarf Mine.

[501stCadians]

From Ebay i just got
23lb Bulk Lego
70 Vintage Deadly Spacemen with helms,backpacks,and weapons.

[dcl32]

From Ebay I just got
23lb Bulk Lego
70 Vintage Deadly Spacemen with helms,backpacks,and weapons.

How much did it cost?