Price speculation on mini-figures

[Cobb]

Why is Lego allowing crazy price speculation with their mini-figures?

I understand their bussiness model to put some more exclusive figures in bigger sets or retired products, but I do not onderstand the exclusive comiccon or package deal etc. figures.

After a month orso they should be available through normal channels.

Hell they'd even make money off it. Now they are playing into the hands off the chinese knock-off companies and crazy re-sellers who charge insane amounts.

Also some bricklink sellers seem to have insane amounts of licensed minifigures sometimes up to 50+, where do they get these?

They could easily kill the reseller market by releasing a small junior set (or the junior racers) with Alfred or Killer-Croc (after 5 years it's sure time).

I wonder why Lego doesn't adress this issue?

Edited January 7, 2016 by Cobb

[anothergol]

maybe you don't maintain a collecting craze if everything is too easy to collect

[HawkLord]

Part of the reason is that they need to keep the exclusives exclusive. Almost all companies that release SDCC material and the like never release those same items again in any other form. It would be a slap in the face to all those people who stood in line or jumped through hopes to get those exclusives. It's better to avoid that bad PR.

Part of the reason they release some of the stuff in its exclusive form later also has to do with the various license holders. There's lots of information here and elsewhere regarding Lego avoiding release individual minifigures so that they don't run into issues with other companies action figure license. That's why Lego stopped making magnet minifigures that could be removed from the magnets.

[Cobb]

But some of the more exclusive figures are almost impossible to get in Europe. I would gladly attend a comiccon in the US once, but I need to take a continental flight to get there.

DC collectibles does release rehashed of their statues every now and then, sometimes with slight alterations. That would do the trick.

Also a slap in the face..what about those fans that stood in line to sell the figures for 200+. They deserve a slap imo.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Cobb

[MAB]

Why is Lego allowing crazy price speculation with their mini-figures?

I understand their bussiness model to put some more exclusive figures ... retired products, but I do not onderstand the exclusive comiccon or package deal etc. figures.

After a month orso they should be available through normal channels.

It is not their business model to put exclsuive minifigures in retired sets. They don't make retired sets. And they don't make new figures to put into sets that have retired. They make current sets, that sell and then eventually retire. They don't re-release some figures as a healthy secondary market for less mainstream characters actually helps fuels the primary market.

They regularly re-release some past sets again - for example, X-wings and landspeeders in SW. The collectors market doesn't always greet these so well but the younger fanbase does, so they sell well. They could re-release sets contain more obscure characters again, but those characters don't drive sales to kids. Characters like Batman do. Not Alfred. AFOLs and collectors can afford the larger sets, so it makes sense to include the obscurer characters in those.

Also a slap in the face..what about those fans that stood in line to sell the figures for 200+. They deserve a slap imo.

Some convention goers use the exclusives they get given / win (not only lego) to try to recoup some of the costs of attending. This can help offset the costs of, for example, someone from the Netherlands to fly to the US and attend a convention.

They could easily kill the reseller market by releasing a small junior set (or the junior racers) with Alfred or Killer-Croc (after 5 years it's sure time).

Alfred is coming in the new bat cave set. If he had been in a small juniors set in the past two years, that would have affected his secondary market price. But it would also affect the sales of the new large set. Less interest from people who were buying it for the minifigs and less interest from speculators. That is not good for lego.

[Cobb]

They regularly re-release some past sets again - for example, X-wings and landspeeders in SW. The collectors market doesn't always greet these so well but the younger fanbase does, so they sell well. They could re-release sets contain more obscure characters again, but those characters don't drive sales to kids. Characters like Batman do. Not Alfred. AFOLs and collectors can afford the larger sets, so it makes sense to include the obscurer characters in those.

Alfred is coming in the new bat cave set. If he had been in a small juniors set in the past two years, that would have affected his secondary market price. But it would also affect the sales of the new large set. Less interest from people who were buying it for the minifigs and less interest from speculators. That is not good for lego.

The Alfred from the new 66 set is a very different character. A kidnapped new Alfred would have done well with the Arkham sets or any smaller set. If it's just about the appeal to kids then what about Killer Croc?

I'm not buying that anyone would shelf out 200 for the new batcave set just to get Alfred.

[MAB]

The Alfred from the new 66 set is a very different character. A kidnapped new Alfred would have done well with the Arkham sets or any smaller set. If it's just about the appeal to kids then what about Killer Croc?

I'm not buying that anyone would shelf out 200 for the new batcave set just to get Alfred.

They wouldn't. But if a minifig is worth say £25 if unique or £5 if it's a variant of an existing cheap one, then the set is devalued.