Missed opportunities

[astral brick]

How come this jewel

https://brickset.com/sets/40411-1/Creative-Fun-12-in-1

is a gift-with-purchase instead of being on sale?

How to shoot yourself in the foot.

 

 

 

[MAB]

Presumably because they already have a number of Classic box sets on the shelves and this would be just another one of those. Plus it may tempt people to spend £85 / $85 / 85 Eur with LEGO instead of them spending it elsewhere.

[TeriXeri]

The 2016 and 2017 christmas-build-up versions were initially GWP, but eventually sold for €9.99 at LEGO.com in 2018/2019 so I wonder if this will end up being sold sometime as well.

Edited July 1, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Mylenium]

38 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

I wonder if this will end up being sold sometime as well.

I hope so. The 85 Euro purchase limit is way too high.

Mylenium

3 hours ago, MAB said:

Presumably because they already have a number of Classic box sets on the shelves

...but very few offer that kind of versatility. I guess that's the point. I had the same feeling with the Building Bigger Thinking sets, hoping that LEGO finally were seeing the light, in a manner of speaking, but nada. It was just a one-off for the 60th anniversary and the Classic brick boxes remain half useless as they always have been for quite a while now....

Mylenium

[astral brick]

14 hours ago, Mylenium said:

...but very few offer that kind of versatility.

So true. I was astonished by the number of alternative models that I saw in a review.

14 hours ago, Mylenium said:

I guess that's the point.

Exactly, you caught the spirit of the thread.

 

[ShaydDeGrai]

On July 1, 2020 at 5:29 AM, astral brick said:

How come this jewel

https://brickset.com/sets/40411-1/Creative-Fun-12-in-1

is a gift-with-purchase instead of being on sale?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, decent GwP items are about the only reason I buy from Lego directly these days.  I've been genuinely unimpressed by their "new" VIP rewards program (and more than a little annoyed by the way they've over hyped it)  If it weren't for interesting bonus sets, TLG would be loosing all my sales to Amazon, the shipping is free and faster and the discounts often more than make up for any VIP voucher rewards I'm missing out on.  

So, perhaps, maybe it's a clever thing on their part to get people like me to pay MSRP on a big set from them rather than settling for wholesale revenues when I buy the same set from someone else.

[astral brick]

1 hour ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

  If it weren't for interesting bonus sets

Exactly, a gift-with-purchase should be good, but not too good or they will suffer a loss of revenue for not selling it. These are other examples

https://brickset.com/sets/40433-1/1989-Batmobile

https://brickset.com/sets/40338-1/Christmas-Tree

Eventually these marketing strategies create the deleterious phenomenon of secondary markets' speculations, which are harmful both to collectors and to Lego itself.

[MAB]

On 7/9/2020 at 10:04 PM, astral brick said:

Eventually these marketing strategies create the deleterious phenomenon of secondary markets' speculations, which are harmful both to collectors and to Lego itself.

The secondary market may be detrimental in the short term if and only if speculators wipe out all stock of a particular item for its entire retail life, but they are also beneficial to collectors in the longer term. Try buying even a three year old set from LEGO or any other primary retail store, and in the majority of cases you cannot. It is the secondary market that allows collectors access to older products.

On 7/9/2020 at 8:08 PM, ShaydDeGrai said:

If it weren't for interesting bonus sets, TLG would be loosing all my sales to Amazon, the shipping is free and faster and the discounts often more than make up for any VIP voucher rewards I'm missing out on.  

The same for me. I only ever buy from LEGO if there is a decent promo or I am placing a B+P order.