Does anyone buy Lego but not open or sell it?

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

At least for the last 2 years or so, in my experience, boxes have less empty space air in them and feel more "full"

Could very well be; steeply increasing world-wide shipping costs (etc., etc.) may have outrun the additional revenue raked in by selling boxed air to box-size-impressed customers.

Then there is the increasing competition for shelve-space in the stores. This is heaven for the business and marketing folks: Figuring out what the most profitable approach is: Fewer impressive large but half-empty boxes or more but less impressive smaller and only one third empty boxes. And that as function of about 20+ variables .   

Best,
Thorsten 

P.S.: Speaking of selling air at an excellent price/cost ratio - just saw this review over in the LEGO Town Forum:

Picture #4 and citation from the caption: "We are used to it, but I still want to point out that only 25-30% of the box is really needed...." 

Well, OK, there are the bags and the instructions/stickers, the packaging process, enough air buffer ... let's make it 50% of the box are really needed. I guess it has to do with the cost-of-investment tag; a set with such a tag needs a box appropriately sized, says Dr. Prize Size, also called Dr ZZ, up North in Europe, in the Billund area.

I also like step 1 of the instruction for the truck a lot (picture #5) 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Toastie

[ks6349]

Yes, I like that size of some box sets e.g. creator 31131 is significantly reduced compared to similar sets released a few years ago e.g. creator toy shop

[dr_spock]

21 hours ago, ks6349 said:

Many people have overlooked the fact that some space within the box is important to serve as a buffer to reduce the likelihood of scratching or even breaking the parts during transportation, and before opening. In case it's really so tightly packed, chances are some parts may break or get scratched very badly.

Not really.  I have sets in same sized box and similiar numbers of bags.  Some have crushed stickers and most do not.  I have one set where the big giraffe was stuck in the box and I thought it was missing after I shook everything out of the box.  It was a tight fit.

It seems like box size is a function of the number of pieces.  BS=f(n)

 

[ks6349]

10 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Not really.  I have sets in same sized box and similiar numbers of bags.  Some have crushed stickers and most do not.  I have one set where the big giraffe was stuck in the box and I thought it was missing after I shook everything out of the box.  It was a tight fit.

It seems like box size is a function of the number of pieces.  BS=f(n)

 

I have old sets that are most of the time put away, and I have new sets that are recently built. I can immediately notice that there are a lot more scratches from the overall impression (even though I don't look at and count each line of scratches). As a result, scratches on Lego bricks could be a problem, minor though.

Edited October 18, 2022 by ks6349

[LegendaryArticuno]

On 10/16/2022 at 7:00 AM, Peppermint_M said:

So, does the fact that I like to line up my Hotwheels cars by casting and then stack them back in their box mean I have a mental illness? Or is it actually a case of being neurodivergent, that it is a "nice thing" for my brain to line up toy cars. I am very aware that I am not neurotypical, as such I know that some days it is good to just set out and arrange something until my head is at peace. There is nothing wrong with doing that in any collection. Be it a figure collection, a LEGO collection or a Library of books. 

I hope that this is a case of language barrier and not malice.

Your comment reminded me of this skit:

https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewrousso/video/6911820598284930310?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=6911820598284930310

No lining up cars doesn't mean you're neurodivergent, it's harmless compared to the OP who's spending significant money on sets, only to waste space and not use the product. OP's behaviour in comparison is actually self-detrimental and doesn't compare to lining up cars.

Also, hoarding is an actual mental illness/disorder, better for the OP recognize it and then address it. Rather than him believe, oh it's perfectly normal.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/hoarding-disorder/

Edited November 12, 2022 by LegendaryArticuno

[MAB]

7 hours ago, LegendaryArticuno said:

Your comment reminded me of this skit:

https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewrousso/video/6911820598284930310?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=6911820598284930310

No lining up cars doesn't mean you're neurodivergent, it's harmless compared to the OP who's spending significant money on sets, only to waste space and not use the product. OP's behaviour in comparison is actually self-detrimental and doesn't compare to lining up cars.

Also, hoarding is an actual mental illness/disorder, better for the OP recognize it and then address it. Rather than him believe, oh it's perfectly normal.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/hoarding-disorder/

From what was written in the OP, it doesn't sound like hoarding but collecting.  They are stored away and occasionally taken out and looked at and enjoyed, suggesting that they are not chaotically distributed in an unmanageable way. They do not say they are spending significant amounts on lego, just that they have hundreds of sets. They also do not think their behaviour is self detrimental,  they even say that they enjoy it and it causes them no pain.

They are a sealed box collector. It may be that they are a true sealed box collector, or just waiting to get a bigger placed to be able to display their sets in future.  They dont say. If they get bored with their collection, then they will probably have a nice investment to sell, depending on what their interests were.

[howitzer]

I remember being kid and opening Lego sets in the early 90's, where the box had a plastic tray inset with parts sorted in plastic bags. Those boxes surely contained a lot of air, today sets tend to be much more tightly packed. There's variation of course, but at least the larger sets I buy (mostly Technic) seem to be usually about 70-80% full.

I'm pretty sure that increasing transportation and storage costs will make the needless air go away (mostly anyway), and it's also fitting for TLG's claims about environmental concerns that boxes aren't needlessly large. 

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, howitzer said:

and it's also fitting for TLG's claims about environmental concerns that boxes aren't needlessly large.

True that.

But there is also a TLG marketing department, which has concerns about sales. And appearance. And there are (still and many) customers, who believe the size of a box is naturally scaling with the price to pay. In capitalism, almost every company selling generic stuff is doing that; look at any arbitrary shelf containing stuff and compare size of presentation with content. It does not need to be a box, a 64GByte USB stick naturally (as it seems) comes in a large plastic + cardboard thing. Imagine the enclosure would be environmentally friendly - no customer would go for it ... and ABS bricks have become generic. So the size of the box does matter, regardless of content.

If you experienced (maybe you did, in any case, no offense!!!) opening a BB special box: That defines "tightly packed". Why? No shelf exposure/competition at any department store, just make postage as cheap as possible.

Oh well, marketing. Difficult, I'd say.

Best,
Thorsten

 

 

 

[howitzer]

7 hours ago, Toastie said:

True that.

But there is also a TLG marketing department, which has concerns about sales. And appearance. And there are (still and many) customers, who believe the size of a box is naturally scaling with the price to pay. In capitalism, almost every company selling generic stuff is doing that; look at any arbitrary shelf containing stuff and compare size of presentation with content. It does not need to be a box, a 64GByte USB stick naturally (as it seems) comes in a large plastic + cardboard thing. Imagine the enclosure would be environmentally friendly - no customer would go for it ... and ABS bricks have become generic. So the size of the box does matter, regardless of content.

If you experienced (maybe you did, in any case, no offense!!!) opening a BB special box: That defines "tightly packed". Why? No shelf exposure/competition at any department store, just make postage as cheap as possible.

Oh well, marketing. Difficult, I'd say.

Best,
Thorsten

You're right of course, though I've heard also that one reason for the needlessly large packaging for small items (like USB sticks) is that they'd be far too easy for shoplifters to steal otherwise, large blister packs and similar make it hard to hide in a pocket.

I think another reason for the recent reduction of needlessly large packaging is that with online shopping there's no need to stand out in a shelf as it's hard to get a sense of size from a text description on a website.

Then of course I buy mostly large sets, which mean that the weight and size of contents force packaging that's optimized - no need to make it stand out more when the product itself takes up a lot of space. The extra air is probably more of a problem for small and mid-size sets.