Did prices go down this year?

[def]

I'm curious to know how many countries this has happened in. I'm a Canadian living in Japan, and pretty much only pay attention to prices in those two places. But it seems that Lego sets got a little cheaper by the end of the year/start of this year. A quick example is Toys R Us prices. Star Wars battle packs were 2,000 yen for two years or more, but this year they were 1,599. Of course Amazon is proportionately cheaper. Is this the yen against the dollar? Against the Euro? Are things any cheaper where you are?

[Ratshot]

I don't think so at all, Star Wars Battle Packs went up $3.00, making them $14.99, that's way to expensive in my opinion. The new Arc-170 is $79.99!!!! Another set that is overpriced is the Republic Swamp Speeder, $39.99 is about 10 bucks over. Impulse sets went up a whopping $2.00. That's a big increase for a tiny little set like Pirates Survival

Lego hasn't gotten cheaper at all

Edited February 9, 2010 by Ratshot

[brickzone]

Well, Irish prices on S@H are about the same in most cases, but certain exclusive items aren't as overpriced compared to the reference point of German prices as they were (e.g. Imperial Flagship is €150 in both countries, whereas Fire Station last year was €180 for Ireland whereas it was €150 in Germany).

Also Irish retail prices are in my experience cheaper. Even though Argos still overprices (as they add a premium for most of their catalogue compared to the UK prices) they are not as high as they were. Smyth's have had cheaper prices since last year in my experience.

Some recent S@H Star Wars prices seem high for Ireland, but the shops are cheaper (Battlepacks €15 on S@H, but €13 in Tesco and a mere €12 in Smyths).

[def]

In Japan, the "official" prices are never charged, at least not by the main distributors Toys R Us and Amazon, and there is no S@H. ie. The Freeco Lego price is 4,725 yen, but 3,000 on Amazon. If Amazon can sell it for that, they're getting it at lower rates than two years ago. It must be a currency thing.

Since Ireland and Germany are both on Euros, I'd doubt that there would be any major changes.

I'd be interested to here the Australians and Singaporeans on this forum. Australia's currency has been all over the place, and most recently up, so I imagine right now the costs have gone down.

[The Cobra]

I really don't think pirces went down in Italy. They stayed the same or went a bit up.

At least, while US prices raised from 5 to 6, small Creator sets and Tiny Turbos held the same price (5 Euros).

But fire truck 7239 is now 23 Euros (used to be 20 or less)

[ZeeK]

I think those who saw LEGO prices went down should be happy!!

In Russia we had two price increases during last year: ~13% increase in August 2009 and new sets of 2010 range are considered ~15% more expensive than comparable sets from 2009.

So the "average" rate is +15% per year ... and that's not mentioning severe quality issues.

However LEGO in Russia has a very good tradition to cut prices about 20% twice a year for limited range/quantity of sets - so it's possible to have some sets for kind of "adequate" ( USA's MSRP multiplied by 1.5 instead of 2) price.

So I can't say I've noticed any reduction this year...

[brickzone]

Since Ireland and Germany are both on Euros, I'd doubt that there would be any major changes.

Ah - but you see, Lego have had "special" Euro prices for countries like Ireland and Finland that are unfortunate enough to be considered fringe (less important and geographically peripheral) markets with more disposable income.

So it isn't exactly tied to currency.

Some recent sets are about €10 cheaper in shops here in Ireland compared to S@H (e.g. Woody's Roundup, Tie Defender), others €5 cheaper (Landspeeder, Droid Trifighter). Star Wars Arc 170 is a whopping €25 cheaper in store (€50) compared to S@H for Ireland (€75). This is good news for ordinary sets but is no help for Exclusives.

[Legoist]

In the Finland 2010 catalog several of the smaller sets now have a lower price than 2009, while the larger sets have generally an identical or slightly higher price compared to 2009.

S@H prices for Finland seem the same as before but I don't pay much attention to those on S@H which aren't exclusives so I might have missed some variation.

[prateek]

Not a chance buddy. I've seen prices here (Canada) steadily increasing each year. This year is just ridiculous though, $15 for a BP

[The Green Brick Giant]

The battle packs in the USA have gone from $10 last May to $11 in June and are still $11 this year.

The prices might have gone down because LEGO seems to be trying to even out the prices between countries a little. So instead of over charging Euro more than America they will just screw over everyone.

[blueandwhite]

Generally speaking, I think it's very hard to follow LEGO's pricing trends. Sometimes pricing for certain items seems entirely reasonable across regions, while other times the difference in pricing seems utterly baffling. Licenced products are even harder to place because the pricing for these items seems even more inconsistant from region to region. Then again, that could have just as much to do with the licence holder than LEGO itself. Annecdotal evidence of a price change doesn't necessarily represent an actual change in a given region considering we don't even know how well certain sets sell across different product lines or if a change in price in one area isn't compensated by a comprable increase in price on another set of items.

These days, the quality issue is a bigger concern than price anyhow. LEGO has always been a premium brand that commanded a high price, but then again the product has traditionally been top-notch. I would rather see higher prices if it ensured that the quality remained high.

[RocketClone]

I don't think so at all, Star Wars Battle Packs went up $3.00, making them $14.99, that's way to expensive in my opinion. The new Arc-170 is $79.99!!!! Another set that is overpriced is the Republic Swamp Speeder, $39.99 is about 10 bucks over. Impulse sets went up a whopping $2.00. That's a big increase for a tiny little set like Pirates Survival

Lego hasn't gotten cheaper at all

Im sorry but i have to dissagree with you on that (even though it's your opinion) at my target, the ARC-170 is $59.99 not $79.99 unless this is TRU your talking about.

Edited February 10, 2010 by RocketClone

[blueandwhite]

Im sorry but i have to dissagree with you on that (even though it's your opinion) at my target, the ARC-170 is $59.99 not $79.99 unless this is TRU your talking about.

Pricing isn't a question of opinion. Ratshot is from Canada. The pricing is different up here, just as it is different in Australia, Asia and Europe. The ARC-170 is $79.99 CDN.

[WhiteFang]

With regards to LEGO pricing for Singapore, I will coin an example of the SW battlepacks.

The 7655 Clone Troopers Battle Pack costs at SGD$25.50 in 2007.

The 7667 Imperial Dropship Battle Pack costs at SGD$29.90 in 2008.

The 8014 Clone Walker Battle Pack costs at SGD$29.90 in 2009.

And now, the Rebel Trooper Battle Pack costs at SGD$30.90 in 2010.

FYI, the 8088 Arc-170 Starfighter costs us, SGD$149.90..

LEGO sets in general, are increasing its retail prices at a regular intervals, especially Licensed Sets where you will see a significant jump in Singapore region. Whereas other LEGO themes are generally costly. The impulse sets are priced at SGD$6.90.

Everything is priced differently in different regions, and that's a known fact. High prices or not, as a consumer viewpoint, you have a choice to buy or not to buy.

Lastly, let's not make this discusson into something whining and ranting.

Thanks.

[def]

With regards to LEGO pricing for Singapore, I will coin an example of the SW battlepacks.

Thanks for the input.

Now I'm curious to hear from our Australian users.

Their currency was so low, I was importing sets from there at half the price they were here with delivery, but as of six months ago or so, their was no benefit.

Did prices stay the same through all that?

[RileyC]

Not here in New Zealand they did the opposite. The battle packs still cost the same but every other set is at least 20% overpriced. The 7657 AT ST back in 2007 was priced at $45 NZ which is a great price. This year though we see the Freeco Speeder at Droid Tri Fighter $55. They have less piece than the AT ST and I think they are less appealing. Some of these prices are around double what the US prices are. I would be better off buying them off the internet but the postage makes up for the money Im saving buy them online.

[RocketClone]

Pricing isn't a question of opinion. Ratshot is from Canada. The pricing is different up here, just as it is different in Australia, Asia and Europe. The ARC-170 is $79.99 CDN.

Sorry my bad i forgot that prices were higher there.

[Nabii]

LEGO is a Danish company - they still pay most of their staff and their all of their corporate tax in Denmark. The only way to truly check if prices are going up is to compare the historical value of your local currency (be it Euro, USDollar or whatever) with the Danish Krone over the last few years and see if the prices have gone up or down. I have a feeling that in Danish Krone the US prices have gone down, but of course that is because the USDollar has been devalued when the economy was badly damaged by bad bank loans and a subsequent recession, you can try to blame the LEGO Group for this if you like but that seems a little unfair!

It's a bit tougher to explain price differences between Euro-zone countries however - even given local taxes...

[CP5670]

LEGO is a Danish company - they still pay most of their staff and their all of their corporate tax in Denmark. The only way to truly check if prices are going up is to compare the historical value of your local currency (be it Euro, USDollar or whatever) with the Danish Krone over the last few years and see if the prices have gone up or down. I have a feeling that in Danish Krone the US prices have gone down, but of course that is because the USDollar has been devalued when the economy was badly damaged by bad bank loans and a subsequent recession, you can try to blame the LEGO Group for this if you like but that seems a little unfair!

The dollar actually strengthened during the global recession. It had become weak in the years leading up to that.

I don't think short-term changes in Lego pricing are related to exchange rates, which fluctuate all the time. As for longer periods, there was a time around 2002-2004 when Lego prices were unusually low, but TLG was making big losses in those years and they probably reduced their profit margins to make their products sell more. The prices have risen since then, but I think they are still lower than the 80s and 90s prices if you take inflation into account. One example I can think of is the biggest Technic sets, which are generally $150 today but were $140-170 in the 90s, which would be well over $200 today. Although the quality was also better back then.

Edited February 10, 2010 by CP5670

[Big Cam]

The battle packs in the USA have gone from $10 last May to $11 in June and are still $11 this year.

yup, in the US I'd say they are pretty on par with last years, but in general they are constantly (slowly) going up.

[brickzone]

Looking at historical Lego prices, I nevertheless do not think Lego increases their prices by quite as much as inflation. When I was a kid (80s/90s) Lego was much more of a luxury product (amazing we could afford any at all!) The difference today of course is the even cheaper "toys" that are basically trash - while these were around when I was a kid, they weren't as rubbish, but correspondingly weren't as cheap.

Starbucks just opened at my Uni - it is over €3 for a regular coffee. So a Star Wars battlepack is less than four Starbucks coffees.

To give you an idea of the relative cost of Lego compared to income - well, while things are changing due to the economic crisis, here in Ireland minimum wage is still €8.65 per hour (and even hourly waged jobs would often be above that). Average industrial wage is €32K per annum (You'd probably pay only about 2K in tax on this as a single person - possibly less if you apply for all tax reliefs). Even the unemployment assistance is still about €200 per week for a single adult (more relevant now with about 12% unemployment :( - admittedly in Dublin in particular you would be barely surviving on that as living costs here are high.

[Blondie-Wan]

I was wondering a bit lately not so much about LEGO's own MSRPs, but about retailer prices. Up until six or eight months ago, Toys R Us was outrageously expensive (I'm talking about US stores), frequently charging several dollars above MSRP, while other retailers were considerably more reasonable, seldom going above MSRP and frequently pricing below it. In just the last month or two, though, I've seen more Toys R Us stuff fall back down a bit to slightly less insane levels, and even a greater number of items actually priced normally. At the same time, in recent months I've seen prices at other stores - not so much big, major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, but smaller, operator-owned franchise stores like Learning Express and Hobbytown USA - have their prices creep up a bit, more frequently coming above MSRP. Does anyone else in the US perceive the same thing?