What happens to unsold lego sets?

[redryder]

I presume the retailers return them to Lego? What does Lego do with them? Do they keep the bricks in a giant warehouse? Or melt them down and recycle the plastic?

[davee123]

I presume the retailers return them to Lego? What does Lego do with them? Do they keep the bricks in a giant warehouse? Or melt them down and recycle the plastic?

Unsold LEGO that's in the possession of retailers typically gets marked down until it's dirt cheap. But if there's still too much of it lying around, I think most retailers will offload it to OTHER retailers who specialize in things like overstock and fire sales. I don't think LEGO would take them back, unless they were defective.

As for what LEGO does with ITS unsold LEGO, that's another story. AFAIK, if they repeatedly won't sell after being marked down, their destiny is to either be destroyed, given away, sold in bulk, or turned into "play table brick". I know at one point Steve Witt set aside a whole bunch of unsold LEGO that was destined to be destroyed, and he tried to manage it himself with AFOLs-- that is, he tried to sell it to AFOLs and give it away to them as donations/prizes.

DaveE

[Zeon]

Unsold LEGO that's in the possession of retailers typically gets marked down until it's dirt cheap. But if there's still too much of it lying around, I think most retailers will offload it to OTHER retailers who specialize in things like overstock and fire sales. I don't think LEGO would take them back, unless they were defective.

As for what LEGO does with ITS unsold LEGO, that's another story. AFAIK, if they repeatedly won't sell after being marked down, their destiny is to either be destroyed, given away, sold in bulk, or turned into "play table brick". I know at one point Steve Witt set aside a whole bunch of unsold LEGO that was destined to be destroyed, and he tried to manage it himself with AFOLs-- that is, he tried to sell it to AFOLs and give it away to them as donations/prizes.

DaveE

... or if you are living on the old continent, they may sell them side by side with the new sets at the initial price + they do not put the 2011 sets to the selves. It's funny to see the hero factory 1.0 sets next to the 3.0 sets on the same self at the same price. (At a shopping mall for example.)

I doubt they send/melt it back, the shops have paid for the sets, no matter the B2B price they won't trash it.

/rant off

[vexorian]

Unsold LEGO that's in the possession of retailers typically gets marked down until it's dirt cheap. But if there's still too much of it lying around, I think most retailers will offload it to OTHER retailers who specialize in things like overstock and fire sales. I don't think LEGO would take them back, unless they were defective.

It seems that when they are "defective" (missing parts) they end up here for 1/8 the price...