Distributing 3rd party Business Cards to the local store

[JeagerEX]

Anyways it is also against the policy to distribute business cards from the 3rd party lego website store (such as Minifiguresplus or etc) to the local store without no permission?

I mean giving the business cards to the store owner and telling them to call this number or email it to re-order the previous CMF series if LEGO doesn't rerelease it.

[Faefrost]

Anyways it is also against the policy to distribute business cards from the 3rd party lego website store (such as Minifiguresplus or etc) to the local store without no permission?

I mean giving the business cards to the store owner and telling them to call this number or email it to re-order the previous CMF series if LEGO doesn't rerelease it.

I really have no idea what you are even asking here? You can give a store manager whatever cards you wish. Chances are they will simply toss them. However any store will kick you out for attempting to distribute marketing materials for a competing business. An official Lego store certainly will not permit any third party advertising. (Beyond complimentary stuff such as a local club or lug group.)

Now if you are seeking to be a secondary source of product for a store itself, that is different. A Lego store obviously will never have anything to do with you. Nor will a large chain. A small specialty toy shop might, but chances are slim. You will not be able to offer any of the product services they require for retail, such as merchandise return guarantees and sufficient proof of channel sourcing that they know the product is legit.

If you want to start some sort of business centered around your hobby, just walk away from the retail stores. Don't give them advertising, don't attempt to sell to the. Don't attempt to film them. Just walk away. Otherwise you will end up on your local Lego store and your local Mall's crazy person list. Not a good place to be this week. Instead create a Bricklink store and learn to use E-bay. With a bit of work you might even develop that into a hybrid online and brick and mortar specialty toy and collectables business.

[JeagerEX]

I really have no idea what you are even asking here? You can give a store manager whatever cards you wish. Chances are they will simply toss them. However any store will kick you out for attempting to distribute marketing materials for a competing business. An official Lego store certainly will not permit any third party advertising. (Beyond complimentary stuff such as a local club or lug group.)

Now if you are seeking to be a secondary source of product for a store itself, that is different. A Lego store obviously will never have anything to do with you. Nor will a large chain. A small specialty toy shop might, but chances are slim. You will not be able to offer any of the product services they require for retail, such as merchandise return guarantees and sufficient proof of channel sourcing that they know the product is legit.

If you want to start some sort of business centered around your hobby, just walk away from the retail stores. Don't give them advertising, don't attempt to sell to the. Don't attempt to film them. Just walk away. Otherwise you will end up on your local Lego store and your local Mall's crazy person list. Not a good place to be this week. Instead create a Bricklink store and learn to use E-bay. With a bit of work you might even develop that into a hybrid online and brick and mortar specialty toy and collectables business.

I mean I distribute one business card from minifiguresplus to any toy stores(except LEGO store) to let the manager reorder CMF Series 1-6, but I'm not starting a business. So I can buy some previous CMF Series instead of ordering it online. It is not a good thing?

Edited December 16, 2012 by JeagerEX

[Faefrost]

I mean I distribute one business card from minifiguresplus to any toy stores(except LEGO store) to let the manager reorder CMF Series 1-6, but I'm not starting a business. So I can buy some previous CMF Series instead of ordering it online. It is not a good thing?

You can show the manager a source. But chances are he is not going to deal with anything outside his normal distributors. Stocking merchandise for ay retail business is a little more involved than simply buying something from somewhere. What would a merchant do after he special orders a case of an old series from an online merchant, you come in and buy two, and the rest just sit there? What is his return path? What are credit or channel arrangements? How will his primary supplier react if he is getting product from another source? A small single owner toy shop may do that sort of ordering for you. A larger merchant never will. They will politely tell you they have to go through the distributor.

Basically what you are asking is all risk to the merchant at no profit. Those third party sellers are not distributors. So they are at best buying at distribution prices and selling at retail. Your store would be buying at retail pricing. At which point hey are either trying to sell last years product at greatly inflated markup (would you pay $5 a cmf bag used?) or they make no money out of this and loose money for every fig not sold. Unless the store is. Specialty store in the collectables toys market, they would have no reason to ever go near a third party like that.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Faefrost

[Hrw-Amen]

Is there a reason that you cannot just order the mini-figs you want from Bricklink or e-bay or some other kind of after-market outlet yourself? If you only want one or two of each type surely this is the best way to get them as I doubt any store is going to buy a whole load of a product they cannot sell at a profit just so that you can buy a handful from them, it just would not make any business sense.

I don't suppose any store managers would mind you mentioning to them that a place exists where people can get the figures they are missing as sometimes they will no doubt get asked by people who have not got X or Y mini-fig if they know of a place where they are likely to be able to buy them, so that bit of information is good to have just for the sake of good customer service and being able to point someone in the right direction.

That is a about all that I can think of though and to be honest most reasonable store managers who specialise in that sort of product would probably know that information anyway. It is a bit like when you phone LEGO Customer Service wanting a discontinued part they will mention Bricklink. They do not actually sell it themselves but they can direct you to somewhere that probably will.