How Much Does One Lego Piece Cost?

[unclejeffie]

Anyone read this?

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/lego-cost/

[Herky]

very interesting, I had thought about counting the "bumps" on the top of the piece, but then you have thicker pieces than others of course, this actually breaks it down pretty well.

[AwesomeBantha]

Yeah, it was an interesting article. But they forgot Star Wars and Technic, both themes that have notoriously high PPP (Price-Per-Part) rates.

But it isn't all about hitting the 10 pieces/$ mark; some bigger pieces have more plastic or are new molds, which justifies the price.

[jodawill]

Someone should break it down by weight. Not me because I'm too lazy.

[JGW3000]

Its been done, see here for the discussion - evaluating cost based on weight of parts, not including PF elements, is a much better means of comparing value of sets

[ManInATopHat]

People tend to forget that designing Lego models and pieces is an art, and those who do it are highly skilled and deserve some credit. It's not just the cost of the plastic.

[ummester]

People tend to forget that designing Lego models and pieces is an art, and those who do it are highly skilled and deserve some credit. It's not just the cost of the plastic.

I agree - but it's still good to know how much that art is going to cost you to build for yourself :)

It's as I suspected though - LEGO is an average of 10c US per piece. When you are looking at building a large MOC, be prepared to spend $100 US for every 1000 parts from Bricklink (plus postage).

[Tech Artist]

I did know on average it's about 10 cents a piece. Though that is just looking at the cost of the set vs number of pieces. No where is it mentioned the design and the whole production of the set. For example, cost of the plastic.

[fred67]

Amortizing cost of set design over a million copies of the sets makes it barely worth considering, IMO.

[ShaydDeGrai]

I think his methodology under-represents the role of mini-figures in the price of certain kits. Given that his pure "part count" methodology makes Architecture a best buy (for their high use of tiny plates and tiles) compared to city sets (where you're getting a lot of bricks, wheels and mini-figures), I'd be curious to see how the number compared if, instead of counting a mini-fig as four parts (legs, torso, head and hat - which, by his math would suggest a basic figure should contribute about 42 cents to the price) he broke them down into actual mould elements ( three parts for the legs, five for the torso plus head and hat - bringing the price per figure cost up over a dollar). Even then I think it would be under reporting the influence of figures in a set has on the final price but I think it would be a step in the right direction.

An even better analysis would be separate charts for sets grouped by number of mini-figures to see if there is a distinct change in the y-intercept of the plots as the figure count goes up. Averaging the size of that delta would give us a better sense of what you're really paying for a licensed figure versus a classic mini-figure, versus a pile of bricks.

[dr_spock]

Maybe someone can get a copy of LEGO internal pricing model. Then we can see what they use to determine the price or make the set to a determined price point.

[fred67]

It's kind of an art form, but I agree by starting with minifigure first, then figuring out price per piece, all the whole keeping in mind how many big pieces that might be more valuable there are.

Edited August 10, 2014 by fred67

[ummester]

I would say that, in price per plastic, the minifg might be a larger source of profit for LEGO than bricks, if each minifig piece sells for approximately 42c, vs 10c for other pieces.

[Herky]

let's not forget though, this is the cost to us the public...I wonder what the manufacturing cost of each piece is, typically for items for sale to the public, it is 25% of final cost...given that the cost per piece to actually make is then 2.5 cents per piece which has profit margin built in. Take shoes for example, Nike makes a $100 shoe for $25 or less, they sell to the distributors for $40, who mark it up to $70 to sell to the stores, which then sell for $100...hence the whole MSRP

I would guess a typical LEGO set (note my use of all caps as discussed in another thread, LOL) that is for sale for $100 is made for $25 or less if this follows most industry standards and this profit margin must be at least 10%. In the end, I would bet that a 1x1 costs a quarter of a cent to make overall and depending on size and mold, it just goes up from there. Top price per piece probably maxes out at 30 cents for the baseplates.

[montgocloud]

Using weight to determine if a set is well priced is flawed in some cases. Making a new mold is very expensive for LEGO. A lot of time and money goes into designing it and manufacturing it. That's another mold to habitually clean and replace. The prices of sets with exclusive molds reflects this.