Lordofdragonss Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) Ok so by looking at Junior prices worldwide accidentaly I noticed something rather weird... Just look at this picture and compare prices. Can anyone explain me why there are diference in price of SAME PRICE SETS? Edited June 21, 2015 by Lordofdragonss Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheLegoDr Posted June 22, 2015 Aren't prices always different on a global scale? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peppermint_M Posted June 22, 2015 American prices are always excellent in comparison to European and UK prices. To be competitive in the US there is a price cut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_spock Posted June 22, 2015 Differences in pricing are due to different conditions of marketing region/country. USA advertized prices do not include taxes in the price whereas UK prices has VAT included. Some countries may have import tariffs on toys which gets passed on in the price to the consumers. If the company has a branch in the country, pricing have to account for the cost of doing business in that country such as real estates costs, corporate taxes, employee pay and benefits, insurance, etc. How much volume of product a country can expect to sell also factor in. What your local competition is doing. Some times it is how much you can set the price so that customers don't shop in the country next to yours and still meet the profit/revenue targets company headquarters set for your country/region. If it is as simple as a straight currency conversion, then there is no need to hire staff to create pricing model spreadsheets. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lordofdragonss Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) No, guys,I know countries have diffferent prices, what hit me are different prices for same-price set. Let's take a look and compare Family house prices, Spidermen Hideout and Pony farm: Euro: 34,99, 32,99, 29,99 Zł: 149,99, 149,99, 129,99 Pounds: 24,99, 29,99, 24,99 Dolars: 29,99, 29,99, 29,99 See? Same sets cost DIFFERENTLY. And I find this very confusing... Why such diferences? Edited June 22, 2015 by Lordofdragonss Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ShaydDeGrai Posted June 22, 2015 American prices are always excellent in comparison to European and UK prices. To be competitive in the US there is a price cut. It's not just a question of a competitive price cut. TLG doesn't sell things at a loss (or narrow margin) in the US (though vendors like Amazon and TRU are known to undercut the MSRP in the hopes of volume making up for low margin from time to time. A lot of the pricing comes down to the question of what costs are implicitly passed down to the consumer, what costs are explicitly added and what costs are amortized overt the system as a whole. The US economy, in general, has been built around facilitating consumerism. There are federal regulations to limit things that could impede interstate commerce, shipping and distribution; all in order to make it cheap and easy for a vendor to get its goods to market (or more correctly, to get American consumers spending money). This is reflected in both commercial shipping (getting the product to a local store or distribution hub) and residential postage (mailing a purchase to a local buyer). The US tax system focuses on taxing people when they make money, taxing them again when they spend money, and taxing them again if they own anything of value or try to resell it to anyone else - so it's in the government's best interest to keep the money flowing rather than encouraging people to save (as the revenue from tax on interest earned pales by comparison to the revenue streams from sales taxes, retail taxes and excise taxes) Because of all free trade legislature between states and all the the tax dollars collected (some tiny portion of which is reinvested in transportation infrastructure and subsidies), shipping goods thousand of miles across multiple state lines in the continental US is a fraction of what it costs to move the same freight across a few hundred kilometers across EU borders ( and trivial compared to the cost of getting a package to the far end of the planet - like Australia). The low shipping overhead is reflected in the asking price, and the taxes that made that low cost possible is explicitly excluded. This allows the actual price tag on the box to often times be significantly lower than international prices. Like any commodity being sold in a free market, the price is going to reflect what the market will bear, but once you start crossing borders, there are so many other variables it makes it hard to say what a fair comparison is. Shipping costs may be dictated by weight in one country and box volume in another. Currency exchange rates and raw material costs vary daily but retail prices are typically defined for the life of the production run for a set. Protective or punitive tariffs might inflate the price of individual sets where a conflict is cited while not impacting other offering from the same line. Similarly, in the US (though I wouldn't be surprised to hear that other places have similar laws), some states have environmental protection laws impose special "green" taxes on products deemed bad for the environment. In practice, for example, driving up the cost of products that take batteries as a way of raising money for battery recycling research. The point is, international pricing is a complex equation with many, many factors normally hidden from consumers' eyes. Rarely does it boil down to anything as simple as "Ponies are popular here, let's charge more for our sets with ponies because these people will pay up…" or "We're giving away free stuff with a $25 dollar purchase so lets price everything in increments of $50 so they'll really have to spend $100 to qualify for the freebie.." If you try too hard to make sense of it, you'll just drive yourself as crazy as the poor people who had to set the pricing in the first place. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andibandit Posted June 22, 2015 No, guys,I know countries have diffferent prices, what hit me are different prices for same-price set. Let's take a look and compare Family house prices, Spidermen Hideout and Pony farm: Euro: 34,99, 32,99, 29,99 Zł: 149,99, 149,99, 129,99 Pounds: 24,99, 29,99, 24,99 Dolars: 29,99, 29,99, 29,99 See? Same sets cost DIFFERENTLY. And I find this very confusing... Why such diferences? Yeah thats a little weird...Im guessing that Spiderman hideout should've been 24.99£, who knows, I've never tried to make any sense of Lego's pricing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_spock Posted June 22, 2015 Maybe for the Euro someone set family house higher assuming it will be more popular than pony farm and make overall sales revenue target on its back. Perhaps they have some past sales stats for the region that houses sold better than ponies. For pounds it could be licensing fees are higher in the U.K. Who knows what kind of license agreement was negiotated. Or Spidey is popular in the U.K. and they can get away charging more. Who really knows since we don't have access to their pricing models and strategy. At the end of the day, as the consumer you get to decide if those highly paid managers who approved the price are correct that you're willing to part with your hard earned money on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deathleech Posted June 22, 2015 Prices in the US seem fairly consistent across different set sizes and themes. In other countries though, you can get some really weird pricing I have noticed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mesabi Posted June 24, 2015 Yeah, when you convert it all out, americans get things pretty cheap. Still doesn't explain why the prices have so much deviation though. Euro: $39.23, $36.98, $33.62 Zł: $40.46, $40.46, $35.06 Pounds: $39.46, $47.36, $39.46 Dolars: $29.99, $29.99, $29.99 Personally, I just stick to second hand retailers. Or Ebay. Chances are one of the two has a good deal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
