Prices: Who the bloody bell can afford to buy SW Lego?

[Archdoom]

Yeah, I was just looking through the Lego star wars products on TLC's website, because I finally got my Slave 1 set, after finally tidying my room (yeah, pretty sad, I know) and I am playing with SW Lego again, sadly, there aren't any good sets below 40 AUD, and even then, they aren't really impressive. And they are all peachies now, (ugh). And off to ebay I went. Sadly, all sets were overpriced, or had $120 US for shipping a $15 US set ($15 US was cheap, but the shipping international finally showed me why there were so few bids, even to US it was exorbitant, as I remember).

Come on Lego, give us some decent sets for a decent price, I know I can't afford the stuff that is out now. (I love the rogue shadow, and it probably deserves the $100 AUD price tag *No, wait, I didn't see the piece count, as mentioned before, this is an utter rip-off*, which I cannot afford, but why can't you put out some $15-$30 sets other than battle packs? And even they are overpriced at $20 AUD each, and, yeah, drop the prices, come on!). Are the expenses of Lucasfilm's licensing that big?

Oh, and I think it may be possible to get rogue shadow for less than 100 AUD over bricklink, If you didn't want the box. I think it would still be around $80 AU though. Still too much for me.

I am glad to know that I am not alone with these price issues though. (not in a sadistic, "haha you are suffering too" way, maybe in more of a "I'm not going mad, I'm not alone" way.)

Edited January 23, 2008 by Archdoom

[Svelte]

I'm an Australian and I think SW pricing is pretty high. When the 2007 Naboo fighter and vulture droid (280 pieces) & Sith Infiltrator (310 pieces) were both released last July here at the same price point as 2006's B-Wing (435 pieces) I thought even the slim advantage Australians usually have over the UK/ Europe in terms of pricing was gone. We have pretty much shifted to the model of having the Australian retail price be double the US retail price whereas previously the proportionate cost hike was lower (except for maybe the bigger sets in each line, like the MTT.)

I think the most frustrating thing is that there doesn't seem to be any consistency about the pricing. If all the prices were scaled and seemed evenly distributed from the smallest set to the largest, I think people outside the US would complain a lot less. I suspect that the prices are set by different people at Lego across different lines as there doesn't seem to be a lot of consistency which does then translate to bad blood when people don't like the price.

To use SW as an example. The MTT was priced at $180 Australian dollars and 80 pounds UK - about the same price in real terms at the moment (although that is largely due to the high Australian dollar at the moment). Why then does the 10178 walking AT-AT cost $250 Australian and 90 pounds UK? A ten pound difference in price (about $22.50 Australian) translates to an effective $70 difference in Australian retail price which I'm afraid I can't justify - and Lego doesn't seem to.

This is true in Australia, actually, of all the big exclusive sets - Eiffel Tower, the UCS Falcon, Cafe Corner, Town Plan etc - which in Australia are comparately more expensive than most other places Lego ships to worldwide. If Australian prices were just more expensive I'd shrug and deal with it. What I do find bizarre is that the lower priced sets are often CHEAPER in Aus than they are in the UK/ Europe. Eg the recycle truck and cement mixers are about $20 in Aus but a whacking 12 pounds in the UK and 15.5 Euros (about a third more expensive). How does this fit with a bigger set being more expensive? Surely the principle of Lego is like any bulk item - the more you buy, the more value you're supposed to be getting - not less! The problem seems to be that whoever is pricing at both the lower and higher ends of the market are using different criteria and that they don't seem to match up. I personally find this off putting and I can see why a secondary ebay market is springing up in the US shipping straight to Australia as even when the prices quoted for shipping are expensive, you can still save substantially and have your set MISB in about a week! (Personally I prefer to buy from Lego direct to increase their relative income and support Shop at Home exclusives but I can see why others do it.)

And on a side note... Is there any explanation why licensed themes cost so much more outside the US market? I don't just mean why Lego is more expensive - why specifically does, for example, a $10 US licensed set suchas IJ Motorcycle Chase or the SW battlepacks translate to a 9 pound UK set or $20 Australian set in their respective markets, when a Creator set like the new Fierce Creatures cost $12 US but is only 8 GBP or in Australia $16.95? I would have thought that the royalty Lego pays for each licensed set would be proportionately the same no matter where you were in the world - is this incorrect?

End rant!

Edited January 23, 2008 by svelte_corps

[Turaga of Force]

There are lots of OOP Ep 2 Obi Wan Jedi Starfighters... some going for under $10. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...ntrypage=search

But I know what you mean. The old sets go for a lot cause people who can afford it are willing to pay that much. I am a BIONICLE completist, and it is really hard to afford. I still am only about half done with 2007.

[Archdoom]

Later on yesterday, I was at MYER, so I checked out the lego. I bought the rebel troops army builder thingy for the $20. It was a nice little set, but no way was it worth $20, but I needed some more figs, even if they are peach.

Oh, and rogue shadow was there :'-( . It isn't a big set, from the box size, at most it would be the size of a $50 set. There is no way, actually looking at the box, that I would pay $100 for that. It is a very nice set, and I really, really want it, but it is just not worth that much money. :'-( I just hope that there will be some left when it comes time to clear them at 60% off or something (I've seen TRU do stuff like that) and even then, it would be only worth that massively discounted price. How much could the licensing really be? Ugh.

[Palin Jax]

Always the optimist, I was at first going to respond negatively to this thread, but as I read through this, my heart really does go out to you guys, or gals if any of you are of the fairer sex. I wish in some way I could help you all out, but I just started college now too, and will start to feel the fiscal crunch soon. Especially you Aussies out there.

As you are all aware, the dollar here is starting to fall, which will undoubtedly cause the prices to rise in the rest of the world. This I am afraid will not be soon fixed, and is totally unfair to the rest of you. What really suck is th just 5 years ago, We were buying RGS for $50 dollars, closeout of-course. This is what I think triggered Lego to make even less products runs available on the line. I can even remember walking out of Walmart with hand-fulls of Final Duel 2s.

I know Lego is watching the markets, like the rest of the world, and I hope that they will take that to heart and consider their pricing. No one should have to pay so much for a toy, however wonderful or quality perfected it is. I, for one, will not complain about the prices I must pay out of respect for you all after hearing of your plights, and I do hope you will be able to afford the sets you truly like and must have. One way I did pay for those things, I gave up all my bad habits, which in-turn leave me now with $30 buck a paycheck. It takes time, but hey... the new RGS has my name write all over it. Well, maybe just Salacious Crumbs name anyway. :-$

Edited January 25, 2008 by Palin Jax

[Svelte]

Oh, and rogue shadow was there :'-( . It isn't a big set, from the box size, at most it would be the size of a $50 set. There is no way, actually looking at the box, that I would pay $100 for that. It is a very nice set, and I really, really want it, but it is just not worth that much money.

Archdoom, your best bet would be to wait until K-Mart had a 20% off Lego sale. They're retailing RS at $89 so it would end up being about $AUD72.

That's 28% off retail which isn't bad!

I check the catalogues on line every week - they have sales fairly regularly. In fact a 15% off sale just finished.

I wouldn't bet on a Toys'R'Us sale. Toys'R'Us in Aus rarely has big discounts unless they're really trying to clear something (eg Arkham Asylum). However just to contradict me this week Toys R Us has the TIE Crawler for $45 and the Y Wing for $35!

Edited January 25, 2008 by svelte_corps

[simonjedi]

found this on fbtb, credit to theJudeAbides whomade its:

Edited January 25, 2008 by simonjedi

[Archdoom]

Thanks for the advice, svelte corps, there is only one problem.

The K-mart near me is terrible with lego, they have half of a small aisle for it, on one side, the other half is megabloks and magnetix. And they get lego stock really slowly, they got the first line of the new castle sets (humans vs skellies) only a couple of months back, at most. But eh, I'll have a look, next time sales come around, and thanks for the advice.

[The Kid]

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[Asuka]

I really try to get especially higher priced licensed sets only on sales.

I don

[ZoL]

Look, I think we can all agree that the people who live in the US (me included) are lucky, I don't see how this topic is getting anywhere just cxomplaining about the prices of Lego.

Oh man, now I'm getting to sound like a mod 8-

[Big Pete]

8-

Edited February 3, 2008 by Big Pete