An Interesting Find

[Bricked1980]

Hi everyone

Whilst out shopping earlier today I visited the Leicester UK branch of WH Smith. I was looking around the toy section and noticed they were selling some long retired lego sets. I took this photo showing three city sets that caught my eye.

One of them is from the 2014 arctic range and I believe the other 2 are older than that - anyway they were all retired several years ago. Despite their age they were all still being sold at RRP and were actually on offer at buy one get one half price.

I'm now kicking myself that I didn't actually buy any of them. It's not very often that you see sets this old still for sale in major high street stores.

[Littleworlds]

That's quite a surprise. I didn't think stores would keep unsold set for so long. The edges certainly look like these boxes have been around for a while. The one with the helicopter is quite cheeky, considering they just released a new Arctic theme this year. 

[dr_spock]

Nice find,  I bought that camper and boat, 8 and 7 years ago. 

 

[Peppermint_M]

Yeah, WHSmith has had stock that sits for a long time, I was able to pick up a LEGO Movie ice cream van set, plenty of mixels and nearly the whole Cars 2 medium set range. Our local branch has a Clearance outlet, so all the branches in the distribution area send along the excess/outdated stock. At the moment there are plenty of the books with a minifigure.

It does mean you can get old sets at retail, it is always a temptation.

[Bricked1980]

19 hours ago, Littleworlds said:

The edges certainly look like these boxes have been around for a while.

Yes the the boxes did look a bit bashed and faded.

18 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Nice find,  I bought that camper and boat, 8 and 7 years ago.  

 

I may be wrong but I think the camper is from either 2012 or 2013. That's why I was so surprised to still find these for sale.

12 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

Our local branch has a Clearance outlet, so all the branches in the distribution area send along the excess/outdated stock.

The branch I found these in has recently been refurbished so I assume these old sets must have arrived at the store with all their new stock. Before that they'd probably been sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust for all these years.

[MAB]

WHS is quite famous for it, partly as they never really have very good prices for sets. Part of the reason they sit around for so long is that those prices aren't RRP, but above it. For example, that arctic helicopter had RRP of £24.99 not £29.99.

[Bricked1980]

28 minutes ago, MAB said:

WHS is quite famous for it, partly as they never really have very good prices for sets. Part of the reason they sit around for so long is that those prices aren't RRP, but above it. For example, that arctic helicopter had RRP of £24.99 not £29.99.

Agreed! WH Smith are one of those retailers that advertise the sets as "Buy One Get One Half Price", but by the time you've done the maths you aren't saving anything at all as the prices are higher than you'd pay at other stores anyway.

Despite this I've had a quick look on Ebay and the cheapest I can see the helicopter and boat for is around £40 and the camper van is going for about £30.  So in that respect I guess they were pretty good deals.

[ShaydDeGrai]

This reminds me of a little independent store I know of up in Maine that  I make a point to stop off at each summer when I'm on vacation.  The place is nominally a bookstore but they have a toy section with a healthy Lego area (at least in summer).  On my annual visit it's not uncommon to see a 10+ year old set in a faded box selling for at or below (~10% discount for _really_ faded boxes) its original asking price.  I asked them about it once and supposedly they stock up on Lego before Christmas (as the nearest toy store is ~100 miles away) then just put everything that doesn't sell into storage until the next summer tourist season.  They aren't too careful about rotating their stock so some kits just sit in the locker for years until someone yanks them out to restock the shelf after a rainy day spurs a run on activities for kids of harried parents unexpectedly stuck indoors.  Back in 2015 I picked up an Emerald Night (three years after it had been discontinued) for $10 less than MSRP.

[Tariq j]

Good Find! Makes me think of Fenwicks in Canterbury, they often have various older sets plus all the new releases. IIRC I think I saw the Battle of Takodana there earlier this year. 

[Peppermint_M]

Mine has some Hero Factory and Chima showing up again. Plus my sister got hold of one of the "Jungle Rescue" Friends sets. I keep paying attention to the clearance outlet, always a good idea for discounted older sets.

[Bricked1980]

11 hours ago, Tariq j said:

Good Find! Makes me think of Fenwicks in Canterbury, they often have various older sets plus all the new releases. IIRC I think I saw the Battle of Takodana there earlier this year. 

Funny you mention Fenwicks. Sadly the Fenwicks store in Leicester closed down last year and they did a huge sell off of all their old Lego sets and other toys. It was a real treasure trove with modulars and other expensive sets all with about 20% off.

[Tariq j]

8 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Funny you mention Fenwicks. Sadly the Fenwicks store in Leicester closed down last year and they did a huge sell off of all their old Lego sets and other toys. It was a real treasure trove with modulars and other expensive sets all with about 20% off.

Ah, that’s a shame. At least there were some good deals though. Unfortunately in our Fenwicks profits are apparently dropping too 

[Jchavoya]

Wow! That is pretty interesting!

[Peppermint_M]

Lots of series 16 CMFs today, that was cool. I got three for £3!