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Are G2 sets rare all a sudden?

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It seems like stores couldn't give these things away in 2015-2016, everywhere had them discounted heavily and still had shelves full of them. But now all a sudden they seem to command hefty prices on bricklink, and don't have many listings on top of that. Ebay deals are somewhat better, but still high. What happened? I could understand the last wave of sets from summer 2016 being pricey due to not having a world wide release, but I don't get the rest. Maybe it's just down to the fact that not many people bought them, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks.

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In general, the aftermarket often doesn't reflect how well things sold on the primary market. In fact, sometimes it's exactly the opposite. A lot of early Bionicle sets sold like hotcakes, and today a lot of BrickLink sellers basically think of many of those sets and parts as next to worthless because the sheer number of them out there vastly exceeds the number of people still interested in buying them. Likewise, 3315 Olivia's House (literally the best-selling set of 2012) is available used on BrickLink for way less than its original RRP of $74.99. But when you look at the Avatar: The Last Airbender sets from 2006, which were generally a flop, those tend to be listed for WAY higher prices than they cost originally. Because not a lot of people bought them back then, not a lot were made, and not a lot of people are selling them now.

Additionally, it's worth noting that with themes aimed primarily at kids, the aftermarket price on used copies can sometimes drop if you wait long enough for the kids who bought them to "grow out of them". But even then you're most likely to find the best deals on people selling their collections in bulk lots rather than selling the sets individually.

Edited by Aanchir

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On 1/29/2019 at 4:06 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

The after Market is always more expensive, mostly due to scalpers

I also think a lot of BrickLink sellers avoid stocking much in the way of constraction parts/sets, since as a lot of kids who enjoyed Bionicle G1 moved on from it, the aftermarket got flooded with those kinds of parts and sets, killing a lot of their value. Many of these BrickLink sellers were already biased against constraction sets and parts due to them and most of their AFOL customers being old-school AFOLs who didn't consider Bionicle "real LEGO".

By the time large numbers of Bionicle fans became adults and stopped being able to get the types or quantities of parts or sets they wanted on the primary market, constraction had something of a reputation among sellers as a risky investment that would move slowly, clog their inventory, and often fail to accrue lasting value.

From my experience, many Hero Factory sets and parts on BrickLink were often pretty rare and priced pretty highly in their own right. This really became apparent when the limited-release Bat-Pod suddenly got a lot of AFOLs who didn't care at all about Hero Factory interested in the most common color of part 92222, and many sellers' stocks of the part and sets containing it were either quickly cleared out or bumped up considerably in price. Only a couple years earlier that part had even been available from the LEGO Group's online Pick-A-Brick service, but evidently not so many builders or sellers cared at that time.

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How can you even consider Bionicle not Lego? It's been around since 2000! It's old enough to drink!

 

Edited by Thedarkmaster2

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On 2/3/2019 at 1:58 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

How can you even consider Bionicle not Lego? It's been around since 2018! It's old enough to drink!

 

One year old? 

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On 2/3/2019 at 6:58 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

How can you even consider Bionicle not Lego? It's been around since 2000! It's old enough to drink!

 

She didn't say that. She said didn't consider Bionicle "real LEGO". Bionicle parts and system parts don't always mix that well, and lots of AFOLs fail to understand how to build or MOC constructions using constraction type parts, or are not interested in buildable figures.

 

On 1/29/2019 at 9:06 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

The after Market is always more expensive, mostly due to scalpers

If there weren't resellers, then it would be impossible to get hold of new sets on the secondary market. And were these sets actually scalped rather than just bought to be resold at a later date? That is, all stocks bought out when available at retail to stop the primary market sales then tried to sell on quickly at inflated prices. I don't recall them being hard to buy on the primary market.

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6 hours ago, MAB said:

She didn't say that. She said didn't consider Bionicle "real LEGO". Bionicle parts and system parts don't always mix that well, and lots of AFOLs fail to understand how to build or MOC constructions using constraction type parts, or are not interested in buildable figures.

Yeah. Also, how people feel about the specific meaning something has to them isn't always affected by the reality of what it actually means. When big Technic sets get revealed it's not unusual to see comments about how Technic sets aren't "real LEGO" (at least in the case of the primarily studless Technic sets that have been the norm since the early 2000s). I also have seen plenty of people claim that licensed themes aren't real LEGO, or that Belville isn't real LEGO, or that mini-dolls aren't real LEGO, or whatever.

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8 hours ago, MAB said:

he didn't say that. She said didn't consider Bionicle "real LEGO". Bionicle parts and system parts don't always mix that well, and lots of AFOLs fail to understand how to build or MOC constructions using constraction type parts, or are not interested in buildable figures.

 

1 hour ago, Aanchir said:
8 hours ago, MAB said:

 

Yeah. Also, how people feel about the specific meaning something has to them isn't always affected by the reality of what it actually means.

I never said she said it I was talking about the people she was talking about. The snobbish people who say constraction isn't Lego. They have less justification that the people who say Licensed themes,Belville, or minidolls are not real Lego

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2 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

The snobbish people who say constraction isn't Lego. They have less justification that the people who say Licensed themes,Belville, or minidolls are not real Lego

And why is that? Belville is not only seven years older than the first Bionicle sets, but lasted 15 consecutive years. And many Belville sets use pretty standard LEGO building techniques, albeit with a lot of heavily oversimplified parts and builds.

Likewise, licensed theme are two years older than the first Bionicle sets (or even older if you count licensed car sets like https://brickset.com/sets/390-2/1913-Cadillac and not just pop culture based themes like LEGO Star Wars), and almost all of their parts are the same sorts as any other theme.

By contrast, Duplo uses an entirely different palette of parts than any other current sets or themes, and its figures for the most part look nothing like minifigures. But I never see people saying that Duplo isn't real LEGO. It's just a different kind of LEGO designed for toddlers.

I'm not saying I agree with the people who think constraction isn't real LEGO, not by a longshot! But any claim that an official LEGO theme "isn't real LEGO" is just as biased and inaccurate, and arguably just as snobbish.

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I agree. Minidolls and Belville, even Clikits, are just as much real LEGO as any constraction sets.

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11 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I'm not saying I agree with the people who think constraction isn't real LEGO, not by a longshot! But any claim that an official LEGO theme "isn't real LEGO" is just as biased and inaccurate, and arguably just as snobbish.

I've never personally said that any theme was not real Lego! I just hate people who do. It is kinda frustrating that Licensed themes have slowly taken over. Like a cancer.

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3 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

I've never personally said that any theme was not real Lego! I just hate people who do. It is kinda frustrating that Licensed themes have slowly taken over. Like a cancer.

That's fine. I'm not directing any of this at you specifically, just pointing out that everybody has different preferences about what stuff they enjoy as LEGO fans, and lots of people (regardless of their preferences) are prone to exaggerating that by saying the sets/parts/themes that don't fit into that framework aren't "real LEGO".

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On 2/6/2019 at 10:36 PM, Thedarkmaster2 said:

Are Mega blocks

 

No, Megabloks are Megabloks so not real LEGO.

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3 hours ago, Thedarkmaster2 said:

But they're compatible

Sure, but that doesn't make Mega Bloks (well, Mega Construx now, since they rebranded) a type of LEGO any more than it makes LEGO a type of Mega Bloks/Mega Construx. They're two separate brands within one much larger product category (building toys).

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Yeah I’ve always been annoyed by this arguement  

Bionicle shared some compatibility with Lego due to originally being Technic based, (in fact G1 was more compatible than When Hero Factory 2.0 first came around) but it never needed to. It wasnt a Lego System theme, it was Bionicle, it’s own brand, just released under the Lego name. Most consumer products you buy are made by the same 5 companies (so when you go to a store and see 6 different brands of laundry detergent, guess what, it’s the same company.) Ralph Lauren, Georgio Armani, Diesel? All ultimately made by the people that make baby food and hot pockets. And when I tell you those three designer clothing brands, certainly you don’t think “yep that’s Nestle quality right there” even though they are all made by Nestle. 

Yes, Bionicle was marketed alongside those other brands, being put on the same store shelves and in the same catalog, but that Lego logo was always small and insignificant compared to the massive BIONICLE text 

Point being, LEGO is more than a 2x2 brick, it’s a brand that is allowed to expand its category of building toys, just as its allowed to make watches, clocks, and T-shirt’s. It’s primary business is the studded brick system, but that is not what determines what true Lego is. Maybe it did a long time ago, but not anymore. 

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30 minutes ago, VBBN said:

Yes, Bionicle was marketed alongside those other brands, being put on the same store shelves and in the same catalog, but that Lego logo was always small and insignificant compared to the massive BIONICLE text 

It's a shame that Bionicle Gen 2 flopped so much

Also I think Bionicle is lego so I don't know who you're talking to VBBN

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