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Ah, that’s all pretty solid advice. I’ll have a cursory look on gumtree etc - but is just struck me that you’re likely going to have missing bits and headaches.
Might be one of those things that requires an amount of scoping out before buying if I want it to be affordable. Gah, who wants to wait!
LEGO is really not the best bet if you're looking for something relatively cheap, so definitely scoping out required, and being clear about what you want--chasing up childhood nostalgia, using it as a way of satisfying your model-building instinct, collecting in anticipation of your little one being old enough for it (not recommended before the age of 4, stick with DUPLO until then, as children just destroy LEGO before that age, and are obviously at risk of swallowing small bits), etc., but it certainly rewards a longer-term commitment.
If you want to get more into it, have a look at YouTube videos. I like JANGBRICKS for reviews (his review channel is now called Jang's Based Lego Reviews, a name I don't quite understand). If you're interested in any particular set, use the five-digit number to search for information. I like looking at inventories on BrickSet, although many people prefer Bricklink, and BrickOwl is also good. Promobricks.de has developed a reputation as the site with the breaking news, although it's in German. One of the first types of videos that I watched were ones from LEGO conventions where people exhibit huge and/or wacky things.
It may take you some time to find out if you're interested in any particular theme, if you don't have a favourite childhood theme or themes, or what kind of bricks you need, so it's worth not rushing the buying.
Have fun!
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It has always been priced at the market clearing price; enough people value it as currently priced that they don't care that you happen to disagree.
You'd have to explain to me what exactly you mean by that, as I don't know much about economics. I don't understand the above based on the definition of 'market clearing price' on Wikipedia, but that may of course not be very good.
I certainly don't peg 'overpriced' to 'what can LEGO get away with'. LEGO has always been a middle-class toy. Sure, there are plenty of people who can and will afford it at RRP, but that doesn't mean that they think it's not overpriced. As with Giffen goods, people are often proud to show off that they can afford something expensive/as a status symbol.
Also, if you're aware of the absolute circus of discounting LEGO--always some 20% discounts on the go somewhere, double that at other times, prices going up and down all the time with some retailers, it's quite clear that there are numerous issues with prices, including the fact that LEGO often tries out how much higher it can push the price by placing quite small sets at double what you'd expect to be the RRP, particularly with City and Star Wars sets.
While I'm sure the quality is often not as good or nearly as good, it is striking, now that LEGO's patent-assisted monopoly has expired, how much cheaper the imitators are. I've lost count of how many brands I've seen, but it must be close to 30 by now, and some get pretty good reviews (some also get terrible ones). I mean, I'd be the first to admit that they benefit from decades of development work by LEGO and that imitation obviously requires far less investment in innovation, but the price differences are just so big in some cases.
Lastly, there are numerous issues with how LEGO sets are put together today to reduce the value people get from them (long story) so that they have to buy more. Quite a few commentators that I've listened to are very critical of that, although you obviously also get completely uncritical people.
Hey ho, it's apparently the biggest toymaker in the world now, so I guess you have to expect that kind of behaviour. I'd still prefer it if they did things differently.
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I don't understand the above based on the definition of 'market clearing price' on Wikipedia
Yeah, that doesn't allow for the real world fact that the market clearing price is actually a set of different prices varying by time and location because individual market participants have imperfect knowledge and also different motives. Nonetheless, the principle stands; there are no warehouses full of unsold Lego, so the market is obviously being cleared, and ipso facto it is not over-priced.
You might wish that they did something different, but they are not a charity, they are a business. The choice of how much to supply is set at the profit maximising level.
There are, as you say, cheap knock-offs for paupers. All the ones I've had my hands on are shit, but even shit faux-Lego is better than a lot of the absolute shit on the toy market 🙂
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Nothing is sacred…
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Doh #facepalm. Lack of forum time, I thought I’d caught up!! I only spoke to him yesterday irl!
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Yeah, that doesn't allow for the real world fact that the market clearing price is actually a set of different prices varying by time and location because individual market participants have imperfect knowledge and also different motives. Nonetheless, the principle stands; there are no warehouses full of unsold Lego, so the market is obviously being cleared, and ipso facto it is not over-priced.
We seem to be talking at cross purposes here. I'm talking about LEGO at the RRP being overpriced, of course. Vast amounts of LEGO get sold at well under RRP, and very few sets spend their time on the market without being discounted somewhere along the way, often multiple times. If you include heavy discounts in 'different prices', of course you can say the market gets cleared at different prices, but my point was to say that it's overpriced not about discounts but about RRP.
By the way, there is at least one warehouse full of unsold LEGO; some sets that don't sell (and there are some in every year that attract little interest) get donated to charity. We had this last year:
I think there may be more than one like this, and probably others in other countries, but I can't find them now.
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I'm talking about LEGO at the RRP being overpriced
RRP is clearly not too much for some people, just as almost any discount will not be enough for others. If you're suggesting that the equilibrium price is around 80% of RRP, I'm not going to argue, but that's a pretty normal discount for all sorts of retail products, so it's odd to single out Lego
The throughput of that particular charity is of the order of one hundredth of one percent of total production, and not all donations of goods to charities are things which couldn't be sold; CSR and marketing will spend some of their budget on charity.
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Sorry, missed this.
RRP is clearly not too much for some people, just as almost any discount will not be enough for others.
Well, of course some people can afford it, but with the kind of wealth disparities that exist, that doesn't mean anything for evaluating the price. The second clause in your sentence appears to me to be false for small to medium-sized sets. The larger sets that go for hundreds of pounds remain unaffordable for most people even with, say, a 50% discount, but smaller sets don't. Obviously, again there will be people too poor to afford any sets, but let's just assume as the baseline a low-earning family wanting to buy something for their kids.
If you're suggesting that the equilibrium price is around 80% of RRP, I'm not going to argue, but that's a pretty normal discount for all sorts of retail products, so it's odd to single out Lego
I'm afraid that I consider LEGO overpriced even with a 20% discount applied. I've said before that I don't think it's really a discount, but an added premium to make 20% off appear more attractive.
The throughput of that particular charity is of the order of one hundredth of one percent of total production, and not all donations of goods to charities are things which couldn't be sold; CSR and marketing will spend some of their budget on charity.
One counter-example was all that was required, as your claim that 'there are no warehouses full of unsold Lego' was too strong. :)
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The larger sets that go for hundreds of pounds remain unaffordable for most people
As do luxury yachts and private jets. A thing isn't too expensive just because poor, or even somewhat wealthy, people can't afford it. It certainly isn't objectively over-priced just because you don't value it at the typical selling price when so many people think it's correctly priced.
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Loving the ghetto blaster with this.
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I didn't know that BrickLink (now owned by LEGO) had a programme called the 'BrickLink Designer Program'. I'd guess that this is where some ideas rejected by LEGO Ideas go. It seems like a crowdfunded version of that.
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/introducing.page
I recognise some of the sets that are available through it from LEGO Ideas.
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Lego Stratocaster comes out tomorrow. Instant buy for the desk!
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It's here!
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That is a very good set.
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LongAndWinding
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Adult Fixie-skidders of LEGO
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@Oliver Schick
Thanks for that... just ordered that pirate ship...