Dear Lego

[TheDarkness]

Dear Lego,

I actively love building sets. I love the detail of the minifigures. I love the creative licences. But the world knows you have been charging ridiculous premiums for your product outside the US.

The international market has tolerated it for so long. As discussed previously Amazon US has been coerced (whether it be temporarily or permanently) directly from Lego into ceasing international shipping. In recent years Amazon has been a hub for many international buyers to score Lego at cheaper costs than their local retail prices. Yet now the screws are being tightened. Lego has been banning users, placing limitations and now this. I thought it was ludicrous early last year when I legitimately could not buy a couple of Minecraft sets for my son and nephews due to limits. Who would have thought that people might want to order more than 1 or 2 of something right?

The lack of discounts for "exclusive sets" is appalling. Let's be realistic, if there was a licence involved there would at least be some justification, however picking and choosing sets is a poor business model. All of a sudden, stores with those sets are not "allowed" to discount? Even stores in Australia are beginning to exhibit "This sale does not include Lego" signs.

The war you are trying to wage on resellers is the wrong fight you are picking. Never have I seen a company so determined to stop customers buying their products. It enables customers to purchase items that have been discontinued or unavailable in their area due to the ridiculous restrictions you put in place yet you seem determined to do nothing but obstruct. The irony being your own customer service representatives point to reselling sites like Bricklink and eBay to find obscure parts or sets.

Meanwhile, the collectability of some sets continues to diminish as fake minifigures flood the marketplace. Now discontinued sets are beginning to appear. The same collectability you have marketed is now driving counterfeit products, yet what does Lego focus on? Stopping consumers from legitimately buying their product. This isn't about someone coming in and purchasing 100 of one set but restricting customers purchasing abilities. Soon people will prefer to purchase the counterfeit items as a much cheaper alternative. The very marketplace you created and procured with your own product you are now destroying as the counterfeiters pull out a suitcase with 200 Iron Patriot minifigures at $1 each and hock off... whilst Lego stop people buying their product legitimately.

Call it a rant, a whinge, a sook. Whatever. The despotism on display is ironic considering how close the company was to closing not that long ago. You are only shooting yourself in the foot. When is pushing your own customers out the door and restricting them from buying a great business model? Clone brands are already beginning to infiltrate the shopping aisles. eBay is flooding with cheap knockoff minifigures diminishing your product. The quality will only get better as they refine their techniques. Perhaps you should be combating those as opposed to loyal consumers purchasing your own product and pushing it to further success. Heaven forbid people actually want to purchase your product.

[Migration]

Could we all sign this with our screen names and send it to Billund?

[MartinP]

Could we all sign this with our screen names and send it to Billund?

Maybe. Lego has the priorities messed up. They are battling resellers and banning some of them, when they should be focused on the stopping counterfeits being made in China and sold much cheaper than the actual set/minifigure.

[joch29]

Maybe. Lego has the priorities messed up. They are battling resellers and banning some of them, when they should be focused on the stopping counterfeits being made in China and sold much cheaper than the actual set/minifigure.

perhaps the counerfeits have not or just started to raise eyebrows, but resellers have for years been been a complaint by the typical customers.  So when LEGO start getting majority of the complaints on the fakes maybe then they will start to change gear...

[Alcarin]

I just read whining really...... the only godo protest is NOT buying, what I am doing for my local retailers

[macdroid]

Hi, I have been reading this forum since I came out from my dark age, one month ago. I'm living in a country where lego is prohibitive (more than two times retail price) and hard to find. I don't understand this prohibition, if they want to fight resellers, they are doing them a favor, as this will now be the only way to purchase Lego in many countries. I have spent 1k in the last month, big part of it on amazon export sales and now what? I'm not going to pay more than 100$ in a 50$ set in my local official lego store. Not to mention, most of the Legos I bought aren't even available here and never will be. Back to my dark ages?

[TheDarkness]

I just read whining really...... the only godo protest is NOT buying, what I am doing for my local retailers

It's already happening. My Lego purchases are greatly diminishing. The sets I must have for myself have become far fewer. Even debating whether or not to forego the forthcoming Tumbler (once almost a holy grail) for an actual model.

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

[areyounormal]

Nice post, well written. A thought I had was if you are going to send this to Lego you may consider changing the tone slightly, ex: instead of score deals from Amazon maybe "afford" the prices from Amazon and little things like that. Also as soon as you start attacking you put people on the defensive and they stop listening. Maybe you could make your arguments more persuasive - maybe instead of telling Lego only what they are doing wrong you could instead give them some examples of what you would like to see them doing to make positive changes. Regardless, it is great to see someone passionate about providing some customer feedback and great of you to be actively participating in that!

[hendrikdejager]

Good post, i totally agree.

 

76023 - The Tumbler

 

This set is $200 but

[Ed Mack]

Hi, I have been reading this forum since I came out from my dark age, one month ago. I'm living in a country where lego is prohibitive (more than two times retail price) and hard to find. I don't understand this prohibition, if they want to fight resellers, they are doing them a favor, as this will now be the only way to purchase Lego in many countries. I have spent 1k in the last month, big part of it on amazon export sales and now what? I'm not going to pay more than 100$ in a 50$ set in my local official lego store. Not to mention, most of the Legos I bought aren't even available here and never will be. Back to my dark ages?

I guess that is why LEGO does not ban or restrict buying outside the US...the prices are too high.  If some poor sap wants to try reselling at those prices, LEGO supports it.  

 

On the topic of the letter...I really think the biggest threat to LEGO is their move to China and the inevitable stealing of molds and components needed to reproduce knockoff LEGO bricks that are so good that you won't be able to tell a fake from a real one.  LEGO made a huge mistake by bringing a production plant to China.  We all will pay in the future...

[Alcarin]

It's already happening. My Lego purchases are greatly diminishing. The sets I must have for myself have become far fewer. Even debating whether or not to forego the forthcoming Tumbler (once almost a holy grail) for an actual model.

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

 

Thats good, any messages to lego except closing your wallet will have minimal to zero effect.......... 

[KShine]

 

As far as i know this set is manufactured in Denmark, how can it possibly be cheaper in the USA?

 

The set has to be shipped ~3500 miles and still be cheaper? Can anyone here explain how this is possible?

 

 

I can't recall the exact term that LEGO used when referring to the pricing difference, but it was something like market variances - which meant that the lower USA prices were needed in order to complete in the USA toy market.

 

If it makes you feel better - try to compare the cost of medicine or medical care (USA costs vs the rest of the world).

[Bernard74]

It's partly that, and the countries' tax policies.

Of that

[asharerin]

As a US reseller I am very happy with the bans, the no discount policy and the price inequality across boarders. It means less competition, less supply and higher prices on the secondary market, which all means more $$$ in my pocket. Keep up the goodish work lego (just don't get too good where I can't order as much as I want from you

[minicoopers11]

You find iron patriot counterfeits for US$1 each with a minimum buy of only 1?! I found for US$0.50 with a minimum buy of 480...

[TheDarkness]

You find iron patriot counterfeits for US$1 each with a minimum buy of only 1?! I found for US$0.50 with a minimum buy of 480...

 

Touche... just an example

[Ciglione]

To the OP, nice letter! Maybe we can all send this same letter to lego (with some minor changes). Not buying lego alone will not help without an explanation. I also can get really angry when I see the amount of fakes increasing on for example ebay. It is bad for business.

 

In my humble opinion, Lego is on a suicide mission without them even seeing it. But how should they see it? Sales have increased massively the last years.

[macdroid]

It's partly that, and the countries' tax policies.

Of that

[Neosphinx]

Although I partially agree with the letter, in a way, I don't agree.

Counterfeit will never reach the standards of the original. It will be close, but no dice and TLG knows this. It is like buying a cheap knock off of a Louis Vuitton bag. Sure, it looks like one, but it's not one and after a month, when the zipper gives, you'll go to buy  yourself a proper one. I am sure that when Lego  really sees those fake things become really a threat, they will react.

I find it good that there  are maximum amount orders. It helps regulate the flow of selling. I find it not fair that I have to wait for my 2 exosuits because someone before me order 20 and they went out of stock.

As for pricing difference, praise  yourself luck you don't live in the middle east as Lego collector and seller

[legokent]

As a US reseller I am very happy with the bans, the no discount policy and the price inequality across boarders. It means less competition, less supply and higher prices on the secondary market, which all means more $$$ in my pocket. Keep up the goodish work lego (just don't get too good where I can't order as much as I want from you

I think asharerin makes a good point. The limitations on the number of sets benefits the resellers. Allowing people to buy unlimited quantities of exclusive lego sets will kill the secondary market. If that were the case, brick picker wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be gathered here to discuss investments on legos. I don't like the limits on the sets, but it is the way it has to be for this game of investment to go on. 

[JRandall]

I think the era where resellers could make tons of money being a small group of people reselling limited amounts of popular Lego sets is either over or coming to a close.  Lego is putting these limitations on buying now because they want the entire marketplace of consumers to have a chance to purchase a popular set and not have to deal with one or two toy resellers purchasing up most of the stock and sticking it online/ebay/craigslist..  Which is what can and frequently occurs.  Even now on this site dozens are joining every month and how many of those people are buying 2-5 of a set just because it's talked about? So you have hundreds of sets being stored just waiting to sell when there may be buyers. Just looking at the ToysRUs Lego setup today it's practically 3-4 isles of only Lego Sets which means more sets than ever are being produced and on top of that prices have increased across the board while Lego is getting rid of those who would possibly corner the market on limited production runs and resell them online.  Unfortunately this hurts people who just want a few sets such as yourself.

[knarrff]

I think the era where resellers could make tons of money being a small group of people reselling limited amounts of popular Lego sets is either over or coming to a close.  Lego is putting these limitations on buying now because they want the entire marketplace of consumers to have a chance to purchase a popular set and not have to deal with one or two toy resellers purchasing up most of the stock and sticking it online/ebay/craigslist.

I don't think that is their intention. If they would not have any other reason, why should they care - the more resellers buy the more sets they could produce, the more money they could make. Their reason is not that everyone gets their chance (but that of course sounds nice as PR). My guess (as good as yours) is that this is more a question of control. They can predict the regular market probably pretty decently, but not so much resellers. Less resellers simply means higher market predictability, which means more efficient production/storage/sales which means more money.

[junkrigger]

Although I partially agree with the letter, in a way, I don't agree.

Counterfeit will never reach the standards of the original. It will be close, but no dice and TLG knows this. It is like buying a cheap knock off of a Louis Vuitton bag. Sure, it looks like one, but it's not one and after a month, when the zipper gives, you'll go to buy  yourself a proper one. I am sure that when Lego  really sees those fake things become really a threat, they will react.

I find it good that there  are maximum amount orders. It helps regulate the flow of selling. I find it not fair that I have to wait for my 2 exosuits because someone before me order 20 and they went out of stock.

As for pricing difference, praise  yourself luck you don't live in the middle east as Lego collector and seller

 

I used to think this way, but not anymore.  We used to think the best boats could only be made in the US/Europe and those require highly specialized skills, craftsmanship and knowledge of materials. But just look at Nordhavn today, guess where they are made albeit with highly qualified craftsman at the supervision levels.  Lego is just plastic poured into molds and once those artist made molds get in the wrong hands its over.  I think Lego thinks they can compete on a low cost basis with the fakes, and so they will sell products made in China at lower prices in China, but currently this strategy is folly.  Only time will tell but Lego is playing with fire for sure.