Selling Lego on Amazon.com

[biking_tiger]

Just got mine, too. This must be "mass email" day. 

[zskid00]

Yep, received mine today, along with a 10188 return.  Well, poopy...

They probably returned it because it's missing a cheese slope.

[fossilrock]

Yeah, same here, but I'm not sure if it really matters much.  Lego sales especially are all over the place this year.. some stock is either moving slowly, other stock just sits there not moving, or certain things are moving well.  It's evident to me that lego's growth period has hit a wall.  Last year a lot of things were moving at this time.

I think it would be in lego's best interest to make less sets, but focus on quality over quantity.  They really should cut back on what they produce by at least 30%... It's becoming EVIDENT!  

Edited October 12, 2016 by fossilrock

[newbie77]

4 minutes ago, fossilrock said:

Yeah, same here, but I'm not sure if it really matters much.  Lego sales especially are all over the place this year.. some stock is either moving slowly, other stock just sits there not moving, or certain things are moving well.  It's evident to me that lego's growth period has hit a wall.  Last year a lot of things were moving at this time.

I think it would be in lego's best interest to make less sets, but focus on quality over quantity.  They really should cut back on what they produce by at least 30%... It's becoming EVIDENT!  

looks like except B-A everyone is suffering. RED Is last year. Blue is this year. 

Going to be hard for me to reach last year's oct numbers. for me sales have actually fallen off the cliff from sept to oct [ going to attribute that to increased competition et. al.] but its a same $ we are all fighting for..

 

[Bold-Arrow]

The viagra doesn't go into effect till cyber Monday , if that line doesn't go up then then I would start worrying . Unless you are selling Halloween related items, the market is typically slow this time of the year especially for toys . 

[Serejai]

My toys sales don't increase until November. I do the largest volume two weeks before Christmas and then the week after Christmas (people use gift cards like crazy). October is always slow for toys because parents are just going to say "wait until Christmas" for anything their kids want.

[tjj1984]

34 minutes ago, newbie77 said:

looks like except B-A everyone is suffering. RED Is last year. Blue is this year. 

Going to be hard for me to reach last year's oct numbers. for me sales have actually fallen off the cliff from sept to oct [ going to attribute that to increased competition et. al.] but its a same $ we are all fighting for..

 

Where is this data coming from? What's the y-axis?

[Bold-Arrow]

Sales per month current vs previous year . 

Edit : can also be units 

[fossilrock]

32 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

The viagra doesn't go into effect till cyber Monday , if that line doesn't go up then then I would start worrying . Unless you are selling Halloween related items, the market is typically slow this time of the year especially for toys . 

Like newbie, my volume of sales is down about 35% from what it was last year.  I remember going through these ebbs and tides on an almost yearly basis on ebay too.. so it's to be expected, but this year is a bit more sluggish.  I think it's even evident on Lego shop @ home, since many exclusives are remaining in stock during 2x VIP.   I just have lowered my expectations a bit.  I still think many decent sets will still be easy to sell during the holiday swoon, but I think prices won't rise much from where they currently sit.  Last year, that wasn't the case on many sets, but this year, i'm not so sure things will be flying to the point where stock numbers and seller numbers drop on many sets to the point where prices rise quite a bit.  We shall see. 

Edited October 12, 2016 by fossilrock

[Bold-Arrow]

1 minute ago, fossilrock said:

Like newbie, my volume of sales is down about 35% from what it was last year.  I remember going through these ebbs and tides on an almost yearly basis on ebay too.. so it's to be expected, but this year is a bit more sluggish.  I think it's even evident on Lego shop @ home, since many exclusives are remaining in stock during 2x VIP.   I just have lowered my expectations a bit.  I still think many decent sets will still be easy to sell during the holiday swoon, but I think prices won't rise much from where they currently sit.  Last year, that wasn't the case on many quite a few sets.  

the lack of a Frozen-like movie and/or show has a lot to do with the slow market IMO. i realize Frozen was a once in a decade phenomena , but nothing this year had any pull to it. i don't recall my kids talking about any movie for more than a day and two before totally forgetting about it..also other known factors are to blame such as the ever increasing number of resellers ( pre-gating) to Lego over saturating the market, to the disappointing quality of sets being among the main culprits. even with none Lego products, the market wasn't that much better this year. 

[ravenb99]

2 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

the lack of a Frozen-like movie and/or show has a lot to do with the slow market IMO. i realize Frozen was a once in a decade phenomena , but nothing this year had any pull to it. i don't recall my kids talking about any movie for more than a day and two before totally forgetting about it..also other known factors are to blame such as the ever increasing number of resellers ( pre-gating) to Lego over saturating the market, to the disappointing quality of sets being among the main culprits. even with none Lego products, the market wasn't that much better this year. 

Yeah last year Force Friday put a boost into a normally slow time of year.  Helped sales in general for us.  It also kind of messed up early holiday sales cause a lot of people spent big bucks during early September.  This year the bump was not as there wasn't any built up anticipation.

This year , specifically the last 2 months maybe even 3 which are generally the slowest of the year to begin with have been extremely slow.  Not just toys / LEGO either.  Weird as we came out of our biggest month in a long time in June and it dwindled since then.   

Can't remember a day last year where we didn't have 30 to 40 orders of polybags a day on top of our normal stuff , this year it is about 5-10 a day.  

As most know we sell a lot of closeouts in all categories and just putting out a low price isn't even moving the stuff like it used to.  Doesn't help Amazon liquidates then drops the price to below what low price is on ebay so it is being felt at all levels.  

[asharerin]

Another new policy. If you have not done an FBA shipment prior to Oct 10 you cannot create an FBA shipment until after Dec 19.

This and the gating should help out this shopping season.

 

[tacsniper]

Glad to see I am not alone in terms of sales being down this year. Can this be attributed to less retired sets?

Edited October 12, 2016 by tacsniper

[Phil B]

5 hours ago, asharerin said:

Another new policy. If you have not done an FBA shipment prior to Oct 10 you cannot create an FBA shipment until after Dec 19.

This and the gating should help out this shopping season.

 

Hmmm there goes my "if I have something that really takes off I'll just FBA it in in November" strategy. Minor bummer.

[fossilrock]

Last year also had Jurassic World, which at the time was stuck in "temporarily out of stock" on all sets.                            

[SpaceFan9]

 

6 hours ago, asharerin said:

Another new policy. If you have not done an FBA shipment prior to Oct 10 you cannot create an FBA shipment until after Dec 19.

This and the gating should help out this shopping season.

 

I've never sold via FBA, prepped (but didn't complete) an inbound shipment in September in hopes of trying it out, and it appears I'm able to still add to it.  So this may be only a soft gate.

[exciter1]

5 hours ago, tacsniper said:

Glad to see I am not alone in terms of sales being down this year. Can this be attributed to less retired sets?

A little burnout I think, nothing hot, no "LEGO Movie", etc.  I don't think "LEGO Batman: The Movie" will increase their bottom line much.  Batman is too saturated already.  It seems like the response to "Rogue One" products are meh right now, not just the LEGO stuff.  You could find the entire line of figures in abundance for BOGO 40% off the week of release and they weren't moving.

Thankfully, there are plans for more Star Wars movies the next 5-10 years to keep the fans happy.  The casual fans are getting some burnout, I think.  It feels like 1983 all over again and clearance season will be fruitful.  Although, the stuff might not sell very well for another 20 years.

LEGO needs an update to the Mindstorm line really bad they need to come up with some new flagship to get people excited.  I think a new ship or something exciting for the POTC line will go a long way and "LEGO Movie 2" should get the ball rolling again, if it doesn't suck.

[Phil B]

30 minutes ago, SpaceFan9 said:

 

I've never sold via FBA, prepped (but didn't complete) an inbound shipment in September in hopes of trying it out, and it appears I'm able to still add to it.  So this may be only a soft gate.

I prepped an inbound shipment in the spring, still sitting as inactive in my account, so I thought I'd give it a try. Nope.

[Kenxxx]

Feliz Dia das Criancas! Today is "Childrens' Day" in Brazil (and at our house)... sort of like Mother's Day or Father's Day... a "special" day just for kids to get another present (or five) before Christmas.  It'd be great for fall sales if another materialistic holiday like this could catch on here in the USA.

[zskid00]

The impact to my wallet would be negative.  Between my kids and all my nephews and nieces I would very much be against another holiday.  

[Sfcommando14]

46 minutes ago, Kenxxx said:

Feliz Dia das Criancas! Today is "Childrens' Day" in Brazil (and at our house)... sort of like Mother's Day or Father's Day... a "special" day just for kids to get another present (or five) before Christmas.  It'd be great for fall sales if another materialistic holiday like this could catch on here in the USA.

My oldest was born in the UK and my wife already claims both British and American Mother's Day.  Also my wife is from Wisconsin where they do something called St. Nick's in early December where there are small presents involved.  Like @zskid00, I can't (or don't want to) afford another holiday.

[Phil B]

Just now, Sfcommando14 said:

My oldest was born in the UK and my wife already claims both British and American Mother's Day.  Also my wife is from Wisconsin where they do something called St. Nick's in early December where there are small presents involved.  Like @zskid00, I can't (or don't want to) afford another holiday.

Saint Nick's is really just the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas (Dec 5/6), which is coincidentally also the origin of Santa Claus (brought to the US by the Dutch Settlers of New Amsterdam, later on "moved" to coincide with Christmas). And yes, we celebrate both at our home (as I am Dutch), though Sinterklaas' presents are typically small and limited in number.

[asharerin]

2 hours ago, exciter1 said:

LEGO needs an update to the Mindstorm line really bad they need to come up with some new flagship to get people excited.  I think a new ship or something exciting for the POTC line will go a long way and "LEGO Movie 2" should get the ball rolling again, if it doesn't suck.

I think TLG is producing way too many new lines and keeping sets available for far too long. TLG sales have been horrible this year and all of those new lines cost a bomb to develop and distribute so they got hurt very badly this year with revenues stalling and costs skyrocketing. A few years like that in the toy industry and you don't survive very long. Keeping sets available for far too long and constant rehashes has also hurt the collectibility of this brand. The next few years are going to be very rough for this company. They cannot just stop on a dime and reverse course within 6 months. As for the secondary market Bezos is helping but people don't want to spend big bucks on a product that is not going to keep rising in value. TLG needs to take a loss on some fantastic short run limited sets to revive the secondary market and cut out the poor performers like angry birds, nexo, ninjago, elves etc. City also needs some new direction other than the constant rehashes. Going to be interesting to see if they are up for the challenge. The next 3 years is make or break time for this toy company. We are going to see mega sales on alot of stale product over the next few years.

[donbee]

Do you vets think marvel and Disney are the blame? They pushing Lego to have lots sets with every movie in order to keep the license. The super heroes line is ridiculously redundant. I don't know what they did in previous years, but all these batman and Spider-Man sets look exactly the same to me. And then all the ships and helicopters. I know everyone has these complaints, but could it be because Lego made a deal with the devil, and now they're stuck? Could the Star Wars rehashes not be a part of lego's preferred strategy, but a consequence of their licensing deal.

Or am I just biased against Disney?
It does appear though that consensus says it was a lot better just a few years ago. When Disney wasn't the owner...

[asharerin]

Mismanagement. 60s Batcave, Ghosbusters HQ, Helicarrier all great for fans but horrible business decisions. Those are the types of sets you do limited runs, eat the loss, and keep the fans happy and coming back for more. As it is they are dust collectors now and will cost TLG a ton of money over the next few years. If you are going to do a huge, expensive set out of left field then do say a $350 Hogwarts that appeals to a much broader audience. People always credit SW for saving the company but HP was a huge money maker for them as well and equally as important. Mind boggling they invested in Angry Birds but no Fantastic Beasts sets. Disney did not force that.

Keeping this relevant to selling on amazon sales on our other selling account that focuses on home goods are doing very well. I do show the sales ranks for alot of retired Lego heading in the wrong direction when they should be picking up steam. This time last year sales for the more expensive retired sets were alot better. I think those collector dollars are going elsewhere now, and for good reason.