Bricktober Mini Modulars - 2014

[Achilles]

I don't understand what they'd do with ones sent back nor why. If they weren't desired, that's one thing, but we can't get enough of them.

 

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with people buying out entire store's inventories worth...

[lodibricks]

Yeah, but what else are they good for being specifically 2014 Bricktober sets? Buying out the store at $19.99 each is still good money for LEGO and/or TRU.

[Achilles]

The bigger picture is these sets aren't about the money: They are priced at $19.99 specifically because they felt it would be a price higher than anyone would be willing to pay - they weren't meant to be sold until after the promotion (if at all).

 

A few people buying out stores early in the promo leads to customers going to the store, finding out they couldn't get the promo, and all it takes is a couple complaints to corporate to get balls like this rolling. Or a manager raising an eyebrow when someone comes in and asks to buy $1000 worth of a theoretically minor giveaway item - and talks to someone at corporate about it.

 

Drawing attention in any way like this leads to changes and people looking into what's going on.

 

Obviously, I have no inside info, but having worked in retail in the past, I imagine these scenarios are both very possible.

[Bold-Arrow]

The bigger picture is these sets aren't about the money: They are priced at $19.99 specifically because they felt it would be a price higher than anyone would be willing to pay - they weren't meant to be sold until after the promotion (if at all).

 

A few people buying out stores early in the promo leads to customers going to the store, finding out they couldn't get the promo, and all it takes is a couple complaints to corporate to get balls like this rolling. Or a manager raising an eyebrow when someone comes in and asks to buy $1000 worth of a theoretically minor giveaway item - and talks to someone at corporate about it.

 

Drawing attention in any way like this leads to changes and people looking into what's going on.

 

Obviously, I have no inside info, but having worked in retail in the past, I imagine these scenarios are both very possible.

i would say you are most probably correct. 

[thlien]

Last night, spent $75+ on clearance... Got the town hall mini. They had a bunch of fire station and TH minis. Asked them what they are going to do w them? They didn't really know. Maybe another event maybe send them back. Asked if I could buy any. One guy said yes, other guy next to him said no. They decided to ask the mgr. He said it's the last day, go ahead and sell. Would have bought more, but they limited me to an additional fire station and TH.

[trenty1990]

Any body know how long vip points last on LEGO Shop at Home? Before they get deleted? 2years?

[ravenb99]

Went to the 1 tru that had 2 th left yesterday and they had 12 and said they were for sale.

[MarleyMoose]

My TRU pulled all theirs and said they weren't allowed to sell them now. That being said, Fred, a manager happily went out back and got me 3 more Town Halls to complete my 5 sets for me. He told me to call him tomorrow to see what they'll do with the rest. I told him I'd buy all he's got if they get the ok to sell them off.

[corduroy]

Called this morning and the person answering the phone said "Please come in, we have so many left over that we'd be happy to sell them to you." I went in, bought just the 2 I was missing and the woman working the register showed me the two shopping carts full of boxed mini modulars that were left over. They had lots of every set.

 

This is the State St Salt Lake store if anyone is in the area.

[exciter1]

Called this morning and the person answering the phone said "Please come in, we have so many left over that we'd be happy to sell them to you." I went in, bought just the 2 I was missing and the woman working the register showed me the two shopping carts full of boxed mini modulars that were left over. They had lots of every set.

 

This is the State St Salt Lake store if anyone is in the area.

 

Is this store prepared for a parking lot infiltration?

[hxckid88]

Stopped at one of my tru 's. A manager asked me if I needed any help. I asked if they had any of the brictober sets left for sale.

He told me nope, we are all out. As I was leaving I saw a pile of them at customer service desk.... All town halls. I asked the cashier if I could buy them.

She said sure can. I told her I want all of them.

She hesitated and smiled and said '' you're one of those ebayers arnt you. ''

I smiled and send sure am. She sold all of them to me.

[JRandall]

It appears within this last year that the Brickpicker community and the Independent Lego collectors/resellers mayreally have the buying power to influence the market. I'm sure multiple if not dozens of people on this forum will have 20 of these and that's for starters.

[hxckid88]

It appears within this last year that the Brickpicker community and the Independent Lego collectors/resellers mayreally have the buying power to influence the market. I'm sure multiple if not dozens of people on this forum will have 20 of these and that's for starters.

You need to reread the thread.... Some have about 80 of each.

[JRandall]

You need to reread the thread.... Some have about 80 of each.

 

I read some of it but must have missed that part.  I'm starting to believe from the buying patterns in the last 2 months alone and how stock is going in and out that the Bubble is being created as we speak.

[MTG/LEGO]

It appears within this last year that the Brickpicker community and the Independent Lego collectors/resellers mayreally have the buying power to influence the market. I'm sure multiple if not dozens of people on this forum will have 20 of these and that's for starters.

For all of the people that have come and gone in this thread talking about how certain individuals such as myself or others that have bought so many of these and it's horrible etc...give it a break.

I believe there are 700+ tru stores from what I could find out. I've been to about 18 of them and all of them had from 50 to 100+ each week of the bricktober promo. just depending on location and how busy it is. Lets say for example there are 700 stores with an avg of 75 per week. That's 300 promos per store or 210,000 promos total usa allocation. Now lets say I have 500 of each week for 2000 total. That's less then 1% of all of them made. Hardly game changing. In fact I think the most anyone has officially said on this thread has less then 100 of each week. So 400 is less then half of 1%. This entire forum of buyers didn't ruin the promotion for anyone. I believe the people who I talk to who buy these sets mostly bought all of theirs at the end of a specific promo week. Anyone that wanted one had all week to get one. The reason why some of us were able to buy so many is because many stores had left overs because little to no interest in the promotion. I've been to some stores that had 75+ of two week old promotions just sitting on the shelf.

My point is no one on this forum ruined the promotion for anyone. No one on this forum(to my knowledge) works for lego marketing department. No one knows why they are changing the rules several times during this promotion. Also no one on this forum is to blame for spending their money how they want. If I walked into a lego store and they were accidentally selling a promo minifig that is suppose to be a giveaway for a purchase and I bought all 300 they had that is not my fault. I didn't ruin it for kids and collectors. They offered an item for sale and I bought them. The fault lies with the seller if they weren't suppose to sell them.

There is a question of, is this moral to buy every single item and leave none for the next person. In my particular case in a situation like buying up all the promos I see I have no problem doing so. I feel nothing morally wrong about it. I do not care of the next person doesn't get any because they will have the chance to get one online although for more money or at another store. The reason why I feel this way is from my last 7 years in retail and owning retail stores. My main concern was with my well being and the well being of my employees. For example 1 of the businesses I had we use to buy up all of the promo items we could that would be made by the manufacturer then given to the distributor to sell to the hundreds of stores. I would pay double or more to get more then out fair allocation. I could have cared less about the stores that suffered because of our manipulating to get more of a limited product. Like I said I had a duty to my employees and their families to make sure we were more profitable then other businesses.

With all this being said though I'm just trying to enjoy my retirement traveling and collecting Legos and pursuing other hobbies. If I decide to get serious about this hobby though be careful! If I was I might have been able to acquire 10-20% of this promotion! Even if I did acquire let's say 25% of this promotion I doubt it would have affected anyone on this forum. I'm sure anyone on this forum who wanted a set would of had no problems getting at least 1 set put together.

Anyways sorry for the long rant! Always easy for me to rant writing on my iPhone. Maybe it's because I'm anxious for new call of duty early edition to come out in a few hours or hangover from Vegas partying all night and morning

Ps- can't remember who but I remember a moderator stating its better to let the promos go to kids etc to keep them interested in the product and maybe they will become our customers 1 day. While I agree...I'm not doing this as a business so for the time being I'm not worried about my actions.

[Bold-Arrow]

For all of the people that have come and gone in this thread talking about how certain individuals such as myself or others that have bought so many of these and it's horrible etc...give it a break.

I believe there are 700+ tru stores from what I could find out. I've been to about 18 of them and all of them had from 50 to 100+ each week of the bricktober promo. just depending on location and how busy it is. Lets say for example there are 700 stores with an avg of 75 per week. That's 300 promos per store or 210,000 promos total usa allocation. Now lets say I have 500 of each week for 2000 total. That's less then 1% of all of them made. Hardly game changing. In fact I think the most anyone has officially said on this thread has less then 100 of each week. So 400 is less then half of 1%. This entire forum of buyers didn't ruin the promotion for anyone. I believe the people who I talk to who buy these sets mostly bought all of theirs at the end of a specific promo week. Anyone that wanted one had all week to get one. The reason why some of us were able to buy so many is because many stores had left overs because little to no interest in the promotion. I've been to some stores that had 75+ of two week old promotions just sitting on the shelf.

My point is no one on this forum ruined the promotion for anyone. No one on this forum(to my knowledge) works for lego marketing department. No one knows why they are changing the rules several times during this promotion. Also no one on this forum is to blame for spending their money how they want. If I walked into a lego store and they were accidentally selling a promo minifig that is suppose to be a giveaway for a purchase and I bought all 300 they had that is not my fault. I didn't ruin it for kids and collectors. They offered an item for sale and I bought them. The fault lies with the seller if they weren't suppose to sell them.

There is a question of, is this moral to buy every single item and leave none for the next person. In my particular case in a situation like buying up all the promos I see I have no problem doing so. I feel nothing morally wrong about it. I do not care of the next person doesn't get any because they will have the chance to get one online although for more money or at another store. The reason why I feel this way is from my last 7 years in retail and owning retail stores. My main concern was with my well being and the well being of my employees. For example 1 of the businesses I had we use to buy up all of the promo items we could that would be made by the manufacturer then given to the distributor to sell to the hundreds of stores. I would pay double or more to get more then out fair allocation. I could have cared less about the stores that suffered because of our manipulating to get more of a limited product. Like I said I had a duty to my employees and their families to make sure we were more profitable then other businesses.

With all this being said though I'm just trying to enjoy my retirement traveling and collecting Legos and pursuing other hobbies. If I decide to get serious about this hobby though be careful! If I was I might have been able to acquire 10-20% of this promotion! Even if I did acquire let's say 25% of this promotion I doubt it would have affected anyone on this forum. I'm sure anyone on this forum who wanted a set would of had no problems getting at least 1 set put together.

Anyways sorry for the long rant! Always easy for me to rant writing on my iPhone. Maybe it's because I'm anxious for new call of duty early edition to come out in a few hours or hangover from Vegas partying all night and morning

Ps- can't remember who but I remember a moderator stating its better to let the promos go to kids etc to keep them interested in the product and maybe they will become our customers 1 day. While I agree...I'm not doing this as a business so for the time being I'm not worried about my actions.

Good post even though I don't agree with some of your points

There is some truth that the actions of some ruins it for the majority . This "some" isn't just one individual or two or three or not even hundreds of them. Take for example the stricter return policy at TRU, they have been sucker punched by scammers over the years that they decided enough is enough. Most of these discounted gc come in the form of merchandise credit which makes you wonder how and why someone sold them on the cheap.

In all cases always good to hear both sides of the argument .

[MTG/LEGO]

I read some of it but must have missed that part.  I'm starting to believe from the buying patterns in the last 2 months alone and how stock is going in and out that the Bubble is being created as we speak.

What I find interesting is it seems like a lot of people on this forum have 10,20,50+ of some of the bigger sets like HH, TH etc. I will be curious to see how things turn out in a few years. I can see how it's profitable but is it could to be the case in a few years that sets that are now 150-200$ will be 1000$ in 5 years after it retires? I can't imagine that would be so. I can see 100 sellers all listing the same item on eBay with all of them having a combination of thousands of the exact same set and all just waiting around for years and years to sell the sets. I don't think anyone will ever lose money though. The only thing you could possibly lose is a chance to invest that money in something else.

[Pseudoty]

Just to let you know your stash may be rarer then you think. TRU gives their stores grades on the same A-F scale used in school. In Delaware there are only 2 TRU one is graded an A and the one by me is graded a D. The grade can determine how much stock of an item a store is allocated. My TRU got 3 boxes of 5 sets of the pizza place while the one up north with way more foot traffic and in a much wealthier area that attracts customers from three other states for tax free shopping had enough to last all week.

So not sure how many D let alone F stores there are but you may have 3% and that is fine with me.

[MTG/LEGO]

Just to let you know your stash may be rarer then you think. TRU gives their stores grades on the same A-F scale used in school. In Delaware there are only 2 TRU one is graded an A and the one by me is graded a D. The grade can determine how much stock of an item a store is allocated. My TRU got 3 boxes of 5 sets of the pizza place while the one up north with way more foot traffic and in a much wealthier area that attracts customers from three other states for tax free shopping had enough to last all week.

So not sure how many D let alone F stores there are but you may have 3% and that is fine with me.

Almost didnt recognize who was positing because you changed your image!

Yea I heard that as well with the store ratings when I was talking to a manager of one. In all honestly I'm sure there are people with more sets then me. I'm probably below 1% but even if its 3 or 5% it's not game changing.

[Darth_Raichu]

For all of the people that have come and gone in this thread talking about how certain individuals such as myself or others that have bought so many of these and it's horrible etc...give it a break.

I believe there are 700+ tru stores from what I could find out. I've been to about 18 of them and all of them had from 50 to 100+ each week of the bricktober promo. just depending on location and how busy it is. Lets say for example there are 700 stores with an avg of 75 per week. That's 300 promos per store or 210,000 promos total usa allocation. Now lets say I have 500 of each week for 2000 total. That's less then 1% of all of them made. Hardly game changing. In fact I think the most anyone has officially said on this thread has less then 100 of each week. So 400 is less then half of 1%. This entire forum of buyers didn't ruin the promotion for anyone. I believe the people who I talk to who buy these sets mostly bought all of theirs at the end of a specific promo week. Anyone that wanted one had all week to get one. The reason why some of us were able to buy so many is because many stores had left overs because little to no interest in the promotion. I've been to some stores that had 75+ of two week old promotions just sitting on the shelf.

My point is no one on this forum ruined the promotion for anyone. No one on this forum(to my knowledge) works for lego marketing department. No one knows why they are changing the rules several times during this promotion. Also no one on this forum is to blame for spending their money how they want. If I walked into a lego store and they were accidentally selling a promo minifig that is suppose to be a giveaway for a purchase and I bought all 300 they had that is not my fault. I didn't ruin it for kids and collectors. They offered an item for sale and I bought them. The fault lies with the seller if they weren't suppose to sell them.

There is a question of, is this moral to buy every single item and leave none for the next person. In my particular case in a situation like buying up all the promos I see I have no problem doing so. I feel nothing morally wrong about it. I do not care of the next person doesn't get any because they will have the chance to get one online although for more money or at another store. The reason why I feel this way is from my last 7 years in retail and owning retail stores. My main concern was with my well being and the well being of my employees. For example 1 of the businesses I had we use to buy up all of the promo items we could that would be made by the manufacturer then given to the distributor to sell to the hundreds of stores. I would pay double or more to get more then out fair allocation. I could have cared less about the stores that suffered because of our manipulating to get more of a limited product. Like I said I had a duty to my employees and their families to make sure we were more profitable then other businesses.

With all this being said though I'm just trying to enjoy my retirement traveling and collecting Legos and pursuing other hobbies. If I decide to get serious about this hobby though be careful! If I was I might have been able to acquire 10-20% of this promotion! Even if I did acquire let's say 25% of this promotion I doubt it would have affected anyone on this forum. I'm sure anyone on this forum who wanted a set would of had no problems getting at least 1 set put together.

Anyways sorry for the long rant! Always easy for me to rant writing on my iPhone. Maybe it's because I'm anxious for new call of duty early edition to come out in a few hours or hangover from Vegas partying all night and morning

Ps- can't remember who but I remember a moderator stating its better to let the promos go to kids etc to keep them interested in the product and maybe they will become our customers 1 day. While I agree...I'm not doing this as a business so for the time being I'm not worried about my actions.

 

Yep, I am just waiting for networks such as yours to notice LEGO and gobble up any LEGO related promo / deals in major markets.  Hopefully I can get out before the the price cutting destroys whatever tiny margins left for the smaller operators such as myself

[ravenb99]

Just to let you know your stash may be rarer then you think. TRU gives their stores grades on the same A-F scale used in school. In Delaware there are only 2 TRU one is graded an A and the one by me is graded a D. The grade can determine how much stock of an item a store is allocated. My TRU got 3 boxes of 5 sets of the pizza place while the one up north with way more foot traffic and in a much wealthier area that attracts customers from three other states for tax free shopping had enough to last all week.

So not sure how many D let alone F stores there are but you may have 3% and that is fine with me.

That is very true. The new format stores seemed to be the ones that had more (the ones with the fancy ipod sections in them) but it didn't always correlate to them having enough and yet some had a ton extra.  I think a lot of it goes to the store training also which after this month I can see if not uniform and also hard to do as a lot of these employees didn't work but a day or two a week and didn't even know the promotion was going on.  Another factor of the employee training is I saw a lot of them not even know to give them out.  I saw a few LEGO sales in front of me qualify and the person never asked for it so they were not going to get it.  I actually said something to one lady and she thanked me afterwards.  I think I saw one employee tell a customer that if she bought a few more dollars she got the free promotion.  So some did know.  

 

Then there were the lower rated D/F stores and they probably didn't get many but the area they were in didn't even sell the little they had so they had almost all of theres left after the current week.

 

It really was an unorganized promotion from the accidental presales to the constant changing of rules, incorrect rules stated by a lot of stores according to the original promotion,  to them giving our wrong sets per week (happened on a good 1/3 of the promotional transactions I did where they were giving out wrong sets).

 

Anyone who pursued these sets in quantity knows it was not an easy process.  I purchased at least half of mine doing the buy $75 and get the promo free as I felt the deals were good on a few products that would move for the holidays and the rest I did in straight up purchase after the "promotional period" was over for that item and it was a time staking and tedious process.  Many stores couldn't locate the freebie for upwards of 10 minutes.  A lot had to call the manager up as they didn't know how to do it or what to give you.  There was lots of time invested in getting these and figuring out the best combo to buy to get your best deal out of it.

 

I was so glad today that it was over lol as I was really tired of going to TRU.  It was fun at first as we were traveling and it started good in Nashville , then back home in Atlanta, then back down to my old home of Orlando.   Once you started you had to follow through to build the sets and it got pretty downright boring.  

 

They didn't seem to have to much interest by most of the early on comments on BP so if any were left to buy outright it seems only a few groups really went after them to begin with.  Only now after its almost done have a few said they wished they had been able to complete there sets so I don't know what to really think of the demand overall for them.  Time will tell but there were some good deals to be had for the holiday season and I was able to build up a few products I wanted into the 25-50 range which I am happy with.

[MTG/LEGO]

Yep, I am just waiting for networks such as yours to notice LEGO and gobble up any LEGO related promo / deals in major markets.  Hopefully I can get out before the the price cutting destroys whatever tiny margins left for the smaller operators such as myself

Come on! 100% profit margin you are making on sets isn't tiny!

I wonder if buying and selling Legos could ever be a 20 or 40 million dollar a year business. I have no doubt a company or individual could probably spend 5 million+ every year on lego and sell that much on amazon and eBay. But 20 million? I would probably think not. I would think that this will always be a small business and always just be individuals buying and selling so I doubt any big company would just jump into the lego resell business. But again I'm just rambling lol. Why can't midnight get here faster! Call of duty awaits!

[Darth_Raichu]

Come on! 100% profit margin you are making on sets isn't tiny!

I wonder if buying and selling Legos could ever be a 20 or 40 million dollar a year business. I have no doubt a company or individual could probably spend 5 million+ every year on lego and sell that much on amazon and eBay. But 20 million? I would probably think not. I would think that this will always be a small business and always just be individuals buying and selling so I doubt any big company would just jump into the lego resell business. But again I'm just rambling lol. Why can't midnight get here faster! Call of duty awaits!

 

100% profit ? Sure, if you pick the correct sets 100% of the time  Anyone who is honest will tell you that the margin is going down by the month as competition increases.

[Young_Gun21]

One of the biggest evolutions is the margin for error is getting lower. Mistakes now will cost you even more because 1000s of others made the same mistake and have to unload those sets too. If you make good decisions and find niches; the profits are still there. They just aren't as obvious as the old MF, CC, GG, etc.

[JRandall]

For all of the people that have come and gone in this thread talking about how certain individuals such as myself or others that have bought so many of these and it's horrible etc...give it a break.

I believe there are 700+ tru stores from what I could find out. I've been to about 18 of them and all of them had from 50 to 100+ each week of the bricktober promo. just depending on location and how busy it is. Lets say for example there are 700 stores with an avg of 75 per week. That's 300 promos per store or 210,000 promos total usa allocation. Now lets say I have 500 of each week for 2000 total. That's less then 1% of all of them made. Hardly game changing. In fact I think the most anyone has officially said on this thread has less then 100 of each week. So 400 is less then half of 1%. This entire forum of buyers didn't ruin the promotion for anyone. I believe the people who I talk to who buy these sets mostly bought all of theirs at the end of a specific promo week. Anyone that wanted one had all week to get one. The reason why some of us were able to buy so many is because many stores had left overs because little to no interest in the promotion. I've been to some stores that had 75+ of two week old promotions just sitting on the shelf.

My point is no one on this forum ruined the promotion for anyone. No one on this forum(to my knowledge) works for lego marketing department. No one knows why they are changing the rules several times during this promotion. Also no one on this forum is to blame for spending their money how they want. If I walked into a lego store and they were accidentally selling a promo minifig that is suppose to be a giveaway for a purchase and I bought all 300 they had that is not my fault. I didn't ruin it for kids and collectors. They offered an item for sale and I bought them. The fault lies with the seller if they weren't suppose to sell them.

There is a question of, is this moral to buy every single item and leave none for the next person. In my particular case in a situation like buying up all the promos I see I have no problem doing so. I feel nothing morally wrong about it. I do not care of the next person doesn't get any because they will have the chance to get one online although for more money or at another store. The reason why I feel this way is from my last 7 years in retail and owning retail stores. My main concern was with my well being and the well being of my employees. For example 1 of the businesses I had we use to buy up all of the promo items we could that would be made by the manufacturer then given to the distributor to sell to the hundreds of stores. I would pay double or more to get more then out fair allocation. I could have cared less about the stores that suffered because of our manipulating to get more of a limited product. Like I said I had a duty to my employees and their families to make sure we were more profitable then other businesses.

With all this being said though I'm just trying to enjoy my retirement traveling and collecting Legos and pursuing other hobbies. If I decide to get serious about this hobby though be careful! If I was I might have been able to acquire 10-20% of this promotion! Even if I did acquire let's say 25% of this promotion I doubt it would have affected anyone on this forum. I'm sure anyone on this forum who wanted a set would of had no problems getting at least 1 set put together.

Anyways sorry for the long rant! Always easy for me to rant writing on my iPhone. Maybe it's because I'm anxious for new call of duty early edition to come out in a few hours or hangover from Vegas partying all night and morning

Ps- can't remember who but I remember a moderator stating its better to let the promos go to kids etc to keep them interested in the product and maybe they will become our customers 1 day. While I agree...I'm not doing this as a business so for the time being I'm not worried about my actions.

 

So you're supposedly a retired guy and you spend your time waiting for a Call of Duty release after "partying" in Vegas all while saying you can ****** up 10-20% of a promotion yourself.. Sure..