TLG cracking down on resellers

[legopocalypse]

out of curiosity, have the TLG and Amazon restrictions on limits and resellers gotten worse since the 12/26/12 USA Today Article?

[littlenicky]

TLG is definitely cracking down on resellers. They have already cut off a bunch of distributors so they definitely want to control where the products are being sold. I wouldn't be shocked if they were the ones who informed Walmart that they must limit on Legos. Until this past Xmas, you could buy as many as you wanted. Then, December rolled around and limits popped up on the Legos. If they didn't control their sales, every reseller would buy them up and sell them at 3 times the cost. Then, the end user would be upset and may not want to buy Legos anymore. They didn't get big by not protecting their brand.

[RunMan3]

I

[stephen_rockefeller]

If they didn't control their sales, every reseller would buy them up and sell them at 3 times the cost.

nonsense!

[Legodog]

I

[TheOrcKing]

I doubt the phrase

[cflannagan]

Just saw this today in CNNMoney. PayPal is finally changing their ways, but this is more than 5+ years too late IMHO. http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/21/technology/paypal-frozen-funds/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

[cflannagan]

[stephen_rockefeller]

How much is a PS3 worth now????? How much is a 10179 worth now??????

[cflannagan]

How much is a PS3 worth now????? How much is a 10179 worth now??????

Doesn't matter. With 10179 set, people were "too late" in getting the set, and they want it now.

In case for PS3, they wan it "too early". They want it IN HAND in time for xmas, and PS3 in fact were very hard to find if you wanted to get one for your kids or relatives. They knew that before they bid on the auction.

Those are the examples of being early and late. For "neither early nor late" example, I pay much higher premium for good seats at recent Outback Bowl, much higher than the "face value" of the ticket.

Ed Mack said it the best - work hard, play hard.

Now, on the other hand, if those people bid on auction thinking the value of PS3 will never go down, then yeah, you can say they lack common sense, but I doubt that was the case here. I for one would wait for PS3 prices to go down, but I think saying people who are willing to pay higher premium lack common sense is a bit unwarranted. They knew what they're getting into.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Agree to disagree deal? In the end I could care less if someone paid that much for a PS3.......its their money.

[cflannagan]

Agree to disagree deal? In the end I could care less if someone paid that much for a PS3.......its their money.

Of course we can agree to disagree Just playing a bit of devil's advocate :-D

[kerrmando]

I think I would be quite disappointed if some of the big box retailers like Walmart, Target, and Kmart ever limit the amount of Lego's you can buy at one time. Especially clearance items. Most of my investments happen to come from those three stores (or brick and morter Lego brand stores) and not from online vendors. I barely resell unless I need some quick cash to buy other sets so it would hurt my collection immensely and limit my building potential if Lego somehow convinced retailers to curb lego bulk sales.

[Anakinisvader]

Ok, heres my take (I may be wrong as I usually am). This last year, 2012, many retailers "cut back" on product because of the economy. All of a sudden there were, not the ususal few lego investors, many lego investors buying up product. Then POOF the retail stores were wiped out. (Remember after Christmas 2011 when there were gobs left on the shelves?) Then the "poor children" didn't get the set they wanted for Chrismas. This coming from the lazy parents who waited until Dec 24th to try to make their purchases. The easiest people for these parents to blame are the lego horders, uh I mean, investors rather than the retail outlets who didn't order enough product. Remember the Pokemon card craze. It got popular, then bought up by re-sellers, then shortage, then blame the re-sellers (funny thing was that without the re-sellers - Pokemon wouldn't have been even remotely popular). I believe that when all the fly by night, out to make a quick buck, resellers have been weeded out (which will be very soon considering its not cheap to re-sell legos and its not a get rich quick investment) things will go back to normal. Dont get me wrong. I am not blaming the re-sellers or I'd be blaming myself. The re-sellers are just an easy target to blame. If there is a drop ship scam someone is doing on ebay then all of a sudden all re-sellers are bad according to some. Yet these some can be loud and intimidating so people listen. (possibly TLG and Amazon) Again, just my 2 cents.

[Yellow]

I actually agree on a policy of limiting the amount of what you can buy if a company chooses to do so. I have seen items limited to one per purchase with popular items, and grocery stores do this all the time when they have deals on certain items. A good rule would be three per address no re-orders. Odds are if you are buying more than that you are buying them for re-sale purposes. And re-sellers should have to go through buying through the company. The problem is that Lego as well as other toy lines have far too strict guidelines which pushes re-sellers to have to go this route. A company that restricts purchase orders to only physical storefronts in 2013 is living in the dark ages! Big box, and b&m stores in general are a thing of the past, and will continuously decrease in years to come. Even though Best Buy has a online presence, they are falling hard. In-Store selling policies which push warranties does not help, but people just are not shopping in the stores anymore! Some exceptions apply such as a limited item under 3 to 5 thousand. But, Lego will be crawling on their knees once cheap and quality 3-D Printers come around in the next 10 to 20 years because Lego will be one of the first toy companies to fall due to their simplistic one-color items.

[TheOrcKing]

[Ed Mack]

Let's put the PS3 in perspective. At the time, they were rare and the new "it" gadget. There are many reasons why a person would buy a $1500 PS3. Maybe it was for their kids and they wanted to see the biggest smiles on their kid's faces on XMAS morning. Maybe it was for themselves. Whatever. The point is that it was worth $1500 because someone paid that much for it. Same thing as the 10179 and other large LEGO sets. There is a lot of extra money floating around out there, even with the economy in poor condition. It's worth $2300+ because people are paying for it. To complain about it and say people are silly for spending $2300 on it sounds like spilled milk to me. People who have a 10179 don't think it's silly. LOL. On topic...I don't have an issue with retailers putting limits on sets, just advertise it properly. Resellers have plenty of opportunities to buy sets from many sources. But anybody who thinks that resellers devoured all the LEGO sets in Walmart and Target were not paying attention to the entire toy isle. ALL THE TOYS IN THE TOY SECTION WERE BOUGHT UP AND THE PICKINGS WERE SLIM. The toy sections I saw were destroyed, like a bomb hit it and not just the LEGO isle. It took weeks for the stores to restock everything. Just a couple of wackjob Moms complaining.

[Tilted]

I think anyone that would spend $1,000 or more on one LEGO set is nuts! Heh heh.

But anyway, there is a differance between a console and a toy.

A console is basically a computer that will just be replaced in five years or so with yet another one. The older they become, the more obsolete they are. Heck, they're outdated as soon as they hit the shelves. So with these, "the earlier, the better" in terms of value.

Now, a toy is only made for so long and how can such a thing become outdated like a PC does? It can be a hundred years from now and a "Grand Emporium" will still be exactly that. Just worth A LOT more. These are on the opposite side of the spectrum with "Later is better."

If you were able to find someone that wanted to buy your PS3 for $1,500, then good for you.

You were willing to sell, he was willing to pay, a deal was made, life goes on.

I agree with that principle but there are, in fact, a few exceptions:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Gameboy-Handheld-Console-New-VGA-Graded-85-/221150311271?pt=Video_Games&hash=item337d95f367

Taking your Grand Emporium example, I think that 100 years from now it will be perceived as vintage and "genuine", as the dawn of 3D printing will definitively be a game changer. Bye Bye copyriiiight!

[stephen_rockefeller]

OK everyone this thread has gotten way off topic and it was totally my fault! Let's keep the posts on this thread related to the topic Jason intended it to be. Unless Ed orJeff have something to say lol all joking aside I steered the topic in the wrong direction so I feel I need to get it back on the right road. Thanks everyone.