So I have purchased a total of 6 things from Toys r Us ebay auctions over the past few weeks. Today I went to do a buy it now on one of their auctions and I got the following message. Seller not accepting your bid

Like me, I guess they also think that buying 50 or more copies of one set is ridiculous. Not saying you are doing that but that it what they are trying to put an end to. I say its about time.

I'm guessing this is their response to the lego resellers. This is so damn stupid if you think about it, why are they trying to deny us business? Their whole reason is "with each item you buy intending to boringly resell, that's one kid not getting his favorite toy". Which is probably one of the worst arguments ever, since we're going to resell them anyway to collectors. We're just taking advantage of the price markup.

Y'all can complain all you want but in the end it will help the secondary market, not hurt it. The only people it will piss off is the people trying to obtain 100,000,000 copies of the same same set, its a blessing is disquise for them as well, as this is a horrible Lego investment practice.

I'm all for restricting resellers to help the secondary market. I think we are all going to be surprised next Christmas when everyone tries to unload some of their sets and the market is flooded resulting in poor prices for everything we hoped would bring big returns. I've said it before, this site has been seeing an average of over 1000 new members a week. It was over 2000 the couple weeks after Christmas. There are just so many new investors that these stores limiting quantities is probably best for everyone. With that said I only ordered 6 things from TRU on eBay in the last month. Only 3 of them were a duplicate item. So they must be getting really strict or maybe something else is up.

Well this is all quite interesting to hear. I am very shocked to hear that a business would block you for buying 6 items (was this 6 items in total or 6 orders that could be 50 items?). While we have had a great surge in new members, all of them don't necessarily run out and buy tons of sets. LEGO is too expensive for the average person to hoard a lot. Even buying 20 10197s is $2500 which is too steep for most people to just blow and wait on it for a few years. Sure there are more people aware of it, but I would say out of all the new members, maybe 5% would really become interested and try to do more with LEGO.

It would be cool to see membership stats. like 10% of members have 5 or less sets. 56% have 5 to 20 sets. etc. The total member portfolio is an interesting giant number but I think the other stats in a graph would be very cool. and general enough.

Well this is all quite interesting to hear. I am very shocked to hear that a business would block you for buying 6 items (was this 6 items in total or 6 orders that could be 50 items?). While we have had a great surge in new members, all of them don't necessarily run out and buy tons of sets. LEGO is too expensive for the average person to hoard a lot. Even buying 20 10197s is $2500 which is too steep for most people to just blow and wait on it for a few years. Sure there are more people aware of it, but I would say out of all the new members, maybe 5% would really become interested and try to do more with LEGO.

What he said.

Well this is all quite interesting to hear. I am very shocked to hear that a business would block you for buying 6 items (was this 6 items in total or 6 orders that could be 50 items?). While we have had a great surge in new members, all of them don't necessarily run out and buy tons of sets. LEGO is too expensive for the average person to hoard a lot. Even buying 20 10197s is $2500 which is too steep for most people to just blow and wait on it for a few years. Sure there are more people aware of it, but I would say out of all the new members, maybe 5% would really become interested and try to do more with LEGO.

Here is a list of what I purchased from TRU's eBay auctions over the past month (I have never purchased from them before this). Looks like it is only actually 5 items. Each was a separate auction with both 4866 sets being purchased at the same time using the "add to cart" feature on their eBay store. I did order 2 other things that were cancelled the next day after the auction stating that they were out of stock or whatever.

Castle Medieval Market Village (10193) - Sale date: 01/17/13

Castle Medieval Market Village (10193) - Sale date: 01/17/13

Castle Medieval Market Village (10193) - Sale date: 01/16/13

2x Harry Potter the Knight Bus (4866) - Sale date: 01/04/13

My wife and I also retail pick several other items, and I can tell you that limiting quantities is nothing new in those areas. For example, we invest heavily in various cosmetics. In fact, we make probably 10x on cosmetics that we ever make on LEGO or anything else. There have been several releases in the last few weeks and it's common for the companies selling to limit the purchase quantities. This is a nuisance, but there are ways around purchase limits....

i wonder if this is all related to the fact that Lego won't allow retailers to sell items to wholesalers. i know first hand. entertainment earth is not allowed to sell Lego on their private wholesaler web site where customers all have EINs. granted, this practice also keeps wholesalers from buying too much inventory for high priced secondary market sales.

I have literally spent 1000's on hundreds of products from TRU over the past two months. My guess is this has do with something else or is an error...

Its not an error........they just now started doing it along with many other retailers.

I have literally spent 1000's on hundreds of products from TRU over the past two months. My guess is this has do with something else or is an error...

Through eBay? That's where this is happening for me. I haven't tried a purchase through toysrus.com yet. Next time I do I will report my findings. In any case I am shocked that from ordering 5 things I was blocked. I think I will email them and see what they say.

About a third of it was through ebay. It was mostly Star Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don't think I have bought any LEGO sets from TRU on ebay...

I emailed them. If they respond I will post it here.

Its not an error........they just now started doing it along with many other retailers.

That sucks.

Good luck with that retailers...

I understand retailers doing this but what doesn't make sense is that I only ordered a total of 5 items. And that was over the course of a few weeks to a month. I guess it was the 3 Castle Medieval Market Village (10193) sets that flagged me as a reseller or something. Maybe this will all blow over. I think there are just so many people buying up sets at the moment that retailers are taking action. Maybe they will be a little more relaxed when summer comes around and resellers back off a little (if they do). When it comes down to it though you list something on eBay or your website because you want to sell it right? So why keep someone from buying it? I mean if I had a store and I sell X amount of whatever a day and one day someone comes in and says I want to buy it all wouldn't that be a great day? You are a seller, I am a buyer so let me buy the damn things and don't worry about what I plan to do with it. If TRU really cares then why don't they hang on to the set for 2 years and then sell it at a profit. They already mark the damn things up to outrageous prices so they are half way there on getting more than retail. I shouldn't be shocked though it is TRU+eBay afterall.Ok, enough with my rant.

This practice of limiting purchases is not going to go away. At first, I was rather annoyed. How DARE someone tell me what I can and cannot buy. But after much deep and insightful thought...LOL...I like the practice. LEGO has always put limits on sets and as long as they honor those limits and publicize them, I don't have an issue. Same goes for other retailers. But my issue arises when they say you can order 5, then refuse or cancel the order. That is BS. I know TLG said they don't pay much attention to the secondary market, but obviously they do. There must be some resellers sucking up huge lots of sets to change policy. That being said, the majority of us are not big time resellers and can easily adapt by diversifying our collections and buying from multiple sources. The limit on purchases will keep the secondary market prices stable and this enable this hobby and business to prosper for a long time in the future.

Something had to be done about people buying 13,873,563 of the same set in hopes of becoming a thousandaire!!

Ed, I know you don't sell but you are still buying right? Your badge hasn't moved past 3,283 sets since I signed up a month or so ago. Also does anyone have more sets in their brickfolio than you do? Just curious.

Ed, I know you don't sell but you are still buying right? Your badge hasn't moved past 3,283 sets since I signed up a month or so ago. Also does anyone have more sets in their brickfolio than you do? Just curious.

I have more sets to add, I'm just lazy. I'm not the largest holder of LEGO sets. ;-(

I have more sets to add, I'm just lazy. I'm not the largest holder of LEGO sets. ;-(

I usually can't wait to add mine to my Brickfolio. It's the first thing I do when I get them :)

Limit on six that is just ridiculous, i hope amazon doesn't follow their practices

Your badge hasn't moved past 3,283 sets since I signed up a month or so ago.

Dude, the guy has a ton of sets. Trying to catalogue them all and maintain the site among other things is time consuming to say the least.

Something had to be done about people buying 13,873,563 of the same set in hopes of becoming a thousandaire!!

Yeah really. Who the heck in their right mind ever needs that many of one thing?! Even if it is a small set ($10-$20 size), I think buying 40 or more of the same one is over the top. 20 is my max limit and even that is still pushing it for me.

I'm with you that there needs to be some kind of purchase limit, but....

But my issue arises when they say you can order 5, then refuse or cancel the order. That is BS.

this is where I draw the line. If they say you can buy so many units, then you should be able to do so. For example, if I wanted to buy two "Grand Emporiums" for myself for whatever the reason, I should be able to do so without the chance of the order being cancelled just 'because'. For resale or their own collection, a buyer should not be discriminated against just on the hunch that they may plan to resell.

If LEGO and some other retailers don't watch it, they're going to really piss off their consumers!

But their main concern is the immediate end user, generally kids. If no investors ever bought a set again, TLG would be just fine. They would still sell out of all the sets at Christmas and in the grand scheme of things, be no worse off. If you really want to get several copies of a set it's easy enough to do, it just requires a little more legwork now. Buying 40+ exclusives will be much more difficult, but not impossible over the life of a set. If you bought 2 (insert your set of choice here) from eBay TRU, 2 from TRU.com, 2 from Amazon, 2 from S@H, maybe 2 more from Target or somewhere else, that's 8-10 you could order in a single day. That's way more than your average person is going to want or need. Even a semi-heavy investor will probably only pick up 5-10 copies of any set larger than battle packs. But I definitely agree that if a limit is posted, you should be able to buy up to that limit.