Lego Store Canada

[ChristopherJB]

On 4/1/2016 at 1:26 PM, Zender said:

TLG are really adjusting prices for the CDN dollar, that new maze set is 89.99CDN vs 69.99US.  I think the price is pretty high for what you get as there is nothing really unique in the set is there?  Could probably bricklink it for less if color wasn't an issue.

I've said this many times in the past. Clean those exclusives before it's too late.

anything that is 229CAD is worth cleaning now. Those are all 199USD.
eg Ferris Wheel.

Also look into the Parisian Restaurant, Sydney Opera House and Tower Bridge.

[lego rules]

31 minutes ago, ChristopherJB said:

I've said this many times in the past. Clean those exclusives before it's too late.

anything that is 229CAD is worth cleaning now. Those are all 199USD.
eg Ferris Wheel.

Also look into the Parisian Restaurant, Sydney Opera House and Tower Bridge.

What happens if the Canadian dollar is at par when you decide to sell?

[lobo1969]

5 minutes ago, lego rules said:

What happens if the Canadian dollar is at par when you decide to sell?

Then he loses some profit margin if selling at USD retail (ie $199)

 But let's be realistic, its very safe to predict that the CDN dollar will be below par as history has shown. If it is above par the USD for an extended period time then we all probably have more significant world economic problems to worry about.

[gregpj]

10 minutes ago, lego rules said:

What happens if the Canadian dollar is at par when you decide to sell?

Hotcakes! Flip 'em like hotcakes!

[ChristopherJB]

9 hours ago, lego rules said:

What happens if the Canadian dollar is at par when you decide to sell?

Many people converted hundreds of thousands from CAD to USD when it was between 98 cents to 1.05.
Those who did it, they would be buying with the USD.

I punched in tower bridges, parisian restaurants, opera house, and those big simpsons sets at 68 cents a few months ago and cleaned tumblers like no tomorrow using USD to buy in CAD. The way to do it is to move all USD into the Interactive Broker account and swap them into CAD, then wire that money back into your CAD account and pay those CC bills.

I mentioned last year that I was paying around 150-160USD for tumblers and the response I got was "hotcakes" this and "hotcakes" that. IB account charges less than $10 for currency conversion and no additional fees so you get spot rate.

As far as I'm concerned, during double VIP, I just punched in more exclusives and wired money out of my IB account. A number of my friends are doing this too. I'd share more info here for those who are interested in doing arbitrage trading on lego. If you know how to milk the cash out of your IB account, you'll be laughing to the bank.

[gregpj]

On 4/5/2016 at 6:18 AM, ChristopherJB said:

Many people converted hundreds of thousands from CAD to USD when it was between 98 cents to 1.05.
Those who did it, they would be buying with the USD.

I punched in tower bridges, parisian restaurants, opera house, and those big simpsons sets at 68 cents a few months ago and cleaned tumblers like no tomorrow using USD to buy in CAD. The way to do it is to move all USD into the Interactive Broker account and swap them into CAD, then wire that money back into your CAD account and pay those CC bills.

I mentioned last year that I was paying around 150-160USD for tumblers and the response I got was "hotcakes" this and "hotcakes" that. IB account charges less than $10 for currency conversion and no additional fees so you get spot rate.

As far as I'm concerned, during double VIP, I just punched in more exclusives and wired money out of my IB account. A number of my friends are doing this too. I'd share more info here for those who are interested in doing arbitrage trading on lego. If you know how to milk the cash out of your IB account, you'll be laughing to the bank.

I'm not interested in doing arbitrage trading with LEGO - investing is just a side hobby for me, but if you're willing to share I am sure there are a few folks who would like to hear more. Please start a new thread if you'd like to. Even better, you could always write up a blog post.

I was just bugging you with that hotcake comment above but correct me if I'm wrong, if you sense the currency is about to shift <though the Bank of Canada seems unwilling to put pressure on any kind of change>, wouldn't you be crazy not to try and flip your stock purchased with USD? You'd suddenly lose much of the flip potential if exchange rates went from [CAD:USD] 1.31:1 to anywhere near 1:1.

[redghostx]

I'm not interested in doing arbitrage trading with LEGO - investing is just a side hobby for me, but if you're willing to share I am sure there are a few folks who would like to hear more. Please start a new thread if you'd like to. Even better, you could always write up a blog post.

I was just bugging you with that hotcake comment above but correct me if I'm wrong, if you sense the currency is about to shift , wouldn't you be crazy not to try and flip your stock purchased with USD? You'd suddenly lose much of the flip potential if exchange rates went from [CAD:USD] 1.31:1 to anywhere near 1:1.

If you only look at one currency for your purchases and sales then it doesn't matter when you sell, only when you buy. If you keep buying at 20-30% off of the US retail price, you can sell whenever you want in the US because your buy in is a fixed cost.

The only way to lose money is to sell in Canadian funds when the Canadian dollar appreciates but you can control that by adjusting your cash sale price to reflect the fluctuations in currency, which everyone should be doing anyhow.

[lego rules]

On 2016-04-05 at 0:18 AM, ChristopherJB said:

Many people converted hundreds of thousands from CAD to USD when it was between 98 cents to 1.05.
Those who did it, they would be buying with the USD.

I punched in tower bridges, parisian restaurants, opera house, and those big simpsons sets at 68 cents a few months ago and cleaned tumblers like no tomorrow using USD to buy in CAD. The way to do it is to move all USD into the Interactive Broker account and swap them into CAD, then wire that money back into your CAD account and pay those CC bills.

I mentioned last year that I was paying around 150-160USD for tumblers and the response I got was "hotcakes" this and "hotcakes" that. IB account charges less than $10 for currency conversion and no additional fees so you get spot rate.

As far as I'm concerned, during double VIP, I just punched in more exclusives and wired money out of my IB account. A number of my friends are doing this too. I'd share more info here for those who are interested in doing arbitrage trading on lego. If you know how to milk the cash out of your IB account, you'll be laughing to the bank.

I will try to articulate my thoughts the best I can, which sometimes comes out differently than the words rumbling around in my head.

  Part of me considers everyone on here a competitor and I smirk when I see someone stock up on an item I am totally avoiding because of past experiences.  I also very much appreciate when people post deals because I often buy a large amount when these rare deals pop up.  What irks me about this post and the prior post is that you make incomplete statements which can possibly lead people to make some very bad choices.  There are several $230 CDN $ sets available to buy which are $200 US currently.  They all could be winners regardless of currency, or they could be losers because of currency.  I have been having an amazing 2015/16 because of the huge drop in the CDN $ compared to the greenback.  I believe the market prices are strongly driven by the US$ which could pose a significant problem if our currency rebounds to par again.  It absolutely can happen, not likely anytime soon, but it is possible.  So while fellow people on this forum are competitors, I only try to help newer individuals so they don't get in over their heads.

Yes, only the strong survive, but if people take your advise blindly without doing any research, it could impact their lives negatively.

 

As for currency exchange, Norbert's Gambit has been a means to convert currency for a very long time.  You can do this at any brokerage and the fees are reasonable if you have a large enough account or trade a lot.  There is still some small risks associated with this technique, which should be at least understood and considered.  I personally used DLR and DLR.U because my brokerage charges nothing to trade those ETF's (or charged nothing the last time I did it).

 

Anyways, I hope I didn't derail the thread, and my only hope is that people are careful and do their due diligence.

 

Cheers,

 

[gregpj]

1 minute ago, redghostx said:

If you only look at one currency for your purchases and sales then it doesn't matter when you sell, only when you buy. If you keep buying at 20-30% off of the US retail price, you can sell whenever you want in the US because your buy in is a fixed cost.

The only way to lose money is to sell in Canadian funds when the Canadian dollar appreciates but you can control that by adjusting your cash sale price to reflect the fluctuations in currency, which everyone should be doing anyhow.

I guess so, but if you plan on converting those US funds back to Canadian dollars, you lose the exchange rate benefits if it changes negatively. Sure you can keep them in US funds, but since you must declare your income and pay taxes in Canadian dollars each year (holding them in a US based or US funds account is irrelevant), the benefits to leaving your money is a US account is purely for simplicity and currency arbitration purposes.

Example:

1. Buy Simpsons house for $230 CDN, BC taxes bumps the price to $257.59.
2. Pay with US funds, makes cost $195.93.
3. Let's assume you can sell it right away for $220 US... because you find some overseas buyer desperate to get one.
   1. Profit $24.07 US <forget fees, taxes for simplicity>
   2. Equates to $31.53 CDN.
4. If you can't flip for a week and the exchange drops approx 10% from 1.31 to 1.18, you would have to:
   1. Sell for the same profit, now you're making $28.40 CDN profit.

Of course if you leave in US funds and withdraw during the good exchange rate periods, you make more money... but when it comes time to file your taxes, you're looking at a much more complicated scenario if you always try to buy & sell from a US account.

I'm sure there are some shady techniques to avoid this, but in reality unless you are operating a business in the US and Canada (which you're not even if you list items on eBay.com but live full-time in Canada... it's much more complicated than that and I doubt anyone here does this) for income tax purposes, you should be reporting your actual costs vs actual sale value in CDN dollars at the time of the sale and not when the exchange rate is in your favour.

All I was getting at is that it seems to be that with the current exchange rate, your best bet is to buy & flip right away. The CDN-US dollar isn't likely going anywhere for the next while (though US elections could change that) so buying and selling large swaths of currency isn't likely to offer huge returns like it did back when it was 1:1 or better.

[redghostx]

Good points above and it is important to have a good accountant or to understand it yourself and there are benefits to keeping funds in US dollars outside of business/sales.

[gregpj]

14 minutes ago, redghostx said:

Good points above and it is important to have a good accountant or to understand it yourself and there are benefits to keeping funds in US dollars outside of business/sales.

Yeah like travel... Canadian exchange rates stink.

[kd123]

On March 31, 2016 at 9:04 PM, kd123 said:

According to Brickset, Jason Allamenn, designer of the new ideas maze will be at the lego store on April 9th from 11-3pm for set signing.  Wonder if a designer signed copy actually adds any value to Lego sets? 

Did anyone get a signed copy today?

I see it going for $160 on kijiji.ca

[gregpj]

Did anyone get a signed copy today?

I see it going for $160 on kijiji.ca

Going or asking price? I honestly don't see it ... $10 max. The guy designed a neat set but is a nobody just like me.

[kd123]

Asking price.  

[jeff_14]

Was at the Yorkdale location this weekend and they had Jokerland marked down to $120 instead of $150. Got my personal use one and am debating going back for more. That's a good price for this set with so many minifigs, not to mention most of the Teen Titans GO lineup. I would actually consider buying the fairground mixer and ferris wheel just to compliment this and the Fun House Escape sets. 

[lego rules]

1 hour ago, jeff_14 said:

Was at the Yorkdale location this weekend and they had Jokerland marked down to $120 instead of $150. Got my personal use one and am debating going back for more. That's a good price for this set with so many minifigs, not to mention most of the Teen Titans GO lineup. I would actually consider buying the fairground mixer and ferris wheel just to compliment this and the Fun House Escape sets. 

Wasn't jokerland marked down to $70 at some walmarts?

[jeff_14]

31 minutes ago, lego rules said:

Wasn't jokerland marked down to $70 at some walmarts?

I remember reading about a handful of places around Hamilton/Burlington that sold that low very briefly, but I never get out that way. Certainly none of the Toronto area Walmarts I frequented were doing that, and I was looking. Plus, you can get the Mr Freeze polybag with that purchase at the Lego Store. This site says it's worth $40 resale right now. 

[Phil B]

10 minutes ago, jeff_14 said:

I remember reading about a handful of places around Hamilton/Burlington that sold that low very briefly, but I never get out that way. Certainly none of the Toronto area Walmarts I frequented were doing that, and I was looking. Plus, you can get the Mr Freeze polybag with that purchase at the Lego Store. This site says it's worth $40 resale right now. 

The 30603 Mr. Freeze polybag goes for ~$15-$18 on Ebay.com (US$) right now ... nowhere near the $40 you mention. Unless the Canadian market for this minifig is totally different of course. Just want to prevent a big disappointment when trying to sell.

[gregpj]

14 minutes ago, Phil B said:

The 30603 Mr. Freeze polybag goes for ~$15-$18 on Ebay.com (US$) right now ... nowhere near the $40 you mention. Unless the Canadian market for this minifig is totally different of course. Just want to prevent a big disappointment when trying to sell.

$15-$18 US translates $20-$24 + shipping in Canada... the market for minifigs is largely the same except that you can usually add $2 or $3 to the converted price and offer free shipping or convert the US free shipping price and charge extra for basic shipping.

[Phil B]

18 minutes ago, gregpj said:

$15-$18 US translates $20-$24 + shipping in Canada... the market for minifigs is largely the same except that you can usually add $2 or $3 to the converted price and offer free shipping or convert the US free shipping price and charge extra for basic shipping.

Yes - I looked up 30603 prices on BrickLink for Canada and saw that they sell for C$18-C$22 - so half of the C$40 @jeff_14 quotes. Assuming you don't make money on the shipping, that's all you'll get for this poly. Still not bad for a freebie.

[jeff_14]

I don't think it's worth $40 either, just pointing out that this site is showing it going for $47.33 CDN in my portfolio. Even at half the price, it's a nice incentive on top of $30 off a unique set. Even if you don't like superheroes, this would be great for a large amusement park display, which Lego seems to be into lately.

[jeff_14]

I stopped by the Fairview location last night to get another one and they don't even have a home for the Joker land. Is this thing done? Sale prices at one store and no product at another.

[megahuts]

I stopped by the Fairview location last night to get another one and they don't even have a home for the Joker land. Is this thing done? Sale prices at one store and no product at another.

It would e surprising if it wasn't done, with the Suicide Squad movie coming out (new style of Joker and Harley Quin). You don't want two products competing with each other.

[jeff_14]

1 minute ago, megahuts said:

It would e surprising if it wasn't done, with the Suicide Squad movie coming out (new style of Joker and Harley Quin). You don't want two products competing with each other.

I don't think they would compete that much. There is no new set with a Joker figure so far. The new one with Harley has Deadshot. Plus this set has a host of Batman characters and villains as well as Teen Titans characters that cannot be had any other way. Didn't this thing come out just a year ago?

[jeff_14]

So I did go to Yorkdale today and got one Jokerland for eventual resale. They have 5 left. The MR Freeze polybag is sold out across Toronto so I had to call Lego to get them to send me one.