Long Distance Clearance Hunting

[Soadfan4ever]

So I have been considering making a trip to some of the stores in my region that I've never been to that are far away.  The farthest one is about 2.5 hours away, so stopping at every store would make this a day long trip.  I have a hybrid that gets 45-50 mpg on the highway and my route would be V shaped taking one highway north and returning through another highway that will bring me southeast and eventually end in my hometown.  I am in the process of locating every Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Toys R Us on my route.  I've located over 20 stores on the route so far.  The costs are my time, fuel, and the wear on the vehicle.  The risk is that I strike out and get nothing for all of the trouble, although I do enjoy the hunt.  I've had success before doing this in my area, but there are a lot of stores relatively close to each other.  I'm wondering if anyone else has done something like this and what were your experiences?

[cbaker1974]

I have done this in the past, and it can be a real crapshoot.  I've had some good runs and some terrible ones.  Usually 1 or 2 stores can make or break the whole day.  I used to do a lot of these runs on return trips after visiting relatives that lived 4 hours away...ended up taking me the whole day to get back while hopping on and off the interstate to check all of the locations.  I usually would do this during the Lego "dry season" for buying, one of which we are about to enter...

 

You do have a couple of things working against you, and those are 1) the lack of the traditional Walmart post-Christmas clearance and 2) being really late in the Target clearance cycle.  If you do it this weekend, then the 15% off TRU coupon helps if you can find any recently retired sets (although doing it in a BOGO 40 or 50% would be ideal).  

 

I definitely understand the thrill of the hunt/itch tho...it can be tough when the before Christmas / after Christmas sales are over and you still want to buy.  When you do these trips and you come home with nothing, or just a few MSRPish buys it can be really frustrating.  Your best bet to win will be if you can hit a lot of stores in economically depressed or very rural areas...if you are just dealing with "normal suburb" type stores it will probably already be bought-out by the soccer moms.

[cbaker1974]

Also...if you can hit Barnes and Nobles with the Kids club coupon then I like your chances for success a lot more...it can at least help you hedge the trip a bit since you could almost guarantee finding 1 good set worth buying in each B&****** if you could hit 3 or more of them.

[redcell]

So I have been considering making a trip to some of the stores in my region that I've never been to that are far away.  The farthest one is about 2.5 hours away, so stopping at every store would make this a day long trip.  I have a hybrid that gets 45-50 mpg on the highway and my route would be V shaped taking one highway north and returning through another highway that will bring me southeast and eventually end in my hometown.  I am in the process of locating every Walmart, Target, Kmart, and Toys R Us on my route.  I've located over 20 stores on the route so far.  The costs are my time, fuel, and the wear on the vehicle.  The risk is that I strike out and get nothing for all of the trouble, although I do enjoy the hunt.  I've had success before doing this in my area, but there are a lot of stores relatively close to each other.  I'm wondering if anyone else has done something like this and what were your experiences?

I have found this to largely be a waste of time, particularly in the past few years. The problem is that, with the prevalence of websites like this, deals become known very quickly and all of the good stuff gets snapped up either by dedicated Lego resellers or the SD crowd. Personally, I wouldn't waste the time or gas.

[Veegs]

I've had a mixed bag like others, targeting stores in the Detroit and surrounding areas.  Very hit or miss, even in areas I didn't think were very economically....er...strong.  I think LegoDog from MI is scooping up the good deals before me

 

If you are doing it also for a bit of fun and for the thrill of the hunt, I'd say go for it.  Since I actually enjoy rooting through B&M stores, this road trip sounds pretty fun to me.

[Bold-Arrow]

I've had a mixed bag like others, targeting stores in the Detroit and surrounding areas. Very hit or miss, even in areas I didn't think were very economically....er...strong. I think LegoDog from MI is scooping up the good deals before me

If you are doing it also for a bit of fun and for the thrill of the hunt, I'd say go for it. Since I actually enjoy rooting through B&M stores, this road trip sounds pretty fun to me.

What area of MI are you in ?

[spener90]

I've had a mixed bag like others, targeting stores in the Detroit and surrounding areas.  Very hit or miss, even in areas I didn't think were very economically....er...strong.  I think LegoDog from MI is scooping up the good deals before me

 

If you are doing it also for a bit of fun and for the thrill of the hunt, I'd say go for it.  Since I actually enjoy rooting through B&M stores, this road trip sounds pretty fun to me.

I agree with this.  I enjoy the hunt, but the times I get stuck in traffic while doing so, drive me up a wall!

[exciter1]

I enjoy doing this from time-to-time.  It actually gives me some time to myself and I can catch up on some music while driving..  It sometimes takes all day and my wife gets annoyed by it sometimes.  I'm usually looking for sales in general, but I'll wait for clearances to start hitting and any finds are just a bonus usually.  My last one was shortly after Christmas and I hit up a few clearance deals at Meijer and Target.  I bought a Technic Logging Truck with a price match at TRU and found some decent 30% off deals, but I concentrated mostly on items that were retiring soon.

 

You shouldn't feel too bad doing it.  I go on my hunts driving my V8 295 horsepower truck that only gets an average of 15mpg.  The one thing I don't lack is space to bring stuff home.  I have a bed cover that locks, so I just throw a couple totes and some big boxes back there to put stuff in after buying.

 

I don't have the luxury of all my stores being close together, so I have to drive.  On average, each stop once you pull off will take at least 20min to park, walk in/out, hunt, checkout lines, etc.  It sucks at KMart sometimes when coupons don't work as they should and you have to wait for managers, overrides, etc.

[Soadfan4ever]

Thank you all for sharing you thoughts and experiences, they are much appreciated.

[spener90]

I enjoy doing this from time-to-time.  It actually gives me some time to myself and I can catch up on some music while driving..  It sometimes takes all day and my wife gets annoyed by it sometimes.  I'm usually looking for sales in general, but I'll wait for clearances to start hitting and any finds are just a bonus usually.  My last one was shortly after Christmas and I hit up a few clearance deals at Meijer and Target.  I bought a Technic Logging Truck with a price match at TRU and found some decent 30% off deals, but I concentrated mostly on items that were retiring soon.

 

You shouldn't feel too bad doing it.  I go on my hunts driving my V8 295 horsepower truck that only gets an average of 15mpg.  The one thing I don't lack is space to bring stuff home.  I have a bed cover that locks, so I just throw a couple totes and some big boxes back there to put stuff in after buying.

 

I don't have the luxury of all my stores being close together, so I have to drive.  On average, each stop once you pull off will take at least 20min to park, walk in/out, hunt, checkout lines, etc.  It sucks at KMart sometimes when coupons don't work as they should and you have to wait for managers, overrides, etc.

I've done this a few times, during the Kroger clearances.  I went out once to hit some stores 45 minutes away and found nothing.  Stopped at a random goodwill and found a monorail for $8! Best purchase I've ever made.

[No More Monkeys]

I've done this a few times, during the Kroger clearances.  I went out once to hit some stores 45 minutes away and found nothing.  Stopped at a random goodwill and found a monorail for $8! Best purchase I've ever made.

Hmm, goodwill... interesting. Anyone else saw anything of interest in thrift-store-like places?

[exciter1]

I've stopped at Goodwill after seeing reports about a dozen times. I always leave wondering how anyone finds stuff there and then I take a shower.

[Young_Gun21]

Take a few of the old PM from Kmart to liken your chances of success. It's a risk but rewards could be huge.

[janedoe]

Did it once and got a good haul during Kmart's 50% off sale. Left 8am in the morning and didn't get back until 2am the next day. Logged over 500 miles. Depends if you want to gamble it or not. Best haul was 5 Jabba's Palace for $65 each before the panic buy occurred and easily tripled the return on ebay. Made up the gas money with one JP sold.

[mikemcd]

As long as your not doing this in Michigan its a fine idea. You may find 1 or 2 of those stores that dont move lego for whatever reason until clearance time and you will be able to hit them every year.

[spener90]

Did it once and got a good haul during Kmart's 50% off sale. Left 8am in the morning and didn't get back until 2am the next day. Logged over 500 miles. Depends if you want to gamble it or not. Best haul was 5 Jabba's Palace for $65 each before the panic buy occurred and easily tripled the return on ebay. Made up the gas money with one JP sold.

Tripled your money with Jabba's Palace for $65?  Where are you selling these for $195?

[thombockerman]

Unless you bring a trailer, if you're anything like me you'll only get to about 3 stores before the car is full

[exciter1]

Tripled your money with Jabba's Palace for $65?  Where are you selling these for $195?

 

I wouldn't doubt it, they were going for close to $200 during the panic.  Timing was the key to take advantage of the news that was published.  There was like a 2 day window where they went for close to $200.