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Toys R Us has changed the conditions of their rewards program as of early 2015. These changes are not well documented on the TRU reward website and these changes are important if you wish to gain maximum value from their rewards program. Here's a short guide on these changes, how the program works, and how to gain maximum value from TRU rewards. 1) Sign up and point accrual. You need a TRU rewards account, its easy to sign up online or in person. Here's the link for on-line sign up. You get 1 reward point for each dollar spent, the equivalent of 4% back on your purchase. 2) Reward Amounts. Rewards are issued in $5 increments, and require 125 points for each $5, up to a maximum reward of $200 or 5000 points. You can set your desired reward level online here (you need to be logged in for this link to work). You can "bank" up to $200 in future rewards (5000 points) at this link. If you don't opt in to point banking (and you should), TRU issues rewards every 2 weeks in whatever value you've earned, if you have at least 500 points accrued. These rewards come by postal mail and are also posted in the "My Rewards" tab online. 3) Reward Restrictions. THIS IS IMPORTANT. TRU changed their reward program, and your reward certificate/coupon can ONLY be used to purchase a SINGLE ITEM ONLINE. You will want to carefully consider what value of coupon you want the certificate to be issued for. If your reward certificate is of value greater than your most expensive item, that item will show as $0.00 at checkout, but the remaining value of your certificate will be lost. At present, you should be able to use your reward certificate to purchase multiple items in store, but be sure to check before you use a certificate worth more than your most expensive item. 4) Rewards on demand. If you've opted into "points banking" above, you can have TRU issue a reward certificate instantly and any time by the "Create a Reward" link on the right side of the "Rewards Preferences" tab. You can issue your own reward in $5 increments up to your point balance at any time. It takes about 10 minutes for the reward to appear in your account under "My Rewards". 5) A flexible way to use rewards. Given #3 and 4, above, the easiest way to use rewards is to set a high reward level (I use the maximum, $200) and then just issue yourself certificates when you have the points using the procedure in step 4. As a bonus, this happens instantly. 6) Purchases. You use your certificate in person by scanning the coupon/certificate. You can also use it online by typing in the number during TRU checkout. If you have a balance remaining, you must pay that. Tax is ONLY charged against any balance remaining, not on the sale price of the item. 7) Percent-off coupons, Sale Prices, and rewards. Coupons and discounts work differently when also using a reward certificate. The reward value comes off the price of the item before any percent discount is applied. This means that percent-off coupons aren't nearly as valuable when cashing rewards, and will only apply to any remaining cash balance on your item. If a TRU item is on sale, your reward will be applied against the sale price. Carefully choose your item and make sure you know its price before completing your purchase. 8] Dollars-off coupons and rewards. Dollar-off coupons work just fine. Note, the minimum dollar amount for a coupon to work ($5 off a $25 or greater purchase) is applied to the item price after your reward coupon has been applied. 9) Reward Expiration. Reward coupons expire 60 days after you issue them. 10) Returns. THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT. If you return an item purchased with a reward certificate, you forfeit the reward certificate and it will NOT be reissued. Choose your reward items carefully as you basically can't return them. 11) Double Rewards Points. If you use the TRU credit card, you receive double reward points on all purchases, the equivalent of 8% back. You can use your TRU credit card for partial payment during checkout, and still receive double points for your entire purchase. 12) Online and eBay purchases. TRU is pretty good about knowing who you are when purchasing both online and via eBay, and there purchases accrue reward points just like in person. If you're logged in, you can see all your purchases online at this link. That's it! Good luck in accruing and using points. Be sure to issue your certificate for close-to or less than the amount of the item you want, try to use a dollar off coupon, and know that the item basically can't be returned.

I ended up with 55 of them. I'll start selling them 3-4 years from now. Until then, I'm on a ramen noodle diet.

I don't usually buy City but...

As contradictory as this sounds, I'm loving the terrible 2's. The little guy is trying to make sentences and how things are starting to register with him like traffic lights, red is stop, green is go. I'm especially lovin' when he shows an interest in the hobbies I like. He'll bring his lego (Duplo) downstairs to build with me or he'll ask to go outside to play "hockey ball"! I've even been turning down the overtime at work to make sure I don't miss this part of life because I know the teens are right around the corner. Good times!

6857 Funhouse and 76013 steamroller bundle $139 shipped Set of mixels series 2 $85 shipped

My wife made this out of it for the kids.

One of my TRU shipments. This box was 20 x larger than a Unimog w/ zero air bubbles.

WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF THIS You just made my day.

I'm the sucker that paid 229 (minus red card and discounted gift card) for another R2 at 4:29 am CST. I promptly went back to sleep and dreamed of untold riches...

Keep those stacks down to 10 - 12 sets each or you'll have some flattened modulars at the bottom to deal with in 24 months. Also note that a large cat weighs about as much as two GE's, so keep the stack a bit on the short side if the top set will be serving as a feline lookout tower. Had to learn all this the hard way. Can't believe Lego doesn't put helpful warnings like this in place of the useless "Don't feed pieces of your Fire Brigade to any child three years of age or less"...

Spent all of my expiring SYW points on Kmart. I bought some City, Bionicle and Ninjago. None of these were for investments. They were all future gifts for my son. It felt great to buy something that was 100% gift and 0% investment. I can't wait to see the smile on his face when he opens these, or better yet, when he asks me how proud I am of him when he builds them on his own. (edit: spelling mistake)

Not that I can think of. Just make sure to fill out the paperwork.

Pretty sure Lego made one of these for every child on Earth :)

I'm planning to grab 10 myself. If I find more than that I will pick them up and offer them to other BP members at my cost + shipping if anyone is interested.

7965 Falcon for $230 + shipping Have 6 left, will hold out for higher numbers next time.

Why do people gather together and stay up until late on December 31st ? New year falls on January 1st year after year.

Why are people anxiously awaiting these retirement status updates? Do you need confirmation of what you've been able to see with your own eyes for months now?

I loved the box when I first bought one to build. I hated the box when I had to find room to store my investment.

Re selling price : I heard the same thing regarding 9493, 9515, 9500, 9492 and 7965.

Meijer is having 15% off general merchandise this weekend (3/13 - 3/14) when you use your Meijer credit card. This will stack with the already 25% off on this set. This is the time to stock up. Comes to $83+ tax each.

Individual pages for many sold out items have no details on them as of now, so perhaps we'll see the mass retirement today. e.***., http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Grand-Emporium-10211?fromListing=listing

If anyone is selling 9515s for a loss, they're doing it wrong.

Agreed. When I display unique figs that come with a helmet and hairpiece, I usually take a trans minifig head (or similar piece) and mount the helmet on that and have the fig hold the helmet. I am sure that is what I will do with this one.

Comic book store with Wil Wheaton.

Yeah, I quickly learned eBay and Bricklink sellers don't budge on this set I was lucky (that someone owed me a favor) to get me this set especially with it's authenticate printed tile which more than makes up for the box condition. Plus the manual is in excellent shape. All said and done, everything cost $115 with postage.

Guys and girls, I cleaned up this thread. Some posts were edited and deleted. The original poster created a thread and even posted an offensive language acronym.. Some folks replied with suggestions while others didn't. Let's move on. Also.. REMNDER.... Ed and Jeff DO NOT ALLOW BUYING / SELLING solicitation on the forums. Those posts were also removed.

They'll let you order them anytime... Whether they fulfill the order or ban you is the real question. Only one way to find out! *edit... *OR* ... le sigh*

I think the set is a poor investment. I mean it hasn't even hit $1000 and it's been like 3 or 4 months. Jeez Louise!

Wait, so you're saying that the release of a movie will increase interest in movie-related merchandise?

There was a brief(ish) moment that some members were getting under my skin but I've done a lot of thinking and realized how awesome this entire community is and my attitude was not reflective of how I feel about this forum and it's members. I'm good now!

That's better than the budget housing I made for mine from some TH boxes last fall:

About 3 weeks ago I had a $100 rewards certificate. I purchased 2 items for around $104 and the total came out to $4+tax. I think multiples are ok. EDIT: I should add that this was in-store. I never use them online because one time I ordered an item that went out of stock and lost my reward!

Good, you can ship one of your DS or SSD sets without worrying about finding a large enough box.

Double rewards points are effective anytime with the TRU credit card. I believe you're referring to the 10% off all items on Thursday using the TRU CC. And yes, you have to ask the cashier to activate that coupon on Thursdays.

You are not alone. I have no idea what 99% of the complainers are talking about. It's like mass hallucination that the barge looked like the first lego toy. The 2nd version is WAY closer. Further people complained about the 2nd set have less piece count, but forget the first set also included a Skiff. LOOK at that beak!

actually not a lot of people will have it as sets i am thinking that 90% of that set was scooped up by part-out-ers.

I had a nightmare last night that I received negative feedback on eBay. This is getting too real.

Make sure to contact US-based support.

Well one out of six hundred or so isn't bad considering that is about, what, a 0.17% of a mix-up. That's not even a full percent. Heck, half a percent. It's a bummer but easily overshadowed by all the good transactions which was everything else from the sounds of it. Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff, Ship a Shuff! You know that sounds like the title to a Dr. Seuss book.

Fixed it for you.

And this is why the seal codes tell you nothing other than that some set was put together on some date. Some people will say new seal codes so last batch, others will say new seal codes so this is in full production. You won't know which it is until it's too late.

just saw X-wing 9493 marked as retired in US so maybe they are finally working on the list

You pretty Californians with the 80 degree weather. OK, maybe I should have said tank tops.

My buddy (AFOL, not an investor) wanted my help to prep and sell his Imperial Flagship (10210, with box and instructions). Spent about 2 hours taking pics, cleaning, and disassembling. Listed it as a BIN on eBay for $499. We're very good friends, he said to just give him $380 when it sold, I'd keep the rest for eBay fees, shipping, paypal, and my time and use of my account. Well, the kit is fabulous, as most folks know. He owed my $100 for a Rush ticket purchase last month, and I said, why don't I just give you $280 and we call it all even? He was thrilled. Can't wait to rebuild this, especially since I just carefully washed all the parts. Here's a few of the parts drying out before sorting.

Know when to walk away, know when to run...away from Chima clearance. Edit: I can't believe I quoted "The Gambler" for my 2000th post. Hangs head in shame.

comments about soooooo many people buying a set as a reason to not invest really make me scratch my head because its like you are saying the rest of the time when you buy a set, its your little secret and no one else is buying that set to invest in. thousands of lego investors/collectors are buying thousands of copies of sets including the ones that don't get talked about and cleared at 50% off & including the ones that people think they are the only one hoarding. .

Sorry to say that but some people here seem to be plainly naive. LEGO ideas is a wonderful theme and a lot of awesome designs are offered frequently. The idea behind the ideas project is just ingenious! You get somebody (thousands of somebodies!!!) to design stuff for you and all the potential customers can decide about it. So not only you get free model designers but also you get a free public-opinion poll. (But not only in terms of the designed sets! Also they can see what people are interested in generally!) And all that you had to do was uploading an internet page. They even can influence everything on the page by picking the staffs favorites etc. So when finally some of these free designs reaches the 10.000 mark it's getting serious for TLC! They've got to pick at least one. (And tell the rest how awesome they are and that they would have loved to produce all of them). Picking one is the only part where TLC actually has to work. What are they aiming for? 1. Producing an unforgetable set which is just awesome!!! ... yeah it would be nice I guess but that's not really the main goal here (sorry to burst your bubble ;-) ) 2. Producing a LEGO set which will probably do well on the market and can easily (and cheaply) be produced? ... YES! That's it... BANG! And honestly I think as a company that's where LEGO is doing it right. No messing around! People think a 22.000 bricks Helicarrier is cool? Yeah of course they do! But will people buy a 2500,00$ set? Eh... ... ... nope. (PPP 0,12 X 22000 = 2640). I mean would you? So of course the bigger sets really awe us and we are thinking: That's so cool why isn't it being produced by TLC?! I totally would buy one! (And people here would totally buy some more just for investment reasons...). But arriving back in the real world where you notice that a set with that many bricks does not cost 9,99$ you'll decide otherwise. TLC of course is aware of this (otherwise somebody would have made terrible choices when picking employees...). So the most expensive sets we will (probably) ever see are 400-500$ sets and there won't be that many of them. (Maybe with some inflation going on there will be but then this calculations has to be redone!). As for now TLC always did a great job picking the right sets. There is a huge fanbase when it comes to TBBT and Dr.Who, as well as Wall-E (and pixar-movies in general) and all of these sets can be easily produced, even if you decide to do a second run. Once people start to be realistic abut what TLC might eventually produce things will get interesting. The AT-AT by the way has about 6200 or more bricks which leaves us with a minimum price of somewhere in between 700 and 750$. I bet 100 people will easily buy at least 100x 129,99$ AT-ATs but only MAYBE 1 out of 100 will buy a 700$ AT-AT. As far as the AT-AT is involved I'd say that TLC knows that people want to see an UCS of it but they are not willing to produce one that is more expensive than maybe 300-400$.

I realize this is a response to an old post, but I thought some readers might be interested .... There's a free issue of Brick Journal available from the publisher ... http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=108&products_id=924

You should be able to turn the grooms head around to reveal "drunk face" on the other side.