Recently I was looking at a few LEGO sets for my son (and me :)) and did a bit of research on LEGO. I used to think LEGO was either their robotic edition (Mindstorms) or those simple rectangular blocks which you use to make various shapes. Only recently did I come to know about their various themes the favorite of mine being the LEGO Technic. Me being an engineer, it probably may be understandable. I chanced upon LEGO Technic when I was researching 3D Printers. A few creative minds have created interesting 3d machines (one is like a lathe, another which can build a house by picking bricks, another one is a paper folder, yet another one that can knit a piece of cloth!)
One of the things I soon learned is that some LEGO sets end up being classics that should be owned by the LEGO fans. However, LEGO retires a set after a couple of years (or may be months, don’t know the exact duration). So suddenly there is no supply and even a small demand makes the price of these sets to sky rocket.
One such set I am interested in is LEGO 8043 which has a lot of power functions (you can use a remote control and control the various features). While scouting Amazon and eBay I noticed that even the sets that are currently available are also being sold on these websites by 3rd parties. This is the part that I don’t get and hence just thought of writing this down.
LEGO offers something called VIP program which is free. It allows accumulating points where when you spend $100 on their website, you get $5 worth of points that you can redeem in the future (subject to time limit of 2 yrs or so). That should make it no brainer for any serious LEGO buyers to go to lego.com and buy online. For example, they came up with a new LEGO 42009 Mobile Crane MK II which retails on lego.com for $219.99. With VIP program you are essentially getting $11 back and with free shipping because lego.com gives free shipping for orders over $75. On top of that, LEGO also seems to be giving away small sets each month with your online order (probably for orders over a certain value).
So you would think this is no brainer for people to buy it directly from LEGO. However, I see people buying them on eBay and Amazon for $250 and more. Highest paid on eBay as of today seems to be $289. This is probably due to the fact that searching for “LEGO 42009” on Google doesn’t take you to the LEGO’s shopping page. It instead takes you to their blog covering the same product. It’s possible people may not know about LEGO 42009 and hence may not be searching using this keyword. Even then, it seems that the lack of awareness that it’s possible to buy the product directly on LEGO’s website is helping a few to pocket some extra bucks and others to lose some.
One interesting observation is, there are some sales on eBay below the price that LEGO sells. The cheapest was gone for $160. I have no idea how it’s possible to sell it for so less including free shipping.
All this makes it a strangeCommerce :).