Pricing

[Jabba the Taff]

As I'm about to move house, with more space for more Lego, I've been sorting out my wishlist. Whilst doing so I've noticed that (in Britain at least) the pricing seems to be less consistent than the last couple of years. I'm wondering if anyone who hasn't had a dark age has noticed something like this before.

For example: 3834 Bikin Bottom is £36.19 for 425 pieces and is licensed. 6242 PIrates is £36.19 for 367 pieces and is non-license. 7197 IJ Boat chase is £29.35 for 420 pieces and again licensed.

And as I ranted about before Home One is £88.09 for 789 pieces while Battle of Endor is £73.39 for 890 pieces.

Has anyone got any explanations? Surely new/unusual molds alone cannot account for this.

[Draykov]

The licensed themes in particular seem to have taken a slight jump up in price. The 10 cents per piece rule of thumb is pretty much obsolete. Original themes are not immune, however. I've noticed a few sets here and there that, not long ago, would have been $9.99, but are quite a bit higher...though, fortunately, it only happens now and then and isn't the case across all small price-point sets.

I'd say it's just the rising cost of production/distribution/etc. And the world economic situation can't be helping. It could also be that when LEGO renewed Lucasfilm licenses, they got a bit more pricey and it took this long to see the difference.

[Jabba the Taff]

I've noticed a few sets here and there that, not long ago, would have been $9.99, but are quite a bit higher...though, fortunately, it only happens now and then and isn't the case across all small price-point sets.

This is the bit that mystifies me - that it only happens now and again. I realise prices rise. But there seems to be no consistency. Some sets have had a hike, others, with the same price point, haven't. Not that I want my complaining to produce an across the board price rise!

[Draykov]

Well, I'm no expert, but it could be that they are doing that sort of thing to avoid an across the board rise, or perhaps those particular small sets have "expensive" parts in terms of LEGO manufacturing /distributing or perhaps they're being produced in smaller numbers and need to have a higher MSRP in order to be profitable. This particular aspect of the price increase phenomenon seems to affect City more than other themes so far.

[meeotch]

I know with some of the sets that I've noticed a big discrepancy on, there happen to be some relatively large pieces in it. Even though the rowboat in the Pirates sets counts as only one piece, it uses the same amount of plastic as maybe 10 other pieces. Add to that fact that the piece itself is so big that fewer can be made with each run, meaning more runs of the same piece have to be made to get the same quanitity of another piece, and you see that including some of these large pieces ties up production, further adding to their cost. I see this as one of the major contributing factors for the Power Miners sets being so expensive.