Huge Price Increase for Pick A Brick Items!

[Eurospanol25]

Love this site but never posted before. I was going to do a Pick A Brick Order from Lego Shop At home when I noticed they dramatically increased the prices of all the bricks and parts! I thought it was an April Fool's Day joke by Lego but then I called the 1-800 Shop At Home number and spoke to a representative who said they had chosen today to "price adjust" the parts?? I told the Shop At Home Rep that its crazy that the prices have risen so quickly and so much. Torsos that were once $.52 are now $2.00 each, Minifigure Legs that were $.24 are now $1.00 a piece. This is really going to hurt MOC ing and collecting. Sounds like boycotting is the only answer! Forgive me if I don't exactly know where to post this correctly. I just wanted to get the sad news out to everyone!

[JCC1004]

Ha ha ha, real funny.

Edited April 1, 2009 by JCC1004

[Eilif]

I confess I thought you were making a April Fools joke, but I went to the website myself. It's rediculous! Everyone check it out for yourself http://shop.lego.com/PAB/ I really wish I'd bought the parts I wanted from the last wave of PAB before this price increase.

Here's to hoping that it's just an elaborate April Fools's joke by TLG....

Edited April 1, 2009 by Eilif

[brickzone]

Shocking prices, although it seems there are a few new elements (was the princess hair always available?). €1.34 is terrible for torsos!

[JCC1004]

All I'm seeing is some new items. I'm not seeing much of a price change. The torsos seem a bit more expensive though. I'm sorry. My country was on UK so I could look at what they got. Thats socking. I hope it is a joke. When I changed it to US, thats just socking.

Edited April 1, 2009 by JCC1004

[Eilif]

All I'm seeing is some new items. I'm not seeing much of a price change. The torsos seem a bit more expensive though.

Time to check your math.

Legs are double what they were, Torsos are over 3 times what they were. Hair and heads are double or more. A pane of "glass" for a 1x4x6 frame is 4 dollars!

I recomend PAB online to dozens and dozens (probably hundreds over the course of a year) of visitors to NILTC shows. If these are the new permanent prices, I will not be doing so anymore.

Still it could all be a TLG management Joke.

[Eurospanol25]

I still can't believe the prices! I do hope its just a joke by Lego.... This is really going to drive up prices on Bricklink, etc.. Not cool!

[mrchris]

i just sent them an email, please everyone do the same if you feel strongly about this. its really annoyed me that im wondering to even bother about my plans for a large(ish) modular town as it will cost too much now.

UK prices are up between 70% and 120% on each item, its shocking. and still no bulk discount, it must be cheaper for them to pick out multiples of the same piece!

I made an order 2 days ago, it would now cost almost the same as cafe corner but has less pieces than the creator beach house.

[Johnnhiszippy3]

WOW! these new prices are insane. At first I was just annoyed that my LDD models no longer work. But now I don't really care, because I won't be buying anything at these new prices.

I didn't mind paying a premium to be able to choose specific pieces and to be able to buy in bulk - but this is just ridiculous. How could their costs have increased so much?

[Zorro]

This must be a sick joke, just cannot be true.

Good God...

[Peppermint_M]

That scuppers a few plans...

Guess I have to wait and hope for £ to $ to be less yucky and get stuff through bricklink.

[Bobskink]

I don't this is a joke, it's not original and legal a litle dangerous I think.

I presume they lifted the prices because it wasn't profitable enough, which I understand. But there could have been other solution, for instance, they could charge a standard 5€ for an order you place. That way people will probably only place big orders, so it's worth it for Lego.

Anyway, if it's april fool or not, i'm sick of these jokes today, none of the ones I saw was real funny or original, exept for Youtube.

[Cavannus]

What's wrong? For me the prices are not too hight: buying a minifig through Pick-a-Brick remains a good deal:

Seriously, I wonder if it has been a bug because many brick thumbnails are not displayed.

I don't this is a joke, it's not original and legal a litle dangerous I think.

I presume they lifted the prices because it wasn't profitable enough, which I understand.

I don't think it is a (bad) joke either, because the prices are overpriced but not so irrelevant ($300 a minifig would look like a joke). Furthermore Lego has always respected its customers so high prices such as these would be a bad strategy.

Let's wait and see if it is a temporary bug or not.

But there could have been other solution, for instance, they could charge a standard 5€ for an order you place. That way people will probably only place big orders, so it's worth it for Lego.

Is Pick-a-Brick profitable or not? I think it is: no design, no packaging, no lost space because of half-empty boxes, etc. But if it is not, I prefer your solution far ahead of doubling the prices.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Cavannus

[CP5670]

The new prices suck but it doesn't really change anything for me, since PAB was already more expensive than Bricklink on almost everything, even before this. I only buy occasional specialty pieces from there.

Edited April 2, 2009 by CP5670

[Natman8000]

The new prices suck but it doesn't really change anything for me, since PAB was already more expensive than Bricklink on almost everything, even before this. I only buy occasional specialty pieces from there.

True, but this may mean that Bricklink prices may have to raise.

[VBBN]

What's wrong? For me the prices are not too hight: buying a minifig through Pick-a-Brick remains a good deal:

Seriously, I wonder if it has been a bug because many brick thumbnails are not displayed.

Wrong, you have listed his legs twice. ;)

Anywho, I hope this is a joke. If not, I pity them for this move.

[Asuka]

I made an order 2 days ago, it would now cost almost the same as cafe corner but has less pieces than the creator beach house.

Hmm... that´s indeed pretty hefty. I thought that TLC would like to strengthen that whole virtual brick experience, in long terms,

but this new situation sounds like it´s rather going to kill it...

[Tinn-man]

Hurray for Bricklink :thumbup:

I just made a carbon freezing chamber in LDD (based on the same pricing scale as PAB), and I could not believe how much it cost. 120 dollars!!! For a little circle with some trans-orange studs and black grill pieces on top.

Lego just screwed themselves over, and that's the only way to put it. From now on, all of my custom orders go through bricklink (or find my brick, or any other 'underground' lego site for that matter).

[CP5670]

True, but this may mean that Bricklink prices may have to raise.

Most of the Bricklink sellers get their pieces from buying and sorting out sets rather than PAB, so they won't be affected by this as long as set prices are the same.

[ILikePi]

Does anyone know if the Pick A Brick cups at LEGO Stores have gotten more expensive or smaller? If not, I need to get one soon, to expand my collection with random bricks before the price goes up.

[penguinz]

I do not really know why, but this does not surprise me. When I looked for making some minifigures for a project I found that the minifigure torsos, heads, and legs were way cheaper on Pick a Brick than on Bricklink. I still am not happy with these price increases. I thought Pick a Brick had really cheap prices and have ordered from it three times before. I may not order from it again.

[copperwonder]

I emailed Lego with a "Furious Protest Note" i spend (on average) $200 bucks a month on PAB. I went to change my LDD item tonight and the price was $550 dollars (it was $128 the night before)! I can't believe this. I will boycott them for this, PAB was fantastic for my hobby (I always bought at least a packaged set whenever I made an online order.) This is a dark day indeed... I pray it is a mistake or a joke...

[mechamike]

Perhaps Lego want to push buyers from PAB to Bricklink coz In Sweden PAB prices has increased from crazy to insane..

(and on top of that shipping cost on S@H isnt exactly modest.

Perhaps Lego has the intention that PAB just should be used to order spare parts (With crazy high shipping price) not things for MOC's`?

Perhaps the kind CopMike can get a answer from TLC on how the heck they are thinking?

ps perhaps it the Millenium bug that finally kicked in at S@H ?? ds

Edited April 2, 2009 by a53021

[Peppermint_M]

Maybe it is a error, after all there is a part update so maybe somesort of glitch occured in the prices when the new parts went live.

All I want to know is why don't they charge by weight like in the PAB in the shops?

They can't post a significant profit rise in the past year (bucking the trend) and spark off a number of articles on how well they are doing and what value for money their product is and then hike all the prices by more than 50%...

[legotrainfan]

I just noticed the huge price increase with some train elements like the buffers and the bearing element 3x6 as well as the prepack with 4 axles for the bearing element. That's really insane! That price increase has made the train hobby a dearer hobby than it already is.