Huge Price Increase for Pick A Brick Items!

[barry]

ahh i see, not much interest in trains here so would not have noticed these!

but any price inflation for the brick is not positive...

barry over and out

10-4

[Hinckley]

Well, the mispricings haven't been fixed yet. Pretty odd it would take that long to correct some mistakes.

I'm excited about some of these new elements, but if some of these prices don't change, I'll go back to parting sets out...

[xenologer]

Well, the mispricings haven't been fixed yet. Pretty odd it would take that long to correct some mistakes.

This is of course assuming (wishful thinking) that the huge price increase is the "mistake" they were refferring to.

The actual wording in the email was "several items", which by no means indicates the across-the-board increase we are observing.

It may well be that the majority of prices are unfortunatly correct and the several mistakes are really just 1 or two bricks that are off by a few cents...

[rriggs]

That's alie, they increased the prices of pieces after they made the Factory Space sets were released.

The only increases when they released the Factory Space sets were for the custom space pieces (torsos, printed tiles, etc). Other prices remained broadly the same.

Cheers

Rog

[copperwonder]

I just finished designing a couple of MOCs on LDD using some of the really cool new parts but the sets are almost $400 USD! Normally the price is around $40 to $60. I am ready to order; It's been almost a week, are they going to fix the issue or what?

[Derek]

Any one notice the new Classic Space shirt torso what will be seen on a civilian in an Agents set this year? Also there is Mr. Krabs torso, which seems out of place. Both of these pieces are $2.50!

The base plates are ridiculous, $6 for gray 8X16, $8 for a green 16x16, and $10 for a gray 16x32! :sick: If they were actually reasonable, I would consider buying some, especially the dark gray ones, which are pretty generic as far as theme goes. I remember a few months ago when the gray 16x32 was about $2! I almost bought a few..

Other notable pieces include a white beard for only $0.75, quiver for only $0.35, a dog for $1.95, chairs for $0.15, which are a steal compared to other prices, classic BURP in dark gray for $3.00 , 16 long chain for $2.00!

Some of these prices are absolutely ridiculous, but I'm sure that the kids don't realize that. You can tell Lego knows which parts are popular, as they are the most expensive...

Edited April 6, 2009 by darthperson

[copperwonder]

It looks like the prices of only a few items have been changed for the US, only those 8 or so items showing up in the Spring Catalogue were updated (I image TLC wants to make sure there is no false advertisement.)

The other pieces are still useless though (a minifig torso is still 2.50, legs are $1.00, I bought a full soldier with torso, legs, hat head and weapons xtra pieces at Target today for $3.50

Also, LDD is registering triple prices and appears to not have received the update. NOTICE that US "My Custom Design" fell from #3 to #21 in just 4 days!

Hello TLC, fix the prices!!!

Edited April 6, 2009 by copperwonder

[Apache]

If any of you havn't emailed TLC yet, please do so. The more emails they get from us dedicated buyers saying were not going to pay these ridiculous prices, then the more of a chance we have for them to nut it up and switch the prices.

[prateek]

ha ha ha thats what you guys get for not buying whole sets, now TLC is punishing you!!!

IMO you should just get sets that have useful pieces because its cheaper and the pieces you dont really need will eventually become useful

[The Green Brick Giant]

Well, the mispricings haven't been fixed yet. Pretty odd it would take that long to correct some mistakes.

Because it's not a mistake. The people you call to complain don't have a clue what is going on, no one tells them anything.

And when the Space Factory sets were added several things increased in price a lot, one being the grey 16 by 32 baseplate when from $1.63 or soemthing to $.50+, and the glass black doors went from 13 and 39 cents to $1.54, and several other thnigs that were cheap went to $1.54. Also the price of a red cherry was 13 cents and the lime green was 26, both became 26 cents.

So it's not the first price increase, it's just the first people noticed because it's insane and on every piece.

[Hinckley]

Because it's not a mistake.

There's no way that door glass is going to stay at $4. At least I hope not.

[pesgores]

Since they haven't fixed it yet, I sent them an email (finally).

I hope they reply soon.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

I will email them, too.

I was going to order a few policemen for 1,02 Euro for each and now one of them costs nearly as much as the stupid Impulse set. Even Ebay is cheaper (1 Euro for a complete figure with megaphone).

The new pieces are excellent, but I am not going to pay 35 cents instead of 17 for a hat!

If the prices don´t change I will probably have to create a bricklink account.

[The Green Brick Giant]

There's no way that door glass is going to stay at $4. At least I hope not.

It went from 13 and 39 cents to $1.54, so why no $4?

These aren't mistakes, this is LEGO clearly trying to take money from children. Not only will I never buy ANYTHING from PaB again, I'm seriously thinking about cutting back even more on LEGO products this year then I have already planned. I will not be buying anything from S@H unless the price is amazing. I know LEGO is a company, and the set price increases this year were bad enough, but this is just spitting in the face of fans. I can see LEGO even going after bricklink now just so they can get every damn penny a fan has.

If you bought all the pieces from the Policeman Impulse set on PaB it would cost like $10USD! The dog is $2, the minifigure would be around $4.50!

Even Lugnet's LEGO Ambassador has a HUGE article on the fact that if LEGO needs to increase the prices of the PaB this much than maybe they should just close up shop.

[Peppermint_M]

Ok, this just continues to be "teh suckage" looks like its bricklink all the way from here (plus those sets I must buy and the ones with useful parts...)

[Commander Andrew of 501 st]

Ouch, Does anyone know if this will affect the price of PaB walls at Lego stores?Sorry if this has been asked already.

[Joebot]

These aren't mistakes, this is LEGO clearly trying to take money from children. Not only will I never buy ANYTHING from PaB again, I'm seriously thinking about cutting back even more on LEGO products this year then I have already planned. I will not be buying anything from S@H unless the price is amazing. I know LEGO is a company, and the set price increases this year were bad enough, but this is just spitting in the face of fans. I can see LEGO even going after bricklink now just so they can get every damn penny a fan has.

Until we get some kind of official statement or explanation, I don't think it's fair to characterize the price hike as "greed" or "gouging consumers" or "taking money from children." We have no idea what the manufacturing/sorting/packaging/shipping costs are associated with running a customized operation like Pick-a-Brick. Maybe PaB is a huge loss leader for TLC, and they can't afford to lose any more money on it? Who knows?

Even Lugnet's LEGO Ambassador has a HUGE article on the fact that if LEGO needs to increase the prices of the PaB this much than maybe they should just close up shop.

I definitely agree with that. And with these price hikes, usage of PaB is probably going to decline to the point where they will have to shut it down. We'll see ..

[The Green Brick Giant]

^ LEGO doesn't make mistakes like this, they sometimes do typos and say the set contains 3 minifigures when it really has 4. This was a planned increase in prices, we don't need LEGO to come out and say that because they are a company and they lie. Remember the color change? They came out with 10 different reasons for the change, and I don't even know which one was right.

In the USA there used to be emails saying "We are looking into the pricing mistakes on PaB", a few days later it now reads "We increased the amount of pieces and colors, and have increased the price for the first time ever", which is a lie!

The walls at the stores already increased their prices last year from $13 to $15, in the USA of course, so I don't see that going any higher right now.

[Eilif]

It seems like we are getting some very mixed messages from TLG.

They said this is the first price raise for PAB, but that is patently untrue, as the prices have gone up at least once before.

They said they had made a mistake on pricing, but it's almost a week later, and as far as we've been able to see, the only prices that have gone down are the prices on items that were in the spring catalog.

TLG execs talk about wanting to bridge the gap between virtual building and physical play and say that they want to increase the ability of folks to be able to order those creations but they have created a price structure that makes "virtually created" models nearly 4 times the price of models from a LEGO store.

I think that TLG needs to allign their vision and implementation, and double check their facts before they send out untrue emails to thier fans.

By the way, here's the link to the message from the LUGNET ambasador that The Green Brick Giant mentioned. VERY interesting reading, and a very insightfull price comparison.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Eilif

[Asuka]

We have no idea what the manufacturing/sorting/packaging/shipping costs are associated with running a customized operation like Pick-a-Brick. Maybe PaB is a huge loss leader for TLC, and they can't afford to lose any more money on it? Who knows?

(...)

And with these price hikes, usage of PaB is probably going to decline to the point where they will have to shut it down. We'll see ..

Maybe it´s indeed not easy to keep PaB running. But with prices high in the sky like that, who´ll keep on buying there?

A significant drop in sales = no business for PaB at all, and that´s contradiction No. 1 that I´don´t understand...

TLG execs talk about wanting to bridge the gap between virtual building and physical play and say that they want to increase the ability of folks to be able to order those creations but they have created a price structure that makes "virtually created" models nearly 4 times the price of models from a LEGO store.

And that´s just contradiction No. 2 ... ouch.

Wild PaB thing

you make my head ache

you make everything ungroovy

wild PaB thing

The Troggs, roughly

[brickzone]

Maybe along with other price increases (e.g. €50 more on Town Plan, Green Grocer for Ireland) this means Lego have been taken over by beancounters. And furthermore, beancounters who aren't acknowledging the theory of diminishing returns (prices go up, you sell less).

[CP5670]

This is looking pretty bad. I agree with others that the early talk of this being a mistake couldn't have been true. A pricing mistake doesn't take several days to fix, especially since they would be losing thousands of dollars every day from lost customers if it was actually unintentional.

Either TLG's management will see their sales go through the floor and drop down the prices, or if they have to charge this much to break even (which I find highly unlikely to be honest), then TLG will have to discontinue the service for good.

Maybe along with other price increases (e.g. €50 more on Town Plan, Green Grocer for Ireland) this means Lego have been taken over by beancounters.

In a sense, that already happened some time ago. It could be argued that this is an extension of what led to all the quality reductions in the last few years.

[Peppermint_M]

I was making an airship/zeppelin and I was only half way through creating the balloon (lots of 1 stud wide friction hinges and smooth bley "road" plates) £222 and I am nowhere near finished. I really wanted to make it and buy it though

[copperwonder]

It looks like PAB prices for 2009 are going to stick. The My Custom Design has fallen off the top 25 list for the first time since I've been using PAB over the last few years (it's actually at number 25 as of this post). The only thing to watch for at this point is the cost of new uploads in the Custom Design Gallery. If the uploads are stale then maybe they are planning to adjust the prices. If the uploads increase, check the price, it is possible that the price will be this way for all of 09'

[Apache]

Maybe the other poster was right, Lego is going after BL , BF and Brick Arms to force people to buy at these prices. It's the only feasible reason why they think they could possibly make money with these price hikes.

As far as PAB losing money before.... How much does it cost to hire two dudes to sit in a room and load bags of bricks into baggies and seal it with a twisty tie? I didn't do to well in Math Class back in the day...but if I remember right selling 100x minifig heads at .13 a piece nets alot more money than 3 heads at .50 a piece.

Keep banging the service center with emails, we love LEGO and we will spend our hard earned cash and allowance on LEGO, but we should do so and not feel violated.

Heres an example of the violation for all of those who are defending the price hike

6X Cherries

1X Chest

1X Chest lid

2X Minfig Heads

1X White Beard

1X Barrel

--------------------------

SUB TOTAL USD $11.50 + TAX and SHIPPING!!!!! INSANE!!!!

Edited April 8, 2009 by Apache