Do you think Lego is insanely overpriced for its plastic worth? or is it simply a status symbol. It takes a certain living standard to afford Legos.

I've been an AFOL for some ten years now and the prices have not increased if you look at the cost per brick. With the inflation here in Sweden I would have expected that the prices had went up with 17,2 % - but they have not.

Alas the quality seems to have dropped some but it also seems that era is coming to an end with TLG bringing manufacturing back to Denmark.

Consider the tolerances thats needed to make the bricks attach just right, that is no small feat (by all means, try a clone)! Also, the bricks survive so good that LEGO is the most common toy parents pass along to their children.

Compared to other plastic toys in the store LEGO might seem expensive on the price tag, but given the quality of the product I have to say:

LEGO might cost a lot, but it's not expensive.

Also, check out other hobbies people enjoy. Like motor sports, sailing, golf...

Its all about profitability, with inflation over the past 20 years and the abundance of new molds and colors compared to say 30 years ago, its not really that bad. Since we don't know their actual costs to opperate and produce our beloved bricks, we can't really judge.

Obviously Lego is a luxury item, but I do not think it is particularly overpriced, especially considering both the generally high quality of the product but also more importantly its play value for kids. I can remember a few years ago my sister getting this Doctor Who Mask for my nephew costing around £30, this was soon forgotten as the fad was over quick, but the Lego pieces brought that Christmas are still been played with today.

Anyway this has got me thinking about the inflation of prices, and wondering has Lego got more expensive or cheaper?

It was difficult to find original prices, but I did manage to get some from the UK Bricks 'n Pieces Magazine, which has scans here. I had wanted to see how much sets I had as a kid actually cost, but couldn't find prices of many town sets, so have got one 1985 town example and a range from the 1984 castle line. I used a historic inflation calculator, to try to account for inflation.

I have tried to get like for like comparisons:

Town/ City

6392 Airport 1985 -contains 501 pieces & 8 minifigs -priced @ £30 -after inflation gives £71.10 -and 14p/piece

3182 Airport 2010 -contains 683 pieces & 5 minifigs -priced @ £80 -and 12p/piece

Castle

6030 Catapult 1984 -contains 75 pieces & 2 minifigs -priced @ £3.50 -after inflation gives £9.21 -and 12p/piece

7950 Knights Showdown 2010 -contains 51 pieces & 2 minifigs -priced @ £4.99 -and 10p/piece

6080 Lions Castle 1984 -contains 618 + 12 minifigs -priced @ £29 -after inflation gives £73.46 -and 11p/piece

7946 Kings Castle 2010 -contains 890 + 8 minifigs -priced @ £80 -and 8p/piece

Anyway apart from proving I have way too much time on my hands at the moment, it seems that Lego in the UK has actually dropped in price since the mid 1980's.

Well, Lego has built up an immensely powerful brand name! Everyone knows Lego. They can sell their products at high prices because people know: when they read "LEGO", they get good stuff. It's just like with clothing labels: noone would buy a H&M jacket for 200 euros, but with a Diesel one, well... it's an entirely different story. Even if the design would be exactly the same.

Enpaz

I am a third world student and I enjoy LEGO just fine. I guess that if you want a huge collection and to constantly buy the latest released large sets, it gets expensive. But if you just accept the existence of second hand LEGO and are patient it is not really that bad.

I do think that new sets are usually overpriced. I think the reason for this is mainly that LEGO does not really have actual competition. Megabloks for example just fails to deliver the same quality in plastic and design and seems they are focusing more on competing with price instead of quality. So a guy looking for quality really has little to no options (The only option so far I have is New LEGO sets vs old LEGO sets, really).

When you add up the cost of other hobbies, like drinking beer, LEGO starts to look inexpensive ^^.

Edited December 3, 201014 yr by vexorian

Seems like a bit of a troll post, but I'll bite.

First, inflation calculator is not really a very good metric... modern technology has cut the cost of many things even in unadjusted dollars. A basic PC cost $2000 when I first got my 10Mhz 8088 in 1988. Over the course of 20 years we are at the point where you can buy a basic system for $400, including a larger, higher resolution and full color monitor, and the clock speed is literally 300 times faster (and that doesn't account for processor improvements that I won't go into detail about that make it many times faster still), and we're using thousands of times more memory and disk space.

It should cost relatively less to make molds and manufacture the bricks; even shipping technology has improved to the point where it's relatively much less expensive to ship. Where you see inflation is only in salaries and some raw materials... the price of oil. In relative terms, the price of oil in the early 80's was just as high is it is now. Plastic is made from petroleum, so it's cost is tied to the price of oil.

As far as having superior molds and lower tolerances for error, that only accounts for the higher than Megablocks price.

The reason little molded plastic bricks cost so much is simply this: LEGO can only manufacture a certain amount every year, they price their sets to sell at the highest price they can that will still sell (they estimate highest return on investment). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (and you see those sets on clearance, sometimes up to 50% off). LEGO is a for-profit company, the price comes down to a simple supply and demand equation. I know there's a lot of people out there who think capitalism is evil and don't like lumping TLG into that category, but the facts are the facts.

As a consumer, as it is right now, all I can say is thank goodness I don't have to pay a VAT on top of those prices. Yet.

Anyway this has got me thinking about the inflation of prices

I did a similar calculation some months ago but to see if saving MISB sets is a good investment or not.

I picked out a few classic space sets that I had original prices for and compared them with BrickLink MISB-prices and factored in the inflation. I found that the sets had approximately doubled in value in 30 years, at least considering the Swedish original retail and inflation.

Those classic space set's had a price-per-piece in the same range as todays Indiana Jones but cheaper than Star Wars.

I did a similar calculation some months ago but to see if saving MISB sets is a good investment or not.

...

It's like the stock market, some sets (stocks) will go up in value more quickly over time.

Doubling in 30 years is not that great, especially when you have to baby the set for that time.

But, like stocks, buy low and sell high... UCS Millennium Falcon, The modular sets, some trains... all doubled or more, sometimes overnight. Cafe Corner went from MSRP ($140) to $300 within days after selling out; the current minimum price on BL is $445. That's only about year after it was discontinued.

Considering the value i get, most lego sets are not that overpriced. Some are pricier than others but thats ok, as Legosets are still affordable items, as long as you dont want to buy multiples of UCS-sets.

What imho is overpriced are old sets on bricklink and i do not even talk about that MISB-craziness. So instead i try to find old items that were forgotten on the shelfes or in thrift shops to avoid insane collector-prizes... but thats not an issue, that TLC is responsible for.

Lego sets come in a range of prices. You buy the ones you can afford. It is like buying anything else in life.

I agree with Fred67 that manufactured and traded goods prices have generally been in deflation, and this is very clear in toys. Lego is unusual because its prices have not come down rather, than because they have gone up, in real terms.

I can't agree economically that it is insanely overpriced. Clearly demand matches and in many cases outstrips supply, it is hard to see how this could happen if it were overpriced. The financial near-death experience of 2003 really focused their minds at TLC and I think they simply understand their custmers and business modle better than they used to.

Big Cam, we do know what it costs lego to manufacture, its annual reports are published on the website. Right now, it is certainly one of the most profitable and highest return on capital companies I have ever seen. Profit is a good thing, in that it gives an incentive to reinvest in the product. Current profitability looks far too high, but if they reinvested in pricing to win market share, would it work? I don't think so, lego is in super-hot demand at current prices.

Here in Japan, lego is priced at around 100% premium to the USA. As a consumer I am scandalised. But as a business decision, Japan has tiny houses, lots of money, and few kids, so it's probably exactly the right strategy.

Edited December 29, 201014 yr by robuko

The fact that even after rigorous play Legos can last for 20-30 years or more makes them more than worth the money. Not many other toys can honestly claim that kind of durability. And no, I don't think its just because of their nature as a building toy because that other company's building toys do break.

Edited December 29, 201014 yr by Duelpear

Well... we can over-analyze all we want.

TLG uses very high quality plastic, we all know that.

TLG uses very high quality, low tolerance for error molds; we all know that, too.

But ultimately we are buying injection molded plastic pieces and, for what it is, it's ridiculously overpriced.

But that's not all, right? There's licensing for licensed themes, there's shipping and taxes and profits built into the price for everyone along the chain of distribution, and more importantly, there's set and piece design - the sum of the parts of most sets is more valuable than the cost of the sets.

Ultimately TLG charges what each market will tolerate - that's how businesses operate. Having a veritable monopoly on quality plastic building bricks, TLG "gets away" with charging quite a bit more than they could otherwise.... and we pay it because it's worth it for us to buy. Nobody ever buys something they didn't think was worth it (even essentials).

EDIT: This is my first post responding to the OP, my first post was specifically about collecting as an investment... but to answer the actual question: "Do you think Lego is insanely overpriced for a good reason?" the answer is "Yes," because TLG is a profit driven company, and they charge what they can to maximize their profits. Capitalism is a good reason... it works, and it ultimately works best for both consumer and producer.

Edited December 29, 201014 yr by fred67

Mercifully I don't give a hoot about star wars, potter, and recently stopped buying castle items, I refuse to pay $20 for a minifig, it's madness. I think LEGOs cost too much for what they are, but the people buying popular sets and reselling them make the problem even worse.

I like themes that seem to go on clearance anyway so the prices aren't a problem. I also don't care about the box or instructions so I like buying used stuff. But if I act like I care about the packaging, sometimes a seller will take even more off the price of a set because it's "damaged" :D

I customize action figures, sometimes I charge $80+ for a figure and can't help but laugh all the way to the bank because I don't think painting an action figure should cost $80, I'd never pay it. But it's profitable so I keep doing it.

Doing it this way, I make one custom figure and get $80, if I spend that on a large LEGO set I want, I don't feel like I'm paying $80, I just feel like I traded one $5 figure that I painted for someone for a huge LEGO set.

Why is Lego over-priced? simple, they are a company, they want profit and since we still buy they can maintain a high price. Can't blame 'em honestly (as long as they don't raise prices too much)

I generally don't want to overpay on a Star Wars set(75 euro for the T6, no thanks, even if it has the most amazing figures), so generally I no longer buy any expensive set unless I see it on discount. Which happens eventually, it's playing the waiting game.

Wow, several questions and assumptions here. Let me break down your post into it's components.

1)You're title is troolish, but I'll answer anway. I don't think LEGO is insanely overpriced. The assumtion in your title that LEGO is insanely overpriced is not likely to be shared by the majority of folks here at EB.

2)

Do you think Lego is insanely overpriced for its plastic worth?

For it's plastic worth it is overpriced, but judging the price of a product entirely on the unworked material it's made of is a terrible judge of the value of a product. It comes down to what a person feels LEGO is woth. I feel that when you factor in design, quality, production, licensing, transportation costs, Marketing, number of play years/hours a child will use LEGO, etc, etc. It's realy quite a good deal. As has been pointed out, when adjusted for inflation, the USA retail prices of LEGO are cheaper than ever before and LEGO is a toy that youngsters play with for more hours and for more years than almost any other product.

3)

or is it simply a status symbol.

LEGO -especially having large collections of LEGO- has definitely become a status symbol for many people. However, the same can be said of anything that someone can buy for their kids and show off to their neighbors. LEGO, as a product, is neither immune, nor the cause of this kind of behavior. Anything where you can spend more to get more has the potential to become a status symbol an brands and produts with a reputation for quality are especially prone to this.

4)

It takes a certain living standard to afford Legos.

This is a relative question/statement.

When I was young, money was extremely tight. For those in the USA, you'll know what I mean when I say we were WIC poor, but not welfare poor. However, my parents still found ways to buy LEGO for my brother and I. When I look back, it clearly wasn't alot of LEGO compared to what I have today, and our collections grew slowly over a period of years. What is clear is that my parents saw the value in a toy that would be used for more years than any other and would be expandable and not become obsolete.

I also run a LEGO program in a neighborhood where the median income for a family of four is $18k. Many of these families truely can't afford LEGO (which is why graduates recieve their own LEGO from the program) and yet I'm often surprised by the number of parents who have intentionally purchased LEGO for their child, even when their small alotment for toys would have bought them a much "Larger" toy from a different brand/type/series.

5)If I may modify your post title

"Do you think LEGO is.... -priced for a good reason"

Yes. In the end, I think you will find that those who have alot of experience with LEGO, some knowlege of inflation and product costs and are LEGO fans have no trouble paying what LEGO charges for their product and believe they are getting a good return for their money. I am in this group. The question you raise does come up often and it is frustrating to not be able to buy all the LEGO one wants, but that's the nature of capitalism and a quality product.

LEGO is profitable, but it's not an unstoppable juggernaut. LEGO -while charging roughly the same as today- nearly went out of businessa a few years ago. There were several reasons for this, but it bears remembering that LEGO is a product that has very real costs to produce and distribute. Regardless of other factors, one reason that it will not come down in price is that LEGO cannot do so and remain profitable.

Final Thought. Lest you think I'm a snob, know that I too wish LEGO was cheaper (see my sig for details), I just understand why it is not. I recommend looking for sales, coupons, used bargains and online deals.

for the quality and durability i don't think it is priced to far off normally. there are always some sets (typically licensed) that I think are priced too high, but overall I think they do well at meeting a good standard of piece/dollar count.

hi there

let me tell you what i think here from Spain...

Is LEGO overpriced? Well, it depends on the set

10193 MMV is 6 cts per piece ----- great price

10210 IFS ia 9 cts per piece --- just ok

10188 DS2 is 13 cts per piece --- very overpriced

whatever less than 10 cts per piece in a licence is ok - depends, whatever more is expensive

Castle, Pirates, City... shouldnt be so expensive since not a license. They should be less than 8cts per piece

then... moreover in Spain few times we get big offers from the toy sellers... really few!

So in other countries as i read, they are doing 'constantly' great offers!!

I know few people in my work which are ready to buy a 90 euros set. No matter it has 1000 pieces or 3000 pieces. They simply do not care...

I check my ratios, and if i can buy it, i'll do it, but i would be glad if TLC or the Toy Stores made more 'nice offers' to great lego consumers. VIP program looks great, but i would expect something more for people who easily spends more than 1000 euros per year... this is insane for most of the persons i know...

Last thing... I expect the best plastic quality. That is why i buy lego, because it is the best, and i'd like to think it will remain. That is why i'd like lego to return to old standards. I prefer to pay a bit more if i know they will be improving all the way

Edited January 6, 201114 yr by fff

hi there

let me tell you what i think here from Spain...

Is LEGO overpriced? Well, it depends on the set

10193 MMV is 6 cts per piece ----- great price

10210 IFS ia 9 cts per piece --- just ok

10188 DS2 is 13 cts per piece --- very overpriced

You're just proving that while price per piece is a "fair" (as opposed to good or excellent) starting point, it doesn't adequately give you an objective measure of a sets worth. The Death Star comes with over 20 minifigures (I don't count some of those droids). If you value the minifigures separately (at say, $3/each, which is what collectibles cost in the US, and is less than the build-a-minifigure price per figure), then the price of the remaining pieces of the death star become much more reasonable - but even that still isn't a great method, just better than mere price per piece.

A bit off topic, I know.

One of the things I need to put up with, as a largely free market capitalist, is the subjectivity (often emotionally charged) of the people I'm discussing things with.

Objectively, if people are willfully buying LEGO in such large quantities that so many sets are sold out and back ordered, and that TLG seems to have been reporting year over year increases in sales, then there's no way one can claim LEGO is "overpriced."

Ironically, though, trying to be objective about a singular set or theme doesn't work because the value itself is subjective. You can complain a set in one line is overpriced, while a set in another line, with a similar price per piece and/or minifigure ratio exists could be a "must have." If you take an objective approach and consider that, no matter what the quality, no matter what the molding tolerances are, you're still buying molded plastic bits, then the price is, objectively I think, quite high.

However, I'm a free market capitalist; I don't think any other system yet tried has worked as well as the largely free market. That doesn't mean I like the price I pay for LEGO, I objectively think it's high. But it's not too high to keep me from buying it... therefore, it's not "over" priced. If it was, I wouldn't be on EB discussing it.