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Would re-releases be such a bad thing?
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Comments
Your hate for resellers is quite obvious and you are jaded by your hate. There is no use arguing with people like you.
Lego is about creativity. Re-releases are mind numbing quick cash grabs. They need to move on with more innovative ideas.
I admit I tried to do that recently. But it didn't work, and now I'm stuck with $50,000 worth of ewok villages. Anybody need 1?
Someone mentioned that they don't like the fact some people give Lego a free pass because they're a company designed to make billions of dollars, because there should still be some ethics involved. That's all well and good, but shouldn't the same apply to resellers?
I only bring this up because I got a vibe early in the thread that resellers were trying to say they do no wrong. I'm not saying that's what those posts meant, but it was the vibe I got. At the same time, collectors/buyers were giving off a vibe that all resellers were evil. I don't think either is the case.
I think it has been discussed a bit by bringing up the fact that quite a few resellers here were against what happened with the Minecraft set, but I am interested as to what others may think too.
Please note, I am NOT implying that resellers are evil or that collectors/buyers can't be unhappy about something (my apologies if I am). I'd like to see a civil discussion about the question I asked above.
But they finally figured out a way to add a helicopter to the Winter Village theme. Isn't that innovative ? :wink:
I'm not fond of that kind of behaviour, though I believe, with all the competition between resellers, buyers have control, and if they want to pay insane prices, they are to blame. for a seller to control a market and its prices, it often seems to require some massive support from the state. privatizing would be the prime example.
As for the sometimes crazy prices, this says more about our mentality as consumers than it does about the resellers. No one is forced to pay stupid prices for plastic parts. But there is a collecting bug that most of us here have that makes it tempting nonetheless. What people are really complaining about is less the reseller and more their inability to just walk away from overpriced materials.
I would LOVE to have Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, UCS MF, Taj Mahal and some others that came out whilst still in my dark age. My boys love some of those sets when they look at old catalogs or browse Brickset.
But there is no way I am paying those prices for them. If no one paid those prices, then, guess what? the price would eventually go down. The fact that people are purchasing them at those prices tells you where some people are at in the obsession or how much money they have 'to burn'.
Like others, I would welcome a redesigned version of some of the great modern LEGO classics. But I would not want them if, like WV seems to be this year, the rehash replaces a new concept.
As for those who try to 'force' the market, they cannot, really, dictate how many sets TLG produces (see Death Star). And all that inventory may blow up in their financial faces. That is a chance such a super-stock reseller would take.
I look at it like the SDCC phenomenon as well. I don't think collectors complain about resellers when buying those items well above the retail price.
This was a joke, by the way. Think I failed to make my point, which is that it would take very deep pockets to put an item out of stock at say, Amazon. Yet resellers are accused of doing this type thing.
I am totally confused by this claim. Has the French government ever forced you to pay ridiculous prices for Lego? How does that work? And why would they do it?
of course not, but governments give subsidies as well as ways to reduce or avoid taxes for many companies. all that comes from our taxes. and if companies pay less, someone else has to pay more...
I think the government can also force you to buy some services. I know some insurances are mandatory. I'm also not sure, if you have an accommodation, that you can refuse subscription to water / gas / electricity companies.
I think it is known fact that some companies try to lobby governments and in some case are even suspected to write some laws themselves.
and why would they do it, I dunno, though, that could be just like Lordon suggests, you give them a hand, they try to grab the whole arm.
it was no comparison, but I admit it was off topic
In the US, you are not forced to buy certain things like insurace or electric. If you own your home, you can elect not to buy Homeowners Insurance, but if your home is financed, the company will most likey require that you have insurance. There are many people that are "going off the grid" here in the US. Eventually, companies like Tesla will supply large batteries that will supply electricity to your home without having to go through an Electric Company. There are still many people that live without electric, city water or sewage. My wife's grandmother lived in a cabin in the woods and used an outhouse until the day she died.
I'm actually fascinated with the idea of going off the grid and read everything I come across regarding "tiny" houses. I couldn't do it, but I love the idea of living life in way that promotes relationships and experiences, rather than working your a$$ off for "things".
I heard stories of people living that way in France being expulsed from their house by the authorities because they didn't accept their living style. of course it depends where you are, they can be more lenient in some regions.
why couldn't you do it?
the succesful exemples aren't numerous and often seem quite spartan. and communities living that way (though life in them can be quite convenient) seem to often depend a lot on the work and money from curious visitors.
And as far a resellers go, when has there been a set that anyone wanted that they couldn't have bought just as easy as a reseller did? In a sense, resellers make available a product that we'd never get because it went out of production before we decided we wanted it....and now they make it available again.
/me steps off his own soap box
Should we have been outraged last year?
Fort Legoredo, Enchanted Island, Red Beard Runner, Armada Flagship, Maersk Container Ship are examples of sets that were re released under different set names but are essentially the same exact set as the original.
The Sopwith Camel is a redesigned version of the original. Much like the most of the first series of Star Wars ships were redesigned a few years later.
I'm not particularly satisfied with the 2015 WV set, but we shouldn't be treating this as the end of the world. Or some unusual harbinger of negative things on the horizon.
I am still not a Chinese jet pilot...
The Winter Market (I think that's the name, the one with the small carousel) is still available at Amazon for retail. I'm hoping Santa's workshop will come back in stock on Lego S@H, plus the new Toy Shop. That means I can snag 3 of the sets at retail price.
Bottom line for me is that the rerelease of the Toy Shop got me more interested in other older sets of the theme- that should make you resellers rather happy (considering you don't only have a stack of Toy Shops...).
Does it suck for long time collectors of the theme that have to skip it this year? No. Now you get to save some cash and spend it on something else! ;)
I know many people who already have the first one who are really not happy. However, I will not try to dissuade someone who wanted a toy shop but could not afford the original as I think that really is hurting the cause of fans than helping. Besides I think that while LEGO will make money on this set, I doubt they will make the money that they could have with a new WV set because again you lose out on the cash from those who bought the original.
So will I endorse not buying one if you already have one (and Im not sure I have to do much convincing on that)? Sure, but if someone I know always wanted one but could not find it, then buy away.
Wow that WVM will not die, it was gone from Amazon a few weeks ago, but now its back. Further evidence that at 99.99 USd it was overpriced in many peoples' minds.
And who's to say that killing the WV theme would have reduced revenue for TLG, when there's so much other stuff being pumped out? There's still major releases between now and Xmas.
All good things come to an end. It's always better to end on a high note, than drag your IP through the mud-- pull an HBO. If anything, TLG should have called it last year or this year and dropped the WV theme entirely. That way should you revive the property, the last thing on the consumer's mind is how awesome things ended.