May the 4th Promotion 2013

samiam391

Some good points that I think many recognize here, but many definitely don't elsewhere in the casual market.

While I do think this set will do well in the aftermarket, you are certainly right. This isn't a gold UCS set, and certainly doesn't touch the UCS MF. I don't think anything ever will for at least a decent time period.

Even still, I don't think $100 profit is something to sneeze at. I certainly think that while it may not have the highest of ceilings, the initial increase could be somewhat substantial (roughly $100). After the first period of overflow on the market from May the 4th, there should be a quick increase. Just depends upon how many LEGO released into the market, and what hands they were put into.

However, without a doubt, the most promising and 100% fact thing you said was...

jcb193 said:

(promo Han Solo helps, but definitely isn't the slam dunk that TC-14 was).

Was never a truer word said, eh @y2josh?

Renny

^Those types of "investors" will get a rude awakening. I've only been reselling on a small scale for about a year and know that Lego investing needs patience....and a big closet or storage locker :) Money is there to be made and sure they will make a little of it if they turn around and sell it now (I'm sure many even in the US missed out on the sale) but the sellers who will benefit the most will be the ones that put their copies away for awhile and revisit the set 1-2 years from now.

y2josh

samiam391 said:

Some good points that I think many recognize here, but many definitely don't elsewhere in the casual market.

While I do think this set will do well in the aftermarket, you are certainly right. This isn't a gold UCS set, and certainly doesn't touch the UCS MF. I don't think anything ever will for at least a decent time period.

Even still, I don't think $100 profit is something to sneeze at. I certainly think that while it may not have the highest of ceilings, the initial increase could be somewhat substantial (roughly $100). After the first period of overflow on the market from May the 4th, there should be a quick increase. Just depends upon how many LEGO released into the market, and what hands they were put into.

However, without a doubt, the most promising and 100% fact thing you said was...

jcb193 said:

(promo Han Solo helps, but definitely isn't the slam dunk that TC-14 was).

Was never a truer word said, eh @y2josh?

Sorry it took so long to respond to this. I'm not a ninja, and I had to hop over to eBay to make sure that that dud TC-14 minifig was still going for roughly $20.

With free shipping. :D

To be fair, Han is averaging about the same, but the market is basically flooded with him right now (and B-Wings... who'd a thunk?).

By the by, that final point I alluded to way back when I was explaining why this figure was so much better than TC-14 was that, at least according to what I'd heard, was that Han was produced in much lower numbers than TC-14 after they wound up with so many leftover TC-14s last year. Whether or not this is true, I have no real way of knowing... but at least anecdotally, it sounds like it could be possible.

samiam391

Renny said:

^Those types of "investors" will get a rude awakening. I've only been reselling on a small scale for about a year and know that Lego investing needs patience....and a big closet or storage locker :) Money is there to be made and sure they will make a little of it if they turn around and sell it now (I'm sure many even in the US missed out on the sale) but the sellers who will benefit the most will be the ones that put their copies away for awhile and revisit the set 1-2 years from now.

No doubt. Unfortunately, some of us (Me.....) don't have the storage space to hold onto the set for 1-2 years. I'll hold onto it for as long as possible, however I do think that there should be a decent first boost before it slows down a bit. That is the usual rate for most sets retired recently, however I think the B-wing may be slightly more exciting.

Patience usually wins though, and holding onto it for a long while will no doubt prove more profitable.

In any case, only time will tell :o)

y2josh

samiam391 said:

Renny said:

^Those types of "investors" will get a rude awakening. I've only been reselling on a small scale for about a year and know that Lego investing needs patience....and a big closet or storage locker :) Money is there to be made and sure they will make a little of it if they turn around and sell it now (I'm sure many even in the US missed out on the sale) but the sellers who will benefit the most will be the ones that put their copies away for awhile and revisit the set 1-2 years from now.

No doubt. Unfortunately, some of us (Me.....) don't have the storage space to hold onto the set for 1-2 years. I'll hold onto it for as long as possible, however I do think that there should be a decent first boost before it slows down a bit. That is the usual rate for most sets retired recently, however I think the B-wing may be slightly more exciting.

Patience usually wins though, and holding onto it for a long while will no doubt prove more profitable.

In any case, only time will tell :o)

I mentioned it earlier, but I think the B-Wing could overperform, even with all the people who stocked up on it here, as long as it really is gone by Q4. Just looking at the flood of B-Wings on eBay right now, I can see that a lot of people went in for the quick $50 or so, and if a UCS set actually lasts less than a year, I think it will still command a premium after the 'get-rich-quickers' dump their stock.

Dougout

^Agreed, I just finished my B-wing build and I love it. It looks great, very unique, a lot better than the older ships (old x-wing, y-wing). With it balancing, tilted on its stand, it sort of gives it the illusion that it is flying.

I would rather have a B-wing than a DS anyday!!

Yellowcastle

I'm not sure how getting 4 friends/acquaintances to buy 5 B-Wings each for resale is that much better/different than buying 25 yourself. But I digress...

jcb193

I sold tons of TC-14 for $30+ in the first few days of release. I don't see that happening with Han. That said, he does seem to be in shorter supply and long term might do well. My store was down to a handful left Sunday afternoon. But do promo figures ever appreciate long term?

Will be fun to see how b Wing does. Will low demand be superseded by low supply?

y2josh

^The Shadow ARF Trooper has appreciated nicely (about $35 these days), and Han should follow the same trajectory, probably with a higher ceiling (being that he's a character people have heard of).

TC-14 was kind of a junk figure with low demand, which is why he's still lingering around en masse a year after he came out.

jdylak

samiam391 said:

@jdylak- Obviously a complete misunderstanding. This is the internet, and things such as this happen, unfortunately all the time.

Read your first comment through a few times and I'm sure you will understand where we were coming from. From what I read, it sounded like you got your family together and used everyone's separate credit cards to order 5 B-wings from each one, for yourself.

I did not understand, and everyone else on here that accused you, that you were ordering for other people. That's perfectly fine and yes, within the rules/guidelines of LEGO's policy.

My apologies for the misunderstanding, I'm sure you can understand how it happened. :o)

Gotcha. I reread my origanal post after reading my follow up and now I see where it got be translated as I ordered like 50. Apology accepted!

monkeyhanger

samiam391 said:

I know who I will be pointing the finger at next year if the discounts are poor or even non existent..

Who can I blame in the UK for this years poor offers? :P

shawn_low

My X-Wing has shipped. B-Wing is on backorder. Both from [email protected]

Did anyone order the B-Wing from TRU? I've had the confirmation email but nothing further...

AvengerDr

Did any of you guys who arrived a bit late try to persuade those who were buying 5 to leave one for you?

shawn_low

We'd like to speculate as to whether the B-Wing is UCS gold or not. It certainly isn't in the top tier of UCS sets. Hardly anything is these days. But it's got a couple of things going for it:

- It's OT. That always helps popularity.
- Decent size set and parts count (compared to say, the UCS Obi-Wan Starfighter)
- Low demand owing to high-ish RRP. Over in places such as Singapore, Australia, NZ etc, the RRP is insanely high. Something like US$300-350. This means that there will be a good aftermarket for US sellers into overseas markets. Assuming people are willing to pay for shipping. When it's gone , there will always be a 'Damn, I should have bought it way back when' demand.

SquareSide

shawn_low said:

My X-Wing has shipped. B-Wing is on backorder. Both from [email protected]

Did anyone order the B-Wing from TRU? I've had the confirmation email but nothing further...

I am also awaiting my TRU B-Wing to say shipped or something(hopefully today). Only have the email confirmation and order status says "Item(s) located in stock."

Rainstorm26

I went to order online last night at 11:20 local time here in Chicago. The sale had ended. Can't they at least extend the sale to midnight Pacific time? West coast kind of gets the short end of the stick.

Farmer_John

Personally, I think May the 4th can be like (albeit to a much smaller degree) Black Friday...and I avoid those like the plague no matter what the sale price is. My boys decided they wanted the B-Wing on Saturday morning when I told them it was 50% off because it's 1) star wars, 2) came with Han, and 3) the biggest Lego set they've ever been able to afford. I didn't know what to expect when I went to the store and was expecting the worst. Fortunately, it wasn't bad at all. I noticed that not a single person grabbed more than one B-Wing while I was there at the opening even though the first guy could have cleaned them out. The worst part was traffic getting there due to rain. The boys and I had a great time together, and overall it was fun being around the other AFOLs who shared their enthusiasm about the event (and Lego in general) with the boys.

Tevans333

Rainstorm26 said:

I went to order online last night at 11:20 local time here in Chicago. The sale had ended. Can't they at least extend the sale to midnight Pacific time? West coast kind of gets the short end of the stick.

East coast gets the short end at the beginning of the sale though, we have to wait until midnight, while west coast gets it at 9pm. I'd rather have the west coast timing!

Picopirate

One solution lego could implement is to only offer big sale items to vip members then track and limit sales made on each account. They could then do some post processing of the vip accounts and send out notices to suspected resellers before banning them from future sales. Many grocery stores require people to join their rewards programs to get the sale price so this would be nothing new. Lego also already did something similar when they required people to join the vip program to get the pc early. Something like a vip sighnup kiosk would probably need to be implemented to prevent the registers from getting swarmed with new signups.

Zon

Curious if the promo items will ship before the back ordered B Wing. Anyone had this happen?

cloaked7

^ I blame it all on LEGO corporate. They could easily issue rules about store limits. And, if the store doesn't get guidance from LEGO corporate then it falls on LEGO at the store level to make things fair.

It could all be handled so much better and done so quite easily. It would make things easier for ALL involved. A store employee steps outside before the store opens with sequentially numbered tickets up to the quantity of B-Wings they have in stock. The employee states how many B-Wings can be purchased per ticket (1, 2, 3, whatever) and that tickets are one per person. Then, the tickets are handed out to those in line if they want a B-Wing.

Then, no one is in a rush. They can only get a B-Wing if they have a ticket. If all of the tickets weren't handed out to those in line when a person goes up to the counter wanting one they get a ticket (if any are left) and get their B-Wing.

They use this process at Best Buy when they have limited quantities of popular items and people are lined up before the store opens wanting them. It works great.

doriansdad

Their goal was to move quantity and quickly. Limiting to 1 per person would defeat this goal.

jcb193

y2josh said:

TC-14 was kind of a junk figure with low demand, which is why he's still lingering around en masse a year after he came out.

All I know is by this time last year I had already moved most of my TC-14's for $25-$30. I guess Han will be a slower path.

Tevans333

^This. And each store has different quantities on hand and different traffic patterns. It really is best to empower the store mangers to make the desion as they know their store best. The corporate goal was to clear these out in a 2 day window. It was up to the store manager to ensure that happened.

cloaked7

Obviously, I don't know what the B-Wing inventory of all the many LEGO stores was, but from what I've read on the forum it seems like limiting the in store quantity to 1 or 2 per person would have gotten the inventory moved in 2 days (if that was the goal). Also, if moving inventory is the supreme goal, why set a limit at all?

I got my B-Wings, so I'm fine with the way it worked out. And, I didn't 'cheat' or anything like that to get mine.

But, I can relate to how some people are upset when they make an effort to get to the store before it opens and find people buying 5 B-Wings and having friends or family members by 5 as well. Then, a lot of people leave empty handed. Thing is, it could have been handled differently with minimal effort. The store could have met their goal and had a lot more happy customers. A win-win situation. Just sad that businesses don't put forth the effort to try and make that happen.

mathew

y2josh said:

^The Shadow ARF Trooper has appreciated nicely (about $35 these days), and Han should follow the same trajectory, probably with a higher ceiling (being that he's a character people have heard of).

TC-14 was kind of a junk figure with low demand, which is why he's still lingering around en masse a year after he came out.

I think you're about the only one who thinks the Han figure is good. I put mine on ebay and had nothing but low ball offers. I finally sold it for $20 with free shipping, but the guy still hasn't paid. I'm not complaing because it was free, but it's hardly a good figure. I would of been happier with the TC-14.

jcb193

Agreed....I've always felt that Lego promofigs are like Super Bowl champions t shirts. You want to sell them in the first 72 hours. Because, if you wait too long, people move on to the next promo. I will say the print runs for Han might be lower than TC-14, but I'm not sure this matters with promos. I feel like a promofig is always sold on hype, and as the hype wanes, so does the demand.

samiam391

mathew said:

y2josh said:

^The Shadow ARF Trooper has appreciated nicely (about $35 these days), and Han should follow the same trajectory, probably with a higher ceiling (being that he's a character people have heard of).

TC-14 was kind of a junk figure with low demand, which is why he's still lingering around en masse a year after he came out.

I think you're about the only one who thinks the Han figure is good. I put mine on ebay and had nothing but low ball offers. I finally sold it for $20 with free shipping, but the guy still hasn't paid. I'm not complaing because it was free, but it's hardly a good figure. I would of been happier with the TC-14.

Quaking in your boots yet @y2josh? ;o)

samiam391

Yellowcastle said:

I'm not sure how getting 4 friends/acquaintances to buy 5 B-Wings each for resale is that much better/different than buying 25 yourself. But I digress...

@yellowcastle- I don't like it much myself, however it is different. After his comment we did go on a bout of accusing him of buying 25 for himself, which is just outrageous. It's a complete abuse of the system, and I (and many others) quickly and angrily called him out on it.

However, after his explanation I felt it was necessary to apologize considering he was wrongly accused. Also, what he did was not complete abuse of the system. I'm not saying I really agree with what he did, but at the same time I felt it was necessary to apologize for harsh accusations that were un-justified and inaccurate. :o)

CapnRex101

I would actually agree to an extent with @y2josh, the Minifigure is lovely if you ask me, and while I would have preferred a nice chrome R2-D2 or something like that, and it is a little disappointing beside TC-14 from last year, I appreciate whatever Lego can offer us on May the 4th.

Fingers are still crossed for a nice hairy Chewbacca exclusive next year ;)

samiam391

CapnRex101 said:

I would actually agree to an extent with @y2josh, the Minifigure is lovely if you ask me, and while I would have preferred a nice chrome R2-D2 or something like that, and it is a little disappointing beside TC-14 from last year, I appreciate whatever Lego can offer us on May the 4th.

Fingers are still crossed for a nice hairy Chewbacca exclusive next year ;)

I like the minifigure. Beautiful printing on it. I'm looking forward to receiving it in the mail along with my B-wing.

However, it was a bit of a let down compared to the previous years. It was just to similar to a figure that looked like it could come straight out of a LEGO box.

That's why I place so much emphasis on chrome. It gives any figure that sense of "special" and "exclusive". I don't really like chrome, honestly, but I like what it does to the overall "grade" of the figure.

rocao

cloaked7 said:

Obviously, I don't know what the B-Wing inventory of all the many LEGO stores was, but from what I've read on the forum it seems like limiting the in store quantity to 1 or 2 per person would have gotten the inventory moved in 2 days (if that was the goal). Also, if moving inventory is the supreme goal, why set a limit at all?

With the reports of stores imposing varying limits from 1 to 5, it would appear that there was no specific directive set by LBR. And I think it's for the better that such a thing is left up to the store manager to balance their inventory with anticipated demand.

My LEGO store opened with a 2 B-Wing limit and within the first half hour when the demand was apparent and the queue growing, the manager changed it to a limit of one. I think this is a perfectly sensible approach.

cloaked7 said:

But, I can relate to how some people are upset when they make an effort to get to the store before it opens and find people buying 5 B-Wings and having friends or family members by 5 as well. Then, a lot of people leave empty handed.

A common sense approach for a store manager would be to take a tally of all the people in line before the store opens and set a limit so that everyone would at least get a copy.

I can understand disappointment or frustration but not to the point of being upset or thinking it was someone else fault. If someone makes it to the store before me, plain and simply, they beat me to it and it's fair that they are served first. After all, isn't that the reason someone is trying to arrive early? They know there is demand, they know supply might be an issue, and they're effectively trying to beat out other people.

JBricks27

I just re-watched ESB and realized Han wears that outfit for a good amount of camera time on Hoth. I think it's a must have minifigure.

Pitfall69

I have to be careful here because I don't want @legoboy to dig up dirt on me ;) I was careful to not order more than 2 B-Wings. I placed 2 separate orders because I said I would trade my extra Han for a TC-14 straight up with a fellow Bricksetter. Even then, I was hesitant. I don't have more than 1 account for any online retailer. I did place 6 seperate orders last year over the span of 2 days. I didn't feel all that bad because I assumed there would be plentyof TC-14's and all the Lego was for myself. I think most of us have "toed the line" once or twice as far as buying Lego, so I know we aren't all saints.

meyerc13

y2josh said:

^The Shadow ARF Trooper has appreciated nicely (about $35 these days), and Han should follow the same trajectory

Are you kidding? Shadow ARF is popular because of army builders. I don't see anyone army building Han Solo. Eventually this will probably hit $35, but follow the same trajectory as an army builder? No way.

111ins

I just got off the phone with LEGO. My 4 separate orders were cancelled as I was having them shipped to a US address (that they have shipped to before, and I have had LOTS of amazon orders go to) and they have apparently no longer allow this. I was able to get them to ship one to my Canadian address and might be able to get a second if they become available again. The customer service rep also said that if they are going thru the orders and cancelling anything over TWO per account. Maybe bs so that I would be happy with at least one, has anyone else had orders over two per account cancelled?

Pitfall69

meyerc13 said:

y2josh said:

^The Shadow ARF Trooper has appreciated nicely (about $35 these days), and Han should follow the same trajectory

Are you kidding? Shadow ARF is popular because of army builders. I don't see anyone army building Han Solo. Eventually this will probably hit $35, but follow the same trajectory as an army builder? No way.

As far as Army Builders, I don't think that people would build armies of protocol droids either, but there are at least 3 "silver colored" protocol droids shown in the movies and may want to have one for multiple dioramas. Also, we have the obvious chrome factor.

graphite

If they are in fact cancelling orders over 2 per account when having a limit of 5 on the website then LEGO is treading some pretty treacherous waters when it comes to unwritten policies. General business practice should be to set a limit and adhere to it regardless of intent of purchase. Don't want after market sellers? Set limit to 1 or 2. Don't want to piss off parents of 5 kids that buy the same things for all of them? Set limit to 5 and ignore re-sellers. It would be much simpler on their part to just have a set policy, enforce it on the multiple account, work around people, and tell anyone else complaining they didn't get to take advantage of a sale etc that there isn't much they can do other than what they've done.

margot

Not seeing the B wing on [email protected] anymore.

Brickarmor

Zon said:

Curious if the promo items will ship before the back ordered B Wing. Anyone had this happen?

Yes.

And where are the Mods to reprimand us: "This is not a reselling thread"? ;-)
(Just kidding around, not inciting debate.)

jcb193

I placed five orders for five different items (no B wings), 3 out of 5 have shipped already.

Dougout

Anyone that is disappointed that they did not get a B-wing should direct their frustration towards their store manager. Any calm, rational comments expressing their frustration should go a long way. Stores with no limits on their items are probably more desperate for the business and willing to sell whatever to whomever just for the money. Letting a store manager know you will be a returning, valuable customer may make them consider better policies to spread the wealth next time they have a sale.

Corporate TLG indeed does their best (we can thank them for the 50% off sale in the first place), but poor sale distribution needs to be addressed with the store managers.

Brickarmor

I ordered some Stagecoaches Saturday AFTER the 10227, and the Stagecoaches have already shipped while the others are still In Process. Ordered my B Wings (x3 FWIW) at midnight on the dot as soon as the sale went live.

doriansdad

111ins said:

The customer service rep also said that they are going thru the orders and cancelling anything over TWO per account. Maybe bs so that I would be happy with at least one, has anyone else had orders over two per account cancelled?

No. You were fed a line of BS. Welcome to TLG customer service 2013.

CapnRex101

^ I would not disagree with that, this year so far I have been receiving an awful lot of answers which do nothing but simply fob me off. Classic middle management responses in my opinion. I look forward to the Lego consumer survey this year...

binaryeye

Brickarmor said:

I ordered some Stagecoaches Saturday AFTER the 10227, and the Stagecoaches have already shipped while the others are still In Process. Ordered my B Wings (x3 FWIW) at midnight on the dot as soon as the sale went live.

I assume you didn't get a Han promo with the Stagecoaches, correct? I ordered a #7965 on Saturday evening and that order is still "In Process", so I'm thinking it's the promo that is causing the delay.

neiname

Just went to my local store, told them I tried to buy the B-Wing online over the weekend and couldn't. Manager pulled a B-Wing from out back and sold it to me for half off and gave me the promo figure. That's customer service. My receipt reads 50% customer satisfaction.

LegoFanTexas

neiname said:

Just went to my local store, told them I tried to buy the B-Wing online over the weekend and couldn't. Manager pulled a B-Wing from out back and sold it to me for half off and gave me the promo figure. That's customer service. My receipt reads 50% customer satisfaction.

Good manager... :)

timinchicago

@neiname That is great customer service, what store was it?

neiname

timinchicago said:

@neiname That is great customer service, what store was it?

Burlington MA