Comments on: Why the US has the lowest LEGO prices

By: Steve Howard

Steve Howard — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:37:52 +0000

You have misunderstood their point regarding the economy of scale. It can be said more are sold in California alone than in the entire UK combined, and 49 more states to go in the USA. Do the math, UK is a rain drop in the ocean compared to the USA in just about all product sales. Volume reduces price, simple economics.

By: tkf

tkf — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:03:42 +0000

You also shouldn’t forget about Russia. We have even less choice than other Europe countries. It is not hopefull feeling when you see great set, but it just won’t come to Russia. We have no official Lego store here. And couldn’t order from lego.com.
Thankfully prices just 2 or 3 euros higher than in europe for small and mid sets.
NXT’s price just 100$ bigger than is USA :(

By: intento

intento — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:24:06 +0000

the UK is the place which suffers the most it has prices higher than all other countries!

By: Donaldo

Donaldo — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:39:06 +0000

The bottom line is supply and demand. Complaining about price does nothing. You don’t like the price don’t buy the product. It really is that simple.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:45:35 +0000

This is bullcrap. The Agents Volcano Base goes for $94.99 up here in Canada and $69.99 in the US. The latter is equal to the price of the Lego Batman Tumbler up here in Canada! You mother******* sons of *******! You can all ******* **** yourselves and go ********* into a ******* pool of your own ******* ****!

By: Mr. S

Mr. S — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:14:56 +0000

Even given the lower volume in other markets, Mads Nipper’s explanation doesn’t really justify items costing at least double their U.S. counterparts. Especially when you cut out the middle-man by buying from shop.lego.com.

Peter, we pay 25% VAT on most items. SRP for 8527 (LEGO Mindstorms NXT) is SEK 2 999:- on shop.lego.com (if I log-in from a Swedish IP). If I login with a U.S. IP address, SRP for that same set is USD 249.99 or SEK 1 585:84. With Swedish VAT, that would be 1 982:30.

It gets worse with the educational sets. Since there’s no official LEGO Education store here in Sweden, LEGO’s partner charges schools $685 for set 9797. That set retails for $260 on legoeducation.com.

By: Vanquished

Vanquished — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:10:18 +0000

I’ve been quietly grumbling about Canadian prices for quite some time. I emailed Lego about it, and they told me Canadian prices were based upon the strength of the Canadian dollar based over recent years, although it seems anytime someone asks they get a different answer. I can only wonder if in a few years we will get a better price. Nowadays I don’t even buy new sets anymore, everything is through bricklink or ebay.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:38:06 +0000

Man, I had no idea the rest of the world was getting hosed so badly. Too bad the article did nothing to indicate what part taxes play in the pricing. I’d like to see that info. For example, we’ve been griping about our $4 gas for a while, but across the pond I know ya’ll pay double or more for it. But a lot of that double is taxes. The gas tax in the U.S. is relatively small.

I wonder if it’s similar with Lego; not that it nullifies the pain, but at least it might give some kind of explanation other than ‘market forces.’

Stupid Wal-Mart. A friend of mine showed me how they squeeze their suppliers a few years ago. Some of the efficiencies gained are worth the pain, but having a retailer dictate the price of your product is just wrong.

By: mediocre

mediocre — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:48:16 +0000

Yeah, I’d like to buy directly from TLC too, but there’s another thing: a lot of sets aren’t available for me here in the Netherlands through show.lego.com. It’s the US market that seems to get the most different sets.
If they can sell it to me at those higher ‘European’ prices, why won’t they sell it to me then? You’d think they could make more profit.

By: SuperWAGs

SuperWAGs — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:11:44 +0000

I think it it outrageous that not only are other parts of the world required to pay more for the actual sets, but also the steep cost of postage to get it here. It really is discouraging to buy sets in Australia from shop at home, when many of the stores undercut or match (or undercut) the S@H price and then you have to spend an extra $75 to get them to your door. I bought the green grocer in the first week of release when I noticed it was priced at parity with the USD price (a mistake soon corrected). I felt like I had a little victory. To Lego’s credit though they still stood by the sale and didn’t try to weasel out of it.
I design quite a lot of stuff in LDD, but I’m very cautious to submit the designs to S@H, first looking at whether the bits I have can do the job. Getting onto that… it seems in upgrading LDD they have taken out the piece list function, so it makes it harder to find an alternative source for bricks.

By: teikjoon

teikjoon — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:32:05 +0000

I think the biggest shame is that because LEGO is more expensive in these places (like mine), a lot of potential builders, young or old, are not exposed to LEGO, or cannot afford to pursue it and go on to do other less productive endeavours…

God knows how many unborn MOCs are out there. Sigh.

Sadly, economics is a game which we all have to play, whether or not we like it. Personally I try to buy smaller sets which give me a good mix of parts, and try to build small-ish MOCs, supplemented with a story.

In my case, I paid USD130 for the USD90 Market Street, and based on my relative purchasing power…that amount would have paid for about 100 lunches…

By: RichardAM

RichardAM — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:04:54 +0000

Since returning to the hobby a few years ago, I too have been wondering why it’s always the case Europe gets the higher-pricing. Seeing numerous photos on Flickr along the lines of “I got these sets reduced at $xx.xx” by US fans, naturally, doesn’t help make me feel any better.

That said, these pricing differences aren’t a new thing, and Lego has always been an expensive product. The Castle sets we see nowadays are sold at pretty much the same price they were when I was growing up, and as this is an interest I get so much enjoyment and excitement from, paying these prices is something i’ve just learnt to accept. Additionally, the prices of everything are higher in Europe than the US anyway, it’s a fact. I don’t see why Lego should be the exception.

I don’t agree with the practice, but eitherway, I do think this statement by Mads Nipper could’ve perhaps been worded better.

By: mr.M.

mr.M. — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 07:31:56 +0000

Don’t thank anybody “that they help you pay less besause they are paying more”. Because they (in this case we Europeans) _don’t_want_ to pay such high prices for LEGO. I also ship from US.

[Again: please don't thank to someone for a thing that he is forced to do.]

By: Rollen (Lich Barrister)

Rollen (Lich Barrister) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:51:18 +0000

@ Jacob: Aren’t there usually manufacturer’s suggested retail prices? Don’t they vary from country to country? I know that most any retailer can take their lumps and cut their profits by cutting prices, but few do – there’s simply little cost-effectiveness to be wrought, and it’s usually big-box stores selling Lego these days. (I’m starting to frequent the indie in town, but they don’t have everything.) The local indie has to match prices with the big-boxes, but she’s pretty sure that no one (in Canada, anyhow) is able to gross much on Lego.

Further to the MSRP, there’s also the simple fact of Shop at Home pricing. Regardless of what’s noted here on Brothers Brick about pricing and sales, when I click on the “shop” icon here, it translates things to Canadian pricing without fail. Undoubtedly, this can be argued as part of the “not undercutting your retailers in a country” issue, but it’s bizarre that there’d be such a leap when books and magazines (the only other regular luxury I buy these days) tends to have discounts to reflect the USD price.

All there is to do is to wait for the specials on unsold Target exclusives at Zellers, I guess…

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 04:12:11 +0000

Can LEGO be blamed for the fact that the cost of goods in general varies from country to country (AFAIK)?