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Dragon Master
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Advice

Post by Dragon Master »

Hi,

I have set aside roughly $100 for LEGO. I am considering purchasing 24 packs of these: http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10145&cn=96&d=18&t=7

I was just wondering is it worth it? Would I get a better deal if I ordered $100 of light grey on BL?

DM
Last edited by Dragon Master on Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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forester3291
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Re: Advice

Post by forester3291 »

Dragon Master wrote:Hi,

I have set aside roughly $100 for LEGO. I am considering purchasing 24 packs of these.

DM
24 packs of what? :P :lol:
Space rocks.
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Duke_Dave
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Post by Duke_Dave »

Yeh for some reason it is not loading up for me.


dave
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Dragon Master
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Post by Dragon Master »

the item is this:

Item#: 10145
Ages: 5+
Pieces: 62
Price: USD 4.99

in old light grey.
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Troy T. Moore
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Post by Troy T. Moore »

On a per piece price, BL will yeild you more depending where you shop. I have battled with this from the time we heard thst the greys became bleys. Greys prices are rising a bit now on BL as bley is widely available.

After seeing Kevin Hall's Norman tower with both colours (and MB :? ) I have decided to embrace light bley. Look at the price per piece on BL and you will understand why. If it is here to stay I might as well get used to it, and you too for that matter :wink:

I just place 2 BL orders this AM containing light bley.
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rogue27
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Re: Advice

Post by rogue27 »

Dragon Master wrote:Hi,

I have set aside roughly $100 for LEGO. I am considering purchasing 24 packs of these: http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10145&cn=96&d=18&t=7

I was just wondering is it worth it? Would I get a better deal if I ordered $100 of light grey on BL?

DM

Well, let's see here...

Those 24 bags from S@H will cost you $102 with the bulk discount and free shipping applied.

In those 24 bags, you will get 336 Light Gray 2x4 bricks.

If you bought 336 new Light Gray 2x4 bricks on BL, it will cost you at least $40 after shipping. Maybe closer to $50.

So, you have to decide if the remaining parts in each bag are worth the additional $60.

Also, it's worth noting that your average price per piece in these bags will be a fraction under $0.07 each. I believe that's what the 1x2 bricks are currently going for on BL. The larger parts are probably going to be a bit more. Compare that to the average price of the parts you want on BL and factor in the cost of shipping from the multiple stores you will probably have to shop from and see if it's a better deal.

If you bought from S@H like that, I certainly could not say that you are getting a bad deal. It might even be a little better than what you will find on BL, depending on how the parts you want are distributed across stores.
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Mursk
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Post by Mursk »

I would go with the 24 Service packs, Bricklink's main flaw is that you can not aquire a wide range of parts without going through an annoying hassle, and the shipping costs for buying only a small ammount of parts arn't worth it, like bricks or plates. resort to Bricklink for Bulk, but otherwise those service packs will get you a large range of parts that will be usefull.
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Post by rogue27 »

Cost Analysis:

I am bored at work. As such, I priced out the contents of one of these service pack bags on BrickLink. I used the lowest price available for each part from a US store that had the quantity found in one service pack bag.

Here are my findings:

1x1 = 0.025 * 4 = 0.10
1x2 = 0.02 * 8 = 0.16
1x3 = 0.08 * 4 = 0.32
1x4 = 0.06 * 4 = 0.24
1x6 = 0.12 * 4 = 0.48
1x8 = 0.16 * 2 = 0.32
2x2 = 0.03 * 12 = 0.36
2x3 = 0.04 * 8 = 0.32
2x4 = 0.10 * 14 = 1.40
2x8 = 0.17 * 1 = 0.17
2x10 = 0.25 * 1 = 0.25
================
Total = $4.12

The cost of these bags on Shop@Home with the bulk discount and free shipping is $4.24, so you save 12 cents on BrickLink...

... until you factor in shipping and quantity.

To get these parts for $4.12 on BL, you would have to order from at least 4 different stores, but I think the actual number is closer to 8. If you factor in the cost of shipping as about $1.50 per order, then you are paying 2-4 times as much to buy the contents of one service pack on BrickLink.

Oh, but it gets worse! Most of these stores just barely had the quantity in stock for one bag! For example, the $0.10 2x4 bricks - the store in question only had 15 of them. If you buy 24 service packs from S@H, you get 336 2x4 bricks. The cheapest store that had that many 2x4 bricks in stock was charging 0.15 per brick, which comes out to $50.10. This store did have free shipping, but that's still almost half of the $102 you would spend on 24 service packs. To get 336 2x4 bricks at a lower price per brick would have required 3 or 4 orders at 12-14 cents per brick, and that would probably cost more after shipping.

Similar situations exist for all of the parts.

It will definitely be cheaper to buy the 24 service packs than to get all of these bricks on BrickLink
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Dragon Master
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Post by Dragon Master »

rogue27 wrote:Cost Analysis:

I am bored at work. As such, I priced out the contents of one of these service pack bags on BrickLink. I used the lowest price available for each part from a US store that had the quantity found in one service pack bag.

Here are my findings:

1x1 = 0.025 * 4 = 0.10
1x2 = 0.02 * 8 = 0.16
1x3 = 0.08 * 4 = 0.32
1x4 = 0.06 * 4 = 0.24
1x6 = 0.12 * 4 = 0.48
1x8 = 0.16 * 2 = 0.32
2x2 = 0.03 * 12 = 0.36
2x3 = 0.04 * 8 = 0.32
2x4 = 0.10 * 14 = 1.40
2x8 = 0.17 * 1 = 0.17
2x10 = 0.25 * 1 = 0.25
================
Total = $4.12

The cost of these bags on Shop@Home with the bulk discount and free shipping is $4.24, so you save 12 cents on BrickLink...

... until you factor in shipping and quantity.

To get these parts for $4.12 on BL, you would have to order from at least 4 different stores, but I think the actual number is closer to 8. If you factor in the cost of shipping as about $1.50 per order, then you are paying 2-4 times as much to buy the contents of one service pack on BrickLink.

Oh, but it gets worse! Most of these stores just barely had the quantity in stock for one bag! For example, the $0.10 2x4 bricks - the store in question only had 15 of them. If you buy 24 service packs from S@H, you get 336 2x4 bricks. The cheapest store that had that many 2x4 bricks in stock was charging 0.15 per brick, which comes out to $50.10. This store did have free shipping, but that's still almost half of the $102 you would spend on 24 service packs. To get 336 2x4 bricks at a lower price per brick would have required 3 or 4 orders at 12-14 cents per brick, and that would probably cost more after shipping.

Similar situations exist for all of the parts.

It will definitely be cheaper to buy the 24 service packs than to get all of these bricks on BrickLink
Thanks Rogue,

One reason I was leaning towards the S@H order is becuase of the variety. It would be hard to find a shop with those quantities of all those kinds of bricks.

DM
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Post by jon_p »

I think you may have to make seperate s@h orders for 24 bags, as when I tried to buy more than 9 at once it said..
You have exceeded the maximum number allowed for this item. No more of this item can be added.
So that might mean, you would not be able to apply for the free shipping.

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