A Disappointing May 4th Sale from LEGO® in the USA

If you’ve been an AFOL for a while and if you’re a Star Wars™ fan, then you’ve probably been tracking the multi day sale surrounding Star Wars™ day. Typically the sale includes the release on a new UCS set or some other larger Star Wars™ themed set, a gift with purchase set related to the theme, Double VIP points, and discounted sets.

Being in Europe, I check in with with the US sales, but I have to wait until 6 AM my time so I can see the sales start on the east coast of the US. This year I logged in a little after 7 AM on 1 May to check out the sales and let me tell you, I was disappointed in what I saw.

So they had the new A-wing Starfighter™ (#75275-1) for sale and the gift with purchase is #40407-1: Death Star II Battle available for purchases over $75. Additionally, there are a few other new sets available, but I won’t go into those now.

The big disappointment… there are no sale items. No sets are discounted at all. Zero. What!?!?! Why????

How can you call this a sale without anything at a discount?

To top this off, Amazon.com in the US has nine sets which are at least 20% off their retail pricing at the time of this post. Walmart.com has about the same at the time of the post too. Scoring sales in the US has to be done outside of Shop @ Home this weekend. Shop @ Home is only if you want some of the larger sets or the gift with purchase set.

Want to feel worse? Well the sale is on in Europe. Checking out the Lego.de site (Germany’s Shop @ Home page), there are a few deals posted.

#75253-1: LEGO Star Wars™ Boost Droid - 20% off - 159,99€ (~$177)
All of the Action Battle sets are 20% off
#75242-1 and #75250-1 were sold out, but they were both 20% off as well.

Not the greatest list of deals, but at least they had a few items to pick from.

Then onto Smyths Toys in Germany… you can see my post about Smyths here. Here are the sales they list for Star Wars™ sets:
-#75257-1: Millennium Falcon - 144,99€ (15€ off or ~$160 which still works out to the US retail price)
-#75256-1: Kylo Ren’s Shuttle - 96,99€ (23€ off or ~$107 in the US vs. a $129.99 retail price)
-All 3 new helmet sets for 49,99€ (10€ off or ~$55 vs. a $59.99 retail price in the US)
-75255-1: Yoda - 84,99€ (15€ off or ~$94 vs a $99.99 retail price in the US)
-#75253-1: LEGO Star Wars™ Boost Droid - 130,90€ (~69€ off or ~$145 vs a $199.99 retail price in the US)

There are a few more sets available for sale as well, but I won’t list them. Looks like Smyths might be a good place to hit the Star Wars™ sales in Germany.

So why is this? Has LEGO reduced their Star Wars™ inventory so they don’t need to run sales as often? Has competition in the US been removed and the big retailers just fall in line with LEGO to rake in profits? Are we seeing a COVID-19 impact? Are sales so good in the US that LEGO doesn’t need to discount? I’d appreciate hearing some insight from LEGO on the reasoning behind the sale and pricing.

Does anyone have any insight they can share here?

Any different views on this? Is it really a great sale and I’m just missing it?

LEGO Shop at Home May the Fourth Sale - Is/Was it Worth it?

If you live in the UK, Australia, or New Zealand, you got 10% off all LEGO Star Wars sets.  How awesome is that?  Granted if you do a currency conversion, more often than not the price is lower in the states, but still it would have been great to have 10% off all Star Wars sets in the USA too.  Sadly we did not.  If you looked at the sales, the majority of the items up for sale are already discounted on Amazon and have been for quite some time.  Many of the buildable figures have been discounted for a few months on Amazon in the US now.  The set discounts for LEGO Shop at Home in the US weren't much different from what Amazon has been offering either.  The Battle on Takodana (#75139) has been around 15% off on Amazon and Amazon increased it to 20% off to match LEGO's sale.  The Resistance Troop Transporter (#75140) has been 20% off at Amazon for a while too and LEGO matched this for their sale.  The 3 "deals" I saw through LEGO Shop at Home (in the US) were the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium (#75094) at 20% off (vs. 18% off on Amazon), the Homing Spider Droid (#75142) at 20% off, and the Sith Infiltrator (#75096) at 20% off.  Sadly, none of the Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars builds or larger Star Wars sets like the Millennium Falcon (#75105) were discounted.  

While it sounds like I'm complaining, the free shipping, double VIP points, First Order Stormtrooper minifig, and LEGO Force Awakens movie poster definitely help some.  You won't get any of that from Amazon.  

If you've been saving up for some Star Wars sets, you still have time as the sale ends on 4 May.  I bought a few items for the store to include sets and minifigs.  Let me know if you have purchased anything through the sale and your thoughts on LEGO's discounts.  You can post in the comments or email me at store@bricksforbricks.com.