Another LEGO Shop @ Home Shipping Fail - Late Night Delivery

I placed a few orders during the recent Back to Hogwarts promotion LEGO ran at the beginning of September. I bought a few items to build and a few for the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink Store. My orders shipped at various times and as per usual, I received shipping notifications. So far so good.

One of the orders was shipped via a company called OnTrac. Huh? Who are they? I was nervous, but I hoped LEGO had everything under control. The package tracking showed daily movement on the path to my house until it looked like it would show up the next day.

So there I was… getting ready for bed a little after 10:00 PM when I saw the front of my house was brighter. I went to go look and there was a van in the driveway with its lights on and someone walking up the walkway. I flipped on the outside light and by the time I got outside, the person was already walking back and there was a box on my porch. A quick look revealed the shipper was LEGO so I assumed it was legit. I later opened the box and my order was there.

I was a bit perturbed by such a late night delivery and it definitely spooked my family to have someone show up that late unannounced. Everyone else (Fedex, UPS, USPS, Amazon) delivers during normal hours unless you pay for a rush delivery or a late night Uber/Doordash. So I decided to write to LEGO Customer Service. I often get positive responses from them so it was worth a shot. I sent a note, voiced my frustration, and asked them to not deliver so late at night as I didn’t need the set at 10:30 PM.

Well… LEGO responded by flicking it off to OnTrac. They said they were sorry, but I should take it up with OnTrac. It wasn’t their problem to deal with.

So I attempted to deal with OnTrac. I messed with the automated chat function until I gave up. It appears there is no way to send them feedback. OnTrac, if you’re reading this, please don’t deliver to my house after 10 PM or even 8 PM. I say 7 PM is the latest. Nothing that I order is that important that it has to be there that night. Let your employees stay home and enjoy time with their families. They don’t need to be out hauling boxes around. Thanks for understanding?

Has anyone else had this issue? Or is it just me?

Gifts with Purchase - Too Many or Not Enough?

I don’t want to say it too loudly, but I think the fourth quarter 2020/Christmas holiday shopping period has finally worn off. LEGO Shop @ Home is once again building up inventory and things aren’t listed as backordered or out of stock as much. A lot of sets are available again with a few exceptions (like the 2021 modular building). It’s good to have things in stock again and to not go to the site and see everything gone.

Looking back, we had some interesting times. A factory closure, plus a pandemic with people at home, plus online re-sellers, plus the normal buyers all added up to some insane buying. In that time if you read the forums and comments in LEGO AFOL media, you saw a lot of negativism from fans related to the Gift with Purchase sets. It was rightfully so for some items, but not for all in my opinion.

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#40448-1: Vintage Car helped drive some of the negativism. It arrived at the start of 2021 and lasted just a few days. It was supposed to be out for about 10 days, but didn’t make it that long. Fans were disappointed the fan created item didn’t last. Now you can get it on Bricklink for around $20 and Amazon.com around $30.

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Photo from LEGO.com

#30628-1: The Monster Book of Monsters was initially a Barnes & Noble exclusive set in the US. Resellers gobbled them up in the hopes of turning a profit. Then it went live on LEGO Shop @ Home and it went away after a day or two. Then it came back… after starting on 1 Jan 2021, it now says it will be available through 14 March 2021. So maybe the initial feelings of distraught in the community were too early…

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Then there was #40416-1: Ice Skating Rink which was available in December 2020. In the US, you had to purchase $150 or more of products which became a challenge as everything was sold out. I placed an order in December that ended up not making it to its final destination. LEGO Customer Service was awesome and they are re-sending the order… and it includes this gift with purchase set. So it leads me to believe LEGO has more of these available. Perhaps we will see this set pop up again.

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Photo from LEGO.com

The last one I’ll mention is available at the time of this post. #40450-1: Amelia Earhart Tribute is the name and number. It started on 6 March and is scheduled to end on 14 March. You have to purchase over $100 of items in the US to qualify. I saw some speculation that LEGO would run out of stock fast, but it doesn’t appear to have happened. We’ll see what happens as the promotion ends, but it looks like the concerns about gift with purchases and their quantities available may have been resolved since the Vintage Car set was released at the beginning of the year.

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What are your thoughts? Is the Christmas LEGO frenzy over? Are we back to normal times where you don’t have to worry about panic buying sets since they may go out of stock never to return again?

Happy building!

The LEGO® Gift with Purchase Rush - January 2021

The LEGO® Company has been having trouble keeping up with stock on the Shop @ Home site for a few months now. The situation was exacerbated in the lead up to Christmas as numerous items went out of stock. At the current time, you can click through the themes on the US Shop @ Home page and see the “out of stock” messages for entire product lines. As of the writing of this post, you cannot purchase any of the Ideas sets. There is one Speed Champion product available. The Creator Expert/18+ section only has a few products available. The list continues as you have to go search elsewhere if you really want a set or you have to wait.

I thought the situation might improve as sets remained out of stock through December and LEGO would use the time to catch up. The only problem… not only did they need to catch up, they also needed to produce the soon to be released 2021 sets. So what do you do as a company with a supply and demand problem like this?

It all came up again over the past few days on Shop @ Home as fans, resellers, parents, collectors, and anyone else looking to spend funds on LEGO sets dove into the inventory that appeared online on 1 January 2021. Midnight hit and the orders started pouring in. There were two gift with purchase sets available. The first was #30628-1: Monster Book of Monsters. This set was available for purchases of $85 or more on Harry Potter sets.

©2020 LEGO Group

The second set was #40448-1: Vintage Car. This set was based off of a fan design as part of the Ideas line and was much anticipated. It was available for all purchases over $85.

©2021 LEGO Group.

So what happened?

Midnight on the east coast of the US is 6 AM here in Germany so I got up a bit early to see if it was worth it to place an order. I’d like to know how many people were trying to order at that time because the site couldn’t handle it. I tried to add items to my cart and I kept getting error messages. None of the Harry Potter sets would add to my cart. I gave up. I checked LEGO.de (German site) and it worked okay. I try not to shop there as the exchange rate is getting worse and it is becoming more expensive for me to buy sets in Euros by the day.

I logged in later in the day… around 2 PM in Germany. #30628-1 was completely sold out on both the US and German sites. It was #44048-1 only. Some of the new 2021 sets were at backorder or sold out too like the new modular building.

The US site showed #44048-1 available as a gift with purchase through 3 January.

On 4 January, #44048-1 was not an option anymore. However, #30628-1 showed up again as available. I’m not sure how long that will last. It still shows available on 6 January so we’ll see what happens.

The big question from all of this… how will LEGO® break out of this downward spiral. It seems as though their supply chain cannot keep up with demand. My guess is it would take too long to stand up another factory. Should they decrease the new sets they release and focus on producing the existing ones in large quantity to keep up with demand? Should they place more limits on the numbers of sets you can buy per account? Do you think the shift will happen naturally as fans find other things to occupy their time or the pandemic eventually ends? Should they cut back on the number of retailers selling products? I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Feel free to post them in the comments or email me at store@bricksforbricks.com.

Happy building!

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?

Are We Entering the Best Time of Year to Buy LEGO Sets?

I know what you’re thinking… there isn’t a bad time of year to buy the plastic brick. Well I’m coming at it from the pain to your wallet or credit card bill. I have an older post that I try to update when I get new information on how to find the best priced LEGO sets out there. Bricks can get expensive fast and looking for opportunities to get discounts can be a big win.

I’m writing this post in early October 2019. While it doesn’t seem like Christmas to me, the retailers are definitely thinking about Christmas. To them Christmas means selling a lot of stuff to include toys. A big seller on the toy list is the plastic brick (yeah, probably Mega Blocks too… AUGH!). A quick look at Brickset’s Amazon.com discount list (in the US) shows a whole bunch of sets already 30% off with some over 40% off. While these aren’t the big modular buildings or Creator Expert sets, there is a good variety of sets on the discount list. I expect this list to continue through November and December with changes here and there so give it a look every now and then to see if there’s something that you’ve been eyeing up.

In the past both Walmart and Amazon.com have done limited sales on some of the big sets. This has included some of the big Star Wars sets, Modular Buildings, Creator Expert sets, and some others. Keep your eyes open. Usually by the time big sales get posted on the LEGO Fan Media, the sales are over. Rumor has it that last year Walmart had a very short run discount on the UCS Millennium Falcon (#75192-1).

In the past, LEGO has looked to unload some of the sets it wants to retire around this time of year. It used to be that LEGO ran some big sales immediately after Christmas to unload sets. More recently, LEGO has unloaded sets over the Black Friday weekend with deals on Modulars, Creator Expert sets, and some others. Definitely check out your nearby LEGO Brand Store or LEGO Shop @ Home during that time period. Of course, LEGO will also release some new sets around this time of year for you to pick up and they will run some promotional sets too. There traditionally is a “free with purchase,” Christmas themed set or two that get released in the November/December time frame.

Formerly known as EBates, now Rakuten.com also increases money back deals leading up to Christmas. Last year LEGO Shop @ Home had 5% to 7.5% back during their Brick Friday to Cyber Monday deals. Walmart, Amazon.com, and others often do the same. If you are signed up for this program, take advantage of it..

The big retailers always change how they run sales and deals. Just because they did something in the past doesn’t guarantee that they will do it again the same way this year. So pay attention to the sales. Our friends in the LEGO Fan Media usually do a good job at updating us on upcoming sales and deals. There are many out there so pick your favorite. I look at The Brick Fan as it does a good job keeping up with current and upcoming sales.

I’m not an affiliate and I don’t get paid to advertise for all of these companies and sites. It’s up to you to pick where you want to spend your money. So happy hunting and happy building!

New LEGO® Shop @ Home Rule for Collectible Minifigure Buys

I went to order some of the new Disney Series 2 minifigures from Shop @ Home. The maximum limit per order was listed as 18. While placing that order, I figured I’d throw in a few more of the LEGO Movie 2 minifigures. I added 5 to my order. A little while later I received an email from LEGO stating that my order was cancelled because I “went above our purchase limits” for the LEGO Movie 2 minifigures. The message went on to state:

“We sometimes put limits on popular sets so as many LEGO fans as possible can get their hands on them. Although you won’t be able to buy those sets right now, we regularly change and remove purchase limits, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on our website over the next few months.”

WHAT?!?!?!

So I contacted LEGO Shop @ Home customer service. The answer I got was:

“As we want in the beginning to let every LEGO® Fan have the chance to buy the Minifigs without loosing [their spelling, not mine] all stock straight away there is a limit per household of 18 for Disney Series 2 and 40 for THE LEGO® MOVIE 2. So if you reached this quantity in multiple past purchases, every future order which has these sets included will be cancelled by the system.”

Well thanks for letting me know that! I realize not everyone buys that many, but I like to have some extras for my collection and then to sell (when my store re-opens). Apparently I will not be able to use Shop @ Home for that any longer. There are only 18 minifigures in Disney Series 2. What are the odds of ordering 18 and getting the full set? Not very likely is my guess.

Customer service pointed me to LEGO Brand Stores. I was told that I could buy full boxes of Collectible Minifigures (40 in a box) from the stores and that they don’t have limits there. That would be nice if I had one nearby that was easily accessible.

So if you want more than just 18 Disney Series 2 sets, where can you go online from the US (at the time of this posting)?

Amazon.com in the US has the following:
-LEGO MOVIE 2 - Can order up to 30 minifigures for $3.92 each.
-Disney Series 2 - Can order up to 30 minifigures for $3.92 each as an add on (you need to purchase something else and add these to the order)

Walmart.com in the US has the following:
-LEGO MOVIE 2 - Can order up to 12 minifigures for $3.92 each.
-Disney Series 2 - Not Available
-Harry Potter Series - Can order up to 12 minifigures for $3.99 each

Target.com in the US does not appear to sell collectible minifigures online.

Are there any other online locations that you can buy them without a ridiculous mark up?

Obviously you can just go to a physical store to buy them too.

Happy building!

The (Not So) Secret Way to Buy Discount LEGO Sets (2018 Update)

Back in 2016, I wrote a post with some references for where you can find LEGO at a discount.  It's time for a update.

LEGO Shop @ Home: Buying from the source can sometimes be a good deal.  This however is not always the case.  For most of the year, they throw a lot of sets up for sale that they weren't able to sell.  There are a few key times however.  The Star Wars set sales during the May the Fourth sales and the Brick Friday Sales offer some great deals.  Often they throw a few other sales in there, but you need to pay attention to them.  If you get on their mailing list, you can get notices of when they are coming up.

BrickSet.com - Amazon.com deals in the US: Amazon has kept a good deal of discounts on sets.  If you pay attention, they have a great deal of some of the main lines (CITY, Friends, Star Wars, etc.) at a 20% discount.  As they approach Christmas time, they often increase sales to include discounts of 30% or more.  It's definitely worth it to check this site out before buying a LEGO set to see if there's a discount.  BrickSet used to have a Walmart sales site, but that one has since been shut down.  

BrickPicker.com: As mentioned last time, BrickPicker is more of a resource for those who collect, invest, and sell on the secondary market.  It focuses on LEGO sets that have long since retired and where people are willing to pay big money for some of the rarer sets.  They do show some current discounts on Amazon in various countries and if you follow the forums, you can see what deals people are finding at some of the big brand stores.

Walmart and Target: Both of these retailers have either pushed all of the fan sites to take down their sales searches or people took them down on their own.  I'm not sure what happened, but I have yet to find an easy way to find the LEGO deals at these stores.  Has anyone found something useful out there?  If so, please let me know.

Ebates.com - Okay so this is not a way to save money buying LEGO in a direct way.  However, there are a few ways you can take advantage of it.  For those of you not familiar, Ebates is a website where you sign up, go to the website before you shop, and then Ebates and you get a cut of the total sale when you are done.  If you sign up, you get spam emails every day.  The good news is, you can use it to buy LEGO.  LEGO Shop @ Home is currently (as of 30 March 2018) offering 2.5% cash back.  You place an order, they hold onto 2.5% of the sale, and then they return it to you in quarterly payments.  You can receive a check or link it to your PayPal account.  Before Christmas time 2017, Ebates had a 7.5% cash back deal on LEGO Shop @ Home.  Combine that with Double VIP points and it was a pretty good deal!  Also, you can share their site with friends and get a $25 referral payment.  The link I placed is just to the site and not an attempt to get the $25 referral payment out of you.  Amazon.com and Walmart are linked to Ebates too, but often they are linked to specific categories of products.  I have yet to see them give cash back for toys.

One final note is not related to discounts, but finding those hard to find sets.  Right now, it has been a challenge to buy the Millennium Falcon (#75192).  There are a number of websites out there that help you track inventory.  I have been watching zoolert.com.  You can set it up to track a product and get notifications on availability and pricing.  For the Falcon, it shows availability (or lack thereof) at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us (for a bit longer), Lego, Amazon.com, and EBay.  It does not show BrickLink.com or other LEGO secondary market sites.  If there is a set out there that you are looking for (maybe the Falcon), it may be worth it to use a site like this one.

What else am I missing?  Feel free to comment on any sites I'm not aware of or you can email me here.  

I'm not an affiliate to any of these sites and I am not paid to endorse any of them.  If you want to support Bricks for Bricks, please check out my BrickLink store.

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.