J.A.F. Team

(I get paid time and a half but they cut my hours this week so my final paycheck is gonna look the same)

I actually kind of wonder if TLG was pressured to increase the prices of their own sets on their website by certain brick-and-mortar retailers, particularly Toys 'R' Us. As one of the biggest remaining toy store chains in the world, Toys 'R' Us has a huge impact on LEGO sales, but they have not been doing that well financially from what I've heard. So perhaps they threatened to stop carrying LEGO if the LEGO online store and catalogs kept undercutting their prices.

 

I think that's a more likely theory than the alternative (that a bunch of major retailers like Fred Meyer decided to sell LEGO for less than RRP, not as a special sale but as their regular pricing).

I honestly think it's a pricing mistake on their part, and that it will probably get caught and fixed. At the moment, since these have just been released, I doubt they realize it's off yet. I've seen this happen at a couple of other retail stores before, and the price usually ends up increasing.

 

Although TRU always overprices the sets, and it's less of Lego undercutting them since everybody else sells at lego's price.

 

I actually kind of wonder if TLG was pressured to increase the prices of their own sets on their website by certain brick-and-mortar retailers, particularly Toys 'R' Us. As one of the biggest remaining toy store chains in the world, Toys 'R' Us has a huge impact on LEGO sales, but they have not been doing that well financially from what I've heard. So perhaps they threatened to stop carrying LEGO if the LEGO online store and catalogs kept undercutting their prices.

 

I think that's a more likely theory than the alternative (that a bunch of major retailers like Fred Meyer decided to sell LEGO for less than RRP, not as a special sale but as their regular pricing).

I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, TRU can't just "threaten to not carry", as they pay TLG to have a larger selection and more exclusives. They pass that cost back on to us via higher LEGO prices.