UK sellers should offer percentage deals

brickmad74

All these sellers offering percentage discounts why are they all in the USA how come no UK sellers offer these sort of deals

sophiesbrickshop

For me, because I have all the work I can handle selling at competative prices without resorting to some flash sale. All that achieves is devaluing your stock, doing a lot of work for next to no profit

Markyd7

I agree with Sophiebrickshop.
If you do sales to often the customer might wait until you do a sale before buying from you.

Stragus

Also, make sure these are real sales; it's too easy to announce percentage discounts after having raised all prices by a similar amount...

I would suggest to find stores with interesting prices from the catalog or wishlists, sales or not.

fitbricks

It would be worth noting that UK consumer law require items to have been at a previous price for 28 days prior to any advertised discount or special offer.
So if you were to run a blanket 20% off sale throughout your inventory, you'd need to be sure all item prices are compliant.
There is a work around, whereby the seller would make a statement of a previous price with a from and to date. Extremely laborious.
Yes, it's possible not to follow compliance regulations but I couldn't recommend it.

polarbomber

Lego is cheaper to buy in the USA .

misbi

^ postage to UK got very expensive recently though. Then there's possibly import duty plus Royal Mail's £8 handling charge on top. LEGO is cheap(er) to buy if you're in the USA, but not so cheap to buy from the USA if you're in the UK

robernat

Lego is cheaper to buy in the USA .

Not entirely true, as if one counts local 'state' taxes and add a lower GNP (don't forget the USD has been on the low end for near 1and 1/2 decade), then technicly it doesn't make that much of a difference. Add to it that US sellers usually already sell 'cheaper' compared to EU sellers, the additional discounts offered (and yes, quite more oftenly compared to EU sellers) it generates an unusual non balance 'noticed' by buyers (I was planning on making a statistic about it, but I lack time to do it).

So things need to be looked at from a different angle...
Why this sudden increase (the past 2 years) on 'sales' comming out of the US? Competition...
For over a decade US sellers had the upperhand in sales, so more US people became sellers and created an overflow of cheaper prices, because they had huge regions to sell their parts and figs to (besides the US itself). The past few years however, things changed: EU started to 'charge' imports in a more methodical way, and on top, US postal services increased their prices (heavily). Result, EU customers are no longer temped to buy 'abroad', because it no longer makes sense (total cost has become higher then to simply buy in the EU at a higher price), particulary since USD also kept rising in the mean while...
Result: hundreds of stores who kept (and keep) investing in the product, but with a much smaller market to sell to... At some point in time such causes problems for those sellers >drop of sales, less income and EU sellers kept growing in the mean while, and because of their growth, they kept getting better prices on the product, generating lower prices on this side of the pond. With 'fair' shippingcosts compared to the US, and no 'import' charges on US side (why do you think Obama has been lobbying about such with the EU the past 3 years: What the US wants to obtain is 'Free movement of goods' between the US and the EU, to get rid of those import taxes on EU side).
So the only option left for those sellers is to 'dump' their items, to at least make 'something' out of it...
Look at the BL top 60 stores: For the past 24 (up to 30) CONSECUTIVE months 40-48 stores are EU based and reaching that top 60 month after month. That's pretty 'all saying': those EU stores are catching up rapidly in regards to number of transactions, the top 20 is now a near 50/50 split, but if you look at the next 100 stores, a huge part is EU based and breathing down the neck of US based stores.
Is this good: yes, absolutely, certainly for buyers, and it will be like that for another 5 to 10 years (personal estimation). By then, EU stores will start the same kind of 'competition', because the competition will no longer be between the EU and the US, it will be 'within' the EU (larger stores getting higher discounts on the baseproduct, so able to sell cheaper and become even bigger then they are), and in the mean while, hundreds of US based stores will simply 'quit' because it will no longer be 'worthwhile'. But make no mistake, In the EU we will evolve towards that same point.

The fact is: We (all sellers) are creating an air bubble, an air bubble filled with LEGO, and one day it's going to burst, and when that happens (and I do think it will take another decade before it happens) it's going to hurt, and hurt badly...
You might say 'rubbish', but I can actually prove it... You see, for years I have kept data, and for over a year now I'm even keeping more data then before, just to see how this market is 'saturating' itself. I haven't made actually charts yet, for now I'm just storing the data, but what I can tell from the data, at quick glance, and even without making charts, is that eventually, the bubble will burst...

The 'availability' is exceeding the current market flow, even with the everlasting growth on potential buyers: the 'available' growth is near 33%. Now you might say, if the growth of the 'buyer base' is is 32% and the growth of the availability is 33% that such compensates itself, well no: The growth of the 'buyer base' still gives a day by day '100%' buying base (as they keep buying along the way), so should availability remain at 100% then there is balance, because that larger amount of buyers still buy 100% of the availability, the unbalance is that availability has grown to 133% during that same period=overstock.
And so the weakest will lower their prices, creating a drop on averages and putting in trouble the 'average' seller, who will see no other choice then to adjust to the market, which will generate the incoveniance that larger sellers will need to adjust to the market as well. A vicious circle, now happening in the US, but mark my words, slowly moving towards the same point in the EU and the rest of the world...
And I'm not sure the Brexit (without wanting to get political) will help to prevent such for UK, I fear it will be the opposite, as UK will isolate itself from that larger buying base, as lets face it, the 'overall' value of a UK order (from my point of view, as a buyer) is simply 'great' (even with the GBP being stronger). But closing the borders might change all that... To give an example: 4 years ago, nearly 60% of what I purchased was purchased in the US, importtaxes, higher shipping changed all that, today it's hardly 5%.
My buying habit just 'shifted' and not in the least towards UK (most likely 40% of what I buy), but that will simply 'drop' to a similar % as my current US based purchases should I need to pay 'import', I will simply 'shift' again...

Bottomline: the spiral is 'downwards', only the stronger (and/or smarter) sellers will survive, simply because all the other ones will have no other choice then to 'dump' what they have, just to make sure they end up with 'something' in stead of 'hardly anything'...

Sorry for the long post and the amount of 'negativism', unfortunatly, very realistic (based on the data I've gathered), particulary since this 'trend' is already 'showing' on US side...

Cheers, Eric

sophiesbrickshop

Great post Eric, I guess you gave up watching the game eh

Miniadventureworld

We dont do sales but automatically offer discounts for returning customers.

brennans bounty

hello I noticed a post today a seller from the usa wanting to buy lego collections from other sellers any amount so someone is expanding their business if what you suggest is correct robernat there will be ideal opportunities for bigger companies to grow if the smaller sellers pass on their stock .I have noticed in the uk ebay is dying and has been for the last few years and you can look on gumtree and see very large amounts of lego being sold very cheaply ,I have been trying to promote brickowl too some of the sellers on gumtree and a few have replied and are very interested in selling on here so hopefully there will be a greater choice .the uk gumtree site seems to have a lot of new sealed unwanted presents in the lego section especially areas which have large lego stores close to them I asked one seller where he got his stock from but never got an answer and there prices were half of what lego store charges .

polarbomber

I have started bulk buying tulip bulbs , i think my money will be safe there .