General shopping news

 

  • General shopping news

    Posted by Huw, 25 Jun 2012 14:42. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    Here's a round-up of various snippets of shopping news I've been sent this week:

    • UK: City mining sets are now available at Toys R Us, and are exclusive to TRU until 21st July (thanks kez)
    • UK: Smyths has the summer Star Wars sets in stock now, and I believe they have an exclusive window on them for a while, possibly until early August. (thanks various)
    • UK: The new LEGO store in the Meadowhall centre, Sheffield will be situated opposite the Disney store and Body shop at No.1 Park Lane. It will be opening at the end of July. (thanks Meccanotwitch)
    • AUS: New Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Cars 2 and Creator sets have arrived in Mr Toys/Toyworld, Brisbane, Queensland (thanks Targetonmyback)

    Finally, Amazon.fr and Amazon.es have the summer Star Wars sets listed now, and Amazon.de lists them but states they'll be available at the beginning of August. They are very cheap at Amazon.es, who will ship them for a very reasonable price (about €10 for any size of order) to anywhere in the EU, so it is currently the best place to buy them wherever you are in Europe. Here are some examples:

     

    Yes, Jabba's Palace really is just €99, which is the equivalent of about £80, or £40 cheaper than it will be in the UK when available. Get your order in now!

    Update: unfortunately, the 'Brickset effect' has caused Amazon to sell out so the prices have gone up due to the stock coming from 3rd-party sellers now.


    31 comments, latest one posted 11 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Wiseman_2 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 14:53

I also believe the Technic sets are available in Germany from some stores, though I'm not sure if they're *meant* to be available...

Posted by Wagnerml2 in United States, 25 Jun 2012 15:00

Anyone know when the live date is for SW in the US? Jonesing for Jabba!

Posted by Dashofdashing in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:27

If ordering one of these sets from Spain Amazon to UK would I get charged for any type of fed ex,UPS for shipping apart from pastage? As Jabba's Palace looks a right bargain :)

Posted by H5N1 in Germany, 25 Jun 2012 15:28

Just ordered from Amazon.es!!! With the links below the pictures no problemo and I can't speak any Spanish! Saved over 104€ including shipping to Germany! Thanks Huw, you made my day!

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:31

No, you pay nothing more than what Amazon charges you.

Posted by Dashofdashing in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:32

Nice one H5N1,there is some right bargains to be had. Large sets have a huge saving,cheers HUW :D

Posted by hantot in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:38

I just KNEW the Meadowhall store would open while I'm holiday!

Posted by Modok in United States, 25 Jun 2012 15:41

99 Euro? Why that's only $120 U.S. dollars!! What a deal! Hey, wait a minute...

Posted by primetime in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:52

Has anyone been stung by customs or is that not applicable from within the EU? I've only ever ordered outside of the UK from the States and have had to pony up the duty.

Ta.

Posted by coxsparra in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:54

My Jabbas Palace arrived from amazon.es today! well packed and fine, not opened it yet, the total with shipping was 108 euros (about £90 after bank charge etc)

Posted by coxsparra in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 15:54

No Customs charges or anything, it was actually re-sent within the UK from Amazon UK

Posted by DrDaveWatford in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 16:00

Just to clarify : If you're in the EU then you pay no import duty for purchases from other EU countries. I can vouch for this, having bought Jabba's Palace and rather too many other sets from Amazon.es and Amazon.it over the past year or so...!

Posted by glenn in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 16:10

Thanks for this tip. My daughter would like the big Friends house for her birthday. By ordering it through Amazon.es I save almost a third of the price to what I would pay in the Netherlands.

Posted by ScottMathers78 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 16:29

It seems almost too good to be true. And now my argument with myself that I wouldn't get Jabba's Palace because it is too expensive has taken a turn for the worse. I'm going to have to buy it at that price!

Posted by ensign_dave in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 16:31

I beg to differ on the import duty. We bought 3 Gungan sub sets and were charged A total of 27.39 Euro import duty! I have the confirmation email I can send you for proof.

Posted by murphquake in United States, 25 Jun 2012 16:38

Tried running through Jabba's Palace just to see what it would come to shipping to NYC but no dice. Have ordered Lego from Amazon.fr so not sure if it's just the new SW sets or Amazon.es in general.

Posted by jerellis1 in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 17:02

@ensign_dave: that could possibly be because you ordered three of the same set, which might appear to be something a trader might do. According to the HMRC, "You won't have to pay Customs Duty if you're travelling from the EU, or buying, ordering or sending goods to the UK from the EU for your own use." So maybe they thought the three identical sets you purchased weren't intended to be for your own use, and that you were instead intending to sell them at a profit?

Either way, I really hope Import Duty doesn't apply, as I've just spent nearly 350 Euro on five new Star Wars Lego sets and the big Mining set! Those prices were too good to resist, what with Jabba's Palace working out at around £80, the Sith Fury-Class Interceptor at under £55, the Desert Skiff at under £18 and the big Mining set at only £43 (for 748 pieces!) and only around 10 Euro p&p for the whole lot (six sets altogether - the four I mentioned above plus the Gungan Sub and the Republic Striker-class Starfighter). Fingers crossed anyway. :o)

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 25 Jun 2012 17:45

@ensign_dave, I think you were very unlucky there, I've not heard of anyone else having problems like that!

Posted by Zrath in United States, 26 Jun 2012 01:37

Curses! Amazon España won't ship to Los Estados Unidos!
I so wanted to get my hands on the Fury-Class Interceptor early.
Sadface.

Posted by beegeedee in Ireland, 26 Jun 2012 02:12

Seems Jabbas palace has gone back up in price :-(

Posted by cwhitehe in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 02:38

@beegeedee - that's because amazon.es has now sold out so has defaulted to a 3rd party seller. The link below that allows you to buy it at the reduced price but I guess it will be on back order.

Posted by simonf7 in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 04:45

Thanks for the tip-off, just ordered Jabba's Palace and the Malevolence - both on back order though :-(

Posted by glenn in United Kingdom, 26 Jun 2012 04:51

The Friends house as also gone back up in price! Knickers. But I have noticed that Amazon prices on books also vary from day to day.

Posted by Mickitat in Germany, 26 Jun 2012 07:06

Grr - one post on this blog and my wallet is 500 Euros lighter! Thanks a lot! ;)

Posted by BrianOg in France, 26 Jun 2012 08:20

a word to the wise fellow Lego fans, the VAT rate in Spain is set to rise, it is one of the conditions attached to the banking bailout currently being brokered between the Spanish government and the European Commission et al. So you can expect prices to go up by a few percent by next January at the latest I would reckon. Currently VAT is at 18% I believe, and it'll surely go up to 20% at least, but I'm sure you'll still see decent savings on amaon.es

Posted by Mickitat in Germany, 26 Jun 2012 09:01

The prices on Amazon.es definately reflect the state of the local economy. I am actually a bit uneasy about profiting from the situation.

Posted by Mickitat in Germany, 26 Jun 2012 09:04

One more thing - there is no such thing as import duty within the EU. That is what it is for and that is why the German economy is so strong - Germany can export without any duties applying to the products, while wages are low. If you get charged import duties within the EU, you should complain.

Posted by dfenz in Ireland, 26 Jun 2012 17:24

To ensign_Dave as Mickitat mentioned there is no customs duty whatsoever on LEGO products within the EU. If you've been charged import duty on goods travelling from Spain to the UK it must be a mistake or a misclassification of some other charge. Amazon is no different from LEGO in that regard which ships from warehouses outside the UK. What the 'personal use' notices usually refer to are excise duties, e.g. on cigarettes and alcohol. I'd query this if I were you with the appropriate authorities assuming of course that the parcel was actually shipped from continental europe.

Posted by Lumix in Spain, 27 Jun 2012 02:53

Mickitat, I don't agree that the current amazon.es prices reflect the "local economy" status. In fact, in Spain Lego prices (official lego prices) have been one of the most expensive around the world. Examples? 10188 Death Star 499€ as for 2009 (when the "local economy" was better), Executor 399€, R2D2 189€, and many more non-SW sets which were (at a time) much more expensive here than in the USA for example, or other EU countries.

It's "funny" that now that we get low prices for once, everyone seems to be making profit and depleting amazon.es stock. Fortunately I got my share of SW sets last week at those wonderful prices.

Anyway your concerns about profiting from the situation are appreciated ;)

Posted by DwarfSleepy in Netherlands, 27 Jun 2012 03:13

While I too make good use of the bargains on amazon.es and .it, I see a lot of sloppy packaging from amazon lately. Especially boxes that have been resized, packing smaller sets on top of larger ones which damages them... I now only order similar sized sets in the same order, to avoid the hassle of having to send it all back.

Anyone else notice the decline of packaging quality from amazon lately?

[edit] although it says United States next to my name, I'm actually in the Netherlands, before everyone starts asking how I manage to get amazon to serve me from Italy or Spain. Must have something to do with my VPN...[/edit]

Posted by meccanotwitch in United Kingdom, 27 Jun 2012 04:03

^Yes I have just had Jabbas palace and a smaller starwars set in the same box and both were crushed. The packing boxes seem very thin and fragile and there isn't much in the way of internal packing either. Apart from this I am happy especially with the prices.

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