Final collectable coin sells out in minutes

30? At least at 9:07 it was already sold out, probably even before that.

I got one at 10.04, lucky I guess :-)

9:03/9:04 for me when I first got it to show and was sold out.

@Michael40Plus said:
" @Brickodillo said:
"But what can you do with them? Does it have studs or anti-studs somewhere?"

Some would say sell them and buy real Lego. Others will admire them in a display, knowing they were lucky enough to get them."
Didn’t knew these things would be worth that much. I’d resell them and buy real lego for it

Got mine at 9.05. Site was glitchy but it finally worked - glad that the stress of collecting these is over now

This time the site worked well, at least when I accessed it, but I really like the rewards with real LEGO bricks much more.

Was it official that the release time was meant to be 09.30?

Site was slow for me and wouldn’t load properly for a few minutes around 9am. Then it loaded and it was there looking at me all shiny. Redeemed and panicked until I got the code. All done. That was at 09:06. Happy birthday to me :-)

I got one!

Nope, got the previous four but I got the VIP down message from just before 9am and by the time it cleared at 911 UK time it was sold out.

@chadlachlanross said:
"I set an alarm and got up at 4 AM USA Eastern time. Never showed on site, refreshed for 5 minutes, never showed on site. 5:15 AM now, doesn't even show as sold out. Just doesn't show at all.

If already gone, this is a huge disappointment. I'm not a reseller/scalper, the 4 other coins was already being proudly displayed in my LEGO room."

I believe that it is being released 09:00 EST for North America

Aced it! Full set

I got one at about 9:03 the site was very glitchy, but a couple of refreshes and I managed to load the page. However I appear to be one of the lucky ones. Lego once again as a billion dollar really need to address these persistent issues with their website and failings of the VIP system.

I do hope Lego actually come out with a statement to address the continued issues with VIP that have occurred in the past few month but I wont hold my breath. For a company who prides itself on customer service they have continually been dropping the ball lately.

@jnscoelho said:
"30? At least at 9:07 it was already sold out, probably even before that."

Got mine at 9.05 after suffering glitchmode for the first five minutes!

This was the smoothest release of any of these coins, little issues for me. Only took a min or two of reloading but when I finally got it to show took a couple of clicks and boom got it.

I think it was so easy cause people got the wrong time, which I'm kinda happy about as it was easy for those who knew the correct time to get. Feel for those who missed out but they are re-releasing it at some point so wouldn't worry yet.

Was this ever up on the US site? There's not even a "Sold Out" box now.

This is my surprised face :o

@fulcrumbop said:
"Was this ever up on the US site? There's not even a "Sold Out" box now."

2pm BST so not released for another two hours for you Americans.

What a surpriiiiiiiise.

That said, it's funny how even Brickset's reminder isn't fast enough to deal with the horrible inadequacy of Lego's supply for this.

I wonder if the coin even looks chrome gold IRL, or just some cheap alternative reflective colour.

I hear people talking about how they "knew the right time they would be on the site"..what is the right time they will be available in north america?..anybody know or are they done?

For me it wasn't there at 9:05, then at 9:06 it was 'updating the site with new rewards for you' (according to the banner at the top of the rewards page) and at 9:06 and some more seconds it was sold out.

So look like i'll have to go this pain again when they get re-released to pick up the last one. Hopefully they'll improve the quality by then :S

So glad I have no interest in such things. I collect things because I want them not purely because they’re collectible

@gromit6 said:
"I hear people talking about how they "knew the right time they would be on the site"..what is the right time they will be available in north america?..anybody know or are they done?"

This has been covered in previous comments, but as a reminder 09:00 EST

I kinda wanted it, but I guess I can’t get it now.

@AustinPowers said:
"Everyone remember LEGO has already said they would produce more later in the year. No need to feed scalpers on eBay unless you are utterly impatient. "

I had heard that, too. Did they specifically say they are re-releasing these five coins or are they producing different coins later in the year?

I'm still not convinced it was even released in the US last night! There is no tile that shows the coin or that its "sold out" like the Retro VIP Keychain - NA tile for example. If anyone in the US got one last night, let us know :).

EDIT: Coin is now live as of 9AM ET and website worked well for me :)

Good Luck folks!

In just over 15 minutes this comments section will gather pace again as all North Americans get a taste of the European experience this morning

Hint: 09:00 EST

Let the refreshing begin...

Huh, not so bad. Only 2 refreshes to get the coin.

North America is live and was actually better than the probe experience

Got one. No hassle at all. Just have to be quick.

Ordered East Coast US...no problems at all. Coin went live at 9am and was a smooth process...My best experience for a VIP exclusive/Release Day this year.

Hoping most folks who want one and are at least trying now are able to get one.

Huzzah! I got one! Now the only one I need is the space one :/

Super easy in North America. Site was not overloaded. Appeared right away and redeemed.

As somebody who has redeemed for all five, the experience in U.S. has been easy. All the coins were available for at least a few hours - the first three for a few days. It was the space coin that sold quickest, and for some odd reason that was released much earlier than the usual time.

It was a little glitchy but I got through and I think I finally managed to get one at 10:03 (CEST). Still waiting for the 3rd and 4th to return as I missed those.

Wow, a very smooth coin redeem process within 15 seconds! No refresh required. Just like the other four coin releases here in NA there were NO web issues. No concerns about quality either. Other coins all look fine, especially considering the reward is only 1150 points.

I just got one. The site worked perfectly. I had to refresh for several minutes until the coin appeared but I could not have asked for a better experience!

@chadlachlanross said:
"I set an alarm and got up at 4 AM USA Eastern time. Never showed on site, refreshed for 5 minutes, never showed on site. 5:15 AM now, doesn't even show as sold out. Just doesn't show at all.

If already gone, this is a huge disappointment. I'm not a reseller/scalper, the 4 other coins was already being proudly displayed in my LEGO room."

Got one. Phew.

Got one right at 9:00. I'm honestly shocked at how smoothly this went.

I got one!

got one right at 9:00 sharp!..no issues...hope all is smooth for everyone else

@M4444M44 said:
"Super easy in North America. Site was not overloaded. Appeared right away and redeemed.

As somebody who has redeemed for all five, the experience in U.S. has been easy. All the coins were available for at least a few hours - the first three for a few days. It was the space coin that sold quickest, and for some odd reason that was released much earlier than the usual time. "

Is it possible that they released it early because they were aware it would sell fast? In order to spread the traffic out. I think it's plausible.

Got one no problems...I have had similar experiences with all my redemptions, even the Ulysses probe...maybe the NA site is better or maybe there’s more inventory but I have never experienced any of the issues I see people complaining about on here. Im also not very tech savvy I just go to the rewards page and refresh a few times around the release time and it always pops up for me

Very happy I saw this. I'm in the US and I completely forgot it came out today. Was hoping it would still be available at 9:20 eastern and it was. Glad to finally complete my set!

Ha whoops completely forgot about this. I'm not paying top dollar for it on Ebay, so I guess I'm flogging the others I have for top dollar on Ebay...

Logged in at 9:10EST, got code for the coin with no problems, waiting for 40516 and 10776 to use it.

I got one. Just took a few refreshes. This was definitely a different experience than the Space Probe debacle. Dont know what or if anything changed. I do not own any of the the other coins. I would be willing to trade this the final coin for a unopened, excellent box condition Ulysses Space Probe.

@finkle316 said:
"I got one. Just took a few refreshes. This was definitely a different experience than the Space Probe debacle. Dont know what or if anything changed. I do not own any of the the other coins. I would be willing to trade this the final coin for a unopened, excellent box condition Ulysses Space Probe. "

Congrats! Be aware the value of a genuine unopened Ulysses is worth more than 2 (potentially 3 ) Lego Vip Coins combined at the moment. Good luck though!

@Studfinder said:
" @finkle316 said:
"I got one. Just took a few refreshes. This was definitely a different experience than the Space Probe debacle. Dont know what or if anything changed. I do not own any of the the other coins. I would be willing to trade this the final coin for a unopened, excellent box condition Ulysses Space Probe. "

Congrats! Be aware the value of a genuine unopened Ulysses is worth more than 2 (potentially 3 ) Lego Vip Coins combined at the moment. Good luck though!"

According to eBay and BrickLink that is not true. Ulysses is selling for around $120 and the space coin is also selling for around $120 with the Castle and Pirate coin around $100 and then the octan coin lower in the $60-70 range.

I stayed up last night to get the coin at midnight eastern and when it didn't pop up I figured it would be released at 9a eastern. I was able to get one. I now wonder how quick it sold out in the USA? I needed to refresh once and the redemption went smooth.

This was the only coin I could have been interested in. I checked multiple times this morning and it was never even on the site, let alone "sold out." Eventually I had to give up because I had to get ready for work and kid ready for their last day of school. I check just a moment ago and it said "sold out."

Nice...

The world goes on. It doesn't matter if I missed the coin, but surprised (not surprised) how quickly it sold out. I know they will be reissued later. Maybe I'll try again. Maybe I will have less interest (like so many other LEGO related projects anymore..)

@Brickodillo said:
"But what can you do with them? Does it have studs or anti-studs somewhere?"

Nothing. If they were mass produced like the other non Lego accessories, such as mugs and key chains, people wouldn't make such a big deal out of them. It's about having something rare, less about the item itself.

@brclark82 said:
" @Studfinder said:
" @finkle316 said:
"I got one. Just took a few refreshes. This was definitely a different experience than the Space Probe debacle. Dont know what or if anything changed. I do not own any of the the other coins. I would be willing to trade this the final coin for a unopened, excellent box condition Ulysses Space Probe. "

Congrats! Be aware the value of a genuine unopened Ulysses is worth more than 2 (potentially 3 ) Lego Vip Coins combined at the moment. Good luck though!"

According to eBay and BrickLink that is not true. Ulysses is selling for around $120 and the space coin is also selling for around $120 with the Castle and Pirate coin around $100 and then the octan coin lower in the $60-70 range.
"

Sorry, but your bricklink info appears outdated. Space coin is under US$80, Pirate coin $60 and Octan $50. Ulysesses sitting at steady $120. The gold Lego Coin will not hold value like space coin. And even if it does , I wish you good luck finding someone to trade for two let alone one coin. Easy math but time will tell. All the best.

@finkle316 said:
" @brclark82 said:
" @Studfinder said:
" @finkle316 said:
"I got one. Just took a few refreshes. This was definitely a different experience than the Space Probe debacle. Dont know what or if anything changed. I do not own any of the the other coins. I would be willing to trade this the final coin for a unopened, excellent box condition Ulysses Space Probe. "

Congrats! Be aware the value of a genuine unopened Ulysses is worth more than 2 (potentially 3 ) Lego Vip Coins combined at the moment. Good luck though!"

According to eBay and BrickLink that is not true. Ulysses is selling for around $120 and the space coin is also selling for around $120 with the Castle and Pirate coin around $100 and then the octan coin lower in the $60-70 range.
"

Yeah, I have been watching Space Probes on eBay since the release. I always have 10 to 15 in watch list. Just in the past week the price for the Space probe has taken a turn down. I get sent offers for the probes all the time from sellers willing to take as low as $90 for them. I dont want to sell the coin on eBay and be part of the scalper problem. My son really wanted the space probe to go with discovery. So I thought if I happen to get a coin I could maybe trade it for a probe with someone that needs the coin but really doesnt care about the probe. Just a LEGO dad trying to make his kid happy."

I really hope it works out for you, but keep in mind the gold Lego Coin will not hold similar value like the Space coin. And even if it does , knowing that Lego will produce the coins again later this year, unlike the Space Probe, will not help your cause. I wish you good luck finding someone to trade for two let alone one coin. Eventually the people who really want the probes will have bought them and the prices will go back up again as supply dwindles down. All the best!

How did you know it went on sale at 9:00 am EDT in the USA? @ Huw

The thing I like about this gold coin is that it'll look nice standalone, without needing to collect the other themed coins.

@Ptrick said:
"How did you know it went on sale at 9:00 am EDT in the USA? @ Huw"

LUG

@Ptrick said:
"How did you know it went on sale at 9:00 am EDT in the USA? @ Huw"

I called LEGO customer service last night and asked.

@finkle316 said:
" @Ptrick said:
"How did you know it went on sale at 9:00 am EDT in the USA? @ Huw"

I called LEGO customer service last night and asked."

Thank you. I never thought to do that. Next time I will.

I think Lego has changed what time things get released to 9am instead of midnight. I believe this is to give others a better chance at getting a promo. I know I complained about the release time.

If I remember right the space probe was released at 9a. I hope Lego sticks with this release time.

@Brickodillo:
They're solid metal, with no obvious connection points. They're plated, so getting the dimensions right could have been very expensive. Still, you can probably trap them in the surface of a model, or just use them loose.

@JimmyO:
In the VIP newsletter when they announced that this coin would launch today, they also said they would be reissuing coins later this year for people who missed out. They can dig up data tracking how fast each coin sold, and they can look up resale prices on various sites. They know they got it wrong with the Ulysses, when it was just one model. For this, they've got tons of collectors who ended up in the same boat as you, just missing out on one coin along the way. I guarantee the people in customer service have been getting their ears scorched off by irate VIPs.

@chadlachlanross:
Most launches occur at midnight Eastern. I even called them last evening to see if they'd been updated on a specific launch time, and was told they had not. However, I saw a comment claiming another site had obtained launch times for different parts of the world. If it had been a midnight launch, it would have sold out long before 4am. If it was not a midnight launch, there's no way they'd drop it in the middle of the night like that. And sure enough, right around 9am most of the available rewards (everything above the LEGOLAND tickets section) vanished, a note appeared at the top informing you that they were loading new rewards, and soon after the site came back up with the last coin.

@Michael40Plus:
9am EDT, which would translate to 8am EST for those who don't observe Daylight Saving Time. For most of the US, this is immaterial, but there are a few parts of the country that stay on Standard all year. For them, they have to keep track of the hour shift as LEGO.com updates according to EDT at this time of year, and EST during winter. Sucks for the westernmost bits of the country. 9am Eastern is 6am Pacific, and 4am Hawaii/Aleutian.

@Tucuxi72:
Best not to take chances. We have no idea if there will be changes made to the reissued coins, or what quantities will be released. It could just be Round 2 of the same fight.

@Minifig290:
That happened to at least one person for Ulysses. The dust had pretty much settled, people had vented and moved on, and then a little after 10am EDT someone posts complaining that they had just signed on at 9am Eastern and it was already sold out. That wasn't possible, because the site wouldn't even load properly until 9:10, so clearly this person had miscalculated the time zone difference for wherever they lived in the western half of the country.

@Binnekamp:
It's metal, and it's plated. It has a shiny, chrome-like, mirror finish. It's not perfect, as any bits of random fiber or dust will get trapped in the plating. But, in general, it's a cleaner result than even gold-chrome, because the color is part of the plating rather than a color wash that's applied to silver. Octan and Space, the two silver coins, look remarkably similar to regular silver chrome parts, which have no color wash.

I think the trick to getting these coins is just knowing when it will post on TLG's website. The only reason I knew about this coin at all was Brickset...and I've been a VIP member since the beginning.

Basically, Brickset is "carrying LEGO's water" for them.

@dutchbrickdad:
I fully agree with everything you said (and have been saying much of the same for months as demand for these started spiking back in March), but I also realize that this is a time of intense frustration for many people, emotions are at a boiling point, and things will calm down once people have had a chance to vent. Promising to reissue the coins is a good first step, but if the second round goes as badly as the last 2-3 coins, it's just going to make things worse for anyone who misses out again.

I managed to land all six codes, and I'm still a bit upset by how this last one was handled. I could have tacked it on to a May 4th order if it had stuck to the original schedule. I stayed up after midnight because I couldn't get a clear answer on the specific time it would launch in the US, and I had to take a day off work because it ended up being in the middle of the morning on a weekday. I had to burn another vacation day to get the Ulysses.

I get why they delayed both items, but the way they did it for Ulysses was pretty clumsy, and they did even worse for this one. The delays weren't announced until the last minute, the new Ulysses date and time were only announced a day in advance, and they didn't even announce the time for Coin 5. People have been freaking out about missing this coin, and keeping the launch time under wraps may have kept the site from crashing, but it's just amplified the stress that they're passing on to their customers. Except they didn't keep it secret. I read a comment here that listed three different launch times for different parts of the world, which had been obtained by another site. At least two of those times appear to have been right on the money, which means one part of the internet was given an unfair advantage and the rest was just left swinging in the wind.

More than figuring out how to manage a clean roll-out, they need to figure out how to not make things worse when they try to make things better.

The VIP progam is a joke...botched promotions like this do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do. Lego apparently thinks pissing off their VIP customers is a good sales technique

lego bitcoin?

Lego need to put their fans minds at ease during these funny times and announce a date when they will release all 6 items together, in huge, huge quantities. At least enough to ensure everyone that wants to can have the set.
They want the set because they think it’s nice. No other reason, not for money, just for them that’s all. Really innocent.

It would also cut the scalpers instantly ;-)

@Sethro3 said:
"This was the only coin I could have been interested in. I checked multiple times this morning and it was never even on the site, let alone "sold out." Eventually I had to give up because I had to get ready for work and kid ready for their last day of school. I check just a moment ago and it said "sold out."

Nice...

The world goes on. It doesn't matter if I missed the coin, but surprised (not surprised) how quickly it sold out. I know they will be reissued later. Maybe I'll try again. Maybe I will have less interest (like so many other LEGO related projects anymore..)"

I was on the site at 8am Central, refreshing, and thought it was not there for about the first ten minutes. I was sure I had somehow gotten the time wrong or some other glitch was happening. Then I scrolled to the bottom of the page and there it was. It wasn't at the top where the big reward typically is. It was mixed in with the coloring book pages etc. Thankfully, it was still available ten minutes in, and I was able to snag one.

@imemine98:
On Monday, a general monthly VIP newsletter was sent out to anyone who was subscribed to the mailing list. Buried towards the bottom was an announcement about the coins:

"The fifth in our series of collectable coins, available from May 20th
Missed out on any of our VIP collectable coins? Don't worry, they'll be back later in the year!"

If you weren't subscribed, or you don't bother reading them, a few sites posted articles about it, or you might have spotted the persistent chatter over the last few days.

@sbpyrat:
This has actually been my worst experience with the coins. I was able to snag the Castle and the large case on the 17th, because they were still worthless bits of dross that steal your VIP points back then. I was climbing into bed when I remembered I needed to grab Pirates. I forgot to get Octan, read comments about it selling out in Europe, but they were still available by late afternoon when I finally had a chance to log in. And I saw a comment saying Space had launched early so I was able to avoid the mad crush. But for the last one, I couldn't get clear answers from customer service, I spent about five hours checking last night, just in case, and I had to take a day off just to be available at the expected launch time. And this was after having to wait over two weeks to even found out the new launch date.

Yes, there's a promise of reissues, but no guarantee that it will go any smoother than the first run.

@TheBrickGuru24:
Space went up no later than 10pm, and Ulysses got pushed back over a week. The site still crashed at midnight when Discovery went live, partly because people were trying to get their orders in right away so they could redeem their Space codes, at the same time that other people were just showing up trying to claim their own codes. Maybe the trick is they need to do these VIP launches at midnight on the last day of the month, rather than the first. Keep to the schedule, but don't try to add rewards at the same time new sets launch. Moving it a day earlier means people can get their codes and still redeem them the very next day.

@elangab:
Remember, this all started with a bunch of us who were "wasting" our points on cheap metal trinkets. There was no expectation of being able to convert them into a down payment on a new car once you completed the set. Everyone has different reasons for trying to collect them. When I travel, my default souvenir is keychains. When I go new places, I try to find at least one keychain to add to my collection. They're inexpensive, and almost everywhere I've gone they've had at least one style available. Sometimes I just buy one that catches my eye when I'm out shopping. I've probably got over 200 by now. The last two that I added to my collection are Stuart and Otto from Minions 2, but the two before that were the metal Han in Carbonite and the metal 2x4 plate.

After keychains, the souvenirs I collect most are smashed pennies. That collection is a bit more problematic, as penny smasher machines are pretty hit or miss. Many places don't have them, while others have several (each with as many as four unique designs). Sometimes I've found souvenir coins that you can just buy (I think I got one at LLCA), so these were a foregone conclusion for me. At least as long as I could cash in points to get them. If I missed one and had to resort to the secondary market at these prices, I'm not sure what I'd do.

@Studfinder:
Prices are probably falling as buyers dry up following the news that they'll be reissued. Why drop a couple Benjamins on a coin you missed if there's a chance to pick it up later for $9 in points? Or you can just sit back and watch the prices fall until they hit a range you're comfortable with.

@Wellspring:
All of the coins look nice displayed on their own, if you leave them in their original cases. It's only if you want to transfer them to the large case that you really kinda need the full set so there aren't any open holes.

I was fortunate enough to have my gf ( @LitoSu) get me one at 6am as she saw I passed out at 4am trying to stay up and check every 5 min. If your smart you would get your SO into Legos, but the con is that I have to buy her sets. Pros by far outweigh the cons tho!

@finkle316:
I also called last night and was told they didn't have that information. They said most of these launch at midnight, and that if that wasn't the case, it would most likely be 8-9am.

@GKMagyar:
If they do, I'll be incensed. 9am puts it right in the middle of work, especially if they always launch on weekdays. Midnight just means I have to stay up a little late. On the other end of the country, midnight is early evening, while 9am is in the middle of the night. 9am launches suck. So far, they've only done that for the two that were delayed, which gives hope that they're more a fluke due to a delayed manual release, and not that they plan on switching to them permanently. If they do, the poor customer service employees better buy fireproof earmuffs to wear when taking calls.

@LusiferSam:
A large part of the problem is the site infrastructure. When you get the "under maintenance" page, that's a default redirect due to the site crashing from traffic overload. The queueing system works great, but it has to be manually switched on, which they only do when they anticipate the need. I've also been told it's not set up to work for the Rewards Center, so it really only helps if they're only dealing with shoppers during a product rollout. And until a few months ago, nobody really had reason to worry about codes selling out in mere minutes. This was in the middle of a series that would have been commissioned all at the same time.

With the Ulysses, either you got it or you didn't, but with these coins, people have spent points expecting to be able to complete a set, only to have a sudden spike in demand cause them to miss one or two coins. That's arguably a bigger problem, and resulted in them announcing a reissue will happen. That's probably why the delay stretched out so long, as they discussed their options.

So, how much of this blame do you lay at the feet of the VIP team? They did a good job of guessing demand for the first two coins, probably based on how well the two metal keychains sold. They don't control the website, which corporate has announced will be receiving a major upgrade "later this year". And when they started this off there wasn't any reason to be concerned that VIP traffic would swamp the site at the same time that the May 4th promo kicked off. It's not just them being delusional, either. No AFOL was expecting there to be a mad rush on these coins until people in Europe started getting "Sold Out" notices when they woke up March 1st. And ever since then it's been a steady stream of "Oh, they should have anticipated this thing that's never happened before!"

@TomKazutara:
Yup, there you go. We just need to convince a lot more people that's the case, and I can go back to collecting my trinkets without having to fight my way in.

@LegoMike:
After the Ulysses fiasco, I was saying it would have been nice for those of us who really are just collecting them if they would have offered a "season pass" where you could just pay your points up front, and then on the 1st of each month you'd get a new code with 60 days to redeem it. It would have saved a lot of people stress over missing one coin late in the game, and it would have seriously cut down on the supply that was available to scalpers. Granted, it would have made things tougher on those who were just planning to get a single coin, as mostly they seem to have been after the Space coin.

@BuilderUpper:
How long has it been since you checked into the Rewards Center? For as long as I can remember, there have been two rows of rebates, then the "Earn Points" section, with the general rewards after that. Tickets for park admission and the LEGO House tour come at the bottom of the list. Within the general rewards items, new launches start in the upper left corner, coloring pages eventually get pushed down below the older physical items, and older prints have been collecting together at the bottom.

@PurpleDave said:
[ @elangab:
Remember, this all started with a bunch of us who were "wasting" our points on cheap metal trinkets. There was no expectation of being able to convert them into a down payment on a new car once you completed the set. Everyone has different reasons for trying to collect them. When I travel, my default souvenir is keychains. When I go new places, I try to find at least one keychain to add to my collection. They're inexpensive, and almost everywhere I've gone they've had at least one style available. Sometimes I just buy one that catches my eye when I'm out shopping. I've probably got over 200 by now. The last two that I added to my collection are Stuart and Otto from Minions 2, but the two before that were the metal Han in Carbonite and the metal 2x4 plate.
]

Funny, I used to collect Keychains as well. Had over 3000 at some point, but stopped collecting as it became too much to display and transfer : ) I'm not sure if what you wrote had anything to do with my comment, but it was a nice read. I just think that if these coins were $19.99 to purchase at the Lego store they would've gotten much less hype and interest.

This isn’t a lego piece. Please stop acting out.

@elangab:
You said it was about having something rare more than the item itself. That's only true for the scalpers. As long as demand stayed low, it wasn't worth the trouble of cashing in points and redeeming a code, only to make about $10 in profit vs just redeeming the points for a rebate that you don't need to find a buyer for, or arrange shipping on. For $20, you're probably right. People would probably buy the Space coin for that, but ignore the rest. For $10, though, I could see them being a steady seller. Realistically, they've produced these in small quantities and let people "buy" them for points valued at about $9. They sell mass-produced plastic keychains for $5. I suspect these might retail for right around their value in points, if they sold them directly. And for $10 a pop, I'd buy a second set to keep in their original cases, I'd buy an extra Space coin to put in the minifig pocket of one of my Classic Space tote bags, and I'd buy several extras to try to build into MOCs. At current prices, I'll stick with just owning a complete set, and _maybe_ consider buying an extra copy of either Space or LEGO. Maybe.

@PurpleDave said:
" @elangab:
You said it was about having something rare more than the item itself. That's only true for the scalpers. As long as demand stayed low, it wasn't worth the trouble of cashing in points and redeeming a code, only to make about $10 in profit vs just redeeming the points for a rebate that you don't need to find a buyer for, or arrange shipping on. For $20, you're probably right. People would probably buy the Space coin for that, but ignore the rest. For $10, though, I could see them being a steady seller. Realistically, they've produced these in small quantities and let people "buy" them for points valued at about $9. They sell mass-produced plastic keychains for $5. I suspect these might retail for right around their value in points, if they sold them directly. And for $10 a pop, I'd buy a second set to keep in their original cases, I'd buy an extra Space coin to put in the minifig pocket of one of my Classic Space tote bags, and I'd buy several extras to try to build into MOCs. At current prices, I'll stick with just owning a complete set, and _maybe_ consider buying an extra copy of either Space or LEGO. Maybe."

I think it's true for all, not just scalpers. Just like the awful Ulysses that sky rocked to ridiculous prices just because it was rare, but no one in his right mind actually think it was a good set and worth the after market value. I'm sure some people like these coins, just as I'm sure the reason they went out of stock so fast is mainly because of the need to either own something not many own or wanting to sell it after market. The coin itself is no longer relevant, regardless of the original reason of Lego for producing it. The only thing relevant is that it's rare, and it would be the only thing to talk about once you see it displayed in a friend's collection. Might be wrong, just the way I see it.

9:00am BST and it told me “VIP is offline”
(I got worried!)

9:02am BST after a few quick refreshes, it woke up and I successfully redeemed points for a coin.

After everyone’s hassles I’m amazed (and thankful) I’ve managed to get a full house of all 5 coins.

Got mine at 6:04 am PST. Had to set an alarm to wake up and refreshed the page a few times before it finally showed up. No problems claiming or redeeming. Getting up at the crack of dawn stinks, but I would have been sad to have missed out on the last one.

Whew, i logged in late at 9:07am EST and still secured the coin. No issues this morning for me in the US. Thankfully....

Just a thought - maybe Lego should do a “pre order” for the reissues of the coins. That way they can produce the correct quantities to match demand and stop the scalpers

I have to say for all 5 coins it has been surprisingly smooth in the US. I wonder why it's been such a catastrophe overseas? More buyers? Did they get less coins relative to the potential buyers?

@Minifig_Jez said:
"9:00am BST and it told me “VIP is offline”
(I got worried!)

9:02am BST after a few quick refreshes, it woke up and I successfully redeemed points for a coin.

After everyone’s hassles I’m amazed (and thankful) I’ve managed to get a full house of all 5 coins.
"
I wonder why some get that lucky while others try their best and never manage to get a single item, be it the coins, the space probe or whatever.
I was only interested in the space coin and the Ulysses probe, used several devices and browsers at the appropriate time, but only got website static until when it finally loaded it showed the items as sold out.
I can understand anyone who is unhappy with the current state of the VIP system.

@TheBrickGuru24 : it might have been fair and not botched this time in the US. Comments from all over Europe suggest otherwise. But that's one of the takeaways anyway, that European customers often tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to LEGO promotions, regional exclusives, etc. versus the US.

@elangab:
It's different for everyone, even the scalpers. Some of them just look at these things as a way to line their pockets. I guarantee, though, there were some people who _really_ wanted to buy the Discovery, but couldn't afford it, and realized they could drop $14 in points, resell the Ulysses, and use the proceeds to buy Discovery (hence why so many of them were priced around $200). I can't fault them for making that choice. I just don't like the situation that makes it possible.

It's in my best interest for their value to stay low. I'd like more coins, but only if they're affordable, and I don't like the idea of having to fight to obtain codes for anything that catches my interest in the future (especially if it's a series that's given a staggered release like the coins). I did manage to get codes for all five coins, the large case, and Ulysses, but I had to waste two vacation days to get Ulysses and Coin 5 because I knew they'd be sold out before I had free time to log in and obtain a code. I probably could have picked up all of the Pooh prints, but they didn't interest me. Still don't. It's not always about owning the rare thing because it's rare. I've got rare stuff. Rare is the problem, not the reason.

I'd love all of the SDCC DC minifigs, but the fact that they're rare makes them prohibitively expensive to collect. I wanted these coins before they were rare, but the shift towards the end had me worried that I'd end up missing the two coins I liked the best after buying the one coin I had zero interest in outside of completing the set.

@legospaceslug:
It would really upset anyone who actually bought them at high prices, but I'd like to see the coins sold in stores. Skip the cases, maybe (anyone who tried collecting them from the start probably has the long case anyways, and just needs any missing coins to fill it).

@imemine98:
Part of it's just how the EU/UK is handled vs the US and Canada. In North America, both US and Canada span multiple time zones, but all new product launches are pegged to EST/EDT for anyone living in either nation (at least, I think that's true for Canada). In Europe, each nation has a different LEGO.com site, and the launches are all scheduled by local time. The problem is, there aren't warehouses in every nation, so each warehouse services multiple nations. Where this becomes tricky is when a warehouse serves nations that fall in different time zones, and which get different levels of priority.

For one of the items that launched in the last three months (I'm thinking the Octan coin?), it was UK, Ireland, and Portugal, I believe, which bore the brunt of the shortages. Because they're in a different time zone, they had to wait an extra hour to get access to whatever supply their warehouse had to distribute. Well, that's not quite true. UK definitely got flipped on before supply was gone, but Portugal reportedly did not. This makes longstanding claims that new sets sell out in moments a lot easier to understand, because this time there was better data on timing.

@TheBrickGuru24:
Part of the reason things went smooth this time is probably that, having seen the announcement that there would be a reissue of these coins, a lot of people didn't try to park on the Rewards Center until the coin went live as happened with Octan and Space. Scalpers probably also figured it wasn't worth the trouble if the prices were dropping on the previous four. And there wasn't a new product launch happening at the same time, so most of the site traffic was just there for the coin (either to claim a code, or to redeem it).

@AustinPowers:
For Ulysses, part of it came down to how observant you were. When site traffic overloads their servers, you get redirected to the "maintenance" page. If you refresh at that point, it's just going to keep feeding you the same redirect page, because it has a different URL. The people who managed to snag a Ulysses either showed up after the site recovered a bit, or they figured out that they needed to load a different URL to get back to the Rewards Center. Those who showed up early and kept hammering Refresh didn't get shunted back to the correct page until site traffic dropped off, which didn't start happening until people had claimed codes, placed orders, and exited their browser.

As for fairness of US vs Europe, remind me again how many of those foil packs have been made available on magazines over there?

@AustinPowers said:
" @Minifig_Jez said:
"9:00am BST and it told me “VIP is offline”
(I got worried!)

9:02am BST after a few quick refreshes, it woke up and I successfully redeemed points for a coin.

After everyone’s hassles I’m amazed (and thankful) I’ve managed to get a full house of all 5 coins.
"
I wonder why some get that lucky while others try their best and never manage to get a single item, be it the coins, the space probe or whatever.
I was only interested in the space coin and the Ulysses probe, used several devices and browsers at the appropriate time, but only got website static until when it finally loaded it showed the items as sold out.
I can understand anyone who is unhappy with the current state of the VIP system.

@TheBrickGuru24 : it might have been fair and not botched this time in the US. Comments from all over Europe suggest otherwise. But that's one of the takeaways anyway, that European customers often tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to LEGO promotions, regional exclusives, etc. versus the US. "

The only difference with Europe was that they sold out faster. That's not a botch. That's just either less product or more demand, or both. I will say though that Europe seems to have less resources to work with overall from what I've heard, such as with the Winnie the Pooh prints where the ones sent from America came in cardboard protectors and the ones sent from Europe did not. As a former distribution center worker, I am aware of some of the potential reasons such a thing could be happening. Perhaps they should look into that.

@TheBrickGuru24:
That could be a matter of different management styles, or someone local to the US process having an idea that was not passed on to Europe (or at least not early enough to matter). It could also be a shortage of materials. At one point last year, Amazon in the US was shipping anything they had in stock in plastic bags because they ran out of cardboard boxes and had trouble sourcing more.

Europe also has wonkier distribution caused by having multiple nations in different time zones operating on different LEGO.com sites, which is a serious problem that they need to figure out how to address in a fair manner so everyone sharing the same pool gets access at the same time regardless of what time that is.

There could also be more supply in the US and/or more demand in Europe. @stlux mentioned that there were 3000 for Europe in the previous article's comments, and I know I've seen someone post quantities for both Europe and North America, but I can't remember how many we got. I believe it was either 3000 or 5000.

@PurpleDave: rest assured I knew not to refresh the redirect page, but to reopen the original rewards page, often even deleting cookies in between, or opening a totally different browser, like Firefox vs. Chrome vs. Edge. Whatever, it never worked.

As for distribution in Europe, from what I gathered every country in Europe is served by the distribution center in Belgium. From everything I have experienced in my life that had any connection to that country I have little doubt why LEGO distribution service is so poor. Incidentally, just in case anyone thinks I am trying to assinuate that they should use a distribution center in Germany: actually no, my best experiences with any distributors so far have been with those from Spain and Poland. Go figure.

@jetconvey said:
"Lego should just switch to taking orders within a certain time frame and then making enough to fill said orders. Stop making a set amount and just take VIP orders for it in advance. You got a week to log in and place an order. One per account. You miss that week, you deal with scalpers. "

With all due respect, that doesn't work when they can't physically make enough product to fulfill all the orders. And then that's a way worse situation, because promising a product that you can't deliver on is a major problem.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 :
That could be a matter of different management styles, or someone local to the US process having an idea that was not passed on to Europe (or at least not early enough to matter). It could also be a shortage of materials. At one point last year, Amazon in the US was shipping anything they had in stock in plastic bags because they ran out of cardboard boxes and had trouble sourcing more.

Europe also has wonkier distribution caused by having multiple nations in different time zones operating on different S @H sites, which is a serious problem that they need to figure out how to address in a fair manner so everyone sharing the same pool gets access at the same time regardless of what time that is.

There could also be more supply in the US and/or more demand in Europe. @stlux mentioned that there were 3000 for Europe in the previous article's comments, and I know I've seen someone post quantities for both Europe and North America, but I can't remember how many we got. I believe it was either 3000 or 5000."

Management styles and shortage of materials are definitely possible reasons I think of for distribution issues in general. And then like I said, more supply and/or more demand with regards to this specific situation. Other reasons could include the pandemic essentially shutting down parts of the warehouse to enforce social distancing, a more limited time to ship out product which could be for a number of reasons, or straight up not having enough hands on deck to make as many in the allotted time. The pandemic screwed so many things up for distributors. So many.

Sold out in minutes? Yeah. 60 minutes., It was around plenty of time. If you wanted one you had time to get it. (USA)

Good to see Lego lining the pockets of Scalpers as usual.... the availability of these coins is just a joke.

If they cant make enough then they should make none at all. That way everyone gets the same i.e. NOTHING!

@BrizzaIsBack said:
"If they cant make enough then they should make none at all. That way everyone gets the same i.e. NOTHING!"

Lego ARE entitled to make limited edition and exclusive items. It does add value to the collector if there isn’t millions of copies of certain things. Yes in this case more people want them than they have produced. But ask any collector of anything if they have ever missed out on a rare limited edition item... of course they have. It’s the world of collecting.

[ @PurpleDave said:

@sbpyrat :
This has actually been my worst experience with the coins. I was able to snag the Castle and the large case on the 17th, because they were still worthless bits of dross that steal your VIP points back then. I was climbing into bed when I remembered I needed to grab Pirates. I forgot to get Octan, read comments about it selling out in Europe, but they were still available by late afternoon when I finally had a chance to log in. And I saw a comment saying Space had launched early so I was able to avoid the mad crush. But for the last one, I couldn't get clear answers from customer service, I spent about five hours checking last night, just in case, and I had to take a day off just to be available at the expected launch time. And this was after having to wait over two weeks to even found out the new launch date.

Yes, there's a promise of reissues, but no guarantee that it will go any smoother than the first run.]

I had wanted to get the Pirate and the Space Coin (maybe the Castle), but didn't have enough VIP points built up when the Castle and Pirate were released, so I didn't get them. I made sure to have enough for the Space Coin since it's the one I wanted most because I'm a huge fan of Classic Space. I fought through several error screens, etc, but ultimately got the coin so I was happy.

I had plenty of of points in my account, so I went ahead and grabbed the Gold VIP coin. I refereshed the rewards page at 09:00am Eastern US time, the reward was there. Redeemed it. Placed an order for the Venom bust that I had waiting in my cart. All went as smoothly as their site has ever ran for me. Not a single bit of lag, no errors, it just worked. Which surprised me, since I've had to fight with their system for a handful of releases this year. January 1st was the worst experience for me...it took nearly two hours before I could get my order placed, but ultimately it worked out.

I do feel bad for everyone who tries to get a set, GWP, VIP Reward at release time and still ends up being shut out. I'm slightly bummed I didn't get the Pirate Coin, but I never had a plan to get all 5, so it's not like I feel a big gap in my collection. I guess it was my own fault for not keeping a stock of VIP points on hand for rewards. I've since decided to stop cashing out for lego.com vouchers and let my points build up a bit. I've got a little over 5,000 right now. Not sure what a comfortable threshhold is...maybe 10K or something haha.

I had kept hearing it was coming out at 9:00, I checked at 8:30 and it was already out, and I managed to get one. I really think LEGO should do stuff like this as a GWP instead.

@jetconvey:
If they do another series like the coins, I’d prefer to see them offer an all-in purchase on the front end, with codes being sent out as the items are released for individual purchase. The codes would need to have 60 days from date of issue before they expire, though. This is a way they could guarantee that anyone who wants the full set won’t get shut out of the last few items after already redeeming codes that they had to spend points on.

For one-off codes, it does complicate the process. If you claim a code now, you have at least some idea of what new sets are available that you can use to trigger shipment. If you have to preorder everything, you really have no idea what will be in stock, or what will be coming out soon, so you’re kind of operating on blind faith that there will be an agreeable way to trigger shipment. Maybe let people reserve a code without buying it, then when the item is in stock and ready to order, people who reserved a code have a certain amount of time to actually buy it before it’s up for grabs. Limit reserves, but if people bail on them, allow people who already reserved one to also grab an abandoned code if they like.

@AustinPowers:
Ah, but figuring it out didn’t automatically guarantee entry. As long as the traffic overload existed, people would keep getting redirected. Some would get through, but there was still an element of chance. In the US, the earliest I heard of anyone getting through and claiming a code for Ulysses was 9:10am EDT. I figured out the URL problem right away, but didn’t through until 9:13. It’s like trying to get into a building with turnstiles at both entrances and exits. Even if you figure out that everyone has been directed to enter through the exit turnstiles, the entrances can’t handle letting everyone in simultaneously. They’ve promised a site upgrade sometime this year, so we’ll just have to see how much of an effect that has on these site traffic problems. Then they just have to find good middle ground on the supply of VIP reward items. Ulysses and the coins were underproduced, but there are prints that have been available for over a year at this point, and probably need to have their point cost lowered if they ever want to get rid of them.

@TheBrickGuru24:
I’m pretty sure they contract out all of these reward items, aside from actual LEGO sets. They could order ten, or they could order one million, but it’s up to whoever they award the contract to figure out how to get them delivered on time. The only direct effect it should have on their operation is pulling LEGO.com orders because it adds one extra pick per order.

And I could tell you some stories about it pandemic supply issues, but it would be best if I didn’t. I will say that as a shopper, I was shocked to see that everyone started offering discounts and BOGO sales on hand sanitizer right around the same time. Then I read that there was a massive excess supply, because any company that was even capable of producing it started doing so as a way to achieve “essential” status, stay in operation, and pay their employees. When people were snatching it up by the case, that helped. When they realized there was plenty to go around, stopped buying, and started working off their hoard, it was a bit of a problem. So the federal government solves the problem by imposing a hefty tax on companies producing hand sanitizer. Regular producers weren’t affected, but pandemic suppliers got forced off the market because the tax exceeded their profit margin at the time. TP was another weird one. People stopped going in to work, so commercial grade rolls (some over a foot in diameter) started piling up, while home grade was impossible to find for about a month because they’d maxed out the manufacturing capacity, and people were panic-hoarding anything they could find. But if you wanted to put an end table in your bathroom, lay one of those huge wheels of TP on its side, and enjoy the caress of sandpaper in your own home, there really was plenty to go around.

@sbpyrat:
I stopped converting points to rebates, with limited exception, well over a year ago. When they offered $5 and $20 rebates for half points, I did pick up a couple $5 codes just because it felt like spending points on double points if I didn't. I've been hovering around 10k this year, and managed to grab all five coins, the large case, and Ulysses. I had enough points that I could have scooped up all of the Pooh prints if that was something I cared about, but it would have largely wiped out my account.

@Fan_Of_Bricks:
9am, Eastern Daylight Time. If you're in a different time zone, or you forgot to set your clock forward two months ago, you have to remember to adjust for time zones. If you live in an area that doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time, you have to remember that it throws everything off an hour when most of the nation makes the switch. If you live in that corner of Indiana near Chicago, you have to remember that it's the rest of your state that's on Eastern, while you're on Chicago time (aka Central).

Because the US uses a single LEGO.com site regardless of time zone (there are six spanning the 50 states + DC), doors open for everyone at the same time. Because Eastern is the most populated of the six, launch times are generally posted in terms of EST/EDT. When new product is launched, as long as there's plenty of stock, you can still show up an hour or two later and expect to get what you came for. With some of these VIP rewards, or GWPs that were produced in much lower quantities than there's demand for, one hour can mean you show up to see someone sweeping up the confetti.

@MainBricker said:
"It's all very well people saying how much these limited rewards are selling for, but how much are people actually paying for them?

Seems like the scalpers are struggling to sell them, they're being listed at high prices, but looking at eBay for instance none are attracting bids."
Very true. People do like to get outraged by 'scalpers' but in reality I very much doubt many sold for these hugely inflated prices.

Even if an item is marked as sold it doesn't mean it genuinely has been. It is often just fake bids in an attempt to bump up the price.

@MainBricker:
Prices probably started tanking a week ago, when they announced that they’d be reissued. Prior to that, the supply was locked up, and people didn’t have any alternatives besides secondary market or give up. Why drop $100 when you’ve got another chance to just pick them up for points? Scalpers will be selling after the reissue, too, so there’s no rush this time.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 :
I’m pretty sure they contract out all of these reward items, aside from actual LEGO sets. They could order ten, or they could order one million, but it’s up to whoever they award the contract to figure out how to get them delivered on time. The only direct effect it should have on their operation is pulling S @H orders because it adds one extra pick per order.

And I could tell you some stories about it pandemic supply issues, but it would be best if I didn’t. I will say that as a shopper, I was shocked to see that everyone started offering discounts and BOGO sales on hand sanitizer right around the same time. Then I read that there was a massive excess supply, because any company that was even capable of producing it started doing so as a way to achieve “essential” status, stay in operation, and pay their employees. When people were snatching it up by the case, that helped. When they realized there was plenty to go around, stopped buying, and started working off their hoard, it was a bit of a problem. So the federal government solves the problem by imposing a hefty tax on companies producing hand sanitizer. Regular producers weren’t affected, but pandemic suppliers got forced off the market because the tax exceeded their profit margin at the time. TP was another weird one. People stopped going in to work, so commercial grade rolls (some over a foot in diameter) started piling up, while home grade was impossible to find for about a month because they’d maxed out the manufacturing capacity, and people were panic-hoarding anything they could find. But if you wanted to put an end table in your bathroom, lay one of those huge wheels of TP on its side, and enjoy the caress of sandpaper in your own home, there really was plenty to go around."

Lol at that last sentence. Yeah I definitely think they contract them out. I was more referring to the warehouses of that company. As a worker, I definitely dealt with the crazy fluctuations of demand during the pandemic. I worked for an art supply company, whose main customer was schools. But when the pandemic hit, the demand from that side of things of course drastically decreased to basically zero. However, online individual sales jumped up 300 freaking percent.

That meant two things. One, some of our product became basically irrelevant, and we lost money overall. Two, since individual sales have to all be "picked" by hand compared to sending product in bulk to schools (or to physical stores for that matter, which also shut down), our workload effectively tripled. These online orders also came in at a high level for a while (similar to how I'm sure many fans of LEGO did not just stop at one online purchase in 2020). And that's just not a great combination. Full time employees were working 50 hour weeks on a regular basis. It wasn't the most fun thing in the world.

That all being said, earlier this year online sales dropped off the face of the earth, presumably due to the stores opening up again, and so now it's basically the complete opposite, and I'm assuming more problematic. I haven't worked there since January so I can't be positive, but based on what I've heard from friends, they've got barely any work now and are sending people home halfway through their typical shift, while at the same time offering overtime because some people straight up can't afford to go home halfway through. The apparent hope is that sales will pick back up in the summer as the school season returns to a sense of normalcy again. And considering I'm aiming to be back there in July, I sure hope that pans out lol.

As for everyone who could producing hand sanitizer, guess which art supply company started producing pens with refillable hand sanitizer nozzles at the top? Yep.

@sjr60 said:
" @MainBricker said:
"It's all very well people saying how much these limited rewards are selling for, but how much are people actually paying for them?

Seems like the scalpers are struggling to sell them, they're being listed at high prices, but looking at eBay for instance none are attracting bids."
Very true. People do like to get outraged by 'scalpers' but in reality I very much doubt many sold for these hugely inflated prices.

Even if an item is marked as sold it doesn't mean it genuinely has been. It is often just fake bids in an attempt to bump up the price."

"Fake bids" aren't a thing. You'd have to create a whole separate account and buy it from a whole other IP address to keep Ebay from banning you for a long time, followed by cancelling the sale. In which case, the listing disappears from the "sold" tab. The only way it shows up on the "sold" tab is if you actually go through with the sale and ship it somewhere, or ship something somewhere, in which case, that's needless work, a waste of money and completely pointless for it not to be an actual sale.

Now, wouldn't surprise me if people bid on their own items or ask their friends to with a different IP address in hopes of getting someone else to bite, and if they don't, cancelling the sale and trying again. But that's not even close to the same thing as what you implied.

@TheBrickGuru24 said:
"Now, wouldn't surprise me if people bid on their own items or ask their friends to with a different IP address in hopes of getting someone else to bite, and if they don't, cancelling the sale and trying again. But that's not even close to the same thing as what you implied."
Actually that's exactly what's being implied.
Many auctions I've been watching have ended up as 'sold', but later gone back on sale. It makes no odds that the item has only had a temporary status of sold... the illusion has been cast, and it fuels untrue stories of items selling for ridiculous prices.

@sjr60:
To someone who was trying to collect them from the very start, I doubt it matters much if they got shut out later on so someone could make a huge profit, barely break even, or if they just scooped up the last couple coins because they heard they were rare and desirable. If you got started on these coins expecting to only spend $50 in points on them, even paying $20 for a single coin is going to be infuriating. The one exception to this is if someone got started on the coins and ran short on points along the way.

This is actually possible if you were running 4000-5000 points back in January when the first coin dropped, especially if you decided to grab Ulysses along the way. At around 8000 points, this wouldn't have been a problem anymore as you would have had enough points to grab all seven codes (coins, case, and Ulysses). This is why I stopped spending points on rebates, and have basically tried to maintain a 10k balance.

@TheBrickGuru24:
Since LEGO Brand Retail deals mostly with home shoppers, that probably didn't impact them in the same way. They've probably been running overtime for over a year, if they didn't bring in more employees. The main variable has probably been whether or not stores were open. When all LEGO Stores were closed, they wouldn't have been shipping any product to them, and that would have forced more business online. Now that LEGO Stores are back in operation, they seem to be focused on making sure they don't run out of product, to the point that they may receive shipments of sets that remain out of stock online.

As for the sanitizer, I suspect it would depend on whether you were manufacturing it, or repackaging it, as to whether the tax thing would have impacted your business. The issue was probably more how much was being produced, not how it was being sold.

@sjr60 said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 said:
"Now, wouldn't surprise me if people bid on their own items or ask their friends to with a different IP address in hopes of getting someone else to bite, and if they don't, cancelling the sale and trying again. But that's not even close to the same thing as what you implied."
Actually that's exactly what's being implied.
Many auctions I've been watching have ended up as 'sold', but later gone back on sale. It makes no odds that the item has only had a temporary status of sold... the illusion has been cast, and it fuels untrue stories of items selling for ridiculous prices.

"

Except it would never show up on the sold tab that way. The only people it may motivate are those who were looking at the listing beforehand already, but if they saw a new listing from the same seller I imagine they would be suspicious, same as you are. They would have to therefore notice the initial listing but not any listing thereafter, which seems unlikely. So while people might certainly try it, I don't think it works very well. There are also plenty of listings that have been BIN'd. I'm pretty certain that even if there are fake bids, it's a mix of both those and real sales. More than enough people out there who are impatient, impulsive and/or clueless for at least a few legit purchases to happen.

@PurpleDave said:
" @sjr60 :
To someone who was trying to collect them from the very start, I doubt it matters much if they got shut out later on so someone could make a huge profit, barely break even, or if they just scooped up the last couple coins because they heard they were rare and desirable. If you got started on these coins expecting to only spend $50 in points on them, even paying $20 for a single coin is going to be infuriating. The one exception to this is if someone got started on the coins and ran short on points along the way.

This is actually possible if you were running 4000-5000 points back in January when the first coin dropped, especially if you decided to grab Ulysses along the way. At around 8000 points, this wouldn't have been a problem anymore as you would have had enough points to grab all seven codes (coins, case, and Ulysses). This is why I stopped spending points on rebates, and have basically tried to maintain a 10k balance.

@TheBrickGuru24 :
Since LEGO Brand Retail deals mostly with home shoppers, that probably didn't impact them in the same way. They've probably been running overtime for over a year, if they didn't bring in more employees. The main variable has probably been whether or not stores were open. When all LEGO Stores were closed, they wouldn't have been shipping any product to them, and that would have forced more business online. Now that LEGO Stores are back in operation, they seem to be focused on making sure they don't run out of product, to the point that they may receive shipments of sets that remain out of stock online.

As for the sanitizer, I suspect it would depend on whether you were manufacturing it, or repackaging it, as to whether the tax thing would have impacted your business. The issue was probably more how much was being produced, not how it was being sold."

I read somewhere that LEGO's online sales jumped up a few hundred %'s as well, so I imagine the situation in their buildings were pretty similar to ours, even with us having the added factor of school orders becoming nonexistent. Again, all that really did regarding physical labor was bring workers from that department over into other departments. The biggest consequence was financially.

They were manufacturing the sanitizer as far as I could tell. Had the logo on it and everything and I knew that they were selling them at stores.

@TheBrickGuru24:
But what I was saying regarding LBR's sales is that they probably saw more of a straight increase, without as dramatic a shift as you had with schools vs private citizens. It would have just been more of the same. They get that at various times of the year anyways, so they have more experience with how things turned out.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheBrickGuru24:
But what I was saying regarding LBR's sales is that they probably saw more of a straight increase, without as dramatic a shift as you had with schools vs private citizens. It would have just been more of the same. They get that at various times of the year anyways, so they have more experience with how things turned out."

Sales don't go up several hundred %'s for any company except on the rarest of occasions. If what I was reading was correct, that their at home sales went up 300%, then that would definitely be unusual for them. And it was pretty clear they were struggling to get orders out at their normal pace for a while. Not to mention their customer service started taking a lot longer too, even after they actually hired more workers to help (asked a customer service rep about that myself). I definitely think they felt it.

As for my company, again, we for sure felt the individual customer increase, but most of us don't directly deal with the school side of things, and 85% of it is done up in the offices. That was not dramatic at all with regards to labor and workload. I was really just explaining how we still lost money even with our sales going up 300%. That's it.

Managed to get one at 9:01am when they were available.
It's due to arrive in June as I pre-ordered the infinity gauntlet.

@TheBrickGuru24:
So how much of a bump do you think they get for Black Friday, or May 4th? Obviously it’s not constant, but it’s enough to crash the site and require queueing, which is not necessary on a daily basis. Anyways, it wasn’t just a surge in their business that made it hard to deliver orders. It was a surge in _everyone’s_ business. Everyone stayed home and ordered online, so in the US, FedEx and UPS both jacked up their prices and then put a cap on how many parcels they’d accept from non-essential businesses. The Post Office wasn’t legally allowed to do either, so they got slammed. They were also dealing with restrictions on how many people were allowed in the building, and extremely lenient attendance policies, which resulted in a backlog that seemed impossible. Then everyone absentee voted, and every time they saw a ballot come through the sorting center, its standard policy to pull it out of the system for special delivery, which just bogged down available staffing.

I read an article where they interviewed a truck driver, and she said it was taking two days just to get your truck in the yard at the postal sorting centers, and once you got in it took another two days before they could unload your truck and send you on your way. That’s why they couldn’t get orders into customers’ hands. My Black Friday order and my January 1st order arrived on consecutive days. Black Friday went USPS, got sent to the wrong post office, got sent back to be resorted, and eventually made it to my post office. January 1st went FedEx and had no delays.

It was a similar situation in other countries. Shipments going into the UK got held up at the Chunnel if they weren’t essentials like food, so LEGO shipments just sat there for days, if not weeks. At the shipping warehouses, they may have just run it or room to store outbound parcels because there weren’t any empty trucks to come collect them.

And you’d be surprised what other businesses lost money. Ranchers had to put down herds because the slaughterhouses kept getting shut down due to COVID infections. Grocery stores had to pay employees “hazard pay” to keep them coming in to work, plus supply masks, plus deep-clean every night, plus shorten their hours. And then there were food shortages, so people couldn’t even buy anything. Or non-grocery sections got shut down by executive order, so anything with a high profit margin was off-limits to shoppers. Gas stations had to stay open so essential workers and trucks could stay on the road, but there was barely any traffic. Refineries ended up paying people to take shipments of gas because it wasn’t in demand while heating oil and other byproducts were. Doctors and nurses got laid off from hospitals because they didn’t have the right experience to treat pandemic cases, while the ones that did were working crazy overtime.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheBrickGuru24 :
So how much of a bump do you think they get for Black Friday, or May 4th? Obviously it’s not constant, but it’s enough to crash the site and require queueing, which is not necessary on a daily basis. Anyways, it wasn’t just a surge in their business that made it hard to deliver orders. It was a surge in _everyone’s_ business. Everyone stayed home and ordered online, so in the US, FedEx and UPS both jacked up their prices and then put a cap on how many parcels they’d accept from non-essential businesses. The Post Office wasn’t legally allowed to do either, so they got slammed. They were also dealing with restrictions on how many people were allowed in the building, and extremely lenient attendance policies, which resulted in a backlog that seemed impossible. Then everyone absentee voted, and every time they saw a ballot come through the sorting center, its standard policy to pull it out of the system for special delivery, which just bogged down available staffing.

I read an article where they interviewed a truck driver, and she said it was taking two days just to get your truck in the yard at the postal sorting centers, and once you got in it took another two days before they could unload your truck and send you on your way. That’s why they couldn’t get orders into customers’ hands. My Black Friday order and my January 1st order arrived on consecutive days. Black Friday went USPS, got sent to the wrong post office, got sent back to be resorted, and eventually made it to my post office. January 1st went FedEx and had no delays.

It was a similar situation in other countries. Shipments going into the UK got held up at the Chunnel if they weren’t essentials like food, so LEGO shipments just sat there for days, if not weeks. At the shipping warehouses, they may have just run it or room to store outbound parcels because there weren’t any empty trucks to come collect them.

And you’d be surprised what other businesses lost money. Ranchers had to put down herds because the slaughterhouses kept getting shut down due to COVID infections. Grocery stores had to pay employees “hazard pay” to keep them coming in to work, plus supply masks, plus deep-clean every night, plus shorten their hours. And then there were food shortages, so people couldn’t even buy anything. Or non-grocery sections got shut down by executive order, so anything with a high profit margin was off-limits to shoppers. Gas stations had to stay open so essential workers and trucks could stay on the road, but there was barely any traffic. Refineries ended up paying people to take shipments of gas because it wasn’t in demand while heating oil and other byproducts were. Doctors and nurses got laid off from hospitals because they didn’t have the right experience to treat pandemic cases, while the ones that did were working crazy overtime."

Oh believe me, I'm well aware of all of this. The tl;dr for all of that could easily be "life sucked for a lot of people in 2020". As for your question, I'd say Black Friday and May the 4th sets them back a day or two normally, more during the pandemic. I'm guessing the 300% increase in sales, based on my estimates with my own business (proportionally speaking of course) and the amount of time it took for my stuff to arrive around that time, likely 5-7 days or more, depending on location My business was set back a full week and then some. Another one was New Years this past year, because that's when the Christmas money gets spent, and New Years Eve also fell on a Thursday, which means a lot of warehouses were closed down and/or on limited staff for 3-4 days. That was likely 3-4 days for them straight up. We were set back by a week plus again.

@TheBrickGuru24:
Yeah, unless you were satisfied with your life as a professional hermit, or you’re the guy who got to trade in his “The End of the World Is Nigh” sign for a “See, I Told You” sign, it’s been a rough time all around.

Anyways, New Years is also when the annual Modular set has been releasing, as well as the first SW wave of the year, which would bump sales in general.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheBrickGuru24:
Yeah, unless you were satisfied with your life as a professional hermit, or you’re the guy who got to trade in his “The End of the World Is Nigh” sign for a “See, I Told You” sign, it’s been a rough time all around.

Anyways, New Years is also when the annual Modular set has been releasing, as well as the first SW wave of the year, which would bump sales in general."

Lol, and yep and yep. New Years is a bigger "sales day" than a lot of people realize.

@TheBrickGuru24:
People were definitely aware of it on a subconscious level, this year, even if it didn’t really register what was going on. The new Modular, the new Botanical sets, the new HP books, the new SW sets, the VIP car, all vanished in a puff of snarly, angry smoke as the Brood X AFOLs descended on LEGO.com and picked it apart like a plague of locusts. It’s kinda weird how when someone has been excitedly telling someone how excited they are to get exciting new sets the day they release, and they’ve been getting, “Yeah, me too,” responses back...they’re surprised when the site gets blitzed. If I don't care about it at all, it doesn’t really matter to me if it sells out (except on principle, sometimes). If I only kinda care about it, I can probably wait to pick it up, maybe to trigger a GWP at a later date. If it’s that important, I know when stuff is scheduled to launch, and I have the option of taking my chances or diving in at the buzzer. I’ve done that often enough to never expect that I’m the only one there.

So, I’m thinking the five biggest general shopping events (so not stuff like the SW helmets landing on April 26th) of the year for AFOLs (at least in the US) are New Year’s, May 4th, Black Friday preview, Black Friday weekend, and whatever day the second holiday GWP lands on (it was Dec1 this year, but I think it’s been pushed back as late as the 10th?). Sixth is probably when the biggest wave of summer sets hits, which looks like August going forward.