I guess that headline will never grow old.

*sigh*
I never imagined that my dark ages would start so soon......

what happened to "Price hikes will come into effect starting September 1st"?

Wait, it wasnt starting in september?

Glad I got Medieval Blacksmith before all of this nonsense. What a shame that corporate greed is going to ruin a hobby for many and leave parents to buy their kids less engaging toys because they're more affordable.

Dark Ages and recession are coming…

@lordofdragonss said:
"Wait, it wasnt starting in september?"

Europe in september. US,Asia in august

I’m going to have to be more selective in what I buy. Yes Lego has always been expensive, but it’s starting to feel more like a luxury than a hobby/toy.

With the little amount of space I have left and the huge amount of expensive sets Lego puts out every couple of months, I already wasn't buying that many sets. I mostly just enjoy their artistry, but I can't justify the amount of space they take up. Where does anyone display the Colosseum, for example.

It sucks, but I can't say this price increase is unjustified, or affects me that much. NL prices were always one of the highest in the Eurozone. The only set I want this year is the Galaxy Explorer anyway.

A lot of people can't read. It says "North America" everyone...

@tfcrafter said:
"A lot of people can't read. It says "North America" everyone..."

The original version of the article didn't mention North America,
it was amended (and the title modified with a [NA] tag).

@BPK2300 said:
"I’ll always argue in favor of the free market. Life ain’t fair sometimes. I’ll just buy less. Kicking myself for not picking up the ones that have been out of stock all summer. Oh well. "

I think it annoys me because LEGO tried to spin it as “times are hard” after making two billion dollars during a global pandemic along with other issues. Then they blew a billion dollars working with Epic Games.

I believe in free market as well, but I would rather LEGO not insult my intelligence if they are raising prices.

Old headline: Lego is a better investment than gold

New headline: Lego is more expensive than gold

@PixelTheDragon said:
" @BPK2300 said:
"I’ll always argue in favor of the free market. Life ain’t fair sometimes. I’ll just buy less. Kicking myself for not picking up the ones that have been out of stock all summer. Oh well. "

I think it annoys me because LEGO tried to spin it as “times are hard” after making two billion dollars during a global pandemic along with other issues. Then they blew a billion dollars working with Epic Games.

I believe in free market as well, but I would rather LEGO not insult my intelligence if they are raising prices.
"

Don't forget the 1b "metaverse" collaboration that will never see the light of day!

Some retailers in Canada have already raised prices, such as Mastermind Toys. Indigo has raised some prices but not all.

Really turned off by the greed on display here. Record profits the last two years.

Very glad I have already picked up almost everything that I've seen listed to increase, usually with some sort of deal. The only set I don't yet have is 76989 and I am holding out some hope that it won't go up in NA. I refuse to buy it out of FOMO, and if I can't get it at a price I like, then so be it.

Really turned off by the greed on display here. Record profits the last two years. Trying to squeeze every last penny out of fans is not a smart long term business decision.

I definitely will be slowing down on purchases for the foreseeable future.

We've got to have MONEY!

Never expected to see the day Lego become the biggest Lego scalper of them all.

Lego bricks were never cheap, but it had quality. Now prices are blown out of proportion and quality issues are seemingly everywhere. Let’s hope people adjust their spending and push the “free” market to some good deals. Free market also means free customers, I hope the loyal Lego fans send a message with their wallets.

I’m 49, been hooked on Lego pretty much since birth, had a dark age as life got busier, came out of that when the modulars came, couldn’t be happier when Lego decided to sell rides as a theme. But it’s a ride, The Loop Coaster, a hideous pile of bad decisions at 400 bucks and these price increases, that will halt my Lego spending even further.

Good luck Lego, I think you’re gonna need it.

I won’t argue in favor of a free market and won’t accept responsibility for an external injustice.

I mentioned it since the get go: fancy items like house of the brick and brand spanking new 'campus' are overhead items for which you cannot 'cut back' (unless you sell them and those seems to be very specific one-purpose buildings - I guess they can always be repurposed at great costs). Even bringing a guy like Jørgen Vig Knudstorp would not help much nowadays. If you have paid attention, in the last few years, Lego has announced all sorts of "ventures", "agreements", "partnerships" and other such corporate niceties at the tune of one almost one per quarter - all this has to be paid somehow - That was the idea with Jørgen Vig Knudstorp: stick to the brick!

Now it seems like everything has to be licensed. Do you remember the late 90s? If you wanted to build a Star Wars ship you just built one from your existing parts (and thanks to Classic Space, we had the grey wedge plates to do it). A recent example, 42145 this is an Airbus set. This could easily be a 'nothing' set and the technology behind it would be the same - but that would probably shave 10% of the cost of the set - that's a start! (not knowledgeable about the percentage - marketing people may be able to shed some light as to what is the proper 'licensed' tax). The same could be true of any 'Technic' car they do - instead of a 'brand' why not bringing new specs: i.e. MacPherson suspension, working brakes, steering caster, ,etc. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against licensed set and sometimes its very nice (or simply necessary) to have it that way. But nowadays, it seems like more and more sets are going that route for no real good reason.

There is a big risk here: In recent years, Lego made tons of profits as several Lego afficionados with large disposable income flocked into the hobby. Even during that time of plenty, the quality of Lego products has been plummeting and is soon about to reach terminal velocity (for those living under a rock or hard-core fanboys/girls - I am talking about colour matching, brittle bricks, sprue issues and general fittingness of the parts). With rising prices, there are more than a few of us that will have to cut back on our purchases. This will affect Lego for sure. At first they will let go of their people (easiest thing to do unfortunately); then the risk is if they cut the quality even more - up to the point where they are no longer a premium product (probably true right now). You can then draw your own conclusion. Let's just hope I'm terribly wrong with this but as the saying goes: the writing is on the wall.

This is not how you handle inflationary uncertainty. Go re-watch Mr. Mom. The economic conditions of that era were very similar and it presents a master class on how 'good' companies can handle such situations. Putting customers first will also help your bottom line especially when you are the premium brand. Lego™ is sooooo stupid.

This is really upsetting.
I've only recently become an adult and started being able to buy my own sets in 2020, but by that time the aftermarket was already f***ed by the pandemic, so sets I missed out on during my childhood became entirely inaccessible and now LEGO themselves are making their current sets inaccessible.

LEGO has always been pushing it with their prices, but at this point they're becoming a luxury.
More collectibles than toys.

Thus capitalism continues to do what it does best, destroying all good things in the world.

Ok. I'll just buy way less.

See how that works, Lego?

When a world wide recession is in full swing later this year, people will need to spend what money they have ob housing and food. Lego has picked a very bad time to increase prices. I wouldn't be surprised if Lego revenue decreases in 2022 compared to 2021.

Omg all the complaining. These price increases are almost certainly due to inflation. I won't get into the possible causes of inflation here. LEGO is a luxury item, especially the expensive ones. Just don't buy it if you don't like the price, or go to one of the many LEGO competitors. Such a simple solution here.

@lippidp said:
"Omg all the complaining. These price increases are almost certainly due to inflation. I won't get into the possible causes of inflation here. LEGO is a luxury item, especially the expensive ones. Just don't buy it if you don't like the price, or go to one of the many LEGO competitors. Such a simple solution here."

It's not inflation. A steady increase in price per kg of plastic as new set come out is inflation. An already expensive set jumping 20%+ after being on the shelf for less than six months is just greed. With the speed that D2C set come and go now, Lego could very easily swallowed any possible cost increases for a few extra months.

You are absolutely right that Lego is a luxury item. There is still a limit to how deep AFOL's pockets can go, and in the past many of the large premium sets still represented good value. I, and many other people here feel that these price increase cross the line.

A minifig is not worth $6CAD no matter how hard TLG works to been seen as a prestige brand.

I really do hope that all the people venting here and elsewhere, do back up the talk with a decrease in purchases.

@MLF said:
"I really do hope that all the people venting here and elsewhere, do back up the talk with a decrease in purchases."

I already have.

Goodbye Lego, its been a great 35 years but time to let you go. Have plenty of unopened boxes to keep me happy.

@adgeman said:
"Very disappointed with the Canadian prices going up as they're already at a premium. I've just gone through my wish list and removed the ones I was interested but not in-love with. I'm going to look at selling some of my unopened sets to fund newer ones."

As a fellow Canadian, it's getting brutal. We've now achieved the first $1000 CAD set with this price increase (UCS AT-AT). I've decided I won't be getting any existing sets that are jumping in price as I'm assuming most of those sets are out of production anyway and they are just selling existing stock, their cost was likely already baked in to the original price aside from the current costs of storage/shipping. But I'm not a logistics person so what do I know.

Record profits, so why not squeeze even more out of people? LEGO is just an embarrassment to itself now, but that's not new considering their manufacturing in China. Profit > ethics.

Whoever is doing PR for them should be fired. Lego is making more than enough that they could of eaten the cost difference for these sets while still on the shelves and just raised the prices on everything new like they were doing. It would be a much different gripe.

Next year's headline: "Despite Price Increases, Lego Profits Slip; TLG Baffled"

I was on the fence on a few sets, but the price hikes were the final straw. Combined with TLG's inability to create a stable e-commerce environment (both tech and stock-wise), it looks like my credit card will be going into a long hibernation as far as TLG is concerned.

So I talked to Lego on a chat about this, and I'll paste it here since this is the most transparency we're gonna get from Lego:

Lego: Hey there! What can I help with?

Me: I heard there were price increases on Lego products starting tomorrow. Is that true? And why is there no information from Lego about this?

Lego: Hey there! We truly value your support. Like many businesses we’ve continued to see increased raw material and operating costs. For some time now, we absorbed this impact in an effort to keep our pricing stable and consistent.

Lego: This will come into effect on August 1 (AMS, APAC, China) and September 1 (WE, REEMEA).

Me: Is this every product? Or only certain ones?

Lego: The price increase will vary across the portfolio. On some products we will not alter price, on others there will be a single digit increase and on larger, more complex sets the % increase will be higher.

Me: Is there a list of what products will be affected?

Lego: Not at the moment, we don't have a list.

Me: As a Lego buyer, it would help to have some transparency and not be blindsighted by these price increases.

Lego: I totally understand that, but we have no info of what prices are changing right now.

Me: But these changes are happening tomorrow for the US region, correct?

Lego: Yes that is correct

Me: I really don't know what to make of this. I may have to reconsider buying any Lego going into the future because of this.

Me: I've seen a list from Barnes & Nobles of some price increases and it is reasonable for some products, but other products are drastic, like set 76240 Batmobile Tumbler going from $229.99 to $269.99.

Lego: I am sorry to hear that and will take your feedback for sure. The current global economic challenges of increased raw material and operating costs are impacting many businesses. Putting consumers first is at the heart of what we do as a company and we had to make this difficult decision.

Lego: It is important to note that outside of LEGO owned retail stores and LEGO.com, the final price for consumers is set by retailers, not the LEGO Group.

Me: I imagine that the Lego retail stores and Lego.com help other retailers determine their pricing, at least as a baseline. So are these price increases affecting the wholesale cost to retailers and then to consumers or just the retail cost to consumers?

Lego: It is just affecting our prices for our website and stores. Anything that other retailers that change their prices are decided by them, not our company.

Me: So the retail prices could potentially be lower at other retail stores? Because I've never seen a retail store have a lower price than Lego unless it was a sale price.

Lego: It is really up to each retailer, I always recommend checking them each retailer online to see if they you can find them at the best price.

Lego: The only downfall to buying through other retailers is that they won't apply for VIP points with our program. But if you find a better deal, that is sometimes worth it!

Me: I'm just curious if this price increase will affect other retailers as well. They must get some type of suggested retail price from Lego to price their products. And if Lego is increasing their prices, why wouldn't other retailers be advised to do the same?

Lego: I definitely understand that questions, it is just hard to tell as the price increases haven't happened yet.

Me: So should I buy everything I've been wanting today to play it safe? Or are all my wish list items going to be 50% more overall tomorrow? I'm just worried I won't be able to afford or budget out enough for Lego anymore.

Lego: It's ultimately your decision so I can't recommend what to do. But since the price increases haven't happened yet, maybe get one of the bigger sets you wanted before tomorrow.

Me: Ok, I'll really consider doing so today. Thanks for helping me as much as you can.

So my advice for today is: treat today like it's a sale day on Lego, because that set you've been looking to get may be more expensive tomorrow.

@lippidp said:
"Omg all the complaining. These price increases are almost certainly due to inflation. I won't get into the possible causes of inflation here. LEGO is a luxury item, especially the expensive ones. Just don't buy it if you don't like the price, or go to one of the many LEGO competitors. Such a simple solution here."

If only there were a site where LEGO fans could gather and discuss the positives and negatives of this hobby…

I noticed the Matchbox cars at my local Walmart went up 7%. And Mattel is "one of the big boys" like LEGO. Yet, most of these increases are north of 20%, which to me is a bit much. Quality ain't getting fixed, and production isn't getting pulled from China, so it doesn't make sense to be that high.

@elangab said:
" @Wasthereonce said:
"So I talked to Lego on a chat about this, and I'll paste it here since this is the most transparency we're gonna get from Lego:

Lego: Hey there! What can I help with?

Me: I heard there were price increases on Lego products starting tomorrow. Is that true? And why is there no information from Lego about this?"

Why even bother? CS agents are useless. They don't care about feedback; they care about money. You want to give good feedback? Stop buying Lego, or at least exclude any "nice to have sets". Buy only the ones you "must" own.

"

I just want to point out that this comment is unkind and unfair. Customer Service agents are employees, not decision makers, and anyone who has ever done such work knows that there's only so much they can do to help, especially when there's something big like this price hike happening. Say what you want about Lego's decision to do this, but I think it's totally unfair to criticize the customer service agents for this. Lego's CS people are well known to be very friendly and very helpful.

The reality of these price increases is that over 99% of Lego customers don't read Lego news sites like Brickset and won't know there is a price increase...and likely also won't notice. They'll just keep on thinking Lego is expensive like they were before and keep on buying it for their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and whatnot.

...but those 18+ sets marketed to adults? I wouldn't be surprised to see them take a hit.

@PDelahanty said:
"The reality of these price increases is that over 99% of Lego customers don't read Lego news sites like Brickset and won't know there is a price increase...and likely also won't notice. They'll just keep on thinking Lego is expensive like they were before and keep on buying it for their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and whatnot.

...but those 18+ sets marketed to adults? I wouldn't be surprised to see them take a hit."

No, they'll stop buying Lego or just get very cheap small sets or classic bricks or just another toy. The economy of the next few years for most of the western world is going to take a hit.

@lippidp said:
" @MLF said:
" @lippidp said:
"Omg all the complaining. These price increases are almost certainly due to inflation. I won't get into the possible causes of inflation here. LEGO is a luxury item, especially the expensive ones. Just don't buy it if you don't like the price, or go to one of the many LEGO competitors. Such a simple solution here."

It's not inflation. A steady increase in price per kg of plastic as new set come out is inflation. An already expensive set jumping 20%+ after being on the shelf for less than six months is just greed. With the speed that D2C set come and go now, Lego could very easily swallowed any possible cost increases for a few extra months.

You are absolutely right that Lego is a luxury item. There is still a limit to how deep AFOL's pockets can go, and in the past many of the large premium sets still represented good value. I, and many other people here feel that these price increase cross the line.

A minifig is not worth $6CAD no matter how hard TLG works to been seen as a prestige brand.

I really do hope that all the people venting here and elsewhere, do back up the talk with a decrease in purchases."

It is absolutely inflation. Prices of existing goods are rising in every sector. Things that never went up before are now going up."

Inflation is a generalised all-encompassing phenomenon affecting everything. Inflation is expected to run at roughly 8% this year - and they hope it will subside thereafter (not that easy - last time it lasted 15 years: 1967-1983). So let's say a company wanting to reflect its exposure to inflation might chose a level of say 10% to account for future potential inflation.

If Lego wanted to blame this on inflation, they would have taken all their prices (100% of them) and apply a multiplier - let's say 10%. everything would then be priced up by 10% and it would be transparent and easy to understand. Now, some sets are up 20% and some 0% - what's happening here? the plastic in some items does not go up in price and the plastic in other items is becoming more expensive?

In all likelihood, Lego is 'taxing' the users which are less susceptible to modify their purchases habits due to a price increase (also called price-elasticity). In other words: where prices are up by 20%: Lego believe that the usual consumers of these sets will still continue to buy it for whatever reasons (FOMO, collectors/completists, money is no object, etc).

Call it what you want - inflation, corporate greed, the goblins at Gringotts finally taking over the Muggle financial sector - but let's face the facts here. Lego prices are going up and our incomes are not. It's simple math.

For me, the only option is to slow my Lego buying to a dead crawl, my finances are going to have to adjust and there's little room for luxury spending. I think enough of us are in a similar boat.

So personally, I just don't care anymore what Lego's reasoning is, and I'm tired of all of the marketing lingo and corporate-talk. I'm just done.