Do you have a rule of thumb for ID'ing well-priced sets?

[Martin Milner]

Hey Ras

Cough cough -- I'm talking about deciding when to buy bulk.  Example: I bought 12 of the blue gladiator special because I needed him for my Numidian cavalry and wound up buying spares on top of it.  He was bargain priced.  Had he come in a $10 accessory pack as with the medieval ABBA guy, I wouldn't have bought twelve.  I would have gone through DS and probably wound up with 6 due to their perpetual shortages (maybe then buying two $10 accessory packs to complete the unit).

RE: Little Red Riding Hood, I'd pay $20 for her!  I'm not meaning sets you only want one.

-Tim

 

Exactly right. When I wanted to acquire one of every Clown I could get my hands on, there was one in the 4404 Hospital set who hasn't appeared anywhere else (30 00 3192).

Ras's Rule: Buy the set (cost £100 on the Playmobil UK website) to get the Clown which I like. Forget the expense, it's not important.

Tim's Thumb: better value to order the figure + accessories through DS - Cost £2-3. OK, I'll have to wait a bit, but I'll be able to eat that month, and won't be lumbered with a Hospital Set minus clown that I have no use for.


Now supposing I needed 12 of him for my Medieval Clown attack Squad?

Or 2,000 because I'm planning a film project that'll make me the next Steven Spielberg and win me an Oscar?


We're not saying we won't ever buy a set we like if it exceeds our rule of thumb value, we're saying it's a method of determining if it's good value for money.

I'm fairly sure everyone must have some limit they put on that they'll spend on Playmobil, unless they have unlimited disposable income, and unlimited storage space.

[kaethe]

martin
i bought the hospital set, because i am building a medical center, and i have absolutely no need for the clown, do you still want it?
kaethe

[Martin Milner]

martin
i bought the hospital set, because i am building a medical center, and i have absolutely no need for the clown, do you still want it?
kaethe

Thanks for the offer, Kaethe, but I got one through DS, thanks to Heather's Playmodb for the part number. I don't know how I'd manage without all her hard work.

cheers,  Martin

[Rasputin]

Yes  use DS for one part that is what it is there for. But Martin and Tim do you wait till the Roman blister packs are on clearance at Target to get them just because you will save 13.69% . You might not get any at all with all the waiting and after all you are doing playmobil any favors in only bargain shopping. Then Playmobil can not afford to make new molds you are so eager to ask for . Their profit margins are a lot tighter .

Also if you do not help out the higher priced brick and mortar all we will be left with is Target .

I understand your idea about saving $$$ but if i like a company and their goals i am willing to spend a little more to keep them going . If i am buying petrol for my fleet i buy where it is cheapest because i am not interested in helping the fuel corporations any more than i have to . 

[Martin Milner]

Yes  use DS for one part that is what it is there for. But Martin and Tim do you wait till the Roman blister packs are on clearance at Target to get them just because you will save 13.69% . You might not get any at all with all the waiting and after all you are doing playmobil any favors in only bargain shopping. Then Playmobil can not afford to make new molds you are so eager to ask for . Their profit margins are a lot tighter .

Also if you do not help out the higher priced brick and mortar all we will be left with is Target .

I understand your idea about saving $$$ but if i like a company and their goals i am willing to spend a little more to keep them going . If i am buying petrol for my fleet i buy where it is cheapest because i am not interested in helping the fuel corporations any more than i have to . 

Ras, you've completely missed the point again.

We're not talking about bargain shopping, we're talking about deciding if a set is good value for money, and having a personal rule of thumb to measure value against. There is a distinction.

I don't have the option of waiting for Roman blister packs to be on sale at Target, I don't live in the US. I have to hope they're available when I do get there. At less than $3 a pack, that's already a bargain for me - I'm used to paying $4 per figure in the UK. Target sets, indeed any sets in the US are a bargain for me - if I want the sets in the first place.

I'll still buy a set if I want it enough, even if I consider isn't good value for money. I'd still buy those Roman blisters at $5 a pack, because I have a use for the figures. The blisters, even in the UK at £3.50 ($7 a pack) are still good value because normally any two figures would cost me $8.

I admire your ideals about supporting a company you like, but I'm sure there's still a top price you're not willing to pay. I don't think Geobra are about to go under just because I think paying more than $4 a figure isn't good value - and if I like the figures enough I'll still pay more then $4. I just got a Black Maltese knight for $10, because I wanted one.

As for bricks and mortar stores, there aren't any in my town which carry Playmobil, except for TK Maxx which occasionally have cast-off sets, so I'm mostly buing online anyway.

[Rasputin]

Just out of curiosity if the Egyptians were not a good value for your money would you buy them ? Yes you would buy them, right ?

I just do not understand what you are applying this theory to then ? If you are not willing to purchase the set due to it not being a "good value" then you do not want it enough. If you do want it a lot, you will buy the set anyways, right ? So are you bargain shopping for sets you really do not want or need ?   

What point did it miss ? The way i see it is we are talking about one of the most expensive plastic toys . If a person drives a Porsche or Ferrari i would find it odd if they started telling me about how they are bargain shopping for accessories or if the oil filter was a "good value"  I expect this from a honda driver who reads Consumer Reports magazine.

Just the way i see it , on to other things 

[Timotheos]

I just do not understand what you are applying this theory to then ? If you are not willing to purchase the set due to it not being a "good value" then you do not want it enough. If you do want it a lot, you will buy the set anyways, right ? So are you bargain shopping for sets you really do not want or need ?   

Hey Ras,

We army builders buy like 10 or 20 or even 50 of the same set for its parts.

Example:

I can either buy 5 ABBA knight packs at $10 each ( 5 * $10 = $50) for the figure and the horse

Or I can buy 4 original red knight (3319) sets at $12 (4 * $12 = $48) each because the $12 buys me 3 figures and a horse plus good accessories. 

So for the same cost I can buy 12 knights and 4 horses vs. 5 ABBA knights and 5 horses.
(EDIT: my original math was wrong)

That is what we are talking about.   

I bought one of every Roman set.  But, I'm definitely not going to buy 15 full-sized arenas just so I can get 15 archers and some extra helmets.

There are options and we try to calculate what will get us the most bang for the buck when building large displays.

-Tim

[Martin Milner]

What Tim said.

I'll be getting at least one of each Egyptian set, but probably waiting until they're available in the UK shops, unless I get jittery and buy from a UK seller I know who gets them early at about 10% about RRP. If they're not good value for money, I'll probably only be buying one though, not several of each.

When they are officially released in the UK, I'll be checking the 4-5 Brick and Mortar shops I can reach (TRU, John Lewis, Hamleys, Bentalls, and a small independent) for the best price, which will probably be John Lewis, plus the Playmobil UK site. At present the Roman Arena is £50 in John Lewis, £60 on Playmobil's website, and £75 in the small independent toystore, so it's well worth my shopping around.

In the case of the Egyptians, I'm not worried that they'll never appear in the UK and I'll miss them. In the case of some other sets like the 4444 Pinnace, it was labelled as a limited edition, I wasn't sure how limited, so I got mine from a friend in Germany just to make sure I didn't miss out, or get ripped off on eBay.

The 5827 Roman Blister pack of all the recent releases is the one I'm most interested in right now, and I'm going to want about 24 of them because they'll form army units, so it makes sense that if I can shave $1 off the price I'm going to, but not at the risk of not getting them at all. I'm reasonably sure they'll appear on the Playmobil UK site some time in the next six months, so I'm happy to wait, or get them in the US when I visit, which would be much cheaper.


The point I felt you missed is that it's possible to consider a set poor value-for-money, but still buy it.

[Justindo]

I'm with Tim.  If I want just one klicky or one part I'm not going to buy a $100 set just to get it, especially if the rest of the set is useless to me.  That is what direct service is for.  I might, and have, buy one $25 or less set for a few items, but that's where I draw the line.  For example, I bought one of the new $10 Target sets for two shields, a klicky, and a few small parts.  I can use the horse and a few of the other accessories that came with it, but half of the set is basically useless to me.  That said, if I were to buy the klicky, the shields, the few small parts, and the horse from direct service, and not even figure in shipping, I'd probably be up to the price of the set, so that makes it a "pretty good buy" in my book.

When the Egyptians come, I'll be buying one of each and a bunch of one or two sets.  I'll then go to direct service for a few extra parts.