4076 Dino Exclusive

[Little Jo]

What should I say ...

Yesterday I went to one of my favourite PM shops looking for some Dino sets. I was surprised to discover a "Dino Exclusive" set with the number 4076. It contains all three "complete" dinosaurus (not the sceleton one), quite a lot of figures (6), ice pieces and a vehicle -- all together for 79.99 EUR. Because sooner or later I wanted all of these animals I decided to take this set, although I was looking for the "original" sets, but I couldn't find them anymore in this shop.
At home I was a little bit surprised that the content was absolutely the same as from the sets 3170, 3191, and 3193. So first thought was, ok seems to be a special "nice price" bundle. I was even more surprise, when I added the single prices of these sets as given on the official PM Germany homepage, which results in a price of 73.27 EUR 
So I paid 6.72 EUR more just because these sets are packaged in one single big blue box?!?!? Pour PM, what are you doing there? (Or was this a fault by the shop?)
(Ok, what do I learn from this: going on PM shopping tour I should keep all available sets and all official prices in mind ... uh, a tough job)

What I also have been wondering, that these three single sets has been no longer available in this shop (ok, for sure, so clever people wouldn't buy the big one when they can  directly compare the prices), and also keeping in mind, that when I asked my father to organize these sets, that the shop assistant of another shop told him, that the Dino sets are no longer availble -- but they are still depicted in the official catalog for 2005/2006 (although this hasn't to mean anything, because in this catalog the new forest theme isn't depicted at all, although it is available).
Does anybody now anything about discontinuing the Dino on Ice ... aehm ... Dino in Ice theme?

[playmofire]

The following are going:

3170 Dinosaur Discovery
3184 Sceleton Excavation Site (Dinos)
3191 Dino Transport
3192 Hovercraft
3193 Dino-Egg

Your buy is worse than you thought as the current sets are on offer in some German stores and can be bought for a total of 40euros (though you do need to know where these stores are and be near one to really gain).

As for people comparing prices, it doesn't always work like that. People assume that something different, something "special" saves money.  I used to work in the grocery trade and know of an experiment by a shopkeeper who felt that people bought things on offer assuming they were cheaper.  To test his theory, advertised tins of fruit salad in a window display at 15 1/2p each or 3 for 47p.  People automatically asked for three tins.  Finally, someone worked out that buying three tins was dearer and mentioned this to the shopkeeper who explained why he'd priced the tins like that.

[Tiermann]

Sorry about the pricing for you Jo.

To take Plymofire's point a bit farther - from my years as a retail manager and association with the production side I know that typically there is a certain percent of markup on retail items. So if the cost to make it (including the bigger box etc.) is higher the final retail price will be higher - even if the contents are the same as smaller items from it. This isn't always the case - for bulk items it is often cheaper for the manufacturer in labor and materials to make one big bag of something than a bunch of small bags - thus the reduced price on some larger bulk units of items.

[Little Jo]

The following are going:

Sorry for my poor English but what do you mean exactly with "are going"? Do you mean they are discontinued? (If this is the case, why they are still promoted in the 2005/2006 catalogue?)

BTW: normally I take care of such special bundled offer prices; some time ago I bought the James Bond DVD collection. It has been offered in a set of a metal box. On the same stand they also offer all DVDs also seperately. Adding all single DVDs prices becomes far cheaper than buying the same ones bundled in a cheap looking tin box. So I took all by single items. -- Ok, this time I has been taken for a ride ... 

[playmofire]

I got the info from here:

http://www.playmoboard.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=13255&highlight=discontinued

[Little Jo]

I got the info from here:

http://www.playmoboard.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=13255&highlight=discontinued

Thank you for this information. There are some sets on the list, I'm still interested in. Have to catch them up, before they are gone.