Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lego price per part over the years

brickinsights.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 179 posts

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#101

Post by dr_kiszonka »

londons_explore wrote: post #96
dsr_ wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part existence probability changes every couple of months, probably not enough time for you to be able to make good estimates. LEGO tends to get hoarded, resold or donated, not thrown away. I believe I have more than 99% of all the LEGO I or my parents ever bought, going back to 1976 or 7.

> LEGO tends to get hoarded, resold or donated, not thrown away. I doubt this. Outside Lego enthusiasts, most people see it as a children's toy which is probably disgustingly covered in saliva and in no fit state for anyone else to touch. It's one of the first things to go into the trash when more space is needed in the attic.

You can put them into a pillowcase and wash in a washing machine.

Given how expensive Legos are many people will gladly pick them up from your place, especially if you live in a city. You can look up Buy Nothing and similar groups in your area on FB.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#102

Post by dunham »

bombcar wrote: post #4

> Many people quote that a set should be priced at around $0.10 per part to be worthwhile. Is this the average? This has been the average, and it's so "perfect" that it has to be that Lego has been aiming for it. They've accomplished this by having more and more detail (read: smaller pieces) in newer sets. They appear to have been forced (or trying) to jump to $0.20 per piece in some sets (e.g., https://www.lego.com/…

It looks like the new D&D set is about $0.10 per piece, including licensing, but it's 3745 pieces so there is economy of scale.

The set you link is much smaller and has Disney licensing, which I suspect is of the "how much money do you have?" variety.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#103

Post by dclowd9901 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I made a script last year that scraped LEGO pricing data from their website. Besides finding out that the Bugatti Bolide Technic set is a pretty good deal as a parts bag, I found that there's only a weak correlation between set size and PPP. The Dots sets throw a wrench in things, of course, and large Technic sets often have expensive electronic and pneumatic parts that must be considered. My conclusion was that PPP…

I had no idea this was even a thing. I always just think “would this set make me $x happy to have?”

Of course, the answer is never “no” so I think I probably am not very bargain conscious when it comes to LEGO. And I may have a problem.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#104

Post by Libcat99 »

GuB-42 wrote: post #86
boplicity wrote: post #30

Lego is a plastics company; they're trying to become net-zero, but, unfortunately, being a plastics company, this is extremely hard: https://www.ft.com/content/6cad1883-f87a-471d-9688-c1a3c5a0b...

Lego may be the most "eco-friendly" plastics company in existence. Not because their factories and materials are special, but because they are among the most durable plastic items there are. Lego last essentially forever. 50 year old bricks are still in use today, I don't think I have ever seen people trashing Lego. They are actually quite valuable and very easy to sell. I think the only significant losses beside a f…

I also have a hard time imagining Lego didn't inspire Minecraft and similar games, at least a little. An even more sustainable resource.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#105

Post by ivanech »

5 years ago I did a similar analysis of price per part because I remember there being a big controversy around the price of the new Star Destroyer set. I analyzed price per piece but also price per gram, estimated in a few different ways. I was surprised to see that price per gram was stable through the 2010s on an inflation-adjusted basis and that it went down fairly significantly over the 1990s.

I did this before I learned how to finish projects, so it's been sitting in a private repo the whole time :)

I just made the repo public. Perhaps the author or someone else can make use of it: https://github.com/iechevarria/lego-price-analysis/

The plots and code are in this file: https://github.com/iechevarria/lego-price-analysis/blob/mast...

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#106

Post by sharkweek »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #103
ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I made a script last year that scraped LEGO pricing data from their website. Besides finding out that the Bugatti Bolide Technic set is a pretty good deal as a parts bag, I found that there's only a weak correlation between set size and PPP. The Dots sets throw a wrench in things, of course, and large Technic sets often have expensive electronic and pneumatic parts that must be considered. My conclusion was that PPP…

I had no idea this was even a thing. I always just think “would this set make me $x happy to have?” Of course, the answer is never “no” so I think I probably am not very bargain conscious when it comes to LEGO. And I may have a problem.

Any advice for someone developing a problem?

But seriously, the cost is so worth it for me. As someone who has attention span challenges from time to time, LEGO puts me into a flow state like almost nothing else. I love a good 2-3 night session putting together a big set.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#107

Post by garyiskidding »

ryukoposting wrote: post #47

I made a script last year that scraped LEGO pricing data from their website. Besides finding out that the Bugatti Bolide Technic set is a pretty good deal as a parts bag, I found that there's only a weak correlation between set size and PPP. The Dots sets throw a wrench in things, of course, and large Technic sets often have expensive electronic and pneumatic parts that must be considered. My conclusion was that PPP…

This is really cool. Thank you.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#108

Post by parentheses »

The higher PPP is well explained by the fact that the actual blocks are bigger. Plus, younger age targeted sets have more figurines and less small pieces. For example, the duplo train set I bought for my daughter has several very large train car bases.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#109

Post by londons_explore »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #101
londons_explore wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> LEGO tends to get hoarded, resold or donated, not thrown away. I doubt this. Outside Lego enthusiasts, most people see it as a children's toy which is probably disgustingly covered in saliva and in no fit state for anyone else to touch. It's one of the first things to go into the trash when more space is needed in the attic.

You can put them into a pillowcase and wash in a washing machine. Given how expensive Legos are many people will gladly pick them up from your place, especially if you live in a city. You can look up Buy Nothing and similar groups in your area on FB.

Sure, but most people don't know that. So they chuck them out with the rest of the dog-eared teddy bears.

Re: Lego price per part over the years

#110

Post by lathiat »

samstave wrote: post #79
bleepblop wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am fully aware of the customer service side of lego. That's why I still use their stuff. But I suppose that is where our agreement will lie. Knowing what they are capable of and where they are now is noticeable.

LEGO needs to pull a KIA. First, they need the LLM instructions AI thingy to look at your pieces and instantly come up with inspiration. Gamify that. But they need to pull a KIA in that they hired the young designers away from GM and gave them some room. There needs to be a revolution in LEGO with the following: A device which is communally owned - at a Library or an Elementary School. Throw in plastic bottles and pl…

"First, they need the LLM instructions AI thingy to look at your pieces and instantly come up with inspiration. Gamify that."

That exists, though it's not from Lego: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/brickit-app/id1477221636 https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2021/07/03/got-a-b...

Post reply on HN