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Target Canada Closing all Stores


Sandwraith

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Are they moving all the inventory to the states afterwards and having a clearance sale there?

 

Doubt they would do that due to the transportation expenses (& customs), more likely a surplus distributer like Winners would take over the unsold merchandise first.

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Yea people were just buying the lego at regular price. I don't understand lol.

 

It's the same reason people buy at inflated prices on eBay when they could have just gone to Shop @ Home... gotten 5% in VIP and free shipping.

 

Don't question, just do. :)

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I've also seen a lot of "As Seen on TV" products trickling in as someone predicted earlier in the thread.

 

That was me... and that's what I saw when Kmart went out of business. It seems the liquidators take all the hot products and resell them through other channels. With the success of eBay and Amazon, I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the good stuff ends up there and the crap is left for stores like Winners.

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Couple of my stores have been moving large skids of extra product into the big aisles, sounds like we're close! I doubt they would want to keep these in the aisles unless a sale was imminent to move them.

 

They mostly seem to be TV's. I never understood this fascination and speed at which TV's sell during sales like boxing day/black Friday. I've had the same 32 inch TV for years and years and no intent to replace it. It seems as product sells out, they condense the product and fill it's space with a seemingly endless supply of televisions.

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Couple of my stores have been moving large skids of extra product into the big aisles, sounds like we're close! I doubt they would want to keep these in the aisles unless a sale was imminent to move them.

They mostly seem to be TV's. I never understood this fascination and speed at which TV's sell during sales like boxing day/black Friday. I've had the same 32 inch TV for years and years and no intent to replace it. It seems as product sells out, they condense the product and fill it's space with a seemingly endless supply of televisions.

Guess I'll have to stop by and check out the TVs. Haha... Yeah I've had my 40" for about 9 years now and unless it stops working can't see a need to replace.

Could you tell what other kind of Made for TV junk was there?

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Could you tell what other kind of Made for TV junk was there?

 

Didn't look too closely at them, just saw an aisle with the little red logo in the top right corner on every single item saying "AS SEEN ON TV!"

 

Only one i picked up was something to do with filling burgers with sauces/stuffing on the inside? haha something like that.

 

Oh also some LED RBG large candles.

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Didn't look too closely at them, just saw an aisle with the little red logo in the top right corner on every single item saying "AS SEEN ON TV!"

 

Only one i picked up was something to do with filling burgers with sauces/stuffing on the inside? haha something like that.

 

Oh also some LED RBG large candles.

 

You mean no Snuggies?!

 

post-8090-0-14882200-1422631679.jpg

 

I guess they must be moderately successful at moving this crap during a close out sale because they keep doing it. What I want to know is who in their right mind pays to store this crap in a warehouse until they find some poor sap willing to sell it in their store? Its not like Target goes out of business every year.... Maybe they've just been planning for Sears and The Bay.

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None of them are on clearance though. The four Targets near me were all very different... the flagship store had no selection and crappy clearance deals (this one also has Ender Dragon on for $74.99 which seems to be an error). One had great clearance deals but was 99% picked over. The other two had jack for clearance but tons of LEGO. No new 2015 sets at any of them.

I managed to grab more ender dragon with 10% off on top of red card 5%. That 74.99 price tag is definitely a mistake. You can probably relist it on ebay for 77usd which is already 100cad. Add shipping on top of course. I sold a few for 85USD shipped. Shipping from blaine, WA, is around 7.95 to CA. After ebay fees, returns are about $13CAD. Do it in volume, not individual orders. The peace arch crossing seems like a ghost town. Practically a drive thru to the US with wait times shorter than going to Mcdonalds for a big mac combo.

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I managed to grab more ender dragon with 10% off on top of red card 5%. That 74.99 price tag is definitely a mistake. You can probably relist it on ebay for 77usd which is already 100cad. Add shipping on top of course. I sold a few for 85USD shipped. Shipping from blaine, WA, is around 7.95 to CA. After ebay fees, returns are about $13CAD. Do it in volume, not individual orders. The peace arch crossing seems like a ghost town. Practically a drive thru to the US with wait times shorter than going to Mcdonalds for a big mac combo.

I noticed the next time that there were two price tags... One was right, one was wrong. But the dollar hadn't dipped yet so I held off getting more and I grabbed some other stuff on clearance instead. The third time I went back they'd fixed their mistake.

I'm too far from the border to ship from the U.S. It's 3.5 hours round trip to the nearest US post office but yeah I imagine the border crossings are dead with the dollar.

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I noticed the next time that there were two price tags... One was right, one was wrong. But the dollar hadn't dipped yet so I held off getting more and I grabbed some other stuff on clearance instead. The third time I went back they'd fixed their mistake.

I'm too far from the border to ship from the U.S. It's 3.5 hours round trip to the nearest US post office but yeah I imagine the border crossings are dead with the dollar.

3.5 hours is a bit far which puts you at a disadvantage. At this point with the USD being so strong, I'd advise loading up on sets in CAD that are close to the USD before lego notices this and makes an adjustment. The sets to get now would be the following:

T1 Camper

Tumbler

Triple E

Parisian Restaurant (notice how lego jacked up the detective agency to 200CAD but PR still at 189CAD)

Simpsons House

Buy those during double VIP or maybe buy them now. In a month, the USD will get to 70 cents or so. That means a $200usd set would be worth about $280CAD. I think Lego will make a price adjustment soon. Just a hunch. It would suck for canadians if they jack up the tumbler and simpsons house to $290cad. But it would be awesome for those who stockpiled and flipped them. The same can be said for the ewok village, sea cow and tower of orthanc, all can be had in canada cheaper than getting them from the US.

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3.5 hours is a bit far which puts you at a disadvantage. At this point with the USD being so strong, I'd advise loading up on sets in CAD that are close to the USD before lego notices this and makes an adjustment. The sets to get now would be the following:

T1 Camper

Tumbler

Triple E

Parisian Restaurant (notice how lego jacked up the detective agency to 200CAD but PR still at 189CAD)

Simpsons House

Buy those during double VIP or maybe buy them now. In a month, the USD will get to 70 cents or so. That means a $200usd set would be worth about $280CAD. I think Lego will make a price adjustment soon. Just a hunch. It would suck for canadians if they jack up the tumbler and simpsons house to $290cad. But it would be awesome for those who stockpiled and flipped them. The same can be said for the ewok village, sea cow and tower of orthanc, all can be had in canada cheaper than getting them from the US.

 

Not Lego related but I've been looking at the new Dell XPS and they jacked the prices up by 50 bucks yesterday to account for the exchange. It's definitely going to be happening soon. 

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Not Lego related but I've been looking at the new Dell XPS and they jacked the prices up by 50 bucks yesterday to account for the exchange. It's definitely going to be happening soon. 

 

Tell them to hold out for double VIP!

 

I'm not willing to wait that long though - I'll probably space a few exclusive purchases out during February just in case.

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3.5 hours is a bit far which puts you at a disadvantage. At this point with the USD being so strong, I'd advise loading up on sets in CAD that are close to the USD before lego notices this and makes an adjustment. The sets to get now would be the following:

T1 Camper

Tumbler

Triple E

Parisian Restaurant (notice how lego jacked up the detective agency to 200CAD but PR still at 189CAD)

Simpsons House

Buy those during double VIP or maybe buy them now. In a month, the USD will get to 70 cents or so. That means a $200usd set would be worth about $280CAD. I think Lego will make a price adjustment soon. Just a hunch. It would suck for canadians if they jack up the tumbler and simpsons house to $290cad. But it would be awesome for those who stockpiled and flipped them. The same can be said for the ewok village, sea cow and tower of orthanc, all can be had in canada cheaper than getting them from the US.

I'd be careful with that plan...

1) the prediction is that the loonie might drop to 75 cents this summer if the Bank of Canada keeps or drops the rates.

2) Goldman Sachs are the ones predicting a 71 cent loonie 24 months from now, not a month.

3) Two years is enough time for a governments to adjust... Hopefully these yahoos do.

As to Lego changing their prices, I don't see it happening. You can't change the price mid stream on a commodity like Lego as easily as on things like lettuce and oranges. Good and other commodities like food and gasoline have always been volatile like that where other things like clothes and toys are less so. Price changes when the product changes or when you only buy what you plan to sell immediately. TRU and other retailers negotiate the purchase of things like Lego well in advance so the price is set. Lego would shoot themselves in the foot if they raised the price by 20% because Walmart and TRU won't have to. I was going to add Target but... I digress. They're getting out at just the right time it seems as they'd have really hit the skids. :)

What that means to me is if the dollar is truly headed down, it's a great time to pick up the current exclusives even including the new helicarrier which has a great exchange rate. The new ones coming out later this year though are going to hurt. In another thread someone said prices in their similar scenario were set 6-9 months out so we're in for a world of hurt if Lego follows that and believes the dollar is dropping too.

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I'd be careful with that plan...

1) the prediction is that the loonie might drop to 75 cents this summer if the Bank of Canada keeps or drops the rates.

2) Goldman Sachs are the ones predicting a 71 cent loonie 24 months from now, not a month.

3) Two years is enough time for a governments to adjust... Hopefully these yahoos do.

As to Lego changing their prices, I don't see it happening. You can't change the price mid stream on a commodity like Lego as easily as on things like lettuce and oranges. Good and other commodities like food and gasoline have always been volatile like that where other things like clothes and toys are less so. Price changes when the product changes or when you only buy what you plan to sell immediately. TRU and other retailers negotiate the purchase of things like Lego well in advance so the price is set. Lego would shoot themselves in the foot if they raised the price by 20% because Walmart and TRU won't have to. I was going to add Target but... I digress. They're getting out at just the right time it seems as they'd have really hit the skids. :)

What that means to me is if the dollar is truly headed down, it's a great time to pick up the current exclusives even including the new helicarrier which has a great exchange rate. The new ones coming out later this year though are going to hurt. In another thread someone said prices in their similar scenario were set 6-9 months out so we're in for a world of hurt if Lego follows that and believes the dollar is dropping too.

You could be right but predicting the CAD is anyone's guess. Goldmans isn't always right. The trend shows a continued decline. Remember that it was at 86 cents just a month ago and now it is already at 78 cents.

As the other poster said about the Dell, price adjustments are coming. Lego reserves the rights to jack up prices. Assuming the parisian restaurant now goes out of stock, the next batch of import will need to account for the currency or lego loses bigtime. Lego is still a business and it would be bad business for them to send the next batch of tumblers, ewok villages, sea cows, triple E, etc... for the same prices.

Assume cost to produce is 50usd for the ewok village, msrp in the US is 249. They make 200usd. Will they sell it for 300CAD which is now worth less than 240usd add in double vip and the profit margin is much lower. I am talking about now. Drop another 5 cents and now you got a fire sale. Imagine canadians picking up the ewok village for 200usd, possible based on exchange. It is at 230usd already. Do the math on the triple E. That is a huge bargain now assuming it goes EOL soon. The returns would be awesome.

This is speculation but the reality is already seen in canada. Companies will readjust the imports.

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You guys are clued in to something I did some research on in the late summer. There is a window of big exclusive sets from late 2014 and early 2015 where the dollar to dollar price differential is as small as it get when comparing US LEGO retail to Canadian. I think with the collapsing dollar LEGO sets released closer to mid 2015 and after will see a bigger differentials again as LEGO adjusts. Any Lego set sold in Canada is about 20%, on average, higher the USA price, so I've targetted sets below 20%.

The biggest winner right now is the T1 VW at only a $10 difference or 8% differential.

Tumbler, Slave I, and Simpson's House are next at 15%. The Haunted House was 15% when it was still on the shelf

Sandcrawler is at 17%.

Sydney Opera house and Parisian are at 19%

Sea Cow, Ewok village, Fairground Mixer, Triple E, VW Mini, Benny's Spaceship, Ecto 1 are some good examples sitting at 20%

Upcoming Helicarrier looks to have a good differential of 14% if it is indeed $400 vs $350 US price

 

There may some mainstream sets and non-exclusives that fall under 20% as well but I haven't found any of note. My spot checking of prices shows differentials of much more than 20%. I like Santas Workshop but at 29% it is a tougher pill to swallow. I've avoided the big creator buildings because they were consistently marked up 25% to 33% above USD. Even the recent Detective is still 25%.

 

So there you go, if there other gems that are priced right please add to the list. Not that I don't pickup EOL sets at a higher differential when I can but when all things are equal I'm looking at T1s, Tumblers and maybe some more Simpson's for 2015

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It's not easy to get prices from my iPod, but there are more.

UCS Slave 1 $200 vs $230

Volvo Loader $250 vs $300

Imperial Star Destroyer $130 vs &150

The new ATAT isn't terrible at $110 vs $130.

The only catch is you can't purely just go by the difference.. You have to consider sales too. This makes the exclusives you listed above much more appealing. Some folks have gotten awesome deals on the Volvo loader and Costco had them for 25% off... Hoping they get more but it looks like they're getting rid of all their Lego. Even the Epic Dragon Battle is now gone from their website.!

So from my list, the UCS Slave I is a potential winner and I'm betting the up coming UCS Tie will be too. Beyond that, no way.

Does anyone reading this forum know if Lego adjusts prices? I'm thinking Live Star ... It's never had its price adjusted in what's it at now, 8 years?

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It's not easy to get prices from my iPod, but there are more.

UCS Slave 1 $200 vs $230

Volvo Loader $250 vs $300

Imperial Star Destroyer $130 vs &150

The new ATAT isn't terrible at $110 vs $130.

The only catch is you can't purely just go by the difference.. You have to consider sales too. This makes the exclusives you listed above much more appealing. Some folks have gotten awesome deals on the Volvo loader and Costco had them for 25% off... Hoping they get more but it looks like they're getting rid of all their Lego. Even the Epic Dragon Battle is now gone from their website.!

So from my list, the UCS Slave I is a potential winner and I'm betting the up coming UCS Tie will be too. Beyond that, no way.

Does anyone reading this forum know if Lego adjusts prices? I'm thinking Live Star ... It's never had its price adjusted in what's it at now, 8 years?

Lobo is doing what i am doing. The Slave is also a deal.

You got the volvo also. I didn't want to mention that because I didn't want people to clean that out. Thought I could pull a fast one. :) I got the volvo at 200CAD using the 50 off from amazon.ca visa while it was at 249CAD last year. I am going to pounce on that like no tomorrow if it goes on sale on TRU.ca or amazon.

The other smart thing to do is to go on CL and clean out the sellers who are selling at 25% below CAD msrp. I called one guy up and took all his lego city sets. He sold the cargo terminal for 85CAD. Don't know what he is thinking. The xmen sentinel.set is being sold for 39CAD by a few CL sellers. I think they didnt do their math or forgot to look at the forex rates.

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It's not easy to get prices from my iPod, but there are more.

UCS Slave 1 $200 vs $230

Volvo Loader $250 vs $300

Imperial Star Destroyer $130 vs &150

The new ATAT isn't terrible at $110 vs $130.

The only catch is you can't purely just go by the difference.. You have to consider sales too. This makes the exclusives you listed above much more appealing. Some folks have gotten awesome deals on the Volvo loader and Costco had them for 25% off... Hoping they get more but it looks like they're getting rid of all their Lego. Even the Epic Dragon Battle is now gone from their website.!

So from my list, the UCS Slave I is a potential winner and I'm betting the up coming UCS Tie will be too. Beyond that, no way.

Does anyone reading this forum know if Lego adjusts prices? I'm thinking Live Star ... It's never had its price adjusted in what's it at now, 8 years?

I just grabbed a Slave. Thank you very much. :)

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It's not easy to get prices from my iPod, but there are more.

UCS Slave 1 $200 vs $230

Volvo Loader $250 vs $300

Imperial Star Destroyer $130 vs &150

The new ATAT isn't terrible at $110 vs $130.

The only catch is you can't purely just go by the difference.. You have to consider sales too. This makes the exclusives you listed above much more appealing. Some folks have gotten awesome deals on the Volvo loader and Costco had them for 25% off... Hoping they get more but it looks like they're getting rid of all their Lego. Even the Epic Dragon Battle is now gone from their website.!

So from my list, the UCS Slave I is a potential winner and I'm betting the up coming UCS Tie will be too. Beyond that, no way.

Does anyone reading this forum know if Lego adjusts prices? I'm thinking Live Star ... It's never had its price adjusted in what's it at now, 8 years?

I've listed the (UCS) Slave I but good catch on the Imperial SD at $150. As for sales, those are a given, but I have to assume that the big exclusives will never see a sales discount. Makes the double or triple VIP times that more critical.

I don't think LEGO has adjusted prices upwards after an official announcement of a product. Hopefully the dramatic dip in the CDN dollar does not change this...

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I've listed the (UCS) Slave I but good catch on the Imperial SD at $150. As for sales, those are a given, but I have to assume that the big exclusives will never see a sales discount. Makes the double or triple VIP times that more critical.

I don't think LEGO has adjusted prices upwards after an official announcement of a product. Hopefully the dramatic dip in the CDN dollar does not change this...

Oops, my bad on Slave I .. I see it now.

I'm sure there are a few more. We should just make a list... The EEE is decent and so is the mixer. Both $150 vs $180 which is 18% I think?

Totally agree on the VIP 2x and 3x points.

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Oops, my bad on Slave I .. I see it now.

I'm sure there are a few more. We should just make a list... The EEE is decent and so is the mixer. Both $150 vs $180 which is 18% I think?

Totally agree on the VIP 2x and 3x points.

I have the Mixer and TripleE at 20%. I guess I'll make a make to grab a few more TripleEs as they look to be almost done.

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