Where to buy LEGO online? Although you should certainly be able to find plenty of LEGO deals locally, you might also want to check out LEGO available online. I believe that you will appreciate this opportunity more and more as you venture deeper into the world of LEGO. But for now let’s just say that the benefit of online shopping is that you will have a much greater selection than at any local store. The drawback is that you will have to wait some days until your LEGO arrives, and in most cases you will also have to pay for shipping. However if you really-really want a set that is not available locally, you probably wouldn’t mind to pay a bit extra. Also, around major holidays, many of the online shops offer free shipping and excellent LEGO deals! : this is LEGO’s own website! You can find pretty much everything they currently have in production as well as web-exclusives. You can also find out about new releases, new store openings, sales, etc. Around holidays they usually offer free shipping. I
also highly recommend requesting their paper catalog. You will receive it about 5 times a year. It is a great way to see all the new themes, sets, etc. You can call LEGO at 1-800-453-4652 to request the latest copy. : Amazon is one of the largest online retailers. Although they started out with books years ago, now they sell pretty much everything under the sun – including a great selection of LEGO items. And, they offer FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25! You can’t really beat that! If you are looking for LEGO sets that your local stores ran out of don’t forget that most of them have an online shopping option as well. Toys’R’Us, Target and Wal-Mart all have robust websites with great LEGO deals. In fact they often carry web-exclusives. Just like in the real world, you also have options to buy used LEGO online. This is a great way to find discontinued sets and parts. : eBay is like a giant, international garage-sale. It is a place for individuals to sell items they no longer want or need. I
t is also a great place for shoppers to find both common and extremely rare items at bargain prices. There are some caveats shopping there, but I will say that it is a great place to find LEGO items! To learn more read Shopping for LEGO on eBay. : this is a huge classified ads site. You can select your state and city and look for ads in your area. I personally haven’t had luck with this site finding LEGO, but other people report great LEGO deals. I believe it very much depends on where you live. : this is the largest website for LEGO trading. It is a place for individuals and businesses from all around the world to buy and sell used and new LEGO sets, parts, instructions, and everything else related to LEGO. To learn more you can read Shopping for LEGO on Bricklink. But I would say that if LEGO becomes a serious hobby for you, you will be hanging out here a lot! 😉 You may also want to check out these posts for further ideas: LEGO Shopping for Children & You!
Considering What to Buy? Where to Buy LEGO Locally? Previous post: LEGO Scala – interesting & sweet! Next post: Your essential tool; the LEGO Brick Separator! Comparing a few Lego products at the official online store, I found U.S. prices seem to be consistently around 70% of those in Europe given current currency exchange rates. That's a surprising difference. Given that U.S. import tariffs apply to products manufactured in Europe (such as Lego), one would expect the price difference to be the other way around. Edit: Found a relevant quote in a book written by Alex Stewart: America is by far the cheapest country in the world for buying Lego; believe it or not sets are much more expensive in other countries. What is the primary reason for this price differentiation? Better competition in the U.S.? More wealthy Lego fans in Europe? To answer this question, we must first check the accuracy of your observation that "U.S. prices seem to be consistently around 70% of those in Europe given current currency exchange rates."
, we can compare the prices of sets released in 2014 that are listed with prices in both USD and EUR. I downloaded this data and used a spreadsheet to analyze the prices. Using the 2013 average USD to EUR exchange rate of 1.3282465 I converted retail prices from EUR to USD. On average, the retail prices on the US site are 77.06% of the retail prices on the sites where prices are listed in EUR. So your observation is close to the apparent actual difference in listed prices, although it is closer to 80% than 70% on average. The member states of the EU each set a value-added tax (VAT) on items sold in those countries. This rate currently varies from 15% (Luxembourg) up to 27% (Hungary). LEGO includes the VAT in the listed price in countries where it is collected. This means the listed retail price is higher than the actual base price of the set. If you assume a VAT rate of 25% and adjust the list prices accordingly, then comparing the USD prices to the EUR prices shows that US list prices are actually about 96% of EUR prices.
This is an average - many sets sell at a similar or lower actual base price in Europe than in the US (when expressed in USD). For example Set 60045 Police Patrol sells for $44.99 USD in the US. It sells for 39.99 EUR in Germany. The VAT in Germany is 19% and today's exchange rate is 1.3398. To get the base price of the set in EUR, divide the list price by 1.19. That gives us a base price of 33.60 EUR. Multiply that by the current exchange rate and the USD price you would pay in Germany for this set is $45.02 - just three cents more. Here is the data I use in a spreadsheet format, sorted by their prices in USD. The calculated columns on the right show the EUR prices converted to USD and the bases of EUR list prices assuming 25% VAT.Browse other questions tagged shopping or ask your own question. Check out our new Grants and Funding page to find details on grant opportunities and tips for writing your own grant requests. You can download our guide or find specific examples for your LEGO education classroom solution.