Let's Turn Awesome Sales Into A Win For All

[Zeya]

Are you chronically missing out on sweet Lego sales? Tired of atmail35 bragging and getting all the deals while you were hard at work in the salt mines? Would you rather give up that 20th copy of a Harry Potter minifig in that set and have some bley plates instead? Well, my friend, I may have the solution to your woes.

I've read a bit about parts drafting. Apparently it's done at some LUGs and I think they've done it once or twice at FBTB. I haven't taken notes on some of the subtleties with drafts in general, but it got me thinking that maybe we could do something like that here, where we can take advantage of our, shall we say, "unique skills" with regards to sniffing out sweet Lego deals.

The golden idea is this. Awesome sales can arise suddenly and disappear even more quickly. If a small team of TNB experts could work together to jump on deals, we could have our own little Robin Hood-esque gang that can make off like bandits. All we would need is the money - money supplied by each other.

Here's how I imagine it would work...

There would be two classes of people, let's call them "Rockstars" and "Fanatics" (because I'm at a loss for decent names). There would be any number of Fanatics, maybe bounded to a reasonable number such as 30 or so. And there would be anywhere from 2 to perhaps 7 Rockstars at the most, probably something like 3 would be more reasonable. But the point is to have multiple Rockstars to jump on sale purchasing opportunities.

The Fanatics would "buy in" to the draft for either a fixed or variable amount of money (with some substantial minimum buy-in required to participate). The amount they put in would be proportional to the number of bricks they get to draft out at the end, just like I imagine any regular draft goes. But the point is, each Fanatic contributes to the pool of money that is used to buy the sets.

The Rockstars are the ones who have quick access to the money. They must obviously be upstanding citizens. The Rockstar is also adept at knowing a good deal when he/she sees it. The Rockstar is authorized to make purchases, but is expected to act wisely. Ideally, there is a well-defined set of parameters that the Rockstars are held to, e.g. only a discount over 45% off MSRP with reasonable shipping and certain bounds on how many copies of small sets they can buy, no Duplo, no baseplates, maybe "System" only, etc. This is sort of the key of this whole method. Sales sometimes spring up where quick action is required, either because stock quickly depletes at very nice discounts, or more uncommonly, there is some sort of sales glitch/exploit that may be for a very limited amount of time. So the key idea is that the team of Rockstars are able to swoop in and buy several copies of the sales set(s) for everyone participating. And Rockstars are thus able to buy way more than they would have with their own personal funds.

So let's say there ends up being $4000 in the pool of money. A sale hits where some Target polybags cost 35 cents. One of the Rockstars comes across a large cache at his location and buys up all he can, maybe with his credit card (to be reimbursed the same day). So he bought $100 of polybags that are physically set aside for a future date. He scans or photographs his receipt and the items. This is announced on the forum, and everyone high-fives each other. Later, another Rockstar on the other side of the country happens to be online when TRU accidentally has a 75% off sale on last year's City Advent Calendar. She buys $500 worth of that, as much as she can, an amount she wouldn't normally be able/willing to do. She'll either be re-imbursed via paypal the same day or has direct access anyway and pays with Paypal. Maybe she does in-store pickup, shipped, or some combination of the two. This is all good because the other 2-3 rockstars were busy at work or sleeping or MOCing and weren't online to catch the deal. Or say another similar sale comes along that carries restrictions. In that case, all 4 Rockstars nod their heads in agreement and buy up as much as they can, individiually, for the good of all the Fanatics. Invoices are posted on the forum and everyone does a boogie dance.

And so it goes until all the money is spent up, or perhaps something like 6-8 months have gone by. Now you have a bunch of random stuff at the Rockstars' locations. The draft phase begins. All Rockstars and Fanatics would then have a round-robin of drafting, managed in a thread. At the end, the Rockstars ship out to everyone, using money from the pool or probably better, a Paypal transaction for shipping costs.

Rinse and repeat? :)

There are a few problems here of varying concern:
- Rockstars had better be responsible and trustworthy. No running off with money. No pulling the trigger on sub-par deals. I know this all sounds like a pyramid scam in some ways. But to mitigate that would be a limited liability (reasonable buy-in cost ~$100 or $200 maybe) and only trusted, upstanding TNB members could be Rockstars. Maybe they would run for an election or something.
- Fanatics give up money for potentially a long time. (This mitigated by well defined rules and time limit.)
- Rockstars have a large burden. Probably burning gas driving around to pick up orders. All that sorting and management. Perhaps dealing with stress and flaming from Fanatics ("why did you buy THAT?"). These could be mitigated by bonuses to the Rockstars - gas/auto reimbursement, first dibs on parts, etc. (Would fame and glory be a reward? lol)
- What happens in the unlikely event that a Rockstar makes a mistake? He bought a bad deal.
- In the case of multiple Rockstars, each one has to coordinate and ship stuff out. This could be solved by consolidating all sets/parts in one Rockstar's location. Paul McCartney is the blessed rockstar; all the other Rockstars throw out boxes and send polybags on the cheap (with insurance?) to Paul for the actual drafting phase and distribution. Easier to do the drafting/shipping from one place.
- Shipping risks. Shipping insurance would cover this.
- Pre-draft loss risk. Fire, theft risks while goods sit in a Rockstar's home.
- Too much overhead to be worth it? Bricks would be shipped around twice or even three times, eating into sale savings.
- Perhaps tax implications? I wouldn't think so once the goods are truly purchased - I would think subsequent shipping would be considered a non-taxed service or a gift. Not sure about USA<-->Canada shipping.
- Limited to one country or one continent most likely.
- Draft phase might take too long if done on a forum thread. I think FBTB does a webcam or live IRC chat, which I personally don't like. Maybe there could be a 12-hour timeout or a proxy system if a Fanatic is on vacation/business or just wants to streamline things for the greater good.

Okay, so what do you all think. I know, it's crazy. But... it just might work.

[nkx1]

I like that you're thinking of ways to work together to save money on sets we would buy anyway. However, I don't think the system, as it is currently proposed, would work for me. Here's why:

1. I would likely be too nervous handing someone I don't know hundreds of dollars or more, however trustworthy they make themselves appear. If the money or product somehow disappeared via whatever circumstance, there is little legal recourse to get it back, that's feasible anyway.

2. After risking your hard-earned $$, you may or may not get the set you want in the draft, particularly taking into consideration most retailers limit online quantities you can purchase. Therefore, the "rockstar" may only be able to buy a few of the desired sets, and many of the "fanatics" would be left to fight over the few available at draft time.

I'm perfectly fine with being notified of a sale in the forums. It's nice that people take the time to post deals (I also try to post deals when I see them). Of course, I work from home currently, so I am able to check the forums all day...

[Zeya]

I like that you're thinking of ways to work together to save money on sets we would buy anyway. However, I don't think the system, as it is currently proposed, would work for me. Here's why:

1. I would likely be too nervous handing someone I don't know hundreds of dollars or more, however trustworthy they make themselves appear. If the money or product somehow disappeared via whatever circumstance, there is little legal recourse to get it back, that's feasible anyway.

That is the number 1 worry I have as well. I was thinking, if you can part with dozens or hundreds of dollars for an extended period of time like this, and all the risks involved with loss and trust, chances are you might not be so keen on seeking out Lego sales in the first place. The end result might be a low number of participants.

I was wondering if people with more drafting experience think about my whole idea, because I've never done a draft at all, and I imagine there are even issues with regular in-person drafts.

2. After risking your hard-earned $$, you may or may not get the set you want in the draft, particularly taking into consideration most retailers limit online quantities you can purchase. Therefore, the "rockstar" may only be able to buy a few of the desired sets, and many of the "fanatics" would be left to fight over the few available at draft time.

Well, I assume the most viable scenario would be a parts draft anyway. As in, the sets are opened and broken apart by part type or in little groupings of lots. I would think the end goal would be to obtain fresh, good quality Lego parts at a nice discount, and what type of parts might not matter so much (other than general restrictions such as "no Duplo" etc).

I'm not sure how well a set draft would work. You would have to try and make each Fanatic's lot at the end as equal as possible, and I don't think that's really possible to accomplish.