We need lower Lego prices in Canada

[SpaceLego]

The Canadian dollar is getting stronger and the currency is now ALWAYS equal or worth even more than the american currency. With the currency the same, why are we canadians paying so much more for lego? I remember back several years ago, the currency we pay was american dollar. That time 2004, our currency was not as strong with $1 American = $1.5 Canadian. Our currency is now valued much more and sure they may have drop it, but from the prices, we're paying $1 American = $1.4 Canadian when clearly, the ratio is 1:1. Its not fair for us Canadians. If we ever buy lego and plan on reselling, we'll lose quite a bit. Canadians will buy lego from america and americans for sure would not buy from us with our strong dollar.

Lego is going cracy and insane with prices. Desert Attack, Hoth Battle Packs... The price has gone up from $12.99 to $14.99 which is 1.2 times the amount we used to pay. With the price increase, I was expecting it to be a bit bigger. To my suprise, its even smaller than before. So that makes it even worst. Probably 1.4 times the amount we used to pay.

And on top of that, Canada is already being ripped off by lego compared to america. So that makes us pay around 2 times the amount we used to pay for lego. Sure there's inflation. But I don't think inflation is that bad. Did we get double increase in minimum wage? More like 0-10% increase. Lego really needs a better explanation rather than only saying it has to do with customs, shipping, and all that.

It just does not make sense our currency became strong for a long time already (2 years..) and lego prices are still the same.

[hatcher]

Sadly this topic will just not die.

I agree 100% with everything you said, and can tell you that LEGO will not do anything about it.

They will (if forced) tell you things like different taxes and import duties in Canada, but what it really boils down to is, the United States is the largest market, and therefore they have the most competition there, which means they price their items slightly lower there in order to compete. You think Canadian prices are bad, check out what they pay in Europe. In England for example, if a set sells for $30 in the US, is sells for 30 POUNDS in England (approximately). English pounds are worth about 2 and 1/2 times what the US dollar is, so in American money, that would be something like $60-75! For the same set! I may have the conversion factor wrong, but you get my point. Americans will always get he best prices, and the rest of the world will pay more.

The only thing you can do is go the US for a week on vacation, and buy them all there. You need to stay a week to get a large enough duty free value to make it worth your while.

[toystest]

Also keep in mind that the CAD hasn't been really going up, instead the USD has been collapsing. the ratio of CAD vs EUR has stayed relatively the same over the last 11 years, as any currency there has been some heavy fluctuation, but the ratio as of 1/1/2010 was pretty much the same it was 1/1/2000. Since the Lego group is a European company that means you should be looking at that exchange rate. The USD has been dropping this should lead to the prices in the US going up, however as mentioned before there is a lot more competition in the US then anywhere else. A price increase during a recession will mean that they loose too much market share, which they can not afford. One last point is that the Canadian prices will probably include 13% of vat/sales tax, in the US those are not included in the listed price.

It may just be time to start having a friend or family member in the US order your Lego and then ship them to you. I ship quite a bit of Lego to my European family, which is hilarious since it's made there, even after shipping this often saves them 25-30% on normal prices.