Lego pricing: The secret to getting more bang for your buck

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If you’ve got children of a certain age, chances are they may be into Lego bricks. With 28 Lego sets reportedly sold every second during the Christmas season, it’s no wonder this iconic toy has a huge fan base.

But have you seen the prices on Lego sets recently? Ouch!

Next time you’re buying Legos, pay attention to this number on the box to get the maximum value on your purchase…

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Check the ‘unit pricing’ on Lego sets

Lego pricing: The secret to getting more bang for your buck It’s kind of funny to talk about ‘unit pricing’ when it comes to toys. After all, unit pricing is something that can help you get a better deal when you’re buying groceries in the supermarket aisle. It’s not typically a shopping strategy we think of using at the toy store.

But the difference in pricing between sets that have almost the same number of pieces — the ‘unit price’ — can be gigantic.

In fact, it can be almost twice as much!

Consider this: My son recently got money from a grandparent and he loves Legos. So we went to Toys R Us to get two sets he’d been waiting for that were released on Jan. 1.

Toys R Us is a ‘high/low retailer.’ That means they advertise great prices on a select few toys and jack up the price on the rest, hoping you’ll make additional purchases at a high profit margin as you’re going through the store with your children.

That’s why it pays to do some comparison shopping on your smartphone when you’re at the store or even beforehand.

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Searching by Lego set number, we were able to do a price match with a competitor on one of the sets. That brought the cost down on that set from the Toys R Us regular price of $44.99 to the Kmart sale price of $34.12.

Still, that’s a pretty penny for Lego sets!

But here was the truly amazing thing: The set that was regularly priced at $44.99 had 448 pieces, while the other set my son bought had 460 pieces and was regularly priced at $84.99!

A measly 12 extra pieces in the second set drove the price up almost 50%. That’s insane!

Now, some of you may balk at paying $85 for any toy. But there will probably come a time when you’ll have to buy a Lego set for a niece, nephew, birthday boy or birthday girl.

When you do, check the unit pricing — i.e. make sure your purchase includes as many Lego bricks as possible and know that some sets with just a handful more of bricks will cost twice as much — and factor that into your decision!

Read more: Third-party resellers jacking up prices on Hatchimals, Nintendo Classic NES

Watch: Lego unit pricing in action

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