S@H Out of Stock Items

[Essien8]

Is it bothering anyone else that many sets just seem to be going out of stock with no warning at Lego Shop at Home?? Tons of sets just seem to be disappearing lately with no window to future availability. They are getting the 'Out of Stock' treatment and there never seems to be any indication that stock levels are low and not going to be replenished once gone.

What happened to the retiring soon tag? What good is that tag is Lego isn't going to use it?

There are some indicators, I suppose--like if a set goes into Sales and Deals on S@H--like the Kingdoms Joust; that set is sold out now and I'm not surprised by it. But then there are sets like Horizon Express or Arkham Asylum that sold out this month without any indication that stocks were low. And to my knowledge, none of the above used the retiring soon tag... In September the Haunted House disappeared this way as well. There are a number of other examples on the S@H site right now too.

I try to purchase larger sets when I can in double points promotions if at all possible, but the way things are going lately I'm starting to think I'm going to have to bite the bullet on a few older sets sooner rather than later to make sure I get them for MSRP rather than a 200% (or more) markup in the aftermarket...

Is Lego just neglecting the retiring soon tag without realizing it somehow, or is this a really crafty marketing ploy? It seems like they should know if stock is low (and have an indicator for this online) or at the very least if they see stock is somewhat low and there are going to be no more production runs they should use the retiring soon tag!

I live in a state with no B&M Lego stores so I rely solely on what I see online to stay informed... So, is there a science to what is going out of stock online anymore or is it just chaos?

[Essien8]

Seems I neglected to read the Lego Availability forum guidelines... I think this might be more appropriate in General Lego discussions, but I'm not sure how to change that now... Sorry!

[vynsane]

The 'Retiring Soon' and 'Hard to Find' tags are exactly marketing ploys. They're trying to drum up urgency on those items so that more people will want to buy them, thinking that they will sell out soon - the end result being (TLG's hope) that it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The ones that are selling as expected/predicted won't get those tags, and will just go out of stock when their production runs are dried up.

There have been outliers on both ends of the spectrum, but your average 'standard' theme set isn't going to last more than a year, two at the outside. The specialty items (modular buildings, UCS sets, D2C sets, etc) generally have a longer product life but are still relatively predictable, with a window of availability between 2 and 4 years. Again, there are outliers - 10188 "Death Star" has been available since 2008 - we're creeping up on 7 years!

[scatmanjack]

I missed out on the Haunted House and Castle Army Builder sets... They vanished without notice in September and I was planning on getting them October 1. These were for personal play/collection and not resale. Lesson learned I guess...

[StClair]

There has been a few instances that I thought particular items were "retired" because they were flagged as "sold out" for a period and I was wrong. Its always a good idea to check back on an item that you really want... you never know it may pop back up with a few in stock for a brief period. I too missed out on the Castle Army builder set.. had no idea it was about to be gone for good (if it is.. I guess it is)

[Brickbuilder0937]

I believe the reason so many sets are out of stock right now is that it's the week before Christmas, and there are thousands more people than usual trying to get some sets before the shipping deadline. On S@H "out of stock" usually means the set is still in production, but "sold out" usually means it's not coming back.