[USA] Wal-Mart Clearance

[zdog89]

the other day at walmart near my house there was a police headquarters in the clearance section it was open and all the lego was in a glad zipper bag. I felt like asking how in the heck anyone with a brain would allow that return or let alone put it back on the shelf. I once returned a kingdoms set that I had decided not to get. It was 49.99, I returned it with 5 minutes to closing. I went back like 10a the next morning to get something and saw it sitting randomly in the lego aisle scanned it for b/c I was curious it scanned at 13.45 or something close to that. So I would think your best bet would be to return late and buy the next day as early as possible. Target sometimes just automatically takes the sets that get returned and have clearanced out and salvages them so its not always the best idea. But I feel walmart would just put it back on the shelf since I've seen the same items on clearance for the past 2 years.

[imrl]

I've been lucky that I haven't ran into many opened sets but I have seen lots of the CMF packages open. Come one people, it's not that difficult to figure out what figure it is by feeling. I just found on clearance the City fire station which I would like to grab, but it's got a majorly crunched box and it's only 15% off. It's just not cheap enough.

I do have to say, that up until 2 sets very recently, I have never been missing any pieces in any set I ever got. But 2 recently have been missing pieces (Millinium Falcon and the log cabin creator set). Both of those cases, TLG has sent me replacement pieces right away without question. Both times I just filled out the online form and about 2 weeks later, got the part. So, I might watch that fire station and see if I can get it cheaper, but after I check and see if the majority of the parts are there first!

[King]

I've been getting a rash of opened sets in the Phoenix area. They are not breaking the seals and are opening the boxes along the seam and gluing them back together. The boxes are filled with non-minifig bags from random sets and in each there is a bag that is resealed and filled with small translucent rocks (like from a table centerpiece). All of the weights are off by a bit.

For those in Phoenix, I know without a doubt that one came from 75th Av. and Thomas, I am not sure where the others came from. (They were sets I bought multiples of)

King

[natelite]

i prefer the seals to glued box especially for this reason: it is easier to spot opened sets. and it's also easier to flat pack and store. with thieves now opening the seams and gluing it back again, this makes things tricky. i'll probably have to be more vigilant but it also ruins things for returns.

i think to make things easier for the legitimate shoppers (and help with returns) they should return to the much older packaging boxes: the ones with transparent plastic lid cover. you get to see the contents immediately; no more drawing suspicion from CS for legitimate returns, you can immediately tell if bags are missing, and you get to see before you buy.

lego should stop making boxes so large and unwieldy. it's not like they're really fooling the core buyers. those who buy more than 1 set in their lifetimes know lego boxes store 80% air. kinda like bags of chips.

[sonofgun1776]

i completely agree with the box size issue. They can probably reduce the volume by 50% for all medium to large lego boxes, thus reducing cost and shelf space as well as killing less tree. I guess the big box is their way of justify the high price.

[pumbaugh]

LEGO has been working on box sizes. Nobody recalls the different size battlepacks last year? Has anyone gotten the new Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape yet from the super heroes line? That box is packed full with very little space. I would imagine the main focus would be to reduce shipping costs...killing less trees is only a beneficial side effect. Imagine reducing box size and being able to fit x% more on a cargo ship! Now it also goes the other way....bigger box means it is much more visible to the buyer so they probably do not want to fully reduce it. Also it seems that many of these larger sets are hand packed by a worker assembly line and if you want things to run smoothly more than enough space has to be present. Just think a few years back how large the Galactic Enforcer box was! I think they are making improvements on the box size.

[starfire2]

@king what stores are you finding these at? Walmart? Target? TRU? I too live in the Phoenix area. I have never had that problem.

[octick]

@king what stores are you finding these at? Walmart? Target? TRU? I too live in the Phoenix area. I have never had that problem.

I haven't been to one single Wal-Mart without this problem. And I have visited dozens. I'd say 50% of the Targets do too. I have bought at least 3 sets at Target with missing minifigs. All of them have been Harry Potters when in their prime.

The SW Advents are the worst.

[King]

@king what stores are you finding these at? Walmart? Target? TRU? I too live in the Phoenix area. I have never had that problem.

I know that one of them came from 75th Av and Thomas for sure. We only had 3 of that particular set (General Grevious) and they were all purchased only at that Walmart during the 1/2 off. The other recent one was a 4840 The Burrow, but I am not sure where that was purchased because we probably grabbed 12 or so over the past two months from various Walmarts.

These cannot be the only ones because the bags that are in these sets clearly came from other sets including the T-6 shuttle and a Hogwarts (the big one). That is interesting because I saw exactly one 50% off Hogwarts in all of our running around over the last few months and it was at 75th av and Thomas and clearly looked to be opened and resealed. I also saw a couple of clearly resealed Pharaoh's Quest sets at 19th Av and Bell a couple of weeks ago.

My wife knows a Walmart general manager in the EV and she is going to talk to him this week to see what she can find out.

King

[wkunert]

Folsom Blvd. Walmart in Rancho Cordova has one Harry Potter Castle for $65, looked like the seals were intact. No other Lego there.

[sonofgun1776]

Stopped by at 2 local walmarts today. Their lawn & garden clearance toys section is basically wiped out, although they just put filler stuffs on it to take up space. I wonder where they stashed the clearanced legos. I suppose this clearance event is basically over.

[ATXHusker]

I found in North Austin the Sith Infiltrator (sp?) for 1/2 off, so $35 + tax. :) They also had the World Racers big set for $37 but one end looked to be opened and re-taped so I passed on that.

-Chad

[sonofgun1776]

ATXHusker,
You could have asked to open that box to check if all content is inside, and likely to get the extra 10% off (or more) afterward.

[SlickP]

I suppose this clearance event is basically over.

While I'm traveling I've recently had luck at stores I haven't been to yet and evidently nobody else has either . Typically at the smaller out of the way stores in small towns....

[brickster90]

I found a few deals today - Ultimate Build McQueen and Mater (at different Wal*Marts) for half-price, Rocka XL for $13, and Toy Story Western Train Chase for $40 (surprised that was still around).

[turtle1173]

Woo Hoo, found a good one today! 7208 fire station for $25!! These things have been sitting for a long time at $69 but slowly disappearing. I decided I really didn't need this but I would buy it if it got below $50. Went to a Walmart I haven't been to in a couple weeks and found one lone set with a big $25 sticker on it.

Also found several Ramses Pyramid games for $7.50.

[harrelmusic]

I think the end of the LEGO Wal-Mart clearance specials resides in Raytown, MO, where there are about 3 boxes of CMF5 for $1 each. Don't want them really, but I would like to get a few bits from them and part out the rest.

[evo8hks]

I think the end of the LEGO Wal-Mart clearance specials resides in Raytown, MO, where there are about 3 boxes of CMF5 for $1 each. Don't want them really, but I would like to get a few bits from them and part out the rest.

In upstate N.Y. CMF5 are still ringing up $2.97, while you can get CMF6 for $2.50.

[soccerkid6]

I wish I could find some series 5 minifigs, they only had them once at my local walmart. I have not seen any minifigs since well before Christmas

[SlickP]

In my area I've seen no less than 20 cases of these with some stores having 5 each but all of them are still ringing up @ $2.97......