PlaymoFriends
General => News => Topic started by: Martin Milner on January 06, 2009, 15:29:16
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You can now buy three Egyptian DS sets, even though they haven't released the rest of the Egyptian theme, including the nice Pharoah archer figure.
There's also:
7385 three tough looking Police,
7379 Yellow Timber Frame House,
7830 & 7831 new pirates (new to me anyway), and some pirate buildings, plus 7373 a grapnel launcher
7361 a nifty 7361 Archeologist DS set including a couple of canopic jars,
and (timing being everything in the Playmobil UK world) various Halloween pumpkin sets.
For Gordon there's the 5705 US fire starter set with flat house front and US style firefighters.
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7379 Yellow Timber Frame House,
Hey Martin, how much does the Yellow Frame Work cost in UK? I wonder if our prices are catching up to the UK, or whether you've seen same price leaps.
I reluctantly ordered my yellow framework this morning. The $36 price tag is steep, considering in 2007, the frameworks ran for $24 from PM USA, and $15 - $20 from bargain retailers.
-Tim
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Oooh there is also the train wagon 7988 in the UK-DS.
MArtin could you tell me the price of the 7377,please ?
When will these sets be available in Belgium?
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Highland - 7377 is £12.50. With the Euro strong against the £ right now that's about €13.00
Tim - the yellow framework house is £30 - and you thought $36 was steep, this is the equivalent of $45. I don't think that's a price hike, I think the framework houses have been that price for a while. The other new sets and figures are at last year's prices (£2 for a single DS figure, £6 for the 3 figure groups, £8 for a family group), except for last chance items where the 3 figure DS groups are now £6.85
The Halloween pumpkins are £5 each, and they've cut out all the old specials so we're down to 12 for now.
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For Gordon there's the 5705 US fire starter set with flat house front and US style firefighters.
Thanks for thinking of me, Martin, but I managed to get one at a competitive price from the US when it first came out and then acquired another through, I think, as a trade. I've been intending to do a review but haven't got round to it yet.
What does interest me as the base for a fire conversion is the circus lorry in the DS section here:
http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Product-Show?pid=7399&cgid=Ds_Fahrzeuge_und_Boote
Some sets seem very good value for money, for example the offroad motor bike set at £6.50 here:
http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Product-Show?pid=7396&cgid=Ds_Sport_und_Freizeit
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Though I'm itching to get my hands on some of the new figures, especially that "Archeologist" i.e. modern day tomb raider, I'm going to wait until February when the new Specials should be released before placing an order.
After all, I do have a whole bunch of Egyptians, winged-knights, a couple of loose-wing chicken dragons and Elves in underpants still barely played with :-[ (and not even packed away neatly)
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7830 & 7831 new pirates (new to me anyway)
Martin, don't give me a fright like that! They are actually 7380 and 7381 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/your_set_list.pl?setlist=7380,7381), pirates that have been out in Germany for some time. (Very cool though, especially Sinbad.)
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Highland - 7377 is £12.50. With the Euro strong against the £ right now that's about €13.00
You're joking, right? Is the US dollar trading $10 / 1 Euro yet?
Tim - the yellow framework house is £30 - and you thought $36 was steep, this is the equivalent of $45. I don't think that's a price hike, I think the framework houses have been that price for a while. The other new sets and figures are at last year's prices (£2 for a single DS figure, £6 for the 3 figure groups, £8 for a family group), except for last chance items where the 3 figure DS groups are now £6.85
The Halloween pumpkins are £5 each, and they've cut out all the old specials so we're down to 12 for now.
Does VAT explain this? Has anyone identified why the UK is so expensive? Visiting the US for you must be like visiting India for us. Well, strike that. The rupee has risen against the dollar too...
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Does VAT explain this? Has anyone identified why the UK is so expensive? Visiting the US for you must be like visiting India for us. Well, strike that. The rupee has risen against the dollar too...
VAT certainly adds to prices as it's a sales tax, but surely there is a sales tax on DS parts in the US too.
In the past what Playmobil seemed to do was to take the euro price and replace the euro sign by a £ sign, which meant that the UK price was above the euro price. Today, with the euro and £ being more or less equal in value, this doesn't really work to our disadvantage. (Playmobil weren't the only company to do this, and it also worked in reverse with other currencies. For example, when Malta had its own currency, Maltese prices were about 1/3 less than UK ones according to the exchange rates, but UK firms would simply replace the £ sign by the Maltese lira sign.)
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Martin, don't give me a fright like that! They are actually 7380 and 7381 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/your_set_list.pl?setlist=7380,7381), pirates that have been out in Germany for some time. (Very cool though, especially Sinbad.)
Well I did say new to me! ;D
Maybe I should have specified new to the UK website, where the label NEW appears next to them. ;)
I'm guessing nothing ever gets to the UK that is really new, it'll always be available somewhere else first. ::)
VAT is currently 15%, dropped from 17.5% recently, but of course nobody is reflecting this drop in their prices, retailers and other companies benefit but not the public, we still pay the same price.
Sales Tax in the US is added AFTER the shelf price in stores (a matter of major confusion to me) but for internet sales presumably it's already been included?
Not Joking about the Euro - check the exchange rate online - today about 1.10 Euro to the £, but it was as low as 1.05 at the weekend.
The currency sign swap is a very common trick, they do it with $/£ too - very annoying when £1 was worth $2.
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Maybe I should have specified new to the UK website, where the label NEW appears next to them. ;)
PM USA can be slightly obnoxious about how it employs "new".
The three lion knights add-on and the lion knight leader add-on were on PM USA's discontinued section last month. Now they are re-listed as new.
-Tim
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I don't pay sales tax on any purchases from direct service or from playmobil.com. Generally speaking, unless the store/company has a physical store or headquarters within the state in which the item is shipped to, they don't charge sales tax. For example, in the U.S., unless you live in Washington state, amazon.com doesn't charge sales tax. Of course in wonderful California there is a section on your state income tax return that asks you to pay the state sales tax on items you purchased during the year from out of state. Naturally, last year I added the appropriate $10,000 in sales tax on my tax return so I could give California even more of my money to spend in their usual responsible manner. We Californians do love our great schools, flawless highways, and quality social programs!
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Gosh Justindo, you sure are a swell guy!! :lol: :lol: :lol: I am sure Ahnold is very proud!! :lol:
Gepetto
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Gosh Justindo, you sure are a swell guy!! :lol: :lol: :lol: I am sure Ahnold is very proud!! :lol:
Gepetto
Yes, Arnold's a swell guy too and I'm very proud of him! He's sure done a great job with the state and our tax money! Actually, he's no worse than most of the state's legislators...or inhabitants for that matter, as they continue to elect them. As the saying goes, the people get the government they deserve.
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I see you have more taxes for your UK imports but what i can not figure out is how a place like Ridge Road has to stop offering discounted prices for sets . From what i remember it was playmobil that stopped them and required them to raise the prices to Suggested retail . Now if you take target they seem to be able to sell items like the 4444 for over 40% off playmobils price ( target $26.99 versus PM.com USA $24.99 ) . Most of their sets are discounted from suggested list
I really am careful not to complain too much seeing as if you look at the overall prices, the US still has some of the lowest.
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I see you have more taxes for your UK imports but what i can not figure out is how a place like Ridge Road has to stop offering discounted prices for sets . From what i remember it was playmobil that stopped them and required them to raise the prices to Suggested retail . Now if you take target they seem to be able to sell items like the 4444 for over 40% off playmobils price ( target $26.99 versus PM.com USA $24.99 ) . Most of their sets are discounted from suggested list
I really am careful not to complain too much seeing as if you look at the overall prices, the US still has some of the lowest.
Laws in the US changed their interpretation of "minimum suggested retail price" (MSRP). Formerly, it was ruled as a monopolistic, or whatever the legal jargon. In recent times, US laws are less restrictive about it, if it allows a company to maintain brand integrity, or some such wording.
PM USA appears to be enforcing this on web retailers, but not in-store retailers. The hypocrasy with its approach to Target (which sells PM so dirt cheap to lead one to think it might be a "cheap toy") may boil down to the possibility that PM USA is enforcing MSRP to reduce competition against its own web site.
Rather than a strategy to improve brand image...
-Tim
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Now Playmobil have all the 2009 sets up, even though you can't buy them yet. Click to order a set that's not yet available and you are told they will email you when it is.
I find that very annoying, as there's no way of knowing what is now out and what they will send you an email about later - or when they'll send the email. They had that notice last year, and I never got a notification until long after the sets were released.
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The Egyptian sets are up on Playmobil USA now! Except for the direct service sets, however, they can't yet be ordered.
I noticed that the prices are high compared to the comparable Roman sets, even at the new Roman prices. For example, the 5 klicky army building "warrior pack" is $13.99 for the Romans and $16.99 for the Egyptians. Now a few dollars isn't a huge deal, but when you're ordering 40 or so of them 0) the price difference starts to add up. Other examples include the single klicky with horse pack being $6.99 for the Romans and $7.99 for the Egyptians and the pyramid being $104.99 while the arena is $94.99. On the other hand, the 3 klicky warrior direct service pack is $9.99 for the Romans and $8.99 for the Egyptians. I really don't understand Playmobil sometimes! 8}
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Did anybody notice the diffrent eggs http://store.playmobilusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-US-Site/en_US/Product-Show?pid=89590&cgid=Osterhasen
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Nice find, Rasputin! I like his shield and torso.
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BELGIUM DS is updated aswell!
Since it is my birthday this month, I spent a bit :-[
All new DS sets which I've been waiting for forever!
Lucky I sold some LEGO's this month for extra cash.
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The February Specials are now available to order, I ordered the Guard 4684, Cossack Soldier 4683 and a few other things to make up my free postage ;D
(I always seem to see the "you only need to spend £46 more to get free postage" statement as a challenge 8})
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The February Specials are now available to order, I ordered the Guard 4684, Cossack Soldier 4683 and a few other things to make up my free postage ;D
(I always seem to see the "you only need to spend £46 more to get free postage" statement as a challenge 8})
LO, true, I got the same two plus the Masai Warrior, multiples of eash, plus an Archeologist. I've never yet placed an order I paid postage on.
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In Belgium there is no free postage :'(