Direct Sales Price reports

[Timotheos]

I made a direct sales order today through PM USA.
I won't bore you with everything but some odd details:

White Togas are 62 cents
Red togas are 90 cents

Hats and conical helmets are 21 cents
But the torn hat with the pirate sets is 31 cents and so is the red bonnet from the magic castle.

Bread is 15 cents.
salami and cheese are 21 cents.

Stuff that ought to be easy to get is always sold out for me.  Maybe because other collectors buy it in high quantity.  Examples:

The barrel (30023780) is almost always out.  I have never been able to order the barrel cap (30095680) though I request it everytime (six orders now).  To my surprise the large sack and the yellow trays that come with the knight market were out.  The steck platform that went with the Safari set is out (I expected that, though).  The green glass windows were out (usually available).

On the other hand, steck 2x2 and 1x2 tile floors were mine for the having!  Same with steck railings (often out).  No Roman plain helmets though.

Don't ask about pumpkins.  I'm blaming halloween.

[core]

Well, I finally made my first DS(US) order this morning ... boy, if you don't keep a spreadsheet open, plan ahead and stick to the list(no spur-of-the-moment additions with playmodb.org up on the screen) the total adds up quick! 

On the other hand, steck 2x2 and 1x2 tile floors were mine for the having!  Same with steck railings (often out).

You must have cleaned them out of the 2x2 ... they were our of stock by the time I called, and only had 5x 1x2 tile foors left 

A quick question - I was told some items were discontinued (eg, 30 07 621 Railing, small, clips onto floor), whereas others were out of stock (eg, the 2x2 floor, even 30 02 9180 Stairs, stone, exterior) - which I am told that means more should be coming in, whenever.  Any truth to this?!

And I'll bore y'all with some details in case you're interested in DS prices in the US:

$.41 30 60 379 Arm and leg grieves (gold)
$.41 30 64 539 Shield, medium (swan shield)
$.41 30 46 0910 Brush, hand-, right-angle handle
$1.4 30 02 8470 Floor, 1x2 units
$.95 30 07 610 Wall Connector, Flat, Double-Female
$.95 30 07 615 Floor, rectangular, 1-wide
$.15 30 60 073 Latch, Sliding, For Door
$1.1 30 02 8500 Floor connector, 2 units long
$.3 30 07 885 Weathercock
$.51 30 02 916 Railing, wooden
$.41 30 02 917 Railing corner piece 6x or more
$1.4 30 07 675 Floor, 1x2 units, concave cutout in corner
$2.36 30 08 1000 Stairway
$.870 30 08 1010 Railing for stairway

-peter-

[Rasputin]

one part that really cought me off guard when they said it was discontinued was the  http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-22-2580  it is in new sets and it is system X so i do not get it .

[Timotheos]

Thanks for the detailed list, Peter.

I learned the same thing on my first order--you gotta stick to script.

Actually, I handed my spreadsheet off to my mother (ordering at work is too awkward, especially if I'm put on hold for 20 minutes then interrupted during an order).

My mother kept a tight account of what was available and the costs.  She advised me to hold onto the list, for cross-checking against the actual order.  She also told me to mark my calender: it ships in 7-10 days.

Mom, Mom, you don't understand.  This is Playmobil DS.  The traditional pact between consumer and merchant don't apply.  If a box arrives within half a year, and the box is not empty, the receiver writes a thank you note.

-Tim

[Little Jo]

Hm, that's intersting. I never called the folks on the phone. I typically post them a list with spare parts numbers via e-mail mentioning my customer number (you get one when haveing ordered first) and then within a few days I get a parcel with more or less all items (missing those that currently are not on stock and those that are no longer available; a small note about them is included on the bill). The price of the single items is listed on the bill.

With time you get a feeling about items how much they will cost (you can also have a look on the online DS store to get a price feeling for certain current items) so I can determine roughly when building the list, if this will become a 20, 50, 80 or over 100 EUR order.

[Tiermann]

I was the one that got the glass windows, had 6 of them with 4 of the window seat wall sections a couple of months ago.
They do get things back in stock if you give it some time, I usually only order a couple of times a year and they often have a part or two back in stock from previous trys.

[Timotheos]

I was the one that got the glass windows, had 6 of them with 4 of the window seat wall sections a couple of months ago.
They do get things back in stock if you give it some time, I usually only order a couple of times a year and they often have a part or two back in stock from previous trys.

You!!!  It was you who got my window seats!!! 

To Little Jo: Playmobil USA pretty much forces us to order by phone.  On my first order, I tried to wrangle an email address from the agent (I had a long list), but her philosophy was "we'd have to write you back with the cost and what parts were out of stock, so we prefer you do it by phone and save a step."  Unfortunately, unlike PM Europe, direct sales USA doesn't list on the website.  I've ordered enough times that I can roughly approximate what a part will cost.

I keep a spreadsheet and estimate the total cost before ordering.

But, what I have learned after this order:  assume 25% will be out.  I have a dumb habit of lowering quantities from say 10 to 5 to save cost, only to wind up going well below my cost threshold because so much other stuff turned out to be unavailable. 

[Tiermann]

Yep, I usually do the order in front of my computer with my master list of parts wanted open. I prioritize it with what I want most at the top and then just start there and work down until I hit a reasonable expense limit. And then they usually end up not sending me some of the things they thought were in stock, so going a little over is typically fine too.

[Timotheos]

Actually, hey, I added Peter's list of prices to mine on my spreadsheet.

If you want to have a copy, I've attached as an excel spreadsheet (saved in CSV (comma-separated values) format, then renamed as a *.txt file.  You can open this in any text reader, or rename it back to *.csv and open it in Excel.)

Maybe we in the USA could keep a running list of parts prices (unless somebody is already doing this).

This probably is less useful to Europeans, if you can get your prices off the webpage.  For us in the states, it's a complete surprise what the prices will be, unless you have ordered enough times to have rough guess-estimates.

[playmogirl]

The last time I ordered, I was stunned when it arrived within 2 weeks! I just ordered last week, hopefully this lot will come soon, as I want to place another order soon.

I can never seem to get 30 02 8470 floor 1x2 or the connector for the floors.  maybe the 1 they said they had will come, last time they said they had 4, and sent none.

One thing I was pleased to find available recently were black bears, adult and cub! here are the numbers 30 67 4330 and 30 67 4340.  I was annoyed to discover some US sellers on ebay advertising black bears, which were not black but dark brown.  Oh the adult bear is 4.50, the cub is 1.59.

Anne in USA