It's almost time to start your Christmas shopping and the kids have that Lego playset they've been begging for on their list. Then you look at the price and go into sticker shock. Why are Legos so expensive? 

Lego released images today of their brand new Ghostbusters playset. Everything you could ever imagine in the Ghostbusters firehouse is here. It will only cost you $350. That's more than a monthly car payment!

Why are Legos so expensive? The answer lies in the quality and quantity.

According to BensBargains.com, Lego's aren't all that outrageous in price when you look at the bigger picture.

Lego bricks are precision engineered. A lot of detail is put into making sure a brick from 1971 will fit perfectly with a brick from 2015. That's not an easy thing to do, and Lego pays great attention to detail. That makes them a little more expensive than their competitors.

Believe it or not, the price of Legos is cheaper than it was back in the 70s and 80s. When you consider the price cost per brick, Legos have been running around 10 to 13 cents per brick for almost a decade. In 1985 they were at an all time high at 40 cents per brick.

The Ghostbusters set may cost $350, but it contains a mind boggling 4634 pieces. Multiply that by 10 cents a piece and you can see that you're actually getting a deal at $350.

Lego doesn't mark up their sets much either to pay for licensing big brand names like Star Wars and Ghostbusters. The majority of the cost comes from the sheer number of pieces. Back when I was a kid, the largest Lego sets had around 700 pieces. That's the average set size today.

Lego is the number one toy manufacturer in the world, even ahead of Mattel, and the demand is at an all-time high. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, their prices are lower then they have been for most of their existence.

I know that doesn't help on your pocketbook, but the facts are facts. My advice? Go small....REALLY small....

 

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