Right now there are a couple of nice offers for purchases over a certain amount on the LEGO.com website. I scanned through the sale list and either have already stocked up on the items or am passing on them. So I pick something from my wish list that’s over $150 to take advantage of the offers that are available. I choose the Back to the Future Time Machine. (What, can’t we say the word Delorian?)
That’s some pretty sweet swag for one item.
The perks, if sold might come to maybe $75 or $80 right now.
Before hitting the checkout button, I check the prices for the “time machine” elsewhere. Amazon has a sale on it right now for $169.99. Argh. That’s $30 cheaper, but if I buy from there I don’t get any of the swag. Back to my wishlist though. Maybe there’s something that… oh. There’s one thing on the offers page that I didn’t qualify for. Eiffel’s Apartment if I were to buy the $629.99 newly released Eiffel Tower. That would then come with all the previous swag as well as what I think should be a pretty limited set that might gain some good value.
I really hope my wife never reads these posts. I press buy and add 4,095 VIP points to my account, and all of these perks. Big picture, I don’t yet know the answer to the post’s question. But the number of freebies that came with it — especially Eiffel’s Apartment (which is currently selling for $100 on Ebay) and the 4,000 VIP points are worth about $30 in free LEGO later.