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Many questions are around this subjects: "How can I get pay less for Lego", "How can I get around custom fees", and so on.

Lego and distributors are in business and we have our Lego bricks because of them. Going around paying the normal price is only going to hurt this market.

Q: Should we support questions that are about trying to find ways around paying for the Lego product?

Here are two examples:

How can I minimize the number of merchants for given set of requested bricks?

What are some 3rd party mini-figure gun makers that distribute in Canada?

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It depends. Asking if there's some way to optimize Bricklink purchases seems fine to me - that's a tool that could conceivably exist, and Bricklink is definitely not friendly to comparison shopping as-is.

Asking how you get around customs fees - that's off-topic, often too localized, can change on a whim, and may be illegal.

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    Optimizing shopping, I have nothing against that. The question is more toward people trying to avoid paying the full price for the product.
    – pcantin
    Nov 4, 2011 at 1:21
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    But the example you cited of the "minimize the number of merchants" was about how to find those merchants that sold all, or most of the parts - that's not trying to circumvent the system, but common sense, like asking Amazon to group your order into as few packages as possible, or buying multiple lots from a seller on ebay and asking for combined postage.
    – Zhaph - Ben Duguid Mod
    Nov 4, 2011 at 10:21
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Lego and distributors are in business and we have our Lego bricks because of them. Going around paying the normal price is only going to hurt this market.

If you're trying to do so illegally, yes.

If you're just trying to find alternate buying routes, why not? Keep in mind you won't find a LEGO set for cheap unless someone is willing to sell it for cheap. And if they are willing, why would it hurt them? Most of them time it helps them getting rid of stock they wouldn't be able to sell anyway.

Ultimately, adult fans aren't such a huge part fo the LEGO market anyway (5 to 10% tops), so even if LEGO ended up selling parts to them at a loss (which they don't), it wouldn't be so bad. On the other hand, considering the quantities some fans buy, it's only faire that they would pay less when there is a chance.

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  • The illegal ones are the problem. I was bothered by the "not paying customs" answer. Everything else is ok with me.
    – pcantin
    Nov 4, 2011 at 9:58
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It is early in the life of this site so now is the time where we cast a wide net and set up boundaries, so this is a good conversation to have.

I asked my question about buying 3rd-party parts because I was worried about paying a $25+ customs fee for bringing hollow plastic across the border. What I decided to do was ask a question about buying these parts IN Canada to avoid these fees. What i did NOT ask for was methods for smuggling Lego across the border.

I see the points of other answers made in that this type of question might be too localized, but what I do not agree with is that these questions are searching for answers that are illegal in nature. My question was not about "circumventing the system", but about sellers of Lego parts within Canada, like if you bought from Amazon.ca instead of Amazon.com.

Neither my question or the answer I accepted are illegal in nature, but it indeed might be too localized and subject to change to be useful. If there is a push against this type of question, I will be happy to delete it

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