Favorite store for Lego deals

[sadowsk1]

I am curious what stores people have had the best luck with when it comes to buying Legos year round including around black Friday. I see a lot of deals popping up between stores but I'm curious if anyone has a favorite store to score their deals at. My personal favorite is Kmart because while they sometimes have slight price markups they also have buy two get one free sales that don't exclude any sets, but that's me. Toys R Us is a close second just because they get a lot of exclusive stuff that I wouldn't find in other stores, ie bricktober magnets. I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this so my apologies if this is in the wrong location.

[turtle1173]

Good post idea. I've only been back into Lego's in the past year, so I can't speak concerning black friday stuff. For me, I've found good deals in about all the stores over the past year. I'll run through a few of them.

1) The buy 2 get one free is always a great offer. I used this at Barnes & Noble and got 3 Hogwarts castles for $72 each (with educator's discount). Also used this a few months back at TRU and got 3 of the TRU exclusive semi trucks (can't remember the number of the set off hand). They didn't have the price marked correctly, so we got $5 off of each of the two sets paid for. Essentially I paid $70 for the 3 sets.

2) Clearance sales. This is where I've done my best because I'm patient. I waited and waited and got the Venator attack cruiser for $50 at Walmart and $59 at Target. ARC-170 for $30 at K-mart (also separatist shuttle for $15). Power Miners Titanium Command Center for $50 at Walmart. Battle for Endor for $69 at Walmart. Lots of other smaller sets as well.

3) Special deals. A good example of this is the sale at TRU this past weekend. Tie defender for half off ($26.99). Different coupon sales from BN and TRU have offered good savings. Sometimes they have worked out to be 40% off.

I'm sure there are other great ideas that I haven't found or thought of. Certainly would like to hear from others but these are a few that comes to mind as I think of my "obsession" this past year :D

[legitimatealex]

My favorite store to hit up for LEGO clearance is Walmart because they like to push their inventory quickly.They also always seem to have something on sale, or they actually roll the price back compared to other stores.

That said they tend to be the least consistent in their items stocked depending on location to location. IE: My local Walmart has a full aisle filled with LEGO, but one town over there are about 9 sets in total in that Walmart.

Toys R Us is okay when they have sales, and they have them a lot but their mark ups make quite a few of their sales break even.

[mrfootball]

The local Wal-Marts around here NEVER do much discounting on Lego.
Targets have decent deals on occasion, but rarely anything all that great.

I find that the best deals around here (Houston) are usually at Borders.

[koromo]

Clearance for me in NH is hit or miss. We lack the inventory or demand of MA or NY. If I see any interesting sets at Walmart or Target I have grabbed them but I have yet to see any SW on clearance. A number of the clearance kits go to my toy drive bin.

Since I got TRU rewards Ive managed to use coupons and deals to come out ahead or least at retail for some hard to acquire items.

I have gotten some of my best deals at Amazon, especially with free shipping.

[vynsane]

They B2G1F (buy one get one free) sales are usually the best non-clearance deals you'll get, though they've been far and few between. I think this past summer was the first time TRU has ever done it in The States. The status of the economy these days is actually helping us with this hobby! I got a bunch of stuff at 50% off during a Target clearance. I find Walmart to be stingy with the clearances by me, although I picked up a few PoP sets at 30% off. Their rollbacks seem nothing more to me than a pathetic attempt to maintain the lowest prices by a mere couple of cents, reactionary knee-jerk instincts at best.

[brickz]

My favorite is walmart and target.

[SpaceNinjaDino]

Toys R Us has its moments with their 3 for 2 sales and unadvertised clearance. Getting 3 Marketplace Villages for the price of 2 is my favorite.
Target sometimes has mismarked or unmarked clearance. I once got the SW Sail Barge for $28 (scanned but unmarked), but the next Target over still had the $80 price. I also got Galactic Enforcer for $50 when it was still marked $75. I also love them for their holiday polybag sets. Right now their SW/TS3 assortment price is reversed with their Basic assortment price so I've grabbed many X-Wings and Army trucks. Target also has the awesome free Bullseye with giftcard right now if you can find it.
Walmart online only (my local store has the worst toy section in the nation I'm convinced) has had one great moment which was 50% off of a large castle set for BF two years ago I think.
Borders with their 40% coupons have me coming back even though my local one has never seen a Harry Potter set nor seems to have any plans to stock something new.

If I did pick a favorite, it would have to be Target. I'm always impressed with their exclusives between SW toys and Lego in terms of design and availability. I almost never get the clearance prices that others have, but once a year I do.

[Mantisking]

I'm not sure I have a favorite. My three top stores are TRU, Borders and the Lego store, mainly because I'm part of the frequent buyers clubs for all three.

[BobaFett2]

I don't usually go to LEGO stores for deals-I'm too impatient. I prefer just to buy whatever is out at the time that I like most. I guess Target, since I don't go to Wal-Mart (it's only a block further but whatever), but I mostly buy at the LEGO store to get points (it's not much, but it's A discount).

[Everybody]

Definitely target as it's the closest to my house. They have everything and the sets that are on sale at walmart are always sold out when I get there. Also my target gets stuff pretty fast and restocks quickly so no waiting. :D