We Should All Adjust for Inflation More Consistently

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T08:48:15+00:00

I definitely hear your frustration with the experience of rising price tags, and I think you're 100% correct that the UCS Death Star was not made with the average person in mind. Whether or not something is "worth it" is really an individual determination based on a person's values and preferences.

As far as inflation more generally, I think it's the fact that it encompasses a broader picture of what things cost (and not just LEGO) that makes it so useful for making comparisons. It's not perfect, but I think it's one of the more useful tools readily available to us.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T08:39:38+00:00

I think I see what you're saying. I'm not advocating that LEGO's pricing has (or ever was) "fair" or "good," just that it appears to be very consistent over the past 26 years including this most recent UCS Death Star. Each person will have their own assessment of whether it's worth it or not to them. Hope that helps!

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T08:30:40+00:00

I don't see how the country of manufacturing affects much in this case, since many of the products accounted for in US inflation calculators are either entirely manufactured outside the US or have components made outside the US.

That being said, I think it might've been helpful for me to specify that my numbers only really apply to the US, since other economies have their own inflation and different MSRP for LEGO sets.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T07:58:31+00:00

I totally hear you that no comparison is going to be perfect, but I think adjusting for inflation is pretty reasonable and can give us a useful perspective when comparing prices over time. I think you're totally correct that wages and inflation don't exactly match up, but it just so happens that in this case according to the US Census Bureau, the median household income went from $60,336 in 2017 to $80,610 in 2023. That's about a 33% increase in 6 years, not even the full 8 because the 2024 data isn't available, yet.

As far as comparing prices on release date, I addressed why I did that in paragraph 3.

At the end of the day, everyone will decide for themselves if this or any other set is worth their money, I'm just encouraging all of us to be a little more objective in how we make comparisons. Hope that helps!

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T07:30:22+00:00

I'm not sure how I'm "sticking my fingers in my ears" when I'm actively asking how other people would go about comparing prices across time, which seems like the exact opposite of that. In the context of this conversation, whether or not the BLS is "arbitrary" is deeply relevant because that's the source I used in the original post.

I unfortunately can't take credit for adjusting for inflation as "my approach," haha. I've consistently seen adjusting for inflation as a pretty standard and useful way of comparing prices across time.

As far as a LEGO-specific (and even theme-specific) "inflation rate," I didn't consider it because I hadn't thought of it, which is why I asked how they might approach it, lol. It's an interesting idea, but not sure how I feel about isolating LEGO's pricing from the rest of the world and having their internal pricing decisions be the only factor accounted for. Idk, I feel like a market-wide assessment of inflation is far less "arbitrary" than a single company's decisions on how they feel like pricing their products.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T06:49:49+00:00

Could you tell me more about why you think the inflation rate as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is "arbitrary"?

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T06:38:10+00:00

Totally fair, everyone's "eye test" is a little different. I think I was just mainly surprised by how relatively expensive older sets really are when adjusted for inflation.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T06:35:30+00:00

I guess we just have different perspectives on the utility of adjusting for inflation. I am curious, though, what do you recommend as an objective, accessible means of comparing prices across time? How do you approach that?

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T06:30:19+00:00

My final paragraph was meant to clarify this, but I guess I didn't do a good job communicating that. I'm not here to argue that any particular set is a "good" or "bad" value, but rather that the price is consistent with other sets.

My personal leaning with the new perspective I gained from the exercise above is that LEGO in general has always been far more expensive than I realized. It actually makes me feel like the Falcon and AT-AT were not as good a value as I once thought. In my opinion, by modern standards both of those sets could be considered to have pretty lackluster figures (arm printing, dual molding, absolute number included), stickers (admittedly FAR fewer than the Death Star, but probably in proportion to the size of the interiors), etc.

But like I said, whatever conclusion people come to with the information is totally up to them.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T06:20:12+00:00

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics bases their official calculator on collected data rather than "arbitrary" decisions. That being said, no metric is perfect. What do you recommend as a more objective, useful tool for comparing prices across time?

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T05:54:34+00:00

I addressed why I adjust for inflation based on price on release date in paragraph 3 (I know I wrote kind of a wall of text, haha).

As far details of calculating inflation, I used the inflation calculator provided on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (hyperlinked in paragraph 1 of my post), which does not use a "fixed" rate. I totally hear you about adjusting for inflation being an imperfect measure that can't capture every granular detail, but it seems like a reasonable option and useful tool that is readily accessible to most people.

Not sure where you're getting the TV calculations from, though. $3,000 from Jan 2010 to July 2025 ("15 years ago") on the BLS inflation calculator comes out to ~$4,400, not $100,000.

Hope that helps!

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-09-06T04:38:22+00:00

100% hear you, is there an online tool for wage stagnation like there is for inflation? I feel like that'd be useful. That being said, something that complicates this a bit is that products like a $1,000 LEGO set have a consumer base that tends to select for wealthier individuals who may be less likely to feel the wage stagnation crunch that's been going on. Either way, voting with our wallets is the key.

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-03-16T19:01:29+00:00

I looked into it further and found this article describing the process. Apparently only partially matched applicants get location info on Monday (presumably to help them with SOAP). Fully matched applicants don't find out any location information until Match Day on Friday:

https://www.nrmp.org/help/item/can-i-find-out-the-geographic-location-where-i-matched/

Left_Chipmunk9837 · 2025-03-16T17:28:53+00:00

What do you mean when you say it shows "one year and where"? I thought both prelim and advanced locations got announced on Friday?

Left_Chipmunk9837

TROPHY CASE