Fortunately, hundreds of billions of Lego bricks were sold over the years, many of which survive, making for a very deep secondary market. On average, families only seem to grow wealthier, in terms of the amount of Lego they acquire.
He has three sets of his own (gotten at 3¾ and his fourth birthday), and has now progressed from building the sets (the 5+ Lego City generic stuff) to disassembling them and building his own things.
The non-diehard fans can simply buy Lego knockoffs.
I'd like to support Lego but I don't get to do that by buying used sets or knockoffs, but Lego's pricing also prices me out of the market.
In my opinion, the strategy of quality-first is the main reason for lego's sustainable success.
Inflation considered, and set size, Lego has gone down in price since I was a kid, and generic sets (Creator) are still available.
What’s also amazing is the “licensed premium” isn’t that high if you do direct comparisons.
They did perfect low quantity manufacturing which is evident by the vast numbers of obvious for-adults “Ideas” that are produced.