Just wondering if someone can help me out on this one... How do you figure out is something is an exclusive set to any store besides looking on all the sites to see which ones have them in stock? Examples of stores that sets might be exclusive to: LEGO Shop at Home, Walmart, TRU, Target. Thanks everyone!

usaully if the box says hard to find you can get it at walart or toys r us or target

You can usually find the info on Brickset or Brickopedia. Not always, but for the most part you can.

Not sure how reliable this is but I've been using "advanced queries" at BrickSet for various other things, and saw your topic, and tried it out for myself. SELECT * FROM Sets WHERE (Availability = 'LEGO exclusive') AND (Pieces > 1000) AND (USAvailable = 1) ORDER BY SortKey ASC Came up with: Tower Bridge Super Star Destroyer Kingdom Joust R2-D2 B-Wing Starfighter Haunted House Mini Modulars Palace Cinema Horizon Express Batman: Arkman Asylum Breakout Pieces >1000 is just to get a small sample to see whether or not this query works. You can of course reduce the number to get more shown. Availability = 'LEGO exclusive' is what I'm not sure about.. I wonder if this includes sets exclusive to retailers like TRU, Target, etc. Isn't SSD exclusive to TRU or do other retailers have it too? USAvailable = 1 simply makes sure the set is currently available at LEGO.com (which I think implies the set is current and not retired). Are those sets really exclusives? I don't know.. need someone to opine in and see if this query can be tore apart

I am curious to know if Exclusive are made in same quantities as regulard distributed sets? Say they mad 10,000 for all different stores... each would get a few. Where as if they made the same number and just gave to WM, they would have a bunch for a longer period of time? or do they make less of exclusives?

My very first purchase was 7879 Limited Edition Hoth Echo Base. I purchased it from reading a recommendation from this web site. I was told you could only purchase it at TRU or Lego. I did purchase it from Lego for $89 and wonder if there were fewer produced as it is a Limited Edition?

I would typically think that they make less of exclusive sets since their availability is limited to the store their exclusive to and the LEGO Store, but I think if the set gets bought up A LOT then their production rates would or could be roughly about the same as 'regular' sets. In the scope of things, I think most of the exclusives runs are limited somewhat. I wish I had some actual stats to support this at all. Have no idea where to find that kind of info.