As a follow up to yesterday's post about Magic, the boxes are currently selling on e-bay for 120.00 each. Figure another 10.00 for postage and handling. I've never seem prices that high on a new release. I offered boxes to customers for 125.00 (retail is 145.00) yesterday, but no one took me up on it.
What will happen is that I'll not sell for the first few weeks, as usual, because in Bend it takes time for the truth to set in. In Portland, say, you can bounce around between five or six stores and find out that they're all high, and realize the truth. Then go online, and confirm the truth, and then go ahead and buy. In Bend, they'll wait -- sometimes until it's even harder to get and more expensive. Happens every time.
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Children's Museum closure. I'm pretty sure spending every dime you have every year is not a very safe plan over the longrun.
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Turns out this street closure isn't the Fall Fest, it's a Downtowner's October Fest event. They will be closing the streets next week, as well. Once again, it seems they have brought in a new event. Seems to me, they are adding one or two new events per year. I figure at that rate, the weekends should be booked completely in another 10 years or so.
Was talking to a fellow store in Ashland and he said they only close the streets a few times a year.
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Passed my original sales goal on Thursday, and have another 5 business days. Of course, just about every dime from those 5 days will go toward merchandise. And then some.
But the store is extremely well stocked. And I can attribute the higher sales pretty clearly to that fact.
My sales goal was to match last year, so this is already the first month since July 2007 that I've been 'significantly' higher than the previous year on the same month. (I had two other months in 2008 that beat the previous year by very marginal amounts, but none in the last consecutive year.)
I've always maintained that my sales started dropping in August 2007 almost exactly the moment that Bear Sterns hit the headlines. The experts all pick later that year, November or December, but I'm here to tell you it started a bit sooner.
Then another extreme drop in September of last year, almost exactly the moment that Lehman Brothers hit the headlines. So TECHNICALLY the bottom for me was probably last month. Or so I'm hoping. Last September was so dreadful, that I was in fear that if we were lower than that, there were some dismal times ahead. So at least we've escaped that fate. I think.
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What will happen is that I'll not sell for the first few weeks, as usual, because in Bend it takes time for the truth to set in. In Portland, say, you can bounce around between five or six stores and find out that they're all high, and realize the truth. Then go online, and confirm the truth, and then go ahead and buy. In Bend, they'll wait -- sometimes until it's even harder to get and more expensive. Happens every time.
**********
Children's Museum closure. I'm pretty sure spending every dime you have every year is not a very safe plan over the longrun.
**********
Turns out this street closure isn't the Fall Fest, it's a Downtowner's October Fest event. They will be closing the streets next week, as well. Once again, it seems they have brought in a new event. Seems to me, they are adding one or two new events per year. I figure at that rate, the weekends should be booked completely in another 10 years or so.
Was talking to a fellow store in Ashland and he said they only close the streets a few times a year.
**********
Passed my original sales goal on Thursday, and have another 5 business days. Of course, just about every dime from those 5 days will go toward merchandise. And then some.
But the store is extremely well stocked. And I can attribute the higher sales pretty clearly to that fact.
My sales goal was to match last year, so this is already the first month since July 2007 that I've been 'significantly' higher than the previous year on the same month. (I had two other months in 2008 that beat the previous year by very marginal amounts, but none in the last consecutive year.)
I've always maintained that my sales started dropping in August 2007 almost exactly the moment that Bear Sterns hit the headlines. The experts all pick later that year, November or December, but I'm here to tell you it started a bit sooner.
Then another extreme drop in September of last year, almost exactly the moment that Lehman Brothers hit the headlines. So TECHNICALLY the bottom for me was probably last month. Or so I'm hoping. Last September was so dreadful, that I was in fear that if we were lower than that, there were some dismal times ahead. So at least we've escaped that fate. I think.
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