We apologize for the delay in getting this month's Newsletter to you.

We are located in Southern Florida and were impacted by Hurricane Wilma,which tore through the area on October 24th. We consider ourselves fortunate however, since we were merely inconvenienced by the lack of electricity for one week. As you know, many have suffered much worst this hurricane season. Fortunately, the 2005 season will soon be over!

On a much more positive note, 46 shopping days till Christmas and contrary to earlier predictions, it seems that it will be a good sales season after all.

All signs point to increased toy prices in 2006. In a prelude to President Bush’s China visit later in November, Treasury Secretary Snow recently met with several Chinese officials to request that they further appreciate their currency, the Yuan. As we reported earlier in the year, their 2.1% appreciation in July is being viewed as a token gesture. It is believed that the Chinese currency is under-valued by between 30 and 40%. The US government, acting on pressure from US manufacturers that have to compete with cheap Chinese imports, has been applying more and more pressure for China to appreciate the Yuan. By doing so, Chinese product importers would be forced to pay more for products (81% of all toys sold in the US are of Chinese origin) and it is believed by US manufacturers, level the playing field in terms of the price paid for Chinese imports versus products of US manufacturer.

In addition to the Chinese currency impact on the price of toys, there is the impact that increased petroleum prices, which is used to produce the plastics in toys, will have on their price. Mattel, whose 3rd quarter proficts fell by 12%, has already said that it will increase its prices next year to offset rising costs of transportation and raw materials.

With the price of toys slated to increase, it may be wise to stock up now, before the increases are passed on to us. In fact, now would be an excellent time to do so, just in time for your holiday sales; with any remaining inventory exempt from future price increases.

We will maintain our pallets at the recently reduced price of $1,750.00 (a $125.00 savings from the earlier price point) with a further $100.00 drop to $1,650 per pallet, on the purchase of four pallets or more. Finally, a further reduction to 60% savings from wholesale, to $1,500.00 per pallet (each of our pallets has a wholesale value of $3,750) on the purchase of eight or more pallets.

With parents increasingly agitated by the amount of time kids spend with video games and other mind-numbing computer chip-based toys, toy companies are finding there’s money to be made selling old-fashioned stuff like puzzles, board games and building sets. Even while sales in the $20 billion toy industry fell 3% last year, sales of family- oriented board games jumped 12%, puzzle sales rose 26% and games for pre-schoolers jumped 27%.

We include an assortment of electronic games and interactive toys for children as well as building sets and board games in all of our sales – from the SamplePack at just $329 to the ValuePack Pallet.

October, 2005 retail sales were up by 4.4% from 2004 figures.

In spite of the negative impact from hurricane damage in August and September as well as increased fuel costs, rising interest rates and shaky consumer confidence, "same-store" October retail sales saw a climb of 4.4% over the same period from the prior year in stores open at least one year.

Consumers are still out there spending. We hope that you have an excellent holiday selling season! Please let us know how we may help.

That’s all for this issue. Our Newsletter will not be published in December or January due to the holiday rush but please look for it again in February, 2006.

Thank you for your attention and all the best!

We welcome your comments and suggestions for our Newsletter. Please write to admin @blueribbontoys.com.