There were several lines that we expected to arrive around the end of October that have apparently been shunted into November. Modelcollect and PMA have fallen victim to this shipping delay, as has Eaglemoss, which owes us a great deal of Star-Trek-related merchandise. Presently, its not clear if Corgi is on the docket for a “fright-fest” showing, which would have included two of their eight Military Legends combat vehicles and a pair of 1:72 Aviation Archive aircraft. Right now, we are assuming they will make it on time as will the October Hobby Master shipment. Even the two Air Force 1 1:72 scale B-17 Flying Fortresses have been asked to go round the tower one more time and are now scheduled for a November landing.
We bring this up because November is oftentimes a tough month in the industry, since its punctuated by the Thanksgiving Day weekend, as well as both Black Friday and Cyber Monday – two key selling days for the industry at-large. So, if new product hasn’t arrived before these second half events kick off, then we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that they somehow still show up by early December in time to make it under the Christmas tree.
On the flip side, the upcoming holiday season looks to work in favor of sellers for other reasons. Thanksgiving comes late this year (November 28th) as does Hannukah (December 24th). FedEx is making Sunday deliveries thereby speeding up the supply chain, as will UPS in early 2020. It also appears as if the US has worked out a deal with members of the International Postal Agreement, which means the international landscape will change somewhat for both imports and exports, particularly as it applies to shipments coming out of mainland China.
As we alluded to in a previous post, we plan on building out our new web site some time in January, as well as spin up two more sales channels, bringing us up to four. Two more will be spun up in mid 2020, once we feel comfortable our new order fulfillment system is working without major incident. That’s pretty much it for now so enjoy Halloween and make sure to submit your orders as early as possible to avoid disappointment.