YuleLog Ornament Collector's Bulletin Board Forums Discussion Ornament Collecting Discussion Looks like a price increase

Digital Dreambook just posted pictures of the Halloween ornaments and 3 of the 4 have price increases over last year. Going from 14.95 to 15.95. Looks like we might be seeing an across the board increase on the prices of ornaments for 2016.

I am ok with that if it keeps Hallmarks stores open. I am so upset that so many stores are closing. I have bought many things lately at Hallmark that I might buy other places recently.

We have been cutting back more and more each year. Just will cut back even further.

And that's why it won't help the stores. People will buy less due to the price increase. If Hallmark wanted to help the stores, they would charge them less to buy the ornaments so the stores would see more profit. Raising the prices only makes people more likely to wait until after Christmas.

I'll probably be more picky with what I buy before Christmas. I may also wait for the majority of the Disney ornaments to buy from Kohl's where I can use coupons.

2015 we only added 12 new ornaments to our collection. I Start collecting in 1980 and this was the first year I didn't buy any for myself. Most of what we keep was for our two youngest.

It doesn't surprise me. But, for the most part, the casual buyer, who buys one, two or three ornaments a year, probably won't notice the difference. And, they are the biggest chunk of the ornament purchasers. The collectors like you and me? Yeah, they'll notice and feel it the most.

I'll just have to be more creative on how to get the most ornaments for my money.

Kohl's, Ebay, Crown Certs, other coupons, etc...

Stan, that's how I feel, too. Each year I have so much to spend and I stretch the dollar. If something is really expensive and I love it(like the Here Comes Santa Claus tree topper or the premium Radiant Cross), then I figure what I have to cut out or gamble on for after Christmas. Ebay has been good to me, too. Some things I missed out on in the 'gamble' were on Ebay and at less than I would spend in the store. I really do want to support the stores but the money is limited.

Ditto!

Well the price of everything seems to be going up - labor, materials?
However by one dollar isn't too bad. That's coming from someone who buys less then 10 ornaments on average.

I don't think Hallmark is helping stores by selling things on line and offering free shipping to a store where the internet shopper walks in, picks up the order and then leaves without even looking around the store. I have heard this from a couple of different sources. If Hallmark thinks that in getting the shopper into the store, it presents a chance for the store to sell something, I don't think that it is working that way. I think the internet shopper is a type who doesn't want to waste time in a store (find out that product is not there because Hallmark hasn't shipped it yet or whatever). I think it would be better if the Hallmark internet shopper had to pay shipping and have it delivered to their home...it might give them second thoughts about supporting their local store....not saving anything and you have to worry about product sitting outside your front door for anyone to take.

After saying that....heard last week that another Hallmark store is closing...a little further out from me but close enough that I used to go there for the RTWs. It is a small corporate store inside an indoor mall but right across the street is a really nice outdoor mall with a much bigger corporate Hallmark. Looks like the area can no longer support two stores so close together. I think that is what we are experiencing in my area...so many Hallmark stores in close proximity.

Sue
Pasadena, Maryland

Ah, but gas is way down.
HMK may well price themselves out of the ornament business. I always wonder how many younger collectors are out there to take the place of the "older" ones who are now cutting back on ornament purchases.

Unfortunately, rising prices are a fact of life. Not saying we have to like them, but it is going to happen everywhere. Hallmark has to cover their costs, including artist salaries, etc. If they don't raise prices then they will go out of business completely and we won't have any ornaments to collect.

Again, not saying I like it, but it is a fact of life. Unfortunately, we have to learn to deal with it everywhere.

Also, if the ornaments go up, the price for the stores to buy the ornaments to sell goes up.

Why not scale back on the line? They make too many. Too many new series every year. Too many Santas and snowmen and Mickey and princesses and football players. Cut them back some. Cut back the tabletop decorations. Save money by cutting the freebie ornament given if you buy an ornament at Premiere and Debut. Cut the December "special price" ornament. Don't know about the rest of you, but I saw a ton of the jingle ornament. Can't recall the name since I didn't buy it in December (even though the clerk pointed out the special price). Cut the continuity program (Peanuts was this year's); it's not like the old continuity ornaments from the 1990s where you got the ornament for less than the regular ornament prices (usually $4.95 each).

I'm wary of the idea to scale back the line because it's the ornaments that don't sell as well that I often like the most. It's not easy finding that balance of what appeals to collectors and non-collectors.

I have no problem paying what Hallmark asks for their ornaments so long as their designs appeal to me, are of good quality, and I'm treated with courtesy and respect.

I buy what I most want at full retail price, what I want but don't need at a discount after Christmas.

As a customer, I tire of sorting through a mix of good and bad products, and whether or not a "sale" item is a good value or not. I stopped shopping at stores like Macy's for this reason years ago.

Lisa

I tend to side with Luckdragon on the size of the ornament line.

With 300+ ornaments, Hallmark could easily scale down the ornament line to between 250 to 280 and still reflect a lot of choice and options for collectors and the general audience. 5 Snowman instead of 10, 1 Scooby-Doo instead of 2.

If they are not going to utilize the larger line to give people unique designs, characters and styles there is not point to have such a big one.

Faster, I side with luckdragon most of the time.

Your comment on how many snowmen ornaments there are each year gave me an idea...

Just for fun, I thought it would be interesting to see which snowmen ornaments Yulelog forum members bought or wanted to buy for themselves, or for others as gifts, from the 2015 collection.

Before you take the poll, look at the list of 29 ornaments and decide which 14 or 15 snowman ornaments you'd keep and which 14 or 15 you'd eliminate based on the interests of Hallmark ornament collectors and customers who only buy a few ornaments each year.

Or try to guess which 14 or 15 ornaments were the most popular.

Here's the poll...

http://www.yulelog.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=290691#Post290691

It will conclude on Sunday, January 17th at midnight.

Lisa

It's not getting rid of ornaments that I personally don't like. It's like what Faster said. 5 snowmen are fine. You don't need 10. It's the multiples. We didn't really need 5 Beauty of Birds ornaments this past year. We don't need the premium cardinal reissued. I doubt they had that many leftover to reissue them for that reason (the cross couldn't have been leftover like that, they could just do a new cross, duh). I love my Disney ornaments, but I don't mind if they want to scale them back a bit. They do quite a lot. I definitely don't buy all of the Disney ornaments either, so it's not that I can't control myself.

I do think they should nix the Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Story talking ornaments since they cannot get the rights to the original voices. Silent ornaments for those movies are perfectly fine. My favorite Oz ornament is Off to See the Wizard from 2005. The only thing that could have made it better would be Toto, but the point is it's well sculpted, represents the movie, and no fake voices (doesn't have any voices). My favorite A Christmas Story ornament is also a silent one. The 2006 Bunny Suit. The sculpting is superb. I don't need talking ornaments to have nice ornaments. The reviews on the fake voice ornaments are usually horrible, yet the things still seem to sell so I guess it's why they continue.

luckdragon, I think we were writing and posting at the same time.

The quality of the ornaments is important to me. Cost cutting messes that up. Remember the Beauty of Birds ornament that had glitter instead of crystals? That was done to cut costs.

I also like to have lots of choices because I like to see new, innovative designs as well as new series and collections each year. At the same time, I also like some of the older ongoing series and unofficial series ornaments, also tried and true themes.

I end some series early, and sometimes sell or donate series ornaments that I'm no longer enjoying, though that's rare.

I'm happy with the way Hallmark is doing things for the most part, though I do feel they do over do it some of the time.

Winnie the Pooh, Looney Tunes, Wizard of Oz, and more recently, Beauty of Birds, immediately come to mind. Thankfully, I have no interest in collecting Disney which has saved me a lot of money over the years.

Lisa