Have you experienced the magic of Department 56 Villages?

2014 marks the first year that Beacon's Glow Collectibles is "officially" carrying Department 56 Villages and accessories.

We were leery about taking the plunge to carry this line of collectibles as it is quite an investment from a retailer's point of view.  There are so many different Village Collections (to include Halloween) that it requires this company to publish a catalog that is 119 pages!  (And the catalog, for the most part, contains only villages and accessories that come from the current year).

Got our first official taste at how really versatile and amazing Dept 56 is when the owner of Beacon's Glow decided to put together a Halloween vignette using Department 56 Snow Village Halloween pieces.  We thought that the finished product turned out quite well, don't you?

Included in this vignette were:

Another Prince Croaks 4036600

Autumn Moss 4037201 (not even one bag)

Boneyard Luminaries 4038898 (these LED lights actually change colors!)

Purple Twinkle Bright Tree 56.53272 (an old D56 favorite)

Toads and Frogs Witchcraft Haunt 4036591 (New for 2014)

Scary Pumpkin Lit Tree 4038913

So very cool to display for your Halloween decorating!

Quote of the Day - "Storms make oaks take roots." - Proverb

NEW Lower Prices on Many Collectible Brands

In addition to our already very competitive prices, we have lowered the price on many of the brands that we carry.

To help save our customers more money while shopping for a collectible either for themselves of as a gift, the following brands have been reduced in price even more.

• Department 56
• Jim Shore
• Snowbabies by Department 56

Please also note that we will be reducing the overall pricing on Boyd's Bears as well in the near future.  We expect that this will occur after we are able to take a physical inventory of both prior and new inventory coming in.  (As most of you might already know, Boyd's by Enesco is closing their doors at the end of 2014).

Thanks for your continued support!  After almost being in business for 11 years, it is you, our customer, who is the most important!

Quote of the Day - "If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius." - Joseph Addison

Huge Disappointment in Boyd's by Enesco

This morning we received an email from Enesco (current distributor of Boyd's Bears) informing us that more than 75% of our backorders were being cancelled.  We were shocked and extremely disappointed, once again, in how unprofessional Enesco has handled this situation.

As hopefully most of you know, Boyd's Bears is closing their doors at the end of 2014.

There are currently 18 items that we have on backorder (and that are supposed to be delivered in the next several weeks).

This news has greatly disappointed several loyal Boyd's collectors and we can certainly see why.  We had no idea that this cancellation was going to take place and it was handled poorly.

But, on a more positive note, many of our loyal Boyd's customers over the years are switching to either Bearington Bears or Steiff Bears.

We are sorry to say that once our stock of Boyd's is sold, they can never be reordered again.

Quote of the Day - "Character is like a tree and reputation is like its shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." - Abraham Lincoln

Big Changes at Madame Alexander Dolls

Just received in our Fall 2014 Madame Alexander Doll Catalog and have noticed quite a change since last year's catalog.  The Alexander Doll Company is now predominately gearing their dolls towards children and babies with their 18 inch dolls, baby dolls, and just recently their introduction of hand puppets. (Their baby dolls do not include either collectible Pussycat or Huggums baby dolls either).

There are only a small handful of 8-inch Wendy and 12-inch Cissette dolls in this collection, and even some of those dolls have been brought back from previous years.  Clara, The Nutcracker is one of these dolls. This will be the third year she was brought back as she was a very popular doll.

Very disappointing as it appears that this company is now targeting a different generation.  And it also seems that most baby boomers have become more selective in their collectible doll choices, and therefore, are not ordering as many Madame Alexander dolls as they used to.

Isn't it interesting that most children of baby boomers have no desire to collect dolls or teddy bears? We get several customers hoping that their grandchildren will develop a passion for collecting like their grandparents have.  We can only hope that this will happen.

In conclusion, it is our hope that the Alexander Doll Company will continue to survive with their new mix of products.  But for the meantime, their offerings do not suit our customer base, and therefore, we will discontinue ordering any new dolls at this time.  Of course, this can change in the future and we hope that it will.

Please stay tuned as we introduce new sales on our existing stock of Madame Alexander Dolls.

Quote of the Day - "Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." - Babe Ruth