Say Hello to the Christmas/Seasonal/Holiday Cards.

I find unnerving that it is time to put the boxed holiday cards on display. For one thing, it means we are that much closer to Christmas. For another, I'd wait a little longer, but if we wait too long, our customers will have bought their cards elsewhere.

Mel came up to me and said that she didn't send cards, but that seeing ours made her want to send some. Well that's the reaction I'm hoping for in our customers as well.

One of the things that I've had to accept over the years is that I have to be a bit more conservative about our boxed assortments whereas I can go a bit wild for loose cards. When you find just just the right card, it's usually works for one person, not twelve.

Our mix is pretty similar to last year, aside from moving the last of the most stylized lines to loose only. I think Saturn is the only letterpress line we carry in boxed. The two lines we increased, due to particularly strong sell through, are Pomegranate and Peter Pauper.

And while I say our boxed lines are conservative, there's not a Hallmark or American Greetings in the bunch. There's a nice assortment of Madison Park, Galison (which is said to be folding into Chronicle next year), and Nouvelle Images. Last year we ordered some loose cards from Running Rhino (also distributed by Madison Park) but they sent boxed instead. We wound up having a decent enough sell through to keep them as a minor boxed line.  The only new boxed line I brought in this year is Fotofolio. There's a William Wegman design from them, as well as a Saul Steinberg. The Keith Haring was listed as out of stock. And as usual, almost every boxed card I bought from Design Design was out of stock by July. I think I ordered eight designs and they shipped three.

The cards took over the cookbook display space, and the cookbooks moved to the rock and roll novel table. Now I just have to get the Halloween table ready!