If you’re searching for trendy niche market merchandise to sell this summer and fall, then look backward, savvy sellers. Look back to a Nostalgia and Vintage Fashion Trend in clothing, jewelry, hats and accessories: Summer of Love Update 2009.

It is no secret that rising gold prices made for a difficult jewelry holiday season. We listed in this blog in December how to keyword cope with gold prices that surged from $550 USD per ounce to $850 in three months. Tips included featuring prices in jewelry ads to move lower-priced, in-inventory), and looking to high-demand jewelry holidays (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day) to promote Buy Now Before the Price Increases ad messages for gold jewelry items.

$850 per ounce gold was the Good News. Now, near the end of 1stQuarter 2008, with the subprime mortgage lending crisis and decline of the U.S. dollar against currencies from Euro to Yen, gold tops $1,000 per ounce. The Trends Research Institute marked acceleration in overall wholesale costs to 7.4 percent in Jan 2008 (biggest jump since 1981) and the dollar’s slide against the euro and 6 other currencies to its lowest level since 1973 … ironically, the year Richard Nixon disconnected U.S. currency from the gold standard. This trends research institute predicted gold prices rising to $2,000 per ounce, a prediction made in Nov 2007!

So, what’s a jewelry wholesaler or retailer to do? Climb under the covers? Do weekly fire sales? Or gringe about the good ole days? Maybe not …

Hi-Ho Silver. In February, on reading December’s WholesaleU keywording tips to cope with rising gold prices, a BBJ Bangkok commenter said: “Yes, it was a holiday season that saw wholesale jewelry orders saddled with more silver orders.” And “wholesale gold jewelry will be out of the limelight for some time, (so) buyers might shift to silver jewelry.” BBJ Bangkok qualified the “saddled” as a positive, at least in Asian producer markets. Wholesale silver jewelry at the production end works on higher volume to hit the same margins as the gold trade, or employment boon for developing Asian countries who produce wholesale jewelry.

Trendy Bail-Out. Some fashion sources are predicting a trend for cocktail rings and costume jewelry that is heavy on non-precious metal components: Heavy seed pearl (faux pearl or semi-precious stone) overlays … shaped as flowers; mini enamel or cloisonné charms soldered into designs. For bargain-seekers – under $50 – who demand precious metal in their jewelry, gold- and silver-overlays are squeezing into price points.

Bling Accessories. Remember when DIY (Do It Yourself) became all the rage for home renovators? The increase in home self-renovations came with runaway prices in the real estate bubble. If you can’t sell, or can’t afford to buy at bubble-inflated prices, then you feather the existing nest. While waiting out the run up in gold (it may be a while), you might market other Bling to complete trendy looks, including accessories like designer and licensed scarves; handbags that triple as totes, beach bags and carry-alls; rhinestone and jeweled sweater wraps and glittery belts.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the Net Neutrality issue and how AT&T was fighting this legislation tooth and nail but then made a concession not to pursue two-tiered pricing on the Internet in return for getting FCC approval for it’s lucrative ATT-BellSouth merger.
However, this concession by ATT does not mean that the legislation is going to be passed. Republicans have historically opposed it while Democrats are in favor. Recently, two senators, one a Democrat (Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND) and the other a Republican (Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-ME) have introduced a bill to guarantee that Internet service providers do not discriminate against content providers with two-tiered pricing policies. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), head of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, plans to hold hearings on a newly introduced Net Neutrality bill later this year.
Both House and Senate refused to pass Net Neutrality legislation last year, and it could also be an uphill battle this year. The very nature of the Internet is threatened if Net Neutrality does not pass. It will no longer be a level playing field for all comers if two-tiered pricing is allowed to prevail, abandoning both free speech and commerce.
We at JP Communications support this legislation. Net Neutrality will guarantee that all companies and individuals, large and small, will have the same access to consumers on the Internet. This democratic principle lies at the foundation of the Internet and should remain intact as we go forward.

Those who advocate charging more for rich media delivery content are the big telcos (AT&T and Verizon) and the cable companies (Comcast). They propose a two-tiered pricing model that would allow companies who can afford it to pay more for getting their rich media pages loaded faster. Convenient for them, but not for everyone else.
Note that these opponents claim regulation of the Internet is unnecessary and will stifle investment, innovation and creativity. However, Net Neutrality is not about regulating the Internet. It is about regulating the carriers.
We need to keep the barriers to entry low on the Internet. This position is held by Net Neutrality advocates such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay, to name a few. Many of today’s Internet giants did not even exist in the early ‘90s. It was only because of the Internet’s low-entry barriers and ability to connect consumer with marketers that these Internet companies are worth billions of dollars today. This will never happen again if Net Neutrality legislation is not passed. If you work in any Internet marketing channel, I urge you to support Net Neutrality. I urge you to support Net Neutrality by contacting your Congressional Representative and Senators to let them know how you feel.

Jason Prescott

There are two things that fascinate me in just about equal proportions, politics and horrible web sites. I have always found that they both provide cheap laughs and plenty of things to legitimately fear. So when I came across this collection of “The Worst Political Web Sites” on CNET I was intrigued.

I would have thought given the absolute professionalism and high dollar stakes of modern political elections that all campaign websites would likely be drab but excruciatingly professional. I was very, very wrong. CNET’s collection contains websites as woefully incomplete or amateurishly painful to look at as anything I’ve ever seen.

In a way it’s refreshing that there is still room in the American political landscape for a blogging dog. Shawn O’Donnell’s pet, Josie assures us of her owner’s many terrific qualities and urges the voters of Virginia’s 1st congressional district to vote for the Democrat. While reading Josie the dog’s blog I learned the disturbing fact that Senator Edward Kennedy had a dog named Splash.

The most common problem shared among the bad campaign sites is simply not really having a website. The idea that any candidate in a modern political election could at this late date have place holding sites or sites “under construction” is incredible. But not nearly as incredible as the Independent candidate for congress in Nevada whose web site’s meta-tags include the keywords, Brittany Spears, car rental, scholarships, and baby names.

The list is a fair mix from both ends of the political spectrum and miserable web design knows no party affiliation. However, I did notice that awful Republican sites tended to offend the eye by their design, garish contrasting colors, sappy patriotic symbols, and lots of underlining and exclamation points. The Democrats, on the other hand, tended to have more irritating flash animation.

During the last week America Online has announced a number of changes to the way they are going to be doing business. Despite its media saturation, countless unsolicited cdrom mailings, and mainstream success all is not well at AOL and has not been for sometime. In the last four years America Online has lost more than 9 million subscribers.

Various well documented partnerships with other online companies, such as a special advertising relationship with Google, rumors of purchase by MSN, and attempts at a nation wide broadband venture, have all failed to return significant health to the company.

In another round of what some would call desperation moves AOL had made a number of services they used to charge for free. In an attempt to reach the broadband useing customers that have been fleeing AOL in droves AOL has now made its email and many of its softweare downloads free.

This point makes me wonder how AOL managed to continue in the belief that they could charge people for services that the industry standards set by Google, Yahoo, etc. have made free. Consumer expectations of free services from search engines has become higher over the years and AOL has lagged far behind.

The bad news change is that AOL has also announced plans to cut its workforce. The company expects to cut 5,000 jobs from its global workforce of 19,000.

“It sounds like the first shoe’s falling,” said David Hallerman, a researcher with the company eMarketer Inc. was quoted as saying in an AP story on the subject.”It’s clear that’s part of a large savings that AOL is going to have to go through. The biggest cost in any business is employees.”

True, and often the employees pay the biggest costs when belt tightening time comes.

With the rising costs in fuel, delivery of goods ordered are perceived to be down.
Deals are said to be hindered by the additional cost of shipping.
We would like to research how domestic importers and distributors are coping with this situation.

How are wholesalers reacting to the situation and minimizing having sales offset by this.

Are there existing co-op organizations in place for distribution of goods?

Is there a network being established or developed to reach out to smaller operations who are feeling the squeeze?

We produce a wholesale event in Las Vegas for the garment & home/gift industry and wish to be proactive in providing our customers with the latest information to manage their respective businesses and overcome this increasing hurdle.

We appreciate your time and feedback.
Dell Holden
Business Development Manager
Tarsus US Group / Off Price Specialist Shows
www.offpriceshow.com

The Trade Show Exhibitors Association has posted a list of upcoming trade shows in New Orleans that will be affected by Hurricane Katrina , including the AWMA show.

The American Red Cross is turning to online marketers for help by donating ad space for Katrina Relief.

A wealth of banner options are available at:

Donate Ad Space to Red Cross