01/11/2023
Today I got the news for Betallic what it would take to get the Big Bear Heads produced again in a Special Run. Just to be very clear, they will not become a standard stock item again. They will only be available for purchase through me or the Retail balloon store who has agreed to help me sell them. So, I am going to be as completely honest with you and open up to you about my feelings and concerns about going ahead with purchasing the big bear head balloons. I have done a lot of soul searching and spent a lot of time talking to friends today who also use the big bear head or run their own successful businesses. Many of my closets friends have advised me against making this purchase. As I posted earlier to the page for Big Bear Head Supporters, the new price for big bear heads to me will be close to $20 a bag of 50 count. To have a single color produced, I will have to have a run of 250 bags per color or a minimum of 6 batches. Basically, for me to undertake this project, I need to invest about $30,000. Now, I have been setting aside money for this project for some time and I had been thinking it would run between 20 to 30 thousand to do it, but I thought I would be able to get more bags and a variety of colors for that price. I never imagined the price would be so much higher than it had been 5 years ago, but I understand that production costs have really increased to the balloon manufacturer and that they would be better off not taking the time to produce them with the current shortages they are facing.
Over the past few years knowing that big bear heads were going to be discontinued forever, I personally started making most of my sculptures out of 260’s, 360’s and rounds. I realized I could survive just fine without the big bear heads if necessary. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of not having them for the designs I created and love, really hurt me, but I know I will be fine without them. So would all of you. The bigger question though, is how much are you willing to invest personally and how much am I willing to invest/risk personally to get them produced again. My answer to that is $15,000. That means that I need all of you collectively to think really hard about if the big bear heads are worth .40 to .60 cents per balloon to you and if you are willing to risk buying enough of the colors they will be available in to last the next 3 to 5 years. And yes, the new run will be good for at least 5 years. The big bear heads any of you currently have are from 2019 or longer. I have some that are 10 years old and are still fine. If there were enough of you willing to pre-pay for 11 to 30 bags of the combined colors to equal $15,000, I would put up the other $15,000. I honestly think it will take me about 3 years to recoup that $15,000 as many people who currently use them and many people who have barely used them will not be willing to spend the money to get more. There are definitely a few of you who have pledged to me to buy $500 to $1000 worth of combined colors of big bear heads to make this happen. Others are pledging to buy a total of 6 to 15 bags.
I have done some simple calculations and I have decided to do presales of the special run colors at the following prices if I can get $15,000 or 750 bags in presales. People buying 1 to 10 bags will get the price of $28 a bag of a solid color. People buying between 11 to 20 bags will get the price of $25 per bag. People buying between 21 to 30 bags will get the price of $22 a bag. If you buy between 31 to 49 bags, the price would be $20 a bag. People buying a box of 50 will get the price of $20 a bag plus free shipping. Any mixed bags of big bear heads will be $30 a bag. I will have to take the time to count and bag the assortment of colors. They no longer will be pre-packed in assorted bags.
The colors I will be doing special runs of are Bubblegum, White, Coffee and Orange. I will choose to do 2 more colors that prove to be in big demand. I am thinking Red, Yellow or Light Blue. I know Lilac, Gray and Black are also colors that many of you want, but Black goes bad too quickly to gamble my money without at least 200 bags of black alone being pre-sold. Also, I personally have enough private stock of Lilac, Lime Green, Fashion Blue, Yellow and Red to last me my lifetime of use.
So, right now ask yourself, how much do you really want to keep the big bear heads around? Ask yourself if you can get enough of your friends to go in on an order with you to get a box of 50 of a combination of 6 different colors. Ask yourself what colors you believe you can commit to using over the next 5 years.
We only have a small window of opportunity right now to make this happen. The longer we wait to get them produced, the more likely most of us will decide we really don’t need them. The longer we wait to place the order, the more likely they will have disposed of the mold and it will not even be a possibility of ever having them produced again. Additionally, right now they have the room in their production schedule to do the colors I requested, but that window of opportunity is very brief and may not happen again for 6 months to a year. If I order by Friday, we could have them by the middle of February.
I personally promise all of you that I will do my best to share several designs of the colors we would get. I also implore all of you to share the designs you like to use. Please talk about how fabulous the big bear heads are for you personally. Help me motivate people to keep using the big bear head.
We have already lost so many shapes and sizes available to us as twisters. PLEASE help me keep the big bear head balloon around for years to come.
Feel free to message me personally with your color choices and quantity you are willing to get of a particular color. If it is a color that I am not personally wanting/needing, if I have plenty of it in stock, I will save it for you.
I am hopeful that enough of you will want to keep the big bear heads in production. Please don’t let me down.
