Buy All The Toys You Need Now, Because Prices Are Going Up

Just buy ’em and scrape off the lead paint. Why? Because toy makers will be passing the cost of higher-quality and better-made toys on to you next year. Says one analyst, “Anything that’s a new introduction, you can make that price point $19.99 rather than $14.99.”

One source of extra costs is an increased inspection schedule. RC2—the company behind the infamous chinese poison train—used to inspect random batches of toys and perform factory inspections twice a year; now, they inspect every batch of toys several times and have bumped up the inspection rate to every quarter. Mega Brands, the company that recalled its Magnetix toys for magnet hazards, has increased its inspection schedule from twice a year to every two weeks.

The result, as another analyst tells Reuters, is “increased monitoring of toy safety could eventually result in a ‘mid- single-digit’ price increase for consumers.”

“U.S. parents want safer toys, but will cost them” [Reuters]
(Photo: Getty)

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