Holiday Greeting Card Business More Than Just Extra Income

A new specialty greeting card franchise started early and judging by the line, you would think its black friday already!

Seattle, Washington (I-Newswire) September 11, 2012 - Its the second week in September and already I am starting to see the early beginnings of the holiday season. Walmart started putting out their Trim-a-Tree Section as well as Costco, and even the mall began clearing the area for Santa's Wonderland. The anticipation of the upcoming holiday season is exciting and in one vendor's case, very lucrative!

I visited the Festival Flea Market this weekend and while all looked status quo for most of the vendor's, one could barely keep up with all the holiday business. Bopping Heads of Seattle, a franchisee of Bopping Heads Entertainment was producing specialized video greeting cards as well as bobble-head custom greeting cards, and the crowd was all-in.

The company, Bopping Heads, is a product by Thunder Ridge Entertainment which specializes in those Elf Yourself style videos. Except that Bopping Heads takes a video of yourself (as opposed to a still picture) and places you atop a dancing elf, snowman, reindeer, etc., then places it onto a DVD which becomes part of a snow globe when it is snapped into the matching greeting card. They also sell custom bobble-head greeting cards which when the recipient opens the card, your head (atop an elf's body) will jump out and bobble just like a bobble head doll.

"These genius products are about the most unique holiday gift accessories that I have ever seen," said Ely Hawthorne, general manager for the flea market. "I told them that I thought their product was so strong and unique that they shouldn't wait until November to get started, and at this point it looks like we are going to have to move their booth as the long line of customers waiting are blocking other vendors as well as a fire lane."

Bopping Heads Entertainment manufactures the hardware and produces the animated dancing videos (over 800 of them with new ones released every month). The company boasts over 170 independent operator's on 5 continents and after watching the people waiting in line for one of these unique greeting cards, I wanted to find out more information on this business opportunity.

"I didn't know what to expect when I opened Bopping Heads in the flea market," said John Dilly, the person who purchased the franchise here in Seattle. I first saw the company at an amusement park in Los Angeles where the line was so long, that I just wrote the phone number down and called when I got home. A week and a half later, I was an owner, and two weeks later, I am now opened for business which is working out fantastic!" Dilly plans to open a second and possibly a third location before the holiday season gets into high gear in November.

The business also produces every-day Bopping Heads videos which are actually as equally popular after the holidays are over. Holiday greeting cards are a multi-billion dollar industry. While John Dilly doesn't plan on becoming an overnight billionaire, he is hoe hoe hoe-ing all the way to the bank!