In the line of novelties, there are hundreds of things such as books, toys, games, photographs, perfumery, etc.
Small toys, not easily broken, and of light weight when packed, sell in immense quantities if advertised in November and December. Of course, the advertisement must be properly arranged, good journals used, and the price of the toy should be small.
“Frozen Perfumery.”
Millions of perfumed cakes of Plaster-Paris, put in small ornamented tin boxes, have been sold during the past ten years. These goods cost about 4 cents each, can be sold at ten cents, give satisfaction if well made and can be mailed at a cost of a cent each for postage, which will admit of the “wonder stone” being wrapped in a quantity of advertising circulars.
One or two ingenious advertisers put up packages of sachet powder and sell them as “Love Powders.” They are said to enable the recipient to “gain and maintain the love of another.”
Several Saleable Specialties.
Cheap books usually sell well if they [are] attractively written up and advertised in the right kind of papers. Millions of copies of certain books have been sold at ten cents through the mails. Of the Multum in Parvo Library, of which this little treatise is one, several millions have been sold at ten cents per set of twelve titles.
People readily buy Japanese napkins, sometimes advertised as handkerchiefs, (which they really are), but the great sale may be due somewhat to the fact that our country cousins do not really know what a Japanese crepe handkerchief is and fondly imagine that they are to get a fifteen inch pure silk affair. These goods can be procured of Japanese importers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities.
Cheap jewelry, such as rings, chains and the like, generally sell well. The prices should be low and the description must be strong, to attract trade, however.