Materials: Material supply has been pretty good, we have had issues with delivery over the holidays but that seems to be cleared up now and we aren't running into issues getting materials! I am praying this remains the case!
Metals Market: Materials are on the rise and they are rising quickly. With the instability in the economy I expect them to keep going up but we shall see! My gut feeling about it and all the financial advisors I listen to are saying it is going to keep going up now.
Silver $23.44 Gold $1835.50
Shipping: Shipping has been really strange this year. The reliable UPS had a shaky Christmas and were late more than they were on time and the completely unreliable usps was pretty accurate this year which I am happy to see with all the rate increases they have had. It would have been really ugly if they had terrible service and high prices! Don't forget that January 23rd all the shippers are raising prices again. USPS just got approval for a 7.8% increase on first class and a 6% increase on priority. Its going to an interesting year!
Inflation: We are getting emails from our suppliers stating they can no longer sustain the increased operating costs and are raising prices. So naturally we have to follow suit. We have been experiencing similar issue and have started raising prices as we are able to. IF metal prices spike higher we may have to close for several days to increase prices but we will try to avoid that and just update a bit at a time and as minimal as we need to, to keep things running smooth!
