Barter Syndication Tops $3 Billion

Veronis Suhler Stevenson projects barter syndication for TV shows to ring up $3.19 billion in 2008, a 4.7% increase over this year’s estimated $3.05 billion.

Perot Moves Magna Carta

Texas billionaire (and barterer extraordinaire) Ross Perot acquired the famed Magna Carta document that laid the foundation for fundamental principles of English law in 1984, for $1.5 million.

Sotheby’s will subsequently auction off the document, which was signed by King John of England in 1215, and expects to bring Perot $20 million to $30 million. Perot owns the only private copy in existence. (The British government and some educational institutions in England own copies as well.)

Quote of the week:

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

—Will Rogers


Major Retail Chains Aim To Increase Gift Card Sales

Archstone Consulting’s new study predicts sales of holiday gift cards will jump 25%, to a record $35 billion this year, as retailers become more savvy at marketing them (outside their own stores, at supermarkets and drug stores, for example) to time-strapped shoppers.

This year’s projected increase would follow last year’s record-breaking gain, when gift card sales surged 55% to $28 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

Their popularity with the retailers revolves around the several benefits:

· Gift cards take up little floor space, yet can generate big sales.

· Plus shoplifting is less of a problem, because cards aren’t activated until purchased.

· Cultural acceptance has grown dramatically over the last three years.

The future of gift cards is the growing popularity of those issued by banks, because they can be redeemed anywhere.

Hide The Plastic…Consumer Debt Continues To Grow

U.S. consumers are carrying a record $2,456 trillion in debt (not including mortgages). And the amount of revolving credit, such as for credit cards, is growing at 6% annually. Now, with the recent lower interest rates (from the Fed cut), it’s possible the debt could grow even more.

Americans carry 1.2 billion credit cards and more than 44 million households carry balances on those cards of almost $2,500 trillion, that averages $8,025 month-to-month.

If you want to get off the credit card treadmill you will want to read this article:

DEBT

Beer For Diesel Fuel

Delta Beverages of Harare, Zimbabwe, an operator of 14 breweries and a supplier to 9,500 retailers countrywide, has entered into a barter deal with a South African company. They will be bartering beer for an estimated 800,000 litres of diesel fuel. (Delta requires one million litres a month of diesel for its far-flung operations.)

Americans Want To Give Illegals A Chance

A recent June Pew Research Center poll found that 59% of Americans want to give illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens. There are 44 million Hispanics in America and one-quarter of them aren’t citizens. (Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in America, at 14% of the population.)

From The Desk is the first segment of The Tuesday Barter Report. To read the current issue see right-hand column, scroll down to “Top Resources.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 2:08 am and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.