Christmas is only the beginning of the puzzle season. This past two months have been very hot for Gibsons Puzzles. Despite slower retail business overall the jigsaw puzzle trade has been going full blast. Perhaps retailers were a bit light on their puzzle ordering before Christmas. Since then we have has mostly complete re-orders of all last fall’s new items. Combine this with a general re-stock and you find a very healthy puzzle trade. We’ve also found that stores that cater to a more mature clientele are enjoying some big increases in puzzle trade. All in all for about $25 a jigsaw puzzle really can’t be beat for hobby value.

Gibsons have just announced their new 2009 range. There are a huge number of new puzzles and it may take a few weeks to see what our customers want. For Gibsons, even with their vast experience, consumers tastes vary and continue to change. The average age of a puzzle enthusiast is now over sixty and is, in fact, approaching seventy years of age. 1000 piece puzzles are still the most popular but larger piece puzzles are also proving more popular. Gibsons have introduced a new line of 250 piece puzzles the piece sizes being 60% larger than a standard puzzle piece size. The pieces are not a large as in the 500 piece extra large range but are somewhere between the two. The price point of the 250 piece puzzles will be the least expensive of the entire Gibsons range. Keep checking in for the actual images which will be posted over the coming weeks.