Please Don't Get Ripped Off
I Am Listening Now And Doing Something About It!

Hello Fellow Toy Inventor!

My name is Rob Bishop, I am the owner of Binkley Toys Inc. and this is my website.

A Big Problem Hits Close To Home

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was October of 2002 and Mary Reynolds, a good business friend of mine had called me in tears. She was a good corporate customer of mine who didn't think twice about ordering large orders of 50,000 to 100,000 pieces. They had 40 trade shows every year and gave out thousands of toys at every show. Mary was also a Mother of two and had a stuffed toy idea that she was looking to invent and wanted to sell.

Trying To Save A Buck

A year before she was asking if I would help her work on her toy. I gave her my best advice that I had and corrected a few assumptions that she was making. Mary asked me if I would be offended if she used someone else with a lower price. An alarm went off in my head but I wanted to make sure I was fair with her since the company she worked for was such a great customer. So a year had past since she first started and I was now on the phone with her and she was in tears. Since it was October, it was too late to do anything about getting her new toys for Christmas. The biggest shopping day of the years (Black Friday) was weeks away and even with all of my skill, connections and production capabilities I wouldn't be able to save the day.

She was a smart woman. She tried her best to work through another small supplier who promised a quick delivery time and cheaper prices. At her big corporate job she didn't think twice about spending six figures on our custom toys, but this was different. This was her own money now and her family depended on her.

That is the day I decided to make a difference! I decided that I wouldn't allow another individual to get sucked in by companies over promising and under delivering. I had made great money from working with the big companies but I now saw a need for my expertise.

She had been so excited and passionate about her toy idea that she was ripe to be 'sucked in'. Mary was so frustrated, upset and had lost a lot of her family's money. She had been told incorrect information and had been made false promises. Her excitement and creativity had been used against her. But it doesn't have to be that way!

Before I tell you about how I am helping people now, let me tell you how this all got started.

I want you to question everything you read and hear on my website and especially on other websites that you go to. I have no interest in "selling you" something that is not a good fit for you, but I also do not want you giving your money to the 'rip offs' that are out there. I have made my money in business by dealing with the 'big boys' from corporations like Serta, McDonalds, Boeing and other big money companies.

Strict Standards

Serving those huge corporations was not easy money of course. They have very strict standards. You have to match their logo colors exactly, and if they have a trade show you need to be on time, early or they throw all the toys back at you. They take International Safety Standards and cut them in half making us comply with Super strict safety rules. They inspect our factories looking for poor and inhuman working conditions.

Of course I was happy because I was dealing with orders that were 50,000 - 100,000 and 250,000 pieces at a time. But this is where it gets ugly...

Sad Phone Calls and People Getting Ripped Off

As time passed, I was getting the same phone calls. An example is one woman from Florida who had sent money to an 'agency' promising to market her stuffed toy idea, or a man I remember from California who thought it was cheapest to use a factory direct from China. It was the same type of phone calls over and over with only a few details different. These people were looking for me to track down their contacts in China, or fix toys they received from an agent in the USA. They had lost thousands of dollars because they were looking for a quick and cheap deal.

I really hate talking about that time with all of those phone calls, because I feel bad that I wasn't doing more to help them. And then that changed...

How It All Began

I left University and was thinking about what I should do about a career. What did I know then? I promised my father I would help him with his business. He had run the same business since 1974. As I worked in his t-shirt business, I put pressure on my father telling him that I wanted to make more money. I was working 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. After pushing him for more money, he decided a second company was the answer.

I was busy running his t-shirt production and he mentioned buying a stuffed toy company that he had done printing for called Binkley. It was a Teddy Bear company that manufactured stuffed toys locally. It was a very successful toy company at one time, selling its toy line to retailers all over North America but that company was getting squeezed out of the market because its toys weren't made in China. Binkley's sales were below $70,000 which was too low to keep it going. My father purchased it and went to work. I knew that he was spending a lot of time with the new business and he was complaining about the manager that came with that toy company. At this point I still had nothing to do with the toy company, but that changed fast!

When Everything Stopped!

I remember that day like no other. My father threw up his hands and looked at me and said I could do what I wanted with the toy company. He was done. He was frustrated with the manager that came with the company, as well as the sales were not coming through as he had hoped. I really didn't know what I was talking about at the time, but I agreed to try my luck making the toy company work and said that I would give it a shot. I guess that is the optimism of youth. I had no idea what I was getting in to.

This all started a decade long struggle. I won't bore you with all of the details, but here are some of the highlights.

Rock Bottom

Not only could I not increase my income, which was the plan, but I took a huge pay cut. This made it so the only option I had was to move in to a small 10' x 10' room in the back of the toy factory. I was living in the factory. I supervised staff during the day, and designed new toys at night.

I scrapped all the money I could together to pay for a booth at the International Toy Fair. I presented our locally made bears (super expensive because they weren't made in China) and nobody was very interested. People kept smiling politely at my stuffed toys and then they would say "That is nice, but can you make my toy idea?"

That is where CustomPlushToys.com came from. That is what led me to dealing with the big corporations and making their toys.

The Next Decade In A Paragraph!

I spent a decade studying hard simply because I had to so that the company could survive and my father and I could get out of debt. Looking back I am not sure if I was being stupid or being loyal to my father and not leaving him with that debt. Let's say it was loyalty. I was learning on the job about selling to businesses, selling wholesale, selling retail, selling on the internet, selling at trade shows and so on.

I was asked to speak at Colleges about selling on the internet. My website at the time which I built from scratch (they didn't have fancy software back then to build websites - you used Notepad) was selling tons of toys online. That site which sold the locally made bears online as gift items, was featured in a book called Selling Online by Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead. This book was officially endorsed by Visa which was a huge accomplishment since the banks were not very excited about the internet back in the year 2000. Developing that retail site allowed me to master the art of convincing people to give me money over the internet. Mastered international logistics (shipping stuff around the world) and I grew an intimate understanding about what an individual wants and needs who is trying to invent their own stuffed toy.

Which brings us back to the point when I decided that I was sick of those phone calls where you have been ripped off again by someone promising the world and delivering crap, or worse ...nothing.

Don't take my word for it. Look at some basic facts.

Made In China -Bad Right?

When you call me and say, "I don't want my stuffed toy to say Made in China" what do you want me to tell you?

The facts are that my company was one of the last stuffed toy factories in North America. And if I could make loads of money by manufacturing toys that say Made in USA, I would still be doing it. But people don't want to pay $28 for a stuffed toy. They want to pay $5 for a stuffed toy. Look at your shoes, look in the hood of your car. All the parts are made overseas if the whole product isn't. I am not looking at getting in to a debate over whether we should save our manufacturing jobs or not, what I am saying that in the toy industry, Made in China has won. There are no other options. (other than Made in Mexico or Made in Philippines) I bet on the Made in USA idea and I lost 5 years out of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars so trust me, your choices are Made in China, or doing nothing and putting your stuffed toy idea on the shelf until next Christmas when you will be kicking yourself for not having done something about that nagging excitement in your belly.

I have no interest in you choosing my company as the one you would like to work with by scaring you. No. If any of my insider secrets disturb you, then it is best that you not make a stuffed toy at all, rather then sign up with my company. I do not tell you any of this to 'sell you' but rather, I just don't want anymore of those terrible phone calls.

But It Takes So Long

When you have dealt with where the toys will be made you will start to get so excited about getting your toys made that you will want your toys created, manufactured and in your hands tomorrow. You are excited to get started and that is normal to want to see the results fast That is the society we live in these days. There are ways to fast track a new idea, but be careful. Please! I don't want you to be another phone call to my office saying that you bought in to the idea that some company could get you custom toys in your hands in 10 weeks or 8 weeks, or even 6 weeks. This is crazy to think this. There are physical limitations that prevent any company on the planet from getting your phone call and having a unique custom stuffed toy on your doorstep in 6 weeks.

The Magic Toy Company

Give me a few minutes and I will tell you some ways that they CAN do it, and at your expense.

They Send You Stock Toys

1) The 'magic' toy company can take all of your well thought out ideas for your new stuffed toy idea, ignore them, take a stock toy off of a shelf, put it in to a box and ship it to you. This is one type of phone call I get, where the product shows up and it looks nothing like how they described. Now, I am not talking about someone being picky, I am talking about a person who received toys that looked nothing like what they asked for. This is after you have wired (wiring your money is a method of payment from bank to bank - there is no way to get a refund and this is the only way that this 'magic' toy company will accept your payment) all of your money to the toy company.

You should be looking for a toy company that gets your approval on every step. This will ensure that your toys show up looking how you want. I spent years developing what I call the SEED system. This guarantees that the toys look the way you want.

I will tell you about the SEED system when you get a quote.

They Ship Express On Your Account - Ouch!

2) The 'magic' toy company can make your product, and they may look pretty close to the way that you wanted. After telling you that there were some additional charges that you must pay before shipping you are still happy because the total price is still below what you were quoted from my company. You are then told the goods are ready for shipping and they need your UPS, Fed Ex or DHL number. You don't have one, so they tell you that you must get one. You get one, and they ship the goods to you. Well, if the goods do make it into the country (skirting 3 dozen rules and regulations) then you find yourself writing checks to several companies for dozens of charges. The courier (UPS, Fed Ex or DHL) charges alone will equal the expense of the toys. Yes, I am saying that the shipping charges will cost as much as the toys themselves since they were shipped Express, and not by ocean which is way cheaper. Then you have an arms length worth of fees that may or may not be included in the courier fees. DDC, Brokerage, Duty, Customs, Paper Handling, Fuel Surcharges, Reg. No., Surety Bond, Dock Charges, and so on. This is about when you pick up the phone and call me, wondering how you can get out of paying all of these fees. At that point my price is looking much more reasonable.

When you get a quote you will understand how our 5 point Guarantee works. You only get a final invoice for exactly what we said it would be. No Surprises! Guaranteed. If your toys get inspected by customs at the border, which with heightened security levels this is more common then ever, I won't be sending you the bill.

Now You See Them...Now You Call Me!

3) One of the worst calls I get is from the woman who did her homework, wasn't trying to get a 'great' deal, did what the toy company told here to do, and she still lost. When she saw her new toy for the first time, she had some changes. She emailed or faxed the changes to her toy manufacturer and waited. If she did see changes come back to her they were wrong. So she politely requested the changes again. When she doesn't hear back for several weeks she escalates the number of calls, or her intensity. This is when normal people turn ugly and start to say things they would be embarrassed to be repeated back to them later. She leaves messages cursing the man she has been speaking to and his entire family...I am exaggerating somewhat here, but you see what I am getting at. The next thing she knows, the emails bounce back, the calls and faxes get a "this number is not in service" message and she has nothing.

There are several other types of calls I receive but these are the main ones.

Do Your Homework

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