Nobody asked, but I caught the premiere and became worried that my hearing was failing. So I rang Ruby to ask if it was true that Fanny is hawking her LaLande cards for 12 euros each!!!! Surely Ruby, I said, I must have misheard. But Ruby says there is nothing wrong with my hearing and its true. Ruby overheard Fanny and Snorts discussing it in the Grand Salon. They discussed 7 euros, but reckoned they could get more if they said they were made in Italy rather than admit it was a factory in China. So they hiked the price to 9 euros but then Snorts said selling them for less than 10 would make them look cheap. Fanny then said 11 euros and that if you bought 10 cards you could have them for 100 euros. But Snorts pointed out that you should never offer discount at the launch. Fanny said as they weren't giving a discount, they could go for 12 euros. SInce the viewing finished, the orders have been piling in and they now think they should have asked 15 - at least. And Ruby said they were going to get some porcelain Lalandes made and say they were made in collaboration with Ardmore, Limoges, the King of Prussia's potter and Spode but in reality the factory in China would offer a huge discount for repeat business. They are talking up the price of those before the orders have been placed - hundreds of pounds each. But then Fanny said they would need to offer something to their poorest patrons. They are also going to make little plastic Ratsos for the grannies on low incomes so they have something to buy their friends for Christmas. 25 euros each or a set of Ratso 1 and 2 for 49.50 euros.
