We are having good success selling signature frames for birthday celebrations. We first got onto these when we were having trouble getting birthday keys. Now, we have them in all of our stores. We sourced them through Gibson. They carry a good margin and fit well with the greeting card department. We have tried a range of birthday mementos and these frames are working the best for us.
Talking of birthday keys have you tried a local wood worker ,that is what we did he makes them up as we require them generally within 2 days and they sell for about $70 each and the beauty if it is we do not carry any stock just a few samples of what he has and just take orders for them and if someone cannot wait we just sell them the sample one and then get it replaced .
Thanks for the suggestion. I have been wondering about alternatives to the keys we used to get from the card company.