[Marcus Weber]

in reply to: Be honest – how many of y’all have bought stuff that technically wasn’t “consumer legal”? #5788

As a pyrotechnician, I feel compelled to mention that the difference between 1.4G and 1.3G is there for a reason and it’s not just bureaucracy. The energy release is dramatically different. That said…

What I find interesting is the cultural difference. In Germany/Central Europe, category F3 (roughly equivalent to your 1.4G) is restricted to people with permits, and F4 is display-only. But countries like Poland sell F3 to basically anyone with an ID. So you have Germans driving to Poland every December to load up their cars with stuff they can’t legally buy at home.

Same dynamic, different continent. The “loud and illegal” market exists everywhere there’s regulation. The question is whether the regulation is actually making things safer or just creating black markets. But that’s probably a whole different thread lol.

[Marcus Weber]

in reply to: America 250 fireworks sales were insane this year – anyone else notice prices went nuts? #5781

Interesting to read this from the US side. Here in Germany the 250th anniversary didn’t really affect our market obviously lol, but we had our own thing – the EU finally harmonized some of the transport regs for Cat F2/F3 fireworks earlier this year so importing got a bit easier across borders.

But I gotta say, $120 for Excaliburs?? In Poland I can get equivalent 500g cakes for maybe 35-40 euro. You guys are getting robbed tbh. Though I guess when demand spikes like that, the market does what it does.

Curious – did the 250th affect professional display companies too or was it mainly consumer retail that went crazy?

[Marcus Weber]

in reply to: That Liuyang factory explosion – is anyone else worried about what this means for next year’s supply? #5784

From the European side I can give some perspective. We had a similar situation in 2023 when a factory in Spain had a major incident and the EU tightened CE certification requirements. Prices jumped about 15-20% across the board and some smaller manufacturers never recovered.

But here’s the difference – China’s fireworks industry is massive and pretty resilient. Liuyang alone has like 500+ factories. Even if they shut down 50 of them, that’s only 10%. The bigger issue imo is shipping costs and port congestion, which was already a problem BEFORE the explosion.

What I find interesting is whether this pushes more US importers to diversify. I know some are already looking at factories in Jiangxi province instead of just Liuyang. Could change the whole supply map.

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