Grading has started. Let's not beat around the bush, it is not looking good. All of our freebies, promos, and giant pins are quality checked. Then, standard 1.5" coins African Wild Dog thru Blue Jay.
We're seeing B-grade rates on average about 30%, and for one pin, as high as 58%. We aren't talking small issues, either - entire batches have metal issues caused by mold errors, huge drips of paint baked onto the wrong areas of the pin, or underfills that affect whole designs.
A large underfilled area on the head and forehead of a C3 bald eagle pin.
A large metal gash on a C3 Large Hyena pin.
A missing white fill on a C3 Large Trash Critters skunk character.
These are serious QA issues that are on the shittier side of my normal HUSTLE b-grades - most of what I'll sell as B-stock is rarely visible unless you're actively looking for problems.
I could write an essay about this, how it happens in the process of production, how frustrating it is, but I'm going to spare you guys most of it.
What's important, is that, I am not tolerating this from this factory again. B-grades have been usable enough for a bit that I can handle it, and I took a risk trusting them with what I thought were much simpler pins to manufacture.
This is the last set of new pins I will be ordering from this company. Both upcoming projects are already in the hands of different factories.
How does this affect C3?
No standard pins, at this time, are short on numbers. I have enough A's of everything I've opened so far to get you guys your stuff. There's a lot of B's, but, they'll find homes eventually.
There may be extremely limited retail numbers of some A-grade C3 coins until remakes come in.
At this time there is one pin that is 100% defective (Axolotl).
I am going to hold off on saying, for sure, that that's the only one.
Backers whose orders might be held up due to unshippable designs will be contacted at the end with options. We know for sure about the Axolotl, but I'll be doing the usual "replace, store credit, wait" song and dance with any pins I can't send out in good conscience.
I can't honor promo pin swap requests. I do not have enough A-grade pins to offer this without screwing over people who earned the A-grades. If you asked me for a shiny alt on a pin you bought, you will receive the antique version. The Early Bird and Night Owl will be most affected by this. If you are happy to take a B-grade, hit me up, and you can help give a few little fuckups good homes right off the bat.
This is extremely disappointing and frustrating for both of us, and if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know here or hit me at [email protected]. I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.
My priority is to get the rest of C3's pins graded and issues documented to start requesting remakes from the factory as soon as possible. I might be a little quiet for a week or two while I speedrun the rest of these little bundles of joy.
So, thankfully, carton 3/10 showed up today. Of course, it was given a dropoff window of the exact period of time I was deboning chickens this morning, but, it's here, it's safe, and me and the neighbors had a good laugh about it.
Before you ask, yes, it was left in the same spot on the porch in full view of the main road.
Let's celebrate with a few more pictures.
Every CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS pin is accounted for, so, that means it's time for grading and shipping some orders.
Soft enamel pins are different from hard enamel, and tend to throw different flaws. But, grading is not going to be too different of a process for these.
I'm going to get a head start on grading myself, starting from Axolotl and African Wild Dog, and shipping some qualifying orders as I go. But, in the coming weeks, I'm going to be training some helpers to do all the remaining pins at once.
What defines a B-GRADE C3 pin?
Missing fills in shapes
Super visible air bubbles in fills
Early tarnishing or pock marks in plating
Missing plating on pin areas
Missing antique on metal (shiny gold on antique pins)
Drips of enamel in the wrong areas
Rest assured - if this is your first rodeo, B-grade pins aren't destroyed. Grading helpers get pick of the litter on them, first, but they will all get loving homes. I toss them into event goodie bags, raffles, or I toss 'em at nonprofits. Any left go up for sale on the HUSTLE at a discount.
CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS-only backers and SPECIAL TIER BACKERS will be fulfilling first. If you're in that bracket, and your name's closer to the start of the alphabet, you may be getting tracking this week and weekend. This is not in error - your critters are on their way! You are not being charged and you are not shipping yet if you backed THE HYENA FAMILY and requested combined shipping. Hold tight!
Are there any pins YOU want to see photos of in the next couple of days? Let me know! There's over 70 pins, we have time.
For anyone keeping track, they were lined up in the most obstructive way possible on my housemates' front porch, in front of god and everyone, and missing one carton. I am consistently amazed that my landlord still lets me renew this lease.
The era of peace in the living room comes to an end once more. Goodbye, usable leisure space. It was nice knowing you. Every inch of spare real estate in this house is earning its HUSTLE tax writeoff these coming weeks.
Let's look at some shinies before I complain. Pins are here, they are gorgeous, some more than I could have ever expected from mockups.
These pictures are taken in 2 PM daylight, with a hard carry by my plant shelf lights. You can, for the first time, see the full unique effect of C3's translucent black background fills - they are pitch black in most lighting, but have a warm, fuzzy, sepia-esque glow in direct sun or harsh light. It's most visible on the raccoon pin here!
We are missing a carton with several very popular + sponsor designs.
FedEx is a company that strives to go above and beyond in failing their paying customers, and they, truly, never fail to disappoint. Carton 3 of 10 is still unaccounted for right now. I was told it'd show up here by 5 PM today, and, well, I'm writing this email at the normal time, so you know what happened.
I'm missing these coins:
Both regular and promo gold Early Bird Rooster
Both regular Crow + Cartoon Crow
Dalmatian
Duck toller
Eastern dragon
Eurasier
Foo dog
Gray squirrel
Great horned owl
Fate is funny like that. This just happens to be two of the custom sponsor pins, plus some of the campaign's most popular regular designs. I can't even get that mad about it because it's funny it shook out this badly.
The plan was to start grading this week, which will be going ahead. However, without some of my best selling pins, and one of our freebies in 50% of early bird orders, I can't send domestic single pledge orders.
Our rough fulfillment timeline is the same. Backer who ONLY got C3 will be going out first. We are still waiting on THE HYENA FAMILY's pins to arrive to Henrieke.
I would like to promise local pickups sooner rather than later, but with most of them containing one or more of the missing pins, I am going to hold off on announcing dates or locations just yet. We'll probably have one at an early September event.
Right now I'm going to trudge through the pile of pins, get everything QC'd, and make some very shitty phone calls to FedEx.
So, sorry to have another bummer of an update. Catch you next week, hopefully with the rest of my pins?
I got the news last night that this time, around, "the cheapest possible courier contract" means "shot towards my house via FedEx as fast as possible." The factory just sent me the tracking for C3's pins earlier this week. They're arriving stateside this Monday.
We have a truly insane amount of pins showing up, and I expect FedEx to handle it about as well as FedEx does. There's a fully unserious backer poll about it you can have fun with.
Vote below about how CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS pins make their entrance!
Priority orders will be going out Monday, but I'll be waiting a little bit longer until I have some extra hands on deck to get the majority of grading done. We will still not be charging THE HYENA FAMILY combined shipping backers yet.
This is going to be a genuinely quick one - I am having a truly, hilariously, wild time behind the scenes, the emergencies do not stop, but neither do I.
I'm about to go clean up some commissions and get DOG CRIMES ready to launch after this email goes out.
The HUSTLE is open again for a week, with all CRIMES pins and GOLDEN AGE PARROTS pins 40% off, with 4x6 sticker sheets now $1.99. Spend $50, get $10 in store credit - to use at ANY TIME!
If you want to help me recoup from a stoner comedy-esque train of tragedy this month, this is your best shot. If you'd like, you can also request combined shipping with your C3 order - save some shipping!
I'll be closing everything back up for inventory on the 24th, and you won't be able to snag anything until this fall.
So, I'm hoping this doesn't jinx it, but expect an update Monday with finalized pins! I'll see you then.
The HUSTLE is closed for inventory, I'm wrapping up other projects in the background, and I have finally stopped marinating on that "mid year project." We'll be launching DOG CRIMES as part of Doggust on August 6th.
You all know how a CRIMES campaign works by now. 1.75" mugshot pins, we take some jabs at animals and animal culture, and we use the profit for my more experimental shit later.
There's 11 designs to unlock, the usual KPH freebies, plus some sponsor slots for my most opinionated customers.
As far as C3 goes, we're still sitting and cooking for DDP arrival estimates. I'll let you guys know when we have a more up-to-date idea of when pins will hit my front porch in front of all of my neighbors.
Final steps to get ready for fulfillment are happening. I have emergency orders of stickers that somehow got lost in my office arriving soon, I'm recruiting grading help and making plans to annex a friend's basement for that.
Hell, I even finally bit the bullet and got a label printer just for C3, so I don't have to spoon feed it single pieces of paper like a picky toddler anymore. Everyone say hi to the new employee!
Nobody tell him about the 400 labels he's on the hook for.
Have you been charged your addons + shipping? Your address is getting locked Monday (7/13).
It's time to start neatening things up, and you guys are first in line. If you backed ONLY CHALLENGE COIN CRITTERS, I want you to do me a favor and make sure your shipping address is correct. You won't be able to change it after Monday without an awkward email.
Did you move between finishing your survey and now? Are you missing an apartment, unit, or dorm number on your BackerKit default? Are you using a fake name from some flavor-of-the-month shonen anime you're ten years too old to be watching?
If you haven't been charged shipping yet, hold tight just a little longer. We are waiting for Henrieke's THE HYENA FAMILY pins to arrive safe to her, and start our final plans for combined shipping. You will be charged later, probably within this next month, so make sure your card's up to date.
Right now, I'm off to go email our last two first-bracket stragglers a final charge warning, and go draw more terrible things for commissioners.
