As of today, I have finished merging people's orders backwards, so anyone who backed both this project and the original Kickstarter project who requested it in their survey, your orders are now merged into one project.
What this looks like: your order on THIS project was marked as Fulfilled, and the items from it have been added to your order on the other project. If you're curious, you can go take a look for yourself to make sure things made it over okay.
I am going to LOCK ADDRESSES on the 27th of March. The goal is to make sure our shipping numbers and addresses are correct.
As of now, we are aiming to have our production finished by mid April, with items heading into fulfillment in China and then picked-and-packed by the end of April for your orders.
April 30th - May 10th, we'll see International (non-North American) shipping starting to go out.
May 25-30th, we'll see the container with the North American orders arrive to the USA.
June 10th, all orders should have been shipped out and, hopefully, in-hand already.
That's it! Chinese New Year breaks end shortly, so we'll see items in production soon, and then it's a fulfillment time where things happen, packages are packed, labels are placed, and then items go places!
So that's that, otherwise you'll just be looking for my updates about the shipping charges being added to your orders near the end of March, and I'll be harassing people who haven't gotten their surveys in. You can always just go on backerkit.com and check your surveys there if you're not sure if it's in yet!
So talk again in March when shipping charges are coming up!
I didn't share an update in December, because I was pretty sure I'd have the sample for the deck and its items sometime in January. Then I kept expecting it. And kept expecting it. I emailed to ask after it. I emailed again later to ask after it.
Then, end of January here, I heard back. I was asked why I wanted a sample of the deck. Now, this is the same manufacturer who got me samples of the Misery Tarot for reasons I already gave them. So I took that to mean that they simply never began working on it, though they told me in December that they were in-progress on the production of the sample. I then found out they thought they were missing a box art file for the Deluxe Box (they weren't), and that proved that they hadn't even begun to produce a sample, let alone look at the print files I gave to them in November.
I've been promised that it was a problem of who was running things at the time, but the main guy is recovered from an illness and back in charge now. So from here on it's supposed to be a return to normal response times. That said, I still haven't heard anything about a sample being made or a timeline being prepared.
The Chinese New Year
And as of now, we are hitting the Chinese New Year. This is part of why we can't just get a new manufacturer, they will all be closed. This means we simply won't begin manufacturing until, at the earliest, start of March. Chinese New Year shuts down everything business wise, every factory closes. This year it looks to be Feb 17-March 2nd or thereabouts (though I've heard from some places that workers are already on holiday), so they won't start and production on things that won't be totally finished before the New Year starts, and they always have a backlog leading into it because it's a busy time.
This puts us in a hard spot. As of now, it sounds like I'm not getting a sample at all. I told them I need clear eProofs to know that at least the foil will all be correct (right color, placed right, on the correct cards), and for clarity on the final pricing for a standard edition and a deluxe edition, now that they have all files in hand.
TIMELINE
Based on how slowly I'm getting information back, I need to be fair and likely very conservative with my estimates here. So here we go:
March | We finalize files and prices, I see eProofs, we okay, we pay for manufacturing to begin.
April | Manufacturing begins mid-April, after they get cardstock and things in for my order. I get shipping totals from the manufacturer, who is also handling fulfillment. I add shipping to your orders, we charge shipping.
May | Manufacturing completes, orders begin to be assembled. Some international packages get sent out.
June | US, Canada, and Mexico orders arrive state-side via boat, are put into USPS system. Rest of international orders ship out.
July | Late survey backers get orders sent out.
August | All orders should have been received. We close fulfillment.
September | I harass anyone who didn't get their surveys in or pay for shipping, giving them a few more last chances. Then, we close the project down. It's completed.
The good news is that The Hot Housewives Tarot, Oracle Dice, and Misery Tarot should all be on the same schedule here, getting packed and shipped out all at the same time, more or less. The good news continues in that they will be made and shipped in the next 4-5 months here. The bad news for us is that this means orders will not be in hand before May, and in fact for late survey fillers they may not even be in hand until late July or August. The bad news for me is that all these delays now mean that none of my three divination tools will be shipped before I wanted to launch the Goblin's Tarot in May. I had thought at least both Tarots would be. But that does not look possible anymore.
Financially, the business is just scraping by here. By now/March we were supposed to be heading into shipping. We have the funds to manufacture, and then we'll charge to ship, but until that's all over, I can't reasonably run yet another divination project to bring in more money. This means I can't pay myself any money until new money exists, which was supposed to be in May with the Goblin's Tarot. It seems like I'm going to need to pick up a part time job for a few months this year to afford rent and bills, until the manufacturers are caught up and I can lead into the next project. Needless to say, this is not an ideal situation for all of you who have been waiting for the items you pledged for, or me who had a tight timeline that I was making work out of necessity, only to get it fumbled by the manufacturer.
The TL;DR
All of which is to say, the timeline got fumbled by the manufacturer. We don't have a sample and may not ever, instead just me looking at eproofs and okaying manufacturing. Because of the Chinese New Year, we won't begin manufacturing until March at the earliest, and probably be shipped out to people by July/August. I apologize, but it was and is completely out of my hands right now, and has been since November.
The Goblin's Tarot, slated for May, will have to be moved back until the current divination tools are all shipped. Because of these delays, I'll need to get a part time job to afford my own bills, but we have the funds for the manufacturing for all three divination projects alright. You're all still getting your stuff, we're just facing a new delay. With any luck, things may get streamlined and fixed here with the manu, and I'll let you all know if things will get moved up, time-wise.
For now, we hurry up and wait.
7DA your pub gob
PS For people who like enamel pins, we do have a small campaign up for Pintopia right now on Backerkit for new stained-glass, tarot-style pins following up our 2024 tarot-style enamel pin campaign. This one has a quick and great manufacturer who has already gotten some of the stuff to me, and that I'm fulfilling myself, so it will have a very fast turnaround! : )
I have one more pass to do, re-reading things, just lookin'. And, you might notice in the first few pages, that I don't have the list of Star Supporters in yet. These were people who pledged extra on the original Kickstarter campaign for no extra items. I'm giving them one week to get their names in.
Amy has started to ready the final print files for the cards. I'm going to update my designs for the new booster pack for print and put together a simple foil wrapper design for it. From there, getting files to the manufacturer is just about all there is left to do!
So I'll noodle on that in the week ahead. But we're about to be ready to get our print sample and begin manufacturing thereafter.
As of now, the Smoke Test of surveys has gone out. That's 5% of people getting their surveys. Once it's clear that it covered all the proper questions and all that, you'll see the rest of the surveys go out later today or first thing tomorrow.
Your surveys ask some simple questions:
If you ordered a standard deck, you're asked if you want to upgrade to the Deluxe edition. People wanted that option on the other project, and so it's offered here as well.
You'll also be asked if you backed the Kickstarter project as well, and want your orders consolidated into one order for shipping.
I will be manually combining orders that choose to be merged in this way before we ship, so you'll only be charged for shipping once!
Otherwise this project is straight forward, there were only a few items on offer! But you can add extras to your order if you so desire, of course. So just get your addresses in and confirm your orders, y'all!
