It's been a crazy month of settling into our new warehouse in NJ, getting things back up and running smoothly, starting life again, and dealing with a family medical mishap that took up most of the beginning of October, but we're still here!
At this point, ALL ANSWERED SURVEYS HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED.
That's right - all 8,225 packages have been sent out as of today's Update! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
This is a crazy accomplishment and I thank you all for your patience, especially those of you who had to wait until we were moved into our New Jersey warehouse to get your pledges out!
If you have NOT received your order, or there is a mistake in your order, PLEASE contact [email protected]! in order for your issue to join my customer service queue for resolution, which I try to clear out every week!
ATTENTION ALLSTRAGGLERS!!!
If you have NOT answered your survey, which according to BackerKit is about 281 of you have not, PLEASE do so at your earliest convenience so we can get your dragons out to you!!
Multiple reminders have been sent at this point and there is no other method to get your pledges out besides your answering of the survey.
CHARITY DONATIONS FOR RAINBOW DRAGONS
Exactly 1,644 rainbow dragons (either the Bold Rainbow or the Pastel Rainbow) were sold through the campaign. I decided that $2 from each sold should go to the LGBT+ youth homeless and at-risk shelter, The Ali Forney Centerwhich provides both housing and job readiness programs, as well as health services and meals for those experiencing housing instability as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
As a former LGBT+ youth who experienced similar straits, such programs are close to my heart, as similar ones had helped me get on my feet, fill my belly, or simply gave me a safe space to be me when my family forced me to flee or face violence due to my own LGBT+ identity.
So, doubling the ordered number comes to 2,496, but we're rounding that up to a more even $2,500 in donations! Wowee!!!
Proof of Donation
A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE!
Phoenix Design
Owlbear Design
While in the coming year will mostly be focused on improving our warehouse flow, beefing up our social media engagement, and vending at conventions with Weighted Wildlife and Weighted Wonders, I always like to add to our collection slow, but surely to provide cool, new designs!!
Here is a fan creation that may one day be a new dragon - Coffee Dragon!!
Caramel Macchiato, anyone?
Do you have an idea for a cool dragon? A color you want? Even a whole new creature?
We will hopefully be adding Owlbears, Phoenixes, and Gryphons in a future mini-campaign, but I want to hear from YOU! What do YOU want to see? Comment down below with your suggestions or email us at [email protected]!
BackerKit Official Count
Miscommunicated Factory Count
Long story short; A miscommunication between myself and my factory left us shorted 200 Warmable Wonders (Blue) of what was expected to come. I ordered 500, but only received 300.
Backers ordered 376 of the Warmable Wonders (Blue) which means we are short 76 plush. If you've yet to receive your order and it contained a Warmable Wonder (Blue), I'm offering one of the following solutions; 1.) Be upgraded to a Weighted Wonder (Blue) 2.) Swap out your Warmable Wonder color to any of the other colors 3.) 50% off code for a future purchase
A full refund for the missing item cannot be issued as, straight up, the project is out of money. Tariffs + delays + increased warehousing fees + unexpected expenses ate up what remained of the crowdfunding funds.
There is a chance as we organize in our new warehouse we will find a few remaining boxes that will cover some orders that contain a Warmabled Wonder (Blue), but as we are fulfilling all this week to work through the remaining, I wanted to be proactive in collecting solution choices so your orders can go out quicker with whatever change/solution you agree to. Please reach out at [email protected] with the following template; Full Name Associated with Order: Selected Solution: (1, 2, or 3): (Optional) Tracking Number:
I apologize for this short as it should have been caught, primarily, by my sales contact at the factory, but I should have also done a double, triple check, when I was shifting around order numbers with them earlier this year. :') Lesson learned and there are many lessons to be learned in a complicated biz like this, so I'll add it to the pile haha.
If you do not reach out to me in the next week or so, I will be reaching out individually to the orders I have left to acquire their solution to the issue as to not further delay wrapping up the project's fulfillment.
ADDITIONALLY: Today I went through my assistant Leah's incorrect packages/customer service request lists and printed out new labels, issued refunds, or investigated and/or solved the issue at hand, so if you were on those lists (it was only a dozen or so of you) then those issues are being worked on or are now resolved. :)
SUPER ADDITIONALLY Those who reached out with missing items/missing posters will be issued new tracking numbers this weekend and fulfilled next week. There's about 20-30 of you one those lists, so they will be sent out early next week. :D
YIPPEEE and a new fun poll below for future additions to the new Weighted Wonders line 👀
We just landed in New Jersey yesterday so we are now officially moved to the east coast!!
Today and tomorrow I will be processing as many of the remaining 200~ orders from the BackerKit, so look into your inbox for a tracking number from PirateShip as I generate those new labels.
We will ALSO be getting to the returns/mistaken orders/etc this week - so you have NOT been forgotten if you submitted a problem/missing item/damage/mistake ticket, etc.
I know it's a pain that it's taken this long to get around to the returns/etc, but I promise to fix any failures on our end ASAP. We're now down to just myself, my partner, and a new part time worker who will be coming in and getting used to our set up later this week and to help with fulfillment into the future. I estimate that it'll take this week to get through both the backlog of BackerKit orders + process returns + go through mistake/missing/etc orders, so hold tight as I get out new tracking numbers that might come from "weird" (aka just PirateShip, etc) sources that aren't BackerKit/Shopify. :)
Thank you everyone for your exceeding patience with this way too big project and I can't wait to show you all our future plans/goals! :D
We spent the last week working from bright and early until our bodies couldn't take it anymore cleaning up, consolidating, wrapping pallets, hauling trash/recycling, and more! :'D
Our consolidating process produced 1,000 POUNDS (!!!!) of cardboard recycling that we hauled to our local transfer station via UHaul truck along with 30+ clean wood pallets for recycling as well.
Between Weighted Wildlife and Weighted Wonders, we wrapped 92 pallets with nearly 5000 feet of stretch wrap for safe travels to our newer, bigger warehouse in New Jersey!
This work is HARD and even with an industrial rolling wrapper, our bodies are spent!!!!
Crazy to believe just a few weeks ago this was so packed to the gills that we barely had any space to work!!!
We used four 53 foot dry bed trucks to get everything moved out to the tune of $22,000 in moving expenses (:'D).
I'll be heading out on Tuesday on a flight to meet the trucks on Wednesday and Thursday in order to unload it all, then immediately head back to Seattle on Friday to help my partner move our personal effects to NJ and then we're moved out to NJ on the 12th (phew) and will begin fulfillment again to wrap up the BackerKit, process returns/damages/misshipments (we haven't forgotten about you!), and then get back to regularly scheduled orders on our website!
By then, we should have some stellar product photography by the lovely Theodora Teodosiadisof the dragons so we can update our website all pretty pretty and then have the dragons available for immediate sale! :D Exciting times!! I realize this post isn't exactly pertinent in any major way, but I thought I'd share some of the major background work that happens to make such a large scale project happen :3
This is all that is left after me, my partner, and a hired hand helped to bust these out all throughout the weekend, Monday, and today!!
Pictured is about 8~ pallets and 4-5 more went out after these so that equates to over 1,000 dragon plush flying to their new homes!
We are now starting the equally laborious process of consolidating, cleaning, and prepping for shipping out to our new warehouse in New Jersey. Once we are settled there and have a moment to breathe, me and new hire will finish out what is left of the BackerKit fulfillment!
With the move, since we had planned to get all fulfillment done before it (and didn't because of the issues with the fulfillment staffing - long story!!), any labels left will have to be cancelled, refunded, and re-purchased, which means a very long admin task of doing such for all that remains, which also means new tracking numbers/emails with those numbers.
They will be sent out from PirateShip, so if you get a mysterious email from Pirateship with a new tracking number, it's your new tracking number from us :)
Please be patient as we get through our move and finish out the last of this enormous project!!!
