COVID-19 Update - Shipping, Assembly, and the Blackout Decks
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 01:42:52 AM
Hello folks,
I live in Minnesota, as some of you do as well, and starting today we are in a stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. It is with a heavy heart that I must let everyone know that during this time shipping will be put on hold. However, I will be working on assembling more decks.
An Update on the Blackout Decks: I have been going back and forth with the printing company over the quality of these cards. They delivered to me two sets of the full stacks of forms 1 and 2 (the deck was split into two cut sheet forms due to the amount of cards and the limitation of the printer's paper sizes). Both of these sets have had issues. The first set is drifted horizontally by a very noticeable margin, and the second set - while fixing the horizontal drift - is drifted vertically. I've met with the printing team and my coordinators to discuss this issue and find a solution. We have created a new set of files and they have established a new process for printing, so we are hoping this third time will be the charm, that this will be the last time we'll need to reprint. I am not comfortable sending out cards to you fine folks that I would not be happy with receiving, and I noticed the drift right away, which tells me many of you would too. Granted, most people I've shown the cards to do not notice it until I point it out. But still. Come on.
I spoke with my print coordinator a few days ago - a fellow named Ray who has been incredible at helping me deal with these issues. They are the brokers between myself as the artist and financier, and the various print shops (there are four of them) who have made the constituent parts of this project. The company who is making the Blackout decks is not the same as the companies who made the Spectrum decks, the booklets, the boxes, or the stickers. These are all different companies, all of whom are getting their paper for these products from my Coordinators.
Long story short, Ray said he's been going back and forth with this print shop to find a solution because they've already burned through paper, and now they're needing to use more, which is expensive for the print shop, and expensive for the Coordinators / paper company to supply. Due to the tight scope of this Kickstarter project, and the fact that I was told this would work out just fine, I do not have the extra several thousand dollars to reprint the decks, so Ray is working on figuring out a solution.
Then the Coronavirus hit. Ray stopped going into the office, his boss stopped going into the office, the print shop stopped slowed their operations, etc. Now we're all stuck at home, making the best of what we have.
I will keep you all informed as I know more, but for now the printing is on hold, and the shipping is on hold as well. In the meantime, I'm working on setting up customs documents for shipping internationally, so once shipping begins again, the next wave will be the SPECTRUM-ONLY, INTERNATIONAL Kickstarter Pledges. This means that if you DO NOT live in the US, and you ONLY ordered the Spectrum deck - no Blackout decks - that you should be receiving your decks next.
Thank you all for your boundless patience, and for sticking with me through this super fun endeavor. I have learned much, and continue to do so, and once this is done I have had an idea for another Kickstarter project. But mum's the word on that until all of the decks have been shipped out and received by all of you lovely folks.
Thank you, stay safe, be well, and please remember that we're all in this together,
- Taylor
Quick Shipping Update + Pandemic Update
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 05:33:50 PM
Greetings friends around the world,
I want to make this brief update to fill you in on what's going on with the shipping process right now. If you backed the Kickstarter, are located in the US, and ONLY ordered the Spectrum deck (and did not order any Blackout decks) you should have received your deck already, and if you have not, it should be in the mail.
If you pre-ordered, are located in the US, and ONLY ordered the Spectrum deck, you should receive yours soon. This shipping will happen after each of the Kickstarter waves are complete, so for instance, now that the US, Spectrum Only shipping is complete for KS backers, Pre-orders will begin for US, Spectrum only. Once Blackout decks are shipped for Kickstarter backers, they will be shipped for Pre-orders.
If you ordered a Blackout deck, we are still waiting. Due to complications with the printing process I do not yet have the cards for these decks. I've talked about this in previous updates, but long story short: The printer printed or cut the cards drifted, which was not a problem in the Spectrum deck, and really is not "very" noticeable, but it was noticeable enough that I saw it immediately, and if you are a Tarot person, you will notice it too, because it makes the backs of the cards different from the first sheet to the second sheet.
This is a complicated process, it has taken much, much longer than I was promised, than I was hoping, but I have been assured that I should have an answer to when these cards are getting reprinted soon. Once they are reprinted, post-production organization will start on that. This will probably take a couple weeks, as I will need to punch out all of the cards from all 800 sheets myself, and organize them all into boxes by type of card, then sort through all of them and remove any damaged or incorrect cards. Once that is done I can begin building these decks.
Please remember that I'm doing all of this by hand, by myself. I have an amazing family and small group of friends who have volunteered to help, but I do not have an assembly team, this is a small set up. I'm doing all this in my mom's basement (due to space, because my basement is where my landlord lives, and my living room is full of paper right now).
Regarding the situation with COVID-19, I want to assure people that when I or my family / friends are working on the cards that we have washed our hands, and we wear gloves. Nobody in my family has shown any symptoms, and my sisters have left school and come back home. Everyone is staying in until this situation clear up. I am not the CDC or the WHO or the State or Federal government, I'm not a medical authority, but I can say: Please stay safe, please take precautions when in public so that you do not catch the virus, or if you are a potential carrier, that you do not infect others. Obviously this is incredibly difficult to avoid, but we can do our part by washing our hands, and being conscientious about how we interact with each other, and surfaces. Please stay updated with your local news and the real medical authorities that I outlined above to find out more about what you can and should do. We will all get through this.
To those of you in countries which have been more affected by this virus, my heart goes out to you and your families, and I wish you all the best of luck dealing with this. Nobody is unaffected, but we will all get through this.
Thank you all for your time, sorry this message was longer than I had hoped. You know me, I'm long winded...
TL;DR: Shipping for US, Spectrum only: Complete. Shipping for anything involving a Blackout deck: More to come later, this has not started. Pre-Order shipping: Coming after Kickstarter waves are complete. Coronavirus: Stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands, we'll get through this.
-Taylor
SHIPPING UPDATE #2
about 4 years ago
– Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 12:34:32 AM
Greetings!
It has been a few weeks, and in those weeks we have completed a hundred more decks and shipped nearly a hundred as well. If you are in the US and pledged for just the color (Spectrum) deck, and your first name starts with A - J, you should get your deck soon if you haven't already. I've recently had a shake up with my career for the better, and right now I find myself with significantly more time for packing and shipping. We are about half way done with the first round. Once these are done I will work on Non-US Color only decks.
I have a meeting with the printer tomorrow to discuss strategies for reprinting the black cards - third time's the charm - so I can finally get those going. I have all of "Form 1" of the black decks, but what they printed for "Form 2" (Cards 50 through 79) were printed with vertical drift, which is not super noticeable, but is noticeable enough to me that I will not settle with these the way they are printed. Call me a perfectionist, but at least I will not sacrifice quality for expediency. The reason I've been able to take these quality-ensuring-measures is really because of the patient community we have here. You all have been so kind, and I know it's been a while to wait, I know this has taken longer than I wanted, than you wanted, but I guess that's Kickstarter sometimes.
Thank you all, I'll update soon with more info about the black decks.
Taylor
SHIPPING UPDATE 1
about 4 years ago
– Tue, Feb 04, 2020 at 09:31:23 PM
SHIPPING HAS BEGUN!!!!
Last week I started shipping. The first batch (to test) was 5 decks, at this time 3 of them have been delivered, 1 is out for delivery, and 1 of them has run into a shipping issue.
If you have moved, please send me your updated address here on Kickstarter, I will give everyone one more week to update this, and then addresses will be locked, and if you move after this you'll need to set up forwarding.
Once again, to start with we are ONLY shipping US addresses for backers who've pledged for ONLY color decks. This does not include any non-US addresses, and this does not include any pledges that are Blackout decks, or Blackout AND color decks. If you fall into the US-ONLY and COLOR ONLY category AND you have pledged for a poster, OR if you ONLY pledged for a poster or single card and you live in the US, you should receive your goodies in the next month or two. Shipping is a process, and I do not have a fulfillment house, all I have is my mom's house, and we are doing all of this by hand, so please be patient.
Thank you so much, I hope everyone enjoys their decks when they get them!
-Taylor
Assembly Update #5 - Shipping Beginning and Black Cards finally printed
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Jan 25, 2020 at 09:35:58 PM
Hello hello!
Just a quick update: We have finally gotten the shipping software set up, and we are going to begin shipping this Monday for the first batch. Again, this is ONLY Spectrum decks, so if you have ordered a Blackout deck, or both decks, yours will come a bit later. If you have ordered a Poster and a deck (or multiple decks), your poster will come with them. Same if you have ordered a single card, these will be distributed at the same time as the Spectrum decks.
So, one last call, if you need to update your shipping address, please message me here through Kickstarter.
The Black cards are all printed (again), and I will receive them on Monday evening. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get my hands on them to show how they turned out!
Thank you! Let's get this party started.
-Taylor
