April Update
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Apr 03, 2023 at 03:53:50 PM
Hey all!
Thanks so much for your patience since the last update. Things are still pretty hectic but I've got a much more optimistic outlook now that I've had some time to sit and work it out.
First off, I want to thank you all for being patient with me. For the most part, everyone has been understanding of the delays and I appreciate that. Delays are definitely common in Kickstarters, but luckily we are currently only a couple months behind. As a currently 2 man team, it's been a lot to try to run my business, work on the side, and try to do everything else we currently are obligated to do. I don't mean that to try to garner sympathy by any means, I just hope it helps you understand what's going on.
That said, I've had some time to think about the situation and how to get things back on track, and wanted to share that with you.
Here is the plan for shipping.
1. To reduce the cost a little bit, we are going to be releasing the booster packs DIGITALLY. Unless you purchased a physical pack, in which case you will still receive a physical copy. We have been ordering the cards and assembling as we go, so this will drastically cut back on the cost and effort to get them out. I'm sorry about the inconvenience, as I know it's disappointing, but as a way to make it up I'm going to be adding several ADDITIONAL cards to the digital file that way you get more value out of it.
2. We are hard at work getting our retail store going. We will be opening at the beginning of May. Why is this good for you guys? I'm finally going to have a couple employees! Not only will we hopefully have a bit more income from the store to help with the shipping cost, being able to get some help putting the packages together is going to make things go much more quickly once I'm able to resume shipping.
3. Several people did reach out asking if they could donate to a shipping fund. I have been hesitant to do this because it's not really something I had ever considered even asking. As such, I am not going to ask for donations, however if you do want to support our efforts you can purchase a sticker or something small from our website and that will go directly towards our shipping fund.
4. Add-ons! I apologize, I haven't really made any updates discussing the add-ons like the mug and wood box. Those are just fine and will be shipping along with the decks. So when you get your order it will include everything including add-ons.
Shipping is currently paused, but with those updates, please expect shipping to resume sometime in May. I am taking a couple of weeks to focus on building the shop, but it will be worth it when we can get everything knocked out once the store is open.
Again, I really appreciate all your patience! I know that Kickstarters are risky, and I've backed several Kickstarters that were delayed by months or even years so believe me when I say I completely understand the uncertainty, and I appreciate you sticking with me on this. I assure you, you WILL receive your products. Time is the only thing in between you and some awesome item cards.
Thanks,
Lisa
Shipping Progress Update
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 08:42:51 PM
Hello everyone!
I've gotten a few messages and comments asking about the progress on shipping and were worried about the delay, so I wanted to go ahead and share an update regarding shipping. Good news, and bad news.
The bad news: We are behind on shipping. I want to be completely transparent with you guys, not having fulfilled this large of a kickstarter before, I thought I knew what to expect with shipping, but I didn't. Unfortunately shipping costs have shot up MASSIVELY since this time last year. (International shipping especially). Almost all the shipping was paid for at the time of the kickstarter, and I'm finding out that was a huge mistake. I was recently at a gaming con and spoke to a couple other creators dealing with the same thing, and found out that this wasn't unique to us and our product, even the cost of shipping enamel pins had increased more than the typical yearly increase. We had all accounted for the standard USPS increases, but none of us could have accounted for the massive spike in the costs of everything, especially shipping, which has doubled, and nearly tripled to some places. As we wanted to be transparent with the price up front, we simply can't afford to charge shipping in advance again.
Because of this, I've shipped out what I had budgeted for, but now I'm getting to a point where I'm currently shipping out of my own pocket in between paychecks.
Now, please understand, we are absolutely still shipping! It's just been slow going because of these issues. I just want to assure you all that we are working on it. I've been taking on additional jobs to help cover the cost, so I've been working hard to get this fulfilled to you. At this current point in time, we are still only a couple months past the estimated deadline, and I know kickstarters by companies much larger than ours have been delayed for months or even years. We have the product, and we have made progress on shipping. We are only two people, and as of right now, I've been the one person working on fulfilling this kickstarter, as my husband has been working his full time job and shipping from our website. That doesn't mean I'm not extremely stressed trying to make sure you guys get your decks as soon as possible, but I hope you can understand that we are working as hard as we can to make everything work. If I had ANY intention of abandoning this kickstarter, I wouldn't bother updating, even once or twice.
Now some good news:
We are very grateful to have a family member who is investing in our business and will help us to open up a brick and mortar shop here in Utah! We are currently working on it, and hope to launch sometime during the summer. The good news from this is not only should that give me a bit of additional income to finish purchasing shipping, and I should be able to hire an additional employee or two who can assist us with the actual packaging so it gets done quicker.
If you need your deck urgently, for a birthday or a gift or something, please feel free to reach out! I will do what I can to help out in circumstances like that. In the meantime, if you are still waiting, you are more than welcome to print out pages to use from the PDF so long as it is for personal use or use on stream, and not for distribution.
I thank you all so much for your patience, this is a project we are passionate about, and I assure you that getting you your product is our NUMBER 1 priority <3
Lisa - Level 1 Gamers
Shipping progress update for February!
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 02:29:38 PM
Hello everyone!
Just wanted to provide a quick update on shipping for you!
We are currently about 1/4 of the way through on shipping! Now, I know that's not as many as I'd originally hoped. Unfortunately with the high prices of everything, and some medical procedures we had to pay for last year, bills have started to pile up. As such, I've had to take on a couple of additional jobs, which have left me with far less time that I wanted to be able to devote to packaging.
That said, I am working through it diligently, and when I can! I am hoping that the additional work will only be necessary for a temporary time, and I can get back to putting my whole effort into our projects, and getting things out quickly! When your order ships, you will be notified via email. If you haven't received an email, then your order is likely in our packing queue and will be sent out as soon as it's ready!
I really, really appreciate everyone's patience as we work through this. I know much larger Kickstarters than ours have run into fulfillment problems that have delayed their projects by months (or even years!), so I'm glad that we have been pretty much on schedule up to this point!
For those of you who have received it and want to share images on social media, please do! Be sure to tag us, we are @level1gamers on most platforms! I sincerely hope you all are enjoying your decks, and I can't wait for the rest of you to receive them!
Lisa - Level 1 Gamers
Continuing fulfillment!
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:01:23 PM
Hello all!
I hope everyone has had a great start to 2023!
We have begun shipping, and are slowly but steadily moving along! Thanks to the high costs of everything these days, I've had to take on some additional work to help pay the bills, so I don't have as much freetime as I had hoped to get the fulfillment done, but despite that we are moving along.
Please know that it looks like it may take a few weeks for us to get through everyone's orders, especially those with add-ons as they take a bit longer to package.
For those of you in Utah, we will be at SaltCon in Layton at the end of February! That will be the first con that we bring these decks with us, so I'm really excited to see how the general public likes it!
Thanks to everyone for your patience as we work through everything, and I hope that you guys love the decks! For those of you who have or will soon be receiving them, feel free to leave a comment here on the kickstarter or on any of our social media pages letting us know of any fun ways you've used the items in game!
Thank you all,
Lisa - Level 1 Gamers
METAL DECK BACKERS ONLY: A long update
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 10:55:15 PM
Hello everyone!
I wanted to first begin with an apology. The metal cards were something I was super excited about, and something that I was even considering offering as an upgrade for any future Kickstarters we do involving cards. Our prototypes were super cool, and I was really excited to be able to have it as an offer.
However, it's become something of a nightmare now that fulfillment has come to it, and I am truly sorry for the run around. This would be the first time I've had such a large stumbling block in the way of fulfillment, and in the interest of transparency, I'll explain a bit why.
(This is just a summary of the challenges we've hit, but feel free to skip ahead to the end if you prefer not to read this part!)
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When I first tried out the cards before we launched the Kickstarter, I had purchased blanks from a US based maker who assured me that I'd have some good discounts if I put in a large bulk order. When time came to order them, they informed me that the only discount I'd be eligible for was free shipping. They wanted around a dollar per card, which would leave the cost to us at $90 per deck. There was no way for us to afford that when that's even more than we charged, so we turned to our backup supplier in China who offered them for a much better price.
We discussed the details with them, and they seemed excited, and I emphasized many times what size we needed and they assured me they could do it. I'm really not sure why they assured me of this, because they then sent me the business card sized cards (which have since been returned). They did apologize, and they did fully refund me, so it does seem like there was maybe some kind of language barrier and the sales rep didn't understand? I'm not really sure, but in the end, it wasn't what we needed.
Fast forward to recently. I've had a really hard time finding a manufacturer who could even make these for us. The size we need is something that they would need to cut individually, and with the prices of EVERYTHING jumping up, the new costs are much higher than the budget we had originally been anticipating. Though we blew the Kickstarter out of the water with stretch goals, the additional funds all went to covering those additional options. We paid our artists a good wage for their work, we put in a big advertising budget to even get the Kickstarter out there, the cost of shipping has nearly doubled to some places, so shipping has eaten even more of that leftover budget.
This has put us in a pretty crappy situation. Our sales from our online store have been slowing, thanks to the economy and the current costs of living making it hard for people to afford anything but the essentials. With the massive increase in travel costs, the conventions that we traveled to left us barely breaking even on cost. I personally have been taking on extra jobs just to keep the lights on. Where I normally would have been able to cover the additional out of pocket, I've been finding it hard to catch up enough to do so. I've filed my taxes, and once I'm able to get my tax return, that should cover the excess, but that means that would push the estimated date for you guys to sometime in the summer.
END BACKSTORY
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With that said, and knowing the extended timeframe, I'd like to offer you all some alternate options on this metal deck.
1. Get a standard deck and take a refund for the metal. We will send you the standard printed deck, along with several freebie items, and refund the difference. Depending on how many of you take this option, it'll take some time to get everyone refunded, but we will make sure it happens as soon as possible.
2. Store Credit to our online shop. Rather than a straight refund, we will send you the standard printed deck, along with $75 in store creditfor our website, level1gamers.com. That credit will be available within the next 2 weeks.
3. Wait. The money I've set aside will be enough to cover the increased cost of blanks once I get my tax return and can complete the amount. However, taxes usually take until early March at minimum to hit my account, at which point we can get those blanks from China. That would put the estimated date for shipping sometime in the Summer.
If you would like to take either the refund or store credit, you can fill out the form here to do so:
REQUEST A REFUND OR STORE CREDIT
Should you choose to wait, then you do not need to fill out the survey!
No matter what you decide, please know that you all have been extremely understanding, and I so, so appreciate it! This has been particularly stressful as I hate feeling like we've let you guys down in any way. We really appreciate your support, and whatever you decide, I hope you can enjoy the content and work we've put into the deck.
Thanks, and please reach out to me if you have any questions at all.
Lisa - Level 1 Gamers
