It's Not Delivery, it's Pins

Well, it looks like the first package arrived yesterday and on the previous blog-post's comments there are pictures from the fine gentleman that got them. I'm looking forward to reviews and some recommendations to other people who may be interested.  I'm glad they're being met with such a great response so far.

Currently, I have about 50 sets left and I'm going to obviously want them out of my house asap, so any referrals would be great.

Here's a review:

resolutefairyAugust 14, 2012 11:17 PM

The coating on the faces is clear as a bell, they stand up perfectly on their own making great display pieces wherever you put them. I collect pins, so they will remain on a pin board until I have a reason to take one out on the town, so I can't way much about the clasps they came with. The design really makes the emblems pop out with the silver/gold lining on some of them. The only thing I was worried about was the glitter sections, but those turned out fantastic as well, very even coating and does not distract from the rest of the design. These are truly something I was glad I put my money forward for. I can't wait to have an excuse to wear one.

Mikey James wrote:

The pins arrived very quickly. They are much bigger than I had anticipated and the glitter effect is fantastic. The gold and silver compliment the colors of the pins nicely. I know Karlsland and Orussia and Liberion are really popular, but the Britannia pin is my favorite, the yellow and blue and gold just looks perfect, and it will be one I plan on wearing regularly (Lynne is my favorite too, so...). I will be displaying these among their corresponding figures of each witch on my shelf as well. Thank you again for taking up this project and offering some badass pins for SW fans everywhere.

Here's some pictures

YES!

Fuck yeah.

I'm going to start getting everything ready for shipping, but I thought I'd have more time today to do everything, so I can't really get all of the orders out this coming Monday during my lunch break. However, we're already ahead of schedule.

Just thought I'd mention,
As I work on these orders, I'm going to be playing striktly witch music.

Well, it's finally here. I've gotten final images of the pins from the factory head through the administrator and shipping will start on Monday for registered members of LAWL:I. Not really much else to say other than that I'm really excited for when they come in the mail. I'll be in New York City during the days they arrive, but I'll be sure to have someone at my house to wait for the packages. Thanks a lot for everyone who has contributed so far. I hope seeing the final product will convince more people to contribute.

Gross Miscalculation

Just a heads up, this is not going to really affect you all, but I'm just gonna go out there and say that the previous numbers for sales are much lower than I thought they were. My bank account itself isn't red anymore since I've gotten the first sets of orders, but here is the problem with an earlier post I made...

I have only sold 30 sets of pins instead of the 40 I'd said. That's a pretty huge difference considering 10 sets= $160+ shipping costs. I know I've said it before, but I can't stress the fact that I need to get rid of these pins. I don't want these haunting my room for a year or two. Don't forget to tell your friends about the pins; I need to unload these things asap. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

My "Day Off" Update

Figured I'd post for the sake of posting today. Here's how the orders are, and have been, working:
1. You send me an email saying you want the pins
2. I put it on my spread-sheet
3. Your order is preserved unless someone pays for the last available set of pins

Part 3 hasn't been used yet because we are at 50 total sets being one of the two: Sold/Paid-for or Incomplete Sets (which I don't like having.) Since the initial rush is gone, the remaining orders won't be coming in droves like I'd hope they would. I'm going to be keeping a couple of sets for myself, but that leaves 43-46 sets available for order. The first 50 are already paid up, but I'm still running red. Hope to see more emails soon.

Also, hop on vent and we can chat. I'm here for most of the day.

If you're thinking of ordering pins and would like to secure your pins, please send me an email at Supermikan@hotmail.com
I'm looking forward to getting this out and distributed as soon as possible after I get them. If I can get most of them mailed out within the first week of having them, even better.

Just a little something that I got in the mail today...

Stock

Okay, so I've only got 240 pins ordered. I'm looking forward to seeing them in person and I hope you guys like the pictures I take when they arrive around the 10th. I'm pretty anxious because I'm hoping that a lot of people on the fence about them like what they see. They're supposed to be the highest quality that the company makes and according to what the dude said, they're jewelry-like in appearance due to the glassing-effect that the furnace gives the coloring materials. Considering you could buy a plastic pin with a picture of some characters for about $10 versus getting a set of these pins at $21 after shipping, I'm confident that not only the quality, but the cost is effective to you guys.

Unfortunately, there's really not that much to talk about other than telling your friends about the pins, which I've already pounded pretty hard. Kinda interested in seeing how many people are in the blog now.

So really, this post is just a status update about how there isn't an update to give status on.

In other-news, I'd like to take this time to acknowledge a chan-board that is pretty much dedicated to SW. There's a small number of posters in the board, but it's pretty nice.

Helma.us is a pretty quaint little board and I hope you guys like it so far as much as I do. Owner's pretty chill and I just posted a ventrilo link. I won't be on Vent until around 5-6PM PST, but I believe there should be one person there that I know. Feel free to hop on. Keep the window open and see if someone shows up. Meet some dudes. Talk about witches... You know... Like not-shutins... normal people... friends!

Texas2.MaxFrag.net 
4126

Glorious Commonwealth

I NEED PEOPLE TO ORDER EXTRAS OF ROMAGNA! ;_; I don't want 30 extras because everyone is buying extras of Liberion, Orussia, Suomus, and Karlsland.

I've been settling in down here in Newport Beach, California with my parents and I'm glad to see how well the orders have been going. I couldn't be happier with the amount of people who responded after opening up the flood-gates on PayPal. Right now we have about 175 units sold (~20 sets and a bunch of extra orders.) I must say though that I'm positive some people are hanging on until the first people get their orders filled. I'm hoping that everyone doing so will be pleased with the final product. However, I must stress that I'd like to get these out of the corner in my room as soon as possible. That being said, if you're thinking about getting a set, but have not gotten around to paying for it or are waiting on the final product, please go ahead and send me an email at SuperMikan@hotmail.com with the Subject: Pinz, Glorious Pinz. Kind of a weird request, but I want to be able to quantify the number of people who are going to be ordering once you see them. I'll post pictures the day they show up.

So how about a couple of pictures to go with the blog update?

Special thanks to whoever did this one.

Small Change

Because of a bit of unexpected dues on my own side, my financial adviser has told me that I am going to run deep in the red if I keep to the previously stated plans of returning unused shipping. For that reason, after 12AM PST tonight, all orders made will not have their unused shipping costs returned. In the end, each order is STILL cheaper than the original estimate, so I hope no one is put off from ordering "membership" due to this change. I'll be sending confirmation emails within 48 hours to say that I've received payment. If you do not get a confirmation notice, send me an email to Garrettleeblank@hotmail.com and I'll fix that.

For those wondering about the phone numbers, I'm planning to utilize them as a way of confirming that you got your packages near the end of the month.

I'd like to further thank all of you who have already contributed. My spread sheet is coming along nicely and I'm hoping to see everyone enjoy the final product of these contributions to the commonwealth of LAWL:I.

Succeeding

Hello beautiful people. I'm paying for the pins this morning. Found out last night that taking money out of PayPal and into my bank account takes a bit longer than the transfers... 3-4 days. However, I know you want the pins ASAP so I'm going to pull the limit out on my credit card and we'll work it out from there. I should have my paycheck before it comes to time to pay the bills, so it doesn't matter that much. Still taking pre-orders and I don't think we're going to have a problem of selling out. We have gotten 150 units pre-ordered and we still have a long way to go. If you have any friends who might want a set or two, feel free to invite them to the party. If you want to combine shipping with a friend, I can do that for sure as long as the order doesn't get too ridiculously big (like a 100 pins.)

I'm dividing the orders into groups and I will keep tabs on each group thoroughly. I'll try to get international orders out as soon as possible since those will take a bit longer to arrive. So far we're looking at them arriving around the 13th of August and I'll have them shipped out before the end of August, but we're hoping that's the case. Thanks so far to all of the people entrusting me with their money. It's turning out great so far.

I'll be out of contact for the next 10-15 hours and any pre-orders made in the next 24 hours will be added to my spread-sheet when I get to my family's timeshare. Hope you guys have a wonderful day.

Status: Paid For

By the way, there's one last thing I need to add. All people ordering these pins is not buying the pins themselves (though they are included. Don't think I am going to pull a fast one on you.) They are paying initiation dues for the group "League Advocating Witch Loyalty: Incognito" or LAWLI for short. The pins are simply badges of membership that show your rank (a full set shows you are a full-member, extras are... symbols of your loyalty to the cause.) Any questions? No? Good.

The Review (Order Details)

Finals (all art is done by the artist at All About Pins):
Last edited: 9/4/12
FINAL VERSIONS:

Fuso/Japan

 Liberion/America

 Orussia/Mother-Russia

 Britannia/Great Britain

 Republik de Galia/France

 Romagna/Italy

 Suomus/Finland

 Karlsland/Germany

Okay, so we're going through this whole thing at a break-neck pace and I know a few people are still a bit sketchy about giving /a/non your money, but in order to get these on the road, I need to take orders today for membership to our super-sekrit club that will use these pins for membership badges. As I said before, the cost will be $16 plus shipping for a full set. I'm confident we won't sell out, so I CAN take a few extra orders of whatever badges you want, though remember that ordering extra may incur extra cost along with the +$2 since shipping will go up inevitably. I'll be keeping tabs on who pays, so it's not like you can just say you ordered membership badges and you'll get into the club.

Just in case, to protect my own money, I'll be using a $5 shipping cost for Domestic and $10 for international.

Since I'll be taking extra, I'm making it easier in the long-run so that we don't have to calculate for extra's of any specific pin. If your order surpasses the $5/$10 allocated shipping (which it hopefully shouldn't,) I'll ask for more money to cover it. However, I'll be leaving that to you to do and I will not pursue you past it.

Each pin is $2 and all items are shipped in the shipping cost. Easy math people.
Pins are ordered in sets and anything outside of a set is charged separately.



I'd prefer to have full-sets being transferred, but if you want extras, I won't deny you the right to ask them of me.

A few Reviews:

resolutefairyAugust 14, 2012 11:17 PM

The coating on the faces is clear as a bell, they stand up perfectly on their own making great display pieces wherever you put them. I collect pins, so they will remain on a pin board until I have a reason to take one out on the town, so I can't way much about the clasps they came with. The design really makes the emblems pop out with the silver/gold lining on some of them. The only thing I was worried about was the glitter sections, but those turned out fantastic as well, very even coating and does not distract from the rest of the design. These are truly something I was glad I put my money forward for. I can't wait to have an excuse to wear one.

Mikey James wrote:

The pins arrived very quickly. They are much bigger than I had anticipated and the glitter effect is fantastic. The gold and silver compliment the colors of the pins nicely. I know Karlsland and Orussia and Liberion are really popular, but the Britannia pin is my favorite, the yellow and blue and gold just looks perfect, and it will be one I plan on wearing regularly (Lynne is my favorite too, so...). I will be displaying these among their corresponding figures of each witch on my shelf as well. Thank you again for taking up this project and offering some badass pins for SW fans everywhere.

Directions

Here is my email address for PayPal use.
garrettleeblank@hotmail.com
Send money as Personal/Gift

Email me (Supermikan@hotmail.com) with the
1. Screenshot of Transaction Details with the Date and Time of the transaction visible
2. Your order (the pins you want (keep in mind extras are going to now cost $0.75 extra unless they are Romagna pins since there are so many orders that they'll make me stuck with Romagna pins for years to come))
3. Your address... This is kind of important, don't you think?
4. Maybe a phone number so that I may talk to you over the phone about the orders. Think of it as another way you can keep me responsible for doing my job as mediator and footwork of the operation. I'll call after I send the packages to make sure you received your order.
5. Any notes you want to make. (Boxes are going to be hell... Just find one yourself ;_;)

I hope you will all take my honest word that I do not intend to take the money and run. On the off-chance that you have a problem, PayPal has a protection against these issues and you can take it up with them.

Reference:

This fee will be effective in any scenario unless you use PayPal money/direct transfer.

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

>Coming

Okay guys, so there's a few developments.

First, Final Versions

We are coming down to the point where we need to start taking orders and shit. We have the final versions, but no one has voted on the Karlsland pin, save for one person. The reason I got the gold version created was so that we could look at it and decide as a group, but no one has responded except for the only person responding to the blog, so it is decided that we will go with the silver one. You can see the final versions on the previous blog post and look at their glory. Also, these are the clasps for the pins. The gold-pins will have gold clasps and the silver will have silver clasps.

Second, Cost

I got the quote (appears to be the final cost) for the pins and it looks like it will be cheaper per pin than expected. Each pin will be $2+Shipping. I feel like that steal is going to be very much more enjoyable to everyone than we had originally planned. As I've mentioned several times before, they DO offer boxes for each pin, but the issue with these boxes is that they are going to include extra shipping costs from me to the recipients, and honestly, they're not that great. You'd probably have a better time finding a case for yourself at some local pawn store or something. For that reason, I'm going to have to insist that no one decide on buying boxes. It'll be a pain for me AND you. For USA receivers, you will need to add $5.30 to each payment. International Shipping will be much more expensive however... Flat-rate shipping to Singapore, for example, would be $17. Non-flat-rate would be ~$10 at the minimum, but that doesn't include me paying for the packaging. I'll work out orders with international recipients over email if they are interested. 


Full Set USA Rate: $16+$5.30= $21.30+tax(if applies)
Full Set International Rate: $16+($12 to $17)= $28 to $33 depending on decisions

Lastly, The Pre-Orders

We are going to need to have a large number of pre-orders due to the fact that I have spent a lot of money since the beginning of this ordeal, which was when I got my last pay-check. I need to collect a list of emails from everyone and we will need to work out pay-pal. I would like not to have 500+ pins sitting around with no buyers until a convention to sell them at a swap-meet and make back my money. I'd like to reach at least 25-30 people deciding on pre-order before I start taking money. I'm positive we will have at least 10 based on those who have already given me emails, but we need to continue to get this train rolling.

Send me an email at SuperMikan@hotmail.com if you wish to place your hand in the ring for a full set. Those wishing to purchase only a few, please feel free to send me an email as well. At a certain point though, it's almost more worth it to just get the whole pack, isn't it, based on shipping cost?

キターーーー(/ﾟДﾟ)/ーーーー

Hopefully we can get this whole thing sorted out within the week and start taking pre-orders over the weekend. I'm going to be talking with him about shipping and all of that stuff, so we'll have everything ready to start on Friday afternoon if everything goes great this week. I do not have the funds to purchase them straight up and wait for money, so we're going to have to do this the way of the other /a/-projects.

The only news on shipping I have is that it can not be sent directly to you guys from the factory. 

I'm off to work for the day, so I'll be back to talk about what I've found out from our pin-company. Remember that boxes aren't really great quality and you'd probably have a better time finding a display case somewhere online for the cost it will take to ship the boxes with your orders.

Hopefully the Last Version Update for Pins Themselves

So it's pretty much just what I said in the title of the post. I'm hoping that this and the next set of images will be the last set of proofs. From what I heard on the phone today, they usually only do 1 revision a DAY, but they've been working hard for us and have done multiple changes this morning. We are stuck with these until Monday and first thing by that morning we need to have an email sent for the final changes that need to be made. If you have any suggestions, I'll think about them. If I see a Strike Witches thread, I'll search for input from there as well.

Fuso: I'm really happy with this one. The simplicity of the eclipsing sun without any glitter really makes me happy about this one being "different" from the others.

 Liberion: I like this one, again, because it's simple. It's going to be fabulous and personally I might find myself wearing this on my suit

 Orussia: It took a few tries, but this one looks pretty good to me. I'd like more input to make sure it's what other people want, but personally I like it. (Also, Sanya confirmed for best Straik Wich hu I wud hug)

 Britannia: We're going to be seeing a lot of this one in the next post since I'm having them fix a few minor details, such as the blue and yellow needing to be glitter'd.

 Republic of Gallia: Well, I can't say anything bad about Gallia since I think Perinne's cute when she shuts up or uses Tonnerre to make her sex-hair. This one seems to me to be at it's best here. If someone wants to change something, I'm open to ideas, but this looks pretty good to me.

 Romagna: I like this one. It looks perfect and it's ready to be produced when the others are. I just don't like how it's going to be the hardest to work into an outfit.

Suomus: Welp, this one just looks like a mother-fucking Pokemon badge if any of them HAD to be, since, you know... there IS a badge that looks exactly like this. There's one edit I'll be having them make on Monday and that's the blue... it needs to be lighter... like an silverish color blue. 

 Karlsland: This is one that I know a LOT of people are really wanting. As such, I've got both of the versions we have made so far. I believe the newer one (top) will easily be #1 in a vote, but I'll leave that up to you guys.

First Drafts of the 5 Remaining (NOT finals)

Soumus

Romagna

Britannia

Karlsland

Remake of Orussia

Glorious France (haha a joke I know)

The guy said we can get boxes for each of them, but they ARE going to cost extra, roughly $1 a piece more for Acrylic Boxes and $2.25 for Velvet Boxes.

Welcome back to math class kids. Changed the metal on Orussia to be gold and will do the same for Romagna and Brittania to fit the originals. Suomus is getting the purple swapped out for a bright blue glitter, so that's going to be fixed. For those worried about Karlsland, I'll work on something. The issue they have is that they can't fit more than one glitter color into a section. Metal separations are REQUIRED in these cases. I'm talking it out with him, but this is what we're getting to.

The important thing to remember here is that these pins are definitely going to change before the pre-orders (I've decided pre-orders are required for those who want boxes... It's just too much out of pocket that I don't have to pay for boxes like that.)

Boxes?

So there's been quite a few people asking about boxes for the pins. Unfortunately, $3 a pin will not get boxes. Believe it or not, boxes would cost extra money, and it would depend on exactly what kind of feel you would want for your boxes. It's not that I can't do it, but if someone is dedicated enough to find a good way to package these pins for cheap, I'll look into adding that to the list. For those who will not care, the process of paying and sending will be pretty standard.

To be honest, if I'd do something for the way of boxes, they won't be more than a small box like this:
http://usbox.com/Boxes/2-Piece-Set-Up-Jewelry-Box-Cotton-Insert/1LV-P-X/

I'll have to look into it, but I believe it will cost more to mail these as well, considering the size will increase. Anyone who would like to go through the whole situation and figure it out for themselves how to get that shit working, be my guest and I'll look over it.

For my friends that are out of the USA, I would like to remind you that you're going to have to pay for shipping as well. I've never really shipped anything before, but I'm learning a lot about stuff, so feel free to teach me the ways of interstate mailing. I should have gone to bed 2 hours ago, but I've been doing a lot of research on this project.

I sent the email to the pin company and they will get it this morning. They are on Eastern time since they're in Florida, so I hope they can have them done for me by the time I leave for work. If they do, I'll post them on here and you can all look at them during the day. Assuming they do, I'd like you all to leave your comments about them so I can try putting some weight into them fine-tuning the proofs before they make a first batch.

Tonight (the 20th) I will be working out payment plans and we will hopefully have a final version ready going into the weekend so that we can have some real planning going on. Just remember that boxes are gonna cost more than just the cost of the boxes.

It Begins: The Greatest Pins of Our Time

Hello everyone,
This blog is dedicated to showing progress on the recreation of the pins above. These pins caught my attention a few months back in a buy-fag thread. In searching for each of them, I soon realized that this image was from a Japanese blog and that these pins were not for sale, nor would they be anytime soon. As such, I started thinking about how I might go about getting a custom set of pins made. Because of this, I searched out the cheapest place a in March, 2012, and found out that no matter what, I would end up buying 100 or more of these fantastic pins, assuming I wanted to buy them

With my summer-job money depleted and no way of paying for them, I had an idea. Basically, I started thinking about this project when Korbo the tripfag started his Horo Mugs and I was inspired. I decided I'd wait for another summer job to get the money to pay for it. Now, half-way into summer, I've reached my goal of having the money required to buy the pins. The problem now, however, is that I will be short on cash if I buy them now, at least until my next paycheck.

These pins are something I desired enough to buy 800 of them. I'm not in this game to make money, and the fact that I was on the demand-curve for this set at $90 (the maximum(ish) price I had in my head while searching to buy them as a standalone set) made me confident that others would love to buy them for $21 as a set (plus shipping of course.) So as of today, the beginning of the blog, I have had the company I am using make Fuso's pin

Liberion's pin,

and Orussia's pin.















However, Orussia's is not quite finished. I am still planning to talk to them about finalizing the proof to add more shading to the centers of each segment of the pin.

This first set of pins looks absolutely brilliant to me and I'm so happy that they're working. As I get them all proofed by the shop, I'd like to get some input on the pins here on the blog. I'll add people to an email mailing group if they are interested in getting heads up on any big news on the pins.

Lastly, I must begin the talk about paying for each of these pins. The pins will be $3-4 each (It's safe to bet on $3 to be honest) and $21 for a full set. I would like to keep sales as limited to set-purchases as possible so we don't end up with a load of Britannia and France pins (WOOPS DID I JUST TYPE THAT?!)

I'll be fronting the money myself, so no pre-orders are needed unless we get an overwhelming amount of people who want to buy them. Again though, as I've already stated in threads, I'd like to keep Ebay out of this due to the "hot"ness of the item. If people have suggestions, I'm open, but I'd like to keep this within 4chan and Paypal (or similar means).

I'm happy to have gottten a pretty good number of positive replies in the threads so far, here's to working together for a greater good!