Tarot sized 2.75 x 4.75 cards now at TGC!

starlightexp said:

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I know that TGC is kind of a do it all place. All I have to do is upload my deck and boom it's up for sale and I don't have to do any work. With just a little work you can get your deck out, pretty hassle free. Setting up a shop on Ebay or Esty can give the project an even greater audience because of the traffic these sites have. Maybe I'm different in the fact that I want to be the one mailing out the deck. This was my creation and I would like to see it safely off to it's new home. I'm a quality freak I admit it. (Whew.. felt good to admit that)

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I just like that print-on-demand sites, such as thegamecrafter.com, allow you to
publish your deck WITHOUT coming up with a large amount of money up front...none in fact!

You still have complete control of your deck there, only they take all the work out of mailing it for you.
I also like they even assemble your nice stand up tuck boxes.

It can only get better from here

gregory said:

Actually - I did just order a deck from them for delivery to the UK, and as long as it doesn't HAVE to have the big box (sadly Iowan's, for instance, has to, as it has a game sheet that won't fold down ! I think this was a HUGE mistake, myself) the other DAY it had a $14.93 USPS first class to the UK option. It doesn't even for that deck now - which is odd.... I'd email before ordering...

The $3 insurance annoys me more.

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gregory, I think this is something that TGC really needs to think about and work on...
I think they should set up a 'shipping' page so we can see what is really going on with that.
I am going to suggest that in their forum...so we can at least see and compare sizes, weight,
international prices, etc.

If and when they sort their shipping costs out, it will alleviate this negative for them.
If it wasn't for the fact that they do a really good job on tarot deck printing, I would be more
upset about the shipping costs.

I believe that their insurance charge is their own insurance......not a post office charge.
If something goes wrong, they will replace your order, not the post office.

HUGS
tarotlyn

It's just very odd that a mere DAYS ago your deck offered first class priority and now it doesn't any more. I'd like to believe it is a database error. Maybe you - as a seller there - could ask ?

I don't care who is insuring it. I didn't want it - and it should - by, I think, best website practice guidelines - be UNCHECKED as the default....

gregory, I have opened a discussion post on TGC regarding shipping and the possibility
of them setting up a shipping page with everything listed on it that we can see at a glance.

Not sure they will listen to me though...just have to wait and see.

I will try to get on chat and see if anyone knows...

I have no idea what they are charging for international shipping.

I do think it might vary according to the 'weight.'

tarotlyn

gregory, well, I just went back and checked my post on the TGC forum board, and most of my words
were deleted. The post I make now only shows that I have an idea (suggestion) to add a shipping info page to TGC.

Gone is my link to this thread, and other of my words...

Sorry...I did the best I could with that situation.

When I suggest things in chat, I have been told to post it in the ideas (suggestions) forum...

LOL
tarotlyn

tarotlyn said:

gregory, I have opened a discussion post on TGC regarding shipping and the possibility
of them setting up a shipping page with everything listed on it that we can see at a glance.

Not sure they will listen to me though...just have to wait and see.

I will try to get on chat and see if anyone knows...

I have no idea what they are charging for international shipping.

I do think it might vary according to the 'weight.'

tarotlyn

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Thanks for trying - but what puzzled me was that as you know, I ordered a few days ago - and there was a USPS first class option to the UK for way less. If you try ordering your deck NOW - that option is gone again. So it isn't that simple. (And I have emails from THEM saying they now offered this - from a while ago. They seem to have backtracked )

So the cost now for the ONLY OPTION for your deck to be sent to the UK is - as Saffi says - $40.85. Which makes it basically - not an option.

Shipping

I'm sorry so many of you have a problem with the shipping costs at TGC. We have no control over those costs. They are the costs quoted to us by the US Postal Service, and we just pass those costs along to you. We don't make a profit on shipping what-so-ever.

I know some of you think that we'd get cheaper shipping if we used a smaller box, but that's not true in most cases. That said, we have been working with the USPS to get a lower rate, and we hope to be able to offer that in the near future.

I should also mention that we have not taken away any shipping options. We do offer both USPS Priority and First Class mail. However, First Class is not always available for all packages or for all locations. This again we have no control over. Once we know your address and what you want shipped, we send a request to the post office, they instantly tell us what shipping methods are available. This is all automated, and again out of our control.

Thanks for using The Game Crafter.

If that is so - why was USPS first class mail available to me in the UK when I bought tarotlyn's deck just a few days ago, and now it is no longer showing as an option for that same deck ?

That does not add up. Sorry - but it doesn't.

And the SMALL flat rate priority boxes are what my friend in the US mails YOUR decks on to me in - by the simple expedient of removing them from your big boxes and slipping them in to the small ones. She has to add plenty of bubble wrap - it isn't a tight fit. Sorry - but that's how it is.

It's good to see you here; don't get me wrong. Please do listen to us. You will lose international sales if you don't - I'm just lucky I have a friend in the US. Paying your postage to her and then hers to me comes in at around half your postage direct to me. Something really doesn't add up. Please try and find out where this goes pearshaped.

gregory said:

If that is so - why was USPS first class mail available to me in the UK when I bought tarotlyn's deck just a few days ago, and now it is no longer showing as an option for that same deck ?

That does not add up. Sorry - but it doesn't.

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Don't be sorry, as I've explained, I have no control over it. We deliver to you what USPS delivers to us. Perhaps there is a problem with the USPS servers we get our data from, or perhaps the deck has changed in some way. No idea.

gregory said:

And the SMALL flat rate priority boxes are what my friend in the US mails YOUR decks on to me in - by the simple expedient of removing them from your big boxes and slipping them in to the small ones. She has to add plenty of bubble wrap - it isn't a tight fit. Sorry - but that's how it is.

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We don't ship using Priority flat rate. We ship via Priority weighted, because Priority weighted is cheaper than Priority flat rate for shipping in the US, where the bulk of our customers are. This is a limitation of our system, and one that we will be changing over the next few months.

gregory said:

It's good to see you here; don't get me wrong. Please do listen to us. You will lose international sales if you don't - I'm just lucky I have a friend in the US. Paying your postage to her and then hers to me comes in at around half your postage direct to me. Something really doesn't add up. Please try and find out where this goes pearshaped.

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I'm not certain why you have such an angry demeanor. I'm trying to explain that we know international shipping is a problem and that we've been working with the USPS to fix it. And you reply back basically saying that I'm a liar. I've come here in peace to answer your questions publicly. If you prefer that I leave you and your community alone, I'm happy to do so.

"I know some of you think that we'd get cheaper shipping if we used a smaller box, but that's not true in most cases. That said, we have been working with the USPS to get a lower rate, and we hope to be able to offer that in the near future. "

Gamecrafter, I ship decks overseas, they cost $6 in postage to the UK in a padded envelope. A small box would cost slightly higher. It's the WEIGHT that affects the cost so much since we're paying by the ounce. Larger boxes are heavier, and whatever packaging inside you use adds weight too. It usually takes a week to get over there, though I did have a deck get to Spain in two days (not sure how that happened). I've sent to Europe, Australia, and everywhere but Africa it seems. Never had to pay $40 to get a deck anywhere. I do miss the surface rate, but that's long gone. It all just goes regular now.

I don't know if you saw the notices at the post office this past month but the postal rates just went up this week, not across the board but apparently enough to mess up the connections you have. Check with any post office about this.

"So the cost now for the ONLY OPTION for your deck to be sent to the UK is - as Saffi says - $40.85. Which makes it basically - not an option."

It can be done as a two stage process much easier, anyone in the UK who knows someone in the US can have the deck shipped to a US address and then packaged to be sent to the UK. A deck of this size and weight costs $6 to ship in a padded envelope overseas to Europe or the UK. FAR better than $40.