Shipping update -- slipcase upgrade duplication
9 months ago – Fri, Aug 11, 2023 at 04:24:59 PM

Happy Friday, everyone!

It sounds, from the number of comments and messages we've received today, that a bunch of our domestic US backers have started receiving their packages today! It is so great to hear how much everyone is pleased with their stuff! 🤩 We have confirmation from the warehouse that all domestic US packages have gone out, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, you should within the next week or so.

Next up are all International orders. The warehouse is ready to pack and ship those, but we are waiting for them to sort some final forms with the World Tariff Organization so that everything can ship DDP (all duties and taxes are pre-paid so you shouldn't be asked by your local carrier for anything more). As soon as those forms are settled, the rest of the orders will be out the door.

The only reoccurring issue, it seems, isn't missing items, but the opposite -- some of you are reporting getting TWO COPIES of the book by mistake. 😓 Specifically, it seems that some of you "Original ARSENE Backers" who ordered the "slipcase upgrade with spacer" may have received a second, standalone copy of HOLMES in your package even though the slipcase included a copy already. Frankly, after much panic and hairpulling, we realize this was due to an error on our side -- the book and the "upgrade" were listed separately in Backerkit as two separate items, but I failed to filter out the redundant standalone copy from those orders before uploading it. So both items were picked and packed as per the order data sent to the warehouse. My fault, not theirs. 

Fortunately, we were able to correct this oversight with the upcoming International order data, but we've been discussing what this means and what to do about the 280 packages that have already left the building with duplicate books inside.  Frankly, all things considered, the choice is simple:

Enjoy your bonus copy. 😊 It is a beautiful book that would make a wonderful gift to a friend or loved one!

(And if that special someone happens to falls in love with it, we'll have more copies of the sold-out ARSENE LUPIN available again in November... just in time for the holidays!)

Snafus like this are frustrating (and expensive) for us, but we always want to own our mistakes and take the right actions in response. You shouldn't have to go through any additional effort because of our error. We appreciate those of you who offered to ship the extra copy back, but there's no reason anyone should have to spend more money on additional unnecessary shipping (including us!)

If you have any questions about this or anything else, please feel free to message us or comment. We admit that with so much going on, we might not be able to reply right away, but we try to get to messages as soon as possible.

Thanks, everyone! 

Shipping status, Ambassador Points, and TEZUCOMI!
9 months ago – Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 03:47:20 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you are having a fine Monday. We had to look up the day on a calendar to confirm it was indeed Monday since we've been working non-stop, weekend-be-damned, on so many things lately... Of course at the front of that list is getting HOLMES ready to ship this week! 

The warehouse should have all of the Stretch Goal bundles assembled by tomorrow at which point they should switch to packing and shipping actual orders this week! We still have some steps to cover in getting the final order data into their system, but that's a relatively simple import process, so we don't see that being much of a hurdle. Once we have that data entered and the warehouse confirms packing has begun, we'll let you all know.

In other news...

...You've got Ambassador Points!

If you missed the mention on the campaign page, every pledge includes a number of Ambassador Points equivalent to your final order total (including postage). These are unique reward points that can be collected and redeemed for discounts and rewards on our webstore, and a great way to support Magnetic Press further (while building up a collection of cool books and stuff in the process)!

If you are already a webstore customer and part of the program, just log into your webstore account (which should be under the same email address as your Kickstarter/Backerkit account). You should see those new points added to your balance under the heading "SHERLOCK HOLMES Kickstarter Points."

If you don't have an account on our webstore, your points have been tallied, but you will need to complete registration for us to add them. 😊

For a walkthrough of how to register, just follow the steps on our webpage:

You can use points for discount codes, gift cards, and occasionally for exclusive collectible items that you can only get using points! It's definitely a fun program that we'll be building upon very soon!

If you don't see your MONKEY KING points in your account, or if you have any questions about the above, please send us a message here on Kickstarter and we'll get back to you ASAP. Please note that if you haven't completed your Backerkit order, your points have not been awarded yet, so check to make sure your survey and any remaining payments are complete.

And if you're looking to earn MORE points, check out our NEXT BIG CAMPAIGN LAUNCHING TOMORROW...!

Celebrating the works of OSAMU TEZUKA!

TEZUCOMI is a deluxe, two-volume tribute to Osamu Tezuka, widely considered the “Father of Manga and Anime” and described as "the Walt Disney of Japan."

600 pages of extraordinary content by popular contemporary comic book authors from around the world pay tribute to Tezuka’s enormous body of influential work. The stories feature characters from Tezuka’s history, such as Astro Boy, Unico, Black Jack, Big X, Dororo, Songoku, Kimba, and many more.

Contributing artists include Ken Niimura (I Kill Giants), Joe Kelly (Deadpool, X-Men), Juan Diaz Canales (Blacksad), Kenny Ruiz (Team Phoenix), Belen Ortega (The Millennium Saga), Victor Santos (Polar), Mathieu Bablet (Shangri-La), JD Morvan (Naja), Mig (Wakfu), David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-man), Bertrand Gatignol (The Ogre Gods Saga), LuisNCT (Killadelphia), Elsa Brants (Save me, Pythia), Reno Lemaire (Dreamland), Brice Cossu (FRNCK), Sourya (Talli), and more.

Available in traditional manga-sized tankobon paperback and premium gallery-sized hardcover. We will also have limited-edition slipcase sets of both formats, and even an ultimate "Super-Fan Set" limited to only 250 copies!

Be sure to pledge in the first 48 hours to receive an exclusive, limited edition 2-sided mini-poster by Olivier Vatine and Rian Gonzales for FREE with your pledge!

This is a very special project created in cooperation with Tezuka Productions and we cannot wait to pull back the curtain!

The campaign launches on Kickstarter TOMORROW at 9am PST! Please join us!

A brief update on shipping, and a heads-up about our BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR!
9 months ago – Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 01:54:28 PM

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know that all of the SHERLOCK HOLMES inventory items are at the fulfillment warehouse and the two special bundles are in the process of pre-assembly now. I'm told by the warehouse that they expect to have those built in the next week or so, and assuming all goes well, shipping should hopefully start before the 31st! We hope to have some more confirmation from them later this week, but since we'll be on the road attending San Diego Comic-Con, we'll do our best to report any news that's fit to print. 😊

For anyone curious or interested, we will not have a booth at SDCC this year. Last year we tried something new and somewhat experimental, and it worked out quite well, so we've decided to do it again this year by hosting the official, second annual MAGNETIC-CON...!

What is MAGNETIC-CON?

Conceptually, MAGNETIC-CON is a celebration of the best graphic novels and art books published by Magnetic Press, featuring past, present, and future titles that showcase some of the most creatively inspiring talent and projects from around the world. In actuality, MAGNETIC-CON is simply our way of hosting a "virtual" annual event for fans regardless of location, with exclusive content and swag to complete the "attendee" experience! This includes the second volume of our annual Con Book, branded attendee badges and lanyards, fashionable event Tees, and a limited-edition VIP Loot Box filled with awesome collectible items that will only be available through this online campaign event! PLUS, like a good, well-stocked convention booth, you'll have access to a slew of over 200 ADD-ONS from our celebrated back catalog at HUGE DISCOUNTS (up to 60% OFF!)

Headlining the MAGNETIC-CON offerings is the MAGNETIC-CON 2023 BOOK, a "Convention Art and Activity Book" featuring 64 pages of new comics, tabletop gaming resources, artwork galleries by some of Magnetic’s most popular creators, as well as a sneak peek at some of the exciting projects currently in the works! Featuring a cover by the legendary ZACH HOWARD (Hellboy, Wild Blue Yonder) and back cover by TORU TERADA (Small World, Black Box Chronicles), each book also includes a limited edition Convention badge and Magnetic Press lanyard!

SIGN UP TODAY TO RECEIVE A BONUS LIMTED-EDITION TWO-SIDED MINI-POSTER BY ZACH HOWARD AND TORU TERADA FREE WITH YOUR PLEDGE!

This will bea very short 6-day campaign with a quick turnaround -- 9am Wednesday JULY 19 (tomorrow!) thru MON JULY 24!

This really is our BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR, and if there are any Magnetic Press items you've been eyeing, or if you're not familiar with the tons of other stuff Magnetic Press has to offer, you will not want to miss out on this event.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE TOMORROW!

Shipping to start this month! Here's the scoop...
10 months ago – Thu, Jul 06, 2023 at 12:40:46 PM

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all having a good summer so far and (for our stateside backers) had a great 4th of July! This past month has been a whirlwind for us, hence the lack of updates these past four weeks. Aside from some family health issues that have forced an unexpected amount of travel, we've been busy making sure that everything for this campaign is ready to start shipping. There are a lot of items involved, and there was a little panic when one of the "Sleuth" edition items didn't arrive on the date expected, but it finally showed up a week later, so we're now good.

Everything is now in-hand and being sent to our fulfillment partner as you read this!

We should explain that we are using a different warehouse this time around (for a handful of business reasons) and it has taken longer than expected to get that service agreement and account set up so that they can receive the goods and start turning around orders. While we entered the setup process with them many weeks ago, the details of getting everything nailed down included some new considerations for us to sort out. (Banking stuff, tax rules, boring but important stuff really...) 

The goods are now on their way to them, however, and should reach them by next week. They will take another week to pre-assemble the two multi-item SKUs (the "Sleuth" and Stretch Goal bundles), and then they expect to be able to start packing and shipping orders the week after that. If all goes as hoped, everything should be on its way to you before the end of this month! Yes, that is a few weeks beyond our original shipping estimate made during the campaign, but as estimates go, it's not too far off. 😉

Returning backers may ask why we're switching fulfillment partners... without going into too many details, we've been looking at ways to optimize and improve our packing and shipping performance over the past year, and we have identified some areas that could lead to improved security and efficiency.  One area of improvement is using more appropriately-sized boxes and content-appropriate packing materials to better protect our books in transit. That is a big priority for us.  We've taken steps to add corner protectors to our slipcases in manufacturing, but making sure all items are packed snug and secure with solid packing paper inside the shipping boxes should further increase security. While our damage ratio is really low (<5%), if we can get as close to 100% damage-free shipping as possible, that is our goal. ("Perfect" will always be impossible, but we want to do all we can...)

The next big priority, however, is timeliness and accountability for our international backers. Our previous campaign pipeline involved bulk shipping goods to a number of separate warehouses around the globe who then packed and shipped orders to those regional backers. This added several weeks for the inventory freight to arrive, then several more weeks for those warehouses to process and ship those orders, amounting to 6-12 weeks of additional waiting time for those enormously patient overseas backers. Our new pipeline should fix that...

All orders -- domestic and international -- will be processed and shipped at the same time from one location! 😊 

VAT and customs will still be taken care of upfront, so you should not have to worry about any amount due from your local carrier. (If you are asked, please let us know!) This new fulfillment partner has an excellent arrangement with DHL, so there shouldn't be any confusion about which carriers and couriers are involved. We should have all tracking numbers immediately available in Backerkit, and since all inventory will be tracked and shipped from a single location, we won't have to worry about any surprise shortages or damages during inventory transfer between warehouses. While we have always done our best, we've had to deal with the cost (in both time and money) of replenishing those regional warehouses for damaged or missing items, a time-consuming headache that should now no longer be a factor.

For those of you who are new to our campaigns (or to Kickstarter in general), we appreciate your patience and support while we make these adjustments. There are additional efficiencies on the backend that will be invisible to you but are immensely helpful for us internally. And those internal efficiencies will mean more mindshare for more cool things for the year ahead! Next year will be Magnetic Press's 10th Anniversary, and we want to ensure the best community experience ever! 😎

So stay tuned -- we should have actual shipping and tracking information for you in the next couple of weeks!

Locking Addresses!
11 months ago – Mon, Jun 05, 2023 at 11:24:04 AM

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update to let you know that we are now LOCKING ADDRESSES in Backerkit. You should soon receive an email from Backerkit notifying you of this, giving you 48 hours to make any changes to your shipping address necessary. Once that time is up, your orders will be locked for final fulfillment. If you need to make a change beyond that point, send us a message and we'll see what we can do.

We are getting order data and inventory over to our shipping warehouse this weekend, and hope they'll be able to start putting packages in the mail shortly! We'll keep you posted as they confirm dates with us.

THANKS, EVERYONE!