I'm in the home stretch on pin grading right now, with 5 more 2" designs to go.
Grading has been a bit of a mess, but, not enough that it's required an update so far. Due to a lot of possible conditions, we've had some gnarly pin flaw rates. I am handling this privately with the factory, and I'll see how, if at all, I can get remakes into the country with tariffs without a huge hassle. Thanks for hanging in there.
Unfortunately, while doing #16 (the kakapo), I finally had enough light on in the office to realize that we have a color error with them. The 1" and 1.5" kakapo pins have the correct facial color, but the 2" uses the white eye color instead of the tan beak.
This is something I didn't notice until I turned my top light on and stopped being a vampire, but it's something I know you guys will notice if I try to ship them out this way.
It looks like, from the proofs I have, that this is a factory error. My artwork + the proof I received have the correct colors.
So, this leaves us in a frustrating spot, and it leaves me in a spot I need to explain more shit that sucks about the pin economy right now.
A lot of GAP's 1.5" and 2" pins have unusually high flaw rates. We are talking far above average, with flaws that are generally not common - visible metal contaminations, enamel drips, huge scratches, and even gouges.
This is not malicious, and should not be taken in that way. It means the factory was probably in a hurry to get things out before tariff and other economic issues got worse. The order was placed in early January, when the shitshow was beginning. This factory is generally above-average in their flaw rates, so this is difficult.
Most of the time, when things like this happen, the factory will offer to fully or partially remake the batch of pins. Sometimes, I'll cover this. Sometimes, they do, if it's egregious enough of an issue and it's clearly something caused on their end. Sometimes, they let you keep the defective pins, and other times they want them sent back.
None of this will make us exempt from tariffs to get replacements back into the country. Or... getting the defective ones back to China.
I haven't made a formal update about flaws yet, because I've had enough to fulfill pledges and I figure I'd just take the L and have my retail shit remade. But the kakapo is one of my more popular little guys, and there is not one pin in this batch with the correct colors.
I am going to withhold all pledges with a 2" KAKAPO PIN for now. I will reach out individually to you with options. You can either take the messed up little dude, or, you can wait until we get new ones in. And, currently, unfortunately, I don't know when or how that's going to happen. I'll also offer some discounted options to take the current mistake pin, with a coupon for the right color when they do get to me.
As a secondary note - did you order a whiteface cockatiel sticker? My mistake - I didn't!
I got a few emails about this. We did not order 1C or 2C pins because of a lack of sales... but they shouldn't have been chopped from the sticker order. If you are affected by this, I've been sitting on your email for a bit, because there are more of you than I thought. Expect to see a personalized response today.
This was my mistake, and I will be getting some limited stock of these guys in the sticker order I'm placing tomorrow. These may take a month or so to arrive, so, if you don't want to wait (I wouldn't, either), I'm good refunding your tiel.
I'm sorry for this miscommunication, and I'm ordering a flock of tiels to make it right.
I'm going to grab a mid-session coffee, finish up grading, and start buying the first round of shipping labels tonight. Don't be surprised if you get a notification - yes, your birds are going out!
