The end is finally in sight! I have shipped 742 packages so far. I dropped off half of the batch on Wednesday, and the rest are scheduled for pick-up on Monday!For US-based orders, please check your e-mails for your tracking numbers. The tracking will come via PirateShip.com. Make sure to check your spam if you don't see it in your inbox! Orders should be arriving within the next week or so. ❤
My garage is currently FULL of boxes and bags.
The rest will be picked up on Monday!
There are 166 international orders remaining. I will be shipping North American orders first, and then moving on to overseas orders. I'm currently in the process of packing and pulling all remaining orders and getting shipping estimates for the remaining regions! As much as I would love to get the rest of these orders knocked out, I need to take another quick intermission to try and gather more funds.
As I've stated in previous updates, due to the theft, I lost nearly $13k (all of the funding that was supposed to go towards shipping.) However, as many of my US backers may know, the cost of living has SKYROCKETED in the past two years. The original shipping quotes were made in late 2024. With the tariffs and rising cost of fuel, the shipping has gone up exponentially.
In full transparency, US shipping so far has cost over $10,000 USD. In order to fulfill the orders, I had to take out a credit card. My personal credit has already taken a big hit due to the wire fraud and financial struggle, so I am trying not to max out my credit and make it worse, in case of emergency. Sales from my online store and conventions have been increasingly slow due to the state of the economy, so despite making payments on the card, it kinda feels like trying to fill in the Atlantic ocean with a tiny bucket and a shovel. I am just hoping to pay down my debt a bit more before tackling the rest of the shipping.
So, what's next?
I've got a few ideas to keep raising funds to fulfill these plushies. I have accumulated a few B-grades from plushie fulfillment, so I will be hosting a Seconds Sale later this month on my shop. These plushies have minor defects like dirt smudges, off-center embroidery, loose threads, missing inserts, etc. They're still perfectly lovable and will look good as new with some tender love and care. I also have some... cursed plushies. I've found two Grave Robberts with upside-down faces so far. These will be hosted via an eBay auction. All proceeds will go towards fulfillment.
I finally cleared out my storage unit in Knoxville. Now that all of my plushies are back at my home office, I'll be quality checking all of them and setting aside the plushes needed for international orders. Depending on how much is left over, I will be selling extras at markets or online to pay down the accruing debt. Depending on how much I can raise from sales and markets this summer, I may also do some fundraising streams.
Want your order earlier?
Again, I am so sorry for the continued delays. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thinking of y'all and trying to come up with a way out of this mess. If you don't want to continue waiting, there are options! Please e-mail me at loppydraws(@)gmail.com to discuss them. Some international patrons have come up with solutions that I figured are worth sharing!
Combining Orders. My shop is currently closed while I caught up on these orders, but if you'd like to combine your order with a shop order, just add your pledge number to the notes at checkout! Keep in mind, this option does not include the EU and UK at this time.
Forwarding Services. A couple international patrons (especially in the EU & UK) have switched their addresses to a forwarding mail service. These services give a US address for international buyers to receive mail which then forward to your home address overseas. Though I've heard many good things about these services, please keep in mind that this option would be at your own risk, since I will no longer be able to track the order once it gets to the fulfillment center.
Warnings & Reminders
Mercari & Resellers
It has come to my attention that quite a few resellers have been trying to profit off of these plushies. I have seen some listings for $80. (And one for $400. Yikes.) There ARE extra plushies that will be for sale. They will not be more than $45-50 USD. I am so happy that people want these plushies, but if you can wait a bit longer, you won't have to pay extra for a secondhand plush.
Remaining Surveys & Declined Cards/Insufficient Funds: There are still 52 incomplete surveys! Some of these surveys have credit on them. I've been sending monthly reminders to no avail. I'll be attempting to reach out directly, but if surveys are still incomplete by the end of the campaign, I will refund and cancel. Some orders are paused as the shipping has not yet been paid. If you have lost the link to your survey, you can recover it here! If you can't remember or access the e-mail you originally pledged with, send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to help you get it figured out.
A Closing Note
I think that's it for now. We're so close to being done! I am more than ready to put this project behind me. To be candid for a moment, this project has been so deeply traumatic. Sometimes it feels kinda dumb to say so, but my therapist has been trying to knock it through my thick skull that being the victim of fraud is a traumatic experience. Imagine that. That being said, being able to check off those last few US orders was a tremendous weight off of my chest. For the first time in over a year, I feel hopeful for the future.
Y'all have played a big part in that. I have seen many crowdfunding projects blow up, and the aftermath is not pretty. I never wanna disappoint my supporters, and every month that goes by is another blow to my ego. Every day, I open my e-mail and I'm terrified of seeing angry e-mails or comments. And yet... I rarely ever see them. Like ever. Out of the 900+ orders I received, I think I've only received 10 unkind messages overall. Only 10 out of 900. That's wild.
It still blows me away how supportive y'all are every time I post. I'll say it as many times as I have to: thank you so much for believing in me.
Some people have e-mailed with concerns regarding the gaps in updates. First off: never apologize for reaching out via e-mail to check in! I am always happy to give y'all updates, even if I may not have detailed answers. Truthfully, I've just been so busy that the months are blurring together! @-@
I'm still plucking away at orders a few batches at a time. There are currently 113 US Orders remaining.(A few folks have finished their surveys, so the number got boosted a lil!) The current plan is to have these out by the end of June. June is a slow month for me, so I should be able to focus all of my energy into packing. Once I get all the US orders out, I'm going to take a hard look at my books and get an estimate of the remaining shipping costs. As y'all know, the current state of international trading is... not great. I've been using PirateShip's Simple Export to keep international shipping costs as low as possible, but it's not available for bigger orders.
I wish I had more to update in those regards, but truthfully, I'm just trying to take it all one step at a time. A big thank you to my international customers especially for their patience! Y'all have been real troopers.
Galaxycon Nashville
I will be in Nashville this week for Galaxycon! If you are in the area and would like to pick up your order directly, please e-mail me by Wednesday and I'll have your order prepared for you. If you're not attending Galaxycon but are local to Middle Tennessee, we can arrange to meet up at a coffee shop or park for pickup!
And lastly, since it's been a hot minute, I figured I'd address some frequently asked questions as well!
"I received my tracking number, but there hasn't been any progress on it."
I often print my labels out in large batches! Once the label is purchased, the tracking number is generated. However, until the package is dropped off and scanned in at the post office, it won't show any updates. Sometimes, especially with larger batches, it just takes me a while to package each order. However, if your order doesn't update after 2 weeks, please do check in! It could possibly be lost at this point.
"How do I get the wrinkles out of my plushies?"
Due to the financial difficulties of this campaign, I have been shipping a lot of the plushies in polymailers. It still gets them safely to their location, but it often leaves them looking a lil... rumpled. Just think of it like jet lag... No worries, though! The wrinkles will fall out. There's a couple methods to do so:
1. Beat the ever-loving sh*t out of them. Shake 'em up. Stomp 'em. 2. Toss them in the dryer for 10-15 minutes with a damp washcloth on a low tumble cycle! This method works especially well with Mumble, since her ears are prone to holding onto their wrinkles. 3. If you DO have a steamer for some reason, this helps to knock out the wrinkles.
"Will you be selling these again?"
This is a loaded question. I do have extra plushies, and I will be selling those once all orders are fulfilled. (Possibly a couple after US orders are completed so that I can fund international shipping.)
My current debt is sitting at about $10k for this campaign. It's going to take me a few years to climb out of that hole. Until then, I will not be able to restock these plushies. Once the extras are sold, they're gone for good. I have cut ties with the manufacturer who designed these plushies, so I would need to start the manufacturing process all over again.
That being said, I still love the Hurtsies. I have grown a bit distant and resentful towards them during this campaign, but I'm hoping to work them back into my stationery lines once the dust has settled. So while there won't be any plushes of them available for a long time, you might be able to find their designs in other mediums.
Lops of love, and see y'all again soon! -Loppy Rae
Hello everybunny. Just a short update from me this month.
I am prepping this month's batch of orders. I am aiming to get a batch of 50 out by the end of the month.
I will be at Fanboy ATG this weekend! If you are in or around the area and would like to pop in to pick up your Hurtsies, please e-mail me and I'll make sure your order is ready for pickup. Additionally, if you're in Knox, but not going to Fanboy, we can discuss a public meet up point!
I also had some folks (both international and US) ask if they were to order from my shop, could they have their Hurtsies included with their order. I am happy to do this! Please just make sure to add a note to your order with your Hurtsies order number, and I can get that squared away. Unfortunately, I still cannot ship out to the EU/UK, so I cannot combine orders for those countries.
We're in the throes of tax season here in the US. And let me tell you, filing taxes is enough of a headache without having to figure out how to deal with a loss. Luckily, I should be able to claim all of the wire fraud as a loss. I'm not sure what this will mean for me financially, but I'm hoping that I will either owe nothing, or get a small amount returned to help chip away at the debt.
The cost of shipping so far has me sitting at about $7k in credit card debt. I'm trying desperately to not put any more on my card, so batches have been smaller. However, I don't want to drag this project out any longer than I have to, so I've been weighing all of my options. I also have been refunding people where I can, but again, it takes time for me to earn that money back to issue refunds. (Especially with the larger ones.)
Again, I'm not trying to throw a pity party for myself here, but I hope the context can help explain my slowness.
And for further clarification, most of this community has been nothing but kind to me. Seriously! Sometimes I can't help but get a bit weepy over how compassionate y'all are. The bad experiences have been few and far between compared to the overwhelming kindness and patience I've been shown.
Once this project is all said and done, I would love to put together a gift for everyone who has supported me for this entire train wreck. A digital download would probably be the most efficient, I think? Please let me know what sorts of things you'd like to see. I was considering a little phone wallpaper + icon set!
Sorry for how truly messy this update was. I hope it made even a teeny tiny bit of sense. My next update will hopefully be sooner rather than later!
I've packed and shipped 534 orders to date! There are 361 orders remaining, with 194 US orders and 167 international orders.
Ideally, I would like to have US orders wrapped up by the end of April.
In full transparency, however, I have had to work in small batches due to financial issues. As most of you are aware, due to the wire fraud, my entire budget was upended. The money originally allotted to fulfillment was spent just getting the plushies through production. All this to say, fulfillment has been going slowly because I've been pulling the money for shipping labels out of my personal account. However, I've long since drained by personal and business savings. Shipping costs have increased exponentially since the initial campaign, so I'm only able to work in small batches of 50 or so. I've had to take breaks between batches to push commissions or sales in my shop to fund the next round of labels.
In order to speed the process up, I may auction a couple of the protoype Hurtsies, or the weird cursed ones I've found while grading plushes. I'm not sure if anyone would be interested, but I'll post them on my Insta or Twitter if I do go through with the idea.
Again, I can't stress enough that I'm not trying to make excuses. It's really hard to write about everything without sounding like I'm throwing a huge pity party for myself.
It's not ideal, and I apologize that y'all are having to continue waiting. I must sound like a broken record at this point, but I am SO grateful for y'all's patience. I don't think I could survive this whole conundrum if I haven't been met with such kindness and grace. I know supporting a crowdfunding campaign is a gamble in and of itself. I've heard of many campaigns gone wrong, and I never expected to be at the center of one. Even if this whole campaign has gone to shit, I hope I can prove that I'll see things through to the very end, at the very least.
Also, as a side note, it is just me here! I've had a lot of e-mails coming in addressing Riot, and I regret to inform that I had to let Riot go in early 2025 due to being unable to afford their services. Please don't reach out to them for campaign updates. At any point, y'all can reach out to me via e-mail with questions or concerns. My e-mail is [email protected]. I try to respond at least once a week.
Hello everybunny, I hope everyone had a happy holiday, regardless of what they celebrate!
Just a quick update on shipping progress:
As of now, there are 470 orders remaining to be shipped! Of those orders, 168 orders are international.
I am hoping to wrap up US shipping in the next few months, and will be comparing prices for international fulfillment services that can fit into my budget in the meantime.
Certainly, I sound like a broken record at this point, but I'd like to extend my apologies again for all the road bumps in this project. It has been almost an entire year since the initial wire fraud fiasco, and I have still not recovered financially. This year was incredibly unforgiving for small businesses, and losing $13k on top of my drastically declining revenue has not left me in the best shape. In full transparency, the remainder of this project is being funded via credit card.
I have received a couple of complaints that people were not satisfied with their plushies, and I apologize if that's been the case for you. If you're not happy with the plushes, that's entirely valid. However, at this point, I just do not have any funding to request the factory remake the plushies. The factory has not been cooperative, and has refused to take accountability for the hacking that led to the financial loss in the first place. I understand if people are frustrated after the wait, but all I can offer is a refund at this point once the plushies are returned to my home office.
I apologize if any of this was poorly worded. I really struggle with discussing this whole situation, because I don't want to come across as guilt-tripping my audience. It's hard to strike that balance, especially when all I can do is share words across a screen. All I know, all I can promise, is that this project will be completed if it's the last darn thing I do. But in the mean time, I'm incredibly tired, and I'm just trying my best to keep my head above water. I don't expect pity or forgiveness, but I do hope everyone realizes that I am doing the best with the hand I was dealt.
I'll be back in another month for another progress update. In the mean time, if you'd like a progress update, just shoot me an e-mail! And again, if you'd rather have a refund than wait for your order, you can reach out to me at any time!
