Hello all,

Glammy plushies are in storage, and our enamel pins are on the way in June!
That means now is a great time for you to look at your stuff and make sure your order/survey is turned in with the correct address. I'll be hand-packing orders in June to head out to everyone. 

So stay tuned friends, the Goblin's Journey is going to be coming home sooner than you might think.

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Uhhh, hey.

This has been quite a time for small businesses lately. Don't know how much many of you are familiar with the political situation, but tariffs have gone up and down and up and, at this point, most other pintopian project creators have been freaking out and doomspiraling about how this is going to ruin their business. I was in the same boat, but being patient about it.

At this moment it sounds like the tariffs are going to be walked back, but we have no idea how low they will go. For people unfamiliar, right now we are at a 145% tariff on Chinese made goods. What that means for us is that, because our plush and pins are made in China, the manufacturing cost is charged to the importer (me) when it arrives to the US to the % of the tariff. 

In this example, plushies end up costing me 24.50 to manufacture. I only charged $30 during the campaign. Considering advertising costs, sample costs, freight shipping, and backerkit platform fees and credit card charging fees, I would be taking a loss per plush. And unfortunately, it cost me more than $10 per plushie to manufacture in reality. 

As of this moment, the plushes are generally on their way to me from China. Also as of this moment, the tariffs are still in place. They said as recently as this morning that they are walking back the tariffs, but not when it will happen or how low they will get, other than Trump saying they won't go down to 0%. So they could be anywhere from 1-145%.

This level of uncertainty has caused multiple small businesses to already shutter their doors, there's just no way to trust our numbers when an insane king can just implode our economy on his whims, then say he doesn't mean it, then impose it worse, then roll it back. And until it's actually rolled back, we won't know.

I have confirmed the enamel pins have been fixed to my satisfaction, and I have placed the order for the pins to be made (and paid) as of yesterday, but even the manufacturer is suggesting we just wait a little bit to see how much it will cost to ship/what the tariffs will be, since it sounds like they are being walked back.

Because of all this, we are just kind of... twiddling our thumbs as we wait to see what the king will choose. When will it be rolled back? How low will it go? And when the pins are on their way to me, will they go up again? We frankly just can't know.

But the pins are ordered, the plushies are on their way, and we're all just crossing our fingers that this dick measuring contest will end so we don't have to cough up 1.5x the manufacturing cost to the US government for literally no reason. 

Thanks for your continued patience, I'll let you all know what arrives and what it costs, I suppose!

7DA
your pub gob

Hello everyone,

I have been doing a lot of waiting on my end for the pins and plushies. As of today, the plush are all done and being packed to ship to me! Which is super exciting. I did end up getting the collab pins, but frankly I was disappointed with the coloration of the annodizing so I've asked for new ones and for the final version to be sure to get multiple colors on them.

The edge of the pins have the multicolor rainbow we want, but the fronts are pretty uniformly green/blue. They've promised it was because the samples were rushed, and I will say that otherwise the pins look pretty good. The rushed samples also had some missing enamel in some of them, but the quality I've received from this manu in the past has always been really good, so I have faith it will be fixed.

I was disappointed in the pins we got because the lines were SO THIN. Their artist thinned my artist's lines, which I knew, but then the pins had even THINNER lines than their artist's lines. And then the lines were chipped all over-- they should have been clean gold lines, but they had a 'sparkle' look to them, like glitter, which meant the lines weren't fine. So on the left is the pins they did, and the right is the new casting from a new mold. This was almost perfect except for the eyes overlapping the glasses on the Sun/Whale Goblin pin again. They are fixing that then getting me proper samples to okay.

The rough timeline should be me receiving and okaying the pin samples in another 2 weeks, then placing the order for the pins as the plushies arrive to me. Ironically those will be in hand first. After another 3 weeks, the pins should be complete, then we can begin shipping 2 weeks after that when they arrive. This means roughly that we're looking at around mid May that I should be shipping these out. I can also of course ship out the plushies for people who only ordered those early.

That is definitely later than I'd intended, but I've never had these pin issues with this manufacturer. That said, I know it will be worth it when these gorgeous pins gleam on your jackets and bags! So thank you for your patience.

So while we wait....

The Goblin's Tarot, which our pin set was based on, has its full Major Arcana illustrated already! Right now, Sam is finishing flat colors for the minor suits, and will be back to me when those start to finish up. Above you can see The Sun, The Magician, Justice, and The Tower. They each show the Goblin in different forms on their journey, seeing and experiencing different parts of the world of Ajurea-- the very Goblin's Journey our project is named for.

The Sun takes place at the Sky Whale Festival up in Motley Coast City. The Magician down in the twilit, bioluminescent forests of Riqlem. Justice looks on at a rally for equal rights for those abandoned by other parts of the world deep in the Mflzmth Jungle. The Tower takes place among the Koukyla, the stone peoples from my game New Avernus, as they recount their history of constant upheaval and destruction by a cruel god who pushed their faith to the limit.

So if the art speaks to you, consider signing up for that project, which is slated for around July or later this year. Of course HISTORIC is live right now, and May 1st, the Goblin's Oracle Dice will be launching.

No rest for the Goblin!
Talk again soon as we head to getting these pin sets into the world!

7DA
your pub gob

Hello all,

Your surveys are heading out now. 
You will have the chance to grab goodies, extra add-ons, and more.
I have gone through every early bird backer from the first project who was logged in and who also pledged here and given you Early Bird discounts if you still got the same item. For people who got a new or cheaper item, I gave you the Early Bird discount for your new item, as possible.

Otherwise, we're all set!
The new pins are taking a moment to get fixed up, but I should have the collaboration pins in hand yet today, if Fedex can figure their stuff out. So look for an update later today or tomorrow with that in hand.

NOTE:
While you will see what you owe, you will NOT be charged until I manually charge everyone.
I will plan to do this on Fridays each week. 

For some people, your orders failed to charge for your pledge. You will receive an email about it, and you will need to get that taken care of and corrected before you'll receive items. At a certain point in a few weeks, I will just cancel people's orders whose cards failed on the initial pledge.

Thanks all, get your surveys with addresses in when you can, and I'll see you next update!

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