Hey y'all: feels like it's been a minute, even if it's only been four days. 😵‍💫 "Agonizing wait" is the theme for this update; that said, it's certainly not all bad!

The TLDR:

• SHIPPING
  • I've sent over the shipping table breakpoints to the PledgeManager folks!
  • There is some real potential to start shipping orders that should be clear for take-off, after revisiting that idea with The PM folks! (Though they said it would be clunky, we'll see.)
  • The PM folks are sadly out on Monday and Tuesday in observation of Labor Day, so I haven't heard back from them yet on either of the above. :/
• GPSR + EU RESPONSIBLE PERSON
  • I do have a lead for an EU RP, through Tallinn based EUCompliancePartner! 👏
  • Lyconia94 patches seem cleared! 👏 Got the signed document from the manufacturer. :)
  • Still waiting to hear from Morgan about the books, bookmarks, and postcards. :/
  • Still waiting to hear back from Death by Stickers about the stickers. :/
  • If for some strange (and most likely rare) reason the books don't clear, I would issue full refunds for countries where such restrictions apply. (And then sob for not being able to get the book into everyone's hands. 😭)
• CITEO
  • If GPSR clears for at least the books, I'm wholly going back on my former decision to forego CITEO, and SCREW IT, I'MMA GET IT. 🔥
• KICKSTARTER MONTHLY UPDATE
  • Will probably be delayed because we're in kind of an awkward spot with some international shipping stuff, and I'd rather communicate on KS from a place of certainty. 😵‍💫 (Recognizing of course that I can only delay an update for so long.)

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Shipping

I may or may not owe an apology to PledgeManager: I was under the impression that address + shipping had to, had to, had to be done all at once. While I know now it was designed to be that way, I brought it back up, emphasizing that there is a proportionately small percentage of backers in countries requiring extra compliance that were preventing us from moving forward with the majority. (I'm not guilt-tripping anyone, to be clear: I know none of us are asking for our countries to be difficult like this.)
As it turns out, it is technically possible, according to them, but it's "a little clunkier process-wise", and "[PM and I] would have to be super careful doing that, and [I'd] probably have to field some confused questions" from backers where shipping is on hold while compliance clears. I need to discuss with them what that all looks like, but they're out until Wednesday. x_x Aggggghhhh.

One option they mentioned was "locking" orders, which seems like it could work for the time, but I've often been confused by PledgeManager's ways, so I don't know how it works in practice. But if I understand it correctly, it can help me temporarily "bypass" collecting address + shipping costs for places I'm not quite ready to ship to yet. If we could at least get address + shipping collection rolling for the majority of orders which are not bound by irrelevant laws, that's going to feel very good for a lot of people, and it'll sure as hell feel very good for campaign optics. (Not to mention my self-esteem, which has felt like it's in the dirt right now.)

Again, I really need to continue discussing this with PM to see what that looks like. Hopefully it's not as clunky as they make it out to be: I've dealt with a lot of "clunk" on this campaign, how bad could it... uh, you know what, nevermind, I'm not jinxing that. 😂

GPSR + EU RP

While I was initially frightened by GPSR, finding an EU Responsible Person quickly rocketed up to the absolute top of my fears for shipping to the EU, while GPSR has slowly become more familiar (if slow to get safety documentation for). So I was thrilled to have stumbled upon EUCompliancePartner via a Reddit comment a couple days ago. I reached out to them and got a quote with the following headline:

Your catalogue falls under our reduced offer for small businesses.
After reviewing your product catalogue we can offer you the below. Covering the EU Representation for your complete product range and categories.

GPSR & EU Responsible Person Service – $200/year (USD) (flat fee, unlimited products)

Believe me, this is a very good price. It far and away beats the potentially €1.5K+ I was seeing elsewhere. 🤯

Moreover, this could be crucial in re-opening future orders overseas. 🧡 Cautiously optimistic.

When I discovered the horror that was GSPR and EU RP last Saturday, I initially thought I could maybeeeee ask a fan in the EU to fill that role, because I thought, "oh, you just need to know someone inside the EU? Great!". But the more I looked into it, the scarier that idea became. Even if it's technically sorta kinda possible, even if people have done it with like family in the EU, and even if the physical items of the campaign are notably low-risk, there was still the possibility of the EU RP having to pay fines if the campaign goods ran afoul of the law, and I'm not sure any contract thereby stating that I indemnified them of any wrongdoing would be enough to prevent them from paying any fines. I absolutely cannot live with that possibility, and even if I was naive, I apologize in hindsight that I even considered that. D: Hell. No.

CITEO

Similar to the EU RP, I floated the possibility of sidestepping CITEO via a loophole, but when I researched further, I realized it would pass culpability onto another person, even then. Again, I absolutely cannot live with that, and I apologize for even considering an alternative route to getting books to France.

IF GPSR clears, I'm registering with CITEO. End of story. Sure, it's €80, and it's probably not going to serve me in the long run, but it's the right and uncomplicated way of going about this. So let's do it that way. 🤘

KICKSTARTER UPDATE

So... yeah. 🫠 Hopefully all of those details help my case for a delay, when I'd normally be getting one out tomorrow. There's a number of question marks still that I want to turn into periods. But I'm glad I can share where we're at here, as much as I want, for everyone who wants to be up with the latest.

I appreciate y'all so much. I think we're almost there. I can't imagine some level of address + shipping cost collection will be delayed much longer. It feels good to at least be at a place where I can say that. Let's just hope it does pan out... once I can hear back from PM. 😵‍💫

Love y'all so much. 🧡🧡🧡 Thank you for being here, watching me eventually get to a place of "pens down, rewards out". Let's keep going.