Last time I updated, I said by the end of Feb the acrylic dice would be done, then within a few days the stone dice should be done-- and that should be it!

And it almost is. Everything, all the dice, are done and good to go as I noted last time. The only thing not done are the wood boxes.

They are installing the foam inserts into the dice holes by hand, and with 22 small holes in that thing it takes some time. The manufacturer noted that each worker is only able to get 4-5 boxes done an hour. This is taking longer than the box manufacturer expected because of it, but the bigger issue is that when China dropped all their limitations on things due to COVID, it made it all more chaotic. Things no longer get stuck at port because a region is in Lockdown, which is nice, but now things get slowed down because there are worker shortages all over as COVID infections rise. So not only are the boxes taking longer by hand than expected, but they're also short staffed.

The dice box inspection (final step) is occurring on the 13th (a week from today). This means dice boxes should be going to New Titan to get packed away in sets soon.

This is the only thing that's holding us up. Because I got New Titan a preliminary break down of the orders weeks ago, they have already been able to begin assembling backer sets. So we are confident as soon as the boxes get in our hands, we can get things moving. US and Canada orders will finish getting packed and loaded to the vessel to go out on the 20th this month. It'll take 20-25 days to arrive, then the packages that are already labeled and packed just go into the mail. Easy as that.

This does mean US packages will be arriving between April 22nd-May 2nd-ish. It's very rare for packages with USPS to take more than a week to travel from any point in the US to any other, but even if they take 2 weeks in this case, everything should be in hand across the US by May 9th at some of the latest. 

Canadian packages may be arriving into mid-May, but international packages outside the US and Canada will be going out in the end of this month into next month if necessary and arriving in April-May, likely mid to later May for the largest outliers (packages that take a long time/take winding trips to get to their destination. There are always a few.)

I've been told I will have the shipping numbers tomorrow, so I can set up shipping costs by region and package contents in the next two days. When I do, I will let you all know with a new update and move to charge that by the end of the week, or on the weekend. I'll advise in the next update when the charges will occur.

When I do this, everything will be locked in forever, no orders will be able to be changed or adjusted for anything. The spreadsheet with all the info will be downloaded and shared over to New Titan to ensure packages match a prelim list I gave them, and things will begin traveling from there.

For the Moment, hope you enjoy the shots of the deck boxes! This is the first time for us all to see them, and they look great. This is a truly gorgeous project, and I'm overjoyed to share with y'all!

So, what about the Alleyway Oracles?
I am going to do everything I can to honor what I said last time. The next project HAS to see all previous projects at least in the mail on the way to people before it can launch, and at its most ideal most packages should be in people's hands. As long as we're on track with what I noted above (as soon as we get the boxes in hand!), then we'll be good.

Even a majority of international packages should be in people's hands before the Alleyway Oracles launches! And with the luck of the Postal Gods, every single package might even be in people's hands before May 16th when the Oracles launch. We can cross our fingers and believe.

Thanks for your ongoing patience, excited to nab those final shipping addresses and shipping payments here this week.

Regards,
your Pub Gob