Swag Update Dec 2021

Hey all- Jack Wylder here. My lovely and ever patient wife and partner in crime Jill put a post up on Facebook this morning that I wanted to share here for better visibility:

I need to request y’all have a bit more patience with us. The amount of emails I received in the past two days regarding coins has quadrupled and all the same theme.We are a small two person team Jack and I. We turn into a three person team for fulfillment with the help of 1 of 4 fantastic helper-bees. If your tracking email shows shipped but no movement in a few days please don’t worry. That just means the carton was too heavy for me to lift due to the large quantity of well… heavy metal. It had to wait for Jack to cart it to USPS or UPS after or before his day job. Your package is not necessarily lost. I literally cannot even call a package lost for 30 days per the carriers… Please Please have just a bit more patience, we are doing all we can as fast as we can to get those coin orders to you.
In regards to Wendell… Still no word and trust me we are even more anxious than you are. We never planned for this simple venture to turn into a 6 month nightmare. #FreeWendell

I’m using another vacation day today and we’re going to push hard to get the final orders out. To better explain the situation with the Wendell Plushies- US Customs has taken the shipment and put it in a secure location. We’ve been waiting for months now for them to make a decision on whether to let this many manatees into the country, but until they do there’s really not much we can do. Dolphins, man. Dolphins. I promise you we’ll let you know just as soon as we know anything- we’re even more frustrated than you.

Edited to add: All of the coin orders have now been processed- I’ll take them to the carriers first thing in the morning so they will hopefully all arrive before Christmas. Hooon!

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29 thoughts on “Swag Update Dec 2021”

  1. Take your time Jack (and wife). We know you’ll make good on all of the orders in the most expeditious way you are able. As far as I’m concerned (and I obviously don’t speak for everybody), I just want to make sure you guys don’t over do it. I’d rather get my swag a month later than have you guys hurt yourselves or something.

  2. In regards to the Wendall plushies…..and people wonder why I am such a proponent of open borders when it comes to free trade. This is not directed at anyone at CorreiaTech. Even the interdimensional Lord Of Hate has to deal with government red tape.

    1. Depends on which version. There’s at least one or two ILOH where whole nations were burned down to the ground for causing shipments to be delayed by one day.

  3. Mine clanked into the office earlier this week and were immediately de-pouched and played with. (Spinny! WEEEEE!)

    I figured all the Wendells are amusing themselves (and terrifying Customs) playing CTF (Capture The Fishies) all over the bonded shipping area, anyway.

    When the night has come
    And the land is dark
    And the moon is the only light we’ll see
    No, I won’t be afraid
    Oh, I won’t be afraid
    Just as long as manatees par-ar-ty.

    [Chorus]
    So darlin’, darlin’, HOOOOOON
    Oh, HOOOOOOON
    Oh, HOOON
    HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

  4. Not to brag (ok, maybe a little), but I got mine 2 days ago and they are amazing. Great job all and worth the wait. I didn’t order a plushie so I haven’t been up on the news. Did customs say why they’re holding them? That’s just super bizarre.

    1. Basically, there are different rules and approvals for “toys” as opposed to things which are meant for adults. That’s why they’re stuck.

      1. Which just goes to show what joyless people they are! I’m an adult and I love my toys LOL.

        1. Yep, I didn’t think about it – there are requirements on toxicity of the dyes, presence of small parts, and I’d expect that the fabric should be flame retardant.

  5. While I did not order this year, I am hoping more thought is going into packaging. I bought several challenge coins last year which never made it because they were all put in a single small padded envelope, which in all fairness made sense for size. Unfortunately the weight and ability to slide around in the envelope of the aforementioned coins, tore it from the inside out during transit. I got a lovely envelope and a note from USPS saying, Oops.

    Not looking for any kind of recompense, just hoping that in the future, maybe something a little more suitable will be used to transport on challenge coin orders when appropriate.

    1. They were well packaged for me. Each coin in a separate pouch affixed to a single piece of 8 x 10 (ish) board stock so they didn’t slide around at all.

      1. I bought 11 last year for gifts. Personally I think that was too much for the envelope and the packaging seemed to agree.

        Did you buy more or less? I’m willing to entertain other explanations if you have them.

          1. This year’s problem is that the adhesive holding them to the cardstock is too good. I’m going to have to find my bottle of goo gone to try and get the last of it off because after several minutes of scraping and rubbing there’s still too much of it on the back of the pouch of the first coin I pulled off the card stock to put it into the same container that all my others are in.

          2. Until I stop procrastinating and get a display case of some sort (and with 6 solid years of procrastination in already that’s not likely to be anytime soon), the pouches are also my primary storage/protection system so I don’t want them accumulating dirt and sticking to each other.

          3. Daniel Neely, instead of removing the glue from the pouch, it’s really much easier simply to stick something decorative or neutral onto it – a bit of paper, a foil medallion, or even an adhesive sticker. Thus the problem is permanently solved in seconds.

        1. I got the whole set so it had some heft to it. Didn’t get in on the sets from previous years in time so I can’t really speak to the issues from before but as far as I can tell the folks doing this whole thing addressed the issue.

          I love the spiny coin though my personal favorite is probably Mr. Trash Bags. Despite having been coined by 2 and 4-star equivalents (Assistant Secretary of Defense, a DASD, few other high level positions in the Pentagon), these are by far my favorite challenge coins. Certainly better looking than some I’ve received – not that my collection is very large. Huge kudos to everyone involved.

      1. To be honest, I never noticed that email address. I think I emailed either the company that does them for your or Larry which obviously was not the correct route. But life happens. Then like now, I was working 60 hour weeks on nights, so when I got off or had a night off, my first instinct was sleep, not contact with other living beings, manatees included.

        At this point, I’m just glad it was acknowledged in some form. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and now, off to sleep.

  6. According to UPS my swag shows up today. Hopefully the Manatees can break quarantine and arrive at they proper destinations. #FreeWendell

    1. Got’m yesterday. Really cool. Love the spinny one! And I’m glad I’m now PUFF exempt. I can sleep better at night.

  7. My coins and patches arrived on Monday. Yeah! Whee! They look great, and the packaging was super. Thank you. Someone’s Christmas is about to get fun. 🙂

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