Retail Copies explained
about 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 11:54:19 PM

Dear backers,

This is an extra update to respond to one major question popping up in the comments: Is it true that Carnegie is already for sale in retail and online stores in Europe? We checked this and yes, this is currently the case for the German/English retail edition. This retail edition includes naturally no Kickstarter extras and no expansion either. The retail edition was sold to retailers and webshops through our publishing partner Pegasus Spiele. The Quined Games Deluxe Kickstarter edition of Carnegie will be delivered to you - our backers - first.

Please let us explain how this situation came about. For this Kickstarter campaign, for the first time, we started a publishing agreement with partner publishers all over the world. This heavily contributed to making this campaign possible. Backers would receive their KS copies first through our partners in their respective countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, Japan and Korea. Our fulfillment partner, based in Hong Kong, handles shipping KS copies for the rest of the world. Afterwards, Carnegie retail copies will be shipped to our publishing partners and be made available for sale in retail stores and webshops.

Although, we have one partner (Pegasus Spiele) that doesn't handle shipping KS copies to our backers. So for Germany and the USA, backer shipment would be handled through our fulfillment partner from Hong Kong instead. We never saw this as a problem, since the vessels to the USA and Europe were booked in advance. However, since the hub of our fulfillment partner is located in Lithuania (instead of in Western Europe), this added a month of extra ocean shipping time. This shipment sadly also contains the parcels for backers in Germany, while the retail copies for Pegasus Spiele were shipped straight to Germany. This is the result of a miscalculation from our side; not handling shipping to backers in other parts of Europe (mainly Germany) ourselves. We are really sorry for this and we will draw our lessons.

It is not even in our own interest to start these retail sales, since we didn't print a Quined Games Retail edition, just the Deluxe Kickstarter edition in a multitude of languages. We hope you understand that we cannot force our partners to wait another 2 months to start their retail sales, after those massive shipping delays we all suffer from. On top, container prices have risen to about 6 times the costs, compared to when this campaign was live. We wouldn't ever ask you to pay extra due to this negative price development, we bear these costs as a company. It sadly did influence shipping schedules as booked containers were cancelled and delayed multiple times in the process.

We hope that, knowing all this background information, there is some more understanding for the situation we got in. We are a very small publisher; our team only consisting of the company owner and a single parttime assistant. We try our best to arrange everything as good as possible and we acknowledge that on this topic, it failed this time. Retail sales shouldn't have started before delivery of Kickstarter copies to our backers and this wasn't ever our intention. We are committed to approaching logistics differently in our future campaigns. Thanks for your time reading this statement.

Best regards, Quined Games

Answering Questions + Vessel Updates
about 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 11:55:57 PM

Dear backers,

We are here with an update to answer questions that were recently asked frequently, via private message, e-mail or on BoardGameGeek. Let's get right to it:

• Now the games are starting to arrive at your doorsteps, there is a chance that, despite careful composing of the games, some components are missing or arrived damaged. We are very sorry for this and will make sure that you receive requested replacements parts. To this end, please fill in this Google Forms in case of any missing or damaged parts for Carnegie: https://forms.gle/4JXUtERDf7qLJyvy5 
• The game rules indicate that there should be 30 discs per player color (cyan, grey, yellow and white). This is NOT true for the KS edition that you will receive. Since the KS edition of the game includes a silkscreened custom VP marker as a social goal, there is only 29 discs per player color. We didn't create separate game rules, as retail editions do include 30 discs. Be assured that 29 discs per player color is correct in your KS copy, so there is no need to request missing parts in this case.
• Some of you reported a white spot on the back of the game box. Our illustrator, Ian O'Toole was quicker to reply than we were ;). As he confirmed, this is part of the overall worn / distressed texture and is not a manufacturing error. The BoardGameGeek thread we are referring to, is this one: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2837652/defect-or-it-design
• We were asked how we handle shipping to Russia, given the current situation in Ukraine. We decided to postpone shipping to Russia.

We also have updated information on most vessels:

• For The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK + Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa, the HMM HANUL arrived in Rotterdam last Friday morning. The container is currently being customs cleared, after which it will arrive in our warehouse later this week. The games will then be split per direction and shipping to backers will start in April.
• For other parts of Europe, the container is on the HMM RAON, with a departure date of March 29th and an estimated arrival of May 20th in Lithuania. As mentioned in the last update, fulfillment should be happening in either May or June. With this new information, we are looking at June, taking into account the customs clearance process and shipping to the local warehouse of Floship in Lithuania.
• For AU/NZ, we hoped to be able to share more information, but as Floship didn't receive any update, we also have no additional information at this point in time. The ocean shipping time from China to AU/NZ is short, so once the goods are on the vessel, it won't take long before arrival. We are thus still looking at fulfillment in April with confidence.
• For the USA, we ended up requiring two containers because of the number of backers from there and the resulting volume of parcels with destination USA. The first container boarded the EVER LUCKY, about to arrive in the USA already on April 11th. So we are looking at fulfillment starting early May, taking into account customs clearance. This container has over 95% of the orders for the USA, but some orders will be transported in the second container. We are awaiting specific info and dates for that container and will update you ASAP.
• For Canada, the container is on the SEATTLE C, which is set to depart at March 31st and will arrive in Canada at April 22nd. So we are looking at fulfillment in May.

Best regards, 

Quined Games

Moving forward, first copies are arriving
about 2 years ago – Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 01:15:36 AM

Dear backers,

Time for another update as things are moving forward. Floship Limited has finished the largest chunk of the pick and pack process. This means that your rewards are on their way now, either about to board a vessel or straight via air-shipping. Shipping of all required copies to our partners is proceeding as well. 

Please find a detailed update per direction below:

•  The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK + Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: The vessel is currently located in the Mediterranean Sea. The planned arrival date in Rotterdam of March 16th has been postponed to March 25th, which our forwarder already warned us about. Your order will be fulfilled either from one of our local partners (France/Italy/Spain/UK) or from our shipping partner in Belgium, all planned for April.
•  USA/CA/Europe not listed above: Your order has been picked and packed in Hong Kong and is loaded in a container that will head to your country. We requested vessel names to provide you accurate tracking in the next update. We are looking at fulfillment in May or June, but can only provide a more specific date once the vessels have left the harbor.
•  Australia & New Zealand: Since the number of packages isn't as large as for some of the other directions, rewards will be ocean shipped to Australia and New Zealand in a mixed container. This is different from the USA and rest of Europe, for which a full container has been booked. Unfortunately, a mixed container takes more loading and waiting time in the harbor. We requested an update on the container to AU/NZ and will have more information in the next update. Fulfillment in April is still very likely though, since the pick and pack process had already been finished with our last update.
•  China, Japan, South Korea & all of South-America: Our manufacturer and partners in these countries are currently handling shipping. Once the games arrive, shipping out your rewards will start as soon as possible. We expect this to happen in April for China, Japan and South Korea. For South America, fulfillment in May is more realistic, because of the extra ocean shipping time that is required to Brazil.
•  Countries not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong has been finished and your rewards have just been sent. Some of you already reported having received their rewards!

That is it already for today's update. As soon as more major progress has been made, we will update you!

Quined Games

Fulfillment Progress
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 02, 2022 at 10:14:16 PM

Dear backers,

It is early March and we wanted to update you on ocean shipping as well as the overall progress of fulfillment. We will list where we stand per direction, as before. Please note that some directions have now been split/merged, dependent on the progress. Let's get right to it!

•  The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK: The vessel has left the port of Shenzhen and is on its way to Rotterdam. You can track the vessel by searching for its name; HMM Hanul. The planned arrival date in Rotterdam is March 16th, but our forwarder warned us about more delays on vessels lately. So we are counting on the vessel to arrive late March in Rotterdam, after which shipping to the Netherlands and Belgium will start immediately from our partner in Belgium. For France, Italy, Spain & UK, road transport will first be necesarry, so it will take a little longer before these partners can start shipping your rewards.
•  Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: Almost identical to bullet point 1, since the games for these countries are in this container as well. Shipping will also start immediately from our partner in Belgium, once the vessel arrives in Rotterdam.
•  USA: Your order is picked and packed in Hong Kong as we speak. This will be finished on Monday, whereafter the parcels will be loaded in a container. We haven't got a precise departure date or vessel name yet. It is hard to promise specific dates in this time of global shipping delays, but we are aiming for a late March vessel departure.
•  Canada + countries inside Europe, not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong will start next Monday, when the process for the USA has been finished, and will take about a week. We haven't got a precise departure date for the vessels to Canada and Lithuania either. It is hard to promise specific dates in this time of global shipping delays, but we are aiming for late March vessel departures.
•  Australia & New-Zealand: The pick and pack process in China has already been finished and your rewards will be on their way soon. The next step is ocean shipping and the final step is shipping from within Australia/New-Zealand to your addresses. There is only about 1 month left before you will finally have Carnegie in your hands!
•  China, Japan, South Korea & all of South-America: There has been a delay here since our manafucturer assembled too little English Kickstarter copies. So we had to wait for these extra copies to finish before we could plan bulk shipping to these partners.  This issue has now been resolved and our manufacturer will soon be able to ship out to our partners in China, Japan, South Korea and Brazil.
•  Countries not listed above: The pick and pack process in Hong Kong will start in about 2 weeks, after the process for USA, Canada and rest of Europe has been finished. As your order will be send straight from Hong Kong and no ocean shipping is necesarry, you will still receive your rewards pretty soon!

To summarize, we partnered up with Floship Limited for all countries listed in bullet points 3, 4, 5 and 7. Countries included in bullet point 2 will be fulfilled via air shipping from Belgium and for bullet points 1 and 6, our local partners will send out your rewards. To conclude this update, some footage we received from Floship Limited.

Best regards, 

Quined Games

Ocean Shipping Update
about 2 years ago – Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 06:47:17 AM

Dear backers,

It has been slightly over a month since the last update. We planned on waiting for more info, so we could provide you the accurate timeline we had hoped for. However, you are right, it is time for an update. Even though there are still things uncertain regarding ocean shipping and pick and pack dates, here you go!

We concluded our last update with the expectation that all games would be either at fulfillment or on their way to local partners. This is true for the first part, since all games arrived at our fulfillment partner. The games for our local partners however, are still in transit or waiting to be picked up. An update per direction:

•  The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain & UK: Your order will be fulfilled from a local partner and is in the container heading for Rotterdam. This container has been loaded January 21st at the factory and arrived at the harbor shortly after, where it would board the ship at January 24th. The ship would sail off at January 26th, just before Chinese New Year started, but somehow this didn't happen. We were shocked and are still trying to figure out why this happened. We did get a new sailing date, which is February 19th, with an arrival date of March 16th. The original arrival date for Rotterdam was February 27th. We are sorry for this delay of about 2.5 weeks. Once the games arrive in Rotterdam and customs have been cleared, shipping can start immediately after.
•  Countries inside Europe, not listed above: Your order will be packed in Hong Kong late February. Parcels will be ocean shipped to Lithuania and sent from there. Once pick and pack has started, our fulfillment partner can estimate the required time, book a ship and communicate its departure date.
•  USA, Canada, Australia & New-Zealand: Your order will be packed in Hong Kong/China late February. Parcels will be ocean shipped to your country and sent from there. Once pick and pack has started, our fulfillment partner can estimate the required time, book a ship and communicate its departure date.
•  China, Japan, South Korea & all of South-America: Your order will be fulfilled by our local partner from inside your country. We are in contact with these partners and once pick-up from our manufacturer has been arranged, sending out orders is expected soon for China, Japan and South-Korea. For Brazil and the rest of South-America, expect a slightly longer wait, since Brazil is (geographically) not as close to China as Japan and South-Korea ;).
•  Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Israël, Reunion Island & South Africa: Your order will be fulfilled from our partner in Belgium and is included in the container to Rotterdam. See bullet point 1 for a timeline.
•  Countries not listed above: Your order will be send straight from our fulfillment partner in Hong Kong. This will happen after pick and pack for the regions mentioned in bullet points 2 and 3 has been finished, since our first priority is to have all containers depart. Once those containers have left, your order is processed and will arrive at your doorstep pretty soon. We expect delivery in March, since air shipping parcels is pretty fast.

So we are waiting for the container to arrive in Rotterdam and for a timeline update from our fulfillment partner. Once we have more information on these topics, we will update you on when to expect your long-awaited copy of Carnegie Deluxe Kickstarter edition. We guarantee that it will be worth the (long) wait!

Best regards,

Quined Games