In Progress (ordering closed) Custom Cut Card Group Buy - Jan 2025 (5 Viewers)

[Kensco]

This is the real update.

I've been working with the printers to get things right with the proofs even up until now. I'm currently working on approving the final set of proofs which I will be receiving Monday morning. If they are all correct, I am sending them into production. Hopefully that is Monday/Tuesday. Once production is started, I was told that it would be approximately 8-10 business days with some days added for shipping. Assuming that nothing goes wrong with production and shipping I should receive them the first week of Sept. Have everything out that week and you should have them by the middle of Sept. I'll be sending larger orders via faster shipping, smaller ones via Ground Advantage.

I'll keep updating next week as soon as I receive the proofs and will update as soon as they are fully put into production and approved.

I was able to get one set approved this morning which I've checked off my list to make sure what was there and what might have been missing if so.

Setting up the next lie?

One lie is all it takes with me to ruin your character @Okku and you've gone well beyond that.



I appreciate the optimism of some, but it's just as likely the funds from this group buy were spent on personal expenses and he's been buying time while he tries to recoup the funds and get this GB back on track.

People with limited life experience facing personal crises often make bad decisions and, without assistance, usually compound their problem. @Okku find a competent mentor and lay it all out to them, warts and all, to find a path forward. You obviously can't handle this on your own.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Setting up the next lie?

One lie is all it takes with me to ruin your character @Okku and you've gone well beyond that.

View attachment 1554122

I appreciate the optimism of some, but it's just as likely the funds from this group buy were spent on personal expenses and he's been buying time while he tries to recoup the funds and get this GB back on track.

People with limited life experience facing personal crises often make bad decisions and, without assistance, usually compound their problem. @Okku find a competent mentor with and lay it all out to them, warts and all, to find a path forward. You obviously can't handle this on your own.

This certainly can be true. And if so, I believe he will get it finished nonetheless for everyone. And I don’t see why he wouldn’t accept refunds if you PM him.

 

[djfayze]

Alright, I guess we can all keep quiet til the next deadline comes and goes. See you all in a month to do this again!

 

[Freeroll]

Just curious, for those that are defending @Okku , if he were to tell us another blatant lie today, and three weeks later it comes out that he lied again, would that be enough to stop defending him? Or is there no amount of lies that he could tell to lose your support?

 

[Okku]

I’ll update this thread again on Monday once I have the proofs approved, will show a screenshot and then get an updated ETA of when they will arrive.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Just curious, for those that are defending @Okku , if he were to tell us another blatant lie today, and three weeks later it comes out that he lied again, would that be enough to stop defending him? Or is there no amount of lies that he could tell to lose your support?

Just ask for a refund lol and move on

 

[Okku]

And I’ve had one person ask for a refund on a part of their order because I didn’t get this done on time as they were expecting. I’ll handle that today, and also update the printer of this so they can adjust the order.

If anyone else has a problem and can’t wait for me to finally pick my pants up and finish this, let me know and I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.

 

[redstar]

Yeah at this point I think I would take a refund. Not accusing @Okku of any intentional scamming or anything. Life can get out of control I get it. But two pieces of seemingly intentional misinformation and I’m good. I’d rather get my money back and move on. I’ll DM

 

[MatB]

Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, its how you spit the food out that counts.

 

[Okku]

Yeah at this point I think I would take a refund. Not accusing @Okku of any intentional scamming or anything. Life can get out of control I get it. But two pieces of seemingly intentional misinformation and I’m good. I’d rather get my money back and move on. I’ll DM

Taken care of.

 

[Quicksilver-75]

I’ll update this thread again on Monday once I have the proofs approved, will show a screenshot and then get an updated ETA of when they will arrive.

Just post redacted pdf at this point.

 

[Kensco]

@Okku My sincerest apology.

I was a huge skeptic, fearing the worst; however I just confirmed with the vendor that this order was placed and paid for.

Not saying you couldn't have communicated progress better, you could have. However, I assumed the worst & I was wrong and for that and my resulting posts I sincerely apologize

~ Ken Scott

 

[Okku]

I’ll have proofs approved tonight and anything that might be missing sent over for final double checks

 

[WedgeRock]

 

[Quicksilver-75]

@Okku My sincerest apology.

I was a huge skeptic, fearing the worst; however I just confirmed with the vendor that this order was placed and paid for.

Not saying you couldn't have communicated progress better, you could have. However, I assumed the worst & I was wrong and for that and my resulting posts I sincerely apologize

~ Ken Scott

Who is the vendor? It has always bothered me that this wasn't made public..

 

[TheOffalo]

Who is the vendor? It has always bothered me that this wasn't made public..

PlasticPrinters.com, it's been mentioned a few times before...

I just ordered directly from them

You can individually go through whoever is currently doing the PCF bulk orders.

Plastic Printers, contact is Ashley Brockman, [email protected].

I'm sure hagglers or others can get it cheaper, but this is what I was told:

"Our first price break is at 250, so if you want to bump up to that to save some money

QTY 250 (split between 4 versions) would be $505 plus shipping/tax. That does include a 15% discount!

We could rush the order to ship by Friday for a $50 rush fee.
Ground shipping is 3-4 business days, but you will want to expedite the shipping to 2 day or next day in the payment link. "

I'm not sure why it's a big hush hush thing, but since no one has ever explained it to me, hopefully the above is helpful for folks!

I did 250 cut cards for my meetup and it was about $590.

At this time I will not be running another group buy. Plasticprinters.com is the company I used and it seems they changed pricing to make smaller orders more economical. No need for a huge group buy anymore.

 

[allforcharity]

I've put this one out of my mind a long time ago. To me it's only a few bucks, and I've made worse investments. I know that eventually it will get delivered because I believe Oscar will get it done. You might call me a fool, but it won't be the first time I've been called that, and maybe it's true. You may think what you like.

 

[triton]

I’ll have proofs approved tonight and anything that might be missing sent over for final double checks

Thanks for the update, Oscar. Keep the updates coming!

 

[Okku]

All proofs that I received are approved.

Few files are missing and few needs tiny tweaks as they either used the wrong file or something alignment wise wasn't correct so I will get those sent off and get proofs for those few files.

 

[djfayze]

All proofs that I received are approved.

Few files are missing and few needs tiny tweaks as they either used the wrong file or something alignment wise wasn't correct so I will get those sent off and get proofs for those few files.

Just to maintain clarity, what is the difference between proofs being approved but changes still needing to be made? Who are you sending them to and how long is the expected turnaround?

 

[doublebooyah85]

Just to maintain clarity, what is the difference between proofs being approved but changes still needing to be made? Who are you sending them to and how long is the expected turnaround?

Read it over again.

All proofs that I received are approved.

Few files are missing and few needs tiny tweaks as they either used the wrong file

I think turnaround is completely dependent on Oscar finding time between interviewing for jobs since he was just let go or possibly when he’s not in the hospital since the mother of his unborn child has been bed ridden in the hospital the last 30 days.

But don’t worry, you will get your plastic cut cards.

Is that enough clarity?

 

[chipinla]

Read it over again.


I think turnaround is completely dependent on Oscar finding time between interviewing for jobs since he was just let go or possibly when he’s not in the hospital since the mother of his unborn child has been bed ridden in the hospital the last 30 days.

But don’t worry, you will get your plastic cut cards.

Is that enough clarity?

 

[doublebooyah85]

Alright, I guess we can all keep quiet til the next deadline comes and goes. See you all in a month to do this again!

 

[Okku]

Just to maintain clarity, what is the difference between proofs being approved but changes still needing to be made? Who are you sending them to and how long is the expected turnaround?

Proofs that are approved:

I was sent proofs to check, every single design was sent to me via their team to check for alignment for each size. I noticed that there were some where the file wasn’t right, or it had to be resized. Not sure if they used the right file for bridge or poker, but it’s too close to the edge or it’s getting cut off.

There were some designs that they didn’t send to me too. Which I was told some files were missing according to the order and excel sheet that I had sent to them for reference. I will be sending those files today and more than likely have those missing file or tweaked file proofs tomorrow or possibly end of the day today.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Eloe2000]

Just for some additional background... I was handed these group buys by @MatB (if I remember correctly) and I ran maybe five of them. I took over at a time when the forum was growing rapidly. While I was running the GBs we started to; 1) have a lot more orders, and 2) a lot more designs created by inexperienced people. Prior to that, the majority of designs were created by the forum pros with experience using proven templates. At some point while I was running these GBs it became the norm that the vast majority were homemade. The print company used to fix errors themselves, but it became too much work and they began refusing making even the most basic changes themselves without billed design time. These costs were prohibitive. I am a professional photographer and also have plenty of design experience and started doing a lot of the fixing myself on top of trying to get people to use my templates. Regardless, there were issues with the vast majority of designs which required multiple back-and-forth conversations. Even at the time when I had the process dialed in on the ordering, review, submission, redesign, final review, placement, and delivery I can confirm there were many hiccups along the way and times even approved designs had errors that got caught after the fact and other communication issues with the printer. There were just always problems... lots of problems from start to finish even after I thought I was good to go. I learned after the first one or two that I really needed to set expectations low on these projects because it takes wildly more time than I anticipated (even as a mildly experienced designer and occasionally organized person with a lot of free time). Fortunately I had the free time to deal with the fact that I bit off more than I could chew. When I was running these GBs we maybe had 40-60 orders and, without hyperbole, I would put in about 40 hours of gross work from orders to delivery. The only reason I did it at the time was because my business ground to a halt during Covid so I had the time... and because I am a scrub donkey at heart.

I haven't read much of this thread, but I will say these GBs are an absolute nightmare and absorb way more time and emotional energy than most imagine. Honestly, it isn't worth it for someone to run these. I wish there were a print shop owner on this forum or someone could find another print shop to create an easy online template an ordering form for small run cut card projects.

 

[MatB]

Just for some additional background... I was handed these group buys by @MatB (if I remember correctly) and I ran maybe five of them. I took over at a time when the forum was growing rapidly. While I was running the GBs we started to; 1) have a lot more orders, and 2) a lot more designs created by inexperienced people. Prior to that, the majority of designs were created by the forum pros with experience using proven templates. At some point while I was running these GBs it became the norm that the vast majority were homemade. The print company used to fix errors themselves, but it became too much work and they began refusing making even the most basic changes themselves without billed design time. These costs were prohibitive. I am a professional photographer and also have plenty of design experience and started doing a lot of the fixing myself on top of trying to get people to use my templates. Regardless, there were issues with the vast majority of designs which required multiple back-and-forth conversations. Even at the time when I had the process dialed in on the ordering, review, submission, redesign, final review, placement, and delivery I can confirm there were many hiccups along the way and times even approved designs had errors that got caught after the fact and other communication issues with the printer. There were just always problems... lots of problems from start to finish even after I thought I was good to go. I learned after the first one or two that I really needed to set expectations low on these projects because it takes wildly more time than I anticipated (even as a mildly experienced designer and occasionally organized person with a lot of free time). Fortunately I had the free time to deal with the fact that I bit off more than I could chew. When I was running these GBs we maybe had 40-60 orders and, without hyperbole, I would put in about 40 hours of gross work from orders to delivery. The only reason I did it at the time was because my business ground to a halt during Covid so I had the time... and because I am a scrub donkey at heart.

I haven't read much of this thread, but I will say these GBs are an absolute nightmare and absorb way more time and emotional energy than most imagine. Honestly, it isn't worth it for someone to run these. I wish there were a print shop owner on this forum or someone could find another print shop to create an easy online template an ordering form for small run cut card projects.

Confirmed. Group buys are a nightmare

just the emails and money collecting to renaming files that should have been done already was a nightmare.
I was torn between doing it as a favor or just becoming a vendor.
But really I didn’t want to make money from it and the headaches that came from doing it were not worth my time especially when people treated it like it was a professional business. And not the volume discount hook up it was.

I also respect that people are paying money for something and have a right to certain expectations.

But it’s a thankless job.

 

[WedgeRock]

Good insight into what @Okku has been dealing with from @Eloe2000 and @MatB.

If it was me, if your art work got rejected, sucks to be you. You get someone to fix it, or get cards that probably aren't perfect, your choice.

It's not the GB organizer's job to fix problems with artwork. His job is to collect money, communicate back and forth with the print shop, receive the finished order, and reship them out.

Actually, everyone who submitted imperfect artwork and added a bunch to @Okku's plate should share some of the blame for the delays here. But before I get my pitchfork out, I need to make sure I wasn't one of those guys.

 

[GreatWhiteDope]

Good insight into what @Okku has been dealing with from @Eloe2000 and @MatB.

If it was me, if your art work got rejected, sucks to be you. You get someone to fix it, or get cards that probably aren't perfect, your choice.

It's not the GB organizer's job to fix problems with artwork. His job is to collect money, communicate back and forth with the print shop, receive the finished order, and reship them out.

Actually, everyone who submitted imperfect artwork and added a bunch to @Okku's plate should share some of the blame for the delays here. But before I get my pitchfork out, I need to make sure I wasn't one of those guys.

Funny you say that. I can't tell you how happy I have been to know I was not one of these because I had my artwork CREATED BY OKKU.

 

[WedgeRock]

I'm pretty sure I'm good, because I didn't do my own artwork. But the guy who did it is top notch.

 

[doublebooyah85]

I had a designer do mine with the last group buy and he still had a bunch of mistakes and adjustments he had to make. It’s tedious. Exactly why I sat out this buy tbh.